Professional Bodyboarder & Yoga Instructor... Meet Lewy Finnegan!

Lewy has a passion for fitness and achieving goals.

He's competed in Bodyboarding at a high level... and also runs classes teaching Yoga and Pilates... and runs a website with online movement classes. He is also a climber and practices Jiu Jitsu, so has many different passions!

Hey, I'm Lewy!

Since a very young age I've had a deep desire to pursue a life of riding waves. Through my teenage years, bodyboarding started to become my career pathway and I began really pushing myself a lot in the sport, but I also sustained some significant injuries, including a broken back. Recovering from these injuries is what inspired me to focus a lot more on my health and fitness so that I could reach the highest level of performance in my sport.

Through my recovery I found Yoga. Yoga was the key to bouncing back to full physical health but it went way above and beyond just that. I felt the best I'd ever felt in my life, physically and mentally. It enriched my life in so many ways that I grew a burning desire to share it with others, so after a few years of practising it I attended my first teacher training and set out on a new journey of teaching Yoga.

Through the following years, I began competing on the world tour for bodyboarding and won my first world tour event at 21 which honestly felt like a dream come true. The win filled me with even more motivation, so I began training hard in the gym. I loved the daily grind of pushing myself physically and became super obsessed with making progress.

Because of my love for Yoga, I was naturally drawn more towards skill development in bodyweight movements rather than lifting weights (although I love both) which is how I discovered the world of Calisthenics. I set goals such as handstand push-ups, front lever, one-arm handstand and planche, and I worked hard every day to slowly inch closer towards achieving these goals.

My fitness journey began at around 18 years of age, after my back-breaking injury, and now I'm 28. In a decade I feel like I've dipped my toes in so many different sports and disciplines.

I've got myself to a level of fitness that I never would have imagined achieving and I've had so much fun learning about my body and myself through the process.

Nowadays I'm still bodyboarding professionally, chasing the biggest waves in the world, teaching Yoga and Pilates, running a website with online movement classes, training hard in the gym, hand standing, climbing, practising Jiu Jitsu, and basically exploring this world and all of its potential in whatever ways spark my interest. It's been a wild ride so far and it'll be interesting to see where I am in another 10 years.

Lewy's Approach to Nutrition

I eat a varied diet of wholefoods. Mostly meat, fruit, eggs and veggies, although I'll gladly say yes to a mountain of spaghetti bolognaise every once in a while.

What's your average daily calorie intake? I've never counted calories so I wouldn't really know.

Are there foods you avoid? Why? Super refined foods and deep fried food. They make me feel like garbage.

Are there foods you crave? Why? smoothies and steaks. My two favourite meals.

What's your go-to cheat meal? Why? Banana bread bowl. Mash a banana with peanut butter, honey, vanilla essence, a few pieces of dark chocolate and a bit of almond meal. Microwave for a minute. Top with yoghurt and blueberries. Enter Euphoria. You're welcome!

Training

My strength training week is push, pull, legs, push, pull, legs, rest. These sessions are made up of calisthenics and weightlifting with my goals steered more towards achieving specific bodyweight movements rather than just trying to lift more weight.

I love putting the nail in the coffin with some intense cardio at the end of my workout too.

On top of this, I'm always riding my bike, surfing a lot and practising Yoga many days a week.

Latest Results

Do you have any medium/long term goals you're working towards?

At the moment my 2 main goals are to achieve the 90 degree handstand push up and a 10 second front lever. I can do both of them since I've been training them for over a year but I'm still working on improving my form until it's super pleasant to look at.

Have you had any exceptional results (in competitions or otherwise) in the last few years? Let us know what they are!

Over the past few years I learned to balance on one hand. It took a lot of hard work but it was definitely worthwhile. It's easily the coolest thing I can do!