MyPlate

What is MyPlate: This is a graphic that aims to help anyone, especially younger children to build a meal that contains the proper amounts of certain foods.  The plate is meant to be a 9” in diameter plate.  This is important because if people are using plates that are too large, the ratio of foods can get skewed.

Components of MyPlate: MyPlate contains 5 different groups (ask the kids to give examples of something you could eat in each group)

Vegetables—The largest group. Make sure you are eating from the rainbow including a lot of colors (don’t forget white!)  The more colors that you eat, the more nutrients you will get.

Fruit- It may not seem like the easiest thing to eat at a meal like dinner, but fruit is naturally sweet and it can be delicious mixed into vegetables.

Whole Grains- Make sure starchy sides you have with dinner like pasta and rice are whole grain varieties.  Try grains you never have like quinoa, bulgur and couscous.

Lean Protein- This one is important because it is usually the one that people make too big.  We think that meat has to be the biggest part of our meal, but that actually is not the case.  Keep your meat serving the size of a deck of cards.

Low-fat dairy- Whether it is a glass of low-fat milk on the side of any meal, some low-fat yogurt with fruit as your after dinner dessert, or a piece of low-fat cheese in your sandwich, dairy gives you calcium which you need for strong bones.

Fun Friday: Early Memorable Moments

With Cheer360 set to open its doors on April 13, 2013, staff find themselves filled with excitement that is equally matched by all those they come in contact with. In the short time Cheer360 has been readying for its grand opening, many lives have already been positively touched and memories created.

A staple of the Cheer360 program is to tailor training programs to the athletes they serve by working with coaches, parents and athletes themselves, to ensure no need goes unaddressed.  An outcome from this personalized programming by Coaches Kent and Shari, is a benchmark workout that is named for the team or group of athletes participating in it. The athletes will later on in their training be tested to see how their overall fitness has improved. To date, we have seen the Hauppauge Eagles, "Drop Down and Get Their Eagle On" by engaging in a circuit of deadlifts, box jumps, bosu ball squats and kettlebell thrusters. The Smithtown Bulls found the benchmark exercise of BATO (Bulls Are Taking Over) to be a circuit of bosu ball push ups, K-band jumps, box jumps and medicine ball thrusters. As Cheer360 opens this weekend, more benchmark programs will be created, more athletes will begin their training programs and more fun, creative and personalized workouts will be named by our coaches and athletes.

One other recent experience that had a memorable impact on Cheer360 staff and athletes, occurred during a recent educational talk on proper nutrition by Coach Shelbi. The topic turned to, "How healthy are energy bars?" The young athletes began through rapid fire, naming nearly, EVERY SINGLE energy bar and seeking
Coach Shelbi's nutritional nod of approval. It was a very informative and fun presentation that came to an end when the group broached the subject of candy bars!

In these early weeks, Cheer360 could not be more thankful for those athletes that have already signed up and begun challenging themselves to reach their peak fitness levels. As Cheer360 grows, we expect to share more and more of these memorable moments shared by our staff, athletes, coaches, parents and community.

If you had a memorable moment at Cheer360 please feel free to write us by commenting below or emailing Kristen@cheer-360.com. These memorable moments are shining examples of inspiration to all of us.

For more information about Cheer360 visit www.Cheer-360.com and sign up for our monthly newsletter.

Why do we stretch?

You walk into practice, put on your cheer sneakers, and your coach immediately instructs you to circle up and start your team’s warm-up and stretching regimen.  But how many of you really understand the health benefits you are receiving from stretching, beyond your everyday cheerleading skills that require great flexibility?

Maintaining and enhancing flexibility is a life-long process.  Flexibility is essential to everyone’s overall health and well-being, especially a cheerleader’s.  Many cheerleaders think that the flyers on their team are the athletes that need to be the most flexible; however, this cannot be farther from the truth.

Flexibility is important for all members of a team, including your coach!  Flexibility goes well beyond the ability to perform perfect jumps and pull a beautiful heel stretch and scorpion.  It helps to prevent everyday injuries including muscle strains, back aches, and knee pains, thereby improving posture, lengthening muscles for a leaner physique, increasing circulation, and decreasing tension and stress.

So the next time your coach asks you to “circle up and stretch,” don’t just sit in a straddle position and talk with your teammates.  Approach your stretching routine like you would approach walking onto the mat, ready to compete with enthusiasm and motivation to get better!

Visit Cheer360 to speak with a flexibility specialist on incorporating k-band stretching into your workout!

Website: www.Cheer-360.com

When Cheerleading Ends

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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