What are you really paying for?
Ok, so this is going to get a bit more personal now. Gym memberships, diets, and daily routines have been popular topics which people would love to get debunked. I’ve been back and forth with all three and I can admit myself that I’m not your model gym member. Over the years I’ve looked for the best solutions to the whole ‘well balanced’ lifestyle. In conclusion, I’m still looking for the answers.
Josh Thomson, aka THEREALPUNK, Bellator fighting lightweight champ , and former Strikeforce Lightweight Champion has not only shown some real good answers to our questions. But he’s created his own legacy with them all. KNOXX martial arts and fitness, his brainchild after his career in MMA, gives the public a feel for how a gym should really be. Forget about just going into a spot with a bunch of machines here and there without anyone helping you out to make sure you are using them correctly. This gym caters to all ages and has some of the best trainers to help you reach your goals.
With their own training strategy, they have implemented how a fighter would train with Aerobics added with a few other timed workouts. A regular person could easily come in without that pressure and intimidation a traditional gym has when you walk in for the first time.
Showing excellence in his own career, Josh Thomson just had to let me in on a few of his life notes. I got to chat with Josh and just talk about it all: eating habits, training, and what he’s been up to.
Tell me why you wanted to open up KNOXX?
It was really just a place for myself to train and break the monotony with going over to AKA and like, just kind of trying to do my own thing…. Didn’t really expect myself to be so hands on with the gym. I’m there a lot more, building more clientele. When I was done fighting, I knew I wanted a place I could call my own. When I’m not in training camp, I don’t have to be working my butt off….some place I can call my own and build new relationships with students of my own. In my mind, I was thinking, ya know… when I have kids like where are they going to train? Athletes spend so much time building their craft, and they spend years not working for somebody and they’re all done.
“… so it really came down to it like do you want to go back to working for someone else ?”
Did you always know you wanted to open up your own gym?
“It’s one of those situations you just, you gotta figure out, are you secure enough with yourself you know you’re going to be successful or do you go back to the comfort zone of supporting other people and their dreams , or do you build your own?”
That was kind of the situation I was in when I was done, and I knew that, I wasn’t going to go back to a 9-5 job ya know…I wanted to try and build my own thing. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I may become a commentator for fight promotion or get on a payroll for another major gym company or organization along the lines…but I’ll always have a place I can call home where I can go workout, train my own people. And that’s just really the benefit of believing in yourself and building your own brand. People don’t seem to understand like at my gym, I don’t have fighters there you know…I have fighters that are trainers so you are being taught by professionals. But I don’t have fighters that are training or wanting to be fighters because sometimes it brings a different energy to the gym that sometimes will intimidate people and I don’t want that, so we don’t have that at our gym, I don’t really anticipate ever really having that at my gym.
“..The work outs that we do are really about how you wanna push yourself , if you want to push yourself extremely hard then go right ahead. The trainers are there you know just to push you a little bit harder .”
I then asked Josh what’s his own daily routine with training. He began to explain this super in-depth regimen that mostly involved low impact workouts along with high altitude training. But, he also added that he takes the time away from his gym to unwind and work with trainers that have been there over the years. Even world class fighters have to unwind and come back to zero every now and then.
What’s your take on crash diets?
People that want to start off on a cleanse? Give it a go, but I really feel like they’re depleting themselves before they’re ready to start a real workout. There’s no better deterrent for somebody that hasn’t really worked out in 3-6 months.
“You know you tell them ‘alright Im gonna put you on a juice diet…. AND make you work out two times a day….. AND all while keeping your day job’… After the first week , theyre gonna say NO WAY.”
Josh went further and told me a basic equation to a pretty solid diet. It consists of eating 5-6 meals a day every two hours. With each meal about 10 oz ( 6oz of protein and 4oz of clean carbs ), one of these meals could already sound really filling to me. Josh encourages his members and clients to stay on this every two-hour schedule to speed up their metabolism.
“Thats the hardest part for me you know, getting people used to that. As you go to sleep at night, on the regimen your body is still burning. And at my gym we offer an early morning fasted cardio class to speed up the bodies metabolism and get the body used to the diet we suggest them….”
A gym that’s worth your money
Team KNOXX goes above and beyond to help each member out at the gym. With the classes they have on their schedule, who really needs a personal trainer when you have the entire gym encouraging one another to beat their goals they set when they first became a member. That’s the kind of sportsmanship I admire.
Written by Gelo Espejo
Images via KNOXX GYM
