Author: admin

I’m following up a request this week-although it follows on nicely from last week when we loosened off our calf muscles.

The stability of our lower leg depends on a couple of things.

Firstly our overall core stability as if we are not strong in the middle then we will struggle to control our limbs when riding.

Secondly the function of our hip flexors, if they are dysfunctional in anyway either too tight or maybe weak then the leg will struggle to maintain stability.

And finally todays topic- our ankles.

Now last week’s stretches for the lower leg and the ball rolling will have a big impact on any mobility issues in the ankles, other than that if you really struggle with mobility then simply circling them in both directions 10-15 times a couple of times per day, also pointing and flexing and turning the foot in and out.

Unfortunately as it not surrounded by any big muscles (unlike the knee) the ankle struggles with stability. Secondly if you have ever badly rolled your ankle this could have damaged the ligaments that cross the joint. Due to ligaments not having a direct blood supply they are very difficult to heal. In order to re-establish stability in ankles we must strengthen the tendons and the small stabilising muscles around it.

If you find your ankles do not seem particularly stable then there are some things you can do that can help it.

They are also incredibly simple, by that I mean straightforward no equipment; they are actually harder than you expect!

First simply stand on one leg for a length of time-say working up to a minute is a great starting point.  Now try the same exercise with your eyes closed.

Then repeat this whilst standing on the ball of your foot. Eyes open to start then when you can comfortably do a minute without wobbling try closing your eyes.

Then if you wanted to up the ante you could try these exercises on an unstable surface such as a rolled up towel or a wobble cushion. Start with a flat foot and eyes open before working up to eyes closed and on the ball of your foot.

It is totally fine to hold on to something to get you started and it is fine to start really small as it really important you do not over fatigue in these positons as obviously this could cause you to roll your ankle-the very thing we are trying to avoid! You can do these in shoes if you prefer but for ultimate bulletproof ankles do them in bare feet-I just kept my socks on for the photos as the floor was cold!

Let me know how you get on, I love to receive your comments and suggestions!

I’m going to sort of discuss two things today although they are linked so bear with.

Firstly the common theme of toes up heels down-que flashbacks of childhood instructors bellowing in your ears! If any of you are reading then I applaud and appreciating your voice box and lung capacity lol.

The thing is, if you actually watch the pros for example Carl Hester or Michael Jung their heels aren’t actually “down”. They are parallel to the floor at best unless in a jumping position.

You see the problem with heels down is firstly it is quite difficult to do, but also the very act makes most of us then push down to get our heels down. This has two effects: One it straightens out various joints in the body and inhibits its ability to absorb force (there’s your core gone!) and two the pressing down causes an opposite action somewhere else meaning your seat bones pop up-it’s physics dahling!

Having said that we do not want heels that point up and cause a shortening of the calf muscle as this will also shorten the hamstrings (back of the thigh) and in short cause tension further up the chain.

What we are actually after is a soft calf with a relaxed foot in the stirrup unforced at parallel maybe with a dipped heel if it does that without force.

To achieve this we need to lengthen and relax those calf muscles.

We must also understand as we do this that there are two muscles to the calf namely the Gastrocnemius and the Soleus. The Gastroc is the bulky muscle most of us can see, and the Soleus is directly underneath this and runs through to the Achilles tendon which then goes under the foot. Most people focus on the Gastroc when in fact the Soleus is key to lengthening and relaxing this area properly and enabling a relaxed lower leg and foot.

Here are my favourite ways to lengthen these muscles.

One is using a step or mounting block.  Hold onto something for balance if you need to and drop your heels off the step staying on the balls of your feet-and then just stay there and breathe. To stretch your soleus you stay in the same position and bend your knees slightly. This is kind of like being in your stirrups but notice how as I bend to lengthen the Soleus my heel is no longer down-this is quite normal as the Soleus is not as long as the Gastroc muscle. Is it making sense why you can’t keep your heel down with a relaxed lower leg now?

