Let’s talk about slowing down, improving your well being, boosting your immune system, working on your balance, and dancing your way to fitness.
I cannot stress to you enough how important it is to have margin in your life. This is important for both your physical and mental health. By “margin” I mean giving yourself a break; between chores, between workouts, between everything you do. You cannot go, go, go without taking a breath sometime, so I’ve provided you with articles on slowing down, improving habits and helping you to relax. Check them out. Cheers. Dr. Ben
Slow down (you move too fast…)
Improving your wellbeing
Boost your Immune System
Stress and relaxation
The 10-second balance test that predicts how long you’ll live
How long you can stand on one leg tracks your health, and you can train it in a minute a day. From Dr. Adrian Laurence
In one study, people who couldn’t stand on one leg for 10 seconds were nearly four times as likely to die over the next 7 years as people who could. The raw figures were 17.5% against 4.6%. Even after the researchers adjusted for age, sex, weight, and existing illness, failing the test still came with an 84% higher risk of death. The test costs nothing and takes 10 seconds. Most people have never tried it. After 20 years as a doctor, the checks I like best are the ones you can do at home for free. This is one of them. In this article, you’ll see why balance predicts so much, how to do the 10-second test properly, and how to train it in about a minute a day. The aim is to give you a quick read on your body that usually goes unmeasured until something goes wrong.
Why balance says so much
Balance draws on several systems at once. Your inner ear, your eyes, the sensors in your joints, your leg strength, and how fast your brain ties them together. When any of those fade, your balance is often where you notice it first. That makes standing on one leg a quick read on several systems at the same time. Balance also drops faster than people expect after the mid-50s. In the study, one in five adults aged 51 to 75 could not hold the 10-second stand. The share who failed climbed with age, which is part of why the test carries so much information in this group.
How to do the 10-second test
Here is the version used in the research. Stand with support nearby, such as a wall or a kitchen counter, in case you wobble.
Rest the front of one foot on the back of the opposite lower leg. Keep your arms by your sides and your eyes open and look ahead. Then hold. [1] The goal is 10 seconds without holding on. It is worth trying both legs, since one side is often steadier than the other. If you can’t hold it yet, treat it as a starting point. Balance responds quickly to practice.
| Why I Like Dancing for Fitness (And You Might Too) |
| From Vanessa Marsden wellness-adventure@mail.beehiiv.com |
| I have a little routine I call Fab 4: I put on music with a good beat and dance through four songs. Within those songs, I work in bursts of real exercise — 10–15 squats, counter pushups, heel raises, 10–20 jumping jacks, some boxing moves like jabs — all woven into the dancing itself. No gym, no equipment, just a playlist and my bedroom floor. |
| Here’s why I’ve stuck with it, and why I think more people should try something like it: |
| It’s genuinely fun — so I actually do it. The best workout is the one you don’t have to talk yourself into. |
| It’s easy to build on. You can start with just one song a day and grow from there. There’s no intimidating “workout plan” to commit to upfront — just add a song, add a move, or add a rep when you’re ready. |
| It works multiple muscle groups without feeling like “strength training.” Squats, pushups, and heel raises hit your legs, glutes, chest, arms, and calves, while the dancing itself keeps your core engaged and your heart rate up — so you get a mix of cardio and resistance work in one session. |
| It can be done anywhere. No gym membership, no equipment, no drive time. Just space to move and a phone or speaker for music. I use playlists that I create on Pandora, which I pay a whopping $3.99 a month for. |
| Music! And music is fun, and fun is good. Plus, music with a good beat is SO energizing. |
| A few more reasons this style of movement is worth considering: |
| It’s easier on the joints than a lot of alternatives. Dancing lets you control your own impact level, which makes it a more sustainable option long-term than, say, running, especially as you’re building a habit. |
| Music genuinely boosts performance and mood. There’s real research showing music with a strong beat improves exercise output, reduces perceived effort, and triggers a bigger dopamine and endorphin response than exercising in silence — so you tend to work harder without it feeling harder. And did I say that music is fun? |
| It trains coordination and balance, not just muscles. Mixing dance steps with squats and boxing jabs means your brain is doing footwork, rhythm-tracking, and movement-pattern-switching at the same time — a kind of cognitive-physical training that pure repetition-based workouts don’t offer. |
| It scales infinitely with your fitness level. Kind of already said, but bears elaborating. A beginner can just dance and sway; someone more advanced can add more reps, heavier movements, or more songs. The format has no ceiling and no floor — it meets you where you are that day. |
| It’s a stress reliever, not just a calorie burner. Moving to music is one of the more reliable ways to shake off a bad mood or a stressful day — you get the exercise benefit and the emotional reset in the same 15 minutes. |
| It’s social if you want it to be. Fab 4 works solo, but it’s just as easy to pull in a partner, a kid, or a friend — dancing doesn’t require anyone else to be “working out,” which lowers the barrier for others to join in. |
| It doesn’t require you to be “an exerciser.” A lot of people who feel alienated by traditional fitness culture (gyms, mirrors, jargon) don’t feel that same resistance toward dancing — it taps into something more universal and less performance-oriented. |
| Bottom line: the best exercise routine is the one that is doable with a busy, imperfect life. Fab 4 works for me because it removes almost every excuse — no equipment, no commute, no need to “feel like working out” — while still delivering real strength and cardio benefits. Start with one song. See how it feels. |