Offseason Training Tips for Cheerleaders
Leave a CommentOnce competition and tryout seasons are over, you may be thinking it is time to relax until next season… but this is incorrect! Offseason months are the perfect months to make sure you and your team are healthy and ready for a great season next year.
During the offseason, you have the opportunity to address any aches and pains, work on flexibility and strength, keep endurance up, and train tumbling skills for next year. Doing these things are sure to put you and your team a step ahead in terms of safety and skills!
Last Season’s Aches and Pains
Aches and pains are best addressed when they happen. Treating an area with unusual pain or discomfort from the start is key to preventing a problem from getting worse over time. It can also keep the rest of your body safe from compensating for the injury. However, if you “made it through” competition season and have not had those aches and pains addressed, make sure to do it now. Remember that Athletico does complimentary injury screens, so starting the healing process at your nearest Athletico clinic is a great way to prepare for next season.
Flexibility and Strength
Getting stronger takes six weeks of strengthening, however it takes one week to lose a lot of the previously gained strength.1 Therefore, continuing to work on your strength while not in season is pivotal in not having to start all over once the season starts back up in the fall. Flexibility also is something that needs to be continuously worked on to maintain or improve upon your current flexibility levels. Work on those planks and splits during the offseason for a strong return next season!
Endurance
Out of breath by the end of your competition routine? Probably! You are working hard to make it through that routine with perfection and 110 percent of your energy! Take it to even the next level by working on your endurance over the summer. Incorporate swimming, biking, hiking, or take a fun cardio-based dance class. Harder skills will take more energy. If you plan on upping your difficulty level next season, do not lose what you have built up this season!
Tumbling
Enjoy a tumbling class! Offseason can be a lot of fun because you can work on new skills. Find a gym with a good spring floor, tumble track and/or pit to give you extra confidence and relief on your joints as you practice those new skills.
Enjoy your offseason!
Have fun working on new things while also keeping what you have worked so hard to build intact! By focusing on your sport over the summer, you will be able to return next season a stronger, more flexible cheerleader with enhanced endurance and amazing power tumbling skills.
If you would like to learn more from an Athletico physical therapist, please use the button below to request an appointment!
1. Abe, T, et al. “Time Course for Strength and Muscle Thickness Changes Following Upper and Lower Body Resistance Training in Men and Women.” PubMed.gov, Feb. 2000, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10638374.
