High School Weightlifting And Practice

[Official OWECheer]

Just some questions:

-Does your team/program have a weightlifting regimen?
-Are you allowed access to your school's weight room/athletic trainer? Do you have a strength and conditioning coach? If not, how do you manage?
-How many times a week do you lift, and how many times a week do you practice?
-Do how much time passes between a lifting session and practice (on days that you lift AND practice, if you have days like that). I.e., do you lift in the morning and practice in the afternoon, or lift before practice in the afternoon, or after, etc.
-If you do lift, what are some specific problems you have encountered in establishing and maintaining a weightlifting regimen?
-What gains has your program made as a result of weightlifting. Has it changed how you condition?

Weightlifting is fundamental to success in sports like this, but a lot of programs don't do it. I just wanted to hear from you all.

 

[OldskoolKYcheercoach]

Just some questions:

-Does your team/program have a weightlifting regimen?
-Are you allowed access to your school's weight room/athletic trainer? Do you have a strength and conditioning coach? If not, how do you manage?
-How many times a week do you lift, and how many times a week do you practice?
-Do how much time passes between a lifting session and practice (on days that you lift AND practice, if you have days like that). I.e., do you lift in the morning and practice in the afternoon, or lift before practice in the afternoon, or after, etc.
-If you do lift, what are some specific problems you have encountered in establishing and maintaining a weightlifting regimen?
-What gains has your program made as a result of weightlifting. Has it changed how you condition?

Weightlifting is fundamental to success in sports like this, but a lot of programs don't do it. I just wanted to hear from you all.

That's one source of frustration for me at this point. Our school is the only school in the region with a CSCS on staff, but I can't get access to him. I keep getting told to tell my kids to take the in-school weight lifting for athletes class, but these kids are all in AP and honors classes and don't want to give up the credits.

Ugh

 

[purplecheer]

I haven't really heard of programs weightlifting much until this thread. In theory it would be a good idea, but some people will think they are "bulk" and try to lift something they aren't capable of yet, so it would have to be done supervised and safely. Personally I don't lift weights, but I do try and do push ups.

 

[Official OWECheer]

That's one source of frustration for me at this point. Our school is the only school in the region with a CSCS on staff, but I can't get access to him. I keep getting told to tell my kids to take the in-school weight lifting for athletes class, but these kids are all in AP and honors classes and don't want to give up the credits.

Ugh

Why can't you get access to the coach? And that class issue sucks. But at least your kids are committed to school.

I haven't really heard of programs weightlifting much until this thread. In theory it would be a good idea, but some people will think they are "bulk" and try to lift something they aren't capable of yet, so it would have to be done supervised and safely. Personally I don't lift weights, but I do try and do push ups.

Definitely, especially guys LOL. If you look on twitter at a few of the top HS cheer programs, there are pics and video of them in the gym because it is a regular thing for them. Examples:





I saw a tweet of Benton girls doing conditioning for arm day but I can't find it right now.

 

[purplecheer]

Why can't you get access to the coach? And that class issue sucks. But at least your kids are committed to school.


Definitely, especially guys LOL. If you look on twitter at a few of the top HS cheer programs, there are pics and video of them in the gym because it is a regular thing for them. Examples:





I saw a tweet of Benton girls doing conditioning for arm day but I can't find it right now.

Wow! Yeah, we do lots of body weight exercises for conditioning but have never tried weightlifting.

 

[Official OWECheer]

Wow! Yeah, we do lots of body weight exercises for conditioning but have never tried weightlifting.

At some high schools, there are weightlifting teams AND cheerleading teams, and so their cheerleaders use weightlifting to supplement cheer. It's incredible.

 

[OldskoolKYcheercoach]

That's one source of frustration for me at this point. Our school is the only school in the region with a CSCS on staff, but I can't get access to him. I keep getting told to tell my kids to take the in-school weight lifting for athletes class, but these kids are all in AP and honors classes and don't want to give up the credits.

Ugh

Because he has priority programs in every season: Football in summer, basketball in fall, baseball in winter....by spring time, it's time for us to have tryouts and start all over again.

