Dance is the Best Form of Exercise

Dance is the UK's fastest growing art form. More than 4.8 million people regularly attend community dance groups each year in the UK each year. 

We know that dance has many aspects such as Flexibility, Stamina etc. that can help your health but the main question is whether or not it is the best form of exercise for overall fitness and wellbeing

Each and every style of dance such as; Jazz, Ballet, Tap, Pointe, Commercial, etc… they all use up muscles that normal activities wouldn’t. Simple movements in dance such as a kick or a pirouette can use up to more than 8 types of muscle at once. The following diagram shows that just doing small movements such as a simple Pirouette can use up many muscles.

 

A Pirouette requires a remarkable amount of whole-body strength and endurance

 

Dance is the best form of exercise for your health and here are the reasons why…

You are able to choose which style of Dance you do such as Jazz, Hip-Hop, and Ballet etc… This can be very helpful when focusing on your Physical Fitness as you are able to choose which part of your body you focus on, unlike other sports such as Football where you mainly work on your legs dance engages all parts of your body which means you can be equally strong on all bodily muscles and tissues.

Dance is not only great for your physical wellbeing it is also very good for mental health. Whilst using physical aspects in dance you are able to embrace your Core, Stamina, Flexibility, Cardio Respiratory Endurance (CRE,) Strength etc… this can help with physical confidence, health problems and weight management. Whilst using mental aspects in dance you are able to embrace your Timing, Musicality, and Dynamics etc… this can help with cerebral and cognitive thought processes and also brain functioning.

Comparing dance to other types of sport such as: Football, Basketball, Golf etc… you are able to reduce the risk of many health problems, a main example of this can be Dementia. After studying a range of activities, the most frequent prevention to Dementia was Dance:

Cycling = 0% reduced the risk of Dementia

Swimming = 0% reduced the risk of Dementia

Playing golf = 0% reduced the risk of Dementia

Dancing = 76% reduced the risk of Dementia

This is a clear way to show how much dance can help our mental health as well as improving our physical fitness.

Just as dance can help with dementia so too can it help with other Health Risks such as; Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, Cholesterol, Obesity, Joint Pain etc…

Dance encourages you to meet new people, to work with others, to get fit and to concentrate on timing  and breathing, it is definitely the best form of physical activity for your overall health.

 

 

 

by Erin Kerr 

Aston Villa - Premiership Gold to Championship Silver

 

Aston Villa are bottom of the league table with only 16 points and 2 wins in 26  games, 20 points clear of relegation safe zone and this weekend Aston Villa’s place in the English Championship was confirmed. The likes of Micah Richards and Joelon Lescott are wishing they were back at Manchester City and both will be wanting to leave in Lescott’s new shiny car - Lescott enraged Villa fans earlier in the season after posting photos of his new Mercedesa just hours after a convincing 6-0 defeat at the hands of Liverpool.

Lescott and his new 'Championship' motor

Remi Garde cannot do much more to ruin his career aside from perhaps losing to the under 13 side after the Premiership outfit were defeated comfortably by their own reserves.  With Garde’s side out of the FA cup and falling out of the premier league, literally there’s not much hope of him staying at Villa park. If Remi Garde is given the boot there isn’t too many managers out there who want to manage a failed premier league side, now let’s look at the possibilities, there’s Rafa Benites who would have been an option but has sadly opted to ove to Newcastle whose apparent new philosophy will allow him far more freedom than previous Newcastle managers enjoyed

There’s Chris Ramsey who could possibly be a good addition to the club as he has experience in the Championship and the premier league but I don’t think Rambo would go to miserable Villa. Another candidate could be Gary Monk who had a great start at Swansea city last season and accomplishing 8^th in the table which was the highest the swans have ever finished in the Premier League. He lost his job after a poor start to the season this season but could be a very good option for Villa.

 One possibility could be David Moyes who looks lilkely to go to Aston villa or Celtic not really because he wants to but because he needs to. The one thing that could clear his name from being ‘that’ Manchester United manager who was as bad as Louise Van Gall’s English could he bring Aston Villa back to the Golden Premier league with pride and spirit, or will he be absolute dreadful? Either way Moyes seems to be Villa’s target man to hire at the moment.

 

Perfectly suited for Villa then...????

