Updated October 2026 · 12-minute read · by Yegor Nadvornyy, founder of Brainrich Kids
Cheer and dance kids are often the most flexible kids in the room. They can sit in a split, kick past their ear and fold in half. What studies of young dancers keep pointing to is the other half of the picture: strength and control through that range. Flexibility without strength is a range you can reach but can't hold, and holding it is something kids can practice at home on bars and a ladder. This guide covers what cheer and dance ask of a young body, what the research on young dancers and cheerleaders found, and a 10-minute routine that builds control without stunts or tumbling.
The quick answer: cheer and dance lean on the core, glutes, quads, hamstrings and calves, plus grip and shoulders for stunting. Studies of young dancers found that passive flexibility tends to hold rather than grow with age, and that very flexible dancers showed less strength as they matured. So the useful work at home is strength and control: active leg lifts, calf rises, soft landings, balance on one leg and core work on the bars, about ten minutes on most days. Stunts, tosses and tumbling belong at the gym with a trained coach. An adult stays in the room and a mat goes under every bar.
Jump to: What these sports ask · The research · Flexible vs. strong · 10-minute routine · Around the season · Equipment · FAQ
What cheer and dance ask of a young body
Both sports look like flexibility and rhythm, but every jump, turn and leg hold is a strength task. A toe touch needs hip flexors strong enough to lift the legs, not just loose enough to let them go. A turn needs a calf that can hold a rise and a core that keeps the body stacked. Cheer adds stunting: bases lift and catch a teammate, and flyers hold a tight body position in the air.
Anatomy art adapted from OpenStax, Anatomy and Physiology, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Changes: cropped, recolored and relabeled by Brainrich Kids.
| What the sport asks | Where you see it | What the home gym practices |
|---|---|---|
| Jumps and landings | Toe touches, leaps, sautés, coming down from a jump | Soft landings from a low rung, squats holding the ladder |
| Active leg control | Kicks, leg holds, développés, heel stretches | Leg lifts holding the ladder, hanging knee raises |
| Core | A tight flyer, a clean turn, a straight line in a jump | Hanging tucks, hollow holds, planks |
| Balance on one leg | Turns, relevé, liberties and other one-leg stunts | One-leg rises holding a rung, then letting go |
| Calves and feet | Rises, jumps, pointed feet, landings | Slow calf rises on both feet, then one |
| Grip and shoulders | Bases lifting and catching, tumbling through the hands | Hangs, monkey bar traverses, planks |
What the research on young dancers and cheerleaders found
Most of the research on young dancers comes from one large Israeli research program led by Nili Steinberg, which screened more than a thousand girls aged 8 to 16 in recreational dance classes. Cheer has good injury surveillance data from U.S. high schools.
Injuries in young dancers are common, and the knee leads. Of 1,336 recreational dancers screened, 569 (about 43%) were injured at the time. Among the injured dancers, the knee was the most common injury at about 40%. The researchers linked injuries with some joint range of motion measures, incorrect technique (rolling the feet in) and time spent dancing en pointe, and advised that dancers under 10 shouldn't be exposed to overload, especially of the back, or to extensive stretching.
Cheer injury rates are lower than most sports, but stunts matter. Across five seasons of U.S. high school data, Currie and colleagues found that cheerleading ranked 18th of 22 sports for overall injury rate. Concussions were the most common cheer injury, and more than half of all injuries happened during stunts. The American Academy of Pediatrics' cheerleading policy statement lists stunting, harder surfaces and coaches with less training among the risk factors, and notes that cheer accounted for a large share of the rare catastrophic injuries in high school girls' sports.
What this means for parents
Stunts, tosses, pyramids and tumbling are skills taught by a trained coach on a proper sprung floor or mat, so leave them at the gym. Technique on the feet and pointe readiness belong with the dance teacher. Home is for the strength and control underneath: legs, calves, core, grip and balance. None of this is a claim that home training prevents injuries.
Flexible isn't the same as strong
Two more findings from the same research program change how many families think about stretching at home.
In a study of 1,320 dancers and 226 non-dancers aged 8 to 16, Steinberg and colleagues found that most passive flexibility didn't improve with age, even in dancers. Their advice to teachers was to focus on keeping a child's natural flexibility rather than trying to push it further.
