The Clanging Halo

workouts

May 17

We best learn by mistake, and not by perfection. As a friend of mine taught me long ago, “Practice Makes Permanent, not Perfect.” Today, I am here to confirm that sage advice with the story of this morning’s Kettlebell Halo warmup.

A Kettlebell Halo is the process of grabbing one bell, and slowly, but methodically, circling the heavy iron around your head just like a religious relic. Your movement creates a “halo” above your head. Halos are excellent for loosening up your wrists, elbows, and your shoulders.

This morning, I learned — retaught myself, actually — that the purpose of a warm up Kettlebell Halo is NOT to prove how strong you are, or how manly you are to nobody but yourself; but rather, the whole point of a warm up with a Halo is to just get your joints moving, and your muscles stimulated.

So, yes, this morning I used a 24kg bell for my Halo, and I did clang that heavy bit on my head a couple of times. I should’ve stopped at the first clang — ringing my own bell! — but, I did not. I persevered, dizzy, dumb, and light-headed, and I continued to clang my own head each time the Halo spun in each direction for each set.

I didn’t want to give up on myself.

I did not learn my lesson.

After a Tylenol or two, and a few swift glares of concern from my beloved wife, I have now realized the true love of the Kettlebell Halo warm up — is to also wake up the mind! Yes, I do all my best workouts really early in the morning, and that means I need to pay extra attention to the danger circling my head.

For many months, I was satisfied to warm up with a 16kg bell — for both Halos and Pendulum Squats — and then I moved up to a 20kg bell, and found relative success; sure, the 20kg bell was a tougher warm up challenge than the 16kg bell, but I never clanged either of those bells against my head.

Every now and then, over the past couple of weeks, I have been making the half-pood move up to the 24kg bell as my main base bell for both warm ups, and for most exercises; and today, I was forced by nature, and hubris, to make a necessary self-correction. There’s nothing wrong with a 16kg bell warm up, and I need to leave behind my precious, human, manly, ego when making a workout decision so early in the morning.