 

 

Aston Villa you may think have reached the lowest of the lows for a club that once conquered Europe. But no, no, no even with all the managers they throw money at Aston Villa is a club I believe will keep dropping down to the bottom of the bottom leagues until it will become a myth that Aston Villa where ever in the Premier league to begin with. They may yet drop lower than Bolton, lower than Leeds, Aston Villa could be and serving up some quality Sunday league football in a neighbourhood park nowhere near you sometime soon.

 

 

 

by Steven Fray

 

 

Nathan Cowan on Why LVG Needs to Go.....

Should Manchester United sack Louis Van Gaal before the end of the season?

Louis Van Gaal started his career at Manchester United quite well in 2014 on the back of a good world cup with Holland. However it all went a bit downhill from Christmas time/New year for the Red Devils as they fell away from the title race and have struggled to be a title contender ever since. This season hasn’t been like any other normal season with Leicester being in with a chance of winning it and Chelsea in potentially being relegated after winning the title last year. United started their season of well but then injuries started to come in thick and fast and they just went downhill from there.

 

Hands Up Anyone Who Wants the Man U Job

I think Van Gaal should be sacked as soon as possible because the United fans are starting to get fed up with his boring style of play. Manchester United just pass the ball about at the back with no real idea of how to penetrate the opposition defence. It is a style that has never suited a Manchester United team who has always wanted to attack and score goals with previous manager Sir Alex Ferguson.

 

Manchester United have also failed to get out of the Champions’ league group stages coming 3^rd and being put into the Europa League where they faced Denmark’s tiny FC Midtylland and were beaten 2-1 in the first leg. This is just such an embarrassment for such a big club to be getting beat from a little team from Denmark. They managed to pull it back though in the second leg by running riot with a 5-1 victory at Old Trafford and giving a debut to 18 year old Marcus Rashford who scored a double and then scored another double the weekend after in the 3-2 victory over big rivals Arsenal. 

18 year old Marcus Rashford with two goals on his debut for Man U

 

In my opinion Van Gaal has had time to prove himself and has failed to do so. I think the best person to replace him would be Jose Mourinho because he has won at least a trophy at every team he has been at and if the fans and board want Ronaldo to come back to the club or get Gareth Bale or another really big player to the club their best chance would be with him Mourinho because of his big status as a manager. These players will have played with him before so they would know his style of play and be able to get on with him. The only problem that would come with Mourinho is that his style of play is different to the typical Manchester United sides that use to dominate not only England but Europe as well. Mourinho has said he would adapt his somewhat negative style and play the Manchester United way should he get the job.

Is LVG on borrowed time...???

 

Sir Alex Ferguson and Sir Bobby Charlton have both came out and openly admitted that they don’t want Mourinho at their club because they don’t think he will change his style of play. They think he just wants a good managerial job in England again after the mutual agreement with the Chelsea board that he would leave last November after 4 months of being in the bottom half of the league and falling out with some of the coaching staff, some of the board, and most importantly a sizeable proportion of the dressing room

So, unless Louis Van Gaal can either win the FA cup or win the Europa league and end up in the Champions league qualifying positions by the end of the season, it should really be out with the old and in with the new before it’s too late at Old Trafford.

 

by Nathan Cowan

Calum Grant's Sporting Review of the Year

2015 was a big year for sport. Lots of great memories and very good players. Here are my favourite sporting memories in 2015.

Football

My favourite memory of football in 2015 was Dunfermline beating Dundee 3-1 in August. Fayseel El-Bakhtaoui scored twice and Joe Cardle once. The attendance was 3,806 which was a small crowd for Dunfermline. But sadly, Dunfermline was beaten in the next round to Dundee united 3-1 at Tannadice.

 

Dunfermline defeated one half of Dundee only to be put out by the other in the next round

 

My other favourite memory is when Stirling Albion beat league leaders Annan Athletic 1-0 at Forthbank stadium on the 19^th of December. Phil Johnston scored in the 77^th minute to make Stirling go 5^th in the Scottish league 2.

Tennis

Britain won the Davis Cup, for the first time in 79 years. Winning 3-1 in matches. Andy Murray won 3 games, one with his brother in the doubles and twice in the singles. Kyle Edmund got beat by David Goffin 3-2 in sets. He was 2-0 up but the power of David Goffin was too much for the young Brit.

