Amanda on cross country ©Jenelle Christopher
BY AMANDA ROSS
TO DEVELOP A FITNESS regimen, you need to assess your strengths and weaknesses. Ask yourself a few questions:
1. Do you have underlying injuries that require rehabilitation, strengthening or modified exercise? Consult your physiotherapist or exercise specialist first and ask for an explanation of your injury, what exercises might improve it, what will worsen it, and what outcomes you can reasonably expect.
2. When are you going to train? I recommend a minimum four days a week, and personally, I always try to do it first thing in the morning, otherwise the day’s activities take over. You must schedule it in like a meeting. Allow at least 30 minutes of active time – which doesn’t include arriving at the gym, tying your laces, talking to the guy with the nice guns, or any other forms of procrastination! Ideally, allow at least an hour to include your warm-up, cool-down and stretching.
3. What are your fitness downfalls? For example, are you returning from cross-country about to have an asthma attack? Do you struggle to stay balanced up and down banks? Are you constantly being told to sit up straight and put your shoulders back? Do you lean to one side? Do your calves ache after spending time in two-point? By identifying your weaknesses, a program can be created to focus on specific area improvement … rather than just going for a random bike ride.
The next step is to break down your training into components such as:
• CARDIO – the huff-and-puff stuff. If you find yourself running out of breath at any stage of a competition, you need to improve in this area. There are several options here – running (it's free and you can do it anywhere); skipping (you only need a rope); cycling (any bike will do, either stationery, road, mountain or tricycle); cross-trainer/rowing machine/arm ergo/treadmill (need a gym membership or buy one for home); swimming (water is helpful), boxing/kicking (need a bag/friend/gloves); aerobics (need a leotard … LOL) … the list goes on.
I would suggest using a heart-rate monitor and varying your sessions depending on your requirements. Talk first to your doctor or physio about monitoring your heart rate and knowing your limits. Many athletes use the rule-of-thumb formula for establishing maximum heart rate, that is, subtracting your age from 220. This is a reasonable guide but there are always exceptions. Using this formula, there are five accepted heart-rate phases: T1 (easy), T2 (extensive), T3 (intensive), T4 (threshold) and T5 (intervals).
So, for working on fat loss, improved basic endurance and recovery, work at 60-70% of your HR maximum (T2) for 40-80 minutes. For improved aerobic fitness, train for 10-40 minutes at 70-80% (T3), and to increase aerobic endurance and the capacity for maximum performance, work for 2-10 minutes at 80-90% (T4). For each phase, the time and intensity of exercise differs.
Dressage: more of a T3 zone yet will regularly slide into T4 with medium and extended sitting trot in particular. The test may go for six minutes, but the warm-up may add another hour of exercise. There are regular walk periods to lower the heart rate.
Cross-country: Below 3* level, the phase will be less than 10 minutes. You should aim to exercise for the length of time it takes to ride your course, at T4 level. Train for this phase using both longer, high T3 cardio sessions, as well as interval bursts of T4/T5 with recovery periods.
Show jumping: up to 2.5 minutes on course, plus, say, 30 minutes warm-up. Similar to dressage, but with higher interval T4 spikes during jumping.
A weekly cardio workout could consist of one long session in zone T3 (30-60 minutes), one interval session (stairs or hills), one shorter, faster T4 session (20-30 minutes), and one mixed circuit (boxing, step-ups, crunches etc).
• CORE STABILITY – Improving your core stability means making the muscles of your trunk stronger to keep your spine and body stable. This helps you stay balanced when you move. These muscles include those of the front, side and deep abdominals, lower and middle back, and bum, so just doing crunches isn’t enough to work your core.
The Bosu ball (half a Swiss ball) is a fantastic tool for riders, as is anything with an unstable surface … just like a horse! The minute you stand on something wobbly, your core automatically switches on. Begin with simple squats 8415, 8416, progress to medicine ball chops, then have someone throw the med ball to you or bounce it off a wall. There are strong similarities between standing on a Bosu ball and sitting on a horse – like heels down, equal weight in both feet, not dropping one hip, or slouching forward.
