Home sweet home

People often ask me how do I train? I would always answer them just keep doing and train hard. I always emphasize that basics is important and body conditioning has to be good before you think about doing stunts. I would say start with basics and try hitting the gym to build up the strength at the same time.

It is hard for me to train at times due to time and commitments, and I do not have time to go to the gym often too because of this. Hence for me cheer training begins in my own room. This is where I build up most of my basics and body conditioning work, before I even start hitting the stunts. I spend more time working myself than working on the stunts.

My room...

For those who really want to improve, training does not start at the training ground with your teammates and all. It should start with your ownself. Do not keep doing the stunts blindly, sometimes the fault does not lie in the stunt, but on yourself. Build up your strength and endurance, and when you have them, stunts will start going up. You could actually do it even in the comfort of your own room.

Dumb bells and push up bar

There are many exercises that you can do with a set of dumb bell, such as arnold presses, military press, bicep curls etc. I personally have a set of exercise, people normally do not do in the gym. These exercises are deviced in a way that they are very cheer oriented, such that gym instructors will probably tick you off for doing such unorthodox methods. I do exercise such as "liberty presses" and also "extended squats" which I just thought of and start doing recently. They really proved to be very effective.

Dumb bell I use for "Liberty press" and "Extended squats"

The push up bar is another equipment I invested in. It's original/typical purpose is probably use to do push ups. But another exercise which you can use it for is handstand presses. It allows more leverage for your arms to move, hence working out more. For normal handstands without press, I will try to do it without the wall in my living room.

Push up bars for Handstand press

Handstand training in my living room

So how do I train? Answer is in the comfort of my own home. Cheerleading like other sports, to be good in it, you have to live it as your lifestyle. That's also the way you can help to sustain it. So even before you start asking why the stunt did not go up, ask yourself have you done your part. Training starts at home, not on the mats.