How ‘America’s Sweethearts’ Star Jada McLean Trains for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders

Summary: The professional dancer and Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader shares the training behind the performance — and why being able to track Dance on Strava matters.

Before Jada McLean teaches a dance class, there is rehearsal before the rehearsal.

The professional dancer and Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader recalls choreographing a routine for a class of aspiring professional dancers. She ran it with music, stretched, worked on her mobility and practiced her kicks. It was preparation for teaching, but it was also a workout.

Then there’s everything around the dancing: Pilates. Running. Weight lifting. Rehearsals. Performances. More practice.

For McLean, none of those things exist separately. They’re all training.

“I approach my training as a professional dancer like many athletes do, with the mindset that what you get out of it is a result of the work you put in,” McLean says. 

“That’s why I give the best effort I can in every practice, rehearsal and performance.”

It’s the work behind an art form that can sometimes obscure just how athletic it is.

Now, more of that work can show up on Strava.

DANCE HAS ALWAYS BEEN ATHLETIC

Dance is now a sport type on Strava, allowing dancers to record dance workouts alongside the running, strength training, Pilates and other activities that make up their training.

For McLean, the significance goes beyond having another option in an activity menu.

“I was truly overjoyed when I heard that dance was being introduced as a workout type on Strava,” she says. 

“As a dancer, I feel as though myself and so many others have been advocating for dance to be recognized as not only a sport, but an art that requires immense athleticism.”

“It felt like a huge step in the right direction to have a platform like Strava recognize it as such.”

That recognition matters because the finished product of dance can disguise the physical work required to produce it.

A dancer has to make something difficult look intentional, sometimes effortless, while relying on many of the same physical attributes athletes train across other sports.

“I wish more people understood that dance requires more athleticism than one may expect,” McLean says. “It requires endurance, physical strength and a great deal of mobility.”

THE TRAINING BEHIND THE PERFORMANCE

McLean’s own training reflects that range.

Alongside dance practices, rehearsals and performances, she cross-trains throughout the week.

“I also enjoy cross-training in order to challenge my body physically and consistently include Pilates, running and weight lifting into my routine,” she says.

Each serves the bigger goal: becoming a better dancer and a stronger athlete.

“I am constantly trying to better myself as a dancer and overall athlete, never taking for granted the opportunity to learn and grow.”

It also makes McLean representative of an increasingly familiar kind of athlete: one whose training doesn’t fit neatly into a single sport.

A run might build endurance. A lifting session builds strength. Pilates can challenge control and mobility. Hours later, all of it can show up in rehearsal.

The performance is only the most visible part.

MAKING THE WORK VISIBLE

That’s also what McLean values about tracking her training on Strava.

“I like using Strava as a part of my training because it allows me to not only hold myself accountable, but accurately track and record all of my workouts,” she says.

For an athlete whose week can span several different kinds of movement, the training log becomes a record of more than one discipline.

“It’s rewarding to be able to look back at all of the time and effort that I have spent bettering myself as a dancer and athlete and to have all of my past activities in one place.”

Adding Dance gives another part of that training its own name.

It means choreography sessions, rehearsals and dance workouts no longer have to be squeezed into another activity category simply because there wasn’t one built for them.

And there’s plenty of room to go further.

A FULLER PICTURE OF AN ATHLETE

A dancer’s Activity might not have miles or a finish line.

It might be an hour spent learning choreography. Repeating eight counts. Practicing kicks. Stretching. Teaching a class. Running a routine again and again until the movement looks nothing like the effort it took to get there.

But the effort is there.

For McLean, recording Dance alongside her runs, Pilates sessions and strength workouts creates a more complete record of what it takes to perform at a professional level.

And that’s the larger idea behind adding Dance to Strava.

Not every athlete trains the same way. Not every sport is measured by pace, distance or elevation. If Strava is going to reflect how people actually move, the work dancers have been doing all along deserves to count, too.