When Danny heard that, he stopped what he was doing and said, "You'll able to do this, actually, you should be able to do a push-up in this position. I'm not going to make you do a push-up, but if you were fit enough to actually do a push-up in this position, you'd be fit enough to avoid falling off, and then you don't even need to use what you're learning here and that's best case scenario. I mean, we're teaching you what to do at the moment of impact when things have already gone wrong, and that's great, but ideally you wouldn't come off in the first place."
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| PC: Olivia because I didn't get any pictures of this, but he said you should be able to do an inverted pushup with your feet on the top of the pyramid (and your hands on the ground, not on the tall mat shown here). |
Since he said that, I've been rolling around this idea in my head that there's fit enough to ride, and THEN there's fit enough to not fall off. To keep yourself safe. To give yourself a fighting chance to not hit the ground when shit starts going sideways. And those two levels of fitness are not the same.
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| ...not that our shit ever went sideways when we were eventing |
What if we treated Danny's inverted push-up (and the level of fitness it requires) as an essential piece of safety gear just like a helmet? I'm fascinated by this idea that CrossFit has been protecting me in the saddle this whole time. I knew it was making me a more effective rider already, but protecting me, that I had never considered.
I've only come off once in the last 11 years (on a strange horse and landed on my feet), but especially while eventing, I nearly came off many times. Every time, I was able to cling onto him and heave myself back into the saddle from a lot of different close-call positions. The last 11 years are also the fittest I've ever been, since I first started hitting the gym the summer before I got Connor.
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| Doing biomechainics drills in the gym with a nearly empty barbell last week, just like I do at the barn. Shoulder hip heel in line! All my muscles are gone after not working out for a month due to work, sigh :( |
(And yes, Connor himself has a lot to do with me not coming off, because another "essential piece of safety equipment" is the right horse at the right level with the right rider. I know I'm not cut out for something tall, spicy and 5* level athletic.)
I'd love to see us all treat out bodies as another piece of safety gear, and it's difficult to develop the amount of strength Danny is talking about outside of strength training, whether that's bodyweight P90X in your living room or my own personal one true love, CrossFit. I know it's definitely given me one more reason to get myself to the gym as often as I'm able to.
What do you think? I'd love to hear some chatter about this.
It's very true that the fitness to stay on is higher than the fitness to get on at all. I definitely lack the fitness to deal with nonsense, which is why I panic when Levi is acting up. My husband will tell me how he's not even being that bad (he usually isn't) but it's more than I feel like I can handle. However, I am generally way too lazy and never work out. I have been thinking about joining a gym this winter when I can't do anything else.
ReplyDeleteThat's how I felt when I was working with racehorses. The amount of fitness required to ride them is absolutely staggering (I couldn't walk for three days - no joke - after the first time I galloped one) and then the fitness to deal with THOSE shenanigans was enormous.
DeleteNo judgment either way, there are a lot of things you can do to keep yourself safe even if you're not in "avoiding a fall" shape. Joining a gym sounds like a good idea if only to deal with being cooped up inside that long during those long winters! I tend to be lazy too, and I've finally given up and admitted that unless it's a class format with a coach and teammates, I just won't work out. Hopefully you find what works for you too.
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ReplyDeleteOpps! Just trying to edit:
DeleteI'm not sure how an inverted push up (I'm imagining it as sort of a strict HSPU) itself directly translates to not falling off (using your arms to not fall off?), but I totally agree that fitness, and fitness outside of riding can translate into not falling off in the first place. I've definitely had some really close calls and more than once my trainer has said "I have no idea how you managed not to come off there..." I do think some of them I wouldn't have been able to hang on or ride out if I was weaker!
Aside from a pure strength component, I think having good body awareness and innate balance is key too, and you get some of that with box jumps and other CF movements. I love riding mechanical bulls and to me it's not always a matter of strength, but often I find it easier to stay on when I'm relaxing certain parts of my body while staying tight in others so that I can flow with the momentum and my balance/center of gravity doesn't get thrown off.
From a pure strength standpoint, the only time I came off Hero when he stopped I was able to hang on to his neck long enough to get my feet around and landed standing holding the reins.
I would imagine that gymnastics or dance (in my case) is helpful for if you do end up falling off- I can remember a few times in college getting bucked off and being able to sort of somersault/roll in the air to land on my shoulder blade and not my head, and once Prince stopped an oxer and I was able to twist enough to land perfectly between the poles without touching a single one (maybe doing high jump in track is what taught me to pull that off!)
