Senior fitness square dance

Square dancing for the elderly has never been a black-and-white "cancer that disturbs the people" or "outdated entertainment for the elderly." It is essentially a composite public activity for the elderly that takes into account low-cost fitness, social connection, and emotional value. Its existing contradictions and controversies are essentially issues of public space resource allocation and coordination of needs of different groups, and have nothing to do with the activity itself.

In the small square downstairs of my house, the music starts at seven o'clock every day since the beginning of summer. Aunt Zhang, the lead dancer, stands at the front holding a small curled red flag. Uncle Li, who is at the head of the line, still has plaster on his knees and stretches his arms and legs more seriously than anyone else. Last year, Aunt Zhang suffered from knee arthritis and had to rest twice when climbing the third floor. After hearing from her elder sisters that square dancing can help move her joints, she joined the team with the mentality of giving it a try. After a year, she can now carry twenty kilograms of rice up to the fifth floor without gasping for breath. The last time the community organized a mountain climbing, she climbed faster than many fifty-year-old people.

I previously checked the 2023 survey data from the Sports Rehabilitation Department of Beijing University of Physical Education. It was found that healthy elderly people aged 60-70 who practiced moderate-intensity square dancing three times a week for 45 minutes each time had a 32% higher balance ability than sedentary elderly people of the same age, and a 27% lower risk of falling. The improvement effect on common elderly problems such as frozen shoulder and lower limb strength degradation is even better than many individual home rehabilitation exercises. After all, the pensions of most elderly people are not very high, and annual gym memberships cost several thousand. Swimming and playing ball also require high physical conditions. Square dancing can be done in an empty venue, and accompaniment music can be purchased for one dollar. The cost is so low that it can be ignored.

But there is nothing wrong with saying that square dancing is all about benefits, nor is it objective. There were conflicts in our community in the past two years. The young man who lived on the second floor had just given birth. He thought the music was so loud that the baby couldn't sleep well. He came down and had two quarrels with the aunts, and almost called the police. Some people also say that the aunties spent all day long to buy team uniforms and spend half a month lining up for competitions, which is a waste of money. Dr. Li from the orthopedics department of the community hospital also said that he received three elderly people last month. They all came to see the doctor with their menisci worn out because of the difficult movements of squatting and turning in order to follow the formation.

Nowadays, the elderly circle actually has completely different ideas on how to dance square dance. One group is "happy first". They feel that everyone gathers together to have fun, wear quick-dry uniforms worth 30 yuan, form new formations, and go to street competitions to win prizes. The sense of collective honor is stronger than anything else. Aunt Zhang and her team participated in the district's square dance competition last year and won the third prize. Each of them was given a handful of eggs and a bucket of laundry detergent. The whole team gathered together to have a hot pot meal made in AA style and were happy for half a month. They always said, "Even if the movements are not standard, dancing happily is better than anything else." The other group is "pragmatic fitness", just like Uncle Li, who used to be a middle school physical education teacher. He passed the Level 3 Social Sports Instructor Certificate himself, and the teams he led never participated in competitions. He specially modified the movements according to the physique of the elderly: squatting was changed to half squatting, and the hands did not need to be raised above the head. If you have a bad waist, you can jump with your arms akimbo. You must warm up for 10 minutes before jumping, and stretch for 5 minutes after jumping. You can adjust the intensity by yourself. When you are tired, you can sit next to it and chat. There are many elderly people in his team who have high blood pressure and frozen shoulder. After dancing for more than half a year, their indicators have stabilized a lot when they are reviewed.

As for the issues of disturbing people and occupying space that everyone complains about the most, it is not that there is no solution to both problems. Our community had tried "Silent Square Dance" before, following the trend and giving everyone Bluetooth headsets. After trying it twice, no one wanted to do it. The old people said they couldn't hear the footsteps of the people next to them, and they couldn't remind each other "You're doing it wrong." The dance was cold and boring. Later, the community simply divided the time into areas. Square dancing in the small square was from 7 to 8:30. The sound had to be measured with a decibel meter and controlled below 55 decibels. If it exceeded 55 decibels, it had to be turned off. The rest of the time was given to young people to set up basketball hoops and table tennis tables, and fast-paced dancing on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The aerobics team, which danced slow-tempo Tai Chi and Baduanjin on Thursday and Saturday, had been having conflicts for several years, but they were settled in such a haphazard manner. Occasionally, young people from get off work found the gym too boring, so they came behind the team and danced a few times, saying it was much more interesting than running on a treadmill for half an hour.

In fact, to put it bluntly, it is not without reason that square dancing has been popular for more than 20 years. For many empty-nesters whose children are no longer around, the hour or so every day is not only a time to stretch their bodies, but also a rare time to chat with peers and join in the fun. There is no need to praise it so highly, and there is no need to beat it to death with a stick and say it is a public nuisance. It is just that everyone gives in, the elderly can play comfortably, and others can live in peace of mind, which is better than anything else.