Tag Archives: fitness
Preparing for Summer Cheer Camp
Cheerleading camp is an exciting experience for new and seasoned cheerleaders alike. You are given the ability to meet people and learn the latest cheers and stunts, all while strengthening your team bond. 
For cheerleaders who are preparing for their first week off to camp, or who are packing at the last minute, you may be pondering what all to bring for a fun week of learning and competing. Before you load the bus and take off to camp, you need to pack your bags. Having the right cheerleading supplies is necessary to look and perform your best while showing your school spirit. Read on to make sure you bring this year’s camp must-haves.
Uniforms
Adult or youth cheerleading uniforms, including both the skirt and top, cannot be forgotten. Your uniform is the foundation for uniting your squad and what you will wear during cheer competitions. Be sure you pack all parts of your uniform–don’t forget your bodysuit and briefs!
Practice Clothing
While learning routines and practicing cheers, you need to be comfortable. Team apparel including t-shirts and sports bras will provide you with comfort and keep you cool. Soffe shorts and flip-flops complete the list of practice clothing you should pack for cheer camp. Check camp rules or with your coach if you have specific attire questions.
Accessories
Hair bows and ribbons will show off school spirit while keeping your tresses out of your face. For optimal performance, don’t leave your hair ties behind! Glitter, face paint, and sparkles are additional ways to accessorize and prove your love of cheerleading.
Shoes and Socks
Comfortable and supportive footwear may be the most important cheer items on your list. Jumping, tumbling, and stunting all day long requires wearing socks and shoes that give you ankle and arch support. Several cheerleading shoes on the market come with interchangeable color swatches so you can show your school pride.
Miscellaneous Must-Haves
Above and beyond the list given, these other essentials are commonly left behind.
- Sunscreen
- Bug spray
- Chapstick
- Water bottles
- Money (have some change available)
- Cell phone and charger
- Pain reliever
- Athletic tape
- Camera
Pack the above items and you are sure to have a memorable and fun week at camp learning the newest stunts and dances. In addition to items listed, there are a few things you must remember. Take your team spirit, a positive attitude, and a smile for an exciting week at cheerleading camp.
30-Day Fitness Challenge
Getting in shape is tough and anyone who has ever attempted diet or exercise will tell you it isn’t for the faint of heart. The truth is that the image we have in our minds of how we want to look and our reality are two different things. 
Being in shape does not always mean that you will look like a super model or body builder. You will still be you–but that is no reason not to make every effort to get in shape for your own health and well-being.
For people who eat healthy and exercise regularly that are looking for an extra boost to their appearance, things like laser therapy, including liposuction laser treatments, may be a good investment. A surgical laser treatment works best if it accompanies a healthy lifestyle and the combination of the two things can help you reach a desired look.
The best way to get fit before any laser or surgical treatments is to come up with a 30-day fitness plan. At the end of that time frame, you should reassess your fitness level and decide how to move forward.
Giving yourself a dedicated time frame to get in shape will inspire you to do as much as you can in short spurts and make you feel like there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Here are a few things to keep in mind with any 30-day fitness challenge:
Start small. If you have not run for years, it is not wise to try to run five miles per day. Go on a run with no set distance in mind and stop when you feel like you need to stop. This will be your base distance and you can build from there. The same concept can be applied to other forms of exercise too.
Keep track. Have a journal where you document your workouts. Include notes about how you felt and what you could do to improve. This will keep you motivated on the days when you want to stay in bed instead of hitting the gym.
Tell your friends. The best way to stick to a fitness routine is to tell people about it. They can encourage you and hold you accountable to your goals. You should consider joining social networking sites for fitness and gathering a circle of friends that way to boost your inspiration level. You may even be able to find a workout buddy or two.
Gear Up for Summer Cheer Training
With summer vacation up ahead, athletic camps will be in full-swing. Cheerleading camps will be held all over the country and squads will work on new cheers, stunts, and techniques to use during the school year.
Before you head off to cheer camp, you want to be sure that you have everything packed that you will need to make the most of your summer training. Being prepared for the days of summer camp will help you make the most of your experience and bring back the most material to use during the school year.
Here are a few things that you want to be sure to take with you to cheer camp:
Fun outfits. Let’s face it. You spend a lot of the regular year in uniforms, so why not take advantage of the chance to change it up a bit? Find cheer apparel that represents your squad and school but in a way that is outside your normal cheerleading boundaries. Some ideas are buying new warm-ups, shorts, or customized t-shirts. Have a team meeting and decide what items the members of the squad want to bring and then coordinate outfits.
