Information on riders fitness archives

Posted by Kyra Thomas
1
Mar 28, 2016
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Horse riding requires complete body fitness. Regular exercises helps  a rider to stay fit and active which is essential for the purpose of dressage. Staying fit not only increases your stamina but also help you to be flexible enough to avoid accidents and falls. Exercise helps to tone muscles and prevent stiffness in muscles and joints. If you are an amateur rider, you can check out few informative equestrian blogs and websites which usually contains a section of riders fitness archive. In these archives, you can find various health and fitness related articles along with forums where various questions regarding dressage and rider’s fitness is discussed. If you follow these sites, you can get a lot of information and start practicing

For beginners, specific exercises for horse riding can come in handy. These exercises are aimed at improving muscle strength, increase stamina and correct body posture. This helps any rider to enjoy his ride and allows your horse to sync its movement with yours easily. The main areas to focus are the core muscles, stomach, legs, ankle, arms, wrists and back.

Warm-up
The beginning of any exercise practice starts with the warm up session. Warm up makes the exercise session more effective and prepares your body for it. Warm up can include on spot march, heel digs, shoulder rolls, knee lifts and bends each of which can be practiced for a minute or two. You can increase your warm up time as per your requirement.
Stair exercise
Stand on a stair and hold the railings firmly. Balance the body on the balls of the feet. Stretch down to lower the heels. This will create strain in the calves and make the leg and the hip muscle strong. Repeat 10 times at least. The similar situation is recreated in the stirrup. With regular practice one should be able to do the whole exercise on the stair without holding the railings
Wall strengthening exercise
Wall strengthening exercise is a popular alternative to the stair exercise. Stand in front of a wall and lift one leg up alternatively as much as possible. Hold it for 30 seconds before changing the position. Repeat 10 times. Try to increase the time for holding each foot up slowly. This exercise increase the overall strength of the legs and also strengthen the hips. 
Ball hip adductor exercise
This exercise is one of the most recommended exercise in different riders fitness archives. Use a beach ball or any ball of the similar size. Sit on a chair in such a way that your legs are off the chair. Now put the ball in between both thighs and squeeze it for few seconds. Release and repeat the step for 10 times. This exercise increase strength in thigh muscles and calves.
Sit-ups
Sit ups strengthens abdominal muscles making it firm and helps to remove stubborn fat from the abdomen. Sit up is a great spot exercise and the effectiveness can be increased by practicing the exercise with a work out ball.
Yoga
Yoga is wonderful to provide body fitness along with improving mental concentration and relieving stress. Yoga position like the boat or the warrior position helps to correct posture along with improving targeted muscles. Practicing yoga thrice a week can help horse riders to rectify the body posture
Plank
Plank exercise is good for the core muscles. To do plank, firstly put yourself in a push up position and lean on the forearm. Push the whole body up by putting pressure on the balls of the feet and the forearm. Repeat it 15-20 times, this increases stamina and keeps the backbone straight.
Bridge
Lie on your back and place your legs wide apart. Push your back up and keep it parallel to the floor. Hold on till 30 seconds in the beginning and increase the time eventually. It helps to improve legs and abdominal muscles.

Regular practice and improving body posture can help you to ride safe and avoid accidents that occurs due to the rider’s fault a lot of times. High stamina and willpower is the key strength of a professional horse rider.
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