Author: Matt Boyd

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24. Oct
Observations, The Owner's Corner

Simple Strength and Conditioning

I thought that it might be productive to do a short blog about Strength and Conditioning as it relates to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I’ve seen other articles similar to this but, perhaps I can have a little different take. My perspective comes as a Strength and Conditioning coach turned BJJ athlete. I want to take the approach that you might want to improve as an ATHLETE by doing some work outside of the Academy. Here is my thinking on this: any athletic endeavor or sport, that you participate in, will be improved IF you make yourself a better athlete overall. This is what we refer to as General Physical Preparedness (GPP). Having said that, I constantly hear Coach Rachel in my head saying “To get better at Jiu Jitsu, do more Jiu Jitsu”. I’m talking about ENHANCING your BJJ game by improving as an athlete. This approach is why in nearly every sport, athletes train outside of their sport specific training. Now, I will be the first person to tell you that we all have different needs to improve as athletes. To illustrate this, let’s compare two real life BJJ athletes. We will take a very simple approach here. Athlete 1: 5’8″, 155 lbs, low body fat percentage, very quick, explosive, fast, flexible Athlete 2: 6′, 240 lbs, higher body fat percentage, slow, not flexible, strong It’s obvious that the two athletes have very different areas to improve upon to get better overall. One should focus on getting stronger. The other should focus on shedding body fat by doing anaerobic training. Essentially, we want to identify an athlete’s weaknesses and train those weaknesses up. By proxy, increasing that athletes overall fitness. It’s really pretty simple when you think about it. But, what movements, lifts and exercises do we use? Again, I want to take a VERY simple approach. Let’s assume a very general scenario is of a BJJ athlete that trains Jiu Jitsu 3-5 times per week and has a full time career. I think that scenario fits a good number of our folks at TBJJA. If that athlete tells me that he or she can train toward general fitness an additional 3 hours per week. I think 3 hours is realistic and attainable for this individual. Again, this is a very simple approach. If an athlete wants to be a World Champion, she is single and doesn’t have a full time job, much more training is definitely called for. Having said all of that, I want to give you a short, simple list of movements and lifts that will absolutely improve you as an athlete. This is not an all encompassing list. This list will build a foundation from which you can build. Again, as I stated earlier, we all have different needs but, these movements are FOUNDATIONAL movements that everyone should start with. 1. Squat- specifically, the Back Squat. The undisputed king of strength building. Squatting is highly functional (meaning, it applies to the real world). One wives…

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06. Sep
Observations, The Owner's Corner, Uncategorized

I’m a Beginner All Over Again

So for months I had been trying to come up with a new reason to train. I think that setting goals and having a PURPOSE for your training are imperative to stay motivated. I’ve thought of some crazy stuff. A marathon (nope), a 20 mile road march with a pack (maybe) and olympic lifting competition (not good enough) were all ruled out. I decided to do something far different and way out of my comfort zone. Rather than come up with an “event” to train for, I decided to just use the fitness that I’ve already acquired. I decided at the young age of 42 that I would start…Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Now, what does any of this have to do with CrossFit? Well.. a lot. Because what I have found is the two journeys (and that’s just what they are) are actually very similar in several ways. Walking in the door for the first time To say I was nervous the first time I walked in to Tennessee Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Academy in Spring Hill, is an understatement. I walked in just before the 11:30 class and about 5 guy’s heads whipped around to see who had just walked in. They were sitting on the mats, gis (a traditional 2 piece garment worn in many martial arts) half on and sweaty. I thought they might pounce on me and beat me to death right there. This must be EXACTLY how first time visitors to CrossFit feel. Walking in the front door for the first time is STILL the hardest thing that I’ve had to do there. We hear this at Combustion all of the time and literally every one of our athletes can tell you about his or her first time coming in and they can probably tell you what the first workout was. It’s tough to just walk in the door but, what you find is a welcoming and inclusive feeling. I’m getting better…oops…I suck again…what gives? In most cases, when people first start CrossFit they will begin to improve in a relatively short period of time. Their nutrition, consistency, coachability and the like will have a direct impact on when those changes start. But, without a doubt (assuming the aforementioned items are intact) a new CrossFit athlete will see marked improvement in 3-6 months roughly. The same is true for BJJ. Show up, listen, practice and you will improve in those first few months. Here is the catch…as soon as you start to improve, the target will get moved. What that means is, as you get better, your coach will make your work tougher (moving from an 18lb. kettlebell to 26lbs for KB swings as an example). In BJJ, the blue belts that have given you opportunities to work new techniques will start giving more resistance as you improve. They will no longer give you superior positions, you will have to learn to take them. It feels impossible at times. In both activities, that “moving of the target”…

