Photo: FloCheer
A cheerleader’s most used piece of equipment will always be the sprung floor, but there are tons of other things that should be used to improve strength and assist in skill learning. Even though cheerleaders only have 1 event (unlike gymnastics with multiple events), they can benefit A LOT by using gymnastics equipment for other things.
1. Rope or Silks
One thing that’s almost never trained in cheerleading is vertical pulling! Ropes or aerial silks are mainly used for climbing, but they can also be used to do chin-ups or pull-ups, inversions, hanging leg raises and just general grip strengthening exercises like hanging from the hands for a designated period of time. If you add climbing to your conditioning program, you’re guaranteed to see some huge strength increases.
2. Stall Bars
A super versatile piece of equipment. These are great for hanging leg raises and a variety of flexibility exercises. Just watch some rhythmic gymnastics videos — you’ll see how many ways these can be used!
3. Bar to Hang From
Cheerleaders need good grip strength to hold flyers’ feet and do skills like hand-in-hands. Hanging from a trapeze bar or even just a chin-up bar will strengthen the forearm and hand muscles significantly. A bar to hang from will also provide the opportunity to do chin-ups, pull-ups, leg raises and more.
4. Rings
On high rings, athletes can practice hanging, chin-ups, leg raises, inversions and more. A number of exercises can be done on low rings as well, such as front support hold (plank), tuck/L-seat hold and handstand.
5. Parallel Bars or Parallettes
Another thing cheerleaders almost never do are tricep dips. You can only do so many dips using the edge of a chair before it becomes way too easy. To up the difficulty and get stronger, you should be doing dips on some sort of parallel bar set. Tricep strength is crucial for good stunting!
6. Trampoline
Trampolines and tumble tracks are becoming more common in cheer gyms now. They’re great for learning to develop body control and spatial awareness, as well as try out new skills on a slower and more forgiving surface.
7. Harness
Harnesses need to be controlled by someone who understands how they work and has the strength to keep the athlete safe. If teaching new skills like handsprings, tucks, full twists or even advanced stunts, harnesses can act like a safety net while still giving the athlete the chance to do the skill without a spot.
8. Handstand Canes
Not an essential, but handstand canes can be used as additional strength training equipment or to learn handbalancing. Considering handbalancing is an intricate discipline that requires lots of knowledge from the coach, and is not usually the focus of cheer training, the canes would likely be used for strength training instead. Two great exercises to do on these are a tuck hold and L-seat hold.
9. Balance Beam
Again, not an essential piece of equipment, but beams can provide an alternative piece of equipment to train on. A small, low beam is great for doing calf raises, standing on 1 foot to balance, handstand pushups, L-seat hold and more.
Recent Comments