John Two-Hawks is best known for his stature as a Native American songwriter, flutist and activist who has performed to appreciative audiences around the world. He has more than 30,000 likes on his Facebook page. What is less well-known is that John might never have had a music career if it weren’t for discovering resistance training.
John lived in an abusive home in Michigan from ages 8 to 18. He wasn’t given enough to eat and was bullied and body shamed at home and at school. When he got out of the abusive home at 18, he was six foot, three inches tall and severely underweight at 124 pounds. He had very little self-esteem and that showed up in extremely poor posture.
“I decided I would try to do something about my body, so I joined a health club,” John said. “A guy there who was a body builder approached me and took me under his wing. I discovered that while I was gaining muscle and weight, I was also gaining self-confidence. It was healing my trauma.”
Early on one of the trainers at the fitness center addressed John’s posture. The simple act of being taught how to stand up straight went straight to his psyche.
“It showed me how damaged I was and how much progress I had to make,” John said. “Just the act of standing up differently began to change my mindset about myself. As I went through the process of learning, lifting and gaining muscle strength, I became more confident and focused.
“I am living proof that a barbell can heal a broken soul,” John said. “Fitness came before my career in music. When I did jump full time into a music career, I had self-confidence. It also cured my shyness. Part of what fitness did was allow me to be comfortable in front of people. You can transform yourself. That’s a powerful lesson to learn.”
When he was on the road with music, he always found fitness centers to keep his training going. It took a lot of practice.
“When you are trying to heal a trauma or correct something, it isn’t instantaneous,” he said. “It’s like building a muscle. It takes dedication. My first teachers in the fitness world taught me to be consistent. Whenever I would catch myself slouching, I would make myself stand straight. If you keep doing it then positive change and progress come.”
Now John is “passing it forward” with the recent launch of an online “Lifting for Healing” web-based exercise program.
“The idea is to reach out to people in a new way with the concept of holistic wellness,” John said. “I created this approach to fitness called the 4-Way System, based on earth-based approaches to health and wellness. It covers the four aspects of the human condition: emotional, mental, spiritual and physical health.
“We are made of more than muscle and bone. Emotional health is our soul, our inner voice. It’s how we feel about our lives, our self-image, our place in the world. Mental health is unique in that it is about the mind, thinking. Sometimes our mind is a detriment because we overthink.”
John said the power of intention can be life changing.
“That comes back to the first day for me with posture,” John said. “That trainer began to show me a new way to see myself. If we can see ourselves in a new way, it’s a visualization. We look forward to what we want to be, we do the work and move into becoming that new version of ourselves.”
John is offering to design programs for people depending on the equipment they have.
“I have programs for body-weight training that don’t require any equipment: pushups, sit-ups or squats, creative ways to do them if you don’t happen to have a dumbbell or a bench,” he said. “I happen to love the muscle building facet of training. When you put a load on a muscle, it requires the muscle to wake up and meet that demand. How that benefits the body is incredible.
“I love going into the fitness center at the Eureka Springs Community Center. I love how strong and healthy it makes me feel. Mentally sharper. I sleep better. I digest my food better. It just is good for everything. I had a guy help me way back then and it changed my life. And now I am certified as a personal trainer and I want to help others the way I was helped back then.”
For more info, see liftingforhealing.com, and hear John’s Christmas Concert this Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Aud.