Author: admin

We are little over a week away from Christmas Day itself so I imagine you are already or about to get into seemingly endless rounds of parties, boxes of chocolates all over the office and being thrown out of your regular routine.

I’m not going to go all Grinch and say you should avoid all the mince pies, chocolates and mulled wine this festive season as firstly it would be very hypocritical as I certainly won’t be and secondly you would ignore me anyway!

However apparently the average person eats around 6000 calories on Christmas Day! Now if like me you have to do a Christmas Dinner with your own family, then the In laws and add to that Christmas Parties with colleagues and friends that’s a fair amount of extra calories going in.

Your horse is not going to appreciate you riding like a weighted slug come January 2018.

So, let’s call this damage limitation or maintenance-who wouldn’t be pleased to reach 2018 at least the same weight they left 1^st December 2017?

Here are some simple tips to help you do just that!

• If you are short on time, try riding for a little less time but with more focus and intensity. Obviously don’t skip a warm up and cool down, but 20 15-20 mins of continuous trotting and cantering and minimal breaks will have both you and your horse working up a sweat in half the time of your usual ride. Think of it as HIIT session for you and your horse!
• Keep to your own exercise regime as much as possible. Even if it means doing shorter workouts, at least try and do 3-4 workouts a week over the Christmas period 20 mins at least. I promise you will find it a million times easier to get back into a regular workout regime – or indeed a new fitness goal regime come 2018.
• Decide which treats you really want in advance and ignore the others. Let’s be honest it gets to a point where we are eating anything and everything put in front of us. Have an arrangement with yourself that you only really want certain things as an indulgence for example if you can’t be without Mince Pies and Quality Street; fine but skip the Christmas cake and Pringles.
• Load up on the good stuff. Turkey and Vegetables along with Satsumas, Chestnuts and Dates are abundant at this time of year so fill up on these healthy options so that you are less likely to over indulge on the naughty stuff. You can save the Carrots for your horse though I guess.
• Christmas is a great time to incorporate more walking into your week. The Christmas shopping alone can be a workout trekking up and down the shops. Also use the extra time off for maybe a walk in the morning or after Christmas lunch. All those extra steps can add up.
• If you have some time off why not use the time to do those jobs such as a full muck out, tidying the much heap or sweeping the yard. All guaranteed to work up a sweat if you do them at a time saving brisk pace.

So ride your horse, tidy the muck heap, eat your vegetables and enjoy your mince pie!

After last week’s looking at the front of the body, this week let’s take a look at the back.

As mentioned our posterior chain can spend a lot of time being stretched and lengthened throughout the day and unfortunately over time this can make it kind of weak and lazy.

This can cause us to over use the front of our bodies when we ride and pretty much disregard the back altogether! This makes us not only inefficient but also lacking the strength to truly absorb the force of our horse and therefore remain balanced and stable.

The first step to using the posterior chain is bringing our awareness to it. Now I know that you know you have a back etc. but can you activate it’s muscles on their own or move parts individually? It is this level of body control that great riders possess that makes things seem much easier for them-it is easier for them because they have more efficient bodies but that means with a little work it could be easy for the rest of us too!

Firstly, let’s look at some spinal articulation. This involves rolling through the spine as if you were able to separate each vertebrae and being able to isolate either the upper or lower spine for movement.

The purpose of spinal articulation is to bring fluid to the vertebral discs in order to keep them healthy and mobile, as well as further encouraging that mobility by moving the spine through flexion and extension and maintain the individual movement of each vertebra. Remember your spine is not a block of wood it shouldn’t move as one solid plank, think of it more as a chain with connecting links that can all move separately as well as together. It is all of these tiny movements that absorb the force of half a ton animal underneath you, a rigid spine cannot do this.

Now we have got the spine moving let’s look at activating the big muscles of the posterior chain-the glutes and hamstrings. These muscles are fundamental in ensuring good posture and a pain free back and hips as they are a major supporting role here. They help to maintain stability of your spine and pelvis whilst they are busy absorbing all that force. They are also where you create power to help ride your horse forward. In rising trot it is said that the rider should at least match if not exceed the thrust of the horse going forward in order to be with or push forward the movement. That is going to take some serious booty!

We are going to use the Bridge position again for this however the execution is slightly different.

 

 

In order to ride completely in balance we should be the same length at the front as at the back. Not only does this create good alignment and therefore balance and stability but also enables efficient use of the body to give clear aids to your horse.

The very nature of our daily life means we spend a large part of our day hunched or leaning forward.

