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Comment by Notatheist | Hacker News Reader

I'm a professional dancer and music and freestyle are the most demanding aspects of dance by far.

That said I'm also skeptical. Music and dance are being compared to "bicycle ergometers" and "training with equipment such as barbells and rubber bands". I'm pretty sure only one of these groups was having any fun. Unless the dance group were forced to social dance bachata in which case the misery probably evens out.

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And for the exercise only group: > We avoided combined arm and leg movements in order to keep coordinative demands low

I'm skeptical too. You have one group that is doing something that takes full body coordination, with lots of different inputs and improvisation, versus something they attempted to minimize those aspects of. Not to mention the social parts of dancing with others.

But also hey, social dancing bachata is fun! If you're ever in NYC a good friend of mine teaches it at Pearl dance studio.

You might be surprised at how many people enjoy the feeling of grinding out improvement in the gym. In my experience it can be a lot more fun than dancing for certain personality types (mine included)

There are various complicated social dynamics related to couples dancing that might make it less than fun for some people. You need to spend several minutes in to close proximity with a stranger, and even be able to move at the same time. It took me years to get over this. Depending on the method dance partners are selected, you might experience rejection etc.

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