How Boxing Workouts Can Transform Your Fitness Routine?
Explore how boxing challenges the body and mind, helping you overcome training plateaus, build functional strength, and improve cardiovascular health.
Chris Matakas
Bio
Chris Matakas is a distinguished Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) practitioner, author, and performance coach dedicated to personal development through martial arts.
Martial Arts Career
Matakas holds a second-degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Ricardo Almeida. In 2017, he founded the Matakas Jiu Jitsu Academy in New Jersey, aiming to teach self-defense and promote personal growth among his students. His competitive achievements include victories in several tournaments, participation in the IBJJF World Championships, and maintaining an undefeated amateur mixed martial arts (MMA) record.
Authorship
As a prolific writer, Matakas has authored numerous books focusing on utilizing Jiu-Jitsu as a medium for personal development. His notable works include "On Jiu Jitsu," "5 Rules for White Belts," and "My Mastery: Learning to Live through Jiu Jitsu." These publications explore the philosophical aspects of martial arts and their application to everyday life.
Performance Coaching
Beyond his martial arts endeavors, Matakas serves as a performance coach for business owners, community leaders, and high achievers. He specializes in guiding individuals to realize their potential both on and off the mat, emphasizing personal transformation and goal attainment.
Autopilot is great, and removal of thought is one of the highest ideals of training. But removal of thought in the moment must be preceded by purposeful thought beforehand.
I train jiu jitsu because I love jiu jitsu. But I also train knowing that my practice in this art will allow me better practice in any art. If you have learned one thing, you have learned all things, because you have learned how to learn. I can think of no more worthwhile pursuit of education.
Have a clear-cut plan on what you wish to improve, and seek opportunities to improve it. The more conscious and honest we can be about our shortcomings, the more strength we will have to improve them. We are going to train hard anyway, we are not going to sweat any more or less. It is simply imperative that the sweat is properly directed.
I believe that which you study is only matched in importance by the sincerity with which you approach it.
Through Jiu Jitsu I have developed many of the most meaningful relationships in my life, and if that were the only benefit of my practice, Jiu Jitsu would still be the best endeavor I have ever undertaken.
I have seen far by seeing through the lens of Jiu Jitsu. I have exchanged a great deal of physical health for these insights, and these were trades worth making. My efforts were worth the return. I have sacrificed much in the name of this craft. Not for trophies or belts or prestige. For these fall away like dust. I pursued this art so fervently because it was not actually Jiu Jitsu I pursued. It was myself.
It is fellowship, this most fundamental need on our way toward achieving our highest expression of the human experience, which Jiu Jitsu provides.
Consistently failing is nothing more than an indication that you are progressing. The more we fail the farther we will see. Failure is not an option; it is the only option. A master is a master because he has had the courage to fail and the wisdom to learn from it.
Jiu Jitsu gives me an ideal to strive toward. Technical mastery lies on an infinite continuum and completion of this skill is impossible. Every time I train I have something that I can improve upon, and this will hold true for each and every training session that lies between me and my grave.
Relationships formed through Jiu Jitsu are deeply rooted in respect for one another, and this is often not the case in matters of modern society.
We must remember that science is a way of using empirical evidence to better understand our world. We are all scientists, just many of us are not very good ones. However, we are all capable of exercising our intellects in a purposeful, linear pursuit of knowledge.
As an instructor, my goal has always been to use Jiu Jitsu as a vehicle to help our students achieve their goals, whatever the case may be. I have yet to find a better vehicle for growth, and the moment I do I will certainly pursue it with the rivaled fervor that I approached Jiu Jitsu.
I have been given the rare opportunity to teach Jiu Jitsu for a living. This is a privilege that I wake up everyday grateful for, and a responsibility that I hold dearly. I understand how rare it is to be employed through a labor you genuinely love, and one which can be used as a vehicle for positive change in the lives of others. Even rarer still, I am often reminded of the quality of Jiu Jitsu I have learned, and the opportunity to have learned it.
