I see a lot of riders who live with a lot of pain day to day, and are also increasingly tired and finding that just doing the yard jobs is exhausting-never mind the riding!

That’s no way to live, especially as many of these riders will be 30’s, 40’s, 50’s but they’d still like to be riding in their 70’s and beyond! That’s absolutely possible but only if you’re fit enough to keep going. 

The problem with ageing is that we stop building muscle day to day so unless we actively build it I.e create an effort level that requires the muscle to repair and build again stronger we are essentially losing muscle. Which makes things seem harder and stuff hurt more …….

There is a way to push through this though. In Chronic Pain and Chronic Fatigue work it’s called activity stacking. If someone is starting from not being able to get out of bed then suggesting they take up couch to 5k is incredibly unrealistic. However suggesting they get out of bed, shower, dress and make themselves a cup of tea is a little more manageable. If they can do that every day for a few days they then add on an extra task perhaps cooking a meal or taking a very short walk to the end of the street and back. These little steps of course feel really hard at first and that’s why they are small steps, but bit by bit with enough perseverance the steps start to add up and big stuff has started to happen! 

You may not be starting from that point if you’re already looking after a horse, but if you’re struggling the principle is the same. You could either add in an extra task or a little boost, so maybe aim to trot for a smidge longer than you normally would or you could try to increase the pace you do the yard work. So walk purposefully to collect your horse or pushing the wheelbarrow so the jobs gets done a little faster. Yes, at first it will seem hard, but you keep it at that extra 10% push until it doesn’t feel like such a push anymore so then you add another 10%......... and so on.

If it’s pain you are struggling with it’s the same system however unfortunately it really going to require some off horse exercise. Many pain issues are caused by weakness or in non scientific terms chronic pain requires you to require the nerves to tell it that movement is safe (the details are a whole other topic so if you’d like me to cover it more specifically let me know!)

So you stack the exercise. Again, you don’t need to go out and do a full hour workout you could just do 1 exercise every day. Something like a wall sit for 10 seconds to start with and build up as you feel able-you could pick any exercise such as squats, planks, slow high knees, whatever you like! But just make it a tiny step, then stack it up brick by brick and before you know it a 20 minute workout won’t seem so insurmountable. 

If you’d like some more help with starting small hit reply.