AUGUST 2019 THE RIDER /47 Rider Fitness: Why a Hip Hinge is Important for Riders


to another topic related to this exercise that is very im- portant for riders of all ages and all types


I’m re-using the illustra-


By Heather Sansom This month’s tip is a pro-


gression from our discussion last month on achieving a long and strong backline. One of the exercises fea-


tured was a deadlift, used to build strength in your gluteals, back and legs while promoting flexion in your ankles. In the conversa- tion about strength, we didn’t get


Deadlift


tion from last month so that you can observe the anatomy again. It’s fairly obvious that any rider sits on a horse with a degree of bend at the pelvis, knee, and ankle. The shorter your stirrup, the big- ger the bend in all three joints. The longer the stirrup,


the less bend there is. Most riders also realize that the bending of the pelvis is similar to the posi- tion you are in when seated, such as at a desk or driving. Further, you have probably already heard of the lower-crossed syndrome which can result from so much sitting- or at least experienced the resulting tight hip flexors. You have probably seen exercises for riders


featuring


straightening out your


leg in a


stretch in order to increase the flexi- bility of those hip flexors, especially in my own writing. That


syn-


Illustration by animal and portrait artist Marg Henderson, published by Trafalgar Square in my book Fit to Ride in Nine Weeks


drome and the need for flexible hip flexors is all true and important. However, an as- pect that is often overlooked is the somewhat counter- intuitive co-occur- rence of less ability


for bend at the hips. For a rider, bendability at the hips is crucial, because hips that won’t bend are directly connect to your lower ex- tremities and your back. I know the ‘hip-bone-connected-to-the- leg-bone’ comment is obvious. What isn’t as obvious though is the biomechanics of the connec- tion when riding. When your hips cannot


properly fold, they pretty much force you into less fold in your ankles, more pressure on your knees, and compensation in your back either through rounding the lower back, or overcompensating with a hollow back. No matter what style of riding you do most, you can see how these issues would affect your leg, back, and seat position. If you ride with shorter


stirrups such as


hunter/jumper or in racing posi- tion, joint bend is obvious. What about straighter-legged riding po- sitions? Even though the angles are less acute, you still need the capacity for correct fold in these positions because that capacity is all about freedom of movement in the joints so that they can ab- sorb the motions of your horse as you feel them under your seat and under your feet. Stiffness in the hips is still detrimental to absorp- tion of movement in both your legs and your spine. In sport conditioning, per-


forming a good quality hip flex- ion, or hip hinge, involves a ‘triple fold’ of the ankles, knees, and hips with a straight back. It requires the strong backline (es- pecially gluteals) that we talked


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about in last month’s newsletter. It also requires flexible ankles, and preventing your knees from overcompensating with too much bend. If you re-examine the image of the deadlift above, you can see that the knees are not al- lowed to pass the toes, there is bend in the ankles, and the back is held straight. To achieve these, the seat has to be pushed back into a very acute angle. When doing any exercise involving this motion, there is a feeling of sit- ting back and down ‘into’ your seat muscles. I find it helpful to visualize poking your sit bones back out behind you. In training yourself to fold, only squat into your exercise as deeply as you can without compromising the straight back, or knee position. It is about training your body to do the movement correctly, engag- ing the right areas, not about how deep you squat or how much weight you move while doing it. Other handy exercises that also involve the same movement in- clude a bent-over reverse fly, or simple squats (see images below).


The ability to do a correct


hip-hinge movement is also im- proved by increasing the flexibil- ity of both your ankles and hamstrings, since the movement involves a stretching of the Achilles tendon, and tendons at the origin of the hamstring. A calf stretch such as the one shown last month where you hang one ankle off of a stair flexes the ankle. You can do


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lying or standing stretches for the hamstring. If you are an older rider, or rider with especially stiff hips or ankles, you will get addi- tional benefits from improving your hip-hinge such as better bal- ance in general, and better er- gonomics for lifting and walking.


Happy Riding and Training! © Heather R. Sansom, PhD.


Squat www.equifitt.com


Leading Equestrian Fitness since 2007. Fitness, Wellbeing, Biomechan- ics. Available for clinics & individu- alized online coaching. Check out the 9 week rider fit- ness plan book- available in print or


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


Bent Over Reverse Fly


Hamstring Strech


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