The first time I actually realized that I had met my goal in working out at the
Y was when I put everything on and I could walk around and everything. And I
could get on my horse without using a mounting block and the armor didn't
weigh me down and I wasn't incredibly sore afterwards. But the real benefit and
the real crowning jewel came when the owner of the company went to my husband and
said, "Tell your wife to knock it off." He said, "What do you mean?" He goes, "This is not
competition tilting. She's not trying to unhorse him. Tell her to knock it off.
She doesn't have to hit that hard." So then it's kind of been an ongoing goal
of mine every year to hit just a little bit harder. Because if I can make the owner
of the company whine to stop hitting so hard and I can make, you know, the other
jousters get off and rub their shoulders or rub their arm and go, "Okay, those are
good solid hits," then I'm happy. I've done my job.
I thought I was in pretty good shape. I thought I was pretty strong. I could
drive fence posts and you know haul everything around that I needed to haul.
Until I decided to become a jouster. And the very first time I
picked up a lance and they said, "Okay, couch your lance," and I raised this 10-foot pinewood
pole up and go to drop it and it just keeps dropping. Like, you have to keep it
up with two hands. "No, one hand!" "But I can't." "Well then you can't do this." So it
was the fight of, "I have to be stronger." The first time I fitted myself into all
my leg armor, I thought I was going to die because you couldn't walk and then you're walking in
sand and you have to fight, and it's just, there was a lot to do and I suddenly
realized that I was sore every day. And I hurt and it wasn't any fun anymore.
I was disillusioned I guess and so we have a family plan
at the YMCA. The other gyms didn't offer that. The other gyms had the
benefit of, oh we're 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That's great. What am I going
to do with my kids? The Y has an awesome place upstairs that they can hang out. Plus
they offer some classes that my kids can get into and some benefits of
letting my kids learn how to eat nutritiously and how to work out
properly. Just fun ways of getting them involved. It was economical for us
and it just felt like the right place to be. I started hitting it hard and heavy
at the Y after that first season of jousting. I decided I didn't want to be
sore, I didn't want to be tired. I didn't want my equipment to feel so heavy and
so cumbersome. I wanted to just enjoy what I was doing.
Specifically for jousting...the triceps on the machine, pull downs this way, pull
downs this way, push downs this way, go onto biceps, you're doing the lawnmower
pull, work in chest, do inclines/declines and flats, back and shoulders.
I use a lot of the machine. Do a lot of lat pulldown. Lots of push ups. Lots of
planking. Lots of core exercises and there are a lot of people at the Y
that help you do that. They'll see you doing something. "Do you need help?" And you
tell them what you need and they're more than happy to help.
It was really neat...the first time a little girl came up to me and there's a wood maker that
makes replica shields and lances and things of ours. And she had my shield and
she says, "Will you sign it?" You get emails from parents that are like,
"Thank you for being a strong role model for my daughter. Now she, you know, she's
got someone to look up to." My hopes are that not only these little girls that I
don't know all of them, but hopefully my own kids will look up and go, "Well, my
mom's really strong and she's done all these things and so I can do it too."
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