<story><title>Dance training superior to physical exercise in inducing brain plasticity (2018)</title><url>https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0196636</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>macintux</author><text>Speaking as someone who tried to take a tap class as an adult, only to discover it was for people who were already experienced dancers: yes, dance training is vastly more complex than exercise.&lt;p&gt;Update: what absolutely killed me is that we would run through a complex step two or three times, and we were expected to be able to practice at home. I didn&amp;#x27;t understand what we were doing &lt;i&gt;while&lt;/i&gt; we were doing it, there was no way I could reproduce it.</text></item><item><author>ericmcer</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t have any science behind this, but it makes sense that training more complex motions would trigger greater brain improvements.&lt;p&gt;Dance vs basketball or some other high coordination&amp;#x2F;skill activity might have less disparity than say dance vs. exercise bike.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>viraptor</author><text>You got thrown into a class above your skill level. That&amp;#x27;s bad on the teacher for not telling you really. Once you know the basics the rest is easier to build on top of that, but otherwise it&amp;#x27;s like trying to tell someone about design patterns while they&amp;#x27;re still struggling with syntax in programming.&lt;p&gt;If you liked the idea, give it a go with beginners again. You&amp;#x27;ll get back to that higher level soon anyway.</text></comment>
<story><title>Dance training superior to physical exercise in inducing brain plasticity (2018)</title><url>https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0196636</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>macintux</author><text>Speaking as someone who tried to take a tap class as an adult, only to discover it was for people who were already experienced dancers: yes, dance training is vastly more complex than exercise.&lt;p&gt;Update: what absolutely killed me is that we would run through a complex step two or three times, and we were expected to be able to practice at home. I didn&amp;#x27;t understand what we were doing &lt;i&gt;while&lt;/i&gt; we were doing it, there was no way I could reproduce it.</text></item><item><author>ericmcer</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t have any science behind this, but it makes sense that training more complex motions would trigger greater brain improvements.&lt;p&gt;Dance vs basketball or some other high coordination&amp;#x2F;skill activity might have less disparity than say dance vs. exercise bike.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>UniverseHacker</author><text>I have experience with a few types of dance including salsa and bachata, and also compete as a strength athlete- and find some of the more complex weight lifting moves- such as the push jerk- a lot harder and more technical than anything I’ve learned dancing. If every aspect of your timing and form aren’t perfect, it simply does not work at heavier weights, and can take years of constant practice to perfect. The extra burden of having to output 100 percent effort while trying to do everything else perfect is very mentally demanding.</text></comment>