MACARENA FUNKY, FUN, HIP, HEALTHY

It's funky, it's fun, it's tres hip and it's healthy.

The Macarena may be more than just the "dance of the week," fitness experts say. It could be the key to getting couch potatoes on their feet and on the dance floor.

Delegates at the Democratic National Convention were getting with the beat, and when President Clinton and Vice President Gore came to Cape Girardeau last week, the dance was everywhere.

The song tells the story of a young woman cheerfully cheating on her soldier boyfriend, but the moves -- mostly with the arms and hips -- are a lot more important than the story.

The Macarena is the latest Latin import to sweep the dance scene, but it's a lot easier to learn than the Lambada.

It's also very popular, said Dewayne Casey, owner of Peppy's, a Cape Girardeau dance club.

"It's the most requested song there is," Casey said, adding that the disc jockey at the club plays it "four or five times a night."

"They just demand it," he said.

The Macarena and other line dances, like the Electric Slide and Swamp Thing, are good fun and good exercise.

"We steal a lot of the moves they use in line dancing," said Janey Miller, an aerobics instructor and personal trainer at Main Street Fitness Center in Jackson. "And people love it. They learn it real easily."

The Macarena song only lasts a few minutes, but an evening of line dancing is a great cardiovascular workout, Miller said.

"If they line dance a couple of times a week, they're getting their cardiovascular work," she said.

Bill Logan, wellness coordinator at St. Francis Medical Center, agreed.

"I haven't researched it medically, but just like square dancing, those are some of the most fit people you see, the people that participate regularly in line dancing," he said. "You really do work up a sweat. It's probably one of the best forms of aerobic exercise there is."

Debbie Leoni, the outreach and wellness coordinator at Southeast Missouri Hospital, uses the Macarena, the Cotton-eyed Joe and the Texas Waltz in her "Easy Does It" aerobics class at Red Star Baptist Church.

The dance is "a good little bridge" from the warm-up and cool-down portions of the workout, she said.

"It's popular, and they like doing something their grandchildren are doing," Leoni said.

Fitness experts suggests a minimum of 30 minutes of aerobic exercise at least three times a week.

That's easier than doing the hokey pokey for line dance lovers.

"They're sweating and they're getting a great workout, and for the most part, they're out there for an hour or an hour and a half a night," Logan said. "And a lot of those people, they'll line dance three or four nights a week."

Health screenings have shown line dancers have healthy cholesterol levels, he said.

"That's one of the things we look for in the screenings, is what kind of exercise do you do," Logan said.

Line dancing is "excellent" exercise, Leoni said.

"It's consistent. It's not stressful. It's low-impact. It's fun. It's social and things that people enjoy like that are easy to maintain," she said. "You can put a lot into it or a little into it, depending on how much of a workout you want."

The Macarena by itself isn't too physically demanding, Logan said, but it's a good way to introduce people to working out.

"It's something that it looks like anybody could do," Logan said. "I don't think it's as physically active as some of the other line dances, but that's the kind of thing that we encourage, 'cause it's fun and it's the kind of thing that everybody can do."

Logan said he hasn't experienced the Macarena personally, although he's certainly seen it, and since his wife wants to learn it, he's sure he will too.

The Macarana does give one neglected portion of the anatomy a chance to shine, Leoni said.

"You don't swivel your hips a lot, usually," she said. "It's not something that most of us have done for a while, at least not in public."

The American Physical Therapy Association has endorsed the Macarena and other line dances as healthful exercises.

The Surgeon General's Report on Physical Activity and Health concluded that moderate physical activity, such as walking the dog or gardening, can help prevent serious health problems like heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, colon cancer and obesity.