Cheerleading Workouts
Cheerleading Workouts Should Exercise Everything
A review of some of the more common cheerleading workouts may lead the would-be cheerleader to believe that the workouts will take forever, and leave one completely exhausted in the process. It's helpful of course to understand what one is trying to accomplish with these workouts. There's little point in spending a huge amount of time and effort while not understanding why you're doing it in the first place. If you watch cheerleaders, and want to be one, the first impulse is to think "I can do that, or at least most of it".
Watch cheerleaders performing for a couple of hours and you soon recognize that not only do some routines require a good deal of strength, not to mention great technique, but require flexibility and endurance as well. Top cheerleaders look as fresh late in the fourth quarter as they did before the game even began. Top cheerleaders have to work hard to achieve that level of performance.
Cheerleader workouts could be said to consist of two major parts. Working on the routines, learning to work in sync with your fellow cheerleaders, and working to get into top physical shape, so you can do the routines repeatedly and faultlessly. It is this second part that is being addressed here.
Why Workout At All? - Why do all the stretching, jumping, lifting, rope skipping and the other things that make up a proper workout? There are four answers. You want to get your body in top condition, so that doing what you need to be doing in the course of a cheerleading routine feels natural and feels easy. You want to develop sufficient strength to be able to do the more demanding routines, and do them repeatedly over what might seem to be a long stretch of time. You want your body and limbs to be as flexible as possible. Certain routines will be less painful when you have the needed flexibility, plus your appearance will be one of general smoothness and grace. You make things look easy. Finally, you want to work on the range of motion your joints will be subjected to. In doing so, you will better avoid strains and sprains as well as pulled muscles and other things that could put you out of action, or make certain routines a trial by pain.
Understand the routines that you'll be expected to do, and you'll better understand why certain exercises done during a workout are necessary. Breaking up the exercises in manageable sessions will make everything seem more doable, plus you don't want to do the same thing day after day. When people work at getting into top condition, they learn not to repeat the same exercise, especially strength exercises, two days in a row. One day you may work arms and legs, the second day, everything else.
What do you do during cheerleading workouts? Below is just a sampling. If you go on line, there are many videos where you can learn a set of exercises, not only what to do, but how to do each one. Such details are beyond the scope of this article.
Warm Up And Stretch - Generally, cheerleading workouts should consist of warming up. This can be accomplished by jumping rope or jogging for 5 to 10 minutes. Next comes an all important part of any workout - stretching. A stretching regimen should involve every part of the body, and is something that can, and should, be done every day. Stretching not only increases your overall flexibility, but will go a long ways towards preventing injury, especially injuries to the muscles. When you stretch, start with the toes, then the arch of the foot, the ankles, calves, hamstrings and quadriceps, working your way slowly up to the neck. Hold each stretch for at least 30 seconds, don't bounce, and don't stretch until it hurts, but just to a level where some slight discomfort is felt. All stretches are important, but for cheerleading, well conditioned hamstrings are probably the most important of all, so make certain hamstring stretches are being done correctly.
Strength Exercises - As far as strength is concerned, you can also think from the bottom up. Rock back and forth on your toes and heels. Do squats, using you body as your weight to strengthen your legs. Arms can be strengthened by push-ups and curls, or lifts with light dumbbells or barbells. Abdominal crunches will strengthen the stomach muscles and in doing so give the cheerleader a great deal of endurance. Besides strength in the legs, strength in the core muscles allows one to do routines again and again without wilting. And then there are jumping jacks, tuck jumps, and a number of other dynamic exercises which not only provide strength and endurance, but work the issues of flexibility and range of motion as well.
We've just scratched the surface in describing cheerleading workouts. Get some videos, or an instructor, so that an orderly routine can be planned, and you're not skipping around from one thing to another without any particular purpose in mind. One final thing. Remember to smile - even of it hurts sometimes.