Elevate Jiu Jitsu takes down stereotypes with clean, modern facility

Tim Harty, The Business Times

Enter without sunglasses at your own peril. When you step inside Elevate Jiu Jitsu Academy, it’s bright and white with walls of windows welcoming daylight. And it’s oh so clean.

That’s intentional.

Elevate Jiu Jitsu co-owner Shawn Montgomery knows the stereotype that prevails – no thanks to pretty much every boxing movie ever – when it comes to local gyms for martial arts, boxing, wrestling, etc. They’re in dark, austere, grungy, dirty buildings, like old warehouses.

Montgomery and fellow co-owners Joel Arellano and Justin Branch weren’t having any of that. When they leased the space in March at 1027 S. Seventh St, where they opened Elevate Jiu Jitsu Academy on Nov. 15, they knew what they wanted.

The walls are primarily white with some gray as a complement. Warehouse garage doors, tall and wide, serve as walls made of glass panels. The floor is light gray. The training area is a nearly 1,000-square-foot elevated mat system, and it’s white, framed by a gray perimeter.

“Most jiu jitsu gyms are kind of like dungeons or, you know, kind of old… We really wanted a modern, super-clean facility, especially for the Grand Valley,” Montgomery said. “We could have done what a lot of other gyms do and, you know, really focus on just laying some mats down and going, but we really wanted to build something that was more of a studio vibe, just a place that everybody felt welcome.”

Montgomery and the other owners and instructors at Elevate Jiu Jitsu have traveled around the nation and the world, and he said they took stock of the things they liked at the places where they trained.

They took “little nuggets of things that we saw at those gyms that we liked and kind of envisioned it here as much as possible, and then we put our own little flair on there,” Montgomery said. “The clean, modern facility is set up for that reason, so you can actually tell if this place is dirty.”

That’s an important selling point to clients, as Montgomery said he and his business partners and fellow instructors all have experienced the skin infections “that come from just this type of training.” Then, he added, “But it’s avoidable.”

Dirt detection begets a cleaning correction.

In addition to a bright, clean facility, the owners sank money into other niceties that set Elevate Jiu Jitsu apart from much of the competition. 

It provides two bathrooms, a couple showers, a changing room and a real rarity: a sauna.

“We’ve got a six-person, legit sauna,” Montgomery said. “That’s one of the things that we thought about. So, not only training, but our recovery, we take that very seriously, not only just for the physical recovery, but the mental health recovery that comes with it.”

The facility has an area with couches and comfortable chairs right next to the training area for watching others train or just to relax and hang out. Plus, there’s a retail area where members can buy t-shirts, sweatshirts, training gear, supplements, etc.

The investment to start Elevate Jiu Jitsu Academy was significant, as Montgomery acknowledged, “We’re definitely in over six figures,” which included the buildout, inventory and mats. He said the mat system alone cost $25,000.

Montgomery believes the investment is worth it. He said he, Arellano and Branch “did a lot of market research,” and they “felt cautious but confident” that the Grand Valley wants what they’re offering and will support it.

“We believed in the community so much,” Montgomery said. “I mean, of course, we had trepidation going into it, like every business owner, you know? But we believed in the community, and we knew that if we brought a good product to market, that the community was gonna support it, and man, they really have.

“We’ve been truly blessed with a great start to this.”

Montgomery said a lot of that great start can be credited to another area the owners committed to getting right: the programming. Be it kids programs, women-only programs or the regular jiu jitsu instruction, he said effort and time and care went into the programming and the selection of the coaches for the programs.

With nine coaches in place, Montgomery said Elevate Jiu Jitsu is fully staffed.

Another factor deserving mention is the location of the academy. Elevate Jiu Jitsu didn’t just settle for whatever it could get. Montgomery said location was important, and 1027 S. Seventh St. is an ideal spot for access and getting noticed.

“We’re down here by the Riverside Parkway, and this corridor is growing and building out towards us,” he said. “We’re literally right down here by Las Colonias Park, across the street from Botanical Gardens. The movement of this whole kind of revitalization of this little corridor here is something we were like, ‘This is a great spot.’

