The Interesting Effects of CrossFit and Dressage

I had to take a little time off of blogging recently.  I'm just now really getting into the full swing of things at the new job, and it took me a couple weeks to adjust to the life of regular air travel and pretending to be an expert in things no one is an expert in 😄  But I've gotten settled into the groove now. 

#airportlife

I didn't ride a whole lot lately and Connor got a lot of trainer rides, but what was interesting was what happened in the saddle when I stopped working out temporarily.  I've now been back at CrossFit just 2-3 days a week for a few months now, and I took 10 days off recently due to life and travel.

Since I started back at CrossFit in February with my fitness level down to zero, I took the opportunity to do everything with very light weights and to focus on my form.  Not like I had much of a choice - I am WEAK now - but I chose to focus on form before focusing on ramping up the weight.

Using a selfie to explain to my husband that yes, I did need to shower before going to dinner at a friend's after my CrossFit workout

In focusing on form, I came to realize that I had never engaged my upper back muscles for anything in all the years I've done CrossFit - aka, the muscles that are very important to help you sit upright both on the ground and in the saddle.  I effectively isolated them with poor form and posture all those years. 

Looking back on where certain lifts stalled out back when I was really consistent (snatch, for example, I could never break the 85lb mark despite definitely being strong enough to go higher), things start to make a lot of sense.  At some point the rest of the muscles can't compensate for other muscle groups that aren't working and should be.

I didn't think my fitness had improved that much since February, but when I rode Connor in the middle of that 10 day stretch of not working out, I realized the new muscles had been making a huge difference in my ability to sit "with him" instead of "against him", and in my ability to sit up straight in the saddle. 

I was keenly aware that I wasn't sitting well after not working out for a while, but since I'd lost those baby ab and upper back muscles I'd developed, I couldn't do anything about it.

That was a good realization to come to - just like asking a horse to do something it hasn't developed the muscles for, people are the same way.  I can know I'm not doing something well, but if I don't have the muscles to do it, I can't do it. 

And now that I felt the night-and-day difference between riding with muscles and riding without those muscles, it's redoubled my commitment to keep doing CrossFit.  It's also surprised me that my "lazy" 2-3 day a week workout schedule (compared to the 4-5 I did years ago) has made such a difference in the saddle - all the more motivation to do whatever I can, whenever I can, even if it doesn't feel like a lot.