Hi, I had an excellent question about suitable training schedules for getting fit for Eventing in my inbox in response to one of the recent Ride Fit blogs. The question and response are below.

Question:
Hi Heather
Thanks for responding to my blog post about neck stretches. As my neck and back have been causing me problems lately I've decided to start up my clinical pilates again which I'd let slide when life got busy. I'd be interested on your opinion about a couple of things please...
- wondering if I should do 2 or 3 clinical pilates sessions a week (I don't do any sort of strength building exercises); and
- with respect to cardio exercise for building fitness (realised after huffing and puffing round the XC course that I need to improve my fitness drastically) was wondering if you had a preference for either using a xtrainer or swimming laps? I find the xtrainer extremely difficult and after a week have only just built up to being able to do 8 minutes on it (and I'm huffing and puffing when I finish) whereas swimming I enjoy more but after 20-30 mins don't feel like I've been swimming fast enough to have done a cardio workout. I don't like jogging and walking I feel really unco-ordinated and again not walking fast enough to feel any benefit (I'm open to suggestions of other good cardio suggestions most suitable for horseriders but prefer inside so I can do it in any weather).
Would like your thoughts on this please?
Cheers
Trina



Response:

Hi Trina, Great questions! Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you. I was launching two books and organizing a charity golf tournament, and the blog here suffered a little. In answer to your question: pilates will really help build awareness and core strength. You might want to start with 3 sessions if you can, and then gradually pare it down to 1-2 and replace the time with more and more intensive cardio, and strength training. The demands of cross-country are more than just your self-carriage, so strength training is really important. Full body movement with freeweights is much better for you for that requirement than training on stationary weight machines. You will however, need the core strength you'll get from the pilates first as core strength is the basis for all movement. As you pare down the pilates classes, good core can be maintained with just a couple of workouts a week, or sprinkling core work through your other workouts. It took me about 2 years to get a waist like a tree trunk with six pack abs, but they're fairly easy to maintain once you have them, especially if you have by then developed the habit of engaging core properly when you are doing everything else. The purpose isn't to maintain a six pack: it's to support movement and sudden demand on your body.

As for your cardio question: any cardio you like as long as it's bilateral. (not tennis 3x a week.) Swimming is great, so is elliptical. Do what you like an dkeep variety in your schedule so it stays fun, just make sure that you spend at least 20 minutes of your whole routine in the higher end of your cardio improvement zone. I recommend speed or resistance intervals. So on the elliptical, use resistance and speed. In the water, use speed. Interval training, just like for your horse, is a much more efficient form for getting cardiovascular ability up there. Especially since Eventing requires bursts and rests anyway. Your body needs to be able to burst, and recover quickly, as well as maintain a generally high level of stamina over time for cross country.
One reason you are huffing and puffing on the xtrainer, and not in the pool is that your body doesn't have to carry your full weight in the pool. You are having trouble carrying your own weight under load on the cross-trainer, and that has me concerned since you have to manage your entire body over fences cross country- not only for you, but so you don't throw your horse off. Those fences and ditches don't move. Swimming will help you tone, but you will need to get your stamina up for carrying your own bodyweight. I'd suggest speed walking to help build up joint strength as well before you start any kind of running. If you can't handle 8 minutes on the cross trainer, the concern with the shape you're in isn't simply cardio-vascular. It denotes lack of loading on your joints for a while as well, and they may not be in the kind of shape to take too much strain too fast. One exercise I also recommend is finding a short hill: run the hill, walk down. Running the incline will be somewhat easier on your knees, but way harder on your quads, glutes and lungs, so you'll build strength and stamina fast without as much pounding on your joints.

Walk down. There's little benefit to running down, and it's hard on your joints. Catch your breath so you can run up again. For people that hate running, sprinting short hills is a great solution. Personally, I actually hate pounding my feet over and over again at the same pace, so I use hills or sprint intervals when I'm running.

Hope this helps! It's a really good question, so I"m going to post to the actual blog.
If you're reading this blog and have questions/comments, it would be wonderful to hear from you. Just add your comments as a comment to the blog entry, and I'll try and answer your questions in the next blog. You can post pics or video too.

Until next time- happy riding!
Heather Sansom www.equifitt.com Equestrian Fitness

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