CROSSFIT UNMATCHED

Fast, furious, and more for the faint of heart than you think!

Matt and Ashley Kolozsvary don’t just coach the holy-cowI-can’t-go-any-harder workouts at Mount Dora’s CrossFit Unmatched. They also head up one of the two highestranked teams from Florida to earn a spot at the Southeast regionals of the Worldwide CrossFit Games. They rank seventh in the region; worldwide, there are only 17 regions.

Beginning At The Beginning

Matt and Ashley discovered CrossFit by accident. And both were surprised by their first workouts. “Mine kicked my bottom!” says Ashley.

“Actually, my first workout annihilated me,” adds Matt. But it wasn’t long before new relationships and effort forged from sweat made converts out of both of them and eventually brought them together.

Husband and wife for about a year and a half, Matt and Ashley share common backgrounds. Ashley received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Central Florida with a double major in human performance and exercise science. Matt has a Bachelor of Science in human performance and a master’s degree in human performance and injury prevention. He is also an NSCA-certified strength and conditioning specialist and a NASM performance enhancement specialist. Both are CrossFit-certified Level 1 and CrossFit mobility coaches. Addtionally, Ashley is also CrossFit Kids-certified.

“Education, experience, and training really matter to us,” says Matt. “Someone can open a CrossFit facility with just a little more than a weekend’s worth of training, so do your homework before you select a CrossFit gym.”

Infinitely Scalable

One of the important things Matt and Ashley stress is regardless of your level of fitness, CrossFit Unmatched will meet you where you are. “We coach children as young as 4 years old, students, businesspeople and homemakers, former and active military personnel, first responders, people who have lost limbs, and even a 67-year-old woman with a fused knee,” says Matt. “We work on form first and then intensity. We have many more beginners than experts, and we modify workouts to your level of fitness. All our clients do modified exercises before doing them as prescribed.”

CrossFit workouts use basic, functional-fitness exercises, such as squats, pushups, pullups, dips, deadlifts, medicine ball throws, and more, and require you to use a full range of motion along with short bursts of cardio. Then it throws all of the moves into a blender and flips the switch to ‘puree.’

“Clients say there’s no way they can do something. Then they do it and feel so accomplished once they get through it,” says Ashley.

Variety Is The Name Of The Game

According to CrossFit founder Greg Glassman, “CrossFit is a deliberate attempt to optimize physical competence in each of 10 areas: cardiovascular and respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy.”

“CrossFit mimics how we move in everyday life,” says Matt. “Humans use multiple muscles to move; we engage our quads, hamstrings, gluts, calves, and core to walk, pick up groceries, get off the couch, get out of bed, and stand from a chair or toilet. How often do you find yourself bicep curling the milk to put it away or attempting to move furniture using your legs? CrossFit is about creating usable strength.”

The goal of overall fitness — “functional” strength — and all-around preparedness of CrossFit has attracted many law enforcement agencies, military and firefighting units, and martial artists who like “training for the unknown and unknowable.”

A Race To The Finish

When you go to the gym, each workout of the day (WOD) is different and provides fresh energy to your body. Every workout uses a time component, so one day you might race the clock to finish in the shortest amount of time and the next, you might try to complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes. The competitive environment makes workouts a game.

“You and the people in your class will have the workout of your life while you all sweat, grunt, and bond together,” Ashley says. “Over time, these people start to become your friends.”

THE FITTEST ON EARTH™

So what’s on Matt and Ashley’s CrossFit bucket list? Making the 2014 Reebok CrossFit Games world championships, where the best athletes and teams at regionals compete in the world’s premier test to find the Fittest on Earth™.

If you have never done CrossFit before and want to try it before you commit, CrossFit Unmatched has free Saturday WODs at 10 a.m. with no experience required. Meet coaches and clients at the new Mount Dora location at 2800 Tavares Road. See how a CrossFit class runs and decide whether it’s for you. For more details, call 352.602.8895.