14/ MARCH/APRIL 2012 THE RIDER Fitness for Riders: Simple Steps to Training the Rider’s Core By Heather Sansom.
You may have heard that core strength is impor- tant for riders of all disci- plines. In fact, whether you practice a sport or not, core strength is a signifi- cant key to:
- athletic performance in any sport
- good posture
- joint and spine health The reason that a strong core is especially important for riders is that you mostly ride with your torso. Whether you realize it or not, your limbs are completely secondary aids to your horse in compari- son with your seat, weight and torso orientation. Observe a para-equestrian such as Canadian Olympian, Gold medalist Lauren Barwick who is paralyzed from the waist down. In addition to com- peting as a para-equestrian, Lauren rides in open FEI levels. She and similar rid- ers show that neither bal- ancing on your horse, nor giving correct and effective aids depends as much on limbs as torso position and usage.
Your limbs have a secondary impact on your horse’s way of going to your seat and torso. If con- fused between a leg and a seat, your horse will follow the seat/weight. This explains why he may seem to drift in one direction even though you are giving him leg aids to the con- trary. In clinics and private training, I constantly see riders who think they are giving aids in one direction (circle left for example), but their torso position gives a contrary aid which the horse obeys instead. For example, they may be trotting on the left rein, but
the rider’s shoulders are pointed off of the circle. Most of the time, the circle looks like an octagon because instead of bending inward, the rider’s body position is telling the horse to orient his body or point off of the circle instead. It can be helpful to have a friend or your coach check your alignment and weight shifts. In addition to lateral weight shifts (side to side) your weight can either shut down his move- ment and put him on the forehand by tipping for- ward, shut down his move- ment and cause his back to hollow by leaning back, or interrupt his ability to move with straightness if you have a rotational asym- metry (ie: one shoulder back more than another). Tipping forward with a weak core is not the same as deliberately putting your body in two-point position. A correct jumping position must include a strong core to help the rider maintain hip and heel alignment and grounding through the seat, even though the seat is in the air and the back is tipped forward. Otherwise, the rider would be falling onto his horse’s neck, or involuntary shifts of body- weight might cause the horse to bear onto the fore- hand.
Your body weight distribution and motion affects your horse’s move- ment with the tiniest shifts. Muscles in your core are the like a sheath of muscles wrapping your torso and hips. They layer like plywood, some of them orienting horizontal- ly, and some vertically, and some responsible for angled or rotational force. Most of them have a higher percentage of slow-twitch muscle fibre, which means they are built for endurance, not fast move- ment because they have to stabilize your body while your limbs do other tasks that generate load to your spine area.
ment, protecting your spine so that it is free to absorb your horse’s motion with- out injury, and returning you to straight symmetrical posture after a dynamic interruption (such as post- ing trot, a change in gait, a spook, or a fence).
Your core muscles are the bridge connecting your upper and lower body and providing an ‘anchor’ for your shoulders and your legs. Many riders with pulling hands often turn out to have weak core muscles. The pulling hands are the body’s compensation for it’s inability to stabilize your position through the core.
thighs. This rider may find themselves having to use artificial aids to induce their horse to move, because the tight inner thighs create leg pressure that becomes ‘white- noise’ and the horse can’t ‘hear’ normal leg pressure any- more.
I consider the rider’s core to be a foundational training area, similar to the first levels of the training scale used in Dressage. If you do not ride Dressage, you can still think of a scale of tasks your horse needs to be competent in, before he can move to the next level. All horses need to move with good rhythm. Even though it is a factor from a very early stage, you never get beyond it: it is always important. If you get to a higher level in your training, and lose your rhythm, then you have to go back down to basics. Core strength for the human athlete is similar because without it, your body starts to use compen- sating motion patterns to perform tasks you ask of it. Compensating motion pat- terns cause hypermobility or stimulation of other muscles, which uses other muscles and joints more than they were meant to or in movements not best suit- ed. This introduces un- necessary wear and tear on that area. For example, a rider with stiff hips and weak lower abdominals will have a tendency to absorb more of their horse’s motion in their lower back, which can lead to pain and strain over time.
Your core muscles control your hip mobility and stability sitting on your horse, postural stamina and shoulder independence from hips. They are responsible for your con- trol over seat and leg place-
The importance of training the core for a rider just makes so much sense. In fact, when I am working with clients who are under time pressure, I will fre- quently advise them that if they have to drop exercises from their schedule in a given week, or during a hectic show season, the two activities they should keep without fail are exer- cises for flexibility and core strength. One reason is that both stretching and core work can be done wearing just about any- thing, anywhere, anytime which makes it really easy to keep them in your life when you are extremely busy.
What is less clear for many people is exactly what to do about it. Why don’t they just make it eas- ier and say ‘abs’? Are there differences in core training between different disciplines?
a lot of endurance, time is your best ally in training, and you must use it if you want to avoid injury. You are better to train a little but consistently five days a week, than to do big core workouts sporadically because the big sporadic workouts place you at more risk for overload leading to injury. The little incremen- tal increases in daily core training over time will have a positive impact on your riding in the first week, without your risking injury or making major lifestyle changes to get the results. Riders who do some core training on a regular basis get the added benefit of better posture and spine health, and better back sup- port for any activity they need to so.
