Belly dancing is more than a hobby. It’s a way to get fit, lose weight, and feel great about yourself. Belly dance cardio workouts are intense and effective—and they’re fun! We’ll show you how to do the basic moves and then put them together into a high-intensity routine that will burn calories, tone your body, and improve your flexibility.

In this tutorial we’ll teach you how to do the basic moves of belly dance: hip drops, shoulder shimmies, and shimmy turns. We’ll also show you how to put these moves together into a full-on belly dance workout routine with some simple choreography that will get your heart pumping while burning fat off your hips and thighs.

Right here on Buy and Slay, you are privy to a litany of relevant information on belly dance workout benefits, belly dancing workout for beginners, belly dance workout for flat stomach, and so much more. Take out time to visit our catalog for more information on similar topics.

Belly Dancing Workout For Weight Loss

A belly dance workout is a great way to burn calories and tone your core. With the increased popularity of belly dancing as a fitness routine, it’s easy to find dance studios and fitness centers offering classes. Include your friends and take a class together for great bonding and accountability. Don’t be intimidated by belly dancing. Women of all shapes, sizes and nationalities love this workout and are finding fun and results all in one great class.

Overall Body Workout

Belly dancing is a full body workout. You’ll be working your entire core, which includes your abs and hips. Your arms, shoulders and chest will be engaged. As you learn more advanced moves, you’ll work on balance also. Your upper body will be utilized in the arms movements that come with belly dancing, as well as slow, deliberate movements that keep the arms engaged for a longer period of time than a single rep.

Small Muscle Concentration

Since belly dancing focuses on the hip and abs area with small movements, your smaller core muscles are better able to be engaged than if you were using traditional ab exercises. Utilizing the smaller core muscles allows for overall core strength building which brings better balance and better posture. As you move through the arm movements of belly dancing, you’ll also notice a fuller range of motion in your upper body than standard exercises. This full range of motion utilizes smaller muscles in your arms and back for better muscle toning all over.

Core Stabilization

Because belly dancing is such a controlled method movement, you’ll learn how to control every muscle, down to the small ones you didn’t know you had. You’ll learn about isolation and how controlling your separate core muscle groups will help stabilize the core leading to a stronger core. Your core strength aids in good posture, how you walk, the strength of your spine and can help prevent joint problems. Your core should always be engaged for proper movement and to maximize your results. “Engage” your core by keeping your belly button sucked into your spine.

Consistent Cardio

Because a belly dance workout keeps you in constant motion, your heart rate stays up which puts you in a constant state of cardio burn. The longer a period of time your heart rate stays elevated, the longer you’ll burn calories even after the workout is over. When consistent cardio is combined with consistent muscle strengthening, your body continues to burn calories and fat long after the workout is over.

A belly dance workout is a great addition to your everyday fitness routine. If you’re looking for a fitness routine and don’t already have one, try a belly dancing class. It’s fun and working out with other people tends to make you workout just a little harder. Include your friends and you’ll have a great time working out, toning and conditioning your body.

Belly Dance Workout Benefits

1: Lots of Physical Benefits  Total body movement, such as belly dance, enhances the functions of other body systems, such as circulatory, respiratory, skeletal, and muscular systems. It is one of the few exercise forms that tones up the pelvic floor. In belly dance, we habitually raise the sternum. Realignment of the sternum produces an increase in the capacity of the lungs. More oxygen means more energy.

Belly dancers often look younger than their years;  this form helps women to stay more youthful and healthier for longer. Health benefits are reflected in beauty benefits. Toned body, shiny hair and good skin.

Lymph flushes out toxins. A belly dance class will make lymph flow 15 x faster, so dramatically speeding up the elimination of toxins.

To help stay healthy, the Government recommends that everyone take part in 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity five times a week. It seems incredible that something that feels as fun and sensual as belly dancing counts!

A Dance for Mind and Body

2: Better Sleep People who take regular exercise such as belly dance sleep better.

