“There’s something amazing about holding up an American flag,” says kettlebell gold medal winner Katherine Hartmann
The physician and scientist says she was motivated by the words of a friend: “Almost everything is your fault, and what isn’t your fault is your responsibility.”
September 17, 2019
Katherine Hartmann celebrates after winning a gold medal at the World Kettlebell Sport Championships in Ireland.
At this year’s World Kettlebell Sport Championships, held in Ireland, years of hard work, dedication and persistence paid off for Katherine Hartmann. She had earned a place as a member of the U.S. national team, and she stood on the winner’s podium proudly wearing the gold medal she earned.
It was a great celebration.
“There’s something amazing about holding up on American flag,” she said.
She knew something had to change. She was in her mid-40s, out of shape, her health was not good, and at times her back hurt so badly that she couldn’t do something routine like put a carry-on bag into the overhead bin in an airplane.
For Hartmann, it was a long journey from a dozen years ago to that glorious moment on the podium.
Twelve years ago, Hartmann, MD, PhD, professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Associate Dean for Clinical and Translational Scientist Development, was not happy with how she felt and she knew some things had to change.
By her own account, she was in her mid-40s, out of shape, her health was not good, and at times her back hurt so badly that she couldn’t do something routine like put a carry-on bag into the overhead bin in an airplane.
She wanted to be a better example to her children, her patients, and to her faculty colleagues.
“The practice and the preach were not meeting,” she said. “I thought, ‘I’m a physician — I know what I need to be doing.’” But, as is often the case, knowing the best thing to do is much easier than actually doing it.
She took inspiration from the words of a friend, who had a motto: “Almost everything is your fault, and what isn’t your fault is your responsibility.”
Kind of a tough-love voice to have in your head, but she took the words to heart.
“I went to a gym and got fit. It was the first time I was fit since I was a 17-year-old lifeguard.”
Hartmann competes for the American team at the World Championships in Ireland. Kettlebell competitions require performing a technical lift repetitively for 10 minutes for judges.
Here’s how it happened:
As she began using kettlebells as a workout tool, she learned that injuries were relatively uncommon among those who participated in the sport. Later, on a trip to California, she visited a gym in Berkeley and spoke with its owners, an exercise physiologist and a nutritionist.
“Meeting them was the trigger for everything that happened to move me into training for competition and ultimately into coaching,” she said.
And since she’s the kind of person who, when she decides to do something, she goes all out, she also studied and trained to become a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS), the kind of training that strength and fitness coaches for college and professional teams receive, and a certified kettlebell coach.
“Being bad at something is really good for you,” she said. “Be a terrible cook and decide you want to do it better. Learn how to paint. Pick up knitting. It’s grounding to struggle to improve.”
The kettlebell is a popular workout tool in gyms because it combines several types of training, including whole-body strength and mobility, but, as Hartmann discovered, the kettlebell also has a sport associated with it.
Kettlebell as a sport is most popular in Eastern Europe, and has spread worldwide, because it has much to offer.
It is high intensity interval training, but also has a meditative, repetitive quality. Working out with a kettlebell allows for stress reduction and aerobic demands along with increasing muscle mass — a great win-win. Hartmann has a husband, four children, aging parents and a job as a researcher, teacher, physician and mentor to younger faculty. Suffice it to say, stress reduction was a very good thing.
And picking up kettlebell in middle age has reinforced a life lesson that she says most people could learn: “Being bad at something is really good for you,” she said. “Be a terrible cook and decide you want to do it better. Learn how to paint. Pick up knitting. It’s grounding to struggle to improve.”
And, she says of kettlebell: “This is a sport that people can do forever — into their 70s and beyond,” she said.
Of course, she may have started off bad, but she ended up with a championship medal.
While kettlebell is a sport that people can do individually for fitness or fun, the competition aspect requires performing a technical lift repetitively for 10 minutes for judges who score the repetitions.
She qualified for the U.S. national team this year at the Arnold Sports Festival, a multi-sport event founded by Arnold Schwarzenegger, which was held in March in Columbus, Ohio.
She says the combination of physical fitness and time to decompress and let her mind wander is valuable to her life with her family, patients and colleagues, and also is valuable for her work as a scientist.
The event in which Hartmann competes is called long cycle, and it requires a set technique for swinging the bell and then pushing it overhead to a full stop.
There were 19 people on the U.S. team (small for a national team), and competitors from 36 countries were there, with the U.S. finishing fifth.
And although each competitor stands before the judges on his or her own merits, Hartmann said the team experience was also a key part of why the international competition was so special.
“It’s kind of a solo sport, and it’s great to contribute to the success of a team,” she said.
Hartmann used her opportunity in the spotlight to honor her coach, Joel Paavola, who was killed shortly after completing her training plan for the national qualifier. Despite the fact that he didn’t live to see the team’s success in Ireland, he was named as her coach on official documents at the event.
Even though she now has a gold medal, Hartmann is still training for kettlebell competition about eight hours a week for fitness (now with a home gym to make the workout easier). In August she qualified for the U.S. National team winning two gold medals, including a new event, and will be going to Serbia in November for her next international championship.
She says the combination of physical fitness and time to decompress and let her mind wander is valuable to her life with her family, patients and colleagues, and also is valuable for her work as a scientist.
“It feeds that mind-body-spirit balance,” she said. “All the facets of being a human being. Attending to your well-being feeds everything else. It’s not selfish — it’s necessary.”
Photos courtesy WKSL Ireland.
