ahhhh! Help me strenghten my lower back!

[FairWeather]

I decided to try jumping more than one jump in a row the other night…
So I went to a friends house to play in her ring, and someone shot some pictures with my digi-cam…except they are all too late and are of me landing.
Anyhow, I discovered that I have ZERO ability to sit back up in my tack after a jump…My brain was saying “sit up” and I would try, but I just couldnt…it was like I was paralyzed! I havent tried jumping more than one or two jumps in a row since before my back surgery, and slicing through 6 inches of muscle can slow you down a bit, but it felt so WIERD! My eyes were saying “sit up” and my brain was saying “I already did!”

Anyhow, I’ve started doing some strengthening exercises in the morning, hopefully they will help. I only know of one though, called the “good morning” where you bend at the waist, keeping your back arched like you are bowing, then come back up to standing position, while keeping your eyes up. I need some more though, any suggestions?

My horse is heavy on the forehand, especially after a jump, the truth is I just really havent done much for him in the way of encouraging him to balance…I must work on that
But what ends up happening is that I feel “stuck” forward on him, and with him leaning on me, I’m just not strong enough to sit back up and bring him back up with me…

So, what I end up doing is dropping the reins, sitting back up, then collecting him back by gathering the reins again. This obviously creates an unpleasant and unbalanced picture, not to mention its REALLY hard to balance through an entire course. Anyhow, anybody suffer from the same malady??

Always,
FairWeather
"Just call me mint jelly cuz i’m on the lamb!–Grandpa
http://www.fairweather-farm.com

[subk]

I do 3-day stuff and used to have all kinds of back trouble. Every bit of it stopped when I started doing stomach crunches. Lie on your back on the floor, put your legs on a bed or coffee table and schrunch you rear end up to the edge of the bed/table. Concentrate on keeping you lower back pushed down in to the floor and lift your head and shoulders up toward your knees. I do about 60 - 100 (in sets of 15) four or five times a week. It takes less time than one music video to play. Two of those sets I put both of my knees (bent) on the floor on one side of my body so I’m crunching the side muscles.

Start slow an gradually ad more each day. Your abs are one of the fast responding muscle groups and you may notice a different as soon as a couple of weeks!

Also don’t forget, alot of your control of your upper body is directly affected by the security of your lower leg. If your lower leg drifts back over a fence your going to loose your upper body forward. (Unless you’re some GP rider who rides ten horses a day and has a knee grip from h*ll–us mere mortals need to rely on balance as well as strength!) Trotting around in two-point will help your lower leg.

[artienallie]

My C1 is rotated 90 to the right, which has put pressure on the rest of my spine. I’ve also got excessive curvature of the lumbar spine, which exasperates the pressure in my lower back. My doctors have no idea how this happened, but there it is. They’re not even sure there’s anything that can be done to correct it. I’ve tried physical therapy, chiro, massage therapy and accupressure but nothing has relieved the pain/pressure so far.

When I attempted Pilates, I was under the supervision of a certified instructor - so I know my form was pretty good!

[Quinn]

subk, where are my arms when I’m doing this? I just tried it on my office floor (closed my door) and realized I hadn’t asked that question.

What do you mean, I’m spending waaaaaay too much time on this board? These are important questions here.

On the HJ forum, I have asked about free jumping youngsters. Any thoughts??

[jr]

If you do a bad back clique, count me in…

3 herniated discs.

Both my horses do best with flat work that includes extended periods of sitting trot…they are truly mean-spirited, cruel, vindictive and nasty creatures. But I love them anyway.

[FairWeather]

I’ve tried the Pilates, but it bothers my back right now…If I could work toward it It would be best. Alright, alright, I’ll work on the crunches… Yoga seems like a definate possiblity, however I have SEVERE time restrictions…I’m running on empty and a shortened sleep schedule as a normal course of events.
I dont think my lower leg is drifting back, here is a “landing shot”
Please ignore my big @$$ as I assure you, it has nothing to do with my lower back issues From this shot, It looks like my leg is too far in front of me, which is how I traditionally ride
No laughing!

Always,
FairWeather
"Just call me mint jelly cuz i’m on the lamb!–Grandpa
http://www.fairweather-farm.com

[Tiramit]

Fairweather,

I’m ALWAYS rushing about from lack of time, but have found that once I learned a few yoga positions and the basic warm-up stretches, I can augment the routine to fit whatever time. From five minutes to over an hour, any little bit can help.

Barnes & Noble has a nice selection of tapes and most are only 20 minute routines.

