Matfit Need to get in shape, but don’t wanna become a fitness freak or meathead? We help 30-50 yr olds acheive realistic fitness goals.

Also the place for high level S&C for grapplers🥋🤼💪🏽. We can help‼️Online and in person services available.

05/01/2026

Training hard and showing up consistently will only take you so far if your nutrition doesn’t support it.

Without enough protein in your daily intake, your body simply doesn’t have the raw materials it needs to repair and rebuild muscle tissue after workouts.

You can push yourself to exhaustion in the gym, but if recovery is under-fueled, progress stalls.. strength plateaus, muscle growth slows, and fatigue accumulates faster than your body can adapt.

Protein isn’t optional for results; it’s foundational.

No amount of discipline or intensity can override a lack of proper nutrition.

If your goal is to build muscle, improve performance, or even maintain what you’ve gained, consistently missing your protein needs will cap your progress.

Effort matters, but without the right fuel, it’s like revving an engine with an empty tank..you’re working hard, just not getting very far.

And keeping up with this entire protein game is even more crucial after about age 35/40+😐😳.

04/29/2026

I left out the static Superman hold.. this one is a very good option to include as well..

Activating the glutes and the rest of the posterior chain before and during grappling can significantly reduce strain on the lower back because it redistributes load more efficiently across the hips and legs.

In sports like Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, where positions often involve hip bridging, guard retention, and resisting force from awkward angles, underactive glutes tend to shift the burden onto the lumbar spine.

By engaging muscles like the gluteus maximus, hamstrings, and even the erector spinae in a coordinated way, you create a more stable base for movement.

This allows force to be generated from the hips, where it’s meant to originate, rather than compensating through spinal extension or flexion, which is a common pathway to irritation or injury.

Additionally, proper posterior chain activation improves pelvic positioning and core synergy, both of which are crucial for spinal health during dynamic grappling exchanges.

When the glutes fire correctly, they help maintain a neutral pelvis, preventing excessive anterior tilt that can compress the lower back.

Combined with a braced core, this alignment supports efficient force transfer during scrambles, takedowns, and escapes.

Over time, consistently reinforcing these patterns not only reduces acute soreness after training but also builds resilience against chronic lower back pain, allowing practitioners to train harder and recover more effectively.

Coaches, trainers and other fitness professionals will often say you have to train heavy, but heavy is a relative term.....
04/27/2026

Coaches, trainers and other fitness professionals will often say you have to train heavy, but heavy is a relative term..

Resistance training can be effective for both strength and muscle growth across a wide range of repetition schemes (roughly 5 to 30 reps per set)provided the effort is high.

The key driver isn’t the exact rep number but how close the set is taken to muscular failure.

When you push a set near failure, your body recruits more motor units, including the larger, high-threshold fibers that have the greatest potential for growth.

Lower reps with heavier weights and higher reps with lighter weights can both stimulate these fibers if the set is challenging enough by the end.

This is where the concept of “reps in reserve” (RIR) comes in. RIR refers to how many additional reps you could have performed before reaching true failure. For example, stopping a set with 1–2 RIR means you feel you could have completed only one or two more reps with good form before you couldn’t continue. Training within about 0–2 RIR ensures you’re close enough to failure to maximize muscle fiber recruitment and adaptation, without necessarily pushing every set to absolute exhaustion.

Point being ..all rep ranges work if you train hard!..

04/24/2026

I didn’t mention D3, so let’s start there… You should usually include some form of K2 with this as well. Vitamin D3 supports bone health, immune function, and hormone regulation, which are critical for strength, recovery, and long-term athletic performance.

Creatine helps increase strength, power, and muscle growth by rapidly regenerating ATP, giving you better performance during high-intensity workouts.

Magnesium supports muscle function, recovery, and sleep quality, all of which are essential for consistent training and overall performance.

Fish oil (omega-3s) reduces inflammation, supports joint health, and promotes heart and brain function, helping you train harder and recover faster.

Zinc plays a key role in hormone production, immune support, and recovery, making it important for maintaining optimal testosterone levels and overall fitness progress.

04/22/2026

A fitness or aerobics class that uses light dumbbells can improve general fitness, coordination, and muscular endurance, but it typically doesn’t provide the progressive overload needed for meaningful strength or muscle growth.

The weights are often too light, the movements too fast, and the structure too generalized to challenge muscles in a way that forces adaptation.

Without consistently increasing load, reps, or intensity in a structured way, your body has little reason to build significant strength or muscle.

In contrast, real resistance training with free weights and compound movements (like squats, deadlifts, and presses) targets multiple muscle groups with heavier loads and controlled form.

These exercises allow for precise progression, better mechanical tension, and more efficient stimulation of muscle fibers.

Over time, this leads to greater strength gains, improved bone density, and more noticeable changes in muscle mass outcomes that light, high-rep aerobics classes simply aren’t designed to deliver.

04/20/2026

Walking is often overlooked, but it can be one of the most effective ways to accelerate fat burning because it operates primarily in a non-glycolytic energy zone.

Unlike high-intensity exercise that relies heavily on glycogen (stored carbohydrates), steady walking keeps your body in a lower-intensity state where oxygen is readily available.

In this state, your metabolism preferentially taps into fat stores for fuel rather than quickly burning through limited carbohydrate reserves.

This makes walking especially efficient for sustained fat utilization over longer periods.

Because walking is gentle on the body, it can be performed frequently and for extended durations without excessive fatigue or recovery demands.