 

[Official OWECheer]

Because he has priority programs in every season: Football in summer, basketball in fall, baseball in winter....by spring time, it's time for us to have tryouts and start all over again.

I've been asking on Twitter, and I'm wondering if anyone on here knows: is it possible for HS team to hire and pay an S&C coach? Or does he/she have to be employed by the district?

 

[RandomCheerMom]

Just some questions:

-Does your team/program have a weightlifting regimen?
-Are you allowed access to your school's weight room/athletic trainer? Do you have a strength and conditioning coach? If not, how do you manage?
-How many times a week do you lift, and how many times a week do you practice?
-Do how much time passes between a lifting session and practice (on days that you lift AND practice, if you have days like that). I.e., do you lift in the morning and practice in the afternoon, or lift before practice in the afternoon, or after, etc.
-If you do lift, what are some specific problems you have encountered in establishing and maintaining a weightlifting regimen?
-What gains has your program made as a result of weightlifting. Has it changed how you condition?

Weightlifting is fundamental to success in sports like this, but a lot of programs don't do it. I just wanted to hear from you all.

My daughter's high school comp team lifts. I believe they are in the weight room 2-3 days after school and also take a weight training class one semester where they lift 1.5 hours every other day during the school day as well. I know she's there everyday after school during comp season, just not positive they stick with that break down - ESP on comp weeks. BUT they do lift regularly. Now that it's the school cheer off season, they do 2 days a week.

 

[coacha]

I've been asking on Twitter, and I'm wondering if anyone on here knows: is it possible for HS team to hire and pay an S&C coach? Or does he/she have to be employed by the district?

That's going to depend on state laws and what your district does.

I know cheer (and other sports) teams do it around us (Pa) on a temporary basis. For instance, they'll do an 8 week summer session with a trainer (often AT the trainer's gym). All that's required by the state is appropriate background checks. To be actually hired on by the team, I would think you'd need school board approval. I've watched the twitter feeds of some of the cheer teams by us and have given it serious thought for us.

We do not use the weight room. We do lots of body weight conditioning but we do not have a S&C coach on staff at our school, so I don't have weight lifting requirements since it's not my area of knowledge. We do have some kids who do it on their own time though.

 

[AScheer]

Just some questions:

-Does your team/program have a weightlifting regimen?
-Are you allowed access to your school's weight room/athletic trainer? Do you have a strength and conditioning coach? If not, how do you manage?
-How many times a week do you lift, and how many times a week do you practice?
-Do how much time passes between a lifting session and practice (on days that you lift AND practice, if you have days like that). I.e., do you lift in the morning and practice in the afternoon, or lift before practice in the afternoon, or after, etc.
-If you do lift, what are some specific problems you have encountered in establishing and maintaining a weightlifting regimen?
-What gains has your program made as a result of weightlifting. Has it changed how you condition?

Weightlifting is fundamental to success in sports like this, but a lot of programs don't do it. I just wanted to hear from you all.

-Does your team/program have a weightlifting regimen? No. We do conditioning but no weightlifting.
-Are you allowed access to your school's weight room/athletic trainer? Do you have a strength and conditioning coach? If not, how do you manage? No. No. We do conditioning. Some days are general conditioning, but most the time we focus on targeting specific parts of the body. We get by with reps with their own body weight and the occasional partner work.
-How many times a week do you lift, and how many times a week do you practice? 0 times a week lifting. Practice can range from 3 to 6 days a week depending on the part of the season we're in. Conditioning is daily.

When I cheered at a private high school FOREVER ago, we did lift. All cheerleaders were considered athletes and it was mandatory for every athlete to take a special weight training class. It was either your first or second period, every day, year round. All athletes were mixed in, so we were in there with football, basketball, cross country, etc. We had a specific teacher on staff that was responsible for everyone's individual plan. We would get an index card every morning with our workout for the day. It would have which machines, which exercise, and how many reps, etc. We were taught how to work the machines and how to do the exercises on our own the first week of the year. Workouts were in the morning, practices in the afternoon. I can't weigh in on the benefits to the program, but we were a really strong competitive program back in the day. I don't know if lifting contributed to that or not.