 

 

I also like to stretch my calves in downward dog, just gently walking the feet (not fast bouncing) and then holding still and if you need more pressure you can use your other foot crossed over the back heel to add weight. Then bend the knees and repeat to hit the Soleus.

Finally a nice way to release the calf which can be done at your desk or just before you put your riding boots on is to roll your foot on tennis, golf, Physio ball. This is great for foot pain but also works to release the calf muscles due to their link through the Achilles and under the foot.

 

Try those out and see which one works best for you.

Remember Toes Relaxed Heels Parallel.

 

 

So last week we looked at releasing the shoulder blades to enable them to absorb your horses movement through the reins.

To establish a soft but stable rein contact we must also have a stable shoulder joint.

This can be difficult when as mentioned last week we spend so much time in poor posture. This can result in lengthened and weak back muscles and very tight and therefore dysfunctional upper shoulder muscles. This is why the first part of this section was to release the shoulders as they will be unable to correctly strengthen if they are tense.

So why is our rein carriage important when we ride?

Essentially if you are unstable you will inadvertently pull on the reins, which will make your horse resist you by pulling back which leads to you essentially holding each other up. If one of you let go the other would fall. For example if your horse drops his head you will fall forward. So, in order for our horse to be in self carriage we also have to be in our own self carriage.

Part of this does come from the core and much has been spoken about this however as the arms are attached into the shoulders think of the shoulders as an extension of your core. In order for your arms to be relaxed and giving they need their stable core to support them i.e the shoulders.

I see a lot of riders with large upper trapezius muscles (top of the shoulders and neck) and biceps yet with very little muscle throughout the rest of their back. This tells me that they are relying on their arms for their rein contact and their shoulders are tense due to the force.

So, how do we correct this?

One way I find really useful whilst riding is to imagine that your elbows are stuck to your sides directly under your shoulders (so there would be a straight line from the tip of your shoulder down to your elbow) This actually has two positive effects.

Firstly it keeps you in alignment and promotes neutral spine. Secondly the action of holding your elbows there will activate your back and shoulder muscles –which is exactly what we are after!

Unfortunately this can be quite difficult to maintain for a full hours ride so to help you improve quicker I have some exercises you can do out of the saddle.

Much is spoken of soft hands and soft elbows when riding however very rarely is much thought given to the shoulders other than are they rounded?

The thing is the soft and stillness of your hands and elbows relies on a well functioning shoulder girdle. The shoulder girdle refers to the Scapula and the Clavicle and the Coracoid Joint that connects them together.

There are many muscles involved with Shoulder Function but the main ones to consider are Serratus Anterior, Pec Minor, Levator Scapulae, Rhomboids and Trapezuis.

As the shoulder is not a weight bearing joint stability has been sacrificed in favour of mobility.

This unfortunately means it is a prime candidate for instability and dysfunction. If you do not have a stable shoulder girdle you will not have stable elbows or hands as their actions start at the shoulder.

As many of us spend hours of the day in poor posture (Hunching, lifting……)the first thing we must do to improve our shoulders is to actually restore their movement patterns and function.

These are two great exercises for just that.

Firstly the shoulder blade decompression. This can help to loosen the shoulder muscles and help you to feel their movement.

On all fours without bending your elbows retract your shoulder blades-this will feel like you are dropping them down and that your shoulders come up. You should aim to keep your neck and shoulder muscles relaxed throughout. Just do 10-20 of these.

The second exercise focuses on restoring the most basic function of the shoulder blades and that is to retract.

This is much harder than you think if you are not used to doing it! Standing up put one arm in front of you keeping it straight and your neck and upper shoulders relaxed retract your shoulder blade so that the arm moves backwards. Everything else should stay still-no hunching your shoulders or poking your chin out! Once you can do the arms singularly do both together. I like to start singularly to encourage symmetry and spot any imbalance.

Once you are up to both arms moving relaxed and freely start to hold the retraction for 5-10 seconds maintaining a relaxed neck and upper shoulders also notice if your elbows try to turn out.........

