Complete 7 rounds for time:
6 Squats @ 125% of body weight
8 Standing Broad Jumps (minimum of 6 feet per jump)
Meet Ray. Ray's a family man; a farmer; a dirt bike rider; an MMA fighter. A more average guy, you'd be hard-pressed to find. Ray goes to work every day, comes home every night. His credit is good; he eats his fibre. But on Tuesday nights, for the past several weeks, Ray's been going out. He kisses his girls goodnight, slips into his truck, and drives to town. He turns into a dark pocket of the Industrial Park and politely slips in through the crowd at the door. When they see him come in, they take off their coats and sit down. Ray's a firebreather. It doesn't matter what he has planned; they wanna watch. They know something's gonna happen here, and Gray's Anatomy can wait.
Fight Record: 2 – 2
Weight Class: 155lbs
Opponent: Rich Wells – Superior Combat
Training Regimen: Training for this fight has brought me back to life! Last year wasn't one of my best years, and I definitely wasn't living a healthy lifestyle. Finding myself last August depressed, weak, and 14lbs overweight, I new I needed something to get my life back on track. The first thing I did was commit to something I wouldn't back out of, I decided to fight. Since then, I began following the precision nutrition guidelines ( dropped the extra 14 lbs. in the first month). Next, school started up for me again which meant I was able to workout with my fitness classes twice a day. During my classes, we cycle through speed days, endurance days, strength days, power days, and tempo days. The first month was rough, but I was able to keep up. The next thing that I did was sign-up for the Catalyst games and used that to kickstart a change in training intensity. A huge help was training for Franfest! Doing Fran is so close to the energy demands of a fight that it fell perfectly into my fitness training plan. At the dojo, my regimen included 2.5 hours of training every Monday and Wednesday night developing my kickboxing and jiu-jitsu. Outside of those regular class hours, our team makes time on the weekends to get together and spar. All of my toughest fights have been at Ho Shin Sool! Finally, about 6 weeks out, I started performing high powered workouts, 2-3 times/week. To do this, I was picking and choosing the WOD's that I wanted to do and when…..this allowed me to be fully recovered for the workout and maximize my power output. This last week or so has been great. All I've been doing is maintaining my weight, keeping my edge for sparring, and maintaining my fitness. I feel like I'm the kid that did all of his homework and is ready for the exam right now. I'll fine tune a few things before the fight, but I'm not panicked or worried about anything. I've prepared myself better for this fight than any other fight……I can't wait.
A lot of people wonder why I fight…..one of the answers is for the thrill of it. There isnothing like the feeling of getting in the cage!!! I believe humans are hard wired to fight, at least this human is. There is no more honest moment in the world than when you are in the cage. There is no hiding, there is no trash talk, there is no counting on others, there are no lies…..only truth. The only thing that you have is what you’re made of, and it becomes very obvious, very quickly, once the fight starts what that is. I love that honesty, it empowers you, it humbles you, it makes you better.
I know a lot of people wonder what it would be like to get in a cage, and if you’ve competed in a crossfit type competition where it was just you and the WOD, then you’ve come pretty close (except for the getting punched in the face part). I would joke about how going to Catalyst for the WOD was like showing up for a fight, but the truth is, it’s about as close as it gets. I’d be nervous all day, I’d be scared of letting myself down by not letting my best get out, I’d be scared of disappointing others, and probably the biggest factor was showing up and knowing that no one was going to let me off the hook. The WOD was going to try and make me quit, and Catalyst was going to make sure that I didn’t. It’s really cool how closely fighting and crossfit are related. I could go on for days about fighting and why I like it so much, if you’re interested, stop me sometime and ask……just make sure you’ve got a lot of time. For now, here is the quick list:
1. Fighting keeps me in shape.
2. I enjoy the challenge.
3. When I train for a fight, I get to live like a champion. That’s about 90% of the fun I get from fighting.
4. I love the sport of MMA.
5.
There is no feeling like winning a fight.
6. Practicing improves my mood and makes me feel better (ask my wife how grumpy I get if I don’t practice for a week).
7. I love the crowds. I feed off the energy.
8. I love stepping out of my everyday life and becoming a fighter for a weekend.
9.
Can't wait to see you there,
Scrapyard.