At least two days a week, Jeff Binder finishes up his lunch hour drenched in sweat.

Certainly that is bound to happen after spending 55 minutes jumping on truck tires, high kicking, sparring and taking on an extreme form of tug-of-rope — among other physical tests.

“I go to another gym where workouts are just what I do,” he said. “What I like about this is that there’s more creativity. Here you just do what it takes to do the exercise right as opposed to a half hour of feeling the urge to just get off the equipment. This is a lot of fun. It’s a more playful workout.”

Undoubtedly there is a true sense of camaraderie among the men at the lunchtime MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) Fitness workout orchestrated by Guy Chase at Guy Chase Academy of Martial Arts in Portsmouth.

As they move swiftly from exercise to exercise, not only does Chase — called “Guru Guy” — often encourage them, they often encourage each other.

“You can do it Tim,” Bryan White said to the man next to him as they powered through a series that involved the lifting of, jumping on and then running with a truck tire and sparring with small weights. “You got this.”

From the start, the 55-minute workout is controlled by Chase, with the help of a small black box in the corner that signals each team a three-minute increment is up. That’s the cue that it’s time for a 30-second break before moving on to the next exercise Chase has planned.

“It’s about using the whole body to move weight and distribute weight,” he said. “It is better for your joints and makes you much stronger.”

White can attest to that.

He has shed some 55 pounds since first beginning to work out with Chase. Not only has he competed in road races since then, he also is training to take part in his second Tough Mudder endurance obstacle course race event.

“It’s a super-effective workout, it’s a lot of fun and it’s extremely unconventional,” he said. “I couldn’t imagine going back to running on a treadmill and lifting after having done this.”

Chase, who has been doing martial arts for 35 years, has traveled around the world to train with the “masters,” as well as teach.

These days his schedule includes leading classes like this lunchtime workout with fitting in short-term specialized training for groups from around the world.

“The ironic part is that most of the masters I learned from have either passed on, moved on or are older now, so a lot of this knowledge is lost,” Chase said. “That’s why I am so busy working with people from all over, whom either come here to the studio or I travel to teach them.”

His experience in places like Bali, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, is evident as he seamlessly blends motivational techniques he has learned from different cultures as well as incorporating equipment like the Indian clubs and the ball and mace.

Throughout the workout, Chase taps the claves, a musical instrument made of thick, wooden dowels, “to stimulate the action” as well as to establish a rhythm for the men, and sometimes women, as they exercise.

“All of this is based on what I do to train a UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) fighter,” he said. “A lot of the exercises are designed so that you don’t realize what you’re working, and you don’t have to think, but you do feel the results.”

That is not surprising since in three minutes, for instance, one of the exercisers can be doing as many as 120 to 180 knee lifts without any counting involved.

“I’ve been going to the gym 24 years, since I was 16,” said Terence Nelan. “But I see something new every time I come here.”

White agreed.

“I like the intensity of it,” he said. “There are a lot of group fitness programs out there, but they’re not like this. I shaped up really fast. I had been doing running and some weights but didn’t have a lot of direction. This was a game changer.”

And, believe it or not, after jumping, kicking, sparring and, yes sweating through the MMA lunchtime fitness workout, White, and every other person there, said they feel energized when they go back to work.

A side benefit — “After you do this a couple of times a week, junk food doesn’t seem all that attractive either,” White said.

If you have an idea you would like considered for a future “Get off the Couch” column, contact Rachel Collins at Rcollinsme@gmail.com.

By Ken Stejbach
kstejbach@seacoastonline.com
February 26, 2010 2:00 AM

Dylan Ryan will soon be able to look up and see his name on a wrestling banner that hangs on the wall of Exeter High School’s small gym.

That’s because Ryan won the Division I title last Saturday in his 189-pound weight class.

“It meant a lot to me,” said Ryan, a 17-year-old senior from Brentwood. “There are all great wrestlers on the banner.”

Many like Andrew Dawkins and Ben Trotzer, he noted.

“It’s been my goal throughout high school to be the Division I champion,” said Ryan, who felt “overwhelmed by it all” on the podium Saturday.

Ryan has a bigger goal this Saturday when he wrestles in the Meet of Champions at Londonderry High School.

