Prepping the body for the bucking; more rodeo athletes buckle down

Coy Robbins competes in bull riding on the opening night at the Cloverdale Rodeo in Surrey, B.C., on Friday, May 19, 2023. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paige Taylor White)

Coy Robbins once thought running long distances was good training for riding a bull.

When he attended a spring training camp organized by the Canadian Pro Rodeo Sport Medicine Team, the 24-year-old from Camrose, Alta., learned endurance running was the opposite of what he should be doing.

Social media is full of images and videos of professional athletes churning battle ropes and jumping on boxes to train for their sport.

What's your workout when your equipment on the field of play is not static, but a live animal who wants to buck you into the dirt?

Robbins, who is among the 180 competitors in the Calgary Stampede rodeo starting Friday, emerged from the first spring training camp held in 2021 with a new workout program.

His regimen includes the "dead bug'' of lying on his back with his arms and legs in the air to increase core strength, as well as short sprints and ladder footwork drills to enhance fast-twitch muscles.

Robbin now also arrives at rodeos armed with a warm-up routine of lunges, jumping jacks, high-knee drills and arm circles designed to fire up the muscles he recruits to stay aboard a spinning bull for eight seconds, score points and win money.

"Previously in my career, I was an injury-prone kid,'' Robbins told The Canadian Press. "It was an easy decision to sign up and attend the first camp.

"I've noticed drastic benefits doing this in my career.''

Bull rider Coy Robbins trains for the upcoming Calgary Stampede, at Acumen Performance in Edmonton, Monday, June 26, 2023. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson)Sport-specific training and taking care of the body is somewhat new to rodeo.

Getting out of a vehicle following an eight-hour drive from the last rodeo and immediately boarding a bull or bronc while nursing an injury was standard.

"Rodeo was a way of life that they turned into a sport,'' explained Brandon Thome, the executive director of the Canadian Pro Rodeo Sport Medicine Team.

"Rodeo is so far behind when it comes to strength and conditioning and taking care of yourself and treating yourself like an athlete.

"They kind of half-think 'we do enough hard work around the ranch. We don't have to do anything else.'

"If we didn't teach them anything else except for corrective exercises to correct some of their muscles imbalances, and a dynamic warm-up, if everybody learned that, I think that's a massive thing in rodeo.''

Since the inaugural camp in 2021, rodeo spring training has expanded to three camps per year held between January and May in Edmonton.

Athletes are put through a battery of tests that serve as a baseline for their training programs and future return-from-injury assessments.

They also receive instruction on nutrition, sponsorship and media over the three-day camp.

"Lots of younger athletes come and want to start their career properly,'' Thome said. "We do get some older pro guys and girls as well.

Thome's team works with Edmonton's Acumen Performance to test athletes at camps and tailor programs for them based on test scores and the demands of their events.

Bull rider Coy Robbins trains for the upcoming Calgary Stampede, at Acumen Performance in Edmonton, Monday, June 26, 2023. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson)"You've got a young bull rider or bareback kid that's coming up and saying 'I don't really like the gym', but you show them these numbers and the guys that are getting paid to do this for a living have the highest adductor and core strength out of everybody here, it's not an accident that's happening,'' said Acumen strength and conditioning specialist Mike Kicia.

"If you want to do this at a professional level, you may not like the gym, but there are certain things we can work on with adduction strength, core stability.''

Building and maintaining core and groin strength, as well as hip stability are crucial in the roughstock events of bull riding, saddle bronc and bareback, Kicia said.

Resistance band training helps counteract the shoulder overuse injuries common in roping events. Robbins sees more competitors adopting training and warm-up routines.

"When you go into a locker room, you see way more resistance bands, foam rollers, guys in different areas with their phone timers set up doing dynamic warm-ups,'' Robbins said.

"It's definitely gotten to be where guys are acting like professional athletes in keeping their body in tune.''

It's become necessary too, Robbins says, because bucking bulls and horses have evolved.

"The animal athletes of rodeo are also leaps and bounds better than they were back in the day,'' he explained. "What a lot of people don't understand, being that it did come from a ranching way of life, they'd pull bulls out of the pasture and get on them for fun. Now, these bulls and horses and bred to do this. They're working out just the same as we are.

"They're so well looked after, it's leading us athletes to look after ourselves just as much. Otherwise, there would be no qualified rides.''

Rodeo competitors pay to play with entry fees. If they get bucked off or don't score enough points, they don't make money from competing.

Robbins says following a training regimen and caring for his body has helped him make money. He'd lost entire seasons to shoulder and arm injuries early in his career.

Robbins placed second in last year's Canadian championship and ended his 2022 season staying aboard 14 consecutive bulls.

"A lot of people will invest a lot money into their truck without thinking about it, yet they won't invest in their body,'' he said.

"You can buy another truck. You can't buy another body.''

Robbins will make his second career appearance in Calgary Stampede bull riding.

Strength and conditioning coach Michael Kicia and athletic therapist LeeAnne Gullett work with bull rider Coy Robbins as he trains for the upcoming Calgary Stampede at Acumen Performance in Edmonton, Monday, June 26, 2023. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson)The 10-day rodeo that dates back to 1912 offers $1.85 million in prize money this year in six events: bull riding, bareback, saddle bronc, steer wrestling, tie-down roping and barrel racing.

The invitational rodeo extended more invitations in 2023 with 30 contestants per event divided into to three pools. The top four in each pool advance to the July 16 final.

The lineup features brothers Logan and Dawson Hay of Wildwood, Alta., who finished one-two respectively in Stampede saddle bronc in 2022, as well as three-time world saddle bronc champion Zeke Thurston of Big Valley, Alta.

The rodeo will be televised and streamed by Rogers Sportsnet One.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 6, 2023.