From the feet up

Our feet: We put them in pretty boots, buy lovely stirrups ... then promptly forget about them.

Working with so many wonderful riders from so many lovely barns, the greatest commonality I've run into at each new clinic is that most riders have no connection to their feet.

When I start with a client, the first thing I typically observe is their feet -- how well are they holding you up, how well are they propelling you through your own gait, what they do when your focus stays on anything else for a few moments. Feet are so important because they keep us grounded, create the square base of our box, and allow us to propel ourselves up and forward.

So why do we never think about them while in the saddle?

Maybe we only think about them in relation to how toed-out or toed-in we are. Riders often try to correct the foot from the ankle, so it’s almost impossible to truly know where we stand (or sit) if we can’t connect to our feet.

Most hip and leg issues are come from your feet. For example, if you have fallen arches it’s very hard to get the inner thighs to engage. Correspondingly, it’s difficult to get the outer thigh to lengthen and the hip to truly open in the saddle. Instead of trying to fix it up higher, we must look to the foot.

Simple exercises to awaken the feet can make a world of difference in how well you sit and power-up your horse. The following are a few to help awaken your connection to your feet and strengthen those intrinsic muscles, click the links to follow along with the videos:

• Foot Shaking

• https://youtu.be/toI9D1ZbMHQ

• Towel exercises

• https://youtu.be/YW_3GcYbMEA

• Standing 2x4 exercises

• https://youtu.be/ZhdILPl6dzA

After these exercises, try taking the new awareness into the saddle. Create a new, well-balanced relationship with your stirrups. Ask yourself if can you stay equally weighted in the saddle through a corner and/or in a lateral movement. Start creating this internal conversation with yourself during your rides. You’ll see a marked improvement in the balance of your seat as your feet grow stronger and more connected to the rest of your body.

Lengthen to strengthen in and out of the saddle

With the days are shorter and the weather colder and colder, I am seeing a common theme in my clients.  Most are lacking, or loosing the concept of length.

In Pilates we use length to help create opposition and strength.  It’s important to train length in your muscles.  We often confuse strengthening our muscles with shortening our muscles. In the winter, I see riders having a hard time sitting their horses, sustaining pain in the back after their rides, and collapsing in the torso.

The general theme is the collapsing and shortening.  It is an attempt for riders to better “ground” their seats, but in truth all that’s been accomplished is a collapsed powerhouse and locked, stiff muscles. 

How do we break the cycle? By reestablishing length evenly throughout the body, and then translating that length it into the saddle.

As a riders we often take on our horses’ imbalances.  As we get stuck in the cycle of fixing those, we lose some of the proprioception (awareness of our body’s movement) that we need to remain balanced and level ourselves. If we work on the mat, and the apparatus establishing squareness and length, we can then take that feeling into the saddle.

Start by waking up the feet.  By reconnecting to the feet we become more aware of how we place our weight in our legs, and then in our hips and pelvis.  Due to the fact that we wear shoes more than we are barefoot, our feet and their intrinsic muscles become weak. Tack on the heavy socks and winter boots for the lucky few of us that live in cold winter climates, and you can imagine the disconnect that happens in our feet. 

Let’s be honest.  Unless they hurt or cramp, how often are you thinking about your feet?  Feet are our foundation and hold the attachments that link right up our backline over our head and attach right between our eyebrows.  That’s a lot of energy and power to tap into and use. As riders we use a lot of leg, but if the feet aren’t awake, how can we truly use it correctly? Are you really using the whole power of your leg? Probably not.   

The next step is the legs. Our legs are where the shortening becomes a tangible issue.  We use these long, powerful appendages all day long, to walk, sit, stand, etc.  As riders, we also use them to power our horses forward, bend, and engage them in various ways that our disciplines ask for.  

If we become short and fixed in our legs then we are unable to be effective with them.  Oftentimes this shortness is more pronounced on one side of the body and proceeds to effect other body parts.  For example, we can’t get the horse off our left side. Even though we are working so hard with our left leg, we are getting no discernible effect in our horse.  We try harder.  Now our left leg is feeling like it’s going to fall off.  It’s most likely gotten shorter, and our knee has probably superglued itself to the saddle, as has our upper thigh.  

We are so set in our minds on achieving the reaction that we forget to let go of the aid and allow for the reaction.  We are also so fixed on our goal that this constant leg engagement pushes ourselves right out of our seat. It causes our hips and glutes to tighten and fix, which then locks our lower back. This leads to a tight rider, and a tight-behind-the-leg horse. 