Interesting topic, and that clinic really sounded cool. Was it in a gymnastics gym or did they bring in all of the equipment? What was the trampoline for?
PS: I love your lifters!
Yay, discussion! Yes, I completely agree with you on the actual inverted push up not translating, but Danny used that more as an example. Like, here's baseline fitness, and here's this thing that you view as SUPER hard, but that hard level of fitness is what will keep you safe. I don't think Danny meant it that specifically either, but it was an offhanded comment by a participant that he jumped on.
DeleteGymnastics helps with everything, lol. I don't have the kind of body awareness gymnasts do and I totally wish I did.
It's in a barn's indoor arena. They travel the country with this stuff. The trampoline is there to practice dive rolls that we'll eventually do off the horse.
Thanks! $50 bargain bin purchase from a few years ago.
That makes sense about the inverted push up as being an example of baseline fitness- because I know many people who only ride and would consider themselves pretty fit.. but maybe not *enough* in the way he is referring to.
DeleteI've been doing LIIFT4 (on BeachBody) for about 6 months now, I am on my 4th round of the 8 week program, with just a couple of weeks off in that time. I have noticed a HUGE difference in my strength and stamina in the saddle (or surcingle, as the case often is!) AND in my everyday life. I'm not lifting heavy weights, either -- my biggest dumbbell at the moment is 15lbs and I just started regularly using them last week. But, I still feel a lot more secure on the back of a horse. I am starting to trust my body to do its job more. I don't get fatigued in the same way I did 6 months ago. Bonus: I can walk up the stairs without huffing and puffing! I hope to not have to put my fitness to the test with a close call or actual fall any time soon (who knows how that will go!) but I think it makes total sense because when you are fit, your body is stronger, your reflexes are better, you have better control over your muscles, etc.
ReplyDeleteThat is SO COOL! Go you for sticking with it that well too, that's hard to do when you're just getting started. I get that feeling where you trust your body more - and that's in a lot of different situations, even just tripping over something. The other feeling I love is the feeling of appreciating what your body is capable of and seeing it in terms of what you can do (15lb dumbbell) vs what you weigh or where your "trouble spots" are. It's just a different type of appreciation. Way to go, keep it up!
DeleteThank you! For as much as I hate HIIT, I love lifting and this program is a lot of fun. I know and am experiencing the benefits of HIIT, I just don't enjoy it at all LOL. But I for sure feel like I am a bit less clumsy/more coordinated -- and better able to recover when I do trip over my own feet, too!
DeleteCross fit would kill me being 50+ but I agree with the premise that more fitness=more safety. I do a lot of gentle aerobic, some low resistance HIIT, and yoga for fitness. The yoga every day focusing a lot on balance and strength positions. Of everything, I think the yoga has been the most helpful to my riding. Just me though...
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome! Yoga really is great for riding. I do have to correct your misconception on CrossFit though, it's designed to be scaled down, so that someone in a nursing home can use a PVC pipe to do an age- and fitness-appropriate level version of the same workout someone else might do with a heavy barbell. People get the wrong idea about it because all they know of it are the CrossFit games, but there are lots of people doing CrossFit even up into their 90's.
DeleteAnd that is not to say it's right for you or that you need to try it, I firmly believe in different strokes for different folks, as I said, but I always have to share that with anyone who things it's only for younger people!
DeleteThank you for the clarification. I did not know that! I will probably stick with what I am doing but good to know of other options for the future.
DeleteI think there is some truth to the idea that a higher level of fitness can help you stay in the saddle when things go sideways. Not necessarily muscle strength, but the overall bodily improvement & awareness that comes with fitness - suppleness, core strength, and the ability to move quickly and be aware of your body.
ReplyDeleteHowever. I think it's a really, REALLY dangerous idea that a certain level of fitness will keep you from falling off. NOTHING will keep you from falling off indefinitely. Nothing. There are days when if you're going to go - you're going to go. My worst fall of all time was when Tristan tripped on a loose rein at a walk. It was instant - no amount of reaction time or fitness would have saved me. I lawn-darted straight onto my head in a split second.
