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Study Reveals Jousters Are As Fit As Today's Top Athletes

We put a jouster through his paces at the University of Bath with results showing his sport makes him the ultimate all-round athlete.

Jousters need fitness to rival professional footballers, top tennis players and Formula 1 drivers, English Heritage research reveals.

As part of the pre-season preparation for English Heritage tournaments across the county, we put our jouster Roy Murray to the test at the University of Bath. Here he performed a range of physiological assessments commonly used to measure today's Olympic athletes.

The results confirmed the fitness levels and strength demanded by the sport of jousting are comparable to some of today's most gruelling sports and makes a jouster the ultimate all-round athlete. 

Watch our video Jousting: The Ultimate Sport.

Read our blog Fighting Fit: The Science of a Jousting Knight.

Applied Sport Scientist at the University of Bath, Jonathan Robinson, led the tests and said he was impressed by the results.

'What is particularly remarkable is the high standards of fitness demonstrated across a wide range of areas.

'It is clear that jousters must train very hard in various different ways to maintain this fitness in order to compete in such a physically demanding sport.' 

Click here for full press release

 

Channel website: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/

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