The Importance of Choosing the Right Exercise AND Doing It Properly, for Improving your Riding Skills

When it comes to improving riding skills, the exercises you choose and how you execute them are just as important as the time and effort you put in. Riders of all levels—whether beginners or seasoned pros—can benefit from targeted exercises that enhance balance, coordination, strength, and flexibility. However, it’s not just about doing any exercise; it’s about selecting the right one, understanding why it works, and performing it with precision.

This approach leads to more effective and long-lasting improvements in your riding.

Here’s why both appropriateness and proper execution matter, and how they ultimately contribute to your progress in the saddle.

1. Selecting the Right Exercise

Not all exercises benefit every rider in the same way. For instance, a core strength routine might be ideal for someone struggling with balance in the saddle, while a mobility program could be more helpful for a rider experiencing hip stiffness. It’s essential to choose exercises that cater to your specific needs and goals. Understanding your posture, pelvic tilt, and any physical limitations is crucial in selecting the right exercises that will effectively support your improvement.

Targeting Weak Points: If you're aware of a specific area in your riding that needs improvement, such as maintaining an even seat or controlling your horse’s movement more effectively, you'll need exercises that address those weaknesses directly. Doing the wrong exercise, even if it's well-performed, won't lead to improvement in your key areas.
Preventing Injury: Riding is a physically demanding sport, and doing exercises that aren't suited to your body’s current state can increase the risk of injury. An appropriate exercise regimen takes into account your fitness level and focuses on gradually improving your riding form without causing strain.

2. Understanding How to Do It Properly

Proper execution is often the make-or-break factor when it comes to seeing results. You can do an exercise regularly, but if it's done incorrectly, it won’t help—and can even cause harm.

Maximizing Benefits: When you perform an exercise correctly, your body engages the intended muscles or skills, allowing you to get the most out of each session. For example, if you’re doing core-strengthening exercises to improve your posture and stability, focusing on proper alignment and muscle engagement ensures that you're building functional strength, which translates directly into your riding.

Building Muscle Memory: Riding requires the coordination of many small, nuanced movements. When you perform an exercise properly, you build muscle memory that can help translate into better control, responsiveness, and balance in the saddle. This means your body instinctively knows how to react during a ride because you’ve trained it to do so through proper execution in off-horse exercises.

Improving Precision: Riding well is often about subtle corrections—like adjusting your leg pressure or shifting your weight at just the right moment. Performing exercises with precision helps you develop this same attention to detail in your riding.

3. Understanding Why the Exercise Works

Riders who understand the purpose behind an exercise are more likely to stay committed and perform it with the necessary focus. Knowing the "why" behind your workout routine keeps you motivated and ensures that you're performing exercises in a way that will directly benefit your riding.

Mind-Body Connection: When you understand how an exercise improves a specific area of your riding, you become more aware of your body’s mechanics both during workouts and while riding. This awareness helps create a stronger connection between what you do off the horse and how you perform on it.

Staying Consistent: If you know exactly why you're doing an exercise and what improvements to expect, you're more likely to be consistent and patient with the process. You understand that it’s part of a larger journey to becoming a more skilled rider.

4. Enhancing Riding Performance

The ultimate goal of any off-horse exercise is to improve performance while riding. When you combine the right exercises with proper technique and a clear understanding of their purpose, you set yourself up for significant, measurable improvements in your riding.

Better Control and Balance: Exercises that improve core stability and balance help riders maintain a more secure seat, especially during transitions or unexpected movements from the horse. This control allows you to ride more confidently and with greater finesse.

Improved Communication with Your Horse: When you're physically stronger, more flexible, and better balanced, you’re able to communicate more effectively with your horse. Subtle cues like adjusting your weight, applying pressure with your legs, or using your reins become more refined, allowing for smoother and more harmonious rides.

Increased Confidence: Knowing that you're doing the right exercises in the right way gives you confidence, both in and out of the saddle. You’ll feel more capable of handling challenges that arise during a ride because your body is conditioned to respond effectively.

Conclusion

Improving your riding isn’t just about putting in time on horseback—what you do off the horse can be just as crucial. Choosing the appropriate exercises and performing them correctly, while understanding why they’re essential, allows you to build strength, coordination, and balance that directly translate to better riding. By focusing on quality over quantity and understanding how your workout routine connects to your riding goals, you'll see more meaningful progress and experience greater satisfaction in your rides.

How the Rider Physio Video Subscription Can Help

The rider physio video subscription is an invaluable resource for improving your riding and addressing individual needs. With how-to guides, step-by-step tutorials, and discussions on common riding phrases, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of how to enhance your riding technique. The subscription offers individualized video responses to common riding problems and injuries, giving you tailored solutions based on your specific challenges. Additionally, exercises are grouped by riding issues, body areas, and injury types, ensuring you’re working on what’s most relevant to your needs. These videos not only teach proper form and technique but also help you understand how each exercise benefits your body and riding performance.

Whether you're dealing with stiffness, balance issues, or recovering from an injury, the rider physio video subscription offers expert guidance to help you improve, prevent injuries, and gain more confidence in the saddle.

Sign up today and take your riding to the next level by working on the specific exercises that will make a difference in your performance.