Ryan will be joined by fellow Exeter teammates Nathan Peterson and Connor Scott in that pursuit. Peterson, a junior, qualified to compete in the Meet of Champions after placing third in his 160-pound division, while Scott, a sophomore, qualified by placing fourth at 119.

Ryan’s future goals?

“I want to win the Meet of Champions and I want to win the New Englands,” said Ryan.

Winning the Division I tournament “was kind of step one” for Ryan, who enters the Meet of Champions with a 28-2 record this season. His only losses have come out of state.

Being the No. 1 seed for the Meet of Champions after winning the Division I tournament is “exactly where I want to be at this point of the season,” said Ryan. “I know all my opponents are working hard at this point, so I have to work harder. It’s a tough weight class. I’ll have to wrestle well.”

Ryan had to wrestle well for three overtimes in Saturday’s Division I final against Timberlane’s Shane Tremblay.

“It kind of felt right,” said Ryan, referring to the overtime periods and noting he had had a number of overtime bouts, especially during his sophomore season. “I was ready for it.”

He was also very familiar with Tremblay, having wrestled and practiced with him a number of times during the offseason at what is referred to as Smitty’s wrestling barn.

Working hard in the room, being in the Division I finals last year and finishing second, and knowing that experience, “pushed me through it,” said Ryan.

“His endurance is second to none,” said Exeter coach Greg Dussol. “He’s in good shape and doesn’t make many mistakes. He’s worked really hard this wrestling season.”

Ryan, who stood out athletically as well on the football field, has put his college options aside for the present time. Right now he’s taking it one day at a time. He has been accepted, though, at Vermont, Connecticut, Illinois, Tulane University, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Peterson and Scott have also worked hard for their moments at the Meet of Champions.

Peterson may have gotten off to an 0-8 start this season in his 160-pound division, but “I knew back then that he was better than that,” said Dussol. “He didn’t surprise me in the second half (of the season).”

Peterson was definitely expecting to have a great junior year after having a pretty good sophomore season, but it wasn’t until the Londonderry match that he began trusting “my shot and getting more offensive that I started getting a lot better,” said the 17-year-old from Brentwood.

Even while on the podium for third-place this past Saturday he was thinking “I should at least be second.”

Peterson feels he can do better this Saturday.

“I’m giving it my all and want to have no regrets,” said Peterson, noting he’s still trying to make up for his poor start this season.

During the offseason, Peterson studies Mixed Martial Arts. Fighting in the MMA and UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championships) is a possible future pursuit for Peterson. He’s currently taking Muay-Thai and Brazilian Jujitsu at Guy Chase’s martial arts studio in Greenland.

Scott is a 15-year-old from Kensington, and the brother of former Exeter standout, Chris Scott.

Dussol said Connor impressed him right from the very start of the season.

“He had his ups and downs throughout the season,” said Dussol, “but I knew he had the potential to place in the states. He wrestled probably the best he wrestled all year (at the Division I championships). He has very solid basic skills. He does certain things very well. Now we just have to refine them.”

“I worked hard for this moment,” said Connor Scott.

The most recent name on the Division I wrestling banner that hangs on the wall is that of Andrew Dawkins, who won the Division I championship in his 160-pound weight class in 2005. Before that was Anthony Albine, who won the 135-pound weight class in 1996.

Others on the banner include:

1995 – Ben Trotzer, 119 pounds.

1994 – Gavin Lauder, 189 pounds.

1993 – Ben Trotzer, 103 pounds, Paul Pepler, 140 pounds.

1991 – Brian Gennetti, 103 pounds, Josh Locke, 112 pounds, Joel Richardson, 130 pounds, Jarrod Castonguay, 189 pounds.

To the left of the Divison I banner is the New Hampshire championship banner.

Included are:

1994 – Ben Trotzer, 119 pounds, Gavin Lauder, 189 pounds.

1993 – Ben Trotzer, 103 pounds.

1992 – Joshua Locke, 119 pounds.

1991 – Joel Richardson, 130 pounds, Jarrod Castonguay, 189 pounds.

1990 – Joel Richardson, 125 pounds, Jarrod Castonguay, 189 pounds.

1988 – Robert Brown, 152 pounds, Ted Castonguay, 189 pounds.

1980 – Robert Schwartz, heavyweight.

Further to the left on the New England Championship banner is one name:

1988 – Ted Castonguay, 189 pounds.

