Strength and Conditioning for Cheer Teams

This blog will discuss why weightlifting is so important for cheerleaders and how to easily add it into your program.

One of the most well researched, science based, and proven ways to reduce injuries is through adding a consistent "Resistance Training" program to your athletes schedule.

"Resistance Training" just means that you are using some outside force (weights, bands, gravity, etc) to add resistance to your body.

A bodyweight program is a good start, but it is much harder to create a well-rounded full-body, bodyweight program that has progressive overload built in.

Progressive overload is a key principle in resistance training that means that you are consistently adding heavier and more challenging resistance to your body as you get better at the movements.

You can achieve this through heavier weight or increased reps, trying to achieve failure or very close to failure by the end of the set.

Progressive overload is so important that you will not see changes to bones, muscles or tendons if you do not pay attention to this principle.

A weightlifting program is the gold standard when it comes to progressive overload because it is much easier and efficient to create a well-rounded weight training program than it is a bodyweight program.

For young athletes, a body weight program may suffice, but I would argue that ALL elite college+ athletes NEED a weight-lifting program no matter what their sport is.

Getting your athletes into the weight-room can be intimidating, time consuming and may even seem impossible for some groups.

This is why I have created a system that allows ALL cheer teams to have the ability to get on an EXPERT strength and conditioning program month to month and year round.

Doesn't matter if you don't have weight room access.

Doesn't matter if you have no idea what you're doing.

Doesn't matter if you don't have a lot of money or funds as a program.

Doesn't matter if you don't have any more time.

How is this possible, you may be wondering?

Since I graduated Physical Therapy school, I have made it my full time job to create more resources for cheerleaders.

I created a system that allows me to be the strength and conditioning coach for multiple cheer teams while allowing them a lot of flexibility and without breaking their bank.

I had these resources as an Ohio State and USA cheerleader and I WISHED I had it in high-school. So I created the program that I wished for.

Many teams are scheduling calls with me now in preparation to start their team in my program right away after tryouts for the 24-25 season.

Book a FREE, no obligation consultation call with me to learn more about this program and to see if your team is a good fit by booking a time to talk HERE

(P.S. My bread and butter is physical therapy and strength and conditioning, but I also bring in sports dietitians, psychologists, NIL experts, etc to talk with my teams so that I can help them become truly well-rounded, robust, and ELITE)

(PSS. research as shown that those at highest risk for injury are early sport specializers, physically inactive youth, and young girls. Adding a resistance program into their schedule has shown to reduce injuries by 68%!!!)

Research Articles:

Zwolski, Christin, et al. “Resistance Training in Youth: Laying the Foundation for Injury Prevention and Physical Literacy.” Sports Health

Zouita, Sghair, et al. “Strength Training Reduces Injury Rate in Elite Young Soccer Players During One Season.” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research

Faigenbaum. “Resistance Training among Young Athletes: Safety, Efficacy and Injury Prevention Effects.” British Journal of Sports Medicine

Hislop, Michael D, et al. “Reducing Musculoskeletal Injury and Concussion Risk in Schoolboy Rugby Players with a Pre-Activity Movement Control Exercise Programme: a Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial.” British Journal of Sports Medicine