Riding- enough exercise?

diggerbez

diggerbez

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I'm currently on a diet...was told by a 'friend' "don't bother dieting, just do more exercise"- but i ride for about an hour a day, do stable jobs and walk the dogs- when working full time its hard to fit anything else in... does anyone else find that riding alone isn't enough in terms of exercise? (not to mention the havoc that it plays with meal times- makes you more likely to eat junk food?! ;) )
 
Depends how much you ride... as a teenager I rode 8 horses a day and mucked out 3... I couldn't keep weight on... now down to no horses to ride and 2 to muck out (and not that every day) I can't keep it off...

Blitz
 
well yes i guess if i had to ride lots of horses then it would work- but i mean for the average 1/2 horse owners- is it enough?
 
Nope - I find if i want to keep the weight down I need to add in walking the dogs at a brisk pace for an hour a day too.

Was fine until I turned 30 - after that it quite literally went pear shaped!!:o
 
I think it can be, depending on your metabolism and what type of riding you are doing, but as weight loss per se, no I don't think so!
 
Sad to say, but the reality is that you probably need to do some cardiovascular exercise too...... riding is great for the core, but not so much for cardiovascular fitness (unless you do super long fast cross country hacks!)

Try to fit in 30 minutes of jogging or cycling 3 times a week - that should do the trick - build it up slowly, 10 mins of running, then 10 min walking and 10 min running again etc, until you stop feeling like you are about to die!

PS Sorry if Im trying to teach you how to suck eggs on the exercise regime front! I have just been doing the same (losing weight) and that's how I started. Now quite smugly cycling up lots of hills and not dying anymore!
 
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i was afraid someone would say that PP :(
in my defence i was going to start (in fact i did at the start of the summer holidays)- in order that i would be in a 'routine' when i went back to work. unfortunately i have a cracked rib so running has been almost impossibly painful so haven't really got going. guess i should haul ass to the gym and get on the bike?
 
10 mins of the following burns:

Galloping - 83 calories
trotting - 64
Walking - 13
Grooming - 77
Mucking out - 79
 
Gyms are soooo boring! Can't you do some mountain/road biking?

I started off running for 15 mins, as I find that when I'm not fit enough for cycling long distances I don't want to do it, and running burns proportionally more calories than cycling over the same time period. So, shorter exercise time with running, more calories - hurrah!

However, I enjoy cycling so much more, so now I'm fitter and half a stone lighter, I'm enjoying cycling for an hour or two with the OH when we have time :)
 
LEC said:
10 mins of the following burns:

Galloping - 83 calories
trotting - 64
Walking - 13
Grooming - 77
Mucking out - 79
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wow thats really interesting :) now i just need a team of racehorses so i can spend all my time galloping about :D
 
pootleperkin said:
Gyms are soooo boring! Can't you do some mountain/road biking?

I started off running for 15 mins, as I find that when I'm not fit enough for cycling long distances I don't want to do it, and running burns proportionally more calories than cycling over the same time period. So, shorter exercise time with running, more calories - hurrah!

However, I enjoy cycling so much more, so now I'm fitter and half a stone lighter, I'm enjoying cycling for an hour or two with the OH when we have time :)
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i don't have a bike :( plus its very hilly near me and quite dangerous on the road...so i just know i wouldn't do it... :rolleyes:
 
I got a motorised treadmil and get on that whilst watching eastenders.... :D Works for me!!!! But before I go any further I was lucky enough to get it free from that wonderful website Freecycle otherwise I couldn't have afforded one.

Trashy tv makes exercise so much more bearable! This from someone who has never been able to sit still, but having a baby and chronic fatigue syndrome took over, so exercise is very hard to get motivated for..... tv helps :D
 
I put poo picking down as moderate walking which is 43 calories for 10 mins.

Grooming properly is knackering, hence I rarely do it!
 
I am watching this post closely as I'm getting married next year and need to lose a stone or 2. I have the problem that when I first bought my horse he was so lazy every time I rode left me dripping in sweat, and nicely thin and toned. Now I'v trained him to go off my leg - I am not burning the calories I was!!!!! Plus he's now out 24 hrs so no mucking out...