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02. Nov
Observations, The Owner's Corner

How I’ve Remained Uninjured

After a recent, minor illness, I’ve spent some time taking inventory of where I am physically. This included nutrition, rest and training.  It dawned on me that I have not had a real injury since around June 1998. That injury occured while I was in the Ranger Integration Program (RIP) while on active duty in the Army. I was 26 years old. I’m now 42. I have not trained non-stop since then and that was a long time ago so let me account for some of that time. After the injury forced an end to my career, I attempted to continue exercising for several years. That exercise included, typical body building weight training and the occasional 2 mile run. This was what I believed to be the correct way to go about being “fit”. I ate a low fat, high carb diet and eventually, I gained body fat, in spite of weekly exercise. The worst side effect of the added fat was that it made my back hurt so badly that exercise became out of the question. Nearly everything made me hurt. Sitting too long, standing too long and worse, moving too much would nearly debilitate me for the following day. So, I stopped moving. This would have been around 2005. To stay focused on my main points here, I won’t go in to what an utter train wreck I was at this point but, eventually I got tired of being tired. I stopped listening to what the doctors at Walter Reed had told me back in 1998-99. I decided to change everything. All of the things that I did are really a story for another day but, believe me, I changed it all. This would lead us up to about 2007. Since 2007, on a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being extreme athlete stuff), I’ve trained between a 6 and a 9 continuously. Not only have I not had a single injury in that time but, my chronic back injury has done nothing but, improve over the years. I will be the first to admit that when people engage in physical activity they can get hurt. In fact, for nearly any athlete in any setting, over the course of years, you will get injured at some point. However, I also believe that, that injury possibility pales in comparison to how often you will get hurt AND SICK without exercise and training. So, I said all of that to share with you how I have avoided injury in all of these years. I got a coach– This is the thing that nearly every adult that “wants” to get in to shape will ignore, men most of all. Wether you want to admit it or not, your belief system is this:  “I’m a male and because I’m a male, I know what good exercise and training is”. Here is a news flash buddy, you are wrong. What you know about exercise isn’t a whole lot as compared to what a professional coach or trainer knows. For me,…

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03. Aug
Observations, The Owner's Corner

Judging Rx- Observations of Judging in The CrossFit Games 2014

Yesterday I engaged in an interesting discussion about CrossFit judging, it’s impact on the Games and how it can be better. The discussion actually began about a particular top female athlete and her squat depth (or lack thereof) during the competition. Most online (read FaceBook) opinions usually regress to name calling, everyone claiming to be an expert, to name calling and then name calling. This one was different. Probably because of those involved. Primarily myself and Coach Aaron Martin of CrossFit Vector/Nashville Barbell have a mutual respect for one another so, we didn’t call each other names as often as most would. At any rate, after the discussion, my fellow coach and business partner Greg Boyd recommended that I put my perspective (and opinions) down on paper. So, here I am. One of the things that I dislike about internet experts is that they will usually give you their resume as a way of validating their opinions. While that makes sense, typically the resume and the opinion don’t really match up. As an example, I’m a professional firefighter and the price of tea in China should be 2 yen because I say so and I’m the expert. You get the drift. So, having said all of that I’m not going to lay out my life’s resume. But, I do want you to know a little of my experiences so that you can see my perspective. I am a coach and Co-Owner at CrossFit Combustion in Spring Hill, TN. I love being a coach. I hope that I am a good coach. I work extremely hard at it. The gym has invested thousands of dollars so that myself and my partner can learn from the best Olympic, weightlifting, mobility and CrossFit coaches in the country. But, coaching and competing in CrossFit only forms a portion of my perspective as it relates to the judging at the Games. I have about 15 years of experience as a baseball umpire. Between 2007 and 2013 I worked in Division 1 college baseball all over the southeastern U.S. I want you to notice something. I am not holding myself up as THE top expert in the world but I do have more training than most people when it comes to sports officiating. To say that I learned a ton working in baseball would be an understatement. I always tried to work with guys that had been further and worked bigger games than I had. I wanted to know what they knew. I was a pretty good Division 1 umpire and a very good small college umpire. Over the years (and many camps) I learned positioning, concentration on a whole other level, angles, dealing with conflict, how to lock-in, investing in my profession and on and on. The learning never stopped and the lessons never stopped. Two years ago I tried to work 3 jobs that I take very seriously. Those were as a professional firefighter, a gym co-owner/coach and a baseball umpire. What I found…

