Do Barn Chores Count as Training? And what is the Physical Activity Paradox?

Unless you've been living under a rock, you're likely aware that riders (or any athlete, really) need to be doing some kind of dry-land training to supplement their riding. If not for the performance aspect of it, at least training to give your horse the same courtesy they give you; namely, showing up as a active partner, not a passive burden.

But, in the comments, the DMs, and sometimes even in person, one of the biggest pushback comments I get to this statement is, "But I do barn chores/muck 25 stalls/get 30k steps in a day... I don't need to go to the gym too!".

In this podcast, we'll talk through why that statement doesn't hold up against what we know from research, from principles of tissue adaptation, and more. We'll explore the differences between recreational and occupational physical activity, highlighting a principle known in research as the Physical Activity Paradox.

Takeaways

• Occupational activity is shown in research to have a more neutral health impact, and may even lead to more injuries than benefits.
• Recreational fitness has clear health benefits for function, health, disease prevention and longevity.
• This discrepancy is known as the Physical Activity Paradox.
• For similar reasons as to why this paradox exists, barn chores alone aren't enough for building mobility and strength.
• Barn chores, like other manual labour jobs, are often too low load or low intensity, too repetitive, too single sided, and don't offer enough recovery time between bouts to see true tissue adaptation (like strength or mobility gains) past a certain point.

• Our bodies only adapt to be capable of what we ask of them.
• If we make our chores = our training, our bodies will only adapt to be capable of the daily tasks, not more. Leaving us operating close to our threshold on a daily basis.
• Dry-land training should prepare you for daily demands, meaning it needs to be performed in a way where we are building up our body's capacity to exceed what is required for day to day tasks.
• In this way, we build up a "buffer zone" with our training, working to "over-engineer" our bodies for the daily demands of chores and riding.

Keywords

equestrian fitness, physical activity paradox, strength training, riding performance, occupational activity, recreational sports, equestrian training, injury prevention, cardio training, equestrian health

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Life Updates

04:38 Understanding the Physical Activity Paradox

10:39 The Implications for Equestrians

14:38 Training for Daily Demands

16:59 Conclusion and Call to Action

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