Part Two
Pilates for Riders
Part II: Stability and MobilityBy Lisa Champion, MSc (Exercise Science) Photos: Julieann Howard
Do you need to do Pilates exercises? Could your stability in the saddle be improved? To find out,

try this simple test. Sit on the edge of a chair with your feet a bit wider than shoulder width apart. Place your hands on your hips just in front of the boney bits on your pelvis. Now, gently lift one leg off the ground about 5 cm (Photo 1). If you found that you had to lean to the side or backwards or that you moved your shoulders, or collapsed through your middle, or compensated with any other part of your body, then your deep postural muscles could use some work. Improving your core stability will greatly improve your effectiveness on the horse! Here are the next three exercises for your at-home Pilates program.
The first exercise is based on the stability test you just performed. Anna-Louise Bouvier, creator of the Physiocise© program calls this one Virtual Reality – because you only think about moving your leg. This exercise opens up the motor pathways to your deep postural muscles – setting up new movement patterns in the body that will eventually become automatic. Once we are in the saddle, the automatic activation of our core muscles is critical, as the dynamic nature of riding makes it difficult to think about such subtle movement patterns.

Virtual Reality
Focus: Core stability and activation of the deep postural muscles
Set up:
• Sit on the edge of a chair with your feet slightly further than shoulder width apart.
• Balance your bottom bones (which establishes neutral spine)
• Place your hands on your hips, fingertips just in front of the boney bits at the front of your pelvis. You are trying to feel your deep abdominal muscles.
Movement:
• Take a deep breath in.
• As you exhale, imagine that you are drawing your pelvic floor muscles up into the body. At the same time, imagine that you are going to lift your foot off the floor, without letting it leave the ground.
• Repeat 5 times on each side.
Watchout points:
• Keep your body as stable as possible as you visualize the movement. Try to avoid leaning to the side or backwards, shoulder movement, or collapsing or arching in the middle.
• The drawing up of your pelvic floor muscles (on the out-breath) should cause your deep abdominal muscles to move away from your fingertips. This is a sure sign that your deep postural muscles have activated to help stabilise the body.
Challenge:
• Once you can perform Virtual Reality with stability in your centre, challenge yourself by lifting the foot just a few centimeters off the ground – while still maintaining perfect stability.
Breakout Box
If you find it difficult to lift a leg off the floor without other parts of your body compensating, how do you think your body responds when you put leg aids on when in the saddle? Next time you are riding, spend some time tuning into your body and try to work out what compensation patterns you may have. Until we start to unpick what is actually happening, we won’t get very far in making improvements.

In addition to working on stability, we also need to improve our spinal mobility. When our backs are stiff, it affects our riding in many adverse ways – and can be uncomfortable and even painful. Use these two Pilates exercises to mobilize your spine.

Roll-up
Focus: Spinal mobility
Set-up: Sit on your bottom bones with your back straight – imagine lifting from the crown of your head
• Place hands under your thighs,

Movement:
• Breathe in and as you exhale, begin to roll slowly backwards, starting from the top of your spine
• Allow each vertebrae to move, like cogs of a wheel
• As you roll, tuck your tummy into your spine
• Only go half way down to begin with (Photo 3)
• Return to start position
• Perform 8-10 repetitions

Challenge
• If you can go half way down and come back up with relaxed control, try going the whole way down, ending the movement by reaching the arms over the head. (Photo 4)
Watch-out Points
• Watch that your abdominal muscles don’t ‘dome’ outwards – use the out-breath and the activation of your pelvic floor to keep your deep core muscles turned on.
• Try not to pull on your legs as you roll up.
• If your feet leave the ground, you have gone too far.
• Work on finding the ‘sticking points’ in your spine – places where your back feels very straight and stiff. Imagine mobilizing these areas.

Spine Twist
Focus: Upper back spinal mobility
Set up:
• Sit with your legs slightly apart, knees bent, spine in a neutral position (Photo 5).
• Place your hands in the ‘prayer’ position with your thumbs on your breastbone.
• Keep your shoulders relaxed.
• Line your chin up with your fingertips.
Movement:
• Take a deep breath in and as you exhale, rotate around to one side (Photo 6).
• Inhale while returning to centre, exhale while rotating to the other side.
• Imagine that your hips are the anchor point around which you are rotating.
• Repeat 8-10 times
Watch-out Points:
• Try to keep from hunching your shoulders.
• Breathe slowly and regularly, out as you rotate, in as you return to centre.
• Use this controlled breath to activate your pelvic floor as you twist.
• Don’t let your head rotate further than your fingertips.Each month, we will build on your at-home Pilates exercises. If you combine these exercises with last month’s, your routine would now be:
Leg-in/Leg-out 10-20 reps each leg
Swimming 8-10 reps
Virtual Reality 5 reps per leg
Roll-up 8-10 reps
Spine Twist 8-10 reps
Enjoy watching how your body’s stability and mobility improve with these simple exercises. Then, watch how your heightened body awareness starts to improve your riding!