We may sit at a desk for our day job and therefore sit round shouldered, or maybe you spend a lot of time driving hunched over a steering wheel. When we get to the yard or indeed those who work with horses all day, we again muck out;  leaning forward throughout onto leaning over to make feeds, sweep yards, pick out horses feet……..the list goes on!

I also see a lot of riders who although on appearance seem to be creating a very nice picture, are actually riding very much with the front of their body only.

This may come from wanting to use “the core” as when we say this we think of abdominal crunches etc. However our core is actually all the way around our torso front and back, so to make use of it fully we need to be activating in the front and the back.

To create the right environment for us to begin using this “back core” area we must open up the front of the body to create the same length at the front as at the back. If we are short and over active at the front this in turn means the back is long and underactive. By creating more length at the front we allow the back to shorten and encourage it to activate the muscles as part of the core.

Here is a short yoga flow to help you open up the full anterior chain of chest, abs and hips and quads.

 

We have been talking about various different issues involving the lower leg over the past few weeks.

 

To be honest in the majority of cases whether your lower leg slips forward or back the issue still comes down to instability of the pelvis.

 

This can be down to numerous muscle groups surrounding it being weak, dysfunctional etc. I have dealt with hip stability a fair bit, and to be honest I will refer back to it often as it really can’t be emphasised enough how fundamental it is to good riding.

 

In this instance I am going to focus on strengthening the abductors. These are the muscles of the bottom and outer hip most notably Glute Maximus, medius and minimus along with Tensor Fascia lata.

 

These muscles by their very group name abduct the hip which means they take the leg away from the body-for example each time you give a leg aid you will very subtlety (or perhaps less subtlety if it’s an old fashioned pony club kick!) abduct the hip. They are automatically contracted when we sit on a horse however as discussed previously they can be “over shortened” and “tight” and need to be strong in order to hold our leg in good alignment in the saddle with the knees and feet still pointing forward rather than in or out. They are also vital for good strength and stability in rising trot. If you have ridden a big moving horse you will know the feeling of a wobble at the top of a rise. You will also know that in order to create a forward, active trot the oomph needs to come from your hips in order to activate the oomph in your horse. If you do not have the strength and stability to create this you will struggle to ride forward and may well resort to nagging with your legs-which is more abduction that will cause you more instability……………..

 

So, let’s get to work.

 

You can do these exercises individually or as a little circuit.

 

You can do them with or without the resistance band.

Lying leg lift

 

Fire hydrant

 

Heel press

 

Kneeling Squat

 

 

Feel those booty burning lower leg stability gains!

So, final week of lower leg issues before we move on to some strength work to assist with all these problems further.

Does your lower leg shoot forward?

Again there is never a one stop answer for why this may be happening however there are a couple of reasons why this may be happening.

One suggestion is that you may be tight in the front of your thigh-your quads in particular the middle muscle of your thigh that Rectus Femoris. This muscle passes from your pelvis to under your knee and therefore crosses two joints-the hip and the knee. The means it has two functions; 1: to flex the hip – this brings it closer to the body so knee towards chest and 2: to extend the knee-straighten the knee.

In order to perform these actions it shortens/contracts. When your lower leg is shooting forward this muscle is shortening to extend the knee, if this muscle has a problem causing it to be shortened then it may well be shortening without you wanting it too! Hence lower leg shooting forward.

The second issue could be an unstable pelvis. Now I think I say this is the answer to a lot of rider problems and to be honest that’s because it is! In this case if the pelvis feels unstable in order to try and balance itself it will counter balance with something else.

So the chain goes:

Unstable pelvis flexes to balance-you insist on staying upright (good for you) so sit further back-the pelvis sends the leg out for balance instead shooting the lower leg forward (think of hunting and eventing postures over enormous fences)-finishing picture you are sat at the back of your saddle with your toes by your horses ears (might be just me because mines little….) but hey presto you are not falling off so mission complete as far as your pelvis is concerned!

Great information I know, but what you really want is the solution!

For the shortened quads try this stretch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8HmpzCoGhI

And if you think Hip Stability is your issue try this exercise. Clue-if you find it difficult to do without dropping a hip or wobbling then your hip stability could be improved!

https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=2LCJYpELP78

On the continued theme of lower leg problems this week I am going to look at another common problem that is the lower leg slipping back so the heels are pointing up.

This can be a couple of things.

One I'm going to address briefly is personal to me but I have heard other riders mention this so I think it is important to mention. If you ride a pony or perhaps have particularly long legs (think William Foxx-Pitt)  it can feel  like you need to lift your heels to give an aid. It's basically a bad habit so if my instructor is reading this -Amanda don't let me get away with this even once on PoppyMay!

