Joe Lewis conducted a martial arts seminar at my school last Saturday and, as usual, he over delivered. You cannot be around Joe Lewis and not feel that you’re around a very special person.
I’m not just talking about his cutting edge martial arts instruction, which is by far the most enjoyable and engaging seminar you can take, but the part about his seminars that impresses me the most is that he doesn’t focus on just technique or how the body works.
Mr. Lewis gave incredible insight into why we should train and what should motivate us. He talked about how martial arts and fitness should be more about personal growth and that we need to analyze why we sometimes blow off workouts or don’t stay focused on our goals. Is it really fear that we feel or just an uneasy excitement? Are we confusing our mind’s desire to get fit with uneasiness about going to the martial arts school or the gym?
His point is the mind plays tricks on you and the feeling of uneasiness and fear could be a hidden desire to work out. But you will not know until you get to work, so get to work!
It made me think of the times when I really didn’t want to train. I would force myself to just walk into the school and start doing a little something. Then in a short period of time I’d realize how much I enjoyed training, how good it felt and how my feelings about working out had changed in just a matter of minutes.
I thought it was a brilliant analogy of how the mind plays a roll in our fitness or martial arts goals; how you have to work on conditioning the mind, not just the body, and how you can’t take for granted what your mind is telling you as the truth about how you really feel about training.
Joe Lewis very rarely gives you a simple answer to a question. Instead of giving you a pat answer, he goes deeper talking about the motivation behind the action or challenge. He doesn’t just give an easy solution. He makes you think and understand, not just act.
He gave some great insight into why he thinks so many people are having trouble with their bodies breaking down later in life. He feels one of the causes is that many people work out their bodies in an unbalanced manner. Failing to do strength exercises that not only strengthen the muscles but also the tendons and ligaments. Not focusing on the core strength exercises like dead lifts and squats, but preferring to work the ‘look good in the mirror’ muscles (biceps and chest). Or not doing any strength exercises at all.
I am a proud to say that Mr. Lewis strongly endorsed our Ultimate Body Challenge (UBC) program because it is a balanced program that focuses on all of the areas of conditioning; aerobic, anaerobic, strength training (upper and lower body) and flexibility.
Great stuff! And just another reason why Joe Lewis never stops impressing me and continues to make me realize how extremely fortunate I am to have him as my instructor, mentor and friend.
Jim Graden
Take a look at a some video footage of the seminar
