I work out to stay fit and dance for fun and for mental health. I don't enjoy working out, but it sure beats the alternative.
Not taking their hint that I'm getting too old, I'm still in the Naval Reserve and so must pass their twice-annual Physical Fitness Assessment (PFA). Having inherited a basically muscular body type (thank you again, Dad) which I passed down to our sons (hope you realize how lucky you are, kid), the situps and pushups are easy. It's the 1.5 mile run that I need to always work on (I always hated running), so work mainly on my legs and on running while just maintaining upper-body muscle tone and training for the test with situps and pushups. I'm currently training for the run at 1.5 miles in 15:30 and tested last month at 14:28, which appears to be the best that I can do; now I'm trying to at least maintain that level so that I don't have to cram so much for the next test.
Working out does help in my dancing, especially in making it through several hours of class. A lot of the newer [among us older] students seem to tucker out after two hours and express disbelief when I'm still going strong after three or four hours of class. Similarly, after two hours of WCS open dancing, I'll often then go to a Lindy venue for a couple more hours there. Besides, if I didn't work out to keep my legs in shape, then I would be injurying myself when dancing, so even after I finally retire from the Naval Reserve I will still need to keep in shape and keep up with the running (darn it!).
However, I have also found that I'm needing to cut back a bit on my dancing in order to avoid over-doing it. I'm at that troublesome age where it seems to take forever for an injury to heal and I cannot afford to lose that much dance time.
Oh, and I started Pilates mat work last week. I need to build up my core to get ready for Camp Hollywood at the end of the month.