I have been asked by many people to develop strength and conditioning programs for cheerleading. However, since every cheerleading program is different I have decided that it is better to simply educate coaches in basic strength and conditioning principals and leave it to them to develop their own program specific to their program. ITasteLikePaint (talk) 05:43, 29 April 2010 (UTC)

Dangers

Any strength and conditioning program no matter how well put together, how well supervised and how well managed, carries risk of injury or death. Always be sure that you know and use good technique for every exercise and use a competent spotter to reduce these risks.

Basic Principles of Exercise Prescription

Every exercise program should follow these basic principles.

Overload

The adaptations to training, gaining muscle, getting faster or stronger, or becoming more fit, are your body’s responses to the increased demands that you are placing on it by exercise.

Your body will rise to meet the demands placed on it, but no more. If you want to become stronger, you have to lift more than your body is comfortable lifting.

Specificity

You must train whatever you want to grow.

You cannot make your arms stronger by exercising your legs and you can’t become more aerobically fit by lifting heavy weights.

Specific Things to Work On

Hypertrophy

Hypertrophy is increasing the size of muscle cells. More muscle does not necessarily mean stronger, stronger muscle means stronger, but if you have more muscle to make strong you will be stronger than if you had less muscle. It is therefore, a good idea to start off a strength or power training program by focusing on hypertrophy.

To maximize muscular hypertrophy, weight lifting exercises should be done at your 12-14 repetition maximum (how much weight you can lift with good technique 12-14 times). Do at least four sets per weightlifting session and 12-14 reps per set.

Hypertrophy takes six to eight weeks to begin, before that, your body is learning how to better use the muscle it has, so the portion of your training program that you dedicate to hypertrophy should be between 10-20 weeks long.

Maintenance

“If you don’t use it, you lose it”

As mentioned above, your body will rise to meet the demands that you place on it. If you work really hard to get so you can lift a lot of weight, your body will adapt so that you can lift that weight. If you then sit on the couch for a month, your body will adapt so that you can sit on the couch more efficiently.

Once you have reached a goal, you must continue to remain active, although to a lesser extent, in that specific area to remain at that level.

Recovery

Exercise is catabolic, or breaks down your body. Your body then, builds up what was broken down bigger, faster, and stronger than it was before while it is resting.

Without adequate rest, your body cannot build the tissues that cause the training adaptations that you’re looking for.

Periodization

“There is a time and a place for everything”

…and the day before a major competition is not the time for a hard workout.

Additional Resources

Wikipedia Articles

Books

Abernethy, Bruce, Laurel T. Mackinnon, Vaughan Kippers, Stephanie J. Hanrahan, and Marcus G. Pandy. The Biophysical Foundations Of Human Movement. New York: Human Kinetics, 2004.