How Choosing a “Heavier” Weight As An Act of Self Care

I don’t meditate. I think it’s “stupid” (quotes are there to indicate I KNOW it’s not stupid but I just can’t do it the traditional way and *feel* stupid when I try).

But at the gym the other night, as I was doing a modified Simple and Sinister (100 swings and 10 getups) and I decided to challenge myself with a kettlebell weight I hadn’t used consistently since, oh, 2018.

For the whole thing.

​And I did it! And it was GLORIOUS. Why? Because the weight, heavier than I’d practiced in a LONG time, was the exact right amount of heavy that I needed to shut the noises in my brain off and focus on only one thing: The exercise.

Here are some signs you might need to be adding more load to your exercise(s):

• If, by the end of your set, you felt you could have done more than 2 more reps
• If you can make your grocery list while you’re doing your exercise
• If you’re telling someone near you that crazy story about the time your fill-in-the-blank did whose-it-whats-it WHILE you’re hoisting your weights around
• The weight you’re lifting is flying off the floor
• You’ve been using the same weight since you were 15

Why more load? Short answer: Because ultimately you want the exercise you’re doing to change you in some way. Do what you’ve been doing forever and you won’t be changing or challenging anything.

Now, I’ll be the first one to tell you it’s not always about adding more pounds or kilos. Load can be applied by:

• Slowing down your reps, playing with tempo (have you tried doing a squat going 5 seconds down and 5 seconds up? FUN!)
• Playing with gravity and angles (like going from doing hand-elevated pushups to feet-elevated pushups)
• Going from lifting bilaterally (like a 2-handed dumbbell chest press) to unilaterally (a single arm dumbbell chest press)

Why am I telling you this? First, because, left to our own devices we might not believe we CAN up the load and accept a challenge. And also it’s a really great way for me to brag about how I was able to use a 20kg kettlebell for 5 sets of Turkish getups for the first time in a long time... watch my not-so-graceful 4th round here:

And when I was done, I felt that I’d really performed an act of self care. It was the first time that day I was able to shut the voices in my head up and focus on ONE THING: doing the exercise. The load was just right. Not so light I could make my grocery list. Not so heavy I’d hurt myself. Just right to shut the noise out.

Namaste, y’all.