Taking Classes at big name MMA gyms is dangerous… BEWARE!
Fitness Classes, Kids Classes, Kickboxing Classes, Jiu Jitsu Classes, Boxing Classes, Muay Thai Classes and more should always be learned from a highly experienced instructor!
Whether it’s an LA Boxing, the UFC Gym, a Bally’s, or any othe globo gym, the bigger you are, the cheaper you are, the bigger your classes must be to pay the rent and support a gym full of employees. It’s simple economics.
This is NOT how martial arts, which must become technically perfect over time in order to be safe should be taught! As a beginner, we do the most damage to our bodies with ANY activity we do for the first time. But there is an inverse relationship that comes with more technique, comes less injuries. Learn bad technique, OR NO TECHNIQUE, and your injuries will continue, become chronic knee, neck and back problems and become life altering in a very bad and expensive way.
In this beginning phase, these gyms hire THE BEST people to ensure they get you HOOKED…very smooth and very smart! Now, this busy gym seems “popular” and “cool” to people on the outside looking in! Then, classes get popular and so big, you don’t learn anything and the instructor doesn’t give you the time of day cuz he’s busy with the beginners, so in just a couple months, you stop going. “Ugh, I wish I hadn’t signed that contract!” There’s a good chance those words will be coming out of your mouth soon! Oh, and your instructor, who makes $40 a day teaching classes, who was told by the manager that they will make $3K-$5000 per month in personal training alone (“JUST AS SOON AS THE GYM BLOWS UP”), soon realizes that they make $1200 a month, and the manager USED THEM to blow up the gym and they are actually making no more money, BUT NOW, the gym is doing well, so they must leave because they cannot afford to live off of $1200 per month! Well, there goes your “TEACHER”:-( And yes, you are still in that contract for $49 per month for 3 years! Ugh, did that make anyone else sick to their stomach?
Now, lets get very specific about the physical dangers of taking cardio or fitness classes at a spot like the UFC gym, Bally’s or something like an LA Boxing. Your trainer, he or she has a great smile, great abs, they’re SUPER cool, they even remember your name! (because classes don’t have 50 people in them…yet!ha) But what does he or she actually know?
- To what degree does this 20 something kid or 30 year old “fighter” actually know and understand about safe bio-mechanics, breaking down patterns of movement and how to keep average people from hurting THEMSELVES or OTHERS? (Ask your teacher how many surgeries he has had. Aren’t you excited for your first surgery? Ya, I thought not.)
- How long has he or she been teaching FULL TIME as THEIR ONLY JOB?!
- Where or MOST IMPORTANT, WHO did he or she learn from?
- What fitness certifications if any has he or she held and for how long? Better yet, EVERY FITNESS TRAINER has former clients as references! It’s totally ok to ASK THE SALES PERSON FOR THEIR REFERENCES!
- ASK TO SEE VIDEO OF YOUR TEACHERS FIGHTING, ASK WHO THEY FOUGHT!
- ASK TO SEE VIDEO OF STUDENTS THEY HAVE TAUGHT, THEIR STUDENTS FIGHTS, WHO HAVE THE PRODUCED?! Get it? Who have they ever taken from their 1st day of training and turned into a Champion? Ya, that’s what i thought…no-one.
This is completely legitimate and acceptable…as a matter of fact, IF you don’t do this, you are putting yourself at risk of injury, significant money loss and even worse, wasting your time learning bad technique, all because you trusted an Globo Gym and it’s SALES PERSON who does this for 1 reason…the money.
CLASS VIBE AND BAD ATTITUDES
In large classes and large gyms, you get a variety of personalities that could be jerks, drama queens, or worse yet, the class BULLY. When you get partnered up with this person, you hope and pray he or even SHE will be here today and gone tomorrow, but every day, they show up, honing their bullying skills to use when they go out in Pacific Beach drinking (inside not-so-much joke).
The instructor doesn’t tell this person to stop, because, this person is some harley riding badass, FRIENDS with the instructor, probably knows the owner or manager or, this instructor doesnt do anything because he doesnt want to look like he cant do his job! #1 Job, Earn students respect so they listen to you at all times! Being nice doesnt earn respect…plenty of LIARS are very nice to your face!
Please people, don’t be sheep and buy something just because it says Tapout, UFC or even Nike! Buy it because it has a track record of quality. Nike is a product, that’s easy! These gyms provide complex services and do so with the quantities of people that make it quality restrictive and VERY DANGEROUS!
BEWARE OF THESE COMMON INJURIES IN FRANCHISE MMA GYMS: torn rotator cuff, torn labram, torn bicepital tendon, torn acromioclavicular joint “ac joint”, meniscal tear, knee sprain, torn acl, torn calf muscles, hyper extended knee, hyper extended elbow, broken arm, broken leg, broken nose, sprained wrist, sprained ankle and more.
BEWARE OF COMMON MMA FRANCHISE GYM DISEASES LIKE: MRSA, Staphylococcus aureus, HERPES, Hepatitis A, B, C and other infectious diseases that are VERY COMMON in these large MMA gyms!
The stories i have heard are shocking!!! Including scabies at another local San Diego MMA Gym and people catching MYRSA and herpes! I have 1st hand witnessed in a number of MMA and jiu jitsu gyms, students stand up clinching, wrestling and training with obvious and visible herpes on their lip! I have seen people in fitness classes like Boxing have these cold sores, touch their boxing gloves to their face where they have an obvious sore present and then punch the bag repeatedly….the same bag you then punch and touch your gloves to your face. NOW THAT is SUPER GROSS! This is called cross contamination people, heard of it?
In a small family gym (where by the way, 99.9% of ALL Champions were produced), an instructor, Coach, Kru or Sensai is probably the owner. He or she trains directly with people at his school and his children are probably around. HE WILL MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE THAT HIS GYM or DOJO IS CLEAN unlike the minimum wage employee or trainer who isn’t a professional cleaner and really just wants to go home asap and shower off the herpes he just got while “training UFC”.haha
Here is a Men’s Fitness Article addressing the significant and REAL problem of catching HERPES in as they put it, at a “Mixed Martial Arts franchise”. Men’s Fitness Magazine Article: Herpes in MMA Franchises.
Speaking of child, what about KIDS classes? This is the most important!
Respect, Integrity, Discipline, not to mention good technique! How big are martial arts dojos? Correct, typically very small. With 1 teacher, who owns the school! There is a reason why it has been done like this for THOUSANDS OF YEARS! Because the other way, the UFC Gym business model way, IS POTENTIALLY VERY DANGEROUS and CAN MAKE SUPER BULLYS…making them tougher “tough guys”…not because they are actually tough, but because they train at the UFC gym, they now think they are indestructible and will use that fact to BULLY MORE! The smart parents out there know what I am talking about.
I’ve been around in some of the biggest circles of Muay Thai, Jiu Jitsu and MMA for the past 15 years…every day. I-have-seen-it-all…and I can tell you this, it would be funny, if it wasn’t so sad. What some people teach and call Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing (particularly Muay Thai) and of course mixed martial arts “MMA” to beginners who just don’t know any better and trust blindly, is just wrong.
I really do wish you all the best. If you don’t know me, I gave up a confirmed acceptance to UCLA for Pre Law, to train and fight Muay Thai. I started Jiu Jitsu at the same time and have competed at both. I love these sports and really just hate to see their names used for a big corporation to capitalize on public lack of knowledge and to water down what was meant only to be taken in at full potency for all of the above reasons.
Good luck in your decision, and remember, try each place with the above points in mind, then make the decision that helps you reach your goals!
Chok Dee,
Kru Dave Nielsen