By the way, your position looks great!

[Pocket_Pony]

I 2nd the Yoga suggestion. You don’t realize that you’re strengthening your abs, but you are. A much more effective and total ab workout than just sit ups alone. You should see my obliques!!! Also helps the back, helps with coordination and balance - you’ll love it!

All this and I only do it for 20 minutes a day

“It’s amazing how there’s no time to do it right the first time but always time to do it over again.”

[InWhyCee]

OMG, I did not know that… obviously I sometimes skip lines when I read… Will your medical insurance cover visits with a physical therapist? A sports doctor? A chiropractor? There has to be a safer way to re-build muscle; your doctor should be kicked if he isn’t suggesting some sort of therapy!

---

“Any ride is good ride if you dismount voluntarily.”

“Go on, Bill… This is no place for a pony.”

[This message was edited by InWhyCee on Feb. 21, 2002 at 06:37 PM.]

[FairWeather]

I decided to try jumping more than one jump in a row the other night…
So I went to a friends house to play in her ring, and someone shot some pictures with my digi-cam…except they are all too late and are of me landing.
Anyhow, I discovered that I have ZERO ability to sit back up in my tack after a jump…My brain was saying “sit up” and I would try, but I just couldnt…it was like I was paralyzed! I havent tried jumping more than one or two jumps in a row since before my back surgery, and slicing through 6 inches of muscle can slow you down a bit, but it felt so WIERD! My eyes were saying “sit up” and my brain was saying “I already did!”

Anyhow, I’ve started doing some strengthening exercises in the morning, hopefully they will help. I only know of one though, called the “good morning” where you bend at the waist, keeping your back arched like you are bowing, then come back up to standing position, while keeping your eyes up. I need some more though, any suggestions?

My horse is heavy on the forehand, especially after a jump, the truth is I just really havent done much for him in the way of encouraging him to balance…I must work on that
But what ends up happening is that I feel “stuck” forward on him, and with him leaning on me, I’m just not strong enough to sit back up and bring him back up with me…

So, what I end up doing is dropping the reins, sitting back up, then collecting him back by gathering the reins again. This obviously creates an unpleasant and unbalanced picture, not to mention its REALLY hard to balance through an entire course. Anyhow, anybody suffer from the same malady??

Always,
FairWeather
"Just call me mint jelly cuz i’m on the lamb!–Grandpa
http://www.fairweather-farm.com

[artienallie]

Jeez, FairWeather! From your description I was expecting some hideous position! Your position isn’t bad - you’re definately an eventer/foxhunter, that’s all. Gotta be prepared!

Anyway, I feel your pain - and although I really want to do Pilates, I can’t. Yoga is much more doable, but ultimatly, it’s the crunches that take the least amount of time and really target those abs. Unfortunatly. Bleck.

[SaraJ]

Along with strengthening your abs, we used to do this exersize in volleyball.

Lay on your stomach and have someone sit on your legs (or you can hold the bottom of a couch with your toes, anything to stabilize yourself), put your arms behind your back, and slowly raise your upper body off the ground.

It really works well on your butt and lower back muscles!

~SARA~
Horse, thou truly are a creature without equal, for thou fliest without wings and conquerest without sword.

[Quinn]

I suffer from the exact same problem. However, it isn’t our lower back that lets us down. Believe it or not, it’s our abs. No kidding. When we land, we need our abdomen to straighten up. Do I have any hints? None other than ab training. Hey, I know. One of those ab exercise belts you can buy on ebay!!

[dbtoo]

If crunches and sit ups on the floor hurt you can also try doing them laying over one those big (24") exercise balls. The ball supports your back and makes doing them as painless as possible. You can get the balls at Walmart in the health/exercise deparment.

[lilblackhorse]

hi fairweather-I have now had time to read thru the thread…I liked Pilates, though it was really really hard. I found that I was incredibly strong in my abs, and had great flexibility forward, but NONE backward…my hip flexors were/are incredibly tight, and I can’t arch backward to save my life.

I think a very good “bridge” for you would be water aerobics. After I broke my back the last time (burst fracture, L3), I was on bed rest for 2 months, then they allowed me up for 3 hrs. I took 2 hrs of that going to our local pool with the geriatric set to do aerobics. I literally took my cast off in the pool, and did the deep water stuff. It is very friendly to do, not hard on joints, and you wouldn’t believe the results. I was so limber and strong when I was allowed up, even the doctor couldn’t believe it!

