Here are some fun, easy and beneficial muscle-balancing and cross-coordination exercises from the Balimo™ (Balance In Motion) system developed by Ekart Meyners. They're simple on-the-ground ways to make a real difference in your riding.
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- All photos by Mary Gerty
Exercise 1: Pick Up Your Feet!
Benefit: Here's an exercise to both warm up your entire body and improve your cross-coordination.
How to do it: While walking around the barn, pick your feet up and touch them with the opposite hands (photo 1a). For example, bring your right knee up a little higher and swing your foot up and to the left in front of your left leg. Touch your foot with your left hand. Then swing your left foot up and touch it with your right hand (as shown).
Next, alternate swinging each foot up behind you, reaching back with the opposite hand to touch it (1b). Play with the sequence--right foot to left hand in front, left foot to right hand behind, right foot to left hand behind, and so on. This will not only help your balance and coordination, but it will also begin to open your hips--a key goal toward better riding.
Exercise 2: Self Massage--Head and Neck
Benefit: This is a great way to relieve stress when working at your desk, while also loosening the joints crucial to good alignment and flexibility in the saddle.
How to do it: Place your fingers at the base of your skull, where your neck meets your head (photo 2a). Feel for the indentation between two small lobes on either side, just below the bony lump in the center. This is your occipital joint. Rub your fingertips firmly around this region. If you notice any tenderness, your occipital joint was blocked!
For added relief, massage the acupressure points where your collarbones tie into your shoulders at the base of your neck (2b). Rub your fingertips over these areas lightly at first, then gradually increase the pressure. This will dissolve the tension around your collarbones, allowing the energy to flow through your entire neck area, arms and hands.
Exercise 3: Self Massage--Shoulders and Chest
Benefit: Here's another great stress-reliever to try at your desk--or to do in bed when you wake up.
Step 1: If you're sitting in a chair, place both feet flat on the ground. Put your left hand on your right shoulder and pinch the upper trapezius muscle (the thick muscle running across the top of your shoulder and behind your neck) between your thumb and index and middle fingers. With quick pinching movements, pluck this muscle up and away from your shoulder. Repeat several times.
Step 2: Repeat the plucking motion on the left shoulder with the right hand.
Step 3: Place your left hand in your right armpit, feeling the pectoralis muscle (the thick muscle connecting the front of your shoulder to your chest). Pinch deep into this muscle and pluck the tissue as above (photo 3). Because these muscles tend to be tight, they may feel tender at first. As the tendons relax, the discomfort will subside.
