After more than two years of pandemic precautions, shutdowns, and at-home make-it-work sweat seshes, in-person fitness classes and gym workouts are more precious than ever. But right now, the gym is one place you won't find country singer Kelsea Ballerini.
“I've kind of been the opposite of everyone else,” Kelsea, 28, tells Women’s Health in an exclusive interview.
This time last year, she was prepping for the Jonas Brothers' "Remember This" tour, where she was the opening act—and her on-the-go workout schedule left her burnt out. So, these days, the star's workouts look a little different. And she's okay with that.
In fact, Kelsea is rediscovering her inner child and finding joy in her new routines.
Just before her upcoming tour and the release of her album, Subject to Change, Kelsea sat down to chat about her reasons for this "Season of Rest" and everything she's discovered along the way.
Her body needed a break from intense tour workouts.
“I hit the ground running and I went so hard to prepare for the tour so I could get back my breath support for stage and stamina," she says.
For Kelsea, that meant runs around the venue, strength training workouts, and FaceTimes with her trainer. But all of that left her questioning if her exercise routine was actually healthy for her. By the end of the tour, she just wanted to rest.
“As someone that's really struggled with body image my whole life, I really have to be checked in to, 'Am I doing this for the right reasons?' And I felt like by the end of that tour, I was starting to detach from the correct reasons for working out," she says. (Kelsea previously opened up to People about her struggle with bulimia, an eating disorder, when she was a teenager.) Over the years, she's worked hard to stay mentally and physically strong.
While her gym break is not permanent, Kelsea has been listening to what her body needs, and honoring what it's telling her. “I'll definitely start introducing cardio and strength training again so I can perform well, but I’ve been in a 'Season of Rest' before tuning up again,” she says.
She also recently helped launch Aerie’s We Are REAL campaign, and modeled their new anti-shapewear line, SMOOTHEZ.
Kelsea is all about long walks right now.
During this Season of Rest, as she calls it, Kelsea has scaled back her workout routine, and has instead been doing “a lot of things to kind of reconnect with my inner child.”
Nowadays, she's all about the "really long, slow walks," which help her reach her daily step goal (10,000 steps) while also helping her maintain her mental clarity and health. “Just to get fresh air and get sunshine and move my body, but not move my body in a way that I'm feeling like I'm needing [to see] some results."
She's gotten back into ballet.
Although she did “all kinds of dance” growing up, it’s ballet that she’s returning to as an adult. Kelsea explains that she has been taking some private lessons at a ballet studio in Nashville a couple times a week. While she's there, Kelsea says she's been leaning into her muscle memory and embracing the different type of soreness the dance-based workout brings.
“I started taking ballet again. I danced for 10 years when I was younger, and quit when I was 14. But I loved it so much. And then my path really shifted to music,” she says.
Dancing targets her muscles in different ways than her typical workouts, like an intense SoulCycle ride, used to.
“I'm just trying to see what my body remembers and then and then relearn the art of it, because it's so beautiful," she says. "It's the little micro muscles in your ankles and in your inner thighs, and the (idea) that there's a string pulling you directly up to the ceiling while your toes are pushing down into the ground."
That dance training translates well during performances on stage, while also helping Kelsea stay present and tuned in to her body.
And while Kelsea has certainly impressed all her fans with her cute TikTok dancing videos lately, the practice is proving helpful in other creative ventures, too. The singer hinted that there might even be some ballet inspo in that she incorporated into an idea for a new music video for her new album, Subject to Change, which will be released on September 23.
I, for one, am certainly staying tuned for that. Way to go, Kelsea!