By Rachel M. Collins
February 17, 2011

Bryan White makes it all seem so logical — his transition from sitting on the couch, to running on the treadmill, to competing in road races, to training for an endurance event that will culminate in running an eight-mile, 22-obstacle course including fleeing through two walls of fire.

“Yeah when I tell people about it, they think I’m crazy,” he said. “But I’m really looking forward to it.”

What makes White’s transformation even more unbelievable is that he only began it in June.

“I think it was a midlife crisis,” said White, who is 35. “I just all of a sudden really was self-conscious. I was creeping toward a record high weight and it didn’t look like it was stopping.”

Although he admits that over the years he had “a lot of starts and stops,” this time he made it work.

White began by running “two agonizingly slow miles” on the treadmill for a few weeks.

Then his wife, who is a runner and fitness instructor, encouraged him to join her running outside.

“After I did that, I decided I was never going to run on a treadmill again,” White said. “I became addicted to running outside.”

Next, a friend was unable to make it to one of the road races, so in stepped White.

“I did well,” he said. “What I liked about the races (he ended up running the entire Seacoast series) is that measurable progress was really empowering.”

Not to mention that he had lost 42 pounds, with the bulk of the weight coming off in four months.

“The hardest part was the first few weeks of establishing a routine,” White said. “Once you see the results, you run a little faster or go a little farther.”

Yet he said after running a 10K race he knew running a marathon wouldn’t be in the cards for him.

“A 5K race is just long enough for me,” he said. “I did a 10K and it was agony for me, not because it was difficult, but because it was too long. I thought if only you could intersperse some monkey bars or something.”

That’s when a friend posted on Facebook something about the Tough Mudder races. Scheduled for May in Mount Snow, Vt., Tough Mudder New England is billed as a one-day challenge to test “toughness, fitness, strength, stamina and mental grit.” Walking planks, sloshing through swamps, yes, even wooden monkey bars greased with butter over a lake are interspersed here.

“I knew I had to do something to keep me going,” White said. “This looked pretty exciting. This looked like it.”

Yet White figured it would be better to work within the camaraderie of a team to stay motivated.

Amazingly almost as soon as he sent out a company-wide notice in October to co-workers at PixelMEDIA, people signed on.

Calling themselves the PixelMUDDIERs, the group of six trains together at least once a week and does individual workouts with martial arts experts, personal trainers and the like another four or five days a week.

“I’ve never done anything like this before,” said Terence Nelan. “My dad says it’s a wonderful thing to ‘have done.’ It looks like it will be challenging and I’m always up for a challenge.”

Cris Dow is another who signed on.

“I just turned 30 so I figured I should do something to prove I’m still young,” he said. “It’s good because I have found working in an office has definitely slowed me down a bit.”

Erik Dodier, chief executive officer of PixelMEDIA, was actually one of the first to join, not only because he liked the personal challenge but because it fit right in with the company’s motto of “doing more than expected.”

“It has created a conversation around here,” he admitted. “Even people who aren’t doing it now are doing other things to be more active — like snowshoeing at lunch.”

In addition, Dodier said there has been a shift in the food the company offers during events.

“We’ve tried to make it healthier,” he said. “It’s definitely brought awareness to people. It’s in the air.”

Going a step further, the PixelMUDDIERS also are raising money through pledges and donations to benefit the Friends Project, a nonprofit organization the company has done “pro bono” work for, which provides social and recreational opportunities for youth and young adults with disabilities.

“Even though everybody I talked to said I was insane, I figured if I threw the idea at the whole company someone would be into it,” White said. “What’s great is that now it has a teamwork, sportsmanship vibe to it.”

As for the insane part, even White admits he will forgo one of the advertised challenges — participants are allowed to skip challenges if they choose.

“There’s this one where wires are hanging down and a few are randomly charged with 10,000 volts of electricity,” he said. “If you hit a live wire, you drop like you’re being tasered. I won’t do that, there’s no value in that.”

As White will tell you, the value instead is in looking forward to working out and heading off to the races with your friends, all for the better good.

Check out this clip from the WCF10 fight between GCAMA student, Joel Ly and Billy Walsh on June 13, 2010. Plenty of elbows from Joel, who won by submission with a triangle choke in the third round.