The importance of at home training

Cheer Avenue has teamed up with kinesiologist Amélie Fortin to enlighten us on the importance of pursuing at home training while waiting for sports to return. Amélie is a former competitive athlete who has more than 10 years of experience in artistic gymnastics and cheerleading under her belt. With her 3 participations at the Cheerleading World Championships, as well as with her involvement with the Rouge & Or cheerleading program as a physical trainer, Amélie is the ideal candidate to inform us on the subject!

In Covid's time, virtual training clearly is the ideal way to replace conventional cheerleading practices. With this training context being completely different, many athletes feel demotivated and don’t understand its importance. Amélie mentions that finding it difficult to adapt to this new reality is completely normal, but that it’s important to remember that sports will probably return just as quickly as it stopped. When they’ll return, athletes will want to start back training at the same level as when they stopped. It is therefore essential to maintain a certain level of activity to ensure the athlete a smooth return. In fact, after only two weeks of complete inactivity, athletes will gradually loose their muscle strength and their acquired adaptations. This being said, it is necessary to maintain a regular muscular activity in order to be able to restart training easily. At home training is also excellent for muscle strengthening. In a sport like cheerleading, it’s not uncommon to observe some athletes compensating according to their position. This can create muscular imbalances that can be the source of injuries. The idea of working to prevent these injuries is excellent!

Finally, what Amélie tries emphasize is that despite this break, it is not the end of cheerleading. She therefore invites you to maximize this period of at home training to get the most out of it when you return to the competition floor

Thanks to kinesiologist Amélie Fortin for her collaboration on this article. For all those who would like to be accompanied in training, do not hesitate to contact her at info@elitefactor.ca. info@elitefactor.ca