Introduction to Dance-Fitness

Learn what dance-fitness is, how to tell the real thing from performing dressed up as a workout, and why it compares so well with other exercise. About 100 minutes.

This course is for anyone curious about dance-fitness. You do not need to attend a class, and there is no routine to learn. When you finish, carry on to Dance-Fitness to Punjabi Music.

1. Module 1: What is dance-fitness?

   7 minutes. Dance-fitness is exercise set to music, designed for the person taking part and not for an audience. The aim is a workout you enjoy enough to keep doing.

2. Module 2: Why Pungra sees dance this way: a founder's story

   9 minutes. Pungra's founder explains how a career in consumer protection, banking and technology taught him to ask who a service is really for, and why that changed how he sees bhangra and dance-fitness.

3. Module 3: Why regular exercise matters

   8 minutes. Regular exercise is food for the brain as well as the body, and habits that stick matter more than intensity.

4. Module 4: How hard should you work? HIIT, LISS, MISS and HISS

   7 minutes. Exercise comes in four common intensity styles: HIIT, LISS, MISS and HISS. Dance-performing is usually LISS or MISS, and dance-fitness gives the most for your time as steady effort, from MISS up to HISS.

5. Module 5: Less time, same benefit: moderate and vigorous exercise

   9 minutes. The NHS and WHO say vigorous exercise needs about half the minutes of moderate exercise. For time-poor working adults and parents, steady vigorous dance-fitness is the better use of an hour.

6. Module 6: Aerobic, anaerobic and the “cardio” myth

   10 minutes. Dance-fitness is an aerobic workout. “Cardio” is not a useful label, because it names an organ, not a type of exercise, and it wrongly separates heart benefits from muscle benefits.

7. Module 7: Performing or fitness?

   12 minutes. Dance-performing and dance-fitness look alike but serve different goals, reach different intensity and give a different return on your time.

8. Module 8: How to spot the difference

   6 minutes. Some performers present as fitness instructors without meaning to. Three questions and a few clues help you tell genuine dance-fitness from performing dressed up as a workout.

9. Module 9: What a pirate radio station can teach group exercise

   5 minutes. Lots of good things start informally, and the ones that last go legal. Sunrise Radio's story shows what that means for group exercise: qualified, insured and licensed.

10. Module 10: How dance-fitness compares with other exercise

    5 minutes. Exercise to music meets all eight criteria in the comparison. Each other type of exercise misses at least three.

11. Module 11: Why a class and community keep you going

    6 minutes. Habits spread through people we know. Being expected and welcomed is what keeps most people coming back.

12. Module 12: Notice your progress before the scales do

    5 minutes. Energy, sleep, mood and stamina show before the scales do. Ask four simple questions, and make exercise a habit by giving it a fixed time and place.

13. Module 13: Getting started

    5 minutes. Turn up as you are. Check you are ready, wear comfortable clothes and shoes, and choose a class where you can go at your own pace.

14. Assessment

    30 questions, about 18 minutes. Check what you have learned and get feedback on every answer.

Start Module 1 Take the assessment