JULY 2025 THE RIDER /39 Rider Fitness: Strengthening Your Lower Back
make the list in common gym workouts. However, these mus- cles support nearly everything you need to do with your back as a rider.
DON’T: When this area is sore,
By Heather Sansom.
18th Anniversary of Equifitt this Year Just a reminder that al-
though the Equifitt Fitness Tips newsletter is less frequent, you can still get all kinds of tips from 100s of articles I have published with magazines like Dressage Today and are available on the web for free. You can also go to the Equifitt website for down- loadable ebooks, publishers like Trafalgar Square Books, or dis- tributors like Amazon to get printed copies of my rider fitness programs. I published books to make functional workouts acces- sible for any budget. I am still available for one-on-one cus- tomized training plans and analy- sis of your riding videos or pictures, via online coaching. Specific packages are also avail- able. Clients have been served online in nearly all continents. Online webinars for groups are also an option.
MINIMIZING SOCIAL
MEDIA Equifitt is no longer on
Facebook or other social media. If you see a page there- it isn’t me. You can reach me at person-
altraining@equifitt.com .
Fitness Tip for Today: Strengthening Your Lower Back
Today’s tips are inspired
by a rider I know who already does an impressive regular gym workout, building leg and shoul- der strength as she trains for the sport of Eventing. The rider is a slim build, so spending extra time on building muscle mass is en- tirely appropriate, and very help-
Supported back extension with lifts
many riders make the mistake of focusing on stretches. It makes sense right? We stretch to relieve tightness in a sore muscle, don’t we? There is a lot of information out there about stretching your lower back if it is sore. However, the problem may actually be that the muscles are weak, and there- fore they were overstretched or otherwise strained by the activity. In this case, stretching them will make them more elastic, but may even contribute further to the weakness that causes pain.
DO: Strengthen, strengthen, Supported back extension
ful for protecting her from poten- tial injury. When my friend came out of a jumping ride lamenting over very sore lumbar back mus- cles, I took a look at her gym rou- tine.
Many times, personal
trainers who are not also sport coaches may miss some of the areas needed to support func- tional movement. Often times, I find that a first step riders can take to better support their jump- ing position, is to build up gluteal and thigh strength. In the current digital age, we sit too much and move our bodies up and down hills and stairs too little. Our nat- ural
locomotive powerhouse
muscles on our backside and thighs are not as strong, so there is less there for the spine muscles to anchor to. In jumping, the back needs a firm support base for
leaning forward, and for with- standing rotations without injury- particularly in Eventing. If you’ve followed my posts or bought one of my books, you know that I pay attention to the gluteal and thigh muscles for my equestrian workouts. My rider friend had an ex-
cellent gluteal and leg routine. So, where was the problem? She was specifically sore
in the erector spinae muscle group in the lumbar region (see illustration at end of article). If you go to pick up a pail off the floor and put your hand on your lower back, you will feel two long muscle areas that bulge out on either side of your spine. This group of muscles isn’t as photo- genic or accessible as other areas such as shoulders or legs, so ex- ercises targeting it often fail to
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July 25-26 - Rockton Ram Rodeo
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EC Show #2 - Sunday, July 27th EC Show #3 - Sunday, August 24th West N iagara Fairgrounds, 7402 Mud Street W., Grassie, ON
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October 3-5, 2025 - Equi Cup Jumper Champi- onship Show Nov 29/30, 2025 - “Close to Christmas… Equi Cup Jumper Show” Information and gallery of previous events at
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and strengthen some more. I’ve never seen a photo of body- builder that screams ‘wow too much bulk on the erector spinae’. This muscle group is better trained with a combination of en- durance type strength exercises, because the heavy lifting ap- proach used for mass building could cause an injury. Your lower back is like the weak link in the chain. Everything around it can be strong, but if it is not, a rider ends up losing their core stability and then overusing shoulders, arms and legs. There are several ways you can easily build up strength in your erector spinae, particularly in the lower back area. I recommend that any fo- cused exercises for this muscle group are done after the rest of your workout or activity. The rea- son is that if you fatigue them through training, they will not be able to support your spine as ef- fectively in other exercises (such as upper body or cardio), which leaves you at greater risk of strain or injury. Some of the top exercises
that I like to use to build up the erector spinae and lumbar area include deadlifts on different an- gles, planks with limb variation, and the use of cable or resistance bands with standing back move-
Equitip Erector Spinae
ments that are similar in direction to the first two. For the newsletter today, I picked two variations of a supported plank exercise that you can do with your fitness ball. If you are not very secure balanc- ing on a fitness ball, then try vari- ations lying on the floor or over a towel or pillow placed under your hips and lower abdominal area to create a slight difference between the level of your hips, and the rest of your back. To do the back raises, en-
gage your abdominals before lift- ing, and then lift slowly while holding the position for a count of 3 to 10 (depending on your en- durance). Repeat until you feel a burning sensation in the targeted muscle, or you notice that you are compensating for fatiguing mus- cles by swinging into the move- ment or other little adjustments. For more advanced variations, use limb raises or limb raises in
PORT COLBORNE - BERTIE WILLOUGHBY SADDLE CLUB
August 10, September 7, Raindate September 14. Held at 2795 Vimy Road, Port Colborne.
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ambergilbert80@gmail.com
combinations to provide IMAGES USED HERE ARE FROM my book “Fit to Ride in Nine Weeks” published by Trafalgar Square books, with il- lustrations by Margaret Hender- son
Safe and Happy Training!
© Heather R. Sansom, PhD.
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Welsh Summer Classic - Sunday, July 13th at Erin Fairgrounds Canadian All Welsh Championship - Sunday, Au- gust 3rd at Ten Sixty Stables in Uxbridge, ON. Visit
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WORKING EQUITATION CENTRAL ON- TARIO - WECO
Saturday June 19, 2025 - 9:00 am - Cow Horse Clinic with Jason Richards.Ayr, ON. Contact Ellie Ross -
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circle8QH@gmail.com
Uxbridge Horsemen’s Association Schooling Show Program - Elgin Park, Uxbridge. Sunday, August 10th, 2025 Saturday, September 6th, 2025 part of the Uxbridge Fall Fair Please visit
https://www.uxbridgehorsemen.com/ for: Entry Forms and other details.
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