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Community Corner

Longtime Fighter Focused on Fitness

The Highland Park gym will put you into fighting shape with mixed martial arts training techniques.

It's a new year and like the rest of the nation, you're probably considering implementing a new gym membership or exercise regimen. Here's betting mixed martial arts isn't on your list, at least not yet.

For about four years, SoCal MMA and Fitness, on 5025 York Blvd., has been helping people get in shape in a unique way.

The gym, owned and operated by former MMA champion Joey Alvarado, 39, offers a variety of intense of training methods,  ranging from early morning boot camps and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to classes for kids, teens and women’s kickboxing.

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One of the more popular workout classes offered at SoCal MMA is one developed by Alvarado himself, which offers a fat-burning, muscle building regiment, built around training with lightweight kettlebells.

Last Saturday Night, Alvarado officially released a DVD called “Combat Kettlebell Systems Vol. 1” that combines kettlebell weights and martial arts moves. He says his workouts with the kettlebell weights offers a mixture of cardiovascular and strength training, and burns the same calories as a normal gym workout in half the time.

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Lisa Alvarado, 27, is a former ballerina. Lisa gained 40 pounds while in college and since attending classes at the gym, she’s lost 30 pounds.

She was one of about a dozen students participating in Alvarado's kettlebell training course on Saturday morning, which requires students to curl, press, swing and deadlift the lightweight kettlebells at a frenetic tempo.

"Well, I wear this calorie monitor. It tells me my heart rate, how many calories I burned, this class helps me burn the most calories. So, in the hour, I burn over 700 calories,” she said.  “I'm an ex-ballerina, if I can do it you can do it. Don't be intimidated whatsoever. Joey is very patient. He'll teach you everything. So no intimidation here. And all of the students are very helpful, it's a team environment, we all help each other."

Alvarado's training methods are influenced by a lifetime devoted to martial arts.

He competed in mixed martial arts professionally for almost seven years, and at the height of his career become the first Mexican lightweight champion. He was encouraged by a former student, Brian Jones, to open a gym.

"I've always wanted to own my own business and I turned pro when I was 32 years old, which is really late. And I knew going into it, that, I'm late, but I feel like I just have to do this for myself," Alvarado said.

The former MMA fighter also thought it was a no-brainer to open his gym in Highland Park because of familial ties and the opportunity to help kids avoid gang activity.

"Highland Park is kind of like a second home to me. I have a lot of family over here and everything so it was kind of only natural,” he said. “Because a lot of the time I think the kids around here, you know, they don't have too many options, and if there's a gym over here, you know maybe we'll get some people over here and keep them off the streets."

Alvarado grew up a "military brat" and moved with his family from Los Angeles to South Carolina when he was 2 years old. He remembers being bullied as an elementary school student in South Carolina and being enrolled in Tae Kwon Do classes by his parents.

From then on, he was permanently attached to marital arts. He received a black belts in Tae Kwon Do and Hapkido, and a brown belt in Kuk Sul Won. At age 26, Alvarado found out after his parents died that the man who raised him as his father was actually his stepfather.

Ironically enough, he found out that this biological father was a world class boxer.

"So then everything clicked, and I was like 'Okay, so this is why I do what I do,' because I never knew why I was doing it,” Alvarado said. “I realized it was in my blood. I moved out to L.A. My dad started training me to box, and then I got the itch to fight. So then I started fighting."

The classes he offers at SoCal MMA are not only beneficial to his students, Alvarado said.

"Since we opened this gym, it's been a really good vehicle for us to really develop as trainers. And Chris [Baca] is a really awesome trainer," Alvarado said of his right hand man.


About 95 percent of those who start classes are not interested in fighting, like Lisa, and are just looking for a way to stay in shape. 

"But what happens a lot of times is people come in here not wanting to fight and wanting to get fit and after they start training, they start getting a little itch [to fight] sometimes,” Alvarado said. “It's a very small percentage. its a very unrelenting sport. It takes a thick skin."

Ruben Paquini, 22, is part of that small percentage. Paquini wrestled in high school and then switched to training in Jiu-Jitsu. Now he is training for his second mixed martial arts competition called “Proving Grounds” in Pasadena on Jan. 29.

"I'm excited just to have the opportunity to go out there and showcase what I've learned throughout the years in martial arts and just put my heart out there you know. It's like how most artists like to show off their paintings. Same thing for me. I want to show off the things I learned,” Paquini said.

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