Next we look at how the legs are affecting the glutes and hips.  Remember, everything is attached. 

If we have a shortness in our legs, it’s going to travel up to its connection point in the hip or lower back.  It’s OK to use your butt.  Often riders think they have to be soft or flat in their glutes.  That’s just not going to work from a muscle-firing point and it won’t work from a balance point, either.  You need your glutes to help fire the inner thighs and hamstrings.  

Riders tend to suffer from very sore glutes, so thus we have to lengthen and strength the glutes and the attachment points into them as well.  You need to be able to use this part of your body effectively otherwise other muscle groups will try to accomplish the job and just end up creating more blockages.  These blockages will then block you seat from correctly absorbing the horse’s back and energy.  They are usually the cause of a lot of lower back pain.  I am a big fan of foam cylinders and massage work to help reestablish the correct balance in this region.  It is usually painful but very worth the time and care.  

Let’s look at the lats and core.  Usually we try so hard to have a strong core that we forget the core is more than just our abdominals.  To be truly long, strong and fluid, the front and back body have to work synergistically together. Often most riders’ lats are too long, and their abs and chest muscles are too tight.  

We don’t really think about extension work until we realize that the horse is heavy. Our arms really don’t fix that.  Or our trainers take our hands away on the lunge line. Then we see just how collapsed we are.  

I love introducing extension work into every session with every body type.  By adding extension into your routine, you add awareness to your back body, you strengthen the lats, and help the rotator cuff muscles to be more balanced.  You can then truly breath into your body and find the connection from your ribs into your lats.  

This is a powerful connection. It allows for effective half halts and for proper body position in stressful situations.  Not only is it great in the saddle, but it’s also great all day long.  It allows you to walk more lightly and to feel better in your body. Another huge bonus from this work is the freedom we desire in our hips.

This is why it’s so important to remember to find your length.  Start by being even in your feet, so your legs can be even, so your hips can be open and your back accepting. When you give the aid with both or one leg you can then let go and stretch back down into your even, active, feet.  You can also lengthen up and engage your back. 

No matter the horses, level or imbalance we cannot allow the awareness of our balance to be compromised, we cannot give away our length.  We can also not be afraid to let go and allow the horse to do what we asked.  Maybe they do it perfectly, maybe they don’t. It doesn’t matter, you can ask and redirect them again and again, until you achieve the desired result.  

The point is that you have to not sacrifice you seat, your aids to achieve it.  You have to be as aware of yourself as you are of your horse. You have to be balanced and clear in your aids so that you can effectively ask, and then effectively respond to, the horse’s answer.   You have to stay long and open to what’s coming next.

Opposition, the bridge to lightness

So often, as we are working to better integrate our bodies, and become more effective and efficient, we get a bit fixed, or bogged down. We focus so much on engaging the core we forget about creating length. With out this component we loose the fluidity and lightness that we are working towards, not just in ourselves but in our horses as well. Remember our horses muscles will mimic our muscles, so if ours are fixed, or bogged down, then so are our horses.

To create this beautiful lightness we need to work with two forces, the grounding force and the lengthening force. We are then creating opposition which then creates lightness and fluidity. Opposition is one of the major forces in creating the Pilates connection. It plays a key roll in creating how we connect the core, and how we work towards symmetry; not only on the mat but in the saddle as well. When we correctly engage this concept within the Pilates connection we create a light, properly aligned, and connected body. We can then use this in all that we choose to do physically.

How does this work? Opposition in Pilates is easily created through grounding our powerhouse, and stretching as evenly and equally as we can through our limbs. As you reach you will notice your core draw up, or down in opposition to the limb you are activating the stretch with. In each exercise in Pilates there is a point of grounding (shoulders, pelvis, hip…) and a point of lengthening. As we grow in our connection we are then better able to refine, and challenge it by learning to lengthen more, and increase our ROM in relation to our stability. For example, in the roll up we create opposition in our legs as we lengthen them along the floor, and slowly articulate through our spine, up and over the stretch in our legs. Through this length we find and can feel opposition and, through opposition we then find lightness and fluidity in our movements.

This is true on the horse as well. As we become more balanced and more connected in our powerhouse, so follows a more balanced and independent seat and leg, that is better able to handle the challenges presented in our daily training. So how do you get this wonderful, balanced, adaptable seat?

