Horse riding is a great exercise that involves both mind and body. You need to be in the right shape for riding regardless of whether you are a competitive or recreation rider. As such, you need to have strong muscles, train your brain and eyes, and have balance and control while you are on the moving animal.
Here are several workouts you can do regularly to help you strengthen and tone the muscle groups you use when riding.
Hip and Leg Strengthening
For hip and leg strengthening, you can do a hip abductor exercises. You perform the workout by squeezing a beach ball between your knees. This exercise helps you to increase your ability to hold on to the horse with your thighs. It also strengthens your inner thigh muscles. Alternatively, you can use a hip abductor machine.
Strengthen Your Core
The best horse riding is abdominal riding, which means that you will need to use your abdominal muscles to balance yourself. An effective way to strengthen your abdominal muscles is by doing sit-ups with a workout ball. You can also try yoga poses like the boat, half boat, or warrior for a few seconds regularly to improve your fitness. These movements can strengthen your back and improve your posture.
Horse riding is an aerobic activity. Thus, you need to practice good posture by sitting upright and opening your chest. This exercise helps to maintain your position and help you be better equipped when riding. Additionally, you can do reverse sit-ups. It is a good exercise for the back and core. It’s an essential exercise for those that are loose for riding.
While still at looking at how to be fit for horse-riding, would you like to have the best horse riding experience, but you don’t know where to find quality horses and a real horse farm? Well, look no further than the Mr.Iceland website. You will get connected to a horse farm that rears quality horses. They also offer horse riding lessons, so you can learn how to ride if you do not know how to yet. The farm also has a lot of other adventurous activities. You can book your place online now.
General Fitness
In horse riding, it is crucial to tone your entire body. Do not disregard working out your upper body. You can do some aerobic workouts at least three times weekly. It helps to build stamina, endurance, and shed off extra weight. Muscular endurance is also crucial. You can improve it by lifting many small weights for many reps. It is also essential to stretch out after exercise since it helps you to stay flexible and reduces stiffness.
Moreover, riders at the beginning and intermediate levels tend to focus mainly on abdominal strength. This makes the rider lean forward in the saddle. To counter this tendency as a rider, you can try doing push-ups, pull-ups, and other back-related exercises.
You can also exercise by doing horse chores such as giving your horse a massage with a rubber curry comb. Other tasks include carrying water buckets, hay, and cleaning the horse’s stall. All of these are extra exercises make your barn a free workout gym, so you keep fit as you make your horse happy.
There you have several workouts to get you in good shape for horse riding. You can do most of them in your home or a local fitness center. The critical thing is to ensure that your body is flexible and fit and your mind is well-prepared for the riding.
No Comments