Is Dance Better Exercise Than Cheerleading?

Although they may not be the first activities that come to mind when you think of exercise, both dance and cheerleading can give you a good workout. As an added benefit, the variety of movements and the social element to these activities can make them feel more like play than exercise. Although both dance and cheerleading can help you get fit, each activity has some advantages over the other.

Calories Burned

Different dance styles burn calories at different rates. A 125-lb. woman participating in a ballroom dance, such as the waltz or foxtrot at a slow pace, burns 90 calories in 30 minutes. Fast or strenuous dance styles like swing and ballet burn 165 calories per half hour for a woman of this weight. By comparison, in half an hour of cheerleading, a 125-lb. woman burns around 152 calories. If calorie burning is your goal, fast dancing is the most effective exercise option, followed by cheerleading, then slow dancing.

Cardiovascular Exercise

To get cardiovascular benefits from a workout, you need to raise your heart rate and keep it raised for at least 20 minutes. Vigorous dances, including salsa, swing, fast waltzes, country line dances, and polka and other fast folk dances, can all raise your heart rate significantly, notes professor of kinesiology Philip Martin in an interview for California State University.

Performing cheerleading moves may not raise your heart rate significantly. Because the sport requires cardiovascular fitness, though, a complete cheerleading training program should include 20- to 30-minute aerobic workouts five days a week, suggests cheerleading coach Linda Rae Chappell in "Coaching Cheerleading Successfully." These additional workouts can benefit your heart.

Strength Training

Dance and cheerleading are both weight-bearing activities that can help you gain bone mass. In addition, dance and cheerleading styles that involve jumps or lifting of a partner are especially good for working the muscles. For both those activities, though, you'll benefit from additional strength training. For example, tuck jumps, leg lifts and releves, or calf raises, strengthen the leg muscles for jumping. For cheerleaders, ankle and wrist strengthening exercises should also be part of the training routine, Chappell recommends.

Safety Considerations

Dance causes injuries as frequently as football does, and cheerleaders sustain injuries more frequently than do football players. Dancers are primarily at risk for injuries to the foot, ankle and lower leg as well as the lower back and hips. For cheerleaders, ankle and knee injuries are most common, but injuries to the arms, head and neck can also occur. In either activity, complex stunts and jumps are most likely to cause injury. If safety is of particular concern, dance styles without jumps and lifts are better choices than cheerleading.