Expert: James - 4/9/2008

Question
QUESTION: Hi! I was wondering if you know of any creative and possibly fun cheerleading workouts that can be done in and out of practice. Our squad doesn't have facilities with machines, so those kind of workouts are out of the question. If you can help, that'd be great! Thanks so much, Katie!

ANSWER: What age is your squad, and is it all girls or coed?

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: My main concern is our high school squad (ages 15-18), all girls. And if there are also any workouts applicable for J.V. age (6th-9th) grades, that'd be helpful also.

Answer
Well the workouts i've done would more than likely be more appropriate for the older girls. And i'm going to be honest, in all the squads i've been on we've never done any "fun" workouts..lol. To me workouts are just work. Not involving weights or machines. I'm a male so i've only been on coed squads. We did things like sitting our partners on our shoulders and doing lunges across the mats and back. Doing wall-sits and making it into a contest, see who could hold it the longest at the end of practice. I did see an all-star coach once get her younger girls to dance (play music) and play around with that and without knowing it they ended up getting a pretty good cardio workout. We also did contests to see who could hold their partners up the longest at the end of each practice, almost like a burnout routine. I think anything that you can make into a friendly contest or (like the dance thing) where they don't really realize they are working out is the best. I apologize I couldnt answer your question more specifically but maybe you can take something from this brainstorm.