A later study of 132 dancers aged 12 to 14 found that as dancers matured, those with the most joint range tended to show less muscle strength. Girls before their first period were more flexible, and girls after it were stronger. The authors suggested screening dancers through puberty to set the right training plan.
Holding a position takes strength as well as range.
For a flexible child, the useful work at home is usually holding range rather than adding it: lifting a leg and keeping it there, rising onto the toes and coming down slowly, landing softly with the knees over the toes. A bar to hold and a ladder to lean on make that kind of practice easy to start. For the AAP's guidance on strength training for kids, see at-home strength for young athletes.
Cheer and dance conditioning at home: a 10-minute routine
This routine runs on a home climbing gym or wall bars with a mat. Use it on most non-practice days and keep it light the day before a competition or recital.
| Station | Ages about 5 to 7 | Ages about 8 to 11 | Ages 12 and up | What it practices |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Ladder climb 1 min |
Up a few rungs and down, slowly | To the top and down, 2 times | Same, without knees on the rungs | Warm-up, coordination |
|
Leg lifts 2 min |
Hold a rung, lift one leg to the front, "freeze" for 3 seconds, 3 each side | Front and side lifts, hold 5 seconds, 4 each side | Front, side and back, hold 5 seconds at the top, 5 each side | Active leg control |
|
Calf rises 1.5 min |
"Grow tall" on both feet holding a rung, 8 times | 10 slow rises on both feet, then 5 on each foot | 10 slow single-leg rises each side, 3 seconds down | Calves, feet, relevé |
|
Soft landings 1.5 min |
Step off the lowest rung, land "quiet like a cat," 5 times | Jump from a low rung, land with knees over toes, hold 2 seconds, 5 times | Same, then land on one leg, 3 each side | Landing control |
|
Core on the bar 2 min |
2 or 3 hanging "cannonball" tucks, a plank on the mat | 5 hanging knee raises, hollow hold 15 seconds | 8 knee raises, hollow hold 30 seconds | A tight body line |
|
Balance 2 min |
"Flamingo" holding a rung, 10 seconds each leg | Passé (foot at the knee) holding a rung, 20 seconds each leg | Passé on a rise, hands free, 15 to 20 seconds each leg | Turns, one-leg stunts |
Safety rules for cheer and dance conditioning at home
- An adult in the same room, every time, and a thick mat under the bars and every landing.
- No tumbling, flips, back handsprings, stunts or tosses at home, and no partner stunts on or near the gym. Those are taught by a trained coach on a proper surface.
- Don't force a stretch, and nobody pushes on a child's legs to go further. For kids under 10, keep stretching gentle.
- Knees track over the toes on every landing and squat. Stop each set while the form is still clean.
- One child on a bar at a time. Knee, ankle or back pain that doesn't fade means a day off and a call to the pediatrician.
Free play on the rings and bars counts too, on days without a routine.
Around the season: practice, competitions and recitals
Competitive cheer and dance can run most of the year, with long practices and weekend events. The home gym should add to a child's week without adding pressure, so it should feel like play on practice days and be a little more structured on off days.
| Day type | On the gym |
|---|---|
| Practice or class day | Free play only, if they want it |
| Off day | The full 10-minute routine |
| Day before a competition or recital | Balance and a few calf rises only, nothing tiring |
| Competition or recital day | Nothing planned. Rest is part of training |
| Breaks between seasons | The routine on most days, plus climbing, swinging and other sports |
Variety matters as much as consistency. In a study of 1,190 young athletes, Dr. Neeru Jayanthi and colleagues found that kids who played more hours of organized sport per week than their age in years had about twice the odds of a serious overuse injury, and specializing in one sport carried a risk of its own. The AAP's 2016 report on sports specialization makes the same case for variety. Climbing and hanging are a different kind of movement from the studio floor.
We love outdoor play and time in the studio with a team, and none of this replaces a coach or a teacher. The gym is for the hours in between.
Equipment for cheer and dance conditioning at home
For the routine above you need a ladder to hold for leg lifts, rises and balance, a low rung to land from, a bar for hangs and knee raises, and a thick mat. The Spider V3 has the monkey bars built in, plus pull-up bars, rings, a rope and a net. The Spider Max V3 adds a second span, which helps when siblings or teammates come over. Both are steel, rated for 220 lb and tension-mounted between floor and ceiling with no drilling. More than 10,000 families have a Brainrich gym at home, and occupational and physical therapists in our owner community recommend them.