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13. Jan
Observations, The Owner's Corner, Uncategorized

Why the Warm Up is important for youth athletes

Warming up and youth athletics. I don’t know about you but when I was a kid we rarely went through any kind of a warm up before we played or practiced. Whether it was on the baseball field before practice or a game, we usually just picked a ball up and started throwing. In basketball, it was sort of the same thing, we just grabbed the ball and started doing our drills. On the rare occasion that we did do some type of “warm up”, it was usually stretching. Well, that was a long time ago and since then, much has been learned about the importance and benefits of athletes warming up and on what is the correct way to do instruct warm ups. and what is just flat out damaging in terms of “The Warm Up”. Kids are very resilient. Their bones are not brittle. Their ligaments are not hardened by years of inactivity or poor nutrition. Young athletes just don’t get hurt as often as their High School, College or Adult athlete counterparts. However, none of those are good reasons for us to skip the few minutes that it takes to prepare our young athletes for their sport of choice. What I am going to share today is WHY we need to warm up our young athletes and a little about HOW to warm them up properly. What sport they are practicing or playing will not change their basic warm up. I recommend following up their general warm up with more sport specific warm up drills. i.e. throwing a ball, kicking a ball, etc. Why not stretch to start practice or a game? Stretching is important and has its place without a doubt. However, there is no real upside to stretching a cold muscle. In fact, over the course of time, stretching cold muscles may cause microscopic tears that could lead to injury down the road. Also, stretching pre-work (sports in this case) may reduce power output. Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying here. Stretching is vital because it gives us flexibility but, timing is everything. Save the stretching for after the game or activity is over. Warm up pre-work, stretch after work. So, why warm up? There are many reasons that warming up young athletes is absolutely crucial. A good dynamic range of motion (DROM) warm up will increase core body temperature, prepare the joints for activity, dilate the vessels in the muscles which will help them operate in their most efficient way. All of these reasons will benefit the athlete in many different ways and it will help them to perform better! Aha! We all like that. But, even more importantly, it will help them more easily AVOID INJURY. That is hands down the most important reason to warm up. It has been proven over and over that a good dynamic warm up keeps athletes both young and old from getting injured as often. Also, one of my favorite reason to take kids through a warm up…

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25. Nov
Eating Fit, Observations, The Owner's Corner

The Holidays Have Arrived and I’m Scared

The holidays have arrived and I’m scared. I hope the title of this got your attention. That is my intent of course. But, it’s not just the title of this little article. It is the truth. What am I afraid of? I’m afraid that many of my new friends will give themselves license to return to their OLD way of life. It’s Thanksgiving, shouldn’t I indulge? Yes you should. But, you should also REMEMBER. Remember how much hard work you have put in. Hard, hard work. Many of you have worked harder in the past 6 months than you have in your entire lives. So, I ask again, should I indulge? Again, yes BUT… we need limits. Primarily what I want to share with you is: HOW DO I STAY ON TRACK DURING THE HOLIDAYS? Before I give you some easy to apply tips about staying on track, let me set this up for you some. One of the things that I have guarded against over the years is to not ostracize myself because of how I eat. Let me be really clear, open and honest. I have cheat meals. I think it’s mentally healthy. And more to my point here, I think it’s the correct thing to do SOCIALLY. We live in a culture that has made mealtime, social time. Wether it’s right or wrong, this is the age that we live in. We associate good times and friends with food and drink. In my mother’s house, on Thanksgiving day, she expects me to eat some of nearly everything that she has spent two days preparing. And I will comply. It will make me need a nap but, I’ll happily and guilt free eat everything that my dear mother has made. I encourage you to do the same. But, we have to do so knowing that we have to get back on track right away. Here is where TIP #1 comes in: Plan how many cheat meals will take place over the Thanksgiving holidays and DO NOT vary from that plan. If you don’t have family close enough to visit, don’t like them or you just like to eat alone, you have an advantage here. You get to control what and where you will eat for your holiday meal. However, if you are like my family, we have MULTIPLE places that we are EXPECTED to be on Thanksgiving. So, if you already know when, where and how many of these feasts you have to attend, plan that many cheat meals and be done with it. In our case, we will go to my parent’s house and two days later, Windi’s parent’s house. That would be two cheat meals plus another cheat meal of leftovers. DONE. OVER. Back to normal. I recommend you do something similar to this. But, why? I’m glad you asked. The why is because, unless you have been eating a natural food diet (Paleo, etc.) for a year or two, you are liable to revert back…