You learn to create opposition!! Easily said, surprisingly, with practice, not that hard to do.

I want to take a few simple exercises that naturally relate, and give riders the tools they need to be effective and light. I have attached the related videos for you to practice with, and as a visual aid.

Rib Cage Arms:

This is the key to a correct half halt from your seat not just your leg and hand. This is easiest to learn lying down. You lie on your back, legs can be bent feet planted if you have a sensitive back, or legs can be straight on the floor and together. You want to have a neutral pelvis and feel the natural curves of you back on the floor. Have your arms long at your sides, and actively reaching toward your feet. Your shoulders are flat on the mat and stay flat and down away from your ears at all times. On an inhale you raise your arms to the ceiling, on the exhale you start to stretch your arms over your head. It’ s import to keep your shoulders down and flat, and to use your rib cage in opposition to the stretch in your arms. So as you exhale you draw your shoulder, arm pit, and ribs down towards the belly button. This will restrict how far overhead you reach. You want to feel your ribs slide down and in, filling up the space in the lower back, and keeping your powerhouse grounded to the floor. On your next inhale you lift your arms back up to the ceiling and then exhale and bring your hands back down to your sides. Here is a link to a video demonstrating Rib Cage Arms.

https://www.pilatesinmotionllc.com/videos/

Once you’ve mastered the feeling lying down, you can then try the exercise standing. I usually do this against a wall so you can be sure your are working the correct feeling and connection.

Seated Spine Twist

This exercise I have mentioned in previous posts, and is one of my favorite exercises to teach. It does a lot for the rider in terms of teaching proper engagement of the inner thighs, as well as correct rotational alignment in the core. This exercise helps riders understand how to better ride any bending line.

Start sitting tall, on the front of your sits bones, legs are together, straight out in front of you, (if you are stuck in your pelvis and can’t find the front of your sits bones, you can bend you knees slightly and ground your heels.) With your legs lengthen together in pilates stance, or parallel, toes pointed. Arms are out stretched to the sides, shoulders drawing in towards each other in opposition of the reach in the arms. If you have shoulder or neck issues you can do this with your arms bent at your sides as if you are holding reins. On the inhale you ground through your legs, draw that energy up you inner thighs, into your sits bones and turn to your right for a count of three. Keep in mind that the legs stay equal, one doesn’t get shorter than the other as you rotate. The weight stays equal on your sits bones, and you don’t sink or fall to the back or your sits bones. On the exhale you untwist, returning the the start position. On the next inhale you repeat the processes to the left. Below is a link that you can practice along with.

https://www.pilatesinmotionllc.com/videos/

Chest expansion

This exercise is great for learning how to use your shoulders, find length in the spine, and freedom in the neck. It also teaches you how to not lose your balance in you core as you move your head. You do this kneeling, if you want you can put a block or ball between your inner thighs. You place a thera band, or you can hold light weights (2-3lbs), or you don’t need to have anything. You kneel and ground through your knees, up your inner thighs and lift your your pelvic floor. If you have the Thera band it’s under your knees, and you have choked up on the band so you feel some resistance. If you have weights they are held lightly in your hands. If you have neither hands are at your sides, they are actively reaching down. From here you lengthen up and pay attention to your ribs. You will inhale and reach your long arms back behind you, bringing your shoulder blades together and down (imagine holding a pencil between your shoulders). Make sure you engage the “Rib Cage Arm” feeling and don’t let you ribs pop open like the prow of a ship. This engagement of the ribs will create opposition and make sure you stay in proper alignment. Exhale and turn your head to the right looking as far behind you as you can. Keep your arms behind you as your inhale and return to the center with your head. The next exhale you turn your head to the left. Inhale return to center and exhale return you arms to your sides. Here is the video to follow along with.

https://www.pilatesinmotionllc.com/videos/

Walking Backwards

This is great for learning how to lengthen the hip flexors and still keep the core engaged and the back happy. So many people have tight hips from sitting a lot, and collapsing into their pelvis. You will start by lying on your stomach, with your hands on top of each other and forehead resting on your hands. Your belly button is strongly lifted off the mat and your hip bones and pubic bone are grounded into the mat. Your legs can be hip width apart if you have a sensitive lower back or together if you do not. On an inhale you lengthen your right leg so much so, that it slides along the mat and then lifts. At the same time you are keeping the weight in your hips even and your pelvic floor and belly button strongly engaged in opposition to the stretch of your leg. Exhale and place that leg back on the floor keeping the length you’ve gained. Repeat on the the left leg. You can alternate this six times per leg. Here is a video to practice with.