Single leg movements (such as squats and lunges) are essential to gauge your hip stability and symmetry. Although we sit on both seat bones, we need to be equally distributed between the two, which means we need equal strength in both sides, and our hips, knees and ankles all need to flex to the same degree. Pilates is one of the best methods to train yourself to recognise, understand and self-correct your alignment and keep a supple, healthy back.
The above is a selection of single leg exercises: lunge with core rotation, single leg hold with closed palm core rotation, single leg hip raise/bridge (bottom left), single leg lunges with lateral arm reach (bottom right).
The Russian twist is a favourite for oblique core strength, and great for riders – the pelvis remains stationery whilst the upper body rotates, but doesn’t bend; that is, when you’re riding around a corner, turn your body instead of collapsing through the ribs.
Another excellent core exercise is the straight arm and leg raises, count to three as you lift and then again as you lower, to work on extra stability.
Awesome for core strength and balance, these Fitball moves will keep you on board that bucking bronco!
POSTURE – Instructions to improve our riding posture are often hollered across the arena by our riding coach as "shoulders back, heels down, elbows in and chin up!" In our multitasking attempt at trying to control the horse, navigate the test, control our body and problem-solve, it’s often posture that flies out the window. It therefore makes sense to practice controlling your body parts individually, without a horse, until they become second nature.
Ankle flexion is a big deal for riders, particularly jumpers riding in shorter stirrups. This test of flexibility measures the distance from the toe to the wall when your heel is flat on the ground and the knee is touching the wall. Hanging your heels off the end of a step is a great stretch, and with practice you can gauge your improvement using this test.
Scapula (shoulder blade) mobility exercises reduce tension and improve suppleness and straightness through the shoulders and upper back, which in turn complements a stable core. Riders who slouch are often the first ones to go flying out the front door when the horse slams on the brakes unexpectedly –posture is not just for looking pretty!
Spending time riding on our own is the most common cause of bad head posture due to looking down at the horse or our hands instead of where we’re going. For every centimetre your head moves forwards, it gains the equivalent of almost 2kg in weight! As you can imagine, the muscles in your upper back and neck go into overdrive to keep your chin off your chest, often resulting in headaches at the base of the skull. And what’s more, the spine is pulled out of alignment, reducing the action of the muscles used to lift the ribs during inhalation, ie, breathing capacity can be reduced by up to 30%!
STRENGTH – besides our core, our two biggest strength movements as a rider are (a) pulling back on the reins/arm row, and (b) squeezing with our legs/adduction. The arm row can be done in a variety of stances, either on a rowing machine, or standing, squatting, lunging, or sitting, with a single arm or both. You can use a Theraband, Powerband elastic, a cable or weights. PIC 8441, 8440, 8439 is a seated row using a Theraband. I highly recommend these moves as they really improve posture if you do them regularly.
To strengthen your hips, lower back and glutes we need to do the opposite of what you do on your horse. Lateral foot slides can be done using a piece of paper under your foot on the tiles or a Theraband around your ankles. This is an excellent leg adduction exercise for horse riders.
An example of a weekly workout might look like this:
Monday: Gym – 20 minutes cardio, upper body and core 30 minutes or boxing class.
Tuesday: run slower, long distance.
Wednesday: Yoga/Pilates.
Thursday: Gym – 20 minutes cardio, legs or spin class and core 30 minutes.
Friday: Run hills.
Saturday: Run the cross-country course … twice!
Sunday: Day off or run cross-country course again.
There are many fantastic apps available to assist you with ideas and motivational tools. My favourites are Tabata and Beep Test (timing apps) and Strava and Map My Run (GPS distance mapping). For a list of exercises, try iFitness, PhysioAdvisor Exercises, PreHab Exercise book for Runners (available on iPad, very good for riders' bums), and for the anatomy geek, my favourite, iMuscle 2. Above all, find something you enjoy doing that also keeps you fit, After all, this is supposed to be fun! Now, drop and give me 20!
This article first appeared in a previous edition of Equestrian Life magazine.
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