14/ AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2022 THE RIDER Equestrian Fitness Tip: Reducing Tension by Training the ‘Off Switch’


us wind up at the barn bring- ing the tension with us. Horses feel it. While there are many as-


By Heather Sansom; Are you a busy rider who


carries that energy to the barn? Most riders I know value the ways that having horses in your life provides an opportunity to find your ‘happy place’. Some are more competitive than others, but all riders that I’ve worked with are united by having goals and yet also wanting to find their place of peace or flow with their horses. Most are also busy peo- ple, balance the work that pays for the horses, and the other ele- ments of life. Inevitably, many of


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pects to consider in bringing a more ‘present’ self to your ride, this month’s Equifitt Fittip is focused on control- ling how the tension affects


your muscle tone. More specifi- cally, we are focusing on how your brain controls signaling to your muscles to alternate be- tween engagement and relaxing. While we know we cannot drive a car without alternating between brake and fuel pedals, tension or stress can cause us to ‘lose the brake pedal’ on muscle tone. When we carry stress in body parts that directly affect riding, it’s like having a megaphone on one aid, even when you are try- ing to apply another. For exam- ple, tension in your shoulders


will signal a block in movement to your horse. Even if you are ap- plying and re-applying forward aids, the horse will be caught be- tween those aids, and the one you are not aware of (the tension in your shoulders and block in spinal movement). Training a horse, we ask


him to do things, and then to stop and wait for new direction. Ap- plying aids, we use the aid, and then return to a neutral position until the need for the next aid oc- curs. Yet, in training our own bodies we can tend to focus con- stantly on what we want a muscle or part of our body to do- not on the stopping moment. As a re- sult, riders can increase their ten- sion through their physical training, rather than decrease it. Some of my keenest clients and clinic participants have had an A- type nature. They want to know


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all the ways they can do more to ride better and to improve. If you give them a suggestion, they are all over it. However, sometimes the same impulse causes the rider to layer effort on top of tension. The desire to improve and do our best is what makes us persist. However, like learning to breath or meditate, we have to be able to teach our bodies and minds to also stop. Otherwise the intensity of focus causes an already tense body, to become even more tense when extra effort is applied to particular muscles, movements or zones. Some people wrongly believe that strength training makes riders tense. The problem is not in training muscle strength, but in having a poor ‘off-switch’. In a tense or A-type person, the off switch can be weakest. You can train your body to


have a more fine-tuned neuro- muscular off switch by practicing exercises or movements and then returning immediately to a relax- ation moment. If you have areas of your body which are particu- larly prone to holding tension, it is a good sign that the ‘off switch’ is weak in that area. If you are having trouble getting a muscle group to relax after per- forming an exercise, try switch- ing back and forth from performing an exercise will full effort, to immediate stretching with deep diaphragmatic breath- ing until you feel the tension leave your body. For example, a rider who


avoid exercising their upper body. They need to exercise the muscles of their upper back and shoulder area to improve their body’s passive self-carriage with more supportive soft tissue. Hav- ing more muscle tissue in your upper back and shoulders helps a rider avoid accumulating tension before their ride through the barn chores or tacking up activities. However, to avoid tightening and shortening muscles in the area, it is critically important for that rider to also train the muscles in stopping.


Lateral Arm Raise Example: If part of the rider’s routine in- cludes lateral arm raises (arm raises out to the sides to shoulder height, holding free weights), the rider prone to tension in shoul- ders could do a relaxation exer- cise immediately after each set. After a set of 10-12 repetitions, they would put the weights down, and breathe deeply through the diaphragm while doing some re- laxing shoulder rolls before pro- ceeding. At first, the breathing and shoulder stretching might take longer than the strength ex- ercise as the rider seeks to achieve real relaxation of those muscles before asking them to turn ‘on’ again with the next set. By repeating the ‘on/off ’ de- mands, the neural-muscular con- trol will improve each time until the rider can almost instantly relax muscles after an effort. Taking the time to train


gets tense shoulders should not muscles to also cease working on


command results in a much higher ability to make adjust- ments or apply aids in the saddle as needed, without acquiring cu- mulative tension. This type of training can seem slow at the start, but it’s useful to remember a saying often used in endurance riding and distance running: you need to go slower to go faster. Training your body’s on/off abil- ity is a little like doing up/down transitions with your horse. It helps you centre yourself and focus physically and mentally by improving your physical re- sponse on demand. On/off train- ing is a technique you can use when you don’t have long to train, or have had more tension than usual. You can use the tech- nique in your ground training, and during your warmup on your horse.


Safe and Happy Training !


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


Personal Trainer, Riding Coach, Therapist Fitness, biomechanics and riding instruction. Personalized Coaching Available online Check out the leading 9 week rider fitness plan book (complete with anatomy illustrations)- available in print or as a down- l


o a d ! www.equifitt.com/fit2ride/ :


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