14/ FEBRUARY 2022 THE RIDER Fitness for Riders: Unraveling the Mystery of the Psoas Muscle for Riders


that the rider’s core is the starting point for all of a rider’s posture, balance,


As a Level 2 Centered


Riding (CR) instructor and Equestrian Coach certified in Canada’s national eques- trian coaching program, I recently had the pleasure of attending a virtual CR sym- posium featuring informa- tive sessions discussing one of my favourite rider fitness topics: the importance of core stability. As a certified fitness trainer and biome- chanics/functional fitness specialist, my work over the years in rider fitness has de- veloped around functional fitness. Before HIIT (high intensity interval training) and body-weight workouts went mainstream, I was working these principles into my fitness for riders programs, inspired by the biomechanics and func- tional anatomy equestrian experts like Susanne von Dietze (Rider & Horse Back to Back) and Eckart Meyn- ers (Effective Teaching and Riding Exploring Balance and Movement). While both of whom were classically trained in kinesiology and functional training, Susanne von Dietze is also an accom- plished rider and equestrian coach. In the non-riding


world, functional fitness concepts anchored in a sta- ble core are central to areas such as ‘anatomy trains’, and disciplines like martial arts and dance, in which the human body is not necessar- ily basing movement on contact with the ground. CR’s founder Sally Swift, and the CR movement since, place strong emphasis on martial arts principles due to this common trait with riding, namely, that the rider’s movement (unlike many other sports) is not an- chored primarily in their feet. Instead, movement and balance come from a grounded centre in the base of the torso. I have always found it


important to relate my knowledge of equine and human biomechanics, to the best science I could access about human movement and function. As a result, my rider fitness training has veered away from ‘gym body’ fitness toward the same functional fitness I have focused on with other athlete clients. A ‘rider fit- ness training scale’ that I de- veloped in 2007 has been unique to my rider fitness work and clients, and even sneaked into ‘mainstream’ in rider fitness as trainers after me have read and used my work in their own pro- grams. The foundation of this


scale, as with horse training, is suppleness. The next layer involves core stability, given


and


movement both in the torso and limbs. Simply, sit- ting on the horse


means that a rider does not start movement from con- tact with the ground. Ideally, the rider does not primarily support themselves from pressure on the horse either. This physical fact entirely changes the fitness needs of a rider, from those of the everyday fitness industry or sport conditioning. This is why it is so helpful to a rider when a personal trainer, physiotherapist or other body worker also has inti- mate knowledge of riding needs from experience. Similar to a martial artist or dancer, the rider must have self-carriage, just as we ex- pect from our horses. There is little argument in the equestrian field on this point.


However, there can


often be misunderstanding about what the core is, and what the rider’s goal with training the core might be. Some mistakenly think that the ripped abs of the main- stream fitness and body image industry are the pur- pose of core training pro- grams. For riders, this is not the case. The rider trains the core, to engage, but not to tense these muscles while riding. The purpose is to provide a natural ‘support belt’ to the spine, and a strong base for the legs and upper body to anchor all their movements to. Tension is to be avoided where pos- sible while riding. Nevertheless, a flaccid


core with weak muscle mass or tone are no help to a rider because they diminish the rider’s stamina and ability for spinal support. Virtually any core training program on the market will be help- ful, if a rider has been doing little to build their core strength. I am a particular fan of Pilates type core training, though there are also many great exercises in other functional fitness pro- grams. However, there are some exercises that can ex- acerbate the tendency for riders to have over-tight psoas muscles. These exer- cises are rigorously avoided in my ebooks (Killer Core Workout for Riders), their printed versions, and my rider fitness and anatomy book Fit to Ride in Nine Weeks published by Trafal- gar Square and available worldwide in print and ebook formats at accessible ‘popular read’ book prices, despite its textbook quality. One example of an exercise to avoid includes leg raises, since this exercise shortens the psoas, increasing its po- tential for passive strength imbalance, and tightness while riding. As shown in the illus-


trations below (originally published in Fit to Ride, Trafalgar Square), the psoas muscle is shown on the skeleton and on the seated rider. It attaches to the base of the spine, and the upper femur. Its function is to bring the leg up. If humans moved on all 4’s, the same motion would bring the knee forward. Most riders never have a reason to hike their knee up off the saddle, but rather seek to drop it down to ground themselves in the centre of gravity, and get their calves on the horse for aids.


