We are just a little more than a week into the New Year, which many people use this time to try and focus on their health to build better habits.
Signing up for a regular gym membership seems to be the most obvious way to go, but Jiu Jitsu can offer a wide range of benefits to health and fitness.
The Straight Blast Gym in Sparks opened back in October.
SBG gyms are all around the world, which started in Portland about 30 years ago.
The head coach, Ray Price, is a third degree black belt and a retired law enforcement officer.
He believes the skills learned from the mat can be applied to everything in life.
"The health benefits the high speed problem solving," Price said. "You can provide it to your life you can provide it to leadership, you can provide it to everything that you do."
Co-owner Jason Trevino is also a retired cop.
While him and Price are no longer in the line of duty, they still want to provide a service for the community.
"We just wanted to look at a way to bring our skill set that we had in our professional life into our retirement and offer something to the Sparks community we saw as a need," Trevino said.
Trevino says a lot of police officers are in their classes, and he feels it's an important skill to have.
"As a law enforcement officer getting into it you realize that there's these average people out there that you would look at and not think twice about but they might have some skills that would give you some problems if you had to deal with them," he said.
The coaches say anybody can take Jiu Jitsu, they train all ages.
The gym's phrase is "One Tribe One Vibe."
"There's so much to it when you get on the mat and then when you're building it with another training partner," Price said. "You guys are building together and are getting better together. The benefits, mentally, physically, and spiritually if you will."Â
With the sport, it builds technique and some say it's a great workout.
"I've run a couple marathons before and I noticed that this has helped my cardio a lot more than running," said Shannon Perez, Trainee at SBG Sparks. "I'm in my late 40's and I'm a grandma and I want to be around for a long time and I needed to do something that was better for my health."
One coach says the mental health aspects is one of the reasons he keeps coming back.
"I get to take the stresses of the day, the stuff from the office all gets left behind and I have to concentrate on this for an hour otherwise somebody is going to come squish me," said Mike Sanford, Coach, SBG Sparks.
Price says the hardest thing for people is getting out of the parking lot.
"I think it's starting," he said. "I think there's a fear, if I'm going to get hurt are they going to beat me up, but one thing we have here is our foundations classes."Â
Price says while some coaches like the approach of throwing you into the fire.
He likes to meet people where they are at, and build slowly, so they will keep up with the habit.
The gym offers one free trial class, to see if the sport is the best fit for them.