3: Improves Muscle Tone in a low impact way. Belly dance provides an increase in core strength, which provides stability in the body and enhances posture. Belly dance can be a great alternative to boring abdominal exercises. As a result of regular practice, tummy muscles are activated, stretched, and toned belly muscles for feminine abs.

4: Improved Body Language The body is the vehicle that stores emotional pain. When body language gives out victim signals, it can trigger abusers and predators. Much research suggests that the way we view our selves is affected by others perceptions of us. People respond to confident, assertive body language by non-verbally communicating the affirmation that the person they are interacting with has good self-esteem.

5: Sacred Dance Belly dance with its circles, spirals and figure-eight configurations describes life at its universal cataclysmic inception. People find that through these creative movements, they can express their unique individuality and personality. The dance frees the spirit and nourishes body and soul.

Through dance, people can tune into the rhythms and pulses of the Universe. Dancing like this expresses the human longing to reach out beyond the confines of the ego and the personal body, to connect and become one with the universal body. Dance in its purest form is an expression of the life force. When we dance we are always in the present moment, the now.

There is evidence to suggest that Middle Eastern dance was used as a form of Goddess worship in the past. 

6: Healing Dance In the Middle East and other parts of the world, dance is practiced with the specific intention of healing all forms of dis-ease. Ceremonies that involve dance often cover a wide range of healing objectives.

7: A Birth Dance belly dance was/is also used to facilitate easy childbirth and recovery.

8: Burns Calories avoiding weight gain can become harder as we get older. Belly dance can burn over 400 calories per hour and it feels like fun!

9: Dancing Helps to Reduce the Risk of Osteoporosis Because the steps and torso moves put a healthy strain on the bones, it helps them to stay healthy and dense. This makes them less prone to osteoarthritis.

10: Beautiful Movement 

Other skills develop when we learn to dance, especially poise and grace! A body always looks better if the person has excellent posture; this is a reflection of positive mental and emotional states. Have you noticed how confident people have good posture? Standing better makes the physique look trimmer, the individual look more confident and taller. With regular practice of Belly dance, this becomes the default method of standing.

11: Good for The Mind

Belly dance is meditative and requires the mind to engage with the body; this gives the dancer a break from thoughts and worries that can sometimes torment us. These effects are similar to the benefits of yoga or Tai Chi.

Studies have shown that physical activity is known to increase particular neurotransmitter substances in the brain (endorphins), which create a state of well-being. In various studies, it has been demonstrated that exercise is almost as effective as anti-depressants in treating depression. In a good Belly dance class, we are in a group interacting in a positive and supportive way; this can create feelings of acceptance which is essential for psychological health. 

Belly dance can keep the mind active as well as your body. Remembering intricate steps stimulates the working memory. Research suggests that dancing reduces the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease or dementia.

Not only can exercise slow mental decline, but it may enhance brainpower. There is some evidence that listening to music while you exercise stimulates mental functioning more than silent activities. So regular dancing might even help you improve your IQ score! 

12: Belly dance is a Powerful De-stressing Technique

Stress can kill, so it is important to have a practice to deal with it. In Western culture; in particular, people are not encouraged to express their emotions freely. For some, expressing feelings through creative movement is more accessible than with words. This creates relaxation. Mind found that 83% of people used exercise to reduce stress.  Belly dance feels so creative and happy that it does not feel like exercise! 

Exercise, community and creativity create a synergic combination to destress and relax.

13: Builds Friendships

Belly dancing tends to be a shared pursuit. Spending time with friends can stimulate the mind and protect against mental decline. Being part of a group, team or community is one of the keys to a happy life. Emotional support and a sense of purpose support good mental health.

14: Exciting and uplifting 

Belly dance teaches about culture and history, that will expand vision and challenge established beliefs systems. Belly dance encourages the celebration of different traditions and lifestyles, as well as builds understanding and respect of other cultures. This dance is hypnotic and exciting, relaxing, and uplifting. Belly dance can cause us to embark on an exciting voyage into new musical realms.

The sense of achievement felt when complex moves are achieved, enhance self-esteem. When you can see and feel improvement with practice, it can give confidence an enormous boost.

