15/09/2020
I never realised how much breathing affected my riding and my horses way of going until I worked with Mindful Riding. This is a great post with some tips you can try.
🌟 Top tip Tuesday!!! 🌟
💥 Breathing is key!! 💥
💨 Do you breathe effectively?
💨 Can you use your diaphragm properly?
💨 Can you belly breathe?
👊 This is the first exercise I give all my riders, 20 diaphragmatic breaths before they go to sleep every night.
🧘♀️ If we practice breathing when we’re in a relaxed position off the horse, then it starts to become easier to do on the horse, and then in more stressful situations such as competitions.
🧐 Recent anatomical dissection studies show that the diaphragm and the psoas muscle share some muscle fibres. That means there is a direct link between our diaphragm and one of the most important muscles of our seat, psoas. So if we can’t breathe effectively using our diaphragm we will be tight and tense through our seat, and sitting trot becomes an impossibility.
❌ A lot of “core” exercise programmes get people to pull in their stomachs or brace their abdominals. This action blocks the diaphragm from working to it’s full potential 🙈🙁 therefore also blocking psoas. We then learn to breathe apically, overusing the muscles of the neck and shoulders and reducing our oxygen intake.
✅ Learning to breathe effectively using our diaphragm has massive benefits to our mental and physical well being.
✅ Learning to breathe using our diaphragm, the muscle designed for breathing, helps slow our heart rate, reduces stress, improves oxygen uptake, calms the mind and builds resilience.
✅ Allowing the diaphragm to function optimally can reduce neck and shoulder pain and allows the psoas muscles to function optimally, improving our position and function in the saddle. Win win!
🧘♀️ If you want to learn to breathe more effectively and use your diaphragm better, try this diaphragm reset video I shared just before lockdown:
https://vimeo.com/410988039
💙 Breathe better move better
Maeve
