As you probably know, I’ve got my Rider Position Webinar coming up next week on the 5th of June, so this week’s archive post features a regular guest of mine who is the QUEEN of rider position and biomechanics, Dr Stephanie Seheult of Ride Advanced!
Stephanie is here to give us some off-horse exercises to help us activate the right muscles and open our bodies up for riding! I use these exercises ALL the time, and they’re really good!
Exercise 1 – The Glute Med Activator
The glute med is one of the things you’ll hear me talking about a LOT. These are your lateral stabilizing muscles on your hips, and they will keep you straight in the saddle and help you get your leg on the horse properly.
The muscles being activated are the Glute med and piriformis, so do this before you ride to get them firing and heat up your half halts! To do the exercise…
- Stand up tall
- Stand at the crossties or a stall door and
- Turn right foot out
- Being the leg back slowly and gradually and back down
- Repeat ten times and then do the same on the left
Exercise 2 – ITY stretch
This exercise is actually a stretch, and it’s super important to do this before any shoulder strengthening, which we need to have the open chests and shoulders that we need to ride effectively. For this, I use a foam roller, but you can use a beach towel.
This shows three variations of the stretch so take the one that you can do without causing pinching in the shoulder. Here are the steps
- Place the foam roller on the floor.
- Lie on your back on a roller
- Place palms facing upwards
- Firstly have arms down by your side (like an I) and hold for 30 secs
- The second stretch is to hold arms out like a T and hold for 30 secs
- Then get your arms to make a Y and hold for 30 secs
If you feel ANY pinching, you should take it back to the level below.
Watch the video where Stephanie demonstrates these exercises and start implementing them into your pre-riding routine. Let me know if you see results!
Don’t forget to sign up for my Rider Position Webinar! It’s free, and we’ll be talking about plenty of this sort of work to improve and strengthen your position!