15: Dance Shows and Performances, Performance is fun! Dressing up in beautiful costumes is something many people enjoy! Performing together builds team spirit, forges friendships and boosts self-esteem.

Belly Dance Workout For Flat Stomach

Shimmying, wiggling and undulating your belly provides a solid core workout and could help you lose fat, especially when combined with healthy eating. On its own, however, belly dancing exercise won’t give you a flat stomach.

People of all shapes and sizes belly dance, and the swanky moves help you burn calories — which, in turn, can lead to a flatter stomach. Belly dancing doesn’t compensate for poor dietary choices, binge drinking or a sedentary lifestyle, though.

Tip

When combined with a balanced diet and workout regimen, belly dancing may flatten your stomach. The key is to be consistent, stick to your workouts and eat clean. Be aware, though, that you’ll lose weight overall, not just from your belly.

Is Belly Dance Exercise Effective?

Becoming more physically active while maintaining or reducing your calorie intake facilitates weight loss. However, this doesn’t mean you’ll automatically get a perfectly flat stomach, but your waistline will shrink somewhat along with other parts of your body.

Like any type of exercise, the calories burned with belly dancing depend on how much you do it and how intensely you dance.

To lose notable weight, some of which will come off your stomach, you must create a calorie deficit through diet, exercise or both. To put it simply, it’s necessary to burn more calories than you take in.

The World Health Organization recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise per week to maintain health. If your goal is to torch fat, start there and then increase workout intensity or duration. This will likely cause you to burn more energy than you consume.

Be aware, though, that you can’t lose fat from your belly only. Spot reduction is just a myth, as the American Council on Exercise and other health organizations point out. As long as you have a calorie deficit, whether it comes from exercising, reducing your calorie intake or both, you’ll lose fat overall. Your arms will get leaner, your waist will shrink and your legs will look more defined.

Of course, to make sure this happens, you’ll have to keep tabs on what you eat. Moderate portion sizes are important, as is limiting your intake of sugars, saturated fats and refined carbohydrates.

Burn Calories With Belly Dancing

The calories burned during exercise, including dancing, depend on your weight, workout duration, intensity and other factors, so it’s hard to give an exact number. The more intense your workout (or dance class), the higher your energy expenditure.

If you take a class that emphasizes technique and drills, such as hip circles and camels, you’re going to burn fewer calories. Going for a full hour of serious dancing takes serious stamina and ab control too.

It will take more than one or two belly dancing classes per week to burn the calories necessary to lose weight and get a flatter stomach. A pound of fat equals approximately 3,500 calories, according to the Mayo Clinic and other health experts.

As mentioned earlier, you must create a calorie deficit to burn fat. If you aren’t vigorously dancing daily, supplement it with other cardio exercises, such as hiking, bike riding or other forms of dance, to boost your energy expenditure.

Belly Dance Workout Ideas

Belly dancing does involve serious manipulation of your hips and abdomen, which builds endurance, muscle and strength. But you can’t directly burn off fat from any area, including your stomach. This form of exercise might improve the definition in your abs, which you will see once you lose extra padding, but it won’t work some spot-reducing magic.

Try a few belly dance exercise ideas to strengthen your core and burn fat:

  • Hip Rolls: Stand feet hip-distance apart and let your hands float slightly to the sides of your body. Cock your hips right, forward, left and back. Make the movement smooth and fluid and then repeat in the opposite direction.
  • Camels: Stand with your arms at your sides and push your chest forward by drawing your shoulder blades back. Then start to make an “S”-like motion by pulling the belly in, tucking the pelvis and pressing your shoulders forward.
  • Figure Eights: Lean to the right as you lift your right hip and heel. Return to center with grounded feet and repeat on the left. Find a fluidity to the transition between sides as you move to the music.

5 Dance Moves to Help Burn Belly Fat and Get a Tight Tummy

Getting great abs doesn’t have to involve the drudgery of crunches and planks. Channel your inner dancer to lose belly fat and reveal a toned tum.

However, losing belly fat isn’t just about looking good on the dance floor — it’s a matter of health. Too much belly fat, especially the deep inner fat that widens your waistband, puts you at greater risk of chronic disease, including Type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Don’t fear, though. If you’ve got rhythm, you’ve got the tools to lose the extra pounds. Borrow moves from hip-hop, belly dancing and jazz to tone your muscles.

Get Your Groove on to Burn Fat

Belly fat shrinks in response to a more physically active lifestyle, and dancing is an effective way to move more — and enjoy it. Whether you shake it in Zumba or swivel your hips in your own living room, you’re burning calories, which is key to losing belly fat.

While you can’t target a specific area for fat loss, your belly is one of the places that shrinks first when you get moving, explains Rush University Medical Center. Movement helps boost your daily calorie burn, so you end up with a caloric deficit and your body has to dip into fat stores to provide energy.

Dancing is a fun way to burn calories. If you weigh 155 pounds and dance fast for 30 minutes, expect to burn 223 calories in 30 minutes, equal to a cross-country hike. Slower ballroom dance still sizzles 205 calories in 30 minutes and even a slow waltz fries 105 calories in the same amount of time — the amount you’d burn in a casual game of volleyball. People who weigh more burn a greater number of calories when dancing, too.

Tip

Watch portion sizes and the quality of your food choices to make sure you lose belly fat. Limit sugary sweets, including soda and refined grains.

Waist-Whittling Moves

After you’ve danced to burn calories, perform some concentrated skills to tone your abs and further dance away your flab.

Hip Circles

This belly dancing move targets your outer ab muscles — the obliques — and your glutes. Put on some swanky tunes to get you in the mood. The jazz hip roll is a similar movement.

Step 1: Take Your Stance

Stand with your feet hip-distance apart. Lift your arms slightly to the sides of your body.

Step 2: Start to Move

Shift your hips right and left to get them warm.

Step 3: Get Your Circle On

Move into a circular motion — move your hips right, back, left and front. Repeat in the opposite direction. Keep the move going for about 90 seconds.

Camel

Keep your belly dancing mojo moving with this move that targets the front of your abs, known as the rectus abdominis.

Step 1: Take Your Stance

Stand with your feet hip-distance apart. Press your chest forward as you arch your spine. Keep your shoulders retracted and your arms at your sides.

Step 2: Tuck Your Pelvis

Reverse the action by drawing your abs in, tucking your pelvis and allowing the shoulders to press forward.

Step 3: Keep the Ripple Moving

Continue to work the ripple for 60 to 90 seconds.

Hip-Hop Crunch

Switch the tunes to something with a pounding hip-hop beat to work your rectus abdominis with this standing crunch that masquerades as a cool dance move.

Step 1: Take Your Stance

Stand with your feet hip-distance apart and place your hands behind your head.

Step 2: Crunch and Lift

Tighten your abs to your spine as you lift your right knee up to your chest. Simultaneously crunch your upper body toward the knee. Repeat with the opposite leg.

Step 3: Find Your Rhythm

Find a rhythm as you alternate the sides for one to two minutes.

Reach Down

Add this move to your hip-hop routine for serious oblique work.

Step 1: Take Your Stance

Stand with your feet hip-distance apart, hands behind your head.

Step 2: Reach With Attitude

Free your right arm and reach down toward your outer right knee, sidebending as you go. Avoid twisting; keep your hips squared to the front of the room.

Step 3: Keep It Moving

Repeat with the left arm. Alternate for one to two minutes.

Belly Roll

This move borrows from belly dancing, but with the right beat, it fits right into your hip-hop routine. Regardless, expect to need some practice to master the skill, which targets your rectus abdominis.

Step 1: Take Your Stance

Stand with your feet hip-distance apart and your arms floating alongside you, slightly to the back.

Step 2: Expand Your Ribs

Breathe in to expand your ribs and pull in the lowest portion of your abs.

Step 3: Expand Your Lower Belly

Relax your breath, expand your lower belly and draw in the upper region of your abs.

Step 4: Keep the Wave Moving

Alternate the moves to create a wavelike movement. Work your way up to 30 seconds or longer.

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