https://www.pilatesinmotionllc.com/videos/

Side leg Series

This is great to help create a more flexible hip, as well as challenge your core stability, and create length and strength for the whole leg. I also find it’s a great way for riders to learn how to move from the hip, not just the knee. In the side leg series we use our powerhouse to create the stability and opposition we need. It’s important to remember to stay stacked and balanced on your hips, and ribs. There is no swaying in the body to counter balance the movement of the leg. You will lie on your side, you can have your elbow bent and support your head with your hand (if you need to rest your head on your shoulder that’s ok too). You will be one straight line from your ear through your feet, then you take your feet and move them forward to the front corner of the mat. If you need more support you can bend the bottom leg into a chair position to help create a more stable base. Your top hand is in front of your belly button, and helps you maintain your balance as well. From here lengthen your body from the crown of the head through the toes. Pull your belly button to your spine, and the area of your stomach that is between your ribs and hips, lifts off the mat slightly as if it’s going to be pricked by a pin. Lift your top leg up to hip height and flex the foot, lengthening through your heel. Exhale and bring the straight leg forward towards your nose, on the inhale reach the leg long, point the toes, and reach back to the long straight line you first started on. Your range of motion is determined by how stable you stay as you move your leg in the hip. If you are moving a lot make the movement as small as you need to create stability. To challenge the stability, first make the leg grow longer, then increase your range of motion. There are few more in the series, below is the link to the video.

https://www.pilatesinmotionllc.com/videos/

Once this concept is learned, it really transforms your practice on the mat and in the saddle. You will find not only, better engagement and more purpose in the Pilates exercise, but also in how you engage just with your body on a daily basis. It becomes fun to play with in and out of the saddle, and the exercises take on so much more meaning and direction. I hope this has helped answer some questions on how we create and manage the Pilates connection. If you have questions please feel free to reach out, I love questions, and look forward to feed back. Enjoy your practice and your horses!

Staying focused in the saddle and on the mat, during the holidays

So it’s that time of year, the holidays are in full swing. This time of year is often difficult, and stressful on so many people. Getting everything accomplished on the every growing to do list causes us to feel run off our feet. It’s no wonder that our practice on our horses, and on our mats suffer. So I thought this month’s blog post would be about ways to fit your mat practice in, to help you combat the stress, and helping you stay on track in the saddle. There is nothing better for stress than wine, oh sorry, I mean exercise. Well both really if I am being honest, but since this is about Pilates I’ll keep it there.

Did you know that to do the Fabulous Five, in a contiguous flow, takes less than two minutes!!! That’s right, less than two minutes. That’s six reps of each exercise, one flowing into the next. Speaking from years of experience, these five exercises can change around my entire day! To follow along with the flow all you have to do is go to the video page on my website, or visit my YouTube channel! How do these help you in the saddle? They will help you maintain the core connection, and control you need to have the connected, independent seat, we all strive for. When we get stressed we tend to rely more on our hands, in general and especially when we ride. We are so busy this time of year, and when we finally make it into the saddle it’s hard to shut off the get it done, check it off the list mentality. Due to this, we become very much rushed and put our balance into our hands to get the jobs done. This takes us out of our seat and creates unnecessary blockages in the energy for our horses. Less than two minutes and you can talk to that connection you need, so that when you finally get on your horse, it’s there ready to work for you and your horse.

Another go to for me is the seated series; these are Spine Stretch Forward, Twist, and Saw. These done in a flow take less than two minutes too!!! I love using the wall for Spine Stretch Forward, it really helps me be honest about my posture. It’s a great stretch, also it gets all that stale air out of your lungs! Let’s face it how many deep breathes are we all taking when we are stressed. These really reconnect the breathe, posture, and lengthen us back out of the fetal position. You can follow along with these, as well on the webpage of YouTube. How do they help you in the saddle? These allow you to truly ride the horse from back to front, without being tricked into closing your hip angle forward or side to side; therefore creating an escape door for the horse. Most importantly they help you control the whole body on the circle or in lateral work, allowing you to know when you loose perpendicular, and giving you the tools to correct it quickly. You are no longer at the mercy of centrifugal force, allowing you to show your horse where to be as well. Learning these gives you an amazing insight into your balance, and your horses, so you can always pick the balance point, instead of having it picked for you.

