Exercises, Warm-Ups, and Stretches >:op
Bienvenue to the most painful site on here! (applause) Before you do anything, you should warm up. Then after you are warmed up (you can usually tell by breaking a light sweat), you stretch. When you are stretched, you start exercising! Yea!!!!!!
1. Establish strict rules for what can and cannot
be done at cheerleading practices. If cheerleaders
didn't know what they did was wrong, how can you
expect them not to continuously make the same mistake?
If you are a coach, you need to realize the importance
of letting everyone know the measures you take to keep
everyone safe and out of harm's way. That is your responsiblity.
2. Be sure to stretch thoroughly before stunting, dancing,
jumping, tumbling - really any athletic activity. This will
prevent injuries that could have easily been avoided
from simply stretching out and warming up your muscles
before strenuous activity. Stretching is a must at every practice.
3. Always use spotters! ALWAYS! This is especially
important when trying a new stunt or a challenging tumbling
move that you've never before attempted. But, even when
you've done a stunt a million times, disaster can strike.
Therefore, the back spot always needs to be on his/her
toes, ready to catch a falling flyer. Spotters need to not be
afraid of someone falling - you'll be a lot less hurt falling
five feet than a flyer falling ten (extensions) to thirty
(baskets) feet. Spotters are essential for safety.
4. You also need to be sure to practice in safe
areas. That means avoiding hard cement or wooden
floors. Always practice on mats to ensure proper padding.
Make sure your practice area is well-lighted.
5. Cheerleaders also have a responsibilty to dress
appropriately for cheerleading and also to have the
right attitude. You need to approach a practice with an
open-mind, ready to go and do whatever your coach tells
you to (unless you feel uncomfortable, like you won't be able
to do something - not like nervous, excited butterflies in your
stomach but like genuine fear that you will not be safe if
you attempt that skill). You also need to go in doing
everything you can to ensure you and your teammates will
be kept safe. Appearance is also a good thing to keep in mind
when going to practice - always wear non-slippery shorts, T-shirts
without pockets, your hair secured back, and no jewelry.
Just use your head. Also, bring plenty of water so as not to
get dehydrated after running a couple laps and going through
a challenging dance routine! How To Prevent Injury
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Warm-ups
- Run - This is a good warm up. You can run a couple laps around your house, gym, or school's track.
- Motions - This is also a good warm up. About 5 minutes straight of cheers is good. Don't take more than a 10 second pause and no water breaks (you wimp).
- Jump Roping - This will get your heart rate going! Once you do this for a couple of minutes, try the good stuff: double dutch, double swing, etc...
Stretches
I like to start from my head and work my way down.
- Neck - Sit on the ground with your legs out in front of you, together, with your arms behind you, supporting. Roll your head clockwise a few times, then counterclockwise.
- Shoulders - Sit "Indian Style" and have arms in a T motion. Rolls arms backwards a few times, then forwards.
- Wrists - Get on "hands and knees." With your fingers facing your knees, slowly sit your booty on your heels, as far as you can go and hold it for 10 seconds. Then turn your hands so your palms are facing up and fingers facing your knees. Slowly sit back as far as you can and hold it.
- Back - Do a back bend and hold it. Try to walk backwards and forewards. Stand up from it, don't kick over or come down (if you can). Roll up in a ball and rock back and forth.
- Abs - Running stairs is awesome on your abs!
- Obliques - Beauty Queen Stretch-Sit down and bend one knee and cross over the other leg that is extended straight out on the floor. Rotate trunk to opposite side.
- Quadriceps - Stand up and lift leg back and grab your foot. Keep your knee bent beside your other.
- Lift leg infront and grab foot, with knee bent. Pull upward on foot. You should feel it under your butimus.
- Calf - Place foot against a wall and with leg straight, lean forward, stretching your calf.
- Ankles - We walk on our ankles from one side of the gym to the other. Start by walking on the outside of your ankles, then the insides, then on your heels, and finally, on your toes.
Exercises
- Leg Explosions - With feet together, take a slow dip so that your knees are no further than a 90 degree angle. Jump as high as you can without using your arms. When you land, absorb it and return to the 90 degree angle and do it again. Try doing 15 in a row.
- Sitting Toe Touches - Sit on the floor in a tuck position. Balance so that your feet aren't touching the ground. You arms are in daggers. Lift your legs and arms to the toe touch position and return to the seated position as fast as you can. Try to do 30 in a row.
- Straddle Leg Lifts - Sit on the floor in a straddle position. Place your hands on the floor on an imaginary line between your knees. Lifts legs and hold for 30 seconds.
- Sit Ups - Duh, but if you don't know, lay on the floor and curl your knees up so your knees are facing up. Cross your arms on your chest and as your breathe out, lift up and touch your chest to your thighs. Breathe in as you go back down.
- Tuck Jumps - Concentrate on height and landing on the balls of your feet.
- Push Ups - Duh, again, but if your like me and have NO upper body strength, you need to do these constantly. You can vary these from girl's, to boy's, to elevating your feet.