Stunts at the gym. Strength at home.
For off days, long seasons and the weeks between them. Steel, no drilling, and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Questions? Reach out to us.
Frequently asked questions
What is good cheer conditioning at home? Strength and control work without stunts or tumbling: leg lifts holding a ladder, slow calf rises, soft landings from a low rung, balance on one leg, and core work like hanging knee raises and hollow holds. About ten minutes on non-practice days is plenty.
What are good dance conditioning exercises for kids? Exercises that build strength through the range a dancer already has: lifting a leg and holding it, rising onto the toes and lowering slowly, balancing in passé, and landing softly with the knees over the toes. Technique, turnout and pointe work stay with the dance teacher.
Should young dancers stretch every day to get more flexible? Research on young dancers found that passive flexibility tends to hold rather than grow with age, and the researchers advised keeping a child's natural flexibility rather than pushing it, with no extensive stretching before about age 10. Gentle stretching is fine. Building strength in the range they have is usually more useful.
Can my child practice tumbling or stunts at home? Keep them at the gym. More than half of high school cheer injuries happen during stunts, and the American Academy of Pediatrics lists stunting, hard surfaces and less-trained coaching among the risk factors. At home, stick to conditioning on the bars and ladder, with an adult in the room and a mat underneath.
Is strength training safe for young cheerleaders and dancers? The American Academy of Pediatrics says strength training is appropriate for kids who are ready for organized sports, with good technique, low loads and qualified supervision. Body-weight work on bars, a ladder and a mat fits that. Skip maximal lifts and training to failure.
📚 Keep reading in the Decision Guide
How Monkey Bars Support Every Sport · At-Home Strength for Young Athletes · Gymnastics at Home: Safe Conditioning Ideas · Soccer Conditioning for Kids at Home · Baseball and Softball Conditioning for Kids · Controlled Risky Play
About the author
Yegor Nadvornyy is the founder of Brainrich Kids and a dad. More than 10,000 families have a Brainrich gym at home. Every study in this article was checked against the original paper, and results are reported as the researchers found them.
Sources
Steinberg, N., Siev-Ner, I., Peleg, S. et al. (2012). Extrinsic and intrinsic risk factors associated with injuries in young dancers aged 8–16 years. Journal of Sports Sciences, 30(5). · Steinberg, N., Siev-Ner, I., Peleg, S. et al. (2013). Injuries in Female Dancers Aged 8 to 16 Years. Journal of Athletic Training, 48(1). · Steinberg, N., Hershkovitz, I., Peleg, S. et al. (2006). Range of Joint Movement in Female Dancers and Nondancers Aged 8 to 16 Years: Anatomical and Clinical Implications. American Journal of Sports Medicine, 34(5). · Steinberg, N., Siev-Ner, I., Zeev, A. et al. (2023). Is there an association between joint range of motion and muscle strength in young female dancers? And, does it depend on the effects of age and menarche? Research in Sports Medicine, 31(5). · Currie, D.W., Fields, S.K., Patterson, M.J. et al. (2016). Cheerleading Injuries in United States High Schools. Pediatrics, 137(1). · LaBella, C.R., Mjaanes, J., AAP Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness (2012). Cheerleading Injuries: Epidemiology and Recommendations for Prevention. Pediatrics, 130(5). · Jayanthi, N., LaBella, C.R., Fischer, D. et al. (2015). Sports-Specialized Intensive Training and the Risk of Injury in Young Athletes: A Clinical Case-Control Study. American Journal of Sports Medicine, 43(4). · Brenner, J.S., AAP Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness (2016). Sports Specialization and Intensive Training in Young Athletes. Pediatrics, 138(3). · Stricker, P.R., Faigenbaum, A.D., McCambridge, T.M. et al. (2020). Resistance Training for Children and Adolescents. Pediatrics, 145(6). · OpenStax (2016). Anterior and Posterior Views of Muscles, Anatomy and Physiology, Rice University, CC BY 4.0 (muscle chart, adapted).
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