MAY 2019 THE RIDER /51 Rider Fitness:


area, and how they help you position your shoulders and your pelvis.


I have been By Heather Sansom


Rider Fitness 2019 04: Pelvic Balance Secret is Your Core


How You Can Use Your Core for a Better Seat This month we’re building


on the foundation we started for 2019. As we revisit the basics (what I call the rider fitness train- ing scale), we started the year im- proving cardio for stamina. Then, we discussed flexibility in your core area, and how it im- pacts your balance and hip con- trol when riding.


grounding my work with rid- ers on core strength and inte- grated core training for years- it is the foundation of my work. This month I’m inspired by an article I read in Practical Horseman by rid- ing biomechanics specialist, Susanne von Dietze. In the article titled Discovering a Deeper and More Effective Seat (link here, or do a web search), she provides a very


simple unmounted exercise to il- lustrate how the muscles on the front of your torso control the tilt of your pelvis. While her article is mainly oriented to dressage, the same principles apply for all disciplines: controlling your torso and pelvis through your core is better than trying to do it through your shoulders. When riders at- tempt to re-centre themselves through their shoulder position, they constantly fall ahead or be- hind the horse’s motion. Adjust- ing and then maintaining the orientation of your shoulders and pelvis through your core is more


pline. For this tip, we are mostly


talking about the rectus abdomi- nus, which is the long muscle at- taching at either end in your sternum area and pubic bone area. The illustration below shows this muscle area in a mounted rider.


Improving Your Riding Suppleness


without neck strain, you are ready to add difficulty through asymmetrical weight (i.e., single limb extensions held throughout the crunch, holding a weight in your hands, or lifting your legs off the floor), or more challeng- ing work (i.e., crunches on a BOSU or fitness ball, or standing work).


boosting


neuro-science idea ‘what fires to- gether wires together’? For neuro-muscular connections, it means that the more you connect the intention of your mind (i.e., contraction or relaxation of the muscle), to movement (actual contraction and relaxation), the more highly attuned that particu- lar nerve chain (brain and mus- cle) becomes. So, while we hope to never see you doing the equiv- alent of crunches while sitting on your horse, doing crunches and other exercises to build strength and stamina in your frontline ab- dominals off the horse will help support your position and control in the saddle- whatever saddle you use, and whatever you are doing in it. A good workout plan for your


abdominal


strength would start with daily exercises for 5-10 minutes. Next, slowly increase the amount of time you are training. When you reach 20 minutes, you can drop your workouts to 2-3 times


Illustration by animal and por- trait artist Marg Henderson, pub- lished by Trafalgar Square in my book Fit to Ride in Nine Weeks At the top end, positive


Image: Rider Fitness Training Scale


In this tip we are looking at your core muscles in your belly


subtle, and doesn’t throw you outside your horse’s rhythm. As we know, rhythm and balance are critical to performance and injury prevention in any riding disci-


tension or softness can adjust your rib-cage so that you can po- sition your shoulders with micro- movements. At the bottom end, a tiny pull or relaxation can con- trol the tilt of your pelvis and your weight in the saddle. The image below shows a very simple floor crunch exercise depicting the contraction of the rectus ab- dominus. There are so many core exercises you can do to target this area. I often recommend that rid- ers start from the bottom with a very simple exercise that you know really well, so that you focus on making sure that you are contracting your abdominal mus- cles correctly while maintaining perfect alignment, and keeping relaxation in your shoulders and neck. If you can do 100 floor crunches in perfect alignment


CHANGE OF ADDRESS AFFIX OLD ADDRESS HERE


Mythbuster: Many riders might be familiar with images from magazines or from Centered Rid- ing of a rider having strings pulling their shoulders down to the pommel. Building your core strength will not cause your body to collapse inward when you are riding. On the contrary, it is more like blowing up a flat tire: the mus- cle size and tone helps prevent you from col- lapsing.


Happy Riding and Training!


© Heather R. Sansom, PhD. www.equifitt.com


Strengthening this muscle area is really important for two reasons:


• First, a strong but relaxed mus- cle is stable and still provides support. A weak or inadequately developed one cannot be en- gaged effectively when you re- ally need it. • Second, training the muscles makes them more ‘alert’ to sig- nals when you need them in mil- liseconds when riding. Have you ever heard the


per week for maintenance. While I do have core workout plans you can download (see www.equifitt.com/ebooks4rid- ers/ ), you can also find a wide variety of Pilates and other core training resources in printed form, or videos on the internet. Word of caution: Many


riders are familiar with basic core exercises. Watch out for going into autopilot without awareness. If you have issues with your core stability or hip position, or feel


Personal Trainer, Riding Coach, Recreation Therapist Fitness, biomechanics and riding instruction. Personalized Coaching Available online Check out the 9 week rider fit- ness plan book- available in print or


as a download!: www.equifitt.com/fit2ride/


you have to consciously engage your core while riding, then your core is not correctly engaging. It should work for you nearly auto- matically if you have trained and primed it to do so. A very small percentage of riders train their core correctly while riding. Most would benefit from groundwork. There is a strong likelihood that your body has found compensat- ing muscle firing patterns to get you through your daily activities, which means that you might per- form the movement without a correct neuro-muscular firing pattern. Make sure that the right areas are working. Otherwise, you are reinforcing the firing pat- tern that you are trying to correct, instead of the one that you need to build up.


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