 

Andy Murry practises in the mirror

 

Andy Murray won against David Goffin and Ruben Bemelmans. The Murray brothers then beat David Goffin and Steve Darcis in the doubles. The Stirling Barmy Army sang lots of songs in Belgium.

Elsewhere in tennis Novak Djokivic won the Australian open, Wimbledon and the US open. Stan Wawrinka won his first grand slam in the French Open 

Cricket

England won the ashes 3-2 599 days after they were whitewashed in Australia in 2013/2014. Joe Root got 2 hundreds, one at Cardiff and the other at Trent Bridge in Nottingham. In the same test at Trent Bridge Stuart Broad took 8-15 and he bowled out the clueless Australians for 60.

My other favourite cricket memory was when Scotland made the Cricket World Cup. They didn’t win any games but they came close in 3 of the games against Bangladesh, New Zealand and Afghanistan. The other games were a thrashing to say the least.  

 

England reclaimed the Ashes in a quite bizarre series 

 

2015 was a great year for sport and hopefully 2016 can be even better than 2015. We are looking forward to the Euro 2016 finals and the England cricket team are playing Pakistan in the summer.

 

 

by Calum Grant 

 

 

 

Max Delrio's Football Review of 2015

There have been many highlights in 2015 such as Leicester getting to the top of the table, Ronaldo winning the ballon D’or.  Here are a few of my favourite football moments of 2015.

 

2015 was a great year for football as there were many records broken records, many amazing goals scored and there were many club heroes that took their teams further.

 

Southampton player Sadio Mane broke the Premiership record for the fastest hat trick in football history beating the previous owner Robbie fowler who had a time or 4minutes 33seconds, Mane managed to score 3 goals in with 2minutes 56seconds.

Sadio, you're the 'Mane..!!'

Barcelona won the treble for a second time, they won La Liga, the Copa Del Ray and the Champions League with outstanding performances in each competition. Messi, Neymar and Suarez scored a combined total of 121 goals out of Barcelona’s 158 goals in all competitions in 2015.

 

Douglas costa a player who went from Shaktar Donesk to Bayern Munich for £25m was actually quite a cheap price for a player with so much talent. The 25 year old bagged himself  6 goals and 9 assists in half a season for Bayern Munich.

Douglas Costa, well worth the money

 
Jamie Vardy broke the Premiership record for goals in consecutive games previously held by Manchester united Player Ruud Van Nistelrooy.  Jamie Vardy was able to pull off 11 consecutive goals in the Premier League and it wasn’t against the easiest of teams he had to score against some of the toughest teams in the league such as Manchester united, Chelsea and Tottenham.

Who scores when they want..?? I do...!!

2015 was big for South American team Chile as they won the Copa America and event they hadn't won in 99 years. It was really eventful and there was some really close matches.

 

It was a big year for football and I’m looking forward to all the new transfers, and all the records that will be broken and amazing goals and saves 2016 has to offer.


by Max Delrio

Andrew's Sporting Review of 2015

2015 was a massive year for sport so much happened such as Leicester topping the Premier League Table, Great Britain won the Davis cup, Ronaldo won the ballon d’or and David Luiz somehow got in the team of the year. Here are my highlights…..

 2015 was a great year for rugby as we had an amazing rugby world cup with lots of highlights and upsets as well as some horrible referee decisions. Japan had a surprisingly good world cup as they defeated South Africa 34-32 scoring a try in the 84^th minute to win the game.

 

Japan lit the Rugby World Cup alight with an electrifying win against South Africa

 

Scotland did very well as they got all the way to the quarter finals being the last home nation left in the whole tournament, unfortunately referee Craig Joubert made a horrible decision by giving Australia a penalty in the 78^th minute and Australia went on to win the game but by no means did they deserve it.  Scotland almost had a place In the semi-finals and in my opinion would easily beat Argentina giving them a place in the final which has to be a huge boost for upcoming six nations.

New Zealand were easily the best team in the world cup and went on to win the tournament for the second time in a row. They did not lose any of their rugby world cup games destroying everyone in their way all the way to the final. I think they deserved to win it as they came into the tournament as the reigning champions so and had the most to lose. New Zealand are the first International Rugby team to retain the Web Ellis Trophy.

