Last weekend I taught a StrongFirst Kettlebell 101 course at the gym.
The four-hour course covers both the basics and some finer details of goblet squats, swings, and get-ups. So as you’d expect, participants spent much of the time practicing various drills, with and without a kettlebell, related to the three primary movements.
Probably less expected, I also tied in a couple movement-based concepts related to early childhood development.
Rolling was the most practiced concept and, in some cases, was rather challenging. If that surprises you, check out the linked tip and give it a try. It’ll probably be more challenging than you think, especially if you’ve spent too much time sitting at a desk lately!
While we didn’t specifically practice any other developmental drills, I mentioned how rolling leads to crawling and eventually squatting, hinging, standing, and walking. All of which, of course, relates to goblet squats, swings, and get-ups.
And that leads me to what I want to cover today.
By the end of the course, I’m sure everyone was tired of hearing me say that keeping a few other related principles in mind while training would yield the best results. Namely: being curious, practicing, and allowing progress to happen organically.
(To be fair, I did say that I was intentionally repeating myself to emphasize the concepts’ importance.)
Here’s how children naturally apply those principles, such as when learning to walk, and why/how you should use them when training.
Be curious
Children mimic just about everything. (If you have kids, you probably learned that the hard way when they repeated an inappropriate word that they “might” have heard you say.) They also pursue both what they see others value and anything else they find interesting.
This natural sense of curiosity exposes them to new experiences and gently urges them to try new things (like crawling and walking). When they run into obstacles, it also causes them to try different methods to accomplish the task. For example, holding on to the couch when taking a tentative step after first standing up and falling over in the middle of the room.
As adults, we all too often value efficiency over curiosity and become myopic when pursuing goals. If the goal is performance-based instead of learning-based, that can be less of an issue. But in the beginning stages of learning new skills (e.g. exercising with kettlebells) or pursuing objectives in areas in which we have little prior knowledge (e.g. most fitness goals, if we’re being honest), being intentionally and continuously curious about all aspects of the endeavor will almost always help us learn faster.
Practice (by playing and having fun)
When infants/toddlers are learning to walk, they don’t have a plan. They just figure out how to stand up—usually by hinging (i.e. lifting their butts in the air and then extending their hips, like a deadlift or swing)—and then shift their weight to one foot so they can take a tentative step.
When they fall over, they try again. And when they tire, they simply crawl over to whatever object currently has their interest. All the while grown-ups are offering encouragement and everyone is smiling.
In other words, they play. (See the actual definition of play in the linked tip.)
In contrast, adults tend toward seriousness. We often shake our heads and feel dejected when we’re unable to do something. (I’ve lost count the number of times I’ve heard an adult say in a frustrated tone something along the lines of “I should be able to do this”, particularly in relation to exercise or nutrition.)
And we “work out” as if we’re conducting a transaction: X number of reps in Y time at A weight burns B calories = weight loss and goal achieved.
This often makes training (or nutrition or whatever) feel like a chore, and it gnaws at our sense of confidence when we miss our target, even if just in the short term.
But when we approach movement as a practice—with all the imperfection that implies—we often naturally display more curiosity, have more fun, and feel more comfortable with the final principle…
Allow for organic progress
As mentioned above, when children are learning to walk, they simply do what they can until they tire. Then they move on to something else. At some point, they feel like they can try again, and so they do.
This consistent practice causes them to slowly get stronger and gain a greater sense of balance. Eventually their skills and capabilities reach a critical mass, and then they begin to walk (and run) everywhere. All of which is just more practice that continues the process.
In other words, they don’t “force” progress to happen by following a set-in-stone progression with definitive durations but rather allow progress to happen naturally or “organically”.
When it comes to training, there are certainly times in which planning specific progressions that begin and end on set dates is acceptable or required. A perfect example is preparing for an event (e.g. powerlifting meet, Tactical Strength Challenge, triathlon) that will take place on a specific day.
In most other cases though, a better option is to focus on the process—that is, being curious and practicing—as opposed to the outcome. Progress may seem to happen slower at first because the foundation is what’s being built. But, eventually, that stronger and broader foundation will lead to faster and higher progress.
Putting it into practice
Especially if you’re either new to training or if you find yourself going hard all the time, consider asking yourself two questions every time you train for the next few months:
- Beforehand: How can I stay as fresh as possible for as long as possible during my session?
- Afterward: What did I notice about my body, technique, or quality of each set today as compared to my last session?
The second question will keep you curious. The first will promote a practice mindset. And if you’re intentional about asking and answering both questions, organic progress will happen faster than you’d expect.
You might not be a child anymore, but that doesn’t mean you can’t benefit by occasionally thinking like one.