 

[AScheer]

There are some squads up north that use a service. I follow Cheer360 on instagram. They have teams and individuals that do weight and sport training specifically for cheer. I think it's an awesome idea and I wish we had something similar here. We have something around here for area football players like that, that also runs camps/clinics/and helps with college recruiting, but nothing for cheer.

Cheer 360

 

[Official OWECheer]

-Does your team/program have a weightlifting regimen? No. We do conditioning but no weightlifting.
-Are you allowed access to your school's weight room/athletic trainer? Do you have a strength and conditioning coach? If not, how do you manage? No. No. We do conditioning. Some days are general conditioning, but most the time we focus on targeting specific parts of the body. We get by with reps with their own body weight and the occasional partner work.
-How many times a week do you lift, and how many times a week do you practice? 0 times a week lifting. Practice can range from 3 to 6 days a week depending on the part of the season we're in. Conditioning is daily.

When I cheered at a private high school FOREVER ago, we did lift. All cheerleaders were considered athletes and it was mandatory for every athlete to take a special weight training class. It was either your first or second period, every day, year round. All athletes were mixed in, so we were in there with football, basketball, cross country, etc. We had a specific teacher on staff that was responsible for everyone's individual plan. We would get an index card every morning with our workout for the day. It would have which machines, which exercise, and how many reps, etc. We were taught how to work the machines and how to do the exercises on our own the first week of the year. Workouts were in the morning, practices in the afternoon. I can't weigh in on the benefits to the program, but we were a really strong competitive program back in the day. I don't know if lifting contributed to that or not.

Why aren't you allowed access to your school's weight room? I've heard of this being the case for a lot with HS teams.

Also I'm looking at the pricing... for those of you who use cheer 360, how much do your athletes pay a season, and do they train 1x, 2x or 3x a week?

 

[cheerisloving]

Just some questions:

-Does your team/program have a weightlifting regimen?
-Are you allowed access to your school's weight room/athletic trainer? Do you have a strength and conditioning coach? If not, how do you manage?
-How many times a week do you lift, and how many times a week do you practice?
-Do how much time passes between a lifting session and practice (on days that you lift AND practice, if you have days like that). I.e., do you lift in the morning and practice in the afternoon, or lift before practice in the afternoon, or after, etc.
-If you do lift, what are some specific problems you have encountered in establishing and maintaining a weightlifting regimen?
-What gains has your program made as a result of weightlifting. Has it changed how you condition?

Weightlifting is fundamental to success in sports like this, but a lot of programs don't do it. I just wanted to hear from you all.

My school was rebuilt and we have a nice weight room much more sophisticated than what we had for most my HS experience. I know the bball, football and wrestling teams use it but we don't. We have the weightlifting class option but to be honest I don't think any girl who has ever been on that team would want to spend a class period (which would be everyday) lifting. And the class is taught by one of the PE teachers so it's not that sophisticated. Not to mention, blocking off time for weightlifting would really take away from routine run throughs during the season.
The heavy duty conditioning is in the summer, so when school starts you can do light conditioning and more grueling routine work.

But the new weight room has only been around for two full seasons so maybe it will be incorporated in a few years when we've settled in the building.

 

[AScheer]

Why aren't you allowed access to your school's weight room? I've heard of this being the case for a lot with HS teams.

Also I'm looking at the pricing... for those of you who use cheer 360, how much do your athletes pay a season, and do they train 1x, 2x or 3x a week?

I think the Cheer360 website has pricing by team or individuals on there. I can't speak from experience though as I've not worked with them.

Our weight room is more of a scheduling issue than anything. We have space issues at our school. There just isn't enough space for all the sports and many teams are forced to share (weight room included) We are lucky and blessed that we get a daily prime practice location that allows us adequate space for our full floor and room for all of our extra tumbling equipment. It's not that I wouldn't want to have access to the weight room, but I pick and chose my battles. The fight for the time/space isn't worth it when it means that we would likely have to share space with other sports to compromise. The girls that have PE will occasionally go in there with their class. While I've never seen what they do, I have a feeling it's not the most productive or efficient work out!