Instead of pulling the


legs forward with the psoas, movement is powered by the haunches for both hu- mans and horses: the gluteals and ‘backline’ mus- cles. Horses spring forward with power from the haunch muscles. Humans stand up- right (or lengthen their leg down from the saddle while lengthening their torso up- ‘centering and growing’ in CR language), from tone in their haunch and lower back. The difference when we put the rider on the horse, is that the horse strongly pushes from its


(Psoas illustrations copyright Heather Sansom, Marg Henderson, originally published in Fit to Ride in Nine Weeks, Trafalgar Square Books, 2016.)


While horses do move


by bringing their knee (sti- fle) up (forward when on all 4’s), neither humans nor horses power movement or create balance in their body with this muscle. The horse is not powering its move- ment by pulling or hauling its legs forward with its psoas muscle. Also, a tense psoas in a horse would con- tribute to a hollow back, which is undesirable no matter the discipline. The il- lustrations below, published in Fit to Ride, show how the horse and human parts are comparable. Comparable parts is an important princi- ple to Centered Riding, but it is a basic anatomical and biomechanical scientific fact that anyone with knowl- edge of both can see, whether initiated in Cen- tered Riding methods or not.


hind feet, whereas we do not want the rider pushing from his or her feet, or tightening up the gluteals and other backline muscles with ten- sion or strong contraction of those muscles. Clenching the backside results in a rider’s seat popping up from the saddle, removing the im- portant sitbone contact. However, tone and muscle mass in the backside allow the rider to sit deep with correct posture, while trig- gering the opposite muscle (the psoas) to relax, since the backside and psoas mus- cles are antagonists (when one is toned, the other re- laxes).


When the psoas is


overly strong compared with those ‘backline’ mus- cles in the hips and legs, the horse’s stride is shortened, and the human is pulled into


(Comparable parts illustrations copyright Heather Sansom, Marg Henderson, originally published in Fit to Ride in Nine Weeks, Trafalgar Square Books, 2016.)


what is known as ‘lower cross syndrome’, involving a hollowed low back and in- ability to lengthen the leg. The illustration below is copied from Sally Swift’s book Centered Riding (p. 71) showing a rider with what today would be called upper cross (scrunching in of the upper body) and lower cross (folding forward of leg and hip) syndromes. The only way for a rider to maintain upright posture with a shortened or overly powerful psoas, is to either relax the psoas, or sit up- right despite its pull on the lower back. The latter re- sults in negative pressure on the lower back, hollowing of the back, and possibly even damage to the lumbar vertebrae over time. To achieve a neutral or


upright spine with sitbones in good contact with the saddle, the rider must relax,


disengage, and lengthen the psoas. To do so in the sad- dle, the rider has to have the ability to do so unmounted. Two aspects are needed. First, the obvious aspect is to relax the target muscle: the psoas. Second, the basic rules of human movement and structure mean that the opposite muscle group (the backline muscles in the hip, including the gluteals) have to have some tonality to them. Otherwise, the upper hip collapses forward. Sim- ply, one can think of the psoas as pulling the rider forward from the small of their back, while the gluteals and other back muscles pull the rider upright from be- hind. If there is a strength or tension imbalance favouring the psoas (as there usually is in humans who spend a lot of time seated), the rider will be constantly struggling to intentionally relax, or to


counter the passive psoas tension with counteractive torso tension. So, while it appears


anatomically true that the psoas is closer to the base of the torso and deeper within the body than other core muscles, it is not function- ally true that it is a ‘more core’ muscle than the others, or that it supports neutral spine position. With the psoas in the required relaxed state for riding, the rider needs other muscles to sup- port the mid-section pos- ture, as well as rotational, forward, backward, and side to side movement of the torso and hips. In other words, the psoas will not stay relaxed unless other core muscles have some tonality to support the spine and the rider’s movements. More useful illustrations of


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