Another common example is the rider who has a weak core and is not maintaining correct pelvic position. As a result, the horse’s motion causes them to lose their balance a little, which their body manages by tightening their inner
Here is a sample short workout that covers all 6 of the above principles. For a serious core workout, I would recommend a workout of approximately 5-10 exercises with a total of 300 repetitions and isometric exercises sprinkled in between others. To get started, here are three exercises that cover the bases above, and would take you less than ten minutes:
Exercises 1. Ball pass Main Area Trained entire length of abdominals
Suggested # Repetitions 10-20 x
Key: Keep your spine ‘neutral’ on the floor as you lower the ball between your feet. You’re your knees on the way down if you cannot keep your back pressing on the floor. In the up phase, reach the ball up as high toward the ceiling as possible to make your body give 100% effort to your abdominal contraction.
2. Side planks entire torso, especially obliques 30-60 seconds each
Key: It is easier on your shoulders to lean on an elbow on the floor. An advanced ver- sion could be up on one hand, while doing a simultaneous side leg raise.
3. Back extensions
entire length of back plus rotation 15-20 x with arms out and rotations
Key: Raise your body no higher than 45 degrees to the floor to protect your lower back from strain. A simpler version would be lying stretched out on the floor to do the exer- cise. The ball forces you to keep your hips stable while your shoulders are turning, which is very useful for a rider.
Ball Pass Side Planks Back Extension
When I am designing a training program at a clinic or for a private client, I will emphasize dif- ferent exercises and degrees of core training that depend on several fac- tors: the individual (age, fitness level, physical issues), the discipline requirements (cross coun- try fences introduce much heavier demand in more directions on a rider’s back than other events), and the amount of time and tools available to the rider for training. However, most riders can benefit from any core training as long as it is well-rounded enough for a rider, consistent and keeps you interested in doing it faithfully. To get results you also need to always push the envelope just a lit- tle bit further each time you work out.
Most people can start to have a noticeable impact on their core strength by starting off with five min- utes a day of training. Because core muscles have
A couple of years ago, I published an ebook on core training “Complete Core Workout for Riders” (available as a download), and many very fat books on core training exist. So, there is a lot more that could be discussed here. To keep it simple and help you get a ball rolling on your own core training, I would like to use the remaining space for this article to give you a short core workout. The work- out below has a structure that is good for riders. You can find core exercises almost anywhere these days. Knowing how to put them together effectively for your riding require- ments makes all the differ- ence. If exercises cause pain or strain, stop doing them and consult a health- care professional. Here is the formula I use for designing core workouts: 1. If you are just starting out, train for just a few minutes each day. When your core workout starts to take 15-20 minutes, you can drop it to several times a week. When you reach a good base of core fitness, you can maintain it with just a couple of core train- ing sessions a week because you will have also taught your body to inte- grate core stabilization into everything you do. 2. Include a mix of active movement exercises and isometric exercises. The active ones force your core
Ball Pass
muscles into greater range of motion than when you are riding. This is what allows you to build supple strength along the full length of the muscle, whereas hoping to get stronger just by riding causes your body to strengthen in short seg- ments. Under pressure, these become knots. Iso- metric exercises require you to hold a position for a period of time, stimulating your body to integrate all layers of core stabilizing muscles. You need to train both movement and iso- metric capacity in your muscles because you need to both hold your posture through a long period of time, but also change posi- tion on purpose, and in the moment you want to. 3. Train endurance. As noted above, you need endurance. 30 crunches on a ball or your floor are more useful training for a rider than a set of 10-15 repetitions using an abdominal crunch machine at the gym with weights. You do not need to use your core to powerlift, just support your own body against constant pressure (the horse’s movement) for an extended period of time. Building endurance in muscles is about more than just repetitions. It takes time to change the muscle fibres so that they are capa- ble of greater endurance. 4. Train eccentric and con- centric motion. This means, train going through both the ‘up’ and ‘down’ phases of an exercise. Resisting motion is just as valuable for strength train- ing as motion, and most of what your torso does is resist motions so your body doesn’t block your horse’s movement, and so that it can apply only those motions you need to give aids to your horse. An example of eccentric/con- centric training is doing leg raise/lowers on the floor. Most people think of the leg raise part only. Lower- ing your legs slowly while keeping a neutral spine on the floor actually builds your lower back and abdominal strength more than the lift phase did. 5. Train all four sides and rotational movement.
Select exercises that train your abdominals, back muscles, obliques, and also train rotational movements. 6. Train the full length of your back and abdominal muscles. Select exercises to cover lower, middle and upper back/abs. 7. Advanced: when you get more practiced at core training, mix it up for vari- ety and ‘layer’ your exer- cises for maximum effect. The same workout will not work for you the same way, forever. Having a mix of seated, exercise ball, lying and standing type core exercises gives you more ways to train a muscle/movement, without getting bored. Standing exercise have the added advantage of also giving you a bonus workout for thighs, glutes and hip stabi- lizers. Layering your exer- cises is where you do one after the other to give the muscles maximum workout by using them similarly but differently back to back. An example would be doing a plank after some crunches on your ball. You will find you do not need to hold the plank as long to get the same burning effect on your deep core muscles and lower back. So you get to save time.
By Heather Sansom,
Equifitt.com Equestrian Fitness – Balanced Train- ing for Better Riding. Equifitt specializes in help- ing riders improve their ride through fitness for rid- ers and Centered Riding techniques. Equifitt offers a free tips newsletter (sign up on
www.equifitt.com , ebooks you can download, clinics and coaching, and even online coaching options- bring your coach to you!
Equifitt methods draw on many fitness areas and sport conditioning princi- ples. Individualized pro- grams for riders are tai- lored to your riding priori- ties, lifestyle needs and other fitness goals such as injury recovery, weight loss, strain prevention. Be the best training partner for your horse that you can be!
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