Winter is a time to rest, recuperate, and rejuvenate to get ready for spring riding. I remember sitting there on the edge of the bed, struggling to put my socks on and it was like a slap in the face. I was becoming "that" person. The one that couldn't sit on the floor and play board games. The one that made the "oof" sound getting on my horse. The one that just didn't feel so good anymore, I was feeling old. Like many of you, this stuff creeps up slowly, inch by inch, to steel our joy.
I knew I wanted to go into my senior years enjoying riding and part of that was flexibility, balance, and energy but how?
I tried EVERYTHING. Some things helped, some things didn't help and some things were AMAZING.
Flexibility - this started with healthy eating. I got rid of grains and refined sugar and this helped some. I worked on doing things like lifting my knee to my chest, alternating this while I was doing dishes. I played with lunges and side lunges to stretch my inner thigh. I just played with flexibility and movement. I was actually shocked to find out that I could not move my arms like a bird flying but I could move them like a swimmer. It took me some time to get my bird flying shoulders going again. The more I moved, the more I could move.
Balance - this one again I play with. I will see how long I can stand on one leg (practicing with both legs) while brushing my teeth or folding clothes. Chores became a great time to play with balance. Could I load the dishwasher standing on one leg or the other without falling over. This also improved my strength.
Energy - this was by far the most challenging and the most recently solved. I didn't feel like working on balance, flexibility and riding again. It just seemed to take too much energy. The diet helped but wasn't the whole thing. I had to add in a coaching program (more information here if interested) that changed it all and put all the pieces together. The coaching linked the anti-inflammation, the dehydration, the energy, the brain fog, the balance, flexibility and boy do I feel AMAZING!!!! When all the pieces come together, just like a gorgeous jigsaw puzzle, You want to keep feeling better each day and the call to ride returns. It has been missing for me for a while. I love the horses but haven't been called to ride and now I am feeling like I want to get everything lined up and ready to start riding this spring.
I will be documenting my journey back to riding (I hope) with my new podcast starting episodes I am working on now. I will have more information coming soon!
0 Comments