 

 

Last week we talked about recruiting your core correctly whilst riding by visualising sticking your bottom rib to your hips. I have found this technique works really well, however another element to this is being able to keep the chest open to avoid the shoulders rolling in.

Unfortunately as most of us spend the majority of our time hunched over a desk we struggle to do this and instead bend from our lumbar spine sticking the chest up to create an open feeling in our chest. This unfortunately then undoes all the good work you had done on creating a neutral pelvis and shortening and activating the core at the front.

Remember how I mentioned that the front and back of your body should be the same length? In order to create an open shoulder and chest without compromising this length is to create space at the rib cage and height.

This is actually very subtle when you see it but I promise you the effects can be magical. I have mentioned before how if we are hunched and heavy in front this transfers more weight to the front of our horse, which can go a few ways from a very heavy horse in the hands, being on the forehand or struggling to really use the shoulders-either way it’s not what we are after.

To help you learn this technique I have an exercise for Thoracic extension. That is essentially upper back extension. It is a really subtle and small movement that focuses on keeping that bottom rib to hip with core engaged and then trying to separate the other ribs up and away and from each other.

Begin lying on your front, arms down by your sides.

Engage your abdominals so that you should feel them lift away from the floor a little. Keep your bottom ribs on the floor throughout, gently starting at the top of your chest imagine separating your ribs out and lift forward so that your head will come up but the only movement should be in your upper back. Return to the start position.

This can be made harder by putting your hands on your forehead as this adds additional weight.

This exercise should be done slowly and with real focus on the ribs. Try working up to 2 x 10 reps.

This week I have been looking at how riders can better activate their core whilst riding. As I regularly come across riders who have great core strength on the ground but struggle to activate this on the horse.

The thing is when on a horse the position many riders often put themselves in actually stretches the abdominals and therefore makes it more difficult for them to work. When we are asked to sit up tall we simply stretch up-often sticking our chests out (your headlights as I call them) and have then created admittedly a taller frame at the front but our abdominals are now in an elongated position and we will be shorter at the back.

In order for our core to work effectively we actually need to be equal in length at the back and at the front.

In order to create this and then be able to use our core effectively we need to be able to stabilise from our bottom rib to our hips and then extend up from our upper ribs to keep the torso straight rather than hunched.

As this is all quite complicated when you first begin to work with it so I am just going to ask you to work on activating the core and imaging you are trying to get your bottom rib closer to your hips for this week.

This can be done by modifying the basic crunch exercise. I very rarely do abdominal crunches with clients as they actually have very little benefit to the abdominals (they actually work the hip flexors) and more potential to cause back pain.

However when done correctly they are a great exercise to teach riders this bottom rib to hip concept.

So I want you to lie on the floor, knees bent feet hip width apart. Your hands go behind your head-purely for support they do not pull on your head at all! Your elbows should also stay out to the sides throughout. You are going to recruit your abdominals and as you breathe out pull them back towards your spine. Do a few breaths like this first to get the hang of it, breathe in let your belly rise, breathe out, recruit and draw in towards your spine. You are trying to prevent your belly from popping up as you lift up. Now breathe in to prepare as your breathe out recruit the abdominals and send your bottom rib towards your hips, your shoulders lifting as you do so. Keep your eyes focused to the top corner of the room. Your belly should not pop up as you lift.

If you feel this in your neck you are not recruiting your abdominals correctly and may need to focus on just the breathing pattern for a while until you master it.

These are really tough to get right so don't be disheartened if you find them difficult.

Work up to doing 3 sets of ten reps.

Next week I will show you part 2 where we learn to then lift from the ribs without switching the core muscles off so get practising these before then!

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad

This week I attended The Mary Wanless Ride With Your Mind Demo Day. If you are not familiar with Marys’ work she places great emphasis on rider biomechanics and how we as riders can affect our horses’ way of going. She was years ahead of her time!

One of the things Mary spoke about was the power of a handshake. You know how particularly in Corporate Settings your handshake will give the other person clues about your personality, well every time we get on our horse we give him our own hand shake…………..except it’s a “Bum Shake”.

When you are in the saddle your horse is learning important things about you.