This is the opportunity the fellowship of Jiu Jitsu affords us. To reach our highest potential of self, and then to offer that self to another.
We must remember that regardless of our differences in rank we are all equal as human beings. You can always tell how caring and compassionate others are in their actions towards those "below" them. Of course you are going to treat your black belt professor kindly, but how do you treat the white belt taking their first class? In spite of the division in belt rank there must be no division as people.
The road from white belt to black is long and arduous; most never reach the end. There are simply too many obstacles of daily life, and too much effort and attention required, for this to be something that the majority of practitioners achieve. This is why a black belt in Jiu Jitsu, especially from a reputable source, is the pinnacle of martial arts rank. It is valuable because of what must be traded for its achievement.
I would more appropriately define mastery as the technical ability possible within the constraints of your particular existence. It must be noted that this is a subjective definition, and that this degree of mastery would be individual to each of us.
The infinitude of Jiu Jitsu allows for the infinitude of the types of practitioners. There exists a game for each and every one of us which is specifically possible within the confines of our particular skill set.
I train Jiu Jitsu because I recognize that I am a piece of the whole, and as I grow so does that which contains me. The whole of man advances with the growth of a single individual. Every life I influence is benefited from the fact that I have devoted such a large portion of my life to this pursuit. I will be a better husband, father, and whatever other future roles I may hold because of my time in this sport. In making me a better man, I know that society as a whole is improved.
We are not practicing Jiu Jitsu to learn how to fight, we are learning how to live
There is no concrete way to play Jiu Jitsu, and this is why so many different types of people find joy in it.
I believe we must pursue mastery for who we become along the way in its achievement. When we progress in Jiu Jitsu, that newfound experience and wisdom transcends into all areas of our lives. We use Jiu Jitsu as the vehicle for growth, but that growth radiates over all of human activity. Someone who devotes time and energy in learning this skill is learning far more than how to subdue an opponent. The student learns persistence, perseverance, pattern recognition, problem solving, and most importantly, learning how to learn. In the arena of life, these virtues are far more valuable than any guard pass.
Jiu Jitsu forges friendships in a way I’ve never known. Being involved in an art as intimate as this, where bodily connection is a prerequisite, the common cultural boundaries of personal space are broken. You will never see more hugs, high fives, and physical expressions of love than on the mats.
There is no more valuable skill than studentship. The farther we go down one area of human understanding, the more we see the corollaries that all activities share. Everything I do for the rest of my life, all the skills I acquire, will be made possible because of my time spent on the mats. It has revealed a symbiosis between all things that I never knew existed.
I believe the best use of ones life is to serve others through a medium you are most passionate. Jiu Jitsu allows me the opportunity to give someone my time in the pursuit of THEIR dreams. It affords me the gift of willingly spending my non-redeemable life in the interest of another. Jiu JItsu has given me the opportunity to positively influence countless lives.
An arm bar in a vacuum is worthless. It is the realization of the truths which constitute that arm bar that is the real treasure we seek.
Jiu Jitsu has shown me that we are not confined to the lot which we inherit. We are not bound to these fetters eternally. They are temporal. We can transcend them should we sincerely choose to. Sincere effort is in fact the rarest virtue among man.
I use my understanding of jiu jitsu as a road map to learn other activities. I look for the similarities between the two, and use jiu jitsu as an allegory for whatever my new practice may be. I truly believe once you have learned one thing, you have learned all things because you have learned how to learn.
Jiu Jitsu provides a place of fellowship that, unfortunately, our society has largely failed to create.
We call it training. Not because we are training for Jiu Jitsu. We are training for life.
It appears, at least from my perspective, that each and every position in Jiu Jitsu regardless of the seeming complexity is really governed by no more than a handful of minimum viable products. Pursue to understand these essentials, and you will see that complexity is a myth perpetuated by lack of understanding, and it is this understanding which is possible for each of us.
By becoming a black belt, you will become whatever it is you wanted to be in the first place, and Jiu Jitsu will have served its aim.
