Prior to my visit to Hong Kong, I asked two of my fellow BJJ globetrotters where to train and both strong recommended dropping by Epic MMA Club in Hong Kong’s Central Business District. I hopped on the subway from Kowloon down to Hong Kong Island to drop in to Epic’s Hong Kong Labor day open mat session. The gym, which is affiliated with Rodrigo Medeiros and the BJJ Revolution team, is located on the first floor of a high-rise office building in a shopping district full of luxury store fronts including Louis Vutton and Rolex.
The elevator door opened right up to Epic’s front lobby where I was warmly greeted by the receptionist. I filled out a waiver form on an iPad and paid my $35 USD drop-in fee. Another staff member then escorted me to a walk-in storage area where I tried on several rental gis for my class. The gym offers laundry service to all of its members, so most members leave their gis at the gym to be washed, dried, and placed back in the storage room. As students entered the academy, they walked to the storage room area and grabbed their gis which were neatly hanging in the room.
After getting my gi, I was given a quick tour of the spacious locker room, which includes free towel service, multiple tiled shower stalls, benches, clothes rack with hangers, and lockers with digital locks built into each locker.
Since I was early for class, I took a quick walk-around the gym which included
- Pro shop with supplements, drinks, rash guards, boxing equipment, shorts, and gis. Lots of Reebok branded UFC apparel.
- Full weight room with free weights, machines, and dumbbells.
- CrossFit and fitness class area with TRX, kettlebells, medcine balls, and other equipment.
- Cardio equipment including treadmills, bikes, and eliptical machines
- Large kickboxing and boxing area lined with bags and boxing ring.
As I toured the facility, I noticed several staff members continually cleaning the equipment and floors. For a gym servicing hundreds of members per day, it was very clean and didn’t have that gym smell many martial arts gyms get from all of the sweat and humidity at the gym.
I entered the large MMA and BJJ mat area which included plenty of mat space and a small MMA cage. The mat area is lined with Zebra mats, which are the same mats used at IBJJF competitions. The students were very friendly and took time to welcome me and introduce themselves. The class and open mat sessions were lead by UFC fighter Alberto Mina, who holds third degree black belts in both BJJ and Judo. The warm ups included jogging, BJJ related exercises like shoulder rolls, shrimping, and break falls, and grip fighting and guard pulling drills. After we were warmed up, we proceeded to roll for an hour. Professor Mina was very friendly and I even had the chance to roll with him during the open mat.
Overall, Professor Mina and his students were super-friendly. Epic MMA is one of the top 3 nicest BJJ gyms I have ever visited. In addition to BJJ, Epic MMA offers a kids program, boxing, Muay Thai, Krav Maga, MMA, CrossFit, gymnastics, and strength and conditioning classes on the their schedule. If you are traveling through Hong Kong and looking for a great gym to visit, definitely check out one of Epic MMA’s convenient locations around Hong Kong.
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