Extension work, is some of the most mood lifting work you can do. This literally takes you out of the beaten down, over stretched upper back feeling. It’ allows for you heart to open, it gives your tight hip flexors permission to lengthen, and it just plain feels good. Yes I have a fun, simple extension series on my webpage and YouTube channel that you can follow along with, and it’ll take five minutes. Or you can pick and choose which ones help you the most and use them throughout your day to lift you back up. How can these help you in the saddle? In so many ways, most notably is your posture, if you carry your head in a forward, or downward position, that disappears. If you are tight in your hips and have a hard time sitting, this trains your hip flexors not only how to be long but to be strong within the length. You learn how to engage and work your hamstrings as well. This is huge for allowing proper use of the leg, and creating a steady, still leg. One that is effective when it needs to be and stable when not in immediate use. These are just a few of the benefits, there are so many that I could really get going here. I will say this one last thing, back bending helps your adrenal glands, which at this time of year are in overdrive. So show them some love and bend back a bit each day.

Finally, there are all the fun rolling exercises. These are great messages for you spine, and really work on core control, and balance. There are videos on the webpage and YouTube channel, walking you through these as well. They are a nice way to roll the tension out of your spine, and maybe laugh a bit too.

All of this can be done in pieces as you need it. Two minutes here, two there. It’s a great way to kickstart a busy day, or release at the end of one. Pick and choose what feels good to your body, when your body is happy, you and your horse will be too. Most importantly remember to take two minutes for yourself. You’ll feel better, and be able to enjoy the beauty of the season.

Conscious Gaming

Ok so we all have experienced phone neck.  That stiff pinched neck you get when you hold your phone between your head and neck, now we have a new epidemic created by our phone and tablet, I am calling it gaming neck.  I see more and more forward head, hunched back people coming to the studio every day.  As we do more on our phones everyday, running our business, and lives from them we do suffer some postural repercussions.   

In light of this I have come up with three simple exercises to help counteract our phone posture.  The best part! You can still do what you need to on your phone while strengthening and instilling stronger postural muscles. 

Lions pose for conscious gaming

What you need a firm/hard surface, to lie down on. Your phone or tablet.

You will start on your forearms with your ribs and abs engaged, you hip bones and public bone on the floor and your legs hip width apart and you are actively reaching them out long behind you.  Quick note if you have lower back tension or issues try rolling to the pinkie toe side or outer edge of you feet.

In this position you will be actively pulling your heart center forward by putting pressure down on your forearms and engaging your shoulder blades towards each other and down. In essence reaching your heart chakra forward and up.  In this position you can pick up your phone and read, play games, or check and sent email/texts, whatever.  After a few minutes to release the pose you will sit back on your heals in childs pose.

This will help strengthen you back, and core.  It will help you become more aware and capable of feeling your shoulders and knowing how to engage them and keep them from climbing into your ears.

Here is a video of the exercise you can watch and follow along.

https://www.pilatesinmotionllc.com/videos/

Supine for Conscious Gaming

What you need: A firm/hard surface to lie down on.  A soft blanket or towel for you head and neck if necessary. A block or soft medium sized ball for between you legs if you want to help strengthen you inner thighs a bit.

Lying on your back (with blanket or towel under you head/neck area if necessary) Legs will be hip width apart, feet parallel under knees, and knees in line with hips.  If you’d like to place the ball or block between your inner thighs to help you maintain your alignment and strengthen your inner thighs.  From here you can rest your phone/tablet next to you for a moment and reach straight arms to the ceiling.  The arms will stay right in front of the shoulders, palms facing each other.  The arms will stay straight the whole time so will your fingers you will then reach your straight arm for the ceiling, feeling your shoulders pull away from the spine and rise.  Do this on an inhale.  Then on your exhale you will retract and return your shoulders flat to the mat. Repeat this about 6 times.  Become familiar with the feeling you your shoulders decompressed on the mat beneath you.  Once you do this you can pick up your phone or tablet and hold it up over your face trying to keep you shoulders decompressed.  (This might mean you need to bend your elbows) 

Next you will bridge. Keep in mind that this a slow purposeful bridge focus being on articulation.  You are only going to bridge up to your bottom rib. To begin bridge take an inhale, then on the exhale start lifting your tail bone and then each subsequent vertebrate slowly up till you get to your bottom rib.  At the top take an inhale and then on the exhale slowly lower each vertebrae back down all the way until your tailbone hits the mat.  If you have the ball or block you will place equal pressure in on the object as you move.  

