Capital MMA & Elite Fitness | Alexandria, VA — Local services in Huntington

Been coming to Capital for BJJ for over 10 years when it rented upstairs space in Jungle's Gym (now Onelife Fitness near USPTO) and it has now grown to 7 locations in the DMV area. And it's pay at one location play at all; while centered around BJJ, that is not all they offer. Come to the Alexandria location for CrossFit, BJJ or Muay Thai, and you can go to Lorton for its Steel Mace or Ruck Fit class. Work in the city? You can go to DC H St for lunch and get in some BJJ. Takoma has boxing, judo and a women's only BJJ class. Loudon also has a women's only BJJ class and a KidsFit program. MMA is also offered at most locations for those aspiring world beaters. This is not an exhaustive list of all the locations or all the programs they offer. Capital is truly Elite Fitness! I take advantage of the unlimited class plan since I started taking my kids to the kid's BJJ program. And the schedule works out so I can take CrossFit at the same time. I also do the occasional yoga and Muay Thai class to round out my fitness routine. Even if the class schedule doesn't work for you, it is open most hours of the waking day, 6 days a week, for open mat/gym time. Just know scheduled classes get priority to mats and equipment. Very cost-effective if you can make it work. If you ever need to adjust your membership, due to sickness, extended out of town travel, etc., management is very responsive and will work with you. I haven't always taken so many classes during my time at Capital, because you know, life. All the programs are very welcoming and the instructors make you feel part of the Capital family. Its BJJ lineage is under the legendary Royce Gracie who dominated the early UFC tournaments and the Gracie family made BJJ and MMA what it is today. The founder and head instructor of Capital is the first practitioner in Virginia to get his black belt from Royce with all the others also a part of Capital. That said, Gracie BJJ wants to teach you how to defend yourself in real life situations, so self defense is a fundamental part of the curriculum. Muay Thai coaches are fighters themselves and while the techniques are workouts in and of itself, their goal is to show how it works in real situations. Joined CrossFit recently (even though they have offered this for years and during that time I thought CrossFit workouts were crazy and I could never do that! Even my sister is a certified CrossFit instructor! But she lives in another state.) and am mad I didn't take it earlier since it makes me better at BJJ. The certified coaches are very responsive as they will help you scale to your fitness level and cheer you along for motivation, even the other members will help and cheer, too. Coaches there can also help with nutrition and lifestyle goals. While each program does their own thing, there is no issue in jumping from one to another or dabble in them all like I do. There is also the Capital Cares program which gives back to the community with scholarships and donations to worthy causes. So it's not just a gym that takes your money and teaches you classes, they use some of that to give back to help empower the community all while inspiring the community to give back themselves. All in all I am glad I am part of Capital so you should give it a try if you have any type of fitness goals. They have membership plans for the occasional user to the "I'm cranky if I haven't worked out today" gym rat. Either way, Capital will help you build a better version of yourself. Oh! And there are locker rooms with...

I recently had the pleasure of experiencing Capital MMA & Elite Fitness with my 3 boys, and I am thrilled to share our little story. I have signed up for a family membership at a very reasonable $229 for all 4 of us, eager to get my kids to learn Jiu Jitsu and maybe other styles of MMA later. From the moment we walked in, we were impressed by the top-notch facilities, welcoming atmosphere, and the professionalism of the trainer.

Our first three visits were nothing short of fantastic. The trainers were knowledgeable, patient, and genuinely cared about providing a great experience for my kids. My children were excited about the classes, and they learned a lot in a short time.

However, we soon realized that we need to move to another city because our land lord decided to sell the house we rented. So, reluctantly, I decided to cancel our membership. I stopped driving kids to classes and wanted to cancel membership but postponed for 2 weeks until got charged for the next month. That was painful … and I called the office the same day. To my relief and surprise, the owner or director of the place, sorry, not sure, person named Don Ngo, was incredibly understanding and accommodating. Despite all the inconveniences Don went above and beyond to assist me. He processed my cancellation request promptly and refunded us more than the $229 we had paid. That was a relief :)

This level of customer service exceeded my expectations and demonstrated a commitment to customer satisfaction that is rare to find.

I highly recommend Capital MMA to anyone interested in MMA, fitness, Jiu Jitsu, whether you are a beginner or an experienced practitioner. The dedication of the staff, the quality of the training, and the outstanding customer service make it a standout facility. We may have had to cancel our membership due to our circumstances, but our brief experience there was just great!

Thank you, Don, for your understanding and exceptional service. We hope to return someday when our circumstances change (maybe to another branch of yours that will be closer to our new home). In the meantime, we will definitely be spreading the word about your fantastic place!

Blessings to you...

I could say a lot. The black belts are cool. But some of the coaches aren't really teachers. They go over the lesson for the day and throw you to the wolves. Students learn things like arm bars, triangle chokes, rear naked chokes. But then when you roll, you haven't learned anything about setting up a submission. Defending the mount. Defending knee on belly. transitioning from one move to the next. You will spend the first 6-9 months LOST. The most you might learn to do is survive but thats it. I asked an instructor about why we do a technique a certain way and not the other way and he said in a smug way "Master Royce tells us to do it this way and thats the way you do it." If Gracie jiu jitsu is supposed to be a constantly evolving art then certainly the answer to a question about a certain technique shouldn't be "Just do it." And lets not talk about promotions. Certain instructors have said out of their mouths that they don't make it a point to give out stripes. They say you are not allowed to spar after the first 15 classes. Well that is a bold face lie because I was being choked out and arm barred by a high level belt during my 3rd class. But if you want to know what the bar is to measure your progress you better watch a LOT of Youtube videos. No one will teach you things like for example, what a spider guard is. The color belts will catch you in it in sparring. And you just have to figure it out. Schools are for places of learning. But I have learned more watching YouTube. I'm currently looking for another school. While it might be good for some or most it isn't good for me. Nice people. But a lot of the teachers are self absorbed and disconnected from the process of passing on knowledge to their students. And for the schools to be ran by school teachers, the saying "There are no bad students just bad teachers" seems to only apply to academics. But hey.....you got your brown belt so who cares what your white belts know or...