Did you know that the power in your tumbling can be increased by building up your core fitness?

As an athlete, you may feel that you’re already “fit”. But even as good as you may be at tumbling, you still have room to improve. And you can do so by developing your abdominal – or core – strength.

Your abdominals are very important to the power you get in your stunts and the precision you have in your baskets. Every move you make places high demands on your abdominals. Abdominals flex and make it possible to do rotation movements. And powerful rotation is a key component in every cheerleading routine.

Most abdominal training routines just don’t have enough twisting or rotation movements to be effective in giving you more tumbling power. This can be done without expensive equipment so don’t let anyone lead you to believe that purchasing equipment is necessary to train the twisting muscles of the abdominals (the Obliques). You can, in fact, train them very well with just a few exercises done without any equipment at all.

Here is one good exercise that you can do without anything besides a floor to lie on.

The Lying Trunk Rotation.

Step 1
Lie on your back. Arms out to your sides and hips flexed to 90 degrees. Keep your knees together.

Step 2
While keeping your thighs together and hips flexed at 90 degrees, rotate your legs to the right until they touch the ground. Make sure to keep the opposite side shoulder down.

Step 3
Return to starting position. Now begin to alternate – rotating right and left while maintaining hips at 90 degrees. Keep your shoulders down.

Repeat 20 times on each side.

Incorrect
Allowing your opposite shoulder to lift up. Doing this will prevent your abdominals from being trained properly.

Advanced Version
Straighten knees slightly. Keep hips at 90 degrees.