Bonus for neck tension. In this position lying flat and not in the bridge you can do a simple head nod and circle exercise to help with neck tension.  What you will do is simply press the back of you head into the mat, you will feel your jaw move in and up and your nose move down.  Do this about six times.  Then for the circle you need to imagine a quarter right in front of your nose.  You are going to use the tip of your nose to trace the circumference of the quarter six times in clockwise and six times counter clockwise.

These exercises also help with shoulder awareness as well as spinal articulation, and inner thigh strength.  

Here is the video link for this exercise.

https://www.pilatesinmotionllc.com/videos/

Active Sitting for Conscious Gaming

What you need: A wall and a yoga block (this is if you have a hard time sitting up straight) and a tennis ball and your phone or tablet

You are going to place the block right up against the wall and sit on it with equal weight in both sits bones.

You’re legs can be bent with feet on the floor or straight out in front of you feet pointed or flexed. If you want you can play with the point and flex while you are in the position.

Next you will place the tennis ball in between the shoulder blades or more on one side and then switch to the other.  Once the ball is there you can roll it around on you’re back touching on different knots or trigger points as you see fit. 

While you are doing this you can have your phone or tablet in you lap, and pick it up as you wish remembering to keep you elbows alongside your ribs.  Stay here as long as you desire.

This will help give you a little message, help you work on your posture and your awareness of it, as well as strengthen your pelvic floor.

Here is the video for this exercise

https://www.pilatesinmotionllc.com/videos/

The Principals of Pilates

Pilates Core Principals 

These eight core principles are what you need to keep in mind while practicing your exercises.  Think of them as a check list.  Inevitably some will come up more than others in your mind that’s why I give out this list. It is vital to build from 1-8 to help your fully understand and integrate the method for your mind and body.

1) Concentration “Concentrate of the correct movements each time you exercise, lest you do them improperly and thus lose all the vital benefits of their value.”  J. Pilates

This seems simple but is often difficult.  To concentrate on the entire body while it performs a complex set of movements is challenging and takes time.  Keep in mind that to focus the muscles as they move is not an easy task. Often the body doesn’t follow what the mind wants, but after concerted practice the simple movements become more focused and what once was just a simple movement turns into something complex.

2) Centering 

The abdominal area is often described as the second spine.  It is your powerhouse of your anatomy.  Your center is a pivotal point of the body.  All strength movements emanate from this area.  Abdominal control is different from abdominal strength this is important! The former does not rely on the latter. In my opinion it is preferable to have control.

3) Breathing “To breathe correctly you must completely exhale and inhale, always trying very hard to “squeeze” every atom of pure air from your lungs in much the same manner that you would wring every drop of water from a wet cloth.” J. Pilates

Correct breathing should be performed with the following in mind:

-   Keep the neck and shoulder relaxed; hunching causes neck tension

-   Allow the breath to flow: don’t hold your breath at any point

-   Breath in through the nose (into the chest) for a five second count, without allowing the shoulders to lift at all ( it helps to do this in front of a mirror)

-  Without stopping breath out of the mouth with a sigh for a five second count (it is important to not purse the lips into any shape this can create tension in the jaw and you wont get all the air out)

- If you find it difficult to breathe into the chest, breathe into your back or shoulder blades as if you where filling up sails on a boat.  There is a whole section of space in the back of our chest cavity for extra breath intake!

4) Control “Ideally, our muscles should obey our will. Reasonably, our will should not be dominated by the reflex actions of our muscles.” J. Pilates

Once you master the previous three concepts control is more easily accessible.  In essence control gives you the ability to practice without injury, or putting yourself at risk for injury

5) Precision “Correctly executed and mastered to the point of subconscious reaction, these exercises will reflect grace and balance in your routine activities.” J. Pilates

Precision of movement leads to more overall grace throughout the body.  Precision requires controlled action, without which the movement becomes sloppy and aesthetically unappealing.  The space with which you move and preform various activities also determines, and is determined by precision.

