Hi McGurk,
I want to thank you SO MUCH for introducing the “rider’s pushup” exercise. I used to jump decades ago, but with my MS exacerbations I got totally weak and unfit and I have been spending the last decade trying to get strong enough in the saddle so I could think about jumping again.
I had almost given up, I practice a lot of two-point but I just never seemed to get stronger since I don’t have much endurance and I can only ride 30 minutes at a time (3x/week.) I tried the rider’s push-up in my last lesson and man alive, there are all these muscles whose existence I had forgotten about! My riding teacher LIKES this new exercise, her daughter who also teaches likes this new exercise, and I LOVE this new exercise. When I did it all I could think was “why wasn’t I introduced to this exercise 45 years ago when I started learning to jump?” If I had been I would have had a LOT FEWER problems learning how to jump!
I have just done this exercise maybe 8 times over my last two rides. I can already tell that some muscles are stronger. I have a HORRIBLE sense of balance and I have almost no proprioceptive sense, but with this exercise I am working on both. My riding teacher also suggested that I go from the vertical far position (standing in the stirrups with a straight knee) down to two-point to the rider’s push-up position to get my whole leg stronger.
You have given me hope. I have spent the last year not making much progress in the saddle and I was despairing of EVER being strong enough to try jumping again. Now I am full of hope. I promised my riding teacher that I would never jump until she thought I would be able to handle 2 feet, and in the ten years I’ve ridden with her I never got that good. I think that the rider’s push-up is going to change this, and I think it will make me a much better rider.
THANK YOU!
Jackie Cochran