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07. Oct
Box News, Observations

Killing Fat Roy- Part 3- A Dream, a Vision, a Competition

September 2013 A Dream turned to a Vision and that turned into a Plan- Only a few days into my CrossFit journey I was having a discussion with Coach Matt or Greg and in that conversation I said that I wanted to lose 50 pounds. Losing 50 pounds was just a dream. But, early on, as I worked through the program, I started to think that it was actually possible. I even allowed myself to imagine what my life would be like if I were to be 50 pounds lighter and healthier. How would my knees feel? My back? my feet? Could I now tie my shoes? Tying your shoes seems like a small thing but that is the type of thought that was going through my mind. For so many years I would do the exact same thing over and over again and expect a different result. I guess that is the definition of insanity. I had lost hope and doing what I knew was all I knew regardless if it worked or not. Trying CrossFit for the first time for most people that have limited mobility, old nagging injuries, weight issues, or whatever various limitations, seems like an impossibility. I have even heard people say “I am scared to try CrossFit.” The truth is I was more scared of what would happen if I DIDN’T try CrossFit. I knew if I didn’t try it I was on a collision course with many impending health issues that had given me some nice little warnings signs like High Cholesterol and being a borderline diabetic. I have had to have injections in my knees several times because I would get to the point I couldn’t go a day painless. The worst that could happen if I tried CrossFit would be I that I might fail. That’s it. But, what I found at CrossFit Combustion is that failure never really entered into the equation. Wether it’s the coaching, programming, the supportive community or most likely a combination of all of the above, I’ve seen that if I just show up, do the work and eat how they have taught me to eat, I just could not do anything but succeed. Now as I write these words I can say I have taken back control of my life and started a chapter that I never thought I would get to write. The dream of being fit and able to live a physically active life had become a vision. I haven’t reached all of my goals as I have set many, but the goal of losing 50 pounds has been checked off the list. Saturday morning September 21st 2013 I stepped onto the scale and it read 261. That made a total of 52 pounds gone since the day I walked into the doors of CrossFit Combustion weighing 313. Now on to the next goal on the list……. September 21st, 2013 It Takes Two to Tango- First things first, I have to thank Jeremy…

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16. Sep
Box News, Eating Fit, The Owner's Corner

My First Competition- What should I bring?

Well, well, well. You’ve been doing CrossFit for a while now and you’ve decided to see what the competitive side is like. You’ve consulted with your Coaches, tailored your training, reigned in your nutrition and you are mentally ready to go. But, you may not be sure of the logistics of what you will need for the day long competition. This Sauturday, September 21st, we will have SEVEN 2 person teams participating in CrossFit Talon’s Takes 2 To Tango competition. This will be many of our member’s first CrossFit competition. We feel that it will be beneficial for you to have a checklist of sorts for “What to Bring”. FOOD This one gets it’s own category. Coach Greg said it perfectly: “be prepared to graze”. This will be an all day affair but, you may not feel like eating entire meals. You may even have to FORCE yourself to get something in. Everyone is a little different when it comes to how his or her food needs to happen on the day of a competition. As far as nutritional timing, you need to get something in post workout, every workout. You may have a couple of hours break between sessions. Here is a list of foods that we recommend: WATER- lots of it, NO Gatorade or the like. Protein powder (shake made with coconut water or water, water) Sweet potato chips (chop up a sweet potato, toss in olive oil, bake at 425 for 20 minutes or so) I’ll be bringing two large potatoes made this way. Grilled chicken breasts (2-3) A salad with lots of greens, a chicken breast and a healthy fat (i.e. almonds, olive oil, coconut oil). This may be the only full meal that you will want for the day but, it may not be. Athlete dependent. Fruit- (3-5) any and all Nuts- a bag of almonds or cashews will be perfect WATER- it’s worth putting on the list twice OTHER LOGISTICAL ITEMS Cooler Your gym bag http://crossfitcombustion.com/you-need-a-gym-bag-whats-in-mine EZ Up- We have two coming but, might need more Comfy chair Mobility- foam roller, lacross ball, etc. Clothing- 3-5 T-shirts, 2-3 pair of underwear (if applicable), 2-3 shorts, Lifting shoes, 2 pair minimalist shoes Camera or phone Sunscreen Athletic tape Gloves or gymnastic wraps Cash- there might be vendors there with cool stuff that you will want to take home   Please let us know if you think of anything that is not on this list that should be. Have fun!

