Oh perfect! I actually just bought a weighted vest to try rucking and I’ve been Pilates curious for a while - I’ll try that. Here I thought cycling would help my legs be stronger for my two point but makes sense it might over work/ over stiffen me. Thank you.
Totally! I ride 4 days a week but it still never feels like enough for riding fitness! I’ll definitely try some cross training that isn’t biking. I love my peloton and thought it might help make my two point stronger when I work heavier resistance but I can see how that can backfire/ make me stiffer too!
I see this a lot. When you jump larger fences you essentially stand up a little bit on take off (great advice above on getting the strength and balance for that) then fold at the hip- this uses your hip flexors (psoas) to achieve your upper body position and back muscles to hold it, then you unfold at the hip on landing with the weight in your inner leg and foot- that’s your base of support and it’s fairly independent from your upper body. What I see a lot of people doing instead these days is kind of a squat on top of the horse which causes two problems: over engaging your hamstrings and butt muscles which literally pull your torso and arms back and having to make a big move to get out of your jumping position on landing. Stand up right now and try touching your toes by first bending at the hip then by squatting down to the the floor and see how your balance changes and how you can get out of that position and back to standing - you want to “touch your toes” over a fence. You do need a strong base of support or you end up laying on the neck.
If you ski this is the “drive weight forward” vs “get in the back seat” thing almost exactly. Good skiers typically learn to ride pretty easily for this reason.
There is a time and place for the heavily anchored jumping positions of course! Riding down a drop etc. but people slip their reins.
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Just having both knees replaced and gone thru that rehab, PT told me cycling is a good warm up for other exercises, not an exercise in itself but to cycling.
Cycling tends to be restrictive to only certain muscle groups that are not that important for most other we do, like walking, turning, lifting, etc.
Some cycling machines add handles to make cycling a more complete exercise.
Best to get a good feel for jumping is to take lessons, a chance to jump as many different horses as you can and learn to adapt yourself to the different ways horses jump.
You are not as apt to get into any one bad habit as you learn to compensate.
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Wow thank you! I love this visual! I do think I’ve been doing the squat thing a bit more which I can get away with on a horse with a smoother/ less round jump but not on the horse in leasing.
It’s become bizarrely common. Remember your knee straightens when you jump so your hamstring needs to un-clamp and your quads need to engage.
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More nuanced here. It is that cycling works the WRONG muscles so you develop strength & muscle memory for things that ACTIVELY work against you riding (especially jumping larger fences)
nothing to do with overworking or tiring you - actively doing the wrong conditioning
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Doing this exercise helped me a whole lot and it’s a lot harder than it sounds! What also helped me was getting a lesson on a schoolmaster who jumped hard and landed hard. If I wasn’t correct I was going to fall off! A neck strap is your friend.
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My newer to me trainer literally inherited me me unable to hold this at the walk – to holding it almost constantly for 40 mins w-t-c & over fences 8 months later.
just this morning - I was riding my corners badly for most of my course resulting in getting the add almost every bending line and my “fence of the day” was the oxer out of the straight 5 stride – oxers just terrified me before the standing up exercise was something I could do successfully.
the first time I did this at the canter and over a small fence I thought I was going to die / fall off - quite the opposite!
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THIIIISSS
do you have a background in PT or some sort of athletic conditioning? You’re spot on!
Former dressage rider (pure dressage junior) – I ride best without irons to the point of where I sit and HOPE it is one of the adult equation tests on the flat.
but STRUGGLE over fences without irons for the exact reasons you state — hmmm I haven’t tried recently, maybe that has changed…
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Super helpful! Yes I’ve realized I need to get back into no stirrup work! I took it for granted when I was younger and find myself avoiding it when possible but I just need to suck it up and do it. I’ve always had tight hamstrings and quads so i think in addition to scaling back on the cycling, it’s fine for both Pilates and yoga plus other cross training.
