A field report from our founder, Stefan Schwitter.
As a very physical person with a great tendency to exaggerate, I have been able to live my childhood dream of being a professional wrestler for seven years. Of course it is impossible to live this dream in Switzerland and so I knew early on that I would have to break down my tents here in beautiful Switzerland. My way led me via Germany (where the wrestling market is much bigger) directly to the USA – the hotspot of professional wrestling. Having to prove myself is something I’ve had to learn from an early age, because I’ve always kind of swum against the tide.
Paradoxically, I’ve been interested in meditation since I was 7 years old, and I’ve even breathed temple air at times in Buddhist monasteries.
Wrestling has always had a magical attraction for me. That’s why I prepared myself for years for this step to the USA and imagined again and again how it would feel – according to the motto: “If you can dream it, you can be it”.
My conclusion after seven years in this business: I have done over 300 wrestling matches in 15 countries. I have stood in front of 5 fans and 10’000 fans and that with the most famous top cracks of this scene.
Unfortunately I had to pay a high price for it. So I drained my body quite a bit with strains, bruises, rib fractures, joint dislocations, concussion and ruptured eardrums. Yes, my tendency to overdo things visibly stayed with me until I was 27 years old. So it also happened that I could not get up well in the morning and could not fall asleep well in the evening. Simple things gave me a lot of trouble, like getting out of the car after intense fights, etc.
Unfortunately, earning money as a professional wrestler is not easy. Therefore, since 2004 I have earned my money as a coach in various fitness studios. Working and accompanying people is another great passion of mine. Also the psychological and mental aspect is a field that I have acquired for years – and of course my own experience that I learned in the wrestling chapter is a chapter in itself.
Especially after my wrestling time I had to think a lot about how to live pain free again. My view on strength training was now completely different than before. But not only on strength training, but also on relaxation. A field I had always done on the side with meditation. But I knew that I should invest much more in this field.
As a personal trainer who also lived in New York for two years and trained people, I pretty much saw it all. I wanted to set up and create a concept all my own that the world hadn’t seen in such a form. My own workouts didn’t go longer than 15 minutes. Afterwards my body should be accompanied into relaxation – the contrast to the stimulus in the training. The result speaks for itself: Today I am on the road again without pain. The mindfulness I put into my training brought my fitness level (not only physically, but also mentally and emotionally) to a completely different level. So I started training my own clients using this exact concept of how I trained myself.
This was the birth and the switch to the Zenmove method. After noticing the positive external as well as internal changes of my clients, I had an intensive exchange with a scientist in the physical field. He confirmed the Zenmove concept – the tension as well as the relaxation part.
With this idea of a holistic training in a short time, which not only stimulates the body but also calms the mind, I came back to Switzerland. I started as follows: No business plan, scarce resources, but with will and heart and soul. However, I knew that this idea would still meet resistance and that it would take a long breath for people to really realize that less is more. Especially in the training arena. Anyone who knows anything about the nervous system knows that only a balanced nervous system can make us happy and efficient. And I can speak from experience that an unbalanced nervous system is a ticking time bomb and can cause us harm sooner or later.
Zenmove was born in 2016. But it’s only now that we’re really getting started, and I’m very proud of the journey we’ve taken. And it’s like with everything. Only what has deep roots or a strong foundation can grow high. This applies not only to business and training, but to life as a whole.