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08. Sep
Eating Fit, Observations

Killing the Fat Roy Part 2- “Caught by Surprise”

June-August: “Caught by surprise” This morning started off like any typical day. I work from home so my normal “business attire” is really just a pair of gym shorts and a t-shirt. You know the type, the shorts with the elastic band in them. Because I wear those so often, I didn’t really notice how much I was shrinking. But, that night I put on my favorite cargo shorts as we headed out to dinner. Well, my favorite shorts are no more. That night they literally fell off….as I was walking out the front door. Haha! What a surprise that was. I knew they were loose, but didn’t know they were that loose. Sometimes the things you are looking for happen when you least expect them. As my mother used to say “a watched pot never boils”. So, that thought process goes right along with the advice that my coaches continued to give me which was “avoid the scale, it is NOT the best indicator of fitness”. They even said “are your clothes fitting differently”? is a better indicator. The whole muscle vs. fat vs. weight discussion happens. More often than not when someone is embarking on a fat loss journey they expect to see HUGE results instantaneously. I guess that’s not surprising seeing as how we have become a country that wants instant gratification. This is why the “quick fix” fitness industry is a multi-Billion dollar business. People want everything instantly, but don’t want to show the patience or apply the EFFORT that it takes to achieve the desired result. People must first remember, as I told myself when starting my fat loss journey, I didn’t get this way overnight. It’s not like I went to bed one night with abs and woke up the next morning weighing 313 pounds. It was a pattern of poor choices in food day in and day out that lead to the gradual weight gain. One thing folks need to realize is it’s that pattern of bad choices that go from being choices to becoming HABITS. Once they are habits, they become harder to break. You don’t see huge weight gains over night, but with those bad choices becoming bad habits that you repeat day in and day out, you slowly start to gain a couple pounds a month. Inside of a year that is a gain in 24 pounds, now let this progress year after year, and you easily see how someone gets 50+ pounds overweight. The good news is habits can be broken. I read one time that it takes 14 days to break a habit. Speaking for myself, I walked through life like a zombie; I ate whatever, whenever and never really put any thought into what I was consuming. So it all begins with being cognizant of what you are doing. Think before you eat….. Ok that became a tangent, but as I am traveling this journey to become the best me I can become there are all these…

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23. Aug
Eating Fit, Observations

Killing the Fat Roy Part 1- “How Did I Let This Happen?”

Fat to Fit: My journey through CrossFit March 2013: So I looked in the mirror as I walked by it and said “How did I let this happen.” I was wearing a XXL Polo, trying to look nice, for my god daughter’s baby shower. I had walked into the bathroom and as I saw myself in the mirror I froze. Do I really look like this? Is this how other people see me? At the age of 36, I had tried about every diet from Ketogenic to replacing meals with shakes. As with all diets, I would lose 10-15, then once my eating habits changed, I would gain what I had lost, plus and extra five for my troubles. It’s not like I was lazy, I have loved lifting weights for years and years, however, despised cardio. When it comes to diet, I could always be really strict with my diet, but only for a short time, and then I would fall completely off the wagon and go 180 degrees the opposite way. All these things had lead to me staring in the mirror at a 313 pound version of myself. I knew at this point, I had to do something, or it was only going to get worse, the bad part was now being 36 years old and never having any REAL success at losing and keeping off the weight, I had all but lost hope. April 2013: One day while trying to learn more about CrossFit through YouTube videos, I ran across a series on the CrossFit website entitled “Killing the Fat Man”. The series now has 13 episodes chronicling the life of a man named Gary Roberts, and his journey to change his life forever through CrossFit. Prior to this I had watched the CrossFit games on TV, and although I loved all aspects of it, everyone on there was an absolute beast and I knew there was no way I could do half of the things they were doing, but after watching the “killing the Fat Man” series, I thought, “hey, if this guy can do it so can I”. That day I begin searching to find a box close to home. April 2013-The first day at the box: I’m sitting in the car watching everyone training while I watch the clock getting closer to 7pm. I have a horrible memory, but I remember seeing Louie knocking out some pull-ups, and I said “I’ve never even did one”. As the time seven o’clock grew closer and closer I was beginning to get nervous. My years of power lifting did look like it was going to help me out as I once thought it would, nothing I watched them do through the window that evening even used a barbell, I was officially TOTALLY out of my element. The time came and I pulled myself out of the car and slowly walked up to the door feeling “these people are sizing me up”, or “They are going to…

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