Cardiovascular effects, body composition, quality of life and pain after a Zumba fitness program in Italian overweight women.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this paper was to investigate the cardiovascular effects, body composition, quality of life and pain after a 12-week Zumba fitness program in a group of overweight women through an observational study, community physical activity program involving twenty-seven overweight women (38.9±9.7 years). METHODS: Cardiometabolic profile, body composition, quality of life and pain were assessed after a 12-week Zumba fitness program. RESULTS: Significant improvements in body weight and BMI (71.5 vs. 74.2 kg, 28.02 vs. 29.1 kg/m²), in circumferences (arm: 27.9 vs. 30.3, waist: 80.1 vs. 83.9, hip: 102 vs. 107.4 cm), in fat and muscular mass (25.2 vs. 26.9, 34.4 vs. 27.2 kg), in intracellular (19 vs. 17.5 kg), and in extracellular water (14.9 vs. 16.8 kg) were recorded. A decrease in blood pressure was observed (118.3/69.4 vs. 125/75.5 mmHg). Cardiovascular response to the maximal exercise test showed a decrease in heart rate and in systolic blood pressure with an increase of work (118.9 vs. 116.7 watt). SF-36 showed variations in physical functioning (99.4 vs. 92.8) and in the limitation on the emotional role (88.9 vs. 66.6). With regards the Brief Pain Inventory-SF, a decrease in pain severity and pain interference score was seen (0.5 vs. 1.6, 0.06 vs. 0.5). CONCLUSIONS: Results demonstrate that Zumba fitness can be an effective way to obtain beneficial health effects and that it can also be recommended for overweight women.

A New Type of Physical Activity from an Ancient Tradition: The Sardinian Folk Dance "Ballu Sardu".

The aim of our study was to determine if the Sardinian folk dance ballu sardu (BS) can be identified as an effective workout regimen in terms of its exercise intensity (EI) and energy expenditure (EE) and if people who perform BS fulfill the recommendations of the American College of Sports Medicine on the prescription of exercise in healthy subjects. Twenty healthy volunteers (10 men, 10 women, 35.2 ± 6.3 years of age, BMI 23.0 ± 3.4 kg/m²) with BS experience (mean = 20.7 ± 8.9 years) were enrolled. All subjects underwent a maximal cardiopulmonary exercise test. Then they carried out a performance of about a quarter of an hour of BS in its most common variant of dance in a circle, ballu tundu. During the BS performance, the dancers wore a heart rate monitor to record all relevant data. The dancers displayed a good aerobic capacity (VO2max 44.1 ± 3.2 ml·kg(-1)·min(-1)). Their average HR during the BS execution was 146.3 ± 5.3 bpm, corresponding to an EI of 79.9% ± 6.5% of HRmax. The estimated average VO2 was 78.6% ± 15.4% of VO2max; MET/min and EE were 9.8 ± 1.5 and 11.2 ± 2.4 Kcal/min, respectively. It is concluded that the BS can be described as a vigorous physical activity. An ancient yet still widespread leisure activity embedded in the Sardinian culture, it meets some contemporary exercise recommendations for a healthy lifestyle.