Rider fitness

Is there a difference between being fit and being fit for riding?

Being fit generally means having the ability to perform everyday tasks with ease, with a good level of muscular strength, endurance, aerobic capacity and flexibility.

Unfortunately, moving hay bales and bags of feed, poo picking, mucking out and pushing wheelbarrows (as examples), whilst perhaps beneficial to general fitness, doesn’t develop the correct muscles, within the correct movement patterns or ranges of motions which will help improve your riding.

As with all sports, exercises need to focus on the muscles that riders use when in the saddle, this is what makes the exercise transferable to your riding and will help you become more stable, balanced and confident but will also reduce the aches & pains of being in the saddle for hours as the body will be better prepared, better conditioned.

Not all exercise is equal:

Working around the yard, caring for horses will improve your ‘general’ fitness but will not necessarily improve your riding fitness.

Creating your Rider Fitness Home Workout As many of us are not riding at the moment, it is the perfect opportunity to invest some time into yourself.

When we do return to ‘normal’ and start going to events we can do so with better body awareness, control and confidence in ourselves as we are more prepared. #Wewillrideagain

As with all exercises, it is really important to feel the movement of each exercise, and engage the correct muscles, which are detailed in the description, to perform the movement. This way you will get the maximum benefit of the exercise and create a connection from your mind to your rider muscles. As mentioned in RiderCise® Series 1, Rider Fitness is about improving riding ability, performance and reducing associated aches and pains and the severity of injuries that can occur.

Exercise 1 - Single Leg Swing – Abduction / Adduction This exercise is deceiving, it looks simple but it is insightful into how our body produces movement. Often we collapse laterally to produce this movement, dropping the shoulder to meet the hip, which is a compensatory action we do subconsciously, instead of activating the glutes to move the leg.

Main Muscles used: Adductor Muscles: Tensor Fasciae Latae (TFL), Glutes – Medius and Minimus (bum)

RIDING TRANSLATION The abductor muscles are essential for stabilising the pelvis to enable us to walk or stand on one leg and sit balanced in the saddle. If these muscles are weak it can cause us to sit lop-sided, feel like we are slipping and prevent us from providing clear leg aids on the weakened side. In addition, weak abductor muscles are also linked with knee pain.

By performing this exercise correctly you will be able to provide clear effective leg aids whilst sitting straight and neutrally.

INSTRUCTIONS 1. Stand with your feet together and resting one leg. Keep your standing knee soft, not locked out

Hips facing forward

Chest high and looking straight ahead

Bring your resting leg to the side of your body by squeezing your bum and keeping the leg as straight as possible and without dropping your shoulder to meet your hip

Return the leg back towards your body in a controlled manner, squeezing your bum throughout the whole movement

6. This is one repetition

Perform: 10 times on each leg and repeat

NOTES • Keep the movement small when lifting your leg to the side (abducting) making sure that you are not bringing your shoulders towards your hips, creating a small C - shape

Hold the ‘squeeze’ in the bum muscles throughout the whole movement, they should be aching after 2-3 repetitions

EXERCISE ADAPTATIONS OPTION 1 If you struggle with your balance you can perform this movement whilst holding on to a chair or by resting your hand on a wall.

EXERCISE ADAPTATIONS OPTION 2 If you feel particularly tight or restricted in this movement, or feel that you are bringing your shoulders to your hip then you can bend the leg at the knee but keep the movement the same, focusing on the control of moving your leg to the side of your body and back again.

Exercise 2 – Dead Bug An amazing exercise that uses the core muscles to stabilise your trunk whilst performing arm and leg movements which helps improve your body awareness (proprioception) and motor control. It is a very simple exercise but one which is very often performed incorrectly and too fast which provides no benefit to you.

Main Muscles targeted: Erector Spinae, Obliques, Rectus and Transverse Abdominis (TVA)

RIDING TRANSLATION Being able to stabilise your core, whilst breathing fully and control your arms and legs independently is the ultimate in riding stability and it sounds easy but as we all know, it’s not! Mastering this exercise will not only help improve your riding stability, body awareness and control of your communications but it will also help to relieve and prevent lower back pain.

INSTRUCTIONS 1. Lie on the floor with your hands straight up and knees above your hips bent at 90degrees

2. Push your back flat against the floor and imagine it is super glued! – KEY FACTOR of this exercise

3. Slowly extend one arm and the opposite leg away from the centre of your body, going as low as you can, whilst not lifting your back from the floor

4. Slowly return your arm and leg back to the start position

5. Repeat with opposite arm and leg

Perform: Movement of both sides is 1 repetition, perform 10 in total

NOTES • Remember to breathe fully during this exercise, and focus on keeping your back on the floor throughout the movement

If you feel that you are arching your back or lifting your hips, don’t extend your arm or legs as far (closer towards the ground), keep them closer to your body

This must be performed slowly

EXERCISE ADAPTATIONS OPTION 1 You can do this exercise with your arms down your side on the floor and focus on extending one leg at a time from the start position of knees bent at 90degrees above your hips.

EXERCISE ADAPTATIONS OPTION 2 If you find it particularly hard to keep your back on the floor, keep your knees bent at 90degrees above your hips and focus on extending your arms, one at a time, above your head.

Clare Gangadeen