I worry that promoting the idea that "fitness keeps you from falling off!" will go to the same black hole as "I'm riding a dead broke horse, I don't need a helmet!" It HELPS. For absolute sure. But I think taking it too far is misleading, to say the least.
Yes, a discussion, I love it! I agree with you on some points and disagree on others. Admittedly, I wrote this from the perspective of someone who would never even get on a horse for a portrait session without a helmet, and I should have taken a broader audience into perspective. I disagree though that this is dangerous advice, because if it is, having the "right horse for the right level" is also dangerous advice - IF that advice says to you, "Cool I don't need a helmet!" To me, it doesn't, and that makes it just one more arrow in my quiver of many things I do to keep myself safe.
DeleteOf course you're still going to come off even if you're the fittest rider on the planet, and if I inferred that you wouldn't ever come off that's my mistake. But if being fit keeps you from hitting the ground in even one fall situation out of five, and if we also consider that there's nothing dangerous about getting fit in and of itself, it's a message worth spreading.
So I sit down to reply to this after having taken a few ibuprofen because last night Tris tried REALLY hard to dump me and I stuck it out, but pulled muscles in the process...proof of concept?
DeleteI think I'm being nitpicky about language more than anything. If the last few years of Our National Discourse have taught me anything it's that people really love to find permissive holes to do what they want to do. So the difference between "having a higher level of fitness keeps you from falling off!" (which seemed to be what the instructor at the clinic said several times) and "having a higher level of fitness can help keep you in the saddle!" feels huge to me. In the former, I hear all those echoes of "but it's just dressage!" and "he's the safest horse in the barn!" and "it's only a short ride!" and feel like someone could add "I work out all the time, I'm fit enough to keep myself in the saddle!"
But I totally agree with every word of your reply! As I said...I'm being nitpicky about the way it's presented. I think it's incredibly valuable advice and a really good thing to urge people to consider in their riding, but it doesn't sit well with me when, as it seemed this instructor wanted to do, it's touted as an absolute.
Yeah, I think there are two problems with the way I presented it: first, I'm paraphrasing from memory over a week after the clinic, and second, if you understand Danny's teaching style and personality you understand his statements a lot better than you would out of context. It's all grounded in reality, but in order to get people on board with these ideas (which were themselves viewed as pretty radical at first, the idea that you can make a fall "less bad" by "falling better") in the span of two four hour classes, he takes things to the point of shock value sometimes, so he's not couching his statements. It's effective in person but maybe not how he would present things in writing.
DeleteGlad you're okay!
I definitely agree with both of you - The only time I've come off in the last couple years while I was at my fittest was due to some extreme nonsense like the horse falling down with me, versus like bucking and spinning. Once I had gotten a bit out of riding and working out shape thought I did fall off because of a spin. I think the spin would have been a lot easier if I was actually in shape.
DeleteI also think that when we are fit when we do have a problem like a fall we bounce back a lot quicker than if we weren't in shape.
I think the shit going sideways photo is hilarious!
ReplyDeleteHaha! It's still one of my favorites. He has this willing-but-confused look on his face like "We're doing it, but I don't know how we got here".
DeleteLove this post, and as a CrossFitter, powerlifter and former competitive bodybuilder, I 200% agree. I started strength training 5x/week when I was competing my two non-Arab mares in endurance riding and it made an ENORMOUS difference in my stamina and strength in the saddle. I went from not being able to walk for a couple days after a 50 miler (which is 12 hours in the saddle) to waking up the morning after a ride ready to help a friend move all of her belongings to a new house (this really did happen.)
ReplyDeleteDespite being so fit, I still had the fall that basically ended my competitive riding career...but being that fit also allowed me to come back with much more ease than if I had not been working out at all. An above average level of fitness *will* help you recover in the instance that you do have a fall bad enough to get seriously hurt.
Nowadays I do the brunt of my riding bareback, which was kind of a lifelong dream, because thanks to CrossFit and powerlifting I have the leg and core strength to be able to do productive work (basic dressage) without a saddle. I trust my horse, yes, but I also trust my body a thousand times more than I used to. And I love that feeling, of knowing what you are capable of, of knowing your own strength and power, and being able to appreciate and love yourself more because of it.
P.S. for other readers: I second the fact that the wonderful thing about CrossFit is that anyone can do it! There is a couple at the box I train at, that are in their upper 70s who are regulars at the 10:00 am WOD during the week! :D