Return to (Rider) Fitness

It has not been an amazing three years for my personal fitness. Even before the Covid reality, one of my personal struggles has been maintaining my fitness regime. I certainly have the blessing of an active lifestyle full of horse chores and access to hiking paths around my home. That being said, during Covid I transitioned away from riding multiple horses every day and into spending more time at a desk while I reinvented my personal business and supported the creation of an Inclusive Equestrian Nonprofit,  and I just wasn’t getting my steps in. I know I’m not alone in this and while I’ve discussed bringing my horses back into work I thought it would be interesting to spend a few minutes with my observations on how I’m feeling bringing myself back into fitness.

I always appreciate the opportunity to empathize with horses. I think I am pretty tuned in and honestly probably err on the side of going too slow, but even still whenever I take on something new it always helps me to consider the horses as I experience the new thing myself. As far as fitness is concerned, one of my greatest observations today is the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic strength, and the development of intrinsic strength overtime.

When I think about intrinsic strength I think about surfers. There they are, literally riding the wave allowing the movement of the water to move through them. While I’m not an avid surfer (I’ve literally never surfed) I would imagine the worst thing you could do on the surfboard is brace. If surfers were to use their large superficial muscles (the ones that make you look strong in the bathroom mirror) to attempt to brace to balance on the surfboard, I imagine they would most likely get bucked off. It turns out it’s all a little deep musculature that allows you to stay in the strong position externally, while your joints (or as the Baron would call them, your “links”) have the opportunity to allow movement to move through you. Vanity muscles on the outside don’t do that job. It’s the intrinsic muscles, the ones down close to your spine, that allow you to be stabilized and flexible at the same time.

So, while I have some good basic fitness from things like walking up and down my hill, hiking with my dogs, and doing my horse chores, my intrinsic fitness is honestly just not the most amazing at the moment. That shows up very clearly when I am increasing the demands of my exercise routine. I find that I have to go outside of my center to balance to do the movements, which means balance exercises like side planks are a little bit wobbly and I don’t have access to the range of motion I  will when that intrinsic strength is improved. Most importantly, when I’m doing challenging exercises I struggle to do it without losing my postural alignment in my spine. That postural alignment is essential for access to the intrinsic muscles, so it could become a vicious cycle without careful attention.

So what? Ultimately, to do an exercise effectively you have to do it correctly, and as it stands right now I’m not quite strong enough to do the exercise 100% correctly. Does that mean that I am not achieving the benefit? No, I certainly am deriving benefits from the exercises, but if I am not conscientious about overburdening my system, I do have an increased likelihood of injury. Because I am struggling to do exercises biomechanically correctly, the system is more fragile, and it is more likely that I could injure myself if I’m not attentive. The workaround for this particular problem is to do less, expect less, and pay close attention to when I’m starting to fatigue, no longer recruiting the muscles I intend to target, or am losing range.

I find this so interesting to observe in my own body, because of course this is exactly what the horses experience as they are developing strength or coming back into fitness. It’s completely relatable and it is a really solid reminder about taking the time it takes for the horses to develop their intrinsic strength both in general, and over the course of a lifetime. Paying attention to this during any given period of training is also an essential skill for a thoughtful equestrian. The value of an exercise is in doing it correctly, and if you can’t do the full version correctly, you can modify and do what you can do well while you build strength to do it better.

I think of all the gadgetry and the devices that get slammed on young horses, soft horses, older horses and struggling horses which restrict their movement while they are at work. Horses balance using their head and neck and when riders use restrictive devices they eliminate the opportunity for the horses to use their natural balancing mechanism. Not only does it freak me out from a safety perspective (taking away the ability of the horse to catch itself if it trips, stumbles or spooks), but also I think about how these horses are not given the opportunity to balance extrinsically where they are strong while they develop intrinsic strength and improved balance. It’s a bit of the cart before the horse and will actually short-circuit the ability of the horse to do its work biomechanically correctly. Returning to my point about myself, I am being cautious and thoughtful about my own fitness and how I progress, because overdoing or working mechanically incorrectly is the fast path to injury.

Exercise is supposed to increase longevity and make us healthier, but like anything else if it’s not done well or correctly it can have the opposite effect and create physical trauma. In the case of bad coaching mental and emotional trauma can happen as well. So, as I increase my body weight exercises from a 15 minute routine to a 30 minutes and I notice the fatigue coming, I think about what it’s like for these horses to not only be required to exercise, but to do so carrying the weight of a rider. In far too many circumstances the horses are expected to do so without the appropriate physical development that allows them to do so correctly and in a way that promotes health and longevity.