Hands and Seat……at the same time

When we ride we ask for both stability and mobility from our bodies.

We want stable hips, middle and shoulders. Yet we want softness from our ankles, knees, elbows and hands.

For me the biggest challenge is maintaining stability in the rest of my body whilst keeping it in my shoulders and keeping my hand and elbows soft.

I can do it if I’m just focusing on that area but not if I’m trying to use the other bits too. It’s so much to think about!

So I have to train it to get better.

In my regular training things like Deadlifts where I have to use my lower body to lift the weight whilst keeping my middle stable, my shoulders retracted whilst my arms stay relaxed.

Kettlebell swings which require the power to come from the hips, the torso remains stable and helps control the movement whilst the arms remain soft.

I also like to do some more rider specific exercises.

Rising Trot Squat -trying to get soft elbows and still hands.

I also like Split Squats with the arms going forward and back with the lift and lower of the squat.

Something I’ve also been trying out is sitting trot on a gym ball again trying to get soft elbows to absorb the movement but still hands for the contact.

Half Squat position whilst doing a banded row encourages me to stabilise my body and retract my shoulder blades. To make it harder I do the Squat so I’m moving up and down sort of like a rising trot whilst still trying to keep the movement coming from my shoulders keeping my arms soft.

I’m still way off being good at this so please excuse the video-these are my best efforts for now! Hopefully with practice I’ll be able to report back in a few months with some better ones!

https://youtu.be/e4D-QolatGw

Please follow and like us: