Archive for June 2019
Trainer Spotlight: Rica Grandison
For the last 4 and half years, Rica Grandison has shared her knowledge and skills of Mixed Martial Arts with people all over the Metro Atlanta area. From teaching self-defense tactics to coaching youth boxing, Rica has done it all.
From a young age, Rica was participating in some sort of sport whether it be a mixed martial arts class, boxing, or a team sport. She got her start in mixed martial arts at a very young age. At the age of 6, she started taking Taekwondo. It wasn’t until her uncle, who was a professional boxer, came along that she started getting into boxing realm. Rica started participating in youth boxing at her local YMCA. When she was 18, she decided to join her uncle in Japan for 2 years where she learned the ends and outs of mixed martial arts.
“I studied a Japanese style of kickboxing while I was in Japan. I loved it over there. I started to fight while I was over there, I went to Hong Kong and all of Brazil, with my team. I enjoyed it so much. I received my 3-degree black belt in Taekwondo at the age of 28.”
Rica came back to the states and attended the University of Minnesota, where she played 2 years of NCAA basketball for the Golden Gophers. Once finished, she started working for Lifetime Fitness, which she helped develop in the area. Moving around the country, Rica finally found home in the Bay Area of California where she worked for 24-hour Fitness and started to return back to her passion for Mixed Martial Arts. With the help of Ken Shamrock and the Lion’s Den, Rica started to find her passion again.
“I got noticed by Kenny Shamrock and the Lions, for being one of the first females to start this MMA world out here, where it wasn’t even sanctioned yet. Once I started working under him, I was in Vegas a lot fighting and did that for a while, but then I slowed down. It was a lot on my body. So, I stopped, and I started teaching mixed martial arts. I went to Colorado and started a Girls on Guard program with the Colorado Police Department. When I moved to Atlanta, they linked me up with the federal building doing self-defense with DA officers and then that’s when I found X3 Sports.”
Eventually finding her way to Atlanta, Rica started out at the Inman Park location and after time, she moved over to the Marietta club and became the training manager. Yet, teaching people was her passion. She loved being in the gym and working with people on a daily basis. So, she moved back over to the Inman Park location and started teaching pretty much every class except for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
“I love to teach. I want to be involved and that’s why I came back to teach. I can teach just about every class except Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and I’d say kickboxing is my favorite to teach. I keep the class fun, we move a lot, burn a lot of calories, but I’m also teaching these members self-defense tactics so that they can always have them just in case.”
Another one of her passions is working with the X3 Foundation. Though the X3 Foundation boxing program, our trainers and coaches are working with teenage boys at high schools around the Atlanta area to teach discipline and bring structure and responsibility into their lives.
“We talk to them, find out what’s going on in their day, and then we’ll box for about an hour. Once a month we do a show where they get to compete against each other. The boys love it. It keeps them off the streets, it keeps them from doing things they are not supposed to. It teaches them how to be discipline and how to be successful and from the time that we start with them, their maturity level has grown so much. We help them understand that there’s a purpose in life.”
Alongside of working with the foundation, Rica also teaches and trains clients daily, something that she says is one of the most rewarding things about this job.
“Changing lives is the most rewarding thing about this job. I love this so much that it is hard for me to defer to anything else. Making a difference in someone’s life, that’s so special.”
X3 Sports is not only a training facility but it’s a family.
“I love X3 Sports. This is family. I have been here for a long time and they are good to me. I’ll always tell people to come here. I don’t think that there is a better gym anywhere else in the state of Georgia that does Mixed Martial Arts better.”
X3 Sports Helped Me Lose Weight and Find My Confidence Again
Labor Day weekend, 2017, Carolyn Wright decide that she wanted to change her life for the better. Carolyn is a former nurse, and worked for a spell of time at one of the reputable hospitals in the region after having graduated from https://www.hashtagnursing.com/career-guide/. Overtime, she noticed she had gained a lot of weight and after going to donate blood, they told her that her blood pressure was way too high. Shortly after this, Carolyn sustained an injury at work which left her on a medical leave. She knew that she could not continue on with this lifestyle, she needed to lose weight in order to stay healthy. Scrolling through Facebook, she saw an ad for X3 Sports and thought the facility looked interesting so she wanted to check it out. She came into the Inman Park location, took a Kickboxing class and fell in love.
When Carolyn came into X3 Sports she weighed in at 219 pounds. She started training with Rica Grandison, taking kickboxing classes as well as personal training sessions. Rica and Carolyn made huge progress in short time, losing 60 pounds in 5 months. In March 2018, Carolyn was able to return to work and because of her schedule change, Rica referred her to start training with Jan-Michael Coke. With his help and cbd oil, she continued losing weight. According to Matt Hansel, CBD influences molecules in a human body to block them off. By shutting these receptors off, it helps in reducing appetite and can prevent overeating and obesity.