What you actually need to do is let the heel stretch down but engage the calf muscle and let the aid come from a strong calf. Then you just need to engage and release the calf to give aids not lift up your legs! It takes practice and probably a good nagging instructor but stick with it. *I’m going to deal with strength work very soon so hang in there and deal with the muscles for relaxing first.

If you aren't in the adult pony club (then you are missing all the fun! The issue is technically still the same as it comes from a tense lower Leg and potentially an unstable pelvis. I have dealt with unstable pelvis previously http://www.equestrianfitness.co.uk/uncategorized/lower-leg-stability-part-2/

Why is your lower leg tense? Is it nerves? Do you grip with your knees too? This can also often come from nerves which need to be addressed perhaps with some belly  breathing.

https://youtu.be/CvcmxTu__Q0

However sometimes it doesn't stem from nerves -I've seen plenty of frustrated riders being told they grip through nerves when they have balls of steel! Gripping with your knees can also be caused by over active adductors (inner thighs). Think about it; we use them quite a bit when riding so it makes sense that overtime they can become really strong but also then struggle to relax-can smash a water melon but never do the splits!

So, in order to help with this problem we need to do two things.

Release the adductors/inner thigh to try and release them and prevent the “over tightening” . I have two great ways of doing this:

one with a foam roller:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYw8-ZWQ7Do

the other just by yourself:

https://youtu.be/RyZXA9_m-iQ

If you can relax your inner thigh you are more likely to have a relaxed lower leg but if you need a little more next weeks videos should help you too.

 

Next week we are going to look at the other common issue of lower leg shooting forward before we move on to some lower leg improving strength work-so stay tuned!

Last week we talked about awareness of your lower leg and how the position of your foot can impact how it sits. Did you try out the exercises?

Did focusing on this fix your lower leg woes? Don’t worry if not you may just need more tools to help you unlock that potential.

We will start by looking at some common issues, their cause and of course how to fix them.

I will start with Toes turning out. It's frustrating isn’t it; as you have a lovely ride and someone takes a picture and all seems well until you realise your feet are pointing at quarter to three!

In most cases this is caused by tight abductors. The abductors are the muscles around your outer hip and bum. These are the muscles that turn your hip out -and therefore turn your foot out! When we sit on a horse these muscles which sit on the outside of our hip are put into a shortened position as our inner thighs (adductors) are lengthened to go around the horse. Due to this continual shortening they can become "over shortened" and unable to relax back down which then travels down the leg and rotates the whole thing.

You may find if this is you that you also have trouble getting your knee to stay in contact with the saddle.

In order to correct this we need to take a two pronged plan of action.

Step one. Release the muscle.

Step two. Strengthen the muscle.

We are of course going to start with releasing the muscle.

Release The Muscle:

In order to help the muscle relax and lengthen we need to release any impingement that may be present.

Start with the Anti Spasm exercise I took you through in September.

https://youtu.be/EVd1RBbrmtE

You can also try releasing the muscles with a ball.

Firstly directly to the Piriformis which is often a main perpetrator. The Piriformis is a muscle that runs from the inside of your Sacrum (bottom of spine/top of pelvis) through to the inside, top of your thigh. Therefore it can be reached either through the Glutes (your bum) or on the side of the hip/outer top of thigh.

So lets try the direct route first:

 

And then we also need to look at the other abductor muscles on the outer hip and thigh such as TFL (Tensor Fascia Lata), Glute Medius and the Illiotibial Band/ ITB.

 

This can be done either gently by rolling a ball manually or by using a foam roller.

The first step in learning how to work your lower leg!

I think the lower leg is a problem area for many riders. I know many people think their lower leg has a mind of its own. You think your riding in good alignment with your heels down and your instructor is asking why it’s pushed forward with your toes pointing down!

 

Or you are trying your best to keep it in line and it just keeps shooting out from under you.

The first step in fixing your lower leg is increasing your awareness of it. I know you are thinking-“I’m aware I have a lower leg Nicola!” I don’t mean awareness of its existence, I mean awareness of all of its movements and being in complete control of it.

This needs to be done before we even begin any form of corrective exercise work that may be required and you will be pleased to know this process is relatively simple and painless.

We are going to start with the feet. Just rolling the bottom of your feet on a ball whether that be just a tennis ball or a spiky physio ball stimulates the nerve endings and brings more awareness to the area. It also has the added benefit of releasing tension and relaxing the surrounding muscles.