Do you sit heavy or very light?

Are you sat equally on both seat bones?

Do you follow his movement quietly, slide around in the saddle or are you merely perched on top?

Do you sit up near his withers, or back towards his quarters or in the middle?

He is noticing these things and in turn they will affect his way of going for you.

Try to imagine (or actually doing this is really powerful) you are walking carrying a rucksack.

• The rucksack is very heavy-how does your walk alter to deal with this? Do you lean forward and pull from your shoulders (or perhaps I should say do you go on your forehand…..)
• The rucksack is very light-how do you walk now? More briskly perhaps-maybe you break into a little jog?
• The rucksack has a shorter strap on one side so it is pulling one way-how do you walk now? Do you have to alter your posture to try and counteract this? Or maybe you start to drift as you walk?
• The rucksack is moving around quite a lot-how does that feel? The rucksack is very light and very still-can you still feel it there, are you still noticing its presence?
• The rucksack is sat very high up on your shoulders-how does it feel? The rucksack is down on the top of your bum-how does that feel?

You are your horses’ rucksack. Except in your horses case the rucksack also has limbs attached that wrap around his middle and attach to his head so he can feel every breath.

Next time you ride your horse think about the bum shake greeting you give him and then ask what kind of rucksack you would be?

If you aren’t convinced you are good load to carry it might be time to do some schooling on yourself.

 

Well we have had a little taste of some spring weather-if you blinked you may have missed it!

However with the clocks going forward we can’t be too far away from light nights and long weekends at the stables. These are the days that make all the mud wading through winter worth it.

With those long days at the yard our diet can go one of two ways.

1. We don’t eat all day
2. We eat unhealthy convenience food.

Both of these options can leave us lacking in energy and concentration which is bad news for riding our horses.

We often forget to think of our own nutrition for riding but it is every bit as important as our horses in terms of performance. If we do not provide ourselves with adequate fuel we will lack the strength and energy to ride at the best of our ability.

This can be difficult if we are eating on the run at the yard but with a little planning there are some great options.

• Instant porridge is great. It can be bought in pots and you just need to add water and within minutes you have a healthy, filling and tasty meal. You can keep them in your tack room ready for whenever you need them.
• Protein shakes. These can be made up in advance and shaken up before drinking or take a shaker with the powder in and you can add water or milk when you want it.
• Snacks like nuts, granola or protein bars make great filling options that can be kept in a cupboard at the yard-make it a vermin proof box if you can though.
• Prepare in advance. I know you think you don’t have time but I promise you start it becomes a really quick, efficient process which means you always have a healthy meal prepared, ready to take to the yard with you.
• Take some fruit with you –and share with your horse!

So next time you are in the supermarket drop in a few healthy yard snacks to fuel you up for a summer of riding success.

 

There is so much to think about when we are riding that focusing on our own alignment can be really difficult. Also, we can’t see what we look like so what we think is happening is not always the case.

The basic principle of alignment is that the shoulder, hip and heel should be in line.

That is the bony middle point of your shoulder, the side of your hip bone and roughly the back of your ankle bone.

It is often said that you should ask if you would land on your feet if someone took the horse out from under you? I reckon the shock of my horse disappearing would make me fall over-he he!

How this looks in principle will actually look different on everyone as we are made up of different lengths of torso, legs etc. but the points should still match up.

So why do we sit in this alignment?

The answer is balance and security. If your legs are too far forward you are more likely to be leaning back and therefore behind the horses movement; if you are leaning forward with your leg back if your horse suddenly slams the brakes on well………..There are also many variants in between also and in some way they will either be unbalancing your horse or putting you in a vulnerable position-y’know more vulnerable than being sat on half a ton of muscle with a mind of its own!

So, if we are sat with our shoulder, hip and heel aligned we are more likely to be sat centrally in the saddle with equal weight on the seat bones.

Obviously this is not actually always the case as our bodies can make all sorts of compensations to make it look or feel like we are doing all of this but in reality we are not.

