Exercises for riders - to open the hips

[FinellaGlen]

Does anyone know any good exercises that I can do at home to help open up my hips? I have become very stiff through the hips since I had back problems and it is making it hard for me to get my leg far enough back.

I used to do yoga and I am sure that there were some exercises that were designed to open up the hips and pelvis.
I did mean to ask my instructor but I forgot and won't see her until next week.

 

[jumpthemoon]

Don't know any for at home, but when you're on board, if you bring your knees right up so that they are touching, as high as you can, then open your knees outwards and push your leg back down, it really opens up your hip. Do it a few times and you'll feel the difference! You can do it stood still, walking round (depending on the horse) or trotting on the lunge

 

[FinellaGlen]

jumpthemoon - that's what I've just been doing in my lesson! When I put my feet back in the stirrups I needed to drop them down a hole so the exercise really does work.

 

[jumpthemoon]

Haha! Oh well - it might be worth getting a book or something with yoga exercises in it. I might even get one myself - I could do with loosening up a bit!

 

[WFL]

Sit on the floor, open your hips apart and lean forward trying to push your knees to the floor.

 

[SouthWestWhippet]

sit on the floor with your feet sole to sole in front of you then relax your knees out and down towards the floor. If you can bear it you can put gentle pressure on your knees but it hurts

You can also mimic the exercises you do on the horse, on the ground so bring one knee up in front of you then stretch it away and back so you feel the stretch in your hip.

Likewise you can lift your knee up and turn it out to the side to create that same stretch in your hip area.

When I was being seriously keen about loosening up my hips, I also used to do side lunges but hold the lunge so it turned into a stretch getting lower and lower each time. The best way is to do these sorts of exercise on the horse though, I do lots of transitions between WTC keeping my legs completely off the horse and held out to the sides (my pony is very obliging about voice commands

). Another good one is to trot standing in your stirrups but with no part of your leg touching the horse's side at all. You might need to grab a bit of mane though as it is very wobbly until you get the hang of it. Have fun!

 

[FinellaGlen]

Thank you drjames & SouthWestWhippet. Plenty of things to try there. Luckily my pony has a long thick mane and she is used to me grabbing it when I get wobbly!!

 

[madmav]

You have just got to try pilates - honest. It's brilliant for learning different stretches for different parts of the body. Thing is, your hips may be stiff, but you probably need to strengthen and lengthen all of the muscles in your back, hips, legs. etc. And it's fab for core muscles, too. I would urge you to find a class. Good luck with it!

 

[clipclop]

A gentler way of opening the hips is to start off rotating your ankles outwards, then built up the rotation so that the you are bringing your calves in the rotation and feel the stretch. You are kind of rotating from the knee area. Since doing this exercise I have dropped my stirrups 4 holes. I find it less strenuous that hoiking your legs about. I do it out hacking a lot.