SW Portland Martial Arts Blog

Membership Benefits

May 4th, 2024

As you can see, we’ve added a new membership benefit: if you’re a paying gym member, you get $20 off a massage with one of our favorite LMTs, George Bare of Vital Integrity Massage.

Pretty cool stuff, obviously, but did you know you also get access to our whole schedule? That’s right. CrossFit classes, Yoga classes, all the various martial arts classes. If you are a paying member, they are ALL open to you. I mean, I guess don’t go to the kids class for 4 year olds unless you are actually a four year old child, but you get the idea (I hope.)

If you’ve got kids, you also get a discount on our kids camps and free access to our movie nights. You also get access to our book club meetings because, well, our gym is full of people who love to read.

Most importantly, you get to hang out with amazing people and learn awesome things.

 

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An Even Fuller Range of Motion

April 27th, 2024

One of the constant reminders you’ll hear at the gym is that you should be moving your body through a “full range of motion.” It’s a great idea… but what does it mean?

Ideally, it means we should be strong throughout the range of motion of a muscle. So if we’re using that exemplar of muscles, the biceps, it means we want to be strong when the elbow joint is all the way closed (fist as close to the shoulder as possible), when the elbow joint is all the way open (the arm is flat), and all points in between. The theory goes that if you’re weak anywhere in that range of motion, that is the place you’re going to get hurt, so in your training you should strive to move through a full range of motion.

Alright, so if that’s true, then why stop at the floor with a deadlift? Why not stand on a box and keep lowering the weight down until the hip joint is all the way closed? Well, turns out most of us are a lot stronger lifting from the floor than when we stand on a box and it’s nice to be stronger through that (usually) more functional range of motion (we’re not picking things out of holes as often as we are picking things up off the ground) so it would be kind of a bummer to do lighter weights in that bigger range of motion.

But what about the rule?! Full range of motion all day all the time! Maybe. I think there’s strong (pun intended) practical benefits to getting stronger in that functional range of motion where you pick things up from the ground but I also think standing on a box and gaining strength in that greater range of motion is also awesome. Why not? Life will inevitably require us to lift something out of a hole at some point so we might as well not suck at it.

One way to ease into this extra range of motion is to use smaller, metal weights like 25s. It’s kind of shocking how much harder it is to move through that extra range of motion. Go light, but give it a whirl, and then the day you’ve got to reach down and heft that random toddler from an extremely shallow well, you’ll thank me.

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The Full Panoply

April 13th, 2024
All the things in April

We do a lot of different stuff at the gym, so much stuff that it’s sometimes difficult to explain all the different pieces. No problem. Here’s a rapid fire series of one second clips that hopefully gives you a feel for the place (although some of the shots are from outreach gigs)  and what we do.

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What are We Doing Today in Kids Class?

April 6th, 2024

How do we choose what we’re going to do from day to day in kids class? If we supposed to be providing a broad, general survey of martial arts… how do we do it?

We keep it pretty simple and rotate between 3 things: striking, throwing, and ground grappling. That means on any given day, we might be doing any one of those things.

Yeah, but back to the original question, how do kids know what to expect? Well, if they really pay close attention (or ask) they’ll notice that we simply rotate through the three. One day we’ll do striking, the next throwing, the next ground grappling… and then the cycle repeats. If they are super sharp (or again, ask) they’ll notice that there’s a second cycle where we rotate between wearing the Gi (the funny pajama looking jackets) and not wearing the Gi. That one goes: striking, throwing, grappling, striking, throwing with the Gi, grappling with the Gi, repeat.

Two more things confound this cycle. One is that on Sunday, with the older kids, we start to put the three things together, allowing them to strike, throw, and grapple. And the final factor is that we throw in games, self defense drills, handstands, burpees, kata, and whatever else we can think of to keep things fresh.

The end result is (we think) a broad introduction to the world of martial arts.

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Strength At Length

April 3rd, 2024

Do you struggle with persistent mobility issues that don’t respond to traditional stretching, foam rolling, or bands? You should sign up for Scott Hagnas’ Strength At Length seminar.

What is it? It’s a 6 week course designed to improve your functional mobility.

Who is it for? Anyone, of all ages and abilities, looking to improve their range of motion.

How much does it cost? $175 for members and $200 for non-members.

When does it meet? Sundays, starting 4/21 from 2-4pm.

Where does it meet? 6309 SW Capitol Highway – CrossFit Hillsdale.

Where is the registration and more info? On our events page. Hope to see you all there!

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