FEBRUARY 2013 THE RIDER /37 Fitness Tip Of The Month: Steps to Better Posture & Hands Part 3: Figure 1
ing a neutral spine on the floor. You should feel your lumbar area muscles and abdominals working very hard to keep your back flat.
Exercises to Support Your Back Figure 4
By Heather Sansom.
In this series we have been looking at the effects of a rider’s posture on the horse’s way of going. Many riders can strike a good posture, but maintaining it through your ride or through your day is a matter of stamina and condi- tioning. Unfortunately, the rider is so much smaller rela- tive to the horse’s size, that we do not know or notice when our own fatigue or failure to carry ourselves has started to place more and more loading on the horse. The horses com- pensate without our realizing the extra effort they are expe- riencing. If you have ever hiked for any distance with a child on your back, you can appreciate how easy it is to start out, but how quickly a slight imbalance or shift of the child’s weight can make your job harder.
In the last column, I showed a modified Down Dog stretch to help a rider straight- en their back. This month, try out the three exercises sug- gested to help build actual strength. A rider does not usually need a lot of ballistic strength, or strength required to move their own weight quickly, or move another object. However, maintaining a neutral position on a moving horse actually does take a lot of stamina. To get the stami- na, you need good muscle tone in your trunk supporting mus- cles.
In order to build good core tone, you need to pay attention to your upper, mid- dle and lower core muscles. This month’s article offers one exercise for each area. The exercises are easy to do with little equipment or space, so you can fit them into your
time at the barn, living room or just about anywhere.
The goals of this month’s exercises include:
1. Straightening a slouch in the upper back by releasing muscle tension in back and shoulders.
2. Improving stamina in trunk support muscles, front and back.
1. Back Stretch (Figure 1) The goal of this exercise is to stretch your upper back, not your lower back. Start with your head and shoulders on the ball, using your abdom- inals to keep your hips parallel with your shoulders and knees. Slowly walk back and allow your head and shoulders to roll back and down follow- ing the curve of the ball. If you are very stiff in your upper back, your lower back probably has a tendency to do all the bending. Don’t let your body cheat on this exercise: keep your hips held up a little by your abdominals, so that your lower back does not arch excessively, and your upper spine has the opportunity to relax and extend back and down, rounding over the ball.
2. Crunch with Leg Raise (Figures 2 -3)
Lay on a flat surface in a
sit-up position. Roll your hips back until you feel the entire length of your back on the floor with no space or hollow in your lower back. Your goal will be to keep this spine neu- tral posture through the exer- cise, in spite of adding ‘load’ to the muscles. The loading
comes from your lifting your leg and/or your chest off the floor while maintaining a neu- tral spine (no hollow low back) on the ground.
Lift one foot off the ground until your leg is straight, and your two femurs (upper thigh) are parallel with each other. Hold the position for several seconds or breaths, maintain-
Figure 2
The more stamina you have, the longer you can hold your leg in position. If you have lateral imbalances, your hips may tend to flop to one side. Controlling the exact straightness and evenness of your hips, femurs and knees will bring an addition hip sta- bilizing factor into the exer- cise. When you can hold the position for several seconds using both legs, you can add a shoulder lift. If you tend to poke your nose out riding, you need to be very careful to use your abdominals to lift your shoulder blades slightly off the ground, while maintaining relaxed neck muscles and not poking your neck forward. Letting your head rest on your hands and wiggling your jaw help with keeping your neck soft.
Figure 5
Figure 3
3. Ball Lift (Figures 4-5) This exercise helps strengthen your entire back. Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent. Tip for- ward as far as you can while maintaining an absolutely flat back. Raise your arms or an object in front of you, main- taining a straight back. If you roach or hollow your back, you do not yet have the mus- cle stamina to maintain align- ment while raising both arms. Do them one at a time. You should feel your back working along it’s entire length to maintain straightness in spite of the demand created by rais- ing the weight of your arm/arms/object in front of you. If you are doing the exercise correctly with slightly bent knee, you should also be aware of more weight in your heels than your toes, and of engagement of your gluteal muscles in your seat. The gluteal muscles provide the anchor for good low back pos-
ture, even when you are seated upright on the horse and don’t necessarily feel them at work.
© By
EquiFITT.com Personal Fitness Training owner, Heather Sansom
By Heather Sansom, Owner,
Equifitt.com Equestrian Fit- ness Training
Heather is a specialist in rider biomechanics and condition- ing. She has published over 100 articles on rider fitness and biomechanics nationally and internationally, as well as two ebooks: The Complete Core Workout for riders, and Handy Stretching Guide for Riders. The ebooks are avail- able on the Equifitt website. Get more free fitness tips for riders by signing up for the free newsletter (sign up at
www.equifitt.com/resources.ht ml), or ‘liking’
Equifitt.com on Facebook.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60