- Straddle Leg Snaps - Lay on back with hands under lower back for supposrt. Quickly, lift legs up in pike position until they are at a 90 degree angle. Then split them to the sides, trying to touch your toes, without lifting your buttox off the ground. Do this very quickly. After you try to touch your toes, snap legs together and come down, not touching heels to the ground.
- Straddle V Ups - Lay on back with feet together and arms in touchdown motion above your head. At the same time, lift upper body and touch hands on ground n front of your and lift leg to toe touch position. This goes very quickly. Snap down to starting position without touching heels to the ground.
The stomach muscles hold up the entire body, and strong abs are a must
for many cheerleading maneuvers. Take the basic back handspring for example.
It requires a strong abdominal area because in throwing your arms and legs,
you must tighten your abs in order to keep your legs together and straight and
make the skill quicker. Here are just a few exercises to try to target each
area of the stomach. In doing these frequently, you will see fast results in
many things you do.
Lifting Weights -Lifting weights, though it can be boring, is a simple way to build up
strength. Try five lb. weights for beginners, and 8 or 10 for the more
advanced. Do 2 sets of 10 reps. of the butterfly, which is bringing your arms
straight up from your side with weights in hand, regular arm curls, and any
other excericises recommended to you. Weights can be bought at Wal-Mart or a
sports goods store in your local shopping center. If you don't have weights,
try pushups, or even big soup cans.
The first exercise is for developing upper body strength. Stand facing a wall and place palms flat against the wall. Step back approximately 4-6 inches. Slowly “fall” forward toward the wall and catch yourself and execute a push-up(or push-back), against the wall. Push away from the wall until you are standing straight up, and repeat. Start with approximately 20 repetitions and build up every other day to repeat as many as you can manage. As you get stronger, gradually stand further and further away from the wall and complete more repetitions to develop greater strength.
This next exercise is a great way to develop strength and endurance in your legs. Many athletes call these “leg burners” because of the sensation you feel in your legs as you perform the exercise. Many teams enjoy seeing who can last the longest doing leg burners.
Stand with your back flat against the wall and slowly begin to “sit down” moving your feet away from you one foot at a time, until you are “sitting” against the wall. The goal is to be in a perfect sitting position without a chair to support you. Your back should remain flat against the wall and your thighs should be parallel to the ground. When someone looks at you it should appear that you are sitting in a chair with your arms not supporting you. Hold this position until you begin to feel a burning sensation….then stand up and repeat the exercise. Try to “sit” for longer and longer periods of time to develop both strength and endurance.
Both of these exercises only require a wall and both are great for getting stronger!! No excuses, so get started!
Calf Exercises - This is what I do two or three times a day for my calves. Stand with your feet together. Raise on your toes and back down 10 times. Then jump up a down (keeping your feet together) ten times. Do ten jumping jacks. Put your feet back together and jump up and down 10 times. Now raise on your toes 10 times. If you don't feel the burn after this you're not doing it right. It really works. You can tell the difference within a week.
Belly Busters:
Have someone stand over you while you lay on your back
and grab onto their ankles. Keep your legs straight as you raise them
up to the ceiling and the other person throws them down. Don't ever let
your legs touch the floor and keep your body straight. Repeat 20 times.
NOTE: This is mostly done as a partner exercise, but if no one is available to
help, you can use your bed or couch and throw your own legs down.
Toe touch crunches:
Lay flat on your back. Keep your body straight and
your arms above your head, then lean forward as if you are doing a toe
touch, then come back down to your starting place. Don't let your arms
or legs touch the ground. Repeat 20 times. This also benefits your jumps!
Bike crunches:
Start in normal crunch preparation with your hands behind
your head. Begin a leg motion as if you are riding a bike, and as each
leg comes up, turn your head as if to bring each arm to touch the leg
(arms still being behind your head). Repeat 50 times.
If you do at least one of these exercises once a day, you will begin
to see a difference. Eating healthy and normal exercise will also
increase the ability to see your oncoming "six pack." It's also
always important not to over work your stomach muscles and build them
slowly. Hernias are painful and a pain to get rid of if you aren't careful.
Wall Exercises -
You don’t need access to a weight room to work on important aspects of strength. Here are two examples of strength development exercises where all you need is a wall. So there are no excuses for not getting stronger!!
Wall Push-Ups
Leg Burns
Tumbling Exercises -
1) Lay on your back on the edge of a bed or couch... with your head and arms hanging off. Then GRADUALLY... slip off the bed until your hands touch the floor. Just slipping off slowly is FUN, but here's the good stuff.
2) Once you're hands are beginning to support you.. straighten your arms COMPLETELY at the elbows... look at your hands with your eyes..
3) Now bend your arms and let your head touch the floor... then STRAIGHTEN them again.. so it's a type of "push-up" but the back muscles are working too!
For MORE fun...slowly...bend your knees so that your feet are flat on the bed. Then... push UP into an arch stand.. feet UP on the bed.. hands DOWN on the floor.
THEN try the "push-up" exercises (10-20 reps)
If that's too simple... lift ONE let straight into the air.... then switch legs (like a split)
- Now for arms, try this:
1. Handstands
2. Handstand pops
3. Handstand pushups against a wall
4. Push-ups
5. Weight Lifting
Click here for tumbling!
