News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Todd Jutte supervises as Clint Davis and Fred Woodworth demo the new Cross Fitt Crusader. Jutte has attracted serious interest from TKO.
Todd Jutte thinks he may have launched a revolution in martial arts oriented conditioning last weekend.
The lifelong martial arts enthusiast and Brazilian Jujitsu instructor debuted his new training apparatus, the Cross Fitt Crusader, at Cascade Fitness in Sisters on Saturday. Jutte gathered a test crew composed of elite athletes and trainers as well as Army National Guard personnel for a demonstration that was videotaped by Stu Ehr of Sisters.
Jutte plans to market the apparatus to the U.S. Military and to the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fight training world.
The Crusader is the essence of simplicity: a steel framework that hosts three stations - three incline benches, a pull-up station, a station for parallel bar dips and the centerpiece, a training bag station with a heavy bag and a couple of dangling speed bags.
Six people can train at once in a high-intensity circuit designed to build strength endurance and cardiovascular conditioning of the kind required in the ring or in a real-life fight.
A key element of the Crusader is the "hat" that connects the heavy bag to its overhead mooring. Instead of the conventional chains, which have to be unhooked to drop the bag, the steel "hat" with a single swivel hook allows the user to drop the bag and lift it up and reattach it at will.
This allows an MMA trainee to grapple with the bag, throw it to the ground and work on his "ground and pound" stamina and technique.
The idea for the Crusader came to Jutte suddenly.
"I was driving my truck down the road and I had a vision in my brain, a snapshot, of what's before us right now," he said.
The prototype for the Crusader was built by True-line Steel of Redmond, and Jeff Wester of Ponderosa Forge & Ironworks in Sisters built the prototype heavy bag hat.
Jutte is marketing his invention through his company FHK Inc. Mark Ahern, who has 14 years experience working for Nike, is handling the sales and marketing. Jutte believes the apparatus will take the combat sports training world by storm - and it looks like he's right.
Lee McLaren, sales manager for TKO, manufacturer of heavy bags and other boxing and martial arts training accessories, flew up from Houston for the demo and video session.
"I actually came down for the heavy bag hat," McLaren said. He was impressed.
"I've been pitched every heavy bag device in the world and I've never seen anything like this," he said.
McLaren is equally impressed by the Crusader apparatus.
"The system as a whole is something we're going to explore with FHK," he said. "For it to be this functional as a prototype is phenomenal."
The simple, bodyweight-exercise focus of the apparatus is part of the appeal for TKO, McLaren said. With a projected price point of $2,000, the Crusader offers gym owners the opportunity to train six people at a time for roughly half the cost of a pro-quality treadmill machine.
The workout provided by the apparatus is taxing - but easily adjustable to ability and strength.
Kelly Engum, a fitness trainer at Living Fitness in Stanfield, Oregon, came to Sisters for the demo. He noted that women were using the apparatus alongside Redmond Crossfit affiliate owner Tom Benge, who stands six-feet-six-inches and weighs in at a powerfully muscled 275 pounds.
Clint Davis, a martial arts trainer from Houston, Texas, and a multiple bare-knuckle-fighting title holder, found the workout "very efficient." He said the timed interval regimen used on the Crusader is very similar to the stresses put on the body in the ring.
Davis said using the Crusader imposes structure on a workout.
"It really allows the fighter to focus on his intensity instead of what's next," he said.
Jutte recruited Engum, Benge, and Davis through contacts with mutual friends. Alongside the elite athletes was a trio of young National Guard troopers, two women and a young man.
"I stopped at their base (in Redmond) and told them about it and they were excited to try it," Jutte said.
Rounding out the demonstration crew was Fred Woodworth, who studies Brazilian Jujitsu with Jutte at Cascade Fitness.
Woodworth said that the heavy bag station is the one that pushes the workout into brutal terrain, taxing the whole body as the fighter throws knees, elbows and fists, alternating with pulling down the speedbag for more knee action.
Grappling with the bag makes the workout extremely tough.
Woodworth noted that with the intervals of rest and work, the demo crew only put in six minutes of actual exercise, but it was at such a level of intensity that even the elite guys were feeling it.
Jutte has every confidence that fighters and other folks just looking for a tough, high intensity martial arts-style workout will gravitate to the Crusader.
"It's going to take conditioning to a new level," he said.
Jutte plans to use the Crusader in his Brazilian Jujitsu classes and he is also offering independent, supervised classes using the apparatus. Call Cascade Fitness at 549-1729 for more information.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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