Mindful Movement

Five Lessons Kettlebell Training Taught Me about Mindful Movement

Disclaimer: This blog post reflects factors from my own exercise journey and regimen. I hope that in sharing my own experience, you might be able to determine some changes to make your own exercise routine more mindful, intuitive, and shame-free. 

First, I want to share some background on my own relationship with exercise and movement. I danced competitively from the age of 7 through high school. Dancing taught me so many physical, emotional, mental, and social lessons; I will always be so incredibly grateful for it. That being said, it also meant that I grew up surrounded by mirrors, in a sport where body size is important and thinness is idealized. From then on, even after I stopped dancing, I always saw exercise as a means to weight loss. It’s true that exercise was enjoyable to me, but overshadowing that enjoyment was this feeling that exercise was something I had to do in order to maintain my physique.

It wasn’t until 2017, when I became a personal trainer, that I was introduced to a whole new world of exercise, movement, and health. About a year into being a personal trainer, a coworker and dear friend taught me how to do a kettlebell swing and oh man, did I fall in love (no, not with the trainer, with the movement)! For the first time in years I was learning a new skill, one that required body awareness, technique, and power. 

The kettlebell swing was just the start of a whole new style of exercise for me. I went on to learn all of the other major kettlebell movements: clean, snatch, bent press, windmill, figure 8, push press, clean and jerk, and more. I was hooked. I even went on to become a certified Strong First Kettlebell Instructor - a certification that required months of preparation, a grueling weekend of critiquing and honing the skills, and a final physical exam. 

It was through the world of kettlebells that I truly transformed my relationship with exercise from one focused on weight loss and body composition to one focused on progress, growth, fun, and function. Below are five lessons I learned from kettlebell training that changed my view of exercise, my body, and myself:

1. Ditch the mirrors.

As I said previously, growing up dancing meant I had always exercised in front of mirrors. I relied on them to tell me how I looked, how my technique was, and frankly, how to compare myself to other people working out next to me. But when I started training for my kettlebell certification, my friend (the who taught me the kettlebell swing) advised me to start facing away from the mirror because there wouldn’t be any mirrors at the certification. This was a game changer. For the first time in my life, I was forced to listen to my body. Without the ability to self-objectify in the mirror, I had to learn to feel when something wasn’t right, rather than see that it wasn’t right. I was forced out of my head and into my body.

*Challenge yourself to try one workout without checking a mirror. If that seems too challenging, try just one exercise within your workout.

2. Focus on the process rather than the outcome.

Prior to kettlebells, when I was unhealthily using exercise to “fix” my body, I tracked everything, which reinforced disordered thinking and shame. If I couldn’t lift the same amount of weight as I had the week before, I was a failure. If my weight went up instead of down, I clearly wasn’t working out hard enough. I became obsessed with numbers, which took me a long time to unlearn through kettlebell training. When you look at most kettlebells, they are measured by kilograms, not pounds. The first time I picked up a kettlebell I had no idea how much weight I was holding. Again, I was forced to trust my body, to use instinct to tell me what weight felt right for me that day.

*Pro Tip: Each time you workout, start by finding your baseline for that day. Pick up a weight (use the same weight each time) and see heavy or light it feels. Based on that subjective assessment, change your workout routine to follow suit. If the baseline weight feels heavy, lower your weights for that day. If it feels light, see if you can add weight to your routine.

3. Moving your body can (and should) be fun.

Have you ever heard anyone say that the “best” type of exercise is whatever you enjoy doing because you’ll be the most consistent at it? Well if you haven’t heard that, it’s true! One of the reasons I fell in love with kettlebells is because it reminded me of an old passion: dancing. Each individual kettlebell move can be strung together to form a kettlebell complex. Brainstorming different complexes felt very similar to choreographing a dance. And practicing the complexes felt like mastering a dance routine. My exercise became more than just pick up something heavy, put it down, repeat. I was using mental skills like memory and concentration, along with physical skills like timing and flow, and I was having a blast while doing it.

*Ask yourself these questions: What components of your current exercise routine are working for you? What triggers reinforce shame around your exercise routine? When have you felt the most free, empowered, or excited to exercise?

4. Make your exercise routine work for you.

Kettlebells are relatively small pieces of fitness equipment, and for most kettlebell moves, you really only need a few feet of space. That means that kettlebell work can be done pretty much anywhere: in a corner of a busy gym, in your bedroom, in a hotel room, etc. And since kettlebell moves require a lot of power, and therefore drain a lot of energy, kettlebell workouts are often on the shorter side - anywhere from 15-30 minutes usually. This meant my exercise was no longer taking over my time and life. I didn’t need to spend hours in the gym each week. In fact, once I bought my own kettlebells I didn’t even need to go into the gym at all if I didn’t want to or didn’t have the time. I was able to get my workout in on my living room floor in a good 20 minutes before work. This empowered me to be consistent in my exercise, which had an incredibly positive impact on my mental and physical health.

*Consider: What are the barriers in your life that are keeping you from moving mindfully? Is it time? Space? Shame? The weather? Lack of accountability? What’s one step you can take to breaking down those barriers?

5. Different bodies have different strengths.

One of the most influential lessons I learned through my personal training, nutrition, and kettlebell certifications is that the build of my body is meant for kettlebell training. I’m pretty short and have certain muscle fibers that work better for power movements, like kettlebells. With kettlebell training I saw how easily my body adapted to the skills. For the first time, I really acknowledged that my body was on my side, and that my body type could actually benefit me. Now don’t get me wrong, in no way am I suggesting that only people with certain body types can do certain types of exercise.  But like me, you may feel more empowered by your exercise choices when you learn what your body does best. 

*When you feel empowered, you’re less likely to self-objectify or criticize yourself and you’re more likely to get out of your head and into your body. Positive feelings lead to positive associations with activities like exercise.

Now in case I haven’t made it clear, this has been my experience with kettlebells, and does not mean that kettlebells are the best form of exercise or the type of exercise that you should do if you want to shift your own relationship with exercise. Need some more help figuring out ways to incorporate more mindful movement? Head to our Contact Us page to submit an inquiry and get started with a therapist!