That's very cool that your wife rides dressage!! That's exactly what I'm doing! I didn't say dressage previously because most guys I know don't know about that from adam.
To answer your question, I train 5-6 days a week depending on how many days my horse needs off. If we are heavily into the show season, then he will get at least one full day off and sometimes a light trail ride or hack on the second day. I usually ride for around an hour give or take when I'm training. If I'm just having fun say on a weekend trail ride, then I might be gone for a few hours.
The issue of personal fitness came up when I talked to my trainer about moving up to 2nd level. I schooled 2nd over the winter and am now working on solidifying some of the lateral work like renvers and travers, in addition to simple changes. I feel like I'm a place where the body balance and core strength will improve my ability to move up more quickly. It is just a struggle to balance the gym with the horses. Right now I'm not doing any lifting. I just started with the personal trainer last saturday, intending to work with them 1x/week and then do at least 2 workouts in the gym during the week. The problem is I'm still sore almost a week after the fact, so I haven't been back in the gym.
My horse is very sensitive so any instability in my body either makes him confused or tells him to do something else. For example, I think I'm asking for a travers, but then he goes into a halfpass. Or I think I'm straight and he is starting to move into a travers.
I haven't talked to the personal trainer again yet, but I did talk to my trainer (dressage) today and said I think I've reached the limit of what I can do physically and am struggling to balance the horses and the gym workouts. Looks like I'm not going to be getting out of the gym workouts damnit!!! She suggested that I tell the personal trainer to tone it down and not try to do that level of intensity.
I hear you on the diet vs exercise thing for losing weight. If I do too high of intensity then I just feel like eating more. Right now I am doing a detox diet and have significantly reduced bad stuff I was eating (sugary things, carbs, etc.). I will try your idea to do the whey protein before eating. Sometimes I do eat more than I should just because the food is there and tastes good.
My first show this season is memorial day so I think I have a few weeks to build up and not fall apart at the end of May.
Originally Posted by
Carbonfiberboy
It takes time to get used to higher levels of training and it's best to ramp up to them slowly, as you see. My wife rides dressage and can lift heavy the day before. Used to be she couldn't even do anything aerobic, but with training now she can. The owner of the barn trains 10 dressage horses/day, every day, so it's a matter of getting used to it.
How many days/week do you ride horses and for how long? I understand you are lifting 3 days/week?
I'm 69 and have always recovered more slowly than most. My rule is that I don't lift if my legs are sore, but I can cycle with sore legs if I keep the effort down. Obviously you can't keep the effort down on a horse.
My belief is that it's very hard to lose weight by exercising. Calorie burn is simply not that great and if one burns a lot, it's very difficult not to eat it back. The only way I've found to lose weight is to eat less. I know, that's easy to say, hard to do. I've done it by reducing portion sizes about by half, and then adding in a small meal in mid-afternoon and a glass of 15-25g whey/casein protein at bedtime. I cut the portion sizes down slowly over a period of a month or so. Another little rule I practice is that I stop eating before I feel like I should, then wait 1/2 hour before deciding I didn't get enough. Usually after that 1/2 hour I feel just fine.
Another thing I do to lose weight and recover more quickly is to have 15g flavored whey protein in water about 15' before every meal. This works amazingly well. It's then easier to eat less and I do recover more quickly.
Back to your last question, the best bang for the buck is HIIT training on the bike. However if you have that much time, at this point I'd put it into moderate intensity time on the bike, outdoors if possible. Keep your effort down to where you are breathing deeply, but not fast. You should be able to just recite the alphabet out loud in one breath with no strain. That's the level to hold. If you do that for ~1 hr./day for 2 weeks, you'll notice the difference on the horse, big time. If you train like that for a month or so, I think you could go back to lifting maybe 2 days/week even if you cycle on those days. Don't lift the same day your ride your horse.
My experience is that lifting 1 day/week I stay even. 2 days/week I make progress. 3 days/week I can't do much of anything else.