“Overall, I wanted to be healthier. That was the main goal. High blood pressure runs in the family and I’m not someone that will take medication, so my health was my main concern. I wanted to look better and feel better at the same time.”
From mid-November 2017 to May 2018, Carolyn was down to 130 pounds.
“All the trainers would see me and say, ‘oh my gosh you look so good!’, they saw the difference in the body and everything. I am completely happy with the results and I just want to continue to maintain this. I won’t stop.”
Carolyn worked hard to get where she is at now. She is in the gym five days a week taking 1-hour sessions. “I’m still taking both. I’m weight training and taking kickboxing classes while using the best fat burner supplement. I love kickboxing!”
But it wasn’t always easy.
“People were always saying that I was getting too small and I kept telling them, ‘hey don’t knock it until you try it’. A lot of those people have started working out at X3 Sports now and they see that a toned body is going to make you look smaller. I’m doing it in right way. I’m strong, healthy, curvy, but I am doing it the right way.”
Progress made in the gym only works if you do the right things outside of the gym to maintain it. She changed her diet, started eating clean, drinking more water and holding herself accountable.
“I started cutting back and eating clean, drinking plenty of water, taking vitamin supplements. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes I’ll have a cheat meal because I want it but I feel like I deserve it after all the hard work I’ve put in, but as long as I don’t go back to my old ways, I can continue on the right path, losing weight and toning my muscle.”
With a smile on her face and her head held high, there is nothing stopping Carolyn now.
“I feel like a better person, every day I wake up and I’m so happy, I’m a go getter now, I feel confident. I step out of my comfort zone a lot now. I don’t want to be that person when I get older and not be able to do anything. I don’t want to say, ‘I wish I would have done this or that’. Knowing that I am living my life to the fullest, I can be happy every day.”
Break out of your comfort zone, try something new, and live your life to the fullest! “You have to depend on yourself. Go small with everything, start small with your diet, cut back on things but overall, live life to the fullest, be healthy, and be happy!”
Trainer Spotlight: Getting to Know Byron Bloodworth
Health and fitness has always played a major role in Byron Bloodworth’s life, past and present. From fighting professionally to personal training clients, Byron has done it all. He is the head Athletic Trainer at X3 Sports: North Marietta, teaching fitness and cardio classes such as Fast Track, Power Track, and Kickboxing.
Byron wrestled when he was younger and it wasn’t until his freshman year of high school that he decided to study Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Mixed Martial Arts, Muay Thai and kickboxing. Graduating from the University of North Carolina Wilmington with a degree in Health and Fitness Science, Byron knew he wanted to train people and focus on doing it the right way.
“While I was a student, I was training for fighting and got my personal training certification. I was planning on teaching high school; I had a little bit of student teaching, but I started to focus more on fighting and being a professional fighter.”
Moving to Atlanta in 2007, Byron wanted to focus more on fighting professionally. He competed quite a bit and won several competitions such as small grappling tournaments, NAGA, and many more. Finally, in 2009, he turned pro and got a chance to fight in the undercard for UFC 155 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, NV.
“It was a pinch myself moment, I had fought at some big places, but Vegas is like the mecca for combat sports, to fight where there is so much history was one of my biggest accomplishments and favorite memory. And being able to share that with my brother who had been there from the start of the journey was really cool.”
In 2007, while training for fights, Byron was also teaching group-fitness bootcamp classes and personal training sessions with clients in Atlanta, Ga. Eventually, Byron decided that he wanted to spend more time with his family, all while still being able to teach classes and train clients. Byron started out with LA Boxing, which was later bought out by Iron Clutch and then eventually transitioned to X3 Sports and has been teaching and training in this area for over 12 years.
Byron teaches our fitness based classes at X3 Sports. Classes like Fast Track, Power Track, and Kickboxing provide a great way to change your workout routine up while still moving and learning the correct technique.
“Our Fast Track classes focus on speed, agility, and muscular endurance, as well as conditioning in some of the circuit training that we do. Power Track is more of a focus on strength training and muscle building through resistance training.”
Being a trainer and working with clients whether they are working out just to stay fit and healthy, or train for competition, seeing them achieve their goals and become healthier and more confident is such a great reward.
“Seeing it finally click for people, finding their own fitness path, is the greatest reward of this job. We offer so much at X3 Sports so that you don’t get bored with fitness. I feel like a lot of people come to us not even necessarily for the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) side to compete but to use the MMA to stay fit and healthy. Then they find that we also offer other things like weight training and circuit training via Fast Track and Power Track so it provides a lot for people to find something to stay heathy not just for the short term but for the long term as well.”
While teaching multiple classes a day and personal training sessions, working six to eight hour days and making time to spend with his wife and children, Byron’s personal goals have X3 Sports in mind.
“I want to see X3 Sports succeed and grow, especially with the new location opening in Athens, Ga. and I would like to see us continuing to branch out as far as our franchising and then eventually be an owner of one or run one myself.”