A great way to practice and get the feel of what is correct is obviously to be videod whilst riding, being told when your alignment is correct and giving feedback on your seat bones. Sometimes what feels all wrong to you is actually correct! You have to embrace the wrong!

Aside from doing this on your horse I often use a gym ball to teach riders to feel what balance is in their seat.

Sitting astride a gym ball lift your feet up. Firstly this should give you an idea of shoulder, hip heel alignment (roughly as if you have particularly long legs you may have to bend them quite a bit to achieve this!)

Once your feet are lifted-firstly can you stay upright on the ball?

Is it rolling one way or the other?

Maybe you are staying on but it’s quite hard work to stay still?

This when you start to experiment with your body, moving your pelvis, maybe your waist or your shoulders to find that point where you are sat astride, feet lifted and fairly relaxed with the ball pretty much still.

The front and the back of your body need to be the same length which will maintain your neutral spine, once you have got this you need to have just enough muscle contraction to hold it but not so much that you are tense and bracing. If you can start to move the ball around underneath you but still return to neutral without putting a foot down you’ve cracked it-think horse spooks and you regain control!

I know this can be tough-trust me I’ve spent hours! But it’s a really great way to play around with your seat at home and you can hold onto things for balance, do it in front of a mirror whatever you need to get some improvement and you can then build on it from there. Practice makes perfect!

Here’s a little video of me taking you through this.

Don’t forget it’s less than a fortnight until our Bootcamp starts at Warren Farm Formby, places are limited so to secure yours click here. www.equestrianfitness.co.uk/upcomingevents

 

I imagine as a rider you have inner thighs of steel!

We use them for so much-forward, sideways sometimes for stability. We also by the very nature of sitting on a horse ask them to work in an extended position i.e. with the ends of the muscle furthest away from each other. Ordinarily when we want to work a muscle we contract it by bringing the origin and insertion (that’s either end) closer together –think bicep curl in the gym; the bicep is brought closer to the body to lift the weight.

When riding we elongate the adductors (inner thigh muscles) and then ask them to work in a static position there.

Then in our everyday lives we walk around with them typically in their shortened position as our legs are together. So we are contracting them to walk and then we ask them to contract when we ride-do they ever get a day off!

Now, many of us will have been led to believe that rock hard inner thighs are a good thing. Whilst a strong inner thigh is a good thing we also need to balance that with a relaxed inner thigh. This is because as mentioned we use them as aids to our horse so if they are always switched on…..you guessed it you are always giving an aid! Depending on a number of factors some being you and some being the schooling of your horse this can present in a number of ways. Most commonly you are riding with the handbrake on as you will lack a true lightness in your seat and will therefore be giving a very subtle slow down signal to your horse.  This then causes you to have to nag constantly with your leg and label your horse lazy.

It can also have the opposite effect on some horses as a grip on the inner thighs may mean “go” and this will be when you start to suspect you have electric jodhpurs as you swear you didn’t put your leg on!

To be honest the very nature of wrapping your legs around a horse means you will have good range of motion at your inner thighs they just need to learn to let go.

The first exercise I want to take you through is a technique called gliding. You will take the muscle to a stretch position and then move gently forward and back before increasing the stretch a little more and holding it. The stretch is passive as your hands are used to take your weight giving your body greater chance to relax into the stretch.

The second exercise aims to encourage opening at the hip joint but also stability of the pelvis. If we cannot open our hip with a stable pelvis this will affect our adductors ability to relax when we ride. I short it will become stiff to help stabilise the pelvis-so you are back to riding with the brakes on.

Begin standing with weight evenly spread between both feet. Then lift one leg and place the sole of the foot on the inside of the other leg-wherever it is comfortable there is no “correct” place for it to go. Place your hands on the front of your hip bones to ensure that the stay facing forward throughout. Now take the lifted knee out to the side keeping the foot on the other leg. Continue bringing the leg in and out for a count of 5. Repeat on the other side.

Don’t forget just two weeks until the Equestrian Bootcamp begins at Warren Farm, Formby. Places are limited so please secure your slot now if you want to join us!.