Rising Stars: Meet Jared Thomas of Bellevue

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jared Thomas

Hi Jared, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Born & raised in Little Rock, AR, I had a unique upbringing not the least of which was defined by my mother’s debilitating neuromuscular disease of SMA (Spinal Muscular Atrophy) that she was diagnosed with whilst pregnant with me, the youngest of 3 boys. The disease is very similar to ALS and as I was growing up to be strong and capable, every day she was losing critical physical skills and abilities that forced all of us to grow accustomed to an unorthodox lifestyle of being a “normal” family while all contributing to take care of her. This is when I learned the true *VALUE* of movement and what having a healthy body will do for one’s ability to care for themselves and others.

My mother passed when I was just 13, but the domino effect for how her absence would massively change my life cannot be overstated. By this point I was a teenager with a growing angst for the world around me. For many reasons, I became increasingly angry and frustrated with my life. I had tried nearly every physical activity that was afforded to me as a positive means of dealing with my superfluous energy, but nothing ever stuck. I experienced little to no success in several sports until the mother of them all changed my life forever – Wrestling. It was high school wrestling where I learned to get back up after being slammed down time and time again (literally and figuratively), and due only to my persistence in continuing with the sport did I eventually have success. During my senior year, I won the Arkansas High School state championship in my weight class and as team captain, led our school to a collective team state championship as well.

After high school, I felt I had only wet my whistle for arduous physical activity. I had only *just* achieved athletic success at the end of my high school career and was intent on keeping the hard earned gains I had achieved over the past 2 years, so just a couple of months into my freshman year of college at The University of Arkansas, I joined an off campus martial arts gym and dove head first into sparring and training that would eventually evolve into my winning multiple submission grappling tournaments and MMA fights in Oklahoma, Missouri, and Arkansas.

After college, I continued my high level physical training, but ultimately pivoted from school/martial arts competitions to a career in the elevator business which eventually brought me to Nashville, running a service operations territory for Otis Elevator Company. Since arriving in Music City in 2015, I have had multiple different careers leading up to my deep dive into unconventional fitness, but ultimately chose to remain here for the many attractive reasons that folks call Nashville home, not the least of which is an affinity for artistic expression and creativity, which are key components to my practice.

In my first 5 years in Nashville, I trained in BJJ before then teaching a local kickboxing class in Bellevue (where I live) when the world shut down due to Covid-19. With my kickboxing class cancelled, social interactions shuttered, and the future uncertain, I casually purchased a 15lb steel mace to use as a new training tool (and something to keep my mind occupied), but was ultimately naive of what the tool was capable of and how it would change my life forever.

In that first year with the mace, while the world was shut down, I discovered deeply ingrained links between my martial arts training and this new tool as it was constantly testing my posture and ability to stay standing while it swung around my personal orbit. Initially, while I could *feel* the distinction of my posture vs the lines that the mace was drawing, it wasn’t until hours turned to days, days to weeks, and weeks turned to years when it slowly formed together to create the “Map of Flow” that I have now. By the end of my first year with the Steel Mace, I had picked up (flow) ropes and kettlebells and began conducting similar patterns to the ones I would use with the mace until I realized that they were in fact, *exactly the same*.

Now, after 4 years and hundreds of thousands of reps, I have built both a fascia that can control the torque of varying tools pulling against my tall posture, as well as the knowledge of where to direct said tools as they move together with my body through space. My system, Universal Flow, focuses on giving my clients skills that cross multiple modalities, sports, and functional uses that make stronger, more resilient, and mindful individuals. The practice creates both an awareness and satisfaction that brings the user to the present moment, no matter what clouds overcast the landscape of the mind. In one fell swoop, I was gifted with the inspiration to deliver a movement modality that brings synergy between the body and mind, in a world where ubiquitous technology consistently breaks down our posture and make us weak. Everyone today is searching for peace of mind and so now, with my system in hand, I am working to find more and more vehicles to bring my field-tested practice to the masses.

At present, I train everyday, have clients both in person and online, make courses that I sell online, present at workshops all over the world (recently coached workshops in Italy in May and will teach in Chile in November) and make content via my Instagram (and facebook/YouTube) to reach new people and share new ideas. Both the majority of my followers as well as those who utilize these modalities tend to live in random places all over the world, so I have also cultivated friendships with folks in every country and continent (except Antarctica). This means that while there are a *few* folks in Nashville who swing the mace, it is both a gift and a curse to be the first to introduce thousands to my practice, but I am always grateful for the opportunity to it.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
NO. Even though my practice is largely smooth and graceful, my experience in getting here has been anything but.

There have been *MANY* challenges:

-Safety
In the first 2 years, I was refining my practice so not every day was as “safe” as I would have liked it to have been. A major part of my journey now is to help instill patience and control in my clients so they do not risk injury. Overall, the practice is incredibly safe, but is highly skilled so it requires good instruction and delivery in order to help others at a good pace without getting frustrated/impatient.

-Where can I workout??
A quick look at my Instagram shows that I tend to perform my practice OUTDOORS. A slightly longer look at my Instagram will show that between November-February, I am often found indoors, both because the sun goes down very early AND it is too cold outside to safely hold steel & metal. While I prefer to have bright sun on my skin, bare feet on the soft dirt, and fresh air to breathe, Nashville experiences all 4 seasons and so I am largely forced indoors for the winter once it gets below 45*. Not having had a place of my own just yet, I have generally worked with gyms that will allow me to simply “be me” in their space, which is a blessing. I am always trying to find ways to add value (be it teaching classes, training instructors, etc.), but what I do is so different that truth be told, I need a place of my own so I can train and teach others. Additionally, because I love kettlebell juggling (which involves throwing the kettlebell sometimes 10’+ in the air) I need to work in spaces with high ceilings and floors that have a little give (be it mat space or turf). Things definitely get more complicated when moving from the park to indoors.

