High school cheerleading is more than just promoting school spirit at football and basketball games and competing locally, regionally, and nationally from November through February. If you sit in on a three hour practice, you will find that these athletes should be gaining something bigger. Like all sports, cheerleading teaches skills that transcend to all aspects of a person’s life and future.
Teaching young athletes how to maintain an optimum level of wellness is just as important as teaching them how to jump, stunt, and tumble. One of CHEER360’s goals is to promote healthy lifestyles not only during their cheerleading careers, but also throughout their entire lives. Learning how to build and maintain muscular strength, cardiovascular endurance, and flexibility will reduce the likelihood of injuries now, as competitive cheerleaders, as well as in their futures. The fitness related benefits that can be taught to teenagers are ones that can be carried throughout their college careers, adulthood and beyond.
Having a regular fitness regimen in place improves one’s overall sense of well-being including body posture, endurance for daily activities, an increased self-esteem, and a decreased likelihood of developing lifestyle diseases. But, as much as we don’t want to think about this, at some point, a cheerleader’s career will come to an end. Often times this leaves a previously active person struggling with ways to keep fit. So why not start teaching these habits now to our cheerleaders in order to promote long, healthy, and successful lifestyles? After all, other sports have been doing this for years!
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