This consistency is key: the more time you spend in a fat-burning state, the more your body adapts to using fat as a primary energy source.

Over time, this improves metabolic flexibility, meaning your body becomes better at switching to and relying on fat for energy, even outside of exercise.

04/17/2026

When you’re just starting your fitness journey, your body is still adjusting to new routines, eating patterns, and overall discipline.

The first few weeks are critical for building consistency and stabilizing habits, especially if you’re shifting toward a healthier diet.

Introducing a cheat meal too early can disrupt that process by reinforcing old cravings and making it harder to stay committed.

Giving yourself at least three weeks allows your taste preferences and hunger signals to recalibrate, making healthier choices feel more natural rather than forced.

Waiting also helps you build a stronger psychological foundation. Early on, motivation can be fragile, and a cheat meal can quickly turn into a cheat day, or even derail your progress entirely.

By holding off, you prove to yourself that you can stay consistent without immediate rewards, which strengthens discipline and confidence.

After a few weeks of steady effort, a cheat meal becomes less of a setback and more of a controlled, intentional choice that fits into your overall progress rather than working against it.

Creatine works the same basic way in both women and men.. it helps regenerate ATP, your body’s quick energy source, whic...
04/15/2026

Creatine works the same basic way in both women and men.. it helps regenerate ATP, your body’s quick energy source, which can improve strength, power, and recovery.

The small differences come down mostly to baseline levels and hormonal context. Women tend to have slightly lower natural creatine stores due to lower average muscle mass and dietary intake, so supplementation can sometimes produce more noticeable improvements in energy, strength, and cognitive performance.

There’s also some evidence that creatine may be especially helpful for women during periods of hormonal fluctuation (like the menstrual cycle), potentially supporting mood, fatigue resistance, and brain function.

For men, who generally start with higher muscle mass and creatine stores, the benefits are often more directly tied to increases in strength, muscle size, and high-intensity exercise performance.

While both sexes benefit from improved recovery and training capacity, men may experience slightly larger absolute gains in muscle due to higher testosterone levels.

For women, a key advantage is that creatine supports strength and lean muscle without causing significant bulk, making it useful for performance, bone health, and body composition without the same degree of hypertrophy typically seen in men.

04/13/2026

Starting a fitness journey can feel overwhelming, but short workouts, as little as 10 minutes, can be a powerful way to build momentum.

When you’re new to exercise, your body responds quickly to even small amounts of activity.

These brief sessions help improve circulation, wake up your muscles, and begin building endurance without pushing you to exhaustion.

Because they’re manageable, they also reduce the mental barrier to getting started, making it easier to stay consistent.

Consistency is far more important than duration, especially in the beginning. Doing 10 minutes a day establishes a routine, which is the foundation of long-term progress.

Over time, these short workouts can lead to noticeable improvements in strength, energy levels, and confidence.

As your fitness improves, you can gradually increase the length or intensity of your sessions, but those first 10 minutes are what make everything else possibl.

04/10/2026

Limiting carbohydrate intake to around workouts can support metabolic flexibility by training your body to efficiently switch between fuel sources.

During exercise, your muscles are more insulin-sensitive and better able to uptake glucose, so consuming carbs in that window directs them toward glycogen replenishment rather than fat storage.

Outside of those periods, keeping carbs low encourages the body to rely more on fat oxidation for energy, reinforcing the pathways involved in using fat as a primary fuel source.

Over time, this “fuel partitioning” helps your metabolism adapt to both states..readily burning carbs when available and defaulting to fat when they’re not.

Similarly, consuming carbohydrates once a day at a consistent time can help regulate insulin rhythms and improve metabolic efficiency.

By creating a predictable pattern, your body becomes more adept at handling glucose during that window while spending the rest of the day in a lower-insulin, fat-burning state.

This consistency may also support stable energy levels and reduce cravings, as your body anticipates fuel intake and optimizes hormone responses accordingly.

Together, these strategies can strengthen the body’s ability to toggle between energy systems, which is the core of metabolic flexibility.

04/08/2026

These two rules work because they naturally steer you toward whole, minimally processed foods..the kind humans have eaten for most of history.

Limiting ingredient lists to just a few items cuts out ultra-processed foods that are often packed with additives, refined sugars, and industrial oils, all of which can disrupt hunger signals and metabolic balance.

It simplifies decision-making too: instead of analyzing labels, you default to foods like fruits, vegetables, meats, eggs, and grains in their more natural state.

The “150 years ago” rule reinforces that same idea from a different angle. It filters out modern engineered foods that are designed for hyper-palatability and overconsumption, helping regulate appetite and stabilize blood sugar.

Together, these guidelines reduce spikes in insulin, improve energy consistency, and support long-term metabolic health, without requiring calorie counting or complicated dieting frameworks.

04/06/2026

Strength training stands out as the most effective way for women around 35 to stay fit because it directly combats the natural decline in muscle mass and metabolism that begins in the mid-30s.

Unlike cardio alone, lifting weights helps preserve and build lean muscle, which keeps the body strong, improves posture, and increases daily calorie burn..even at rest.

This makes it far easier to maintain a healthy weight without extreme dieting or endless hours of exercise.

Beyond physical appearance, strength training delivers critical long-term health benefits that become increasingly important with age.


It strengthens bones, reducing the risk of osteoporosis, supports joint stability, and improves overall functional fitness for everyday life.

It also has powerful effects on mental health, boosting confidence, reducing stress, and enhancing energy levels..making it one of the most efficient and sustainable ways to stay strong, capable, and resilient well into later years.

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