Our Busy Little World
Apr. 1, 2008 - Book Review
You all know I sometimes enjoy reviewing books and products I've been able to try out. Here's another one. I know this will apply more to some of you than others, but lately it's definitely applied to me. My dear husband recently encouraged me to start taking a few horseback riding lessons so I could have a couple of hours out of the house doing something I've always wanted to do. Well, I love it, and am thankful for the "time off", and the fact that I finally get to do something I've longed to learn for 28 years! But lo and behold, after five babies I have HORRIBLE balance, and I promptly fell of the horse I was trying so hard to ride! My midwife assures me this whole lack of balance thing is normal, but of course that didn't make me feel too much better. Since I can't ride very often, I started reading all I could (in those quiet evening hours) that might help me improve. This, in case anyone was wondering, is what convinced me (a very couch potato-ish person), to finally start exercising. I've found that pilates is quite helpful to one's balance and posture (another thing I've needed desperately to improve for quite some time.) I came across a little book called Applied Posture Riding, which is largely a book applying pilates-type exercises to one's riding. I contacted the author to obtain a copy, and she was kind enough to let me post about it here. The biggest drawbook to this book is the price, and I would have an easier time recommending it if the price were substantially lower, but as promised I wanted to share the points of this book I most appreciated, for there were definitely things I enjoyed:
1. It is simple - it's one of the shortest of the books I read, which at first put me off a bit. Later, however, I realized this was one reason I liked it more than others, as the longer books really tended to overwhelm, and by the time I finished the book, I forgot all the recommended exercises! This book and exercise program is simple enough to remember and do without getting bogged down by a million exercises!
2. It made use of the fitness ball. I've had a ball for years, and never really knew quite what to do with it besides sit on it. Again, the short book was much more helpful than the really big gym-ball workout book I borrowed. With the big one, I had no idea which of the seemingly hundreds of exercises to choose! This little Applied Posture Riding book made ball exercises simple by explaining (with pictures) the choicest ball exercises for my purpose.
3. Uniqueness of the exercises. There are some exercises in here that I haven't run across anywhere else, such as a bunch for the arms - being a fairly weak armed person, I think these will be of help to me.
4. I really liked all of the photographs - it's easier to see an illustration in a full color photo than in a rendering. While there are plenty of schools of thought in riding, and Wilson's is not *perfectly* in tune with all of them, the photographs nonetheless gave a bit of a mental picture of what one is going for. And the pictures of the exercises themselves were quite helpful while trying to learn to do them.
5. Simple equipment - some of the books I looked into made use of quite a bit of high-end gym equipment that really isn't available to me. This book simply uses a gym-ball (which my kids love owning anyway) and some exercise bands (I think these only cost a few dollars - I don't quite remember, as I've had some for years - just haven't used them much yet!) The rest of the exercises don't need any equipment at all. Just makes the exercise routine a bit more approachable at home.
All in all, I've been gravitating toward the pilates video that my sister sent me, but as I get more comfortable with exercise in general, I'm hoping to make more use of this book to good effect.