I find Pilates evening classes helpful for riding fitness (til I bust up my arm- hope to start again soon!)
I go mountain biking whenever I can fit it in - it's loads more fun than running or gym. You can find some fantastic tracks with technical stuff - jumps etc (like xc on a bike). In the winter I do an exercise video twice a week and wii fit. It's just not enough :(
 
How about swimming? I hate running and my breathing gets heavy and wheezy if I try to run for more than a few minutes (I have a deviated septum and am planning to get it sorted soon!) I find swimming much more fun and I have been told it gives you a better work out than running. I swim about 3 times a week at the local pool for about an hour each time and feel so much better for it.

I have found that doing the horses maintains my weight and fitness but does not help me get any fitter. I haven't had a horse for over a year so have put on a bit of weight now!
 
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diggerbez said:
I'm currently on a diet...was told by a 'friend' "don't bother dieting, just do more exercise"- but i ride for about an hour a day, do stable jobs and walk the dogs- when working full time its hard to fit anything else in... does anyone else find that riding alone isn't enough in terms of exercise? (not to mention the havoc that it plays with meal times- makes you more likely to eat junk food?! ;) )
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Some 'friend'!!! As a previous poster mentioned you need to eat less as well as exercise more. To avoid the junk food trap - plan your meals and if you can, prepare them in the morning so that you don't rush in and grab a fatty snack.

I lost 3 stone by modifying my diet, I reduced the amount of fats I ate and reduced my portion sizes. I only started exercising once I had lost the weight - obviously I would have lost the weight faster by exercising, but I didn't feel like it. Now I am a nice weight I love exercise and because I have a small horse/pony I have an incentive to keep the weight off - which I do by not slipping back into bad habits. I have now been an acceptable weight for 3 years.

You can do it, don't listen to anyone who says you have a slow metabolism (it is very unlikely), keep an honest food diary and then take an honest look at how much you are eating.

When I don't keep a food diary it is so easy to eat the odd biscuit here and there (oops that would be 80 calories for a nice crunch cream = 10 mins of galloping!) - that's why it's easier to eat sensibly and exercise reasonably. As an example a chunky kitkat is 260 calories - you'd have to walk 2.6 miles to work that one off (if I've remembered it correctly). Easier to not eat it in the first place.

Restrict your calories to 1700 per day and you should lose 1-2lb per week, this doesn't sound alot, but you should lose 3 stone in a year sensibly and keep it off.

Good luck with your diet - it is worth the effort, you will feel so much healthier. :)
 
I was very fit last year(30mins running on treadmill at good speed - good for me!) when at uni, but I wasnt fit enough to ride, say a 20x40 dressage test in sitting trot!

Now, I am riding fit, I have my stomach muscles back and am really strong in the core but couldnt run for 10mins let alone 30 :p
 
Definitely have to diet - or rather change your lifestyle otherwise it just goes back on when you stop.

Do you like dancing? - I recently started Ceroc (Modern Jive) and it's really good fun and doesn't seem like exercise. You don't have to have a partner because in the classes you move around after every one or two moves then in free-style if you ask someone to dance they shouldn't say no so generally once you get past the asking a bloke to dance thing if they haven't already asked you then its 2-3 hours of full-on exercise. I'm addicted. Classes usually start at 8pm and the evenings usually end at 11pm and there is little or no alcohol involved. Age ranges from late teens to 90 at the class I go to.
 
HollyB66 said:
Some 'friend'!!! As a previous poster mentioned you need to eat less as well as exercise more. To avoid the junk food trap - plan your meals and if you can, prepare them in the morning so that you don't rush in and grab a fatty snack.

I lost 3 stone by modifying my diet, I reduced the amount of fats I ate and reduced my portion sizes. I only started exercising once I had lost the weight - obviously I would have lost the weight faster by exercising, but I didn't feel like it. Now I am a nice weight I love exercise and because I have a small horse/pony I have an incentive to keep the weight off - which I do by not slipping back into bad habits. I have now been an acceptable weight for 3 years.

You can do it, don't listen to anyone who says you have a slow metabolism (it is very unlikely), keep an honest food diary and then take an honest look at how much you are eating.

