← Introduction to Dance-Fitness · Module 6 of 13 · 10 minutes

Aerobic, anaerobic and the “cardio” myth

Aerobic and anaerobic: how your muscles get their energy

Exercise scientists sort exercise by how your muscles make the energy to keep going. Aerobic means “with oxygen”: your body uses oxygen to release energy steadily, which is what lets you keep going for minutes or hours. Anaerobic means “without oxygen”: your body uses stored fuel that is quick to use but runs out fast, which suits short, all-out efforts.

There are really three energy systems, not two, because anaerobic splits in two:

Source: the three energy systems, from a Human Kinetics conditioning excerpt. The times are approximate. All three systems are working to some degree at any moment, and the length and intensity of the effort decide which one supplies most of the energy.

Are there more categories?

Yes, but they sort exercise by a different question. The aerobic and anaerobic labels say how the energy is made. Fitness guidance also describes exercise by what it trains: endurance (aerobic), muscular strength and power, flexibility and mobility, and balance and coordination. A session usually trains several of these at once. Dance, for example, trains endurance, leg strength, balance and coordination together.

Dance is an aerobic workout

A dance-fitness class is continuous, rhythmic and lasts for an hour, far longer than the two minutes at which the aerobic system takes over. So most of its energy comes from the aerobic system, which is exactly why you can keep going for the whole class. A big jump or a fast, hard section may dip into the anaerobic systems for a few seconds, then you recover while the music carries on. Steady, vigorous dance-fitness (HISS) is still aerobic: it is hard, but it is held steady.

That is the accurate word for it: dance is an aerobic exercise.

Why “cardio” is not a useful label

People often say “cardio” instead. It is short for “cardiovascular”, which means the heart and blood vessels. That causes three problems:

• It names an organ, not a type of exercise. Your heart is working in every kind of exercise, so the word does not tell you what the exercise is.
• It lumps different things together. A slow hour’s jog, a set of all-out sprints and a dance class are all called “cardio”, yet they use different energy systems and feel completely different.
• It hides the muscle benefits and the heart benefits of everything else. It suggests dancing is only for the heart, and that lifting weights has nothing to do with it. The next sections show why that is wrong.

“Aerobic” says how the energy is made. “LISS, MISS, HISS and HIIT” says how hard and how paced. Together they describe a workout much better than “cardio” ever could.

The cardio and resistance myth

Many people call dance-fitness, and almost every kind of dancing, a “cardio” workout. Lifting weights is called “resistance training”, and the two are treated as opposites. It sounds sensible, but it is a common myth.

What the myth says

The myth says that exercise without weights, like dancing, running or cycling, is good for your heart, and that lifting weights is good for your muscles. Under that thinking you would need one of each, because each does a separate job.

Why it is misleading

Dancing works your muscles. Every dance move is your muscles moving your body: squats, lunges, steps, jumps and turns, repeated hundreds of times in a class. Your legs, hips and core do that work. For example, a 2022 meta-analysis of trials in healthy adults aged 60 and over found that dance programmes improved sit-to-stand tests, which measure leg strength (Annals of Geriatric Medicine and Research).

Weights work your heart. A 2013 review of trials found that dynamic resistance training lowered blood pressure, by about 1.8 mm Hg for the top number and 3.2 mm Hg for the bottom number, on average (Journal of the American Heart Association). A 2022 review of cohort studies found that people who did muscle-strengthening activities had a 10% to 17% lower risk of death from any cause, of cardiovascular disease, of total cancer and of diabetes, with the biggest benefit at about 30 to 60 minutes a week (British Journal of Sports Medicine).

So heart benefits and muscle benefits do not come in separate boxes labelled “cardio” and “strength”. Your heart works hard whenever your muscles work hard, and your muscles get stronger whenever you ask them to do more than usual.

What the labels do describe

To be fair, the labels are not meaningless. They describe what a session emphasises. Long, continuous effort raises your breathing and heart rate the most, and heavy lifting builds raw strength fastest. That is why the NHS and WHO recommend both aerobic activity and strength work on at least two days a week. But “emphasises” is very different from “is only good for”. Think of the label as a rough guide to where the main effect lies, not as a wall between two kinds of benefit.

A better question to ask

Instead of asking whether a workout is “cardio”, ask three things. How hard does it make me work, from easy to vigorous? How long can I keep it up, week after week? Which muscles does it ask to do real work? Steady, vigorous dance-fitness answers all three well: a hard effort you can sustain, repeated every week, working your legs, hips and core against your own body weight.

What this means if you teach

Be careful with the word “cardio” when you describe your class. It can make people think dancing is only about the heart, or that they must add a separate gym session to strengthen their muscles. Describe what the class actually does: a whole-body workout set to music. And if someone wants to build strength further, say so honestly and suggest adding some strength work too.