5 benefits of fitball training when it comes to horse riding.
Is a fitball really any use?
So I’m sure you’ve all heard of the fitball, (Swiss ball, Exercise ball, Yoga ball). If you haven’t they are the big inflated balls you sit on.
Now if you’ve ever used one of these balls to do any form of exercise, you probably already know how difficult it can be to use them.
Believe me, they may look harmless but they are more challenging than you may think.
You may be reading this wondering “how is this going to help my horse riding?” Well, this is where I come in. I am going to explain to you 5 benefits of using a fitball and how this can help you with your riding.
So without further ado, let’s get started.
Corrects your posture — Now we all know how important your posture is as a horse rider. (especially when it comes to dressage). It’s not only more comfortable to sit upright when riding, but it also helps the horse stay balanced too. When we sit on a fit ball, it causes you to sit up straight and engage your core. Practising this for just a few minutes a day can improve your overall posture (and your dressage scores too!)
Improves core strength — As Ijust mentioned in the previous point. Sitting on a fitball forces to your engage your core to keep upright. Over time this is going to lead to an improvement of the strength of your deep core muscles (which you probably didn’t even know existed!)
Improves your balance — These deep core muscles that I mentioned are resposible for keeping you balanced. These are always working as we go through day to day life but being on an unstable surface can really kick them into gear.
You can use a fitball without any other equipment — If you want to train at home and don’t want to be filling the place up with lots of extra equipment (we all know how much space numnahs take up). You can easily do full workouts with a fitball, which are also highly effective.
Improved back pain — Did you know that lower back pain is NOT caused by weak back muscles? It is actually from the lower back muscles becoming tired from picking up the slack from our glute, or ab muscles which are, more often than not weak and not activating properly. These muscles are all part of your core, so by using the fitball you will help wake them up so your back gets a break!
So as you can see the fitball has loads of benefits and the real questions is, why aren’t you using it?
If you have any other questions in regards to fitball and fitball training feel free to drop me a message and I can tell you more about how it can help you!
Do you suffer from stiff, tense or grindy hips?
Follow this link for my FREE PDF “Happy Hips for Horseriding”
https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/b4y0n6
So many benefits to using a fitball