-Simple Tool = Complicated Skills
When you think about a gym full of machines, you will often find that they have many parts, pieces, & components that ultimately only allow the user to perform a single, specific range of motion with a specific body part. The machine is complicated. The movement is incredibly simple (ridiculously so, IMHO). But a mace, or club, or kettlebell, is very simple. It is one, singular piece of equipment, but because of its simple design, the use value for what it can do is enormous. This means that the tool requires SKILL to use, which also means that adoption of the tool as part of a routine workout for the average gym goer, simply won’t happen until a critical mass of individuals pick it up and begin using it enough that the tool becomes well understood and common, but even then, proper instruction will still be necessary. People want to do/learn things that are *EASY* and learning to use a mace (or club, rope, kettlebell, etc.) is anything but.

-Smoothness is bad??
Perception is reality. Most folks see someone online who is “jacked” and breaking a sweat doing a hard exercise and they immediately see the connection (hard work = results), but I am constantly working to refine my practice so that I become increasingly EFFICIENT, which really means that what I do looks smooth, if not easy – although it is anything but.

Compare this to a boxer or martial artist: A fighter will throw, literally thousands of punches/kicks in a single practice or competition. Over time, the intention of throwing the strongest, fastest, most powerful strikes, marries the reality that one needs to throw MANY strikes over and over again and therefore needs to be efficient and smooth. This is the same with maces, clubs, kettlebells, etc. In the beginning, your body is not used to the movements and your form/posture is challenged, but over time, with lots and lots of reps, you improve your smoothness and efficiency to the degree that going up in weight OR increasing the complexity of movements becomes natural and a great way to continue challenging yourself.

But all this said – many folks will see the refined, smoothness and efficiency of my practice and immediately think that “its useless” or “its not doing anything” and that couldn’t be further from the truth.

-Accessibility
So! If you’re the type of person who wants to try something new, is okay with learning a new skill that will be difficult and challenging at first, and likes the idea of being able to workout almost anywhere, these tools/modalities are great, but where do you get them??

Truth is, department stores simply don’t carry maces. Not new ones, anyhow. Companies like Play It Again Sports will often resell maces that are brought to them, but the odds that you find a *new* steel mace in a sporting goods store is about as good as finding a blue rhino. It just doesn’t happen.

This means that you will have to go online and order it for yourself. Most folks ordering maces, clubs, and kettlebells have no idea what to look for or what they should get, unless they follow someone like myself who uses these tools everyday and shares them, but inevitably most folks will simply buy one without any clue of what they want. This difficult process of trying things out will only last for those who are dedicated/committed to learning a new practice and that is hard for most folks to do, so even just getting your hands on a tool is an uphill battle.

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There are many many other challenges that I have faced & continue to work through to this day. Swinging steel around, especially maces and clubs that are basically modern interpretations of ancient tools, are still very jarring to many people, especially when they see someone like myself who’s practice has reached a complexity that hits a high level of variation and spatial awareness which many folks will honestly see with naked eyes for the first time (often in shock and awe). Its like truly asking yourself the question – could YOU be the person swinging tools around like this? Its just not yet reached a level of general acceptance and understanding that most other forms of fitness have achieved, and so some stigmas many persist.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I teach people how to move using unconventional fitness tools like steel maces, clubs, kettlebells, flow ropes, etc., all within the framework of my mapping system which I call “Universal Flow”.

I specialize in creating efficiency and smoothness when using these kinds of tools as they all work against one’s tall, strong posture as they move around the practitioner’s local orbit. The efficiency gains allow for more reps, with heavier weights, and increasingly greater levels of complexity. It is a fitness/movement system that creates evergreen novelty for the mind while building holistic fascial strength throughout the entire body.

I am known for my programs, classes, and 1-on-1 training sessions that teach people how to perform my fitness artform. Perhaps beyond that, however, is that I am known for my performances and demonstrations of my art which can be seen in person at various parks in Nashville (most often at Bicentennial or Centennial Park) and are then also filmed for content which I share most commonly on Instagram and YouTube to distribute to the world.

There is no one you will find that has a practice like mine. There are a *tiny few* select friends across the world who also practice their own variations of the modalities that I utilize, but almost no one who has dedicated themselves to the level of consistency that has piqued the interest of many who wish to learn my skills. Everything I do works off of and builds correct, strong human posture. Everything that you do PERIOD in life, requires strong, quality posture. So in a world that constantly wants you to look down at technology, these tools will *naturally* pull your spine and posture upright using gravity and momentum. Its gentle, low-impact, but highly effective. There is no where else you will learn this, be it Nashville or elsewhere, and I’m doing my best to continue to deliver it to as many people as I can.

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Persistence. Goodness, I am more familiar with failure than most. I have run into failure time and time again. Sometimes I feel like I can find a dead end better than anyone.

But I’ve experienced successes of which little to no one can relate. I believe in what I do. The changes in my body have been overwhelming beneficial. I have strength and dexterity in joints and muscle groups that I never imagined was possible. My posture is tall and upright in a world that is constantly pulling our attention downward. My mind has an outlet for creativity that also engages the body at every level.

So even though I am pretty much the only one that does this, I am fully committed to finding more ways to deliver it to others for them to have as well. Even if it takes my whole life to do it.

Pricing:

• $119.99 for Steel Mace Swings Course (online)
• $995 current training package which includes – 1 intro discovery session, 8 training sessions, 1 copy of Steel Mace Swings, homework between sessions, recordings for homework review, and can be done remotely or in person, and access to an exclusive chat group with me

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaredmichaelthomas/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jmtflow/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfePt3MsdAVUDGHa4McRI5w