Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

> From my sports medicine and personal perspective, it's important not only to
check for an upright position, as
opposed to listing to one side (often caused by having toes down, rather
than
heels down, on one side worse than the other). It's also important not to
have torque--
twisting motion--at the waist, throwing one hip to the inside. That is, both
hips should face straight forward thruout the range of motion, on both
diagonals.

Two weeks before my 50, I had terrible sacro-ileitis (low back pain off to
one side), an old running injury made worse by my biomechanically disastrous
post (even after years of lessons! :-(  ) It was awful after 12 miles--I
really didn't know how I could do 4x that! My trainer worked the torque out
of me, and glory be, no pain on the 50 or since!

More than once I've been a vet scribe when someone came in w/ a horse w/
an iffy back. The vet recommended switching diagonals every few minutes.
Some people didn't know what that meant, so we gave crash courses on the
spot.

Whoever suggested having someone watch you on both diagonals--that's the
best idea. Watch for
listing, twisting, and posting straight up-and-down (incorrect--usually from
weak quadriceps/anterior thigh muscles) rather than back-forth-up-down.
There is a terrific picture in Sally Swift's Centered Riding Vol 1
that shows a person posting as if she were being pulled up and forward by a
sky hook on her belt buckle. (If you see me at a ride, I'd be happy to watch
you. )

My mnemonic for POSTing diagonals was uPOutSideTrot. The diagonal is named
for the shoulder going forward (rider's UP position at the trot) on the
outside of the arena or the outside of the curve on a trail.



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