It’s that time of year — we are deep in the middle of competition season. Unfortunately, it is also the time of year when I start seeing athletes dropping like flies with injuries, fatigue, and burnout. This is when performance should be peaking — not crashing — and the way we make that happen is through proper recovery and thoughtful preparation.
Recovery needs to be a part of your training as a cheerleader. It is not a luxury reserved for a few athletes. Many cheerleaders believe recovery only happens *after* a big competition and only involves resting, but that is far from the truth. In reality, how you recover and prepare your body leading up to competition directly impacts performance, injury risk, consistency, and confidence on the mat.
**Recovery is not about doing less** — it’s about preparing your body to perform at its absolute best.

Why Recovery Matters

At this point in the season, there is no question that fatigue has accumulated. It often shows up as sloppy skills, missed stunts, weird or inconsistent tumbling landings, new injuries that likely could have been prevented or generalized tightness and body soreness.

Recovery has become a major buzzword lately. Many people assume recovery means expensive equipment or spending the day at a wellness center. While those tools can be helpful, true recovery is much simpler. It comes down to giving your body what it actually needs to rest, replenish, and perform.

Recovery is not just about healing injuries — it is about keeping your body and nervous system ready for peak performance.

Basic Pillars for Proper Recovery

1. Time management

One of the biggest challenges for cheerleaders and young athletes is balancing school, health, and demanding practice schedules. As competition approaches, it is important not to overcommit or overload your schedule.

Choose what is most important and be willing to say no to extra activities that may drain your energy. Recovery often starts with protecting your time.

2. Tapering Training & Periodization

These principles are very common in the athletic world, especially with endurance athletes, and there is no reason they should not be applied to cheerleaders preparing for their biggest events. The principle is that you are thoughtful in your training schedules and know when it is appropriate to push yourself and build new skills and when you should pull back from that. As competition approaches you taper your training, gradually reducing the intensity and volume of workouts.

Leading up to competition:

Focus on refining and cleaning existing skills
Reduce overall training volume slightly
Avoid cramming new skills or extra privates

Trying to add more classes, privates, conditioning, or learning new skills right before competition often backfires. Tapering allows your body to recover, adapt, and feel powerful when it matters most.

3. Physical recovery

Physical recovery is the pillar most cheerleaders recognize — but many misunderstand it. Recovery is not just resting or doing nothing. Effective physical recovery may include many tools such as:

Breathwork
Mobility work
Gentle stretching (gentle is key! Cheerleaders tend to stretch too aggressively)
Foam rolling
Massage
Cupping or dry needling when appropriate
Massage guns
Compression
Hot/cold therapy

The goal is to help your body feel better — not to create more soreness or fatigue.

4. Nutrition & Hydration

Nutrition conversations in cheerleading can be sensitive due to body image concerns. It is important to remember that fueling your body is very different from dieting. Under-fueling is one of the biggest performance killers. Without adequate nutrition, athletes feel weak, depleted, and have zero energy. Not to mention they are more prone to injury.

Calories support muscle recovery, energy levels, and nervous system readiness. While there are many variables when it comes to fueling for competition, focus on:

Carbohydrates for energy and endurance. The quality of the carb is VERY important. Prioritize fruits, vegetables, and non-refined grains.
Protein for muscle repair and tissue recovery. Most athletes—especially girls— are not eating enough protein. Time to include protein in every meal and snack. Helpful options include greek yogurt, cottage cheese, nuts, nut butters, and high quality meats.
Whole foods sources are always preferred over processed and packaged foods.

Hydration is just as important. Cheerleaders need adequate water intake plus electrolytes to support performance and recovery.


5. Sleep

Sleep is the most underrated performance and recovery tool and it is where the real magic happens. During sleep our body literally recovers for us! While we do nothing our body repairs muscles, regulates hormones, and resets the nervous system.

Youth athletes should aim for at least 8 hours of sleep every night.

Helpful sleep habits:

Consistent bedtimes and wake times
No screens before bed
Keep phones out of the bedroom
Use warm, low lighting in the evening
Maintain a cool, dark sleep environment (below ~69°F)

Favorite Recovery Products

Nutrition. Hydration & Supplementation

Electrolytes– cheerleaders must be replenished with electrolytes as water is not hydrating enough. The bummer with most common sports drinks and powders is they contain unnecessary amounts of sugar and artificial dyes.

Protein Powder– many cheerleaders are not meeting the recommended amount of protein intake daily. While protein powders should not replace high-quality, organic protein, it is a nice addition and can be made into a smoothie or something to eat on the go or in-between practices.

Supplements– while you cannot out supplement a good diet and healthy habits, there are some well known and researched supplements that help with muscle recovery, reducing inflammation, supporting connective tissue and reducing downtime after exercise or injury.

Creatine (muscle repair, energy, and recovery)
Inflammatone (reduces inflammation)
Omega-3 Fatty Acids (reduces inflammation)
Magnesium (promotes muscle relaxation)

Sleep support

Alarm Clock– big fan of cheap, simple alarm clocks that can be used so that you can have your phone sleep and charge in a different room.

Warm Red Light Bulbs– this is a very simple step that will change your sleep! Replace your lightbulbs in your nightstand with these. Unlike blue light (aka regular light bulbs, phone screens, etc), red light does not suppress melatonin.