6) Flowing Movement “Contrology is designed to give you suppleness, natural grace and skill that will be unmistakably reflected in all you do.” J. Pilates

Fluidity of movement while exercising leads to fluidity of movement when not exercising.  That’s a wonderful benefit! Conscious control of all muscular movement through all ranges of motion will help eliminate stiff, jerky movements.

7) Isolation “Each muscle may cooperatively and loyally aid in the uniform development of all our muscles.” J. Pilates

As you gain more control over the weaker muscles and you are more able to integrate them into your movements the greater isolation you’ll be able to achieve.

8) Routine “Patience and persistence are vital qualities in the ultimate successful accomplishment of any worthwhile endeavor.” J. Pilates

Ok this is so important and really does develop as you build on the pervious principals.  Simply put an established Pilates routine will improve mental and physical conditioning in all individuals.  The more you do, the better the results.  So use your videos, they are designed to assist you in achieving your personal goals.

Good luck and I am always here to answer any questions you may have.

Inner thighs our doorway to a strong balanced seat

Our inner thighs are immensely important in our seat and how effective we are as riders.  It is extremely important to have to proper leg position no matter what discipline you practice.  Without this correct positioning we are unable to give the specific aids we need and to effectively communicate to our horses.  This can take a while to attain in of itself, every horse is a little different and reacts a little differently to our aids. I see a lot of times with my rider clients that although they have developed "strong" inner thigh muscles they often don't know how to effectively use them.  Most times most riders are griping with them instead of using them and releasing them. They are unaware of how they are effecting their core connection and from there their stability in their seat.

The inner thigh group is a massive amount of muscles and ligaments that when weak and imbalanced through off our pelvic stability, and from there our spinal alignment.  Conversely when they are to tight and short they do the same thing.  So what do we do about this? 

Specifically for riders it is often more about lengthening and teaching the muscles to be as effective in their length as they are when they are contracted.  Most horses tend to lean on one leg more than another.  So over time as riders when get one leg that gets a little more work than the other.  The more horses you ride the more balanced you become because you experience among many things involves more diversity between both sides of the body.  We also have a dominate leg just like we have a dominate hand.  So this leg tends to be a bit stronger, with the effect that the muscles tend to be slightly tighter.

So this is a lot of background on what's going on.  What do we do about it?  I suggest a number of things to my clients based on the individual, but to start I am going to go over foam rolling of this region. 

Foam rolling on the cylinder.  HAAA everyone hates this because it hurts.  Ok yes it does a bit but the rewards so outweigh the short bit of pain.  This is a great way to get in touch with this region and how the blockages are effecting other parts of your body. Remember spend no more than 5 seconds on a blocked point, so one inhale and exhale. Pay close attention to these pain points and notice if the refer to another place in your body.  Also try to use different foot positions on the quads. Try Pilates stance, try pigeon toe as well this changes the angles and allows neglected areas to get some much needed attention.  

Here are some of the benefits:

Helps keep your knees healthy

Helps with imbalances in the pelvis.

Releases tension held in from stress

Instead of writing this all out I created a video here's the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCUulvWMlTQ

(From here I do the other side then the side of the other thigh, fun point often times the first side is much more uncomfortable.  The releases you get on the first side can sympathetically release the other so by the time you do the other side, it's not as intense and experience) 

Next week I will be continuing with the inner thigh and the exercises I do to help strengthen these muscles. If you have any questions please feel free to reach out. 

The importance of Posture in and out of the saddle

Ok so we've all heard our parents, relatives, even teachers tell us since we were children to not slouch.  Then we start riding lessons and we hear it all over again.  Somehow in the saddle we take it more to heart and really do work on our posture.  We try so hard to sit straight, bring our elbows in, and lower which ever shoulder is offensively up.  As we know the list can go on, my favorite for a while was that my head tilted to the right.  No matter how much I was determined for it to stay on straight, it would tilt.  Drove me batty but once I was off my horse I never thought of it for long. So why aren't we paying more attention to it out of the saddle? 

The truth is that slouching is a habit caused by many factors, and we become comfortable with our habits. We defend them because leaving our comfort zone is uncomfortable. Well I am going to reveal a secret that I share with all my students.  Everyone who annoyingly corrected your posture was right.  Quite simply it's the easiest way for you to work continuously on building a strong core and connection to your body.  So learn your body's definition of straight and work toward that as much as you can throughout your day.  