I find that I don’t do a lot of movement with my legs to the BACK–like in ballet, a tendu back…I took ballet last year, and found it really kept me more balanced and stronger, because I was more limber. Heck, practice basic stretching in you living room, and then stand up in the kitchen , holding onto the counter, and do some good reps of leg lefts-to the front, the side and the back. My back is really weak, and tight, and the tightness I have in my quads and hamstrings pull on my hips and then up into my middle back.

Sorry this is so long, but I have been there-I highly recommend the water class-literally one hour, and it is fast and easy. Plus the old folks were really nice to me. I really didn’t think it did much for me, until I quit, and I seized up in prettty much about 2 months. I need to find the time to go back.

Oh, also, get one of those gym balls-the big things-I lay backward over it and just stretch out my back, plus you can do situps on it…it helps.

(ps, I think yourpicture looked just fine-it’s a small jump, you weren’t ahead-your stirrups looked a hair long, but you are long legged-You looked great to me )…

But, get moving anyway, getting a good stretching routine is so important, especially as we get older, and abs are key to back support.

GOOD LUCK…make the time

Proud Founder of the Elipses Users Clique…We can’t stop using them…

[Dry_Clean_Only]

You betcha I do! I do the same thing!

I bet you are jumping up the neck more than you realize, which makes it even harder to balance on the other side of the fence. I just tried to think about keeping myself in two point around the entire course, and over each jump just letting the horse jump up to me. This helped me not make such a huge move with my upper body over tiny little fences (No Lexi, you do not have to leap up the neck like its a 5 foot oxer over that little verticle )

The horse I had a really big problem with this was the little jumper mare I rode as a junior. I had to think about really sitting back as soon as I jumped the fence. It would feel to me like I was coming back too early, but really it was normal and helped keep her from falling in a heap around the corners and in tight turns.

I also have to allow myself to keep a feel of their mouth in the air, sometimes horses who tend to land in a heap will jump better with a little extra support (once again I had to assure myself that I did not have to release up to the ears over a cross rail! )

[InWhyCee]

If Pilates bothers your back, you ONE) may have an injury or strain that your doctor could diagnose; or TWO) your form is incorrect, in which case a certified instructor could correct it an hour or two. A fair number of people make the mistake of lowering and/or straightening their legs to a degree that their core muscles (abs, et cetera) are unable to support the lower-back, the result being the lower-back “pops” off the floor. Lifting the head from the lower back, as opposed to curling up, is another problem… You should NEVER experience lower-back pain when doing an excercise correctly. Also, Pilates is not magical; it took me three months of twice-weekly sessions to start seeing results.

So don’t give up! I come from a family of bad backs; everyone is seeing the chiropractor except me, the Pilates Princess.

---

“Any ride is good ride if you dismount voluntarily.”

“Go on, Bill… This is no place for a pony.”

[SaddleFitterVA]

Fairweather,

Given your recent back surgery and injury, I recommend that you MAKE the time to get some classes in your fitness technique of choice.

I personally favor yoga, but for yoga to be effective, you need to work with an instructor for a while to ensure that you are doing it correctly and in proper alignment. (I am a yoga teacher, still working on my certification, but have been taking studying and practicing yoga for 6 years).

Pilates, same thing, work with an instructor first. Work with a body worker, a physical therapist.

Abdominal work should not bother the back if it is done correctly.

I taught a Yoga Workshop recently for a group of riders that Hopeful Hunter organized, and one of the comments was that there is a HUGE difference between taking a class that is “led by an instructor” and taking a class that is “TAUGHT”.

Mel

[findeight]

Quinn you beat me to it.
As the legs strengthen up and hold the body correctly we need abdominal strength to hold us down in the tack. The only place I suffer any lingering soreness anymore is my abs, especially whan the jumps go up but even when I flat more then one horse.
Actually it is a good thing as it means the leg is strong enough to do it’s job.
No other answer but sit ups and curls, sorry to say.

A good reputation taking thousands of years to build can be destroyed in a few hours.

[FairWeather]

InWhyCee…I’m recovering from shattered disks in L5/S1. I had surgery last June and have been back riding since mid-November after almost a year of doing almost nothing in the saddle…
I find the Pilates to be too much strain on my back because of the surgery site. They cut through all the muscle in my lower back, which is what is taking so long to repair
I think Pilates COULD work for me, but I need a stepping stone…

Always,
FairWeather
"Just call me mint jelly cuz i’m on the lamb!–Grandpa
http://www.fairweather-farm.com