Matt’s wife, Candice, keeps him in check and in line with both API and the Minnesota Police Department. They have four dogs that help round out their loving family.
Matt was a silent investor in an already established mobile business that Scott began in 2004. They became coworkers while working for the Police Department before becoming partners on the Community Response Team, a plain-clothes vice unit. Matt wanted to invest some money he made from a home sale into a long-term business that would eventually allow him a second career or a long-term investment. They conversed more about the prospect of API while arresting drug dealers and raiding drug homes.
Scott eventually told Matt his business plan. Matt put his money down, and the two decided to go into business together to centralize the mobile training business into an actual training center. Their timing could not have been better, and the location was a good fit with the Minnesota Martial Arts Academy. “I remember busting my ass for two weeks straight to get the gym up and running because the UFC All Access show was coming to film Sean Sherk’s workouts.”
Things haven’t always been peachy, as Matt laughingly explained: “When I first met Scott thirteen years ago and after transferring to the CRT team, I hated Scott. I thought he was brash, arrogant, blunt, and irritating. I came to realize that he was going to become one of my best friends—that he was going to push me past my limitations to become involved with something that brings me a sense of joy and satisfaction. But I still hate him!” Having seen them in action, they are like two feuding brothers with A-type personalities. They make fun of each other and beat each other up, but they would go to war at the drop of a hat for one another; they truly are family.
API is the most edgy and gut-wrenching strength and conditioning program around, and Matt gave me his thoughts on how they made their program distinct from others. “What people are experiencing is the methodology and training style of Scott Ramsdell and the emotion, the kind of ‘chip on the shoulder’ attitude we both bring into the way we live, especially in our profession and the way I live life. Scott is definitely the ‘good cop’ to my ‘bad cop.’ I think this analogy aptly illustrates the differing views Scott and I bring to API and to MMA strength and conditioning in general. I will always defer to Scott for the technical and professional aspect of fitness because he has the experience and education. I bring the outsider’s viewpoint, the person who sees things ‘outside’ the fitness box and the traditional way of thinking.”
Matt explained their approach, “The basics must be established before an athlete can progress to advanced levels. You would be amazed at how many pro athletes have so many basic physical issues. In my experience, MMA fighters have the worst agility and hand strength issues when weights don’t come with handles. Even high school athletes to college athletes have some of the worst forms in the most basic of lifts, including squats, cleans, dead lifts, etc. The basics establish the API method regarding every athlete prior to increasing speed and weight.”
An average Joe should do Caveman training about three to four days a week at most and incorporate both cardio and strength days. That means that the average Joe would be in a beginner’s or intermediate class and could pull off doing that many training sessions per week.
Pro fighters should be doing a periodical schedule of at least two days per week. And, more importantly, they should listen to the strength and conditioning instructor when it comes to tapering and stopping rather than listening to their technical coaches. Matt elaborated: “That is one of the sore spots that Scott and I have had to deal with—technical coaches overriding a periodical schedule for professional fights. I can’t think of us going to an MMA or grappling class and telling the athlete, ‘you don’t have to work on your strikes because we’ll take it from here up to your fight’ Are you fucking kidding me! It’s a passionate topic that is still pretty raw to both Scott and I.”
Their slogan adorned the walls inside the famed institution, reading “Commit... No Excuses.” It was a simple slogan, but direct and to the point. It came to fruition when both Matt and Scott were training a group while chatting about part-time clients and athletes who had been asking them to train. They kept saying that they would come in but never did, just bullshitting and talking a good game. Matt recollected, “We were both fed up with it, and Scott said, ‘Matt, I want to paint “Commit... No Excuses!” on the wall because I’m tired of these pussies telling us what they were gonna do. Either you commit to it or don’t. The other slogan that we’ve been thinking of and that we like to use a lot is, ‘Don’t fucking tell me what you’re gonna do.... Show me.’ Scott was always the more diplomatic one. But that slogan is the epitome of how Scott and I have looked at training and how to approach all aspects of life. You can talk a big fucking game, but talk is cheap. Run your mouth somewhere else. We don’t care about shit that you may or may not wanna do.”
Scott and Matt came from an inherently dangerous profession. The attacks and ever-changing world of vice, drug dealers, duplicitous informants, bullshit administrative backstabbing, and the pressures that go with it required a real, solid approach toward how to live and how to do a job. How does this translate to training? They go in, set a goal they want to achieve, and they get it done. This is how they want all of their athletes to look at training, a great principle that their students can take with them to their professions and the real world.
API is known to be hard on their athletes, and for good reason, as I asked Matt whether they would baby their athletes. I received the expected response: “Hell no. Life is hard. Training is hard. Sometimes you will get shit on, sometimes you will fail or embarrass yourself, but if you can have the right frame of mind in place from the very beginning, from the very first time you step into API, anywhere around the world, then you are already ahead of the game. When that cage door closes behind you, the only person you can rely on is the man in the mirror. Your coaches and teammates can yell all they want, but the person who either survives or attacks is up to you. Train like the way you fight. Train your brain to push past all that bullshit.”
It takes a really different type of human to make a career out of fighting, and the prima donnas need not apply. People need to be able to push past their perceived limitations to mentally step on the accelerator when everyone else presses the brake; that’s what it took to be the best, and that is the type of athlete Matt was looking for.
“I have personally kicked paying clients out of our Training Center and gave them directions to Crossfit because they don’t have the heart. If you don’t have the competitive juices to push yourself or don’t want to learn, then go somewhere else because I do not want to be held responsible when you quit on yourself.”
Another drastic approach API uses is that if you attend advanced classes and you quit a routine, you leave and do not come back. This seems harsh but it’s proactive, instilling team loyalty in all of their athletes. They did not push people past their physical limitations to the extent that it appeared. All API certified instructors would taper weights for students, and Matt put it best: “Yes, you will suck ass, you will look like shit the first time, but if you quit, then you really don’t want to get better. I would rather have an athlete who sucks ass and chokes but keeps pushing forward than a top athlete who quits because they don’t feel it. It’s pretty simple, it goes back to Scott and I being work partners. We bang down a door on a narcotics search warrant and I’m going through that door first, Scott is right over my right shoulder. We are not going to quit in the middle of the breach; lives are at stake! It’s the same here at API. Your life of being better, your commitment to yourself is at stake. You wanted to come to Advanced? Then prove to us you belong here. Or keep working at Intermediate or Basic. If you commit, there’s no going back.”
Sean Sherk, who was known as one of the hardest training athletes in the world, only had positive things to say about Matt and Scott. “I love those guys. You know I’m really good friends with both those guys. So I think that Scott brought something really great to the table for me, and when he did I grabbed onto it and we both ran with it, you know? I mean, anyone who has seen my UFC All Access, you know.... So you know I think they’ve helped me immensely.”
We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into as we drove up to the monstrous complex and became giddy as we saw the API