Here's another point on posture, it has an effect on how we are perceived by the people we meet.  It's subtle and most of us don't realize we are making these assumptions but they happen.  Think about, it the first time you meet someone you usually see them before you speak with them.  In those few minutes your posture tells a story about you without you being aware of it.  Whether it's a potential boss or a potential trainer they are making inferences about you based on your posture. I am not saying that is good or bad it really just is what it is, as they say.  I will tell you that how you carry yourself in your daily life effects how you carry yourself in the saddle. This will always reflect on some level how your horse is relating to you as well.  Are they able to influence your posture and maybe avoid really working through? Or are you so stable and connected in your posture and seat that you are truly able to influence theirs?

Now we all slouch from time to time but here's the thing, you need to first determine if your slouch is because of lazy posture or because of actual pain or weakness/spinal issue in your body.  It's best done with a person well trained in posture analysis, but given that we don't always have access to these professionals, a good friend with a good eye to give you feedback, or in front of a mirror are options that will help you monitor your posture. I personally like to take video or a picture and then review it to see where I am at.  Now this is my opinion (but a lot of other people will agree with me on this) Pilates instructors are obsessed with posture.  We are trained to read your spine and your muscular imbalances, always with the eye to achieve the most balanced posture for our clients. With this in mind we work every session to help the posture imbalance we are dealing with that day along with the ones that are consistent.  There are many exercises in our method that are designed to help with posture, in fact all of them are, but which ones are right for you? 

I feel that the seated spine exercises are wonderful for an every day posture picker upper.  

These are:

Seated Spine stretch forward: I like to teach this to people using a wall.  I have my clients line their mats up against the wall and then sit, straight backed against the wall, feet no wider than the edges/corners of your mat, feet strongly flexed, and arms actively reaching straight out infant of you from your shoulders, palms facing each other.  (If you can't sit with legs straight you can sit up on a block, I feel blankets are to soft for this exercise, you need to feel your sits bones. If you don't have block you can bend you knees slightly keeping your heels on the ground to help with grounding.)  From here connect your spine to the wall, take a few breaths to do this.  Every time you inhale imagine your spine growing up the wall.  When you exhale try to keep you length and really ground into you sits bones.  From here on and inhale you start: grow tall ground through your sits bones and hamstrings, reach your heels to the opposite wall, toes pulling back towards you.  On your exhale, tuck chin to chest, chest to ribs, just your upper back should be off the wall and your lower back will be against the wall, as if your belly button is trying to make a mark on the wall. Take and inhale in this forward position. Then exhale and reverse slowly stacking your spine back onto the wall, with your head coming up last.

Seated Spine Twist: Sitting away form the wall, in the center of your mat, legs together toes pointed or flexed (I have found that for some people they are better able to ground flexed, traditionally you are in pilates stance/ballet first position for this exercise) Sitting with your straight back raise your arms out to the side.  Arms are long fingers are closed not open, and shoulder blades are down and flat on your back. It is very important that you only turn your torso not your hips.  (if you hips turn your heels will slide past each other this is not correct and you need to reset and then do less of a turn with your torso. It's quality of your form not your range of motion remember that.) From here it's a three count inhale turn for one, turn more two, turn all the way for three. Then exhale and untwist returning to your starting position. Repeat to the other side.  In this exercise it's helpful to visualize yourself growing taller as you wring out your spine.  As you untwist you should aim to keep the length.  I do three turns to each side.

Saw: So this exercise combines the Spine Stretch Forward and Spine Twist.  Return to the seated Spine stretch position with the only change that your arms remain in the Twist position.  Make sure you feel both sits bones and that you are as long as you can be through your spine, and hamstrings.  From here growing tall on your inhale twist to your left, on your exhale fold chin to chest, chest to ribs, ribs to thighs. Your pinkie finger is going to be sawing you pinkie toe.  Exhale reverse the forward bend and then untwist. Repeat to the other side.  I do three per side but feel free to do more. Again points to remember here: weight must stay the same in both sits bones throughout the exercise, especially in the forward fold over the leg.  This means you might not fold over that much and your pinkies may never meet.  That's not a big deal what is a big deal is that you stay equally grounded through both sits bones and that you go into and out of the exercise the same way.  

PS these seated exercises aren't only wonderful for your posture, the are great for you lungs and lymphatic system.  Not to mention that your core is working very hard to hold your posture and your hamstrings are getting work and a stretch. 

Please enjoy and if you have any questions please reach out I am always available:)