Amazon Basics Red Light Bulbs (2 pack)

Wifi Kill Switch– turning off your wifi and reducing EMF exposure overnight will help everyone in your house sleep better.

Tech Wellness Wifi Kill Switch

physcial Recovery

Foam Roller– self myofascial release that helps reduce muscle tightness, soreness, and inflammation while improving flexibility.

Amazon Basics Foam Roller

Cupping Set– used to reduce muscle adhesions and increase blood flow to tight areas.

Basic At Home Cupping Set

Massage Gun– these devices deliver rapid pulses to the tissues that boost blood flow, reduce lactic acid, and improve fascial mobility.

Theragun Pro (my favorite of all time– has red light included and many attachments including hot/cold)
Theragun Mini (smaller, more portable and affordable)

Compression Boots– graded, sequential air compression that mimics the natural muscle pump in our bodies which allows for greater circulation and lymphatic flow.

Normatec Compression Boots

Good to Know about Low Back Pain

Signs Your Back Pain May Be Becoming a Problem

Pain that never fully goes away and lasts throughout practice and daily life
Pain that worsens with stunting or tumbling, especially if it feels sharp or shooting
A constant need to “crack” or “pop” your back for relief
Pain that radiates into the glutes, hips, or legs
Pain that affects sleep or school activities

What Not to Do If You Have Low Back Pain

Aggressively and repeatedly stretching the low back

Ignoring pain because “everyone hurts” or because it feels “normal”
Only resting without addressing the root cause
Doing random strengthening exercises—or avoiding strength training altogether

**What Actually Helps Low Back Pain in Cheerleaders**


Addressing the root cause

There are plenty of treatments, exercises, and stretches that can temporarily relieve back pain, but these are often just band-aid solutions. If the root cause isn’t identified and addressed, the pain is likely to return.

Working with a professional who understands cheerleading-specific demands is crucial. In many cheerleaders, I see excessive movement and overuse at one segment of the spine, which causes surrounding muscles to tighten in an attempt to create stability.

I help my clients retrain movement patterns, reduce muscular tension, and build strength properly to prevent pain from returning. If you want a long, healthy cheerleading career, you need to take your body seriously.


Proper Strength Training

Picture of a cheerleading with workout band around knees strengthening glutes for low back pain — To both treat and prevent low back pain, cheerleaders need **targeted strength training programs** that develop above-average strength and control in the deep core, trunk, glutes, and hips.
Cheerleading places unique demands on the body, and training should reflect that. Strength programs should focus on improving trunk stability to protect the spine during the extreme ranges of motion required for tumbling and stunting.
During these skills, cheerleaders may experience forces equal to **up to 12 times their body weight**. The body must be strong enough to withstand these forces and protect the low back.

Prioritizing Recovery

There is absolutely a time and place for recovery-focused treatments. Modalities such as massage, cupping, and dry needling can be extremely effective for increasing blood flow, reducing muscle tension, and relieving pain when needed.

Recovery tools like foam rollers, massage guns, compression boots, saunas, PEMF mats, and red light therapy can also support tissue healing. That said, recovery goes far beyond tools—it includes proper stress management, consistent high-quality sleep, and nutrient-dense whole-food nutrition.

In my experience, most cheerleaders significantly under-prioritize recovery, and improving this alone can make a huge difference in pain levels and performance.

cheerleaders need to strength train

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cheerleaders need to strength train 〰️

What’s Next?

Ready to Stop Pushing Through Back Pain?

If you or your cheerleader are dealing with ongoing low back pain, you don’t have to guess your way through it. Working with a professional who understands the specific demands of cheerleading can make all the difference.

I work with cheerleaders to:

Identify the root cause of back pain
Improve core and hip strength for safer tumbling and stunting
Modify training without taking athletes completely out of cheer
Build a plan that supports a long, healthy cheer career

👉 Schedule a discovery call to work with me

Looking to Prevent Back Pain Before It Starts?

Maybe you or your athlete isn’t injured—but wants to prevent low back pain or injury in the future. My position-specific cheerleading strength classes are the perfect addition to cheer training.

These classes are designed to train you like the elite athlete you are and include:

Strength training tailored to flyers and bases/backspots
Focus on core stability, hip strength, and controlled power
Built-in recovery and mobility every class
A program that supports cheer practice—not competes with it

👉 Click here to learn more about cheer strength classes


Stay Connected

For ongoing cheer-specific strength tips, injury prevention education, and training guidance:

👉 Follow me on Instagram @westandwellpt
👉 Subscribe to my newsletter for weekly insights to help cheerleaders stay healthy, strong, confident, and pain-free

Resources

Waters, N., 2013. What goes up must come down! A primary care approach to preventing injuries amongst highflying cheerleaders. Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, 25(2), pp.55-64.

Xu, A. L., Beck, J. J., Sweeney, E. A., Severson, M. N., Page, A. S., & Lee, R. J. (2022). Understanding the cheerleader as an orthopaedic patient: an evidence-based review of the literature. Orthopaedic journal of sports medicine, 10(1), 23259671211067222.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are based on the opinion of the author, unless otherwise noted, and should not be taken as personal medical advice. The information provided is intended to help readers make their own informed health and wellness decisions.

The Ultimate Recovery Guide For Cheerleaders Before Competition