The right accessories. Be sure to read all of the lists of what you need to bring along to camp and pack any extra cheer accessories that you will want for training exercises. It can be easy to forget about things as foundational as cheerleading pom poms in the excitement of camp so be sure that you do not overlook the basics. You will also want to be sure to have the right shoes and matching hair accessories.
Good tunes. Whether you are getting CDs ready for the entire squad, or just loading up your own mp3 player, you will want to have inspiring and upbeat songs. If it has been awhile since you added new music, getting ready for cheerleading camp is a good time to pick out some new material. Music will help keep your creative juices flowing throughout the camp experience and the soundtrack of your time at camp will bring back good memories later on.
Cheerleading gifts. Whether you are the coach or team captain, you want to make sure that the members of your squad feel appreciated for their hard work. Consider small gift bags, customized t-shirts, or even gift cards for cheer gear. Give out the gifts near the end of cheerleading camp and find a meaningful way to do it.
4 Tips For A More Unified Cheerleading Squad
Team sports are one of the best ways for youth to learn the value of hard work, athleticism, and good sportsmanship. The teammates on teams and squads must 
know how to work together both during competition and practices. It helps if the members of the team are also friends outside of the sporting boundaries too.
The sport of cheerleading is no exception. Team work is perhaps even more important in cheerleading as each member of the squad often must rely on the other members in order to pull off difficult stunts and other tricks.
Here are four tips for fostering friendship and creating a more unified cheerleading squad.
- Plan non-cheer activities. Every so often, plan an event for the squad that does not involve any actual cheer practice. Plan a movie night or a cook-out where members of the squad can socialize and get to know about each other outside the realms of cheerleading.
- Look united. In addition to traditional cheerleading uniforms, pick out cheer clothes that the squad can wear on school days or for school events where they are not cheering. This can be something as simple as matching Nike cheerleading shoes or fun cheerleading warm ups, to something as customized as spirit T-shirts with nicknames printed on the back. The squad does not have to look alike all of the time, but find fun ways to show unity through clothing outside of traditional cheer apparel.
- Foster diversity. Recruit as many different types of students to be on your squad as possible in order to make it a place where everyone feels welcome. Having a variety of personalities will not only fill out the squad, but will also give everyone one thing to focus on together–cheerleading.
- Ask for input. If you are a coach or team captain, it is your job to lead the squad. This does not mean that you should never take suggestions from anyone else, however. Regularly seek out the opinions of others and delegate tasks to other members of the squad in order to make everyone feel included. You may also find that some of your best ideas for the squad are born of ideas from other people. Cheerleaders will perform on a higher level and will feel more like a part of something meaningful if they a part of at least some of the decisions.
Create A Healthier You In Time For Summer
The season of the swimsuit is almost upon us and just like every other year, it seems to have creeped up with little warning. Pool parties, picnics, and beach getaways are just a few of the items on the agenda for most people during the summer months and everyone seems to be looking for the best ways to get in shape before the festivities kick off.
Changing your diet and implementing a fitness routine are time-tested ways to experience success over a long-term period of time and certainly admirable. Any doctor, personal trainer, or hey, just the average person will tell you this. While these lifestyle changes are recommended, you may need an extra boost to get you into summer shape in time.
Here are a few ways to get your body to a healthier, sexier place in time for that first pool party.
- Lipsuction. Using this method to remove fat from places on your body is a quick and effective way of changing your appearance. You can have liposuction procedures done in any number of cosmetic surgery offices and there is virtually no recovery time.
Liposuction is a body contouring procedure that is ideal for people in pretty good shape but have a few problem areas that always seem to give them grief during bikini season.
- Do a cleanse. Research the different cleanse options and find the one that is right for you. Some last only a few days while others go as long as 12 – 14 days.
Each cleanse varies but most focus on specially created liquid drinks, small amounts of solid food, and an increase in water intake.
- Shrink your stomach. If you have been battling weight for years, you have probably tried several methods to get rid of the extra pounds. This often leads to frustration and the desire to just give up.
If this is the case, you should consider helping your odds with lap band surgery. This procedure literally makes the size of your stomach smaller, thereby decreasing caloric intake. The procedure is temporary unlike gastric bypass, so it can be removed when your weight loss goal has been reached.
Lap Band patients are encouraged to adjust to their new body by reducing caloric intake and implementing a regular exercise routine. The actual surgery is just the first step toward a healthier lifestyle.
Whatever method you choose, know that there is a lot of help out there. With a little assistance, you can be on your way to a new and improved, healthier version of yourself just in time for the summer heat.
