Exercise 4: Self massage--hip flexors, inner thighs (adductors), tendons behind the knee and the Achilles tendon
Benefit: Loosen these essential riding muscles while sitting at your desk.
How to do it: It's easiest to massage these typically tight areas while sitting in a chair.
Step 1: Sit with your feet flat on the ground and your knees apart. Place a hand on top of each leg, where it joins your body.
Step 2: One leg at a time, lift your foot off the ground so you can feel your hip flexor muscle contract under your fingers (photo 4a).
Step 3: Return your feet to the ground and press your fingers deep into the hip flexor muscles, rubbing to the left and right (4b). Massage gently at first, then gently increase the pressure.
Step 1: Again, with your feet flat on the floor and knees apart, place both hands on the inside of your left thigh.
Step 2: Squeeze your thigh between your thumbs and fingers to find the muscle cords running along the inside of your leg from your groin to your knee (4c).
Step 3: Pluck these cords between your thumbs and fingers to loosen them, working from your groin down to your knee.
Step 4: Repeat the massage on your right thigh.
Step 1: Sit with your feet on the ground and your knees bent at a 90-degree angle.
Step 2: With your fingers, feel the back of one knee where the calf muscle originates, identifying the two fibrous bands (tendons) on the right and left sides (4d).
Step 3: Pluck at these tendons as if you were plucking the strings of a guitar.
Step 4: Repeat this on both sides of each knee.
Step 1: Sit your right foot flat on the ground and your left foot resting on your right knee.
Step 2: Feel for a fibrous band (tendon) along the back of your left calf, just above your ankle (4e).
Step 3: Pluck this tendon with your thumb and index finger as if it were a string.
Step 4: Repeat several times with both legs.
Learn more about the Balimo™ system and find more do-anytime exercises in the August and September 2007 issues of Practical Horseman magazine.
Many more exercises and rider educational opportunities (books, clinics, distance learning courses) are available through the Balimo™ Equestrian Program. For more information, call 406-626-4191 or go to www.equestrianeducation.org.
