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I know from my Web Stats that the Rider Stretches is one of the most often visited /requested pages on my web site. For those of us who are serious about improving our posture, I believe I have discovered something Very Useful and Important! And it is something that can genuinely help improve our posture off-horse too. All riders – and non-riders too – will find the following very beneficial. I certainly have!
I sent for the PowerPosture tape after several email conversations with its founder, Dr John Christman. Now, anyone who knows me, will know I am by nature quite a cynical person, so Dr Christman’s promise of improved posture and flexibility didn’t excite that much. I’ve suffered from debilitating back pain, after a nasty fall from a youngster, and have been down several different routes to try and alleviate this.
Dr Christman asked if I did any other sports or specifically trained for riding. My answer was - other than the stretches, illustrated on my web site and barn chores; which I said included weight lifting, walking and stretching – NO.
Dr Christman asked me to conduct a survey amongst riders to see what the general picture showed. Of the 25 riders polled, half said fatigue was a limiting factor in their riding and some cited ‘‘mental”’ fatigue after a lesson.
Asked if they participated in other sports, the most popular answer was to do some form of Martial Art.
The surprise came when asked what riders did to specifically train for riding. Many, like me, cited – and presume - barn chores to be enough ‘extra’ physical activity. Other things included walking, lifting weights, AT/yoga.
Doctor Christman asked me to conduct this survey to help him with an article he is writing for his website. He initially contacted me because he'd seen the Stretches that I have on my site, but he informed me that “they are generally good, especially as warm-ups for actual riding, but are not sufficient to enable people to develop automatic good posture."
And as for Barn Chores being my listed 'other sport/ training' - he was particularly concerned with that. He wonders why we, as athletes, don't specifically train our body for the task we want it to perform in connection with riding.
After several more Email conversations with Dr Christman, I requested a copy of his video tape. I – as a professional horsewoman - was totally unprepared to discover how 'tight' I am. Some of my range of motion is appalling. On horse, there doesn't appear to be any glaring problems as regards suppleness and flexibility, but I know that I do hunch (bad person) when sat at my PC for a long time -despite trying to be conscious of not doing so!
This programme isn't another "Get fit with Celebrity X" type of regime, that ends up being watched a couple of times and then going to a car boot sale. This is a pure, simple tape about stretching to gain correct posture. There are no ''''extras' that you need to buy to be able to complete the programme.<g>.
There are a set of 12 simple stretches that aim to improve the forward head posture/ round shouldered-ness, that according to Dr Christman 95% of adults suffer to some degree. This, of course, correlates to not having a 'stretched/ open' front line when riding. I was shocked to find that I couldn’t do a couple of the stretches to the degree that I would have thought I should be able to.
This isn't a fly-by-night gimmicky fad, but - I think - an honest opportunity to target an exercise programme that will genuinely help riders learn about correct posture in general and one that is equally transferable to on horse. It takes very little time out of a busy person's day (always my prime excuse for not doing other sports) and once you know the exercises and your own areas of improvement, you can hone it down to 5 mins a day. I am already feeling the benefit, sat here at my PC without my habitual slump.
Dr Christman has written an article detailing why and how the Power PostureProgram will help equestrians and it can be read here. If you’d like to check out his other findings and read more about the PowerPosture program, please go to:
www.PowerPosture.com
When you go to buy the Video/DVD be sure to quote “Classical Dressage Notebook” in the 'Comments' box. This will give you a $10 discount!
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