Cheerleading

This Beast Blog is going to be about what I do aside from my time at the gym.  Apart from having a job at the rec gym and being a student full time student at the University of Georgia, I’ve gotten the privilege to be a member of their cheerleading team here.  Often there’s a stigma about what cheerleading is—especially from a male standpoint.  And I don’t want to get into the politics of it all, but before I became a cheerleader here last year, I probably had the same thoughts as you (having played football all throughout high school and being involved with powerlifting for so long):  A whole bunch of girls running around with pom poms and yelling rah rah rah.  I was totally wrong. Believe me, being apart of this team has not only changed my mind about cheerleading, but has also provided me with an opportunity not many can say they have—being a D1 athlete at a major university in the country, as well as a core group of friends that I call family on a regular basis. With all beast blogs, of course I have to integrate the fitness aspects of it all! The amount of athleticism it takes to make the team out of the hundreds that try out every year is remarkable.  From tumbling to stunting, there is no doubt that there are some amazing athletes on my team.  Now I don’t know too much about tumbling other than the fact that I can now do a back flip weighing in at 200+lbs., which is always a fun party trick.  What I want to get into is what I look forward to every practice—co-ed stunting, which consists of one female “the flyer” and one male “the base”. Stunting involves a lot of strength from both the guy and the girl.  For the girl, the speed and power she jumps off the ground is crucial.  While flying, her legs and core must stay tight, and body awareness from her toes all the way up to her had has to be on point to balance on just the hands of her base. From the guy’s stand point, it’s a full body workout.  The “toss” is nothing without the use of legs—think of it as a full power clean off of the floor.  As you begin to toss the girl, full use of your shoulders and triceps are utilized as you catch her at the top. The muscles in your abs, lower back, and stabilizers in your shoulders are firing like crazy to stay tight and solid as you stunt. The point of this blog was just to let you into a little part of my life and what cheerleading and co-ed stunting is all about. What’s seen below is very basic when it comes to stunting—if you get into the more advanced co-ed stunting, people are flipping up and spinning up and being caught in all types of ways. However, I put together a fairly entertaining and silly video that so you can visually see what I’ve described above.  I called it “An Impractical Shoulder Warmup”. Enjoy! Danny Quach is a senior at the University of Georgia and he’s studying Health Promotion and Behavior.  He’s a powerlifter at heart and has done it for over six years.  He just competed in his first bodybuilding show in Summer of 2011.  For powerlifting, he holds some Georgia records.  In his first bodybuilding competition, he placed 2^nd in Novice in INBF Southern States.  On his spare time he’s a part of the University of Georgia’s cheerleading co-ed squads; his favorite past-time? Throwing girls around and catching them.