Russ Duer discovered taekwondo when he was 20. Katrina Jensen was only 9 years old when she started practicing the martial art.
It was many years later that the two had booths next to each other at the Asian Celebration in Eugene, hit it off and eventually began dating.
Now, Duer and Jensen are a married couple with a 3½-year-old son, active individual fitness routines and a busy schedule running their business and teaching taekwondo, jiu jitsu and women’s self defense at Duer’s ATA Martial Arts in west Eugene.
“We’re very committed to our marriage, to our family, to our school,” the 31-year-old Jensen said.
The couple also is invested in their physical fitness.
“It’s just a lot of commitment, a lot of hard work,” said Duer, 41. “It’s just constantly working. Because I want to be on that floor (teaching) as long as I can be.”
Recent achievement
Duer recently became a master instructor with the American Taekwondo Association, an achievement that required a year of intense physical and mental work.
Duer was able to work toward the master instructor ranking because he is a sixth-degree black belt in the traditional style of taekwondo. ATA schools practice a style of martial arts known as songahm taekwondo.
Becoming a master required some fasting, reading and report writing as well as achieving a certain success in his business. And then, of course, there were physical requirements.
Duer was required to do 100 push-ups per day every day for a full year. He also had to walk or run two miles each day, do 300 kicks each day and work through the elaborate songahm taekwondo forms daily. He added night defense, joint locking, sparring and abdominal work to his regimen, to get himself in even better shape.
“It was intense. It was intense for a whole year,” Duer said. “But now I’m still on that schedule. I love it, and I still work out every day.”
Duer said achieving that makes him work even harder.
“I’ve always been interested in martial arts, what it stands for. Being a master just means I have to work harder, and I keep learning still,” Duer said.
His workout
Duer spends about an hour each day doing the same type of workout he did to become a master instructor. He also lifts weights about once a week and works out on the treadmill or elliptical machines for about 90 minutes total at a gym. He also does yoga.
Sometimes he will practice jiu jitsu with friends. In addition to being a master and a sixth-degree black belt in taekwondo, Duer is a purple belt in jiu jitsu and a Level 2 instructor in the Israeli martial art Krav Maga.
“I love working out,” Duer said. “I always have. I’ve always been a physical kind of person.”
Her workout
Jensen is a fourth-degree black belt with the World Taekwondo Federation. She was accepted by the ATA as a third-degree black belt. She also is a blue belt in jiu jitsu.
However, because her whole life revolves around taekwondo and the business she helps run, she chooses to do a boot camp workout in her free time.
“It’s separate. And the people I work out with there are great and energizing and kick your butt,” Jensen said.
She takes the 50-minute class at a local gym five days a week, working through a grueling routine of push-ups, burpees and abdominal exercises. On Saturdays, she’ll often hike in the woods.
At their martial arts dojang, a Korean term for a formal training hall, she sometimes works out an additional one day a week, doing punching drills, combinations and kicking.
“When I’m here training, I really like to focus on kicking,” Jensen said. “Kicking is the area that I love to do the most. It’s fun. Every time I get out there and I do kick, I love it. It energizes me. It definitely builds amazing strength within your legs.”
Healthy habits
Duer and Jensen each drink lots of water daily.
For breakfast, they each typically drink a protein shake on the go. Lunch is often a meal from Café Yumm!, a turkey sandwich or a salad.
Dinner, made by Jensen’s mother, is usually something featuring protein and fresh veggies. The family is living with Jensen’s parents in Veneta while they build a house in Eugene.
“It’s always a healthy meal with them, which is great,” Duer said.
Finding martial arts
Duer was a student in Lane Community College’s culinary arts program when he began talking with another student who was a martial artist and was inspired to begin training.
“It helped me out,” he said. “It helped me get my head straight in my 20s. Gave me direction. Gave me goals.”
That was in the early 1990s. Duer grew up in the area and graduated from Pleasant Hill High School in 1990. As a youth, he played football and baseball.
He studied taekwondo in the Eugene area and then later to moved to San Francisco to study more. After a decade of study, in all, Duer returned home in 2003 and purchased an ATA taekwondo franchise from its previous owner. He moved it to its current location on West 11th Avenue in Eugene.
Jensen, meanwhile, had grown up in Eugene and Veneta, graduating from Elmira High School.
She started studying taekwondo at age 9 at a Springfield school. She also participated in softball, volleyball and basketball.
By age 16, she had earned her black belt and started teaching. She, too, studied at Lane Community College but eventually left to become a program director at a local martial arts school.
When the couple married in October 2007, Jensen said, “I had to make the choice to support my future family, and so I had left my other martial arts school and we joined forces.”
Family business
Duer is on the floor teaching almost all of the classes at their business, from Tiny Tigers to juniors to the high ranks.
“I had a lot of people just go, ‘Oh, it’s a hobby, Russ. It’s a hobby,’ ” Duer said. “Well, I proved people wrong. It wasn’t a hobby. I wanted to change kids’ lives.”
Jensen will teach an occasional taekwondo class, but her role is usually to teach the women’s self-defense classes and to manage the business.
“She does an excellent job empowering women,” Duer said.
Jensen said she also is inspired by the changes she sees in the youths who come through their dojang.
“This is a lifestyle,” she said. “This can change you as a better human being by being involved in a program that mentally and physically challenges you with people who care about you.”
The business has about 200 students. Their son, Mason, would like to be one of them, but he is still too young to participate. Children aren’t allowed to begin the program until they are 4.
“I want him to be mentally and physically ready,” Duer said. “I just don’t want him to be a young black belt. I want him to know his stuff. And that’s what we care about here.”
My Workout runs monthly in Monday’s Oregon Life. To suggest your workout or someone else’s, email myworkout@registerguard.com.
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