Trust the process. It can be difficult and frustrating to not see results right away and sometimes it can be discouraging. But DO NOT QUIT! Keep going and push yourself because in the end, it will all be worth it.
“It’s always an ongoing process but trust the process, stick with it.”
See what X3 Sports is all about. Sign up today for a free class at one of our four locations throughout Atlanta, Ga!
Taking Fitness Classes at X3 Sports Created A New Me
In February of 2018, Aracely Morales stumbled across X3 Sports and joined to just start going back to the gym. Little did she know that 3 months later, in May, she would start a journey that would change her life. Through hard work, consistency, and dedication, Aracely changed her lifestyle completely. The path wasn’t exactly easy though. With road bumps along the way, Aracely overcame obstacles to reach her ultimate goal; a healthier life.
Aracely started taking classes at X3 Sports and the first one she tried was Kickboxing with Mo Sadiq. Within 30 seconds of starting the class she was out of breath and from there on, Aracely knew that something had to change.
“It was tough, but I still came the next day. I knew something needed to change, I needed to do better for myself and for my daughter.”
And that’s exactly what she did, she showed up the next day and every day after that for the next four weeks. Once her four weeks were up in kickboxing, she knew what class she wanted to take on next; Fast Track. She took Fast Track with Bryon Bloodworth every day and after about a month, she noticed that everyone else in the class was still finishing the workout before her. “During one of the circuits I told Bryon that everyone was finishing before me and he told me don’t focus on who finishes first and who finishes last, you need to focus on yourself, that you get to finish your workout properly and you get to finish the workout completely. Before you know it, you’re going to be finishing before everybody.” She knew she couldn’t give up. Giving up was not an option any more. Excuses were not an option anymore.
She took Fast Track with Bryon Bloodworth every day and after about a month, she noticed that everyone else in the class was still finishing the workout before her. “During one of the circuits I told Bryon that everyone was finishing before me and he told me don’t focus on who finishes first and who finishes last, you need to focus on yourself, that you get to finish your workout properly and you get to finish the workout completely. Before you know it, you’re going to be finishing before everybody.” She knew she couldn’t give up. Giving up was not an option any more. Excuses were not an option anymore.
“I was really close to walking away but something in me was saying ‘no stick it out and keep going. Don’t quit you have to keep going.’ I couldn’t tell you exactly when it happened, but I started finishing before everybody. I was able to build endurance and finish.”
From there on out, Aracely knew the changes she needed to make in order to reach her goal. She started changing her diet; eating more vegetables, choosing healthier snacks, drinking lots of water and eating small meals throughout the day that helped boost her metabolism. She also stayed consistent with her workouts and made sure to find time to get to X3.
“I work a full-time job, I’m a full-time single mom, life is hectic, but I still make time. I made excuses but that was just me wanting to sit on the couch and eat popcorn and candy. Get your butt up, go work out and stop feeling sorry for yourself.”
Just by making these changes to her diet and being consistent in her workouts, Aracely was losing 3 to 4 pounds a week.“I was drinking a lot of water. I was adding vegetables to my meals, adding healthier snacks throughout the day and I was eating constantly and that’s when my endurance started getting better. That’s when I started dropping 3-4 pounds a week. But it was the consistency that was the key to everything. And by August I had lost 60 pounds.”
With the help of her trainers and other X3 members, she was able to push herself even more during training. “You get to know the people here when we come to class, and we start pushing each other. I have made great friends here. I would not be able to do it without the trainers and the people here.” By the beginning of August, Aracely had lost 60 pounds. “I’m not done. I’m going to continue working out, might not be as structed as it was because I have reached my goal but I’m going to continue to work out. Why? I need that in my life as in health wise. I still need my heart to keep pumping and going to be healthy. I’m still going to keep coming because first of all it’s such a stress reliver. The classes we do here, kickboxing, Muay Thai, fast track, power track, it makes you feel like you are in power and you can just take the world especially when you lift those weights, as a woman, it does. It makes you feel like you can overcome anything, and I did overcome my weight, I have overcome personal issues and I’m still pushing though it because I know I can do it. This is part of me, I can’t stop, I’m not going to stop.” Within a year, she was at her goal and feeling super proud of that accomplishment too.
“Don’t be afraid, just do it. Don’t be afraid to try new things. At the end of the day, you’re the one that is working out for yourself. You are doing this for you. Don’t be afraid of what everyone else is going to say, you are doing this for you and your family. Keep going, don’t give up, and keep wiping those tears away.”
By being consistent, making time to work out, changing her daily eating habits, and eliminating daily excuses, Aracely Morales has changed her mind set and lifestyle to a much healthier and a happier one. Thank you, Aracely for choosing X3 Sports to help you reach your goals. If you or anyone you know are looking for a facility the thrives on delivering real results, sign up today, try a free class and bring out the warrior within!