On horse I want you to try out this simple exercise.

As you are riding around just at a walk, with your feet in the stirrups as normal take your awareness to your feet.

Can you feel each of your toes if you try to move them?

Can you move the weight from your big toe to your little toe, then maybe the middle toes and finally try to take the weight evenly across all of your toes?

How do your feet feel in the stirrups now?

Does moving your toes around change the angle of your foot and/or leg?

I’m not going to tell you what should or shouldn’t happen as we are all different and you may experience this different to your friend. I just want you to bring your awareness to your feet and practice moving the weight around in your toes as this is a really helpful step in improving your lower leg.

Do let me know how you get on with this exercise and if you find it useful I genuinely loving gaining your feedback (good or bad!)

 

There are two spaces available in my Tuesday evening Class at 7.30pm and 1 space available in my Thursday evening class at 7.30pm. Both are held at my studio at WN8 9QP. Let me know if you would like to join us, everyone that has joined us so far is already feeling the difference in their riding.

So last week we talked about improving the canter and we discussed the QL muscle. QL is a muscle of the back that is involved in both front to back stability as well as lateral stability. In simple terms it keeps your torso in balance. This was discussed in last weeks blog about how we need to keep stable through the whole of our torso in order to Canter effectively –without bumping and/or sliding.

Hopefully if you have issues with your canter you have been trying the QL releases that I took you through last week.

Now we are going to start strengthening this area.

First a little test of its current strength -Side plank.
This is commonly done as a core exercise and indeed your QL is vital for core strength. The QL underneath will be fighting gravity to hold you up. How long can you hold a side plank for? If you feel this in your shoulder you are not using your QL to hold you up-probably suggesting it isn't strong enough yet.

Then move onto this Side Plank Dips to help strengthen it.

 

I have been asked a couple of times on social media if I can write about improving the canter.

Are you following me?

https://www.facebook.com/equestrianfitnessnicola/

https://twitter.com/equestrianfitt

https://www.instagram.com/nicola_equestrianfitness/

 

As I think it is safe to say that most riders have a better trot than canter.

So, let’s look at the canter from the horses’ point of view. It is a 3 beat gait that starts with the outside hind leg pushing off, the second beat is the inside hind and outside fore finishing with the inside fore (which is the “leading”leg). This creates the rocking motion of back leg to front leg which we can find difficult to sit to.

The power of the canter comes from the back of the horse in particular that outside hind leg that creates the first beat.

There are two main problems that we see in canter:

 

Riders scoop their tailbone under and lean back causing them to rock with the horse, which may create the feeling of pushing the canter along. They may have been taught to “polish the saddle” as children but unfortunately for most people this takes them out of neutral spine; which in turn makes them less able to absorb the force of the canter and has them swept along for two beats then bumped back at beat 3-starts polishing again……..

Or alternatively riders lean forward slightly which causes the tailbone to bump the saddle. These riders may be always hunched or to help absorb the canter they want to activate their core so essentially do an on horse ab crunch to help them stay stable.

Ideally we want to remain neutral in the saddle, other than a small hip hinge at beat one which emphasises the take-off from the outside hind. In order for this to happen we need to activate muscles in both the front and the back of the torso.

I have covered working the abdominals in other blogs http://www.equestrianfitness.co.uk/uncategorized/can-you-stick-your-rib-to-your-hip/

and I have also covered an introduction to general low back exercise which will also help with this.

http://www.equestrianfitness.co.uk/uncategorized/improve-your-two-point-seat/

http://www.equestrianfitness.co.uk/uncategorized/stop-the-lean-back/

 

However in particular I want to look at a muscle in the back called Quadratus Lomborum (swish your wand as you say it!) or for short QL.

The reason I want to look at QL is that it is not just an integral part of good back function and therefore overall core but it is also implicated in your pelvis both its position and its function.

QL attaches from the ribs, down the spine to the back of the pelvis. It is because of these attachments that if it becomes shortened it can tilt the pelvis forward (your bum sticks out) or it if becomes too long (due to weakness) it will be also difficult to maintain a neutral pelvis as your bum will want to scoop under.

In order to maintain a neutral spine this muscle must be strong and supple. Also strength in this area encourages further hip stability as it has been shown that any dysfunction in one side of the QL shows a dysfunction in the opposite Glute Medius (I.E. Left QL Right GM). I have previously mentioned Glute Medius as being a key player in stable hips.

In order to promote good function in this area firstly we are going to look at releasing any inhibited QL and also Glute Medius.

 

Next week we are going to look at strengthening the QL Muscle.