Mission trainer makes suffering pay off

MISSION — Two movies forever changed Jason Richard Solis’ life.The first was Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon, which Solis saw as a child and later inspired him to travel across the country, learn kung fu and open his own martial arts studio in Mission.

The second was 300, the movie released earlier this year about the heroic stand of a Spartan army at the ancient Battle of Thermopylae. The film, which showcases hundreds of muscled warriors battling a vast Persian army, convinced him he needed to do something to help Rio Grande Valley residents, who are among the fattest in the nation.

“We have the highest child obesity rate in the nation,” said Solis, now the 23-year-old owner of Texas Martial Arts in Mission. “When I was dwelling on how to change the Valley locally, I went to see the movie 300 and that inspired me.”

Solis sought out the people who trained the massively fit actors in the Greek epic film — Mark Francis Twight and Logan Hood — so he could learn the program and try to teach it to people in South Texas.

He said he was one of only 40 people in the country invited to train with Twight and Hood.

For a week, Solis spent more than 10 hours a day learning the program, studying and participating in four workouts a day.

“It’s an intense program,” Solis said. “We don’t have any AC. We turn on the heater. No iPods and no magazines.”

One of the keys to Solis’ workout is skipping the traditional weights and machines and doing exercises with wood boxes and kettle bells. He doesn’t pretend the workouts are a quick and easy path to fitness, but he said following the regime would definitely make you start to look like the muscle-bound Spartans in 300.

“One of our slogans is ‘Be prepared to suffer,’” he said.