PSA: Don’t Increase Body Pump Weight Before a Jumping Lesson

Most Saturday mornings you can find me at the gym. I’m not a workout queen, but certain family members I know are health and fitness oriented. I tag along because a) family time and b) it’s good for me. My riding time usually occurs Saturday afternoon.

There’s a killer class called Body Pump which is an hour-long group weight lifting session. Like Zumba but with barbells. It attracts all ages and body types. I frequently see women quite a bit older than me who are lifting much heavier weights and I feel like a pansy.

I don’t know how the instructor can hoist about 30-40 pounds on a bar over her shoulders/upper back and do 5 minutes of squats AND talk to us the whole time telling us what timing will come up next. I’m clearly not at her level (on so many levels). After squats there’s chest work followed by triceps, biceps, and my least favorite: lunges. That’s just a few of the exercises.

Anyway, I normally don’t have a riding lesson on Saturdays, but this past Saturday was an exception since Knight had his teeth floated earlier in the week on my regular lesson night. The lesson was great, but I couldn’t figure out why I had to take so many walk breaks. It wasn’t that hot outside.

After trotting walking, transitions, etc., and riding a few laps in a half seat at the canter, I was ready for a nap. And then we started to jump.

Jumping: I was really only successful with a single fence on a line. The second we rounded a corner to approach another single fence (thus making two fences in a row–ooooh!), I could not manage to keep my leg on Knight and we got discombobulated and trotted and it wasn’t a total train wreck, but not what I was hoping for.

I think part of the problem too is that I’m still breaking in my new saddle (more on that in a future post) and my leathers are currently vet wrapped (to protect the saddle flap) until we can confirm with the saddle rep that the saddle fits Knight. So it feels weird to ride with a stiff, wrapped leather and a stiff flap.

All that to say I stayed on, Knight behaved, nobody got hurt so it was a success.

While I groomed Knight afterwards I made conversation with the assistant trainer and said I had just done Body Pump and gone heavier on all my weights that morning.

“You lifted weights before a jumping lesson?”

So that’s why I couldn’t keep my leg on Knight so he’d stay forward and put together!

Maybe I’m not as bad of a rider as I feared after all! I had total muscle fatigue. At least that’s what I’m going to keep telling myself.

No more Body Pump and riding lessons on the same day for me. I learned my lesson.

Your Turn: Do you ever exercise rigorously prior to riding? How does that affect your riding? 

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