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Grace Cleveland fights with the Factory X MMA team based at the Englewood gym and has one fight under her belt - a knockout win in October - and another set for March 6.
Struggling to find the will to get to the gym, climb on the bike and pedal away a few calories?
Try this: In addition to all that cardio, someone is going to punch you in the face. There’s a kick in the ribs coming, too. Who knows, you might mix in a brief chokehold as well depending on where things go. Oh yeah you’re definitely getting thrown to the ground, too.
Good times. The kind that makes you race out of bed to enjoy?
That sort of grueling workout is the norm for mixed martial arts fighters — often twice a day six days a week.
And Grace Cleveland, who fights with the Factory X MMA team based at the Englewood gym of the same name, wouldn’t have it any other way.
The 21-year-old has one fight under her belt — a knockout win in October — and another set for March.
But don’t let Cleveland’s relatively brief career in MMA fool you — this isn’t some short-term hobby. Her plan is to make the octagon her place of business, one day fighting with some of the biggest names in the sport.
Cleveland first got into the sport a couple years ago. She had always been athletic, the workouts were intense and the sport immediately seemed like a good fit.
“I always felt like I was a ninja growing up,” she says with a laugh between workouts at Factory X.
In a sport that requires the self-confidence to step into a ring in front of thousands of people and risk being on the receiving end of a pretty serious beating, it’s easy to assume the sport is populated with a self-centered breed of enthusiasts. But that isn’t the case. At all.
Cleveland says the nature of the sport — any failure is laid bare for all to see — makes all the athletes incredibly humble, and welcoming.
“It’s a great community, awesome people,” she says.
After months of training, Cleveland’s first fight came in October at the MMayhem 2014 fights in Glendale. The event center was packed with a suit-and-tie crowd that included Von Miller of the Denver Broncos and other local celebs. The atmosphere would have been nerve wracking for any performer.
“Being locked in a cage is different though,” she says.
Cleveland’s plan going in was to take her opponent to the mat and get a submission, which is one of her stronger attributes as a fighter. But like Mike Tyson said, plans change when punches fly, and the fight ended up being a standing battle.
Midway through the second round, Cleveland delivered a punch that knocked her opponent down and the ref called the fight. It wasn’t the way she drew it up, but Cleveland was more than happy to get that first win.
Not that she exactly remembers it, though. As fighters often do, Cleveland blacked out from the rush of adrenaline shortly after the first bell. The tips her coach gave her between rounds? She doesn’t remember. And details about the fight? Those are lost on her, too.
“You kind of zone out,” she says.
If all goes as planned, Cleveland says she will likely be back in the octagon for another bout in March. In the future, she said she hopes to fight every two to three months.
While getting motivated to get into the gym in the days and weeks before a scheduled fight was easy, Cleveland says that changed a bit in the days right after a fight.
“Some days I’m like why do I choose to get beat up?” she says.
Mustering the will to workout isn’t quite as easy when there isn’t a fight pending, but she says she made it through by leaning on the rest of her fight team.
“If you are around people who are positive and do the same thing you do they get you back motivated,” she says.
“If you just tell yourself it’s one hour a day, you can do it, you can get through it,” she says.
Grace Cleveland finds her way to the gym twice a day, six times a week. Workouts are a combination of grueling cardio, sparring and working on a long list of fighting techniques. All of that adds up, and over time, it takes a toll.
That being the case, it’s clear Cleveland knows how to stay motivated. Here are a few of her tips on how to maintain the will needed to get into shape and stay that way.
Have a buddy
Do not go it alone. Find a friend who shares your desire to get in shape, and develop a routine with them.
“Work out with other people that understand what you are going through,” she says.
That partner can help you get to the gym, but they also make working out itself more enjoyable once you’re there.
For Cleveland, the camaraderie between other MMA fighters is one of her favorite parts about the sport.
Mix it up
Monotony can crush motivation. Riding the same bike the same distance every workout, or jumping on the same elliptical or even going for the same run, all of it can add up to a workout that is particularly tough to find the motivation for.
Cleveland said doing something different everyday is one of the keys to her workouts.
As the name suggests, MMA includes a variety of martial arts, and Cleveland said some days are spent focused on Muy Thai fighting, while others are spent perfecting jujitsu moves. Whatever it is, doing something different each day makes getting to the gym a bit easier, she says.
Take it in small chunks
If you keep a big-picture approach to working out, you’ll probably find getting to the gym a bit easier.
Cleveland says she likes to look at her workout in smaller chunks. Instead of thinking about two grueling workouts ahead of her, Cleveland says she looks at it in smaller doses.
That should work for anyone’s morning workout. Just approach the daily workout as one small part of your day that will be over before you realize it.
