CAITLIN: Hey SmartPak fans.
Welcome to this first video in the limited series
for equestrian workouts that can help you
with your everyday riding.
TORI: Today's workout is a total body focus.
I'm going to demonstrate and explain each exercise
and how it benefits you as a rider.
CAITLIN: I'll be going through the exercises
alongside Tori here and she'll be correcting me along the way.
To get the full effect, be sure to pay attention
to the details on your screen.
Ready to get started?
TORI: Let's do this.
CAITLIN: All right.
TORI: So always make sure that you're doing a proper warm up
and cool down.
Oftentimes I like to do a dynamic warm up mimicking
the exercises that I will be doing throughout my workout
just to get your body primed, your heart going,
and those muscles ready to work.
Squats are a great lower body exercise
that also works your core and as a rider
it's really important to have strong legs and a strong core.
So to begin you want to sit back, push your hips back,
weight in your heels.
You're going to squat down and then up.
Imagine pushing the floor away from you.
As you come up, squeeze your glutes at the top.
Core engaged the whole time.
Chest lifted.
Turn those toes out slightly.
You want your knees in line with your toes
and you're gonna sit your butt back.
Chest lifted and then back up, squeeze at the top.
Very good.
Perfect.
Yep.
All right.
So let's go.
We're gonna go through about twelve of these.
So really squeeze at the top.
Keep that tempo a little bit slower.
Perfect.
Good.
And if you have weights at home you
can add weights you can hold a weight right in front of you,
two on your shoulders just like this or even down by your side.
So make sure you're not going too fast.
You want to focus on that form.
Get that squeeze at the top.
Excellent.
Chest lifted and done.
Nice job.
Planks are a really great exercise
that you can do just about anywhere.
You can add in a few options to make them a little bit more
challenging or options to modify.
So you have something to work up towards.
So today we're gonna start in a high plank.
You want to make sure that your hands are
right underneath your shoulders.
You're squeezing your glutes, flexing your quads,
and really push that floor away.
Squeeze that belly button up.
Awesome.
If this is too much on your arms,
you can come down to those forearms.
And you can just hold it right here.
If this is still too much, you can come down to your knees
and hold and squeeze.
So we're gonna start with 30 seconds.
If you feel you can go longer, definitely go for it.
But 30 seconds is a great starting place.
Awesome, make sure --
CAITLIN: You said thirty seconds.
TORI: (Laughing) And if you want out a little bit more
of a challenge you can rock forward to your toes.
Back to the balls of your feet or you can even lift one leg,
hold, and squeeze.
Lower, lift that opposite leg.
Hold and squeeze.
Awesome.
Suck that belly button in.
Hold for five, four, three, two, and down.
Good job.
Mountain climbers are also another great core exercise
and they're also going to get that heart rate going a bit.
So we can go ahead and come down start in your plank position.
So you want to make sure those hands are
right underneath those shoulders, that core
is engaged, and what you're going
to do is just march your knees right up to your chest.
And as you do that you want to pull that belly
button in and up.
Make sure you breathe with every switch.
And so we're going to do 40 total of these.
So you're going to count one, two, three, four.
Just like that until you hit 40.
Nice and slow.
Focus on that core.
And those your mountain climbers.
Lunges are another great lower body exercise.
Working your legs, your core, and a little bit
of that balance all important factors as a rider.
So what you want to do here we're
going to do 10 reverse lunges each side so make sure you're
standing up nice and tall.
You're going to take that right leg, you're gonna step it back.
Good.
And if you feel you like you're a little off balance
you can stagger those feet a little bit so you can come out
a little bit wider.
And then you want to make sure you come straight down and then
straight up.
So oftentimes when people are lunging,
they want to go forward and that knee comes past that toe.
That's a no-no.
You wanna make sure you're straight down.
Straight up that knee is right over that heel.
Hands by your side.
Perfect.
There you go push through that front heel.
Straight down, straight up, core engaged, eyes up,
and if you have weights at home you
can put two down by your side to add a little bit of intensity
there.
You can even hold one right at your chest.
So we're gonna do ten on one side
and then when you're done with your ten
we're gonna go ahead and switch to the other.
So again straight down, straight up.
Oftentimes one side is a little bit harder.
That's totally normal.
I'm always a little bit wobbly when it comes to the left.