When I don't keep a food diary it is so easy to eat the odd biscuit here and there (oops that would be 80 calories for a nice crunch cream = 10 mins of galloping!) - that's why it's easier to eat sensibly and exercise reasonably. As an example a chunky kitkat is 260 calories - you'd have to walk 2.6 miles to work that one off (if I've remembered it correctly). Easier to not eat it in the first place.

Restrict your calories to 1700 per day and you should lose 1-2lb per week, this doesn't sound alot, but you should lose 3 stone in a year sensibly and keep it off.

Good luck with your diet - it is worth the effort, you will feel so much healthier. :)
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yes that makes perfect sense- hence the diet. i'm an 'all or nothing' kind of person really- so i either have to plan all my meals or i plan none and eat ****. diet has been going pretty well, bit hard this week coz i'm away on holiday so have OH keep saying "you're on holiday" every two minutes! have only caved to a couple of things tho...been pretty well behaved :D

think its going to have to be running...as soon as this rib is better...which hopefully will only be a couple more weeks. i would rather swim but no local pool so, again, i know i'll talk myself out of it if it isn't convenient. whoever suggested dancing clearly hasn't met me
:D

i just find it really frustrating that i get up at 5am, muck out, go to work, race home, walk dogs, ride horse, do stable jobs etc and i STILL have to do extra cardio and then i have friends who do sod all and are thin! argh :mad:
 
It's not enough for me, even though I feel like I've been through the wringer after mucking out, riding, cooling down and all the rest. Until I broke a toe, I was trying to walk several laps of the farm where I board - it's all hills so it's a good workout - but I haven't been able to do that for a couple of months.

Why is it so easy to gain weight and so hard to lose it!?
 
Well when I can no longer hack out in the morning prior to work because of the darkness...I will be running my lad around my 2 acres of field for half an hour in the dark instead...starting off mainly walk and then adding some trotting with me huffing and puffing beside him!!! God help me trying to keep up with his Welsh D stroppy trots!
 
baymareb said:
It's not enough for me, even though I feel like I've been through the wringer after mucking out, riding, cooling down and all the rest. Until I broke a toe, I was trying to walk several laps of the farm where I board - it's all hills so it's a good workout - but I haven't been able to do that for a couple of months.

Why is it so easy to gain weight and so hard to lose it!?
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tell me about it. if i smell a portion of chips i put on weight :rolleyes:
 
diggerbez said:
I'm currently on a diet...was told by a 'friend' "don't bother dieting, just do more exercise"- but i ride for about an hour a day, do stable jobs and walk the dogs- when working full time its hard to fit anything else in... does anyone else find that riding alone isn't enough in terms of exercise? (not to mention the havoc that it plays with meal times- makes you more likely to eat junk food?! ;) )
Click to expand...

Depends how your ride.
A hack will not use up many calories, nor will ambling around the school at my horse's desired pace, but having a lesson with my very strict dressage instructor for 40 mins leaves me red in the face and gasping for breath! :D :D
 
I think riding and stable yard duties are great for toning you up and making you muscle-y and strong and I expect it does help burn some calories but I don't think as others have said it does the cardiovascular side of things that well. Think it also depends on an individual's metabolism as we're all so different. I am a bit of a skinny but can eat rubbish and not put on too much weight (though dread to think what my arteries are like) but know I'm not getting the correct sort of exercise as get out of breath a bit walking up hills still even though my muscles are toned and legs strong and I would like to think I was fit but not. I love hill/mountain walking though don't get much chance to do it these days but when I did that years ago I felt the fittest I'd ever been. Went on a mountain walking holiday where we did 15 miles a day and it was fantastic.
 
Misinterpreted said:
Depends how your ride.
A hack will not use up many calories, nor will ambling around the school at my horse's desired pace, but having a lesson with my very strict dressage instructor for 40 mins leaves me red in the face and gasping for breath! :D :D
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again this is what frustrates me. i rarely hack. i spend most of my time having lessons, schooling, jumping or XC schooling/ farm rides- all of which to a level where i get sweaty and so does horse usually (i.e. we work hard!) So i do think i am getting some cardio work done. clearly its just not enough :(
 
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