Re: RC: Re: riding position a different problem

[Linda Cowles <kadence@ix.netcom.com>]

I distribute at least 90% of my weight throughout my upper leg. I very
rarely feel my seat bones, and have little to no pressure on my foot...

I have incredibly strong legs, so this isn't tiring, even riding hard on
50's. The "secret" is three  leg machines at the gym. The incline leg
press, the adductor (abductor?) machine and the inner glute machine. The
last two have complementary scissors motion. On one you sit with your
legs spread and pull them together, the other you force them apart.
Strengthening these muscles makes an incredible difference in your
riding. It's gotten me to the point where I can do long conditioning
rides bareback (no pad) on a skittish horse...

I press between 180 and 250 pounds, up to 60 reps in three sets. On the
scissors type machines, I use 130-160 in weights for up to 60 reps. It
took me 60 months to work up to that point, and is easy to maintain.

It's amazing what even a little weight training does for legs.

Back extensions and ab exercises help a lot too.

  -- Linda

Sarah McIntosh wrote:

> Hi Lif: Thanks for your input, but this brings up more questions. A
> riding instructor told me not to have more than 10% of your weight in
> your seat.  Let's say 4 oz is less than 1% of your weight on your
> stirrups, this leaves 89% of your weight where?????? Does anybody know
> the correct weight distribution??? This will be helpful, so I'm hoping
> someone knows.
>
>      ----- Original Message -----
>      From: Lif Strand
>      To: ridecamp@endurance.net
>      Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2000 3:28 PM
>      Subject: RC: Re: riding position a different problem
>       At 03:37 PM 7/5/00 -0700, Sarah McIntosh wrote:
>
>     > I just did my first 50 miler and after about 35 miles, my
>     > feet were starting to hurt excruciatinly across the ball
>     > of the foot area.
>
>
>      A riding instructor told me if I had more than 4 oz of
>      weight in your stirrup, it's too much.  You can add padding
>      to the stirrup all you want, but if you've got too much
>      weight in the stirrup you'll continue to have problems.
>      Kind of like trying to make a poor fitting saddle work by
>      just adding more and more pads.
>
>      Try this:  Set a scale in front of a chair, then with your
>      eyes closed, put your foot on it with what feels like the
>      same amount of pressure you use to ride.  Then see what the
>      scale says.  4 oz. isn't much - I found when I changed to
>      using that little pressure, my whole riding position changed
>      for the better.  Lif
>