If you're really having a challenge with that balance,
you can put those arms out to the side
and that will help stabilize as well.
Perfect.
So make sure you do 10 aside.
I love push ups. They're a great total body exercise.
You're going to work your arms, your chest, your core, even
those legs.
So let's go ahead and get started.
You want to come down make sure that your shoulders are
over those wrists again.
You can start here in this high plank position.
Chest all the way down and then back up.
You're squeezing your glutes.
If that's a little too hard.
You can come right down to those knees.
Yep.
And so here tuck those hips under, core engaged.
Lower down all the way down and then back up.
So if it's too hard to get all the way down to the ground,
you can come halfway and then back up.
And then eventually you can work towards dropping that chest
to the ground.
So go ahead give me a few push ups here.
CAITLIN: How's my hand placement, Tori?
TORI: Drive those hands right into the ground
and make sure that those hands are underneath those shoulders.
You don't want to go too, too wide.
You don't want to go too, too narrow for this purpose.
Good finger tips turned in slightly,
elbows angled back just a bit.
You got it just like that.
And make sure you don't have too much
of an arch in that low back.
You don't want to dip those hips down to the ground.
You want to tuck, take out that arch, down and then up.
So your body's like a long plank.
Yes.
Better.
Perfect.
Crunches work the core.
As a rider, it's really important to have strong core
-- a strong core for balance and stability.
So we can go ahead and get down to the ground.
So what you're going to do is right on to your back
your going to bring your legs into a table top position.
Hands come lightly behind your head.
So just think fingertips behind your ears almost
and what you want to do is curl those shoulder blades up
off the ground.
Suck that belly button in and you're
gonna bring the opposite shoulder to opposite knee.
Center, reset, and then switch.
Opposite shoulder, opposite knee.
Once you get that form down you feel
like you're working that core not pulling
too much on your head, you can pick up that pace
just a little bit.
That will bump up that intensity there.
And to make it even more intense.
Think of keeping that knee right over your hip and not all
the way into that chest.
So if you keep that knee in line over that hip
and you curl that shoulder up to that knee,
that's going to make it a lot harder.
So let me see a few Caitlin.
Perfect.
Light grip behind that head.
Breathe every time you lift up off the ground.
Use that exhale.
Curl those shoulder blades up nice and high.
Excellent.
Glute bridges are a great lower body exercise.
Again, you're working that core -- it's key theme here.
Those glutes, those hamstrings.
So we're going to come down to the ground again starting
on that back.
So you're going to bend those knees think
you're bringing those heels just about under those knees.
Hands down by your side and then you're
gonna just curl those hips up off the ground.
So make sure you're not arching that back.
You can see that I'm taking this way too much into my lower
back.
So you want to drive through your heels,
tuck those hips up, contract that core,
push down through that ground.
So you going to do twenty five reps of these,
digging through those heels.
Imagine your energy from those knees shooting straight
forward.
So you're squeezing those glutes at the top.
It's like a one second pause, squeeze, hold.
And then back down.
So keeping that core engaged let's see a few here, Caitlin.
Awesome.
Very good.
And remember, it's a tuck of those hips up.
You don't want to take too much of an arch
into that lower back.
Shoot those knees straight forward.
If you have a weight at home, you
can place it right over those hips.
Increase the intensity a bit.
Yep, and feet are about hip width apart here.
Awesome.
And to finish off this total body workout today,
we have the Superman hold.
This is working a lot of your back body.
You know some of those stabilizer muscles in the back.
And it's also working that core, so we're gonna do
is come down to the ground.
Lay all the way down.
You're going to extend those arms straight out,
legs come straight behind you, and you're gonna
hold this pose for 30 seconds.
We're gonna exhale squeeze everything tight.
Bring those thighs, those forearms right up
off the ground.
Reach long through those fingertips through those toes,
squeeze your butt as hard as you can.
CAITLIN: Woooo!
TORI: Awesome.
And here if you want to up the intensity, you can swim.
Just like this.
Pull that belly button up off the ground,
stay nice and still.
You can just hold static, squeeze tight.
30 second hold right here.
It's harder than it looks.
Great job making it all the way through your first workout.
If you do any of these at your barn, tag us on social media
and be sure to check back soon for next week's equestrian
exercises with Caitlin and I.
CAITLIN: Have a great ride.