Strength and Conditioning

In order to be successful at cheerleading it is necessary to supplement cheer practices with additional workouts.

Workout Principles

10% rule for weight progression - you should only increase weights by 10%. For example, if you were lifting 50 lbs you should add 5 lbs at most to prevent overloading and injury. This will be harder to follow if you are lifting lower weights (i.e. hard to find 2 lb incremental increase if you were lifting 20 lbs) but try to find the next closest increment. If you want to increase by more than 10%, make sure you have a spotter.

Reps, sets, and weight - due to the nature of cheerleading, your long term goal should be to increase weight and decrease both the number of repetitions to 5-8 and sets to 3-5 so that your set is about the length of a short stunt sequence. When first starting to workout it is better to start with a lower weight for reduced chance of injury. Pick a weight you can lift for 3 sets of 10-15 repetitions.

Stretching after workout - this will decrease your risk of injury as holding long, static stretches diminishes the stretch reflex. Active, dynamic stretches can still be done before a workout to warm-up but no long holds.

Breaks - should be about 1 minute between sets and 3 minutes between exercises (or how long a water break would be at practice). Keep your heart rate up so that your fitness improves.

Scheduling

White team (one day/week)

This one is for beginners - there is a rest between each practice and workout.

White team (two days/week)

With a second workout each week, there will be at least back-to-back practice and workout. It should take 2-4 weeks to progress to one day to two.

Red team (two days/week + drop-in)

This is the minimum for a Red team athlete. The goal for a Red team athletes is to add workouts until there is either one or no rest days each week and an athlete is able to workout and fully participate in practice or drop-in on the same day without injury (this is called a two-a-day workout).

Types of exercises

There are many different exercises that can be performed in the fitness centre. The following have been chosen specifically for cheerleading athletes.

PDF with pictures and explanations of each exercise

Warm-ups (typically choose one)

• Spinning bike (10-15 min)
  • Adjust the seat height so your legs are slightly bent at the bottom of the cycle.
• Jogging on treadmill (10-15 min)
  • Set treadmill to 4-6 mph (6.4-9.6 kph)
  • 6 mph is equivalent to running 4 laps of the track in 10 min
  • 4 mph is equivalent to running 4 laps of the track in 15 min
• Jumping jacks (5 sets of 10)
  • Can do normal (side) jumping jacks, front jumping jacks, or a combination.
• Mountain climber burpees (5 sets of 10)
  • Go down into a push-up position on your hands and bring both knees alternately to your chest to do a mountain climber. Then, stand up and jump with your hands higher than your shoulders.
• Push-up with full arm extension (5 sets of 10)
  • In a push-up position, lower your body until your face is touching ground then extend the elbows so your arms are straight.
  • Do not drop your head as you lower.
  • Do not arch your back.

Squats and lifts

• Bulgarian split squat with dumbbells (beginner)
• Front box squat (intermediate)
• Parallel back squat (intermediate)
• Deadlift (advanced)

Arms and shoulders

• Barbell shoulder press
• One arm dumbbell snatch
• Overhead tricep extension
• Standing bicep curl with dumbbell

Plyometrics

• Box jump
• Box step ups

Core

• Abdominal plank hold
• Side plank arm circles
• Ball bridge with leg curl
• Ball pike
• Hanging leg lift

Planning a Workout

The above exercises can be done all together for a single longer workout or split into two shorter workouts as follows:

Alternative Workouts

Here are some alternative workouts meant to be done in a single session.

Auxiliary Exercises