Tips to improve position

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Sandstone1

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Any good exercises ( off the horse) I can do to improve position when riding.
My position seems to have got worse with age!
I've git a gym ball if that helps.
I've developed a habit of loosing my stirrups for some reason.
Any tips,welcome!
 
Can you book a few sessions on a mechanical horse? If you can find a physio/ biomechanics specialist to work with you on it, that can be very beneficial.
Also check your saddle isn't putting you into a poor position - stirrup bars can be in totally the wrong place.
 
I swear by Pilates or yoga (have done both in the past, but recently switched back from yoga to Pilates due to finding a more local class) for helping with riding off a horse. I’ve definitely found it helps.

If you have a gym ball there are lots of exercises you can do on the ball – I use it to practise my Pilates between classes. I use it with my back on the ball places against the wall to help squat (I use arm weights whilst squatting too), I sit on the ball to practise engaging my core by tilting pelvis. I also use the ball to bridge on (it highlights every wobble …!) and leg exercises like taking your legs from table top to stretched out and keeping the ball straight and steady. I use a big gym ball for some of the exercises and a small ball for some of them too.

If you have access to a gym, I find machines like the cross trainer or rowing machine really helps as it works on your core and glutes as well as cardiovascular. I do run too, but find if I run too much it will tighten my hips and I spend most of my time at Pilates trying to loosen my hips :D
 
Not exercises as such, but I was really convinced by the Alexander Technique after taking a few (~6) sessions some years ago. I've profited from those sessions over the past five years, without having to go for more sessions.
I tried AT because I kept getting stiff necks (so not directly riding related). The technique teaches you to become more aware of how you are holding yourself and using you body, with the aim of doing *less* (holding tension in muscles through poor posture, e.g.), rather than teaching exercises to use your muscles more. I'm not saying that pilates and better core strength aren't useful, but if you want to improve your posture, you first need to become aware of when you are holding yourself in a poor posture. Also, the human body is not built to actively (i.e. by muscle strength) hold any particular position for a prolonged period of time, so really, you need to learn a new posture that doesn't involve e.g. actively pulling shoulder down (which you couldn't possibly maintain for any length of time), but instead you need to learn how to maintain a posture with the minimal amount of active effort. This is what AT tries to teach - awareness and a change of habits. One crucial lesson I learned was that the time/area where you think you have a problem (in my case, middle of the night, sudden sharp pain and stiff neck) doesn't necessarily have anything to do with underlying reason for why you experience the problem (in my case, I was leaning on my left elbow for 8 hours each day on my desk, so the neck muscles on that side would be under stress all that time). You may be hunching up/pulling legs up while riding, but maybe that is because of how you use your body at other times throughout the day.
There are AT teachers that do training especially for horse riders.
 
AT has always impressed me (not that I've actually TRIED it) because they seem to have thought through really specific exercises - for example their routine for flat jockeys is quite different to their routine for jump jockeys.

One simple thing is to stand on bottom step of stairs in bare feet on ball of foot and hold balance, rise/lower. Harder than it sounds.
 
Yoga is definitely a winner. It improves your balance and core strength. You could maybe go to a few classes and get some tips off an instructor? They'll know exactly what muscles you'd need to use to help improve your position. If not, get a few Youtube videos up?

I know you said things to do OFF the horse but I found that riding without stirrups helped massively as I used to ride as if I was sat on my sofa (legs slowly rose forward) and riding without stirrups really helped. HOWEVER: make sure you wear good underwear :eek:
 
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