“Also, the other gyms are on the other side of town. They’re in the north area of town, so we knew that if we were more downtown, centrally located, but on some big throughways, that we were gonna be able to take care of the people in the north that wanted to come train here, Clifton, also Orchard Mesa.”

People clearly have figured out where Elevate Jiu Jitsu Academy is and what it offers. Speaking to The Business Times on Dec. 23, about five weeks after the academy opened, Montgomery said, “We are over 100 students strong and growing.”

The community response exceeded expectations and encouraged the owners to start talking about implementing what they call Phase 2. Montgomery then opened a door at the back of Elevate’s training room and, lo and behold, stepped into a low-lit and dingy warehouse space, a place where it’s easy to visualize Rocky Balboa whaling on a heavy bag.

But Phase 2 will sanitize that, all 3,000 square feet. Montgomery said there is a trigger in Elevate Jiu Jitsu’s lease that allows its owners to notify the landlord, Atlasta Solar Center, that they want to move into that space.

“We’re already having that conversation between the owners about expansion, because the capacity, especially of our kids programs, they’re getting pretty big already, so we’re reimagining this space,” Montgomery said.

The vision calls for half of that space to have locker rooms, a cold plunge, red-light therapy, compression, “all recovery stuff from training and life,” he said.

And the other 1,500 square feet? “Just mat space,” Montgomery said, then listed it being populated with equipment such as punching bags, Muay Thai bags, CrossFit-type racks, echo bikes and rowing machines.

“Members would literally be able to have a one-stop shop,” he said. “So, they pay a certain amount, they can do jiu jitsu, they can do striking, they can come get their workouts in.

“We’ll also have personal trainers here then that will be available. And then afterwards, they have the recovery … a nice, clean, modern, secure spot to change, shower and all of that stuff.”

Montgomery reiterated the conversation about Phase 2 has begun, but no timeline has been established.

“We’re working on all of that,” he said, “but then trying to figure out, financially, what’s the trigger point for us to launch into here?”

Elevate Jiu Jitsu Academy is located at 1027 S. Seventh St. in Grand Junction.

For business hours, class schedules, membership rates and more, go online to 

www.elevatejjacademy.com.

If you have questions:

• Email hello@elevatejjacademy.com.
• Call 970-822-5888.

If you want to try a new workout …

The new year is prime time for resolutions, and a whole lot of people resolve to get fit. If that’s you, and you’re willing to consider something different, Elevate Jiu Jitsu Academy co-owner Shawn Montgomery suggests giving jiu jitsu a look.

He said it doesn’t even have to be at his academy. Just give jiu jitsu a try.

“It is a wonderful workout,” Montgomery said. “It is a phenomenal martial art for self defense. And the community that you will be a part of is going to change your life in a special way.

“It’s just one of those things that you gotta step on the mat and trust that when you do step on the mat that you’re in a safe, supportive, protective – you know all the buzzwords – inclusive environment. Everybody’s welcome.”

For those who want to hit stuff

The new year is bringing a new, female coach and a striking program to Elevate Jiu Jitsu. Montgomery said she is a former MMA fighter who has been training striking for a long time.

He said she approached Elevate Jiu Jitsu recently and asked about offering a striking program during one of the open-mat times. To that, Montgomery responded, “I think it’s a great idea.”

He added striking is also interesting, because “the true jujitsu practitioner does not want to be around the striking.”

So, he kept that in mind and said Elevate “compartmentalized our striking program to where that is the only thing taking place in this facility at that time.”

Relax, take a seat

Montgomery said the nicely furnished seating area at Elevate Jiu Jitsu is not something you’ll find in many gyms, but he views it as essential.

“It just invites collaboration,” he said. “We have members that just come here and, you know, drink coffee and watch training. We have members that are remote employees for other corporations and companies, and they’ll come in here and fire up their computer and get some work done before training or after training.

“But we just really wanted this modern space for people to be able to just enjoy it.”