Ride like a kid again, by “Pressing Reset” today.
Pressing Reset is the power you have, that we all have to feed and nourish the nervous system with fresh new information, wipe away years of limitations, restrictions, stiffness, and pain, clear the slate, and restore your youth!
You can provide the nervous system with something new to work with, a novel stimulus that tells it to clear the slate and start over. Not unlike hitting a wall with your fitness training, our internal program can plateau and regress leading to limitation and pain; to begin to move forward again, we need to switch things up…continue reading to learn how…
To understand the potential benefits of “Pressing Reset”, you first must recognize that the Nervous system sits at the helm as it relates to movement, mobility, strength, stability, and the expression of it. The nervous system is the Captain, navigating the environment around you, receiving and responding to the currents, ripples, tidal waves and sometimes Tsunamis the ocean of life and sport sends its way.
Equestrian Sport is unique in that the Nervous system is impacting 2 organisms simultaneously and it is why the health and optimal function of it must be prioritized in order to optimize performance and create a sustainable partnership.
The Nervous system simply receives inputs and responds in kind. Good inputs = good outputs/bad inputs repeatedly fed into it = bad outputs.
When we experience restrictions and limitations in our movement, chronic stiffness, or pain, it is often the result of less-than-optimal information we have been feeding into our nervous system. Over days, months, and years, negative inputs become habitual patterns and one can find themselves in what is known as the “Self-perpetuating pattern of movement dysfunction” ( Liebenson 2007 , Rattray and Ludwig 2002 et al ) Which says that any stressor to the nervous system- including acute repetitive trauma, emotional stress, up-regulation of the sympathetic nervous system and pain- can alter strategies that essentially create a self-perpetuating cycle of dysfunction. In essence, once movement, mobility, or stability is impaired and compensations occur, these compensations create further impairments and you go round and round trying to fix one while creating more of another.
The good news is that this cycle can be broken, and it can happen in the blink of an eye, at the speed of the nervous system itself!
To “Press Reset” you need to engage in your original design and do the things we were meant to do from birth and throughout our entire lives to keep us healthy and moving well and pain-free…We’ll refer to these as the 3 Pillars:
Breath with the diaphragm
Activate the vestibular system through head and eye movements
Engage in contra-lateral movements.
In Original Strength, we call the patterns below “The Big 5 Resets”. They are a powerful entry point on the path to restoring you to a body and mind that feels great and performs at an optimal level.
1.Diaphragmatic breathing on its own can change everything about your experience of riding and your life. Learning to keep the tongue on the roof of the mouth and breathe with the diaphragm will keep you in a calm state, the parasympathetic state where the body feels safe and able to adapt to the environment and express itself optimally. From a structural standpoint, the diaphragm is the Captain of the spinal stabilizers and its proper function is critical to back health. Learning to breathe with the diaphragm, instead of the emergency muscles of the upper chest and lungs as is common when “mouth breathing”, creates a strong and balanced center and sets the foundation for optimal communication between horse and rider.
See Diaphragmatic breathing here: https://youtu.be/1aR_Wa6pj5A
How to perform: Lay on your back, place one hand on your chest and one hand on your belly. Place the tongue on the roof of the mouth and keep your lips sealed. Breathe in through the nose, focusing on sending the air into your lower abdomen. You should feel your belly rise and expand and the sides of your abdomen expand as well as you inhale. Exhale through the nose and feel the belly will fall and sides of abdomen shrink. The hand on the chest should not move.
2. Head and Eye movements: Neck nods and rotations not only stimulate your vestibular system but they also mobilize your thoracic spine. The T-spine is important to equestrian athletes since a lack of thoracic mobility is often noted as a root cause of restricted mobility through the shoulders, impingement and poor posture. Activation of the Vestibular system through movement of the head and eyes is crucial. The V.S. is directly linked to every muscle in your body and is at the root of developing reflexive stability which is your bodies ability to tension and relax the right muscles at the right times.
See neck nods and turns here : https://youtu.be/_LNA5ODPvq8
3.Segmental Rolling further mobilizes the T-spine and neurologically connects the shoulder to the opposite side hip. In essence it connects you like a big X. Think about how cue your horse to perform a lead change or re-direct its path. Your shoulder and your opposite hip are intricately connected in those processes. The go-between these structures is your core. Rolling helps to strengthen these connections via head and extremity-driven, midline crossing movement.
See how to roll here : https://youtu.be/1aR_Wa6pj5A
4.Rocking is where reflexive strength and stability continue to be developed and solidified throughout the body. The compression of the wrist, elbow, knees, and glenohumeral joint of the shoulders stimulates proprioceptors that reflexively stabilize those structures. It is this reflexive stability that is often missing, dulled or late to the movement party and the result is painful movement. Rocking also helps to reset the natural curvature of the spine, improving posture and making maintaining it effortless.
6 Point Rock : https://youtu.be/S1a77Z5B9oQ
5.Crawling takes reflexive stability to another level. Here true strength is developed and reflexes become hard wired. It fortifies our gait pattern and allows for optimal expression of joint mobility. It nourishes the vestibular system and knits our bodies together in a way nothing else can. In other words, it makes your body one solid piece, one that is highly resilient and adaptable.
Baby Crawl : https://youtu.be/eMTm96MpJ3Y
Leopard Crawl: https://youtu.be/-xSZ5ZVuVvg
It's important to note that none of these resets are more important than the others. Since we are all different and have different needs the resets will have varying degrees of impact on each individual person.
An easy way to test these resets on yourself is to see what your body and nervous system like or need most try one of the following movements, then perform a reset, then try the movement again to see if it feels easier and less restricted. If you are able to achieve a greater pain-free range of motion, or the movement feels more fluid and easy, you are onto something that can add tremendous value to your life!
Baselines to test the resets against:
Toe Touch - Often people touch their toes for the first time in years after a few minutes of diaphragmatic breathing or rolling.
Body Weight Squat - Many people lose their upright torso when they sit into a squat or complain of knee pain if they go too deep…resets can do wonders for restoring this pattern.
Overhead Reach- Often, shoulder issues limit our ability to get our arms overhead with the biceps in line with the ear without stiffness or pain...Test to see if you can; and if not, use this as a baseline to come back to after a few minutes of resets.
When it comes to Pressing Reset and restoring your mobility and ease, remember that change can and will happen at the speed of your nervous system but the key to maintaining the change is engaging in the patterns frequently so that the new inputs create new pathways and a stronger foundation for continued movement health.
For the Equestrian athlete, these simple resets can make a powerful addition to your daily routine. They will knit your body together, making you more resilient; nourish your nervous system, reduce aches and pains, and most importantly help you better communicate with your companion.
We know how sensitive horses are to the condition of the rider, by engaging in your original design on a regular basis, both you and your 4 legged partner can express yourselves at your highest levels!
To learn more about “Pressing Reset” and Original Strength...Contact me, Coach Q I am an Original Strength Certified Pro or grab a copy of the handy guide available at https://a.co/d/8WQvD3G and explore the infinite ways you can engage in your design by visiting originalstrength.net
