Nike Visit

My first impression of the Nike campus; Holy Cow!  It is better than Disney World!  They have rock climbing, running trails, sport memorabilia museums, amazing restaurants, and laboratories with amazingly cool equipment that does who knows what engineering wonders!  I only ever want to have a career in dressage, but if I EVER had to work inside anywhere; this would be the place. Actually it would be the only place beside a barn I could ever see myself working at!  

While the facility was amazing, the people were even better.  They were so nice to me.  They were really interested in finding out everything about our sport.  They asked very specific details about what muscles we use and how we train.  They asked about resistance training, and we even talked about outside things like surfing and rock climbing.  

The long and crazy filled day was capped with a visit to the employee store where they let me buy things for my friends and family!  It was so rewarding to be able to think about all the amazing people that have helped me and to be able to give back a little.  I have to thank Nike for making that possible.  

Finally, I came back with a new sense of how much I need to develop my overall and specific health and fitness in order to be a truly top international competitor.   I already added Pilates to my regular routine and in just a few short weeks I have seen amazing results in my core development. I’ll get some specific exercises that Rachel has shown me for specifics for riders soon.  For example, we work on pelvic strength and balance. I run stairs and do sprints at the park near my apartment and I work out in the gym at the apartment.  I have to admit I am limited in my training partly by time and partly by funds.  I pay for a trainer for Pilates but I have to do the rest on my own.  Nike has a great training app that I will be talking to you about as I work on developing a better and more complete training program.  It’s free so that could benefit all of us!

I would really like everyone’s input into developing my training program.  If you have a favorite exercise or style of working out to help your riding, let me know!