 

The All Blacks cemented their place as Rugby Royalty in 2015

 

In football Barcelona won the treble by winning the La liga,Copa Del Rey and the Champions League. They had  a brilliant year and they were well known for how well Messi, Neymar and Suarez (known collectively as MSN) who together scored 121 of Barcelona’s 158 goals in all competitions in 2015. Barcelona beat Juventus in a hard fought match to win the Champions Legaue and Andres Iniesta deservedly won the Man of the match with Morata equalizing the game after Ivan Rakitic opened the scoring then Suarez gave Barcelona the win by scoring past Buffon then in the 90^th minute. Neymar scored just to rub it in to Juventus at the end of the game we had one of the saddest moments in football history as we see football legend Andrea Pirlo burst into tears as he retired from the game.

Andrea Pirol, even when he's crying he still looks cool...!!!

 2015 was great year for sport with great goals great, amazing saves shocking red cards, expensive transfers, new managers, bad referees and much more. I really enjoyed 2015 and I am looking forward the Euros in France this year as well as the Olympics in Rio.

 

by Andrew Gilchrist                                                                      

Innes O'Donnell's Football Review of the Year

2015 was a big year for football and one of the most memorable moments was when Barcelona won the treble.  Barcelona won La Liga by only two points to the mighty Real Madrid and lifted the trophy at Atletico Madrid’s Vicente Calderón Stadium. 3-1 was the score in the Copa del Rey final where Messi scored a brace and Neymar scored at the Nou Camp which was hosting the event.  Barcelona were fantastic in the Champions League mainly because of their frontline of Messi, Suarez and Neymar.  Lionel Messi stole the show against Bayern Munich in the Semi’s scoring a brace and destroying Jerome Boateng and chipping the ball over Worl Cup Winning keeper Manuel Neyer.  In the Champions League Final Barcelona played Juventus who were the Italian champions and they beat them 3-1 with Neymar scoring two goals and Suarez scoring one.

 

Messi, Neymar and Suarez give the 'Dashing White Sergeant a go'

 

For Steven Gerrard 2015 at Liverpool was his final year but it certainly wasn’t his best.  His last home game for Liverpool was against Crystal Palace where they lost 3-1.  Gerrard’s final game for Liverpool was away at Stoke where Liverpool where thrashed 6-1, Gerrard did manage to get on the score sheet but that obviously wasn’t enough.

The 17th December 2015 will remain as a major date in the history of Chelsea as it was the date when club legend Jose Mourinho was sacked.  At the time of his departure Chelsea were just one point away from the relegation places after nine defeats in 16 games. 

 

Adel said hello while Jose waved goodbye in December 2015

 

Jamie Vardy the 28 years old Leicester striker hit the headlines in November after scoring in eleven consecutive Premier League games, ending with Leicester City's 1-1 draw against Manchester United where he had overtaken Ruud van Nistelrooy's previous record from 2003 when the Dutch hitman notched in ten successive matches.

In a match between Bayern Munich and Wolfsburg Robert Lewandowski was subbed on at half time with the score was 1-0 to Wolfsburg.  Lewandowski scored in the 51^st, 52^nd, 55^th, 57^th and 60^th minute.  He scored 5 goals in 9 nine minutes breaking many at Bayern Munich.    

After 99 years of waiting it came down to an Alexis Sanchez penalty against Sergio Romero in July 2015 where Chile claimed the Copa beating Argentina 4-1 on penalties.  It was very special for Chile as the tournament was hosted in Chile.  Before the penalties it was a very close game all it was missing was a goal.  On the way to the final Chile won all their games apart from drawing to Mexcio 3-3. Argentina’s fight to the final was a bit tougher beating Uruguay in the group stage and Colombia in the quarter finals.  Lionel Messi wasn’t at his best in that match although he was the only Argentinean player to score a penalty.  The man of the match was Arturo Vidal and later was named the player of the tournament.  

 

99 years of hurt were ended for Chilie in the Coppa America in 2015. Not a Hibbie among them...!!

 

The 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup was held in Canada, with the number of qualifiers increased from 16 to 24, including eight from Europe.  The winners were the USA and they thrashed Japan 5-2 in the final with Carly Lloyd the 2015 FIFA Ballon d’or winner scoring a hat trick.  The biggest win in the tournament was a 10-0 humiliation that Germany launched on Ivory Coast.  England surprised many by earning 3^rd place losing to Japan and beating Germany 1-0 in the bronze medal match.  This was USA’s third WWC tournament wins overtaking Germany with 2 Women’s world cups.

 

 

By Innes O’Donnell.