I wanted to get to the most essential aspect of my being, and look around for a while. I wanted to explore what I am in my most basic self. I wanted to chip away at all of the nonsense I have acquired through my twenty-nine years on this earth. I wanted to find truth. Thoreau went to the woods. I went to the mats. Jiu Jitsu has peeled the veil of daily life, and has shown me what lies beyond the curtain. We willingly accept the chains that circumstance forces upon us, and we grow to find comfort in them. We attach various fetters of day-to-day living to our being, and we do so with a smile. We accept these constraints for they come in the way of comfort. We accept conformity for it appears the path of least resistance. We strive toward the middle, and we run from ourselves.
In Jiu Jitsu an inch is a mile, and a second is an eternity. Use each wisely.
The medal from an old grappling tournament will not serve me today, but the courage I developed in its acquisition will. By investing in yourself, by using all endeavors as a vehicle to shape who we are, we exist in the present moment with a lifetime of growth behind us. I have loved many vehicles throughout the years, Jiu Jitsu more than any other, but the vehicle has, and always will, be a distant second to the driver.
Plateaus are a manifestation of the law of diminishing returns, and when we reach one it simply means that it is time to adjust our methods.
On the other side of self-doubt lies a confidence born from faith in the process. Even though our destination may be far off, each day we rise with a subtle smile, as if we have already achieved it—because when we are truly committed to a task, we already have.
We must not learn to try harder. The key is to learn how not to try in the first place.
Make no mistake, you earn a white belt. The belt is a physical representation of a commitment to the beginner's mind. It is a vulnerability and a willingness to learn that shines through.
I train because it makes every area of my life better, and it makes me better at every area of my life.
This is what Jiu Jitsu gives us, and is what so often remains ineffable. Jiu Jitsu frees us and allows us to be what we have always been, but simply never had the medium to express. Jiu Jitsu is the vehicle. Not the Road
True mastery, it turns out, is not found in accumulating each and every tool under the sun. True mastery is learning that there are really only a handful of tools, and it is the proper application with correct timing and setting that makes them so useful.
Do not seek victory, for victory in itself will not serve you. Seek to understand what made the victory possible.
Jiu Jitsu is a vehicle for self-discovery and growth. It reminds me of my ego, of my insecurities, and of my shortcomings.
You are never as good as you think you are, and you are never as bad as you believe yourself to be.
I can think of no more worthwhile aim than pursuing mastery in this craft while transcending one’s own limitations.
To achieve anything we must grind, but to enjoy anything we must flow.
The major events in our lives receive the entire spotlight, but ultimately your life will be defined by the same handful of choices you make each day.
When you realize you are no longer made of glass, you lose the desire to demonstrate that fragility in others.
Anyone can be tough for a season. It takes a special kind of human to rise to life's challenges for a lifetime.
After I received my blue belt, I soon recognized that the belts were simply an external representation of an inner experience, and that they mattered little compared to the person I was becoming.
Wearing a black belt does not make you a super hero, and wearing a white belt does not mean you have little to offer as a person. It is what we do in the belts we wear, and not the belts themselves that matter.
To base your self worth relative to others is to play a losing game. If you are at the bottom, you will be filled with self-loathing. If you are at the top, you will be filled with self-aggrandizement and ego. This will most certainly be one of your greatest obstacles to achieving whatever degree of mastery you are capable.
For the sincere student, it mustn't be enough to simply understand Jiu Jitsu. We must seek to understand ourselves.
Jiu Jitsu is a baptism by combat, and serves a purpose in the inner life of the individual that has always existed, but our modern culture fails to acknowledge.
If Jiu Jitsu does not make you a better father, son, mother, daughter, wife or husband, you are missing the point. If Jiu Jitsu does not leave you viewing strangers in a kinder light, you are missing the point. If you are not better equipped to deal with the vicissitudes of life due to your training, then you are not really training.
The highest aim was never to master Jiu Jitsu; it was to master myself.