“The cows have come home to roost.”

That’s some of the nonsensical inner dialogue I had yesterday when I looked out the windows and breathed a sigh of sumthun.

I corrected myself. Dumbass, chickens roost-not cows.

Ah, so what?

“My neighbor got himself about 30 head of cow.” Cattle, you idiot.

The above is part of what happens to me when I write and write and write some more.

Writing is pure agony – for a cow. For me? Not so much. I just sit before a blank page and breathe onto a blank sheet in a Zen sort of way. That’s when the words appear, from sumthun.

Breathing, writing, and exercising go together. You can do them and breathe, or you can do breathing exercises alone.

You can move as you inhale and exhale – or you can remain still.

Which is better for you? Se depende.

One of the awareness exercises I began teaching long ago was to track how many times a day you catch yourself holding your breath.

The reality you observe can be unsettling – and useful, if you’re the type who wants more out of life than stale air.

Keeping track of how often you stop breathing is jarring. For most people, the tally will be in the hundreds.

The reward for keeping track of how often you stop breathing is more life, more energy – along with greater strength and flexibility.

Oh, and I did sort of hint at creative flow, didn’t I?

It’s 1:03 A.M. now and I am not ready to sleep yet. I might be in an hour or two.

Se depende.

As for workouts, night time is the best time for me. It might not be for you.

But breathing deeply alone, at any time, is something that feels as though it makes the clock stand still.

In Farmer Burns 1914 by-mail course, Lessons in Wrestling and Physical Culture, he wrote, “Breathing exercises alone, if done RIGHT, will make many a weak man strong and many a sick man well.”

Over 2,000 years ago, Chuang Tzu wrote, “Ordinary men breathe from their throats; extraordinary men breathe from their feet.”

Those are some wise words, me thinks, from two different eras and two different cultures.

Cows don’t need to track when they stifle their breathing because they don’t.

Pretty much every fitness course I have ever produced extols the benefits of deep breathing.

Gama Fitness is one fine example. Same goes for Power Postures.

As for Combat Conditioning, I’ll say this, when you focus on the breathing, your reps go up, up, UP.

Keep this message in mind as you sit around or exercise today.

Your breath is your super power. It’ll make you feel strong as a cow when you let it roam.

That’s all for now – other than to say I’m digging the neighbor’s cows who’ve been given a new home to graze in, not to roost.

Matt Furey

As a yute, my mom always told me about an old dairy farmer turned preacher who had “hands like a catcher’s mitt.”

She said, “His hand would swallow yours.”

You might think having big milker hands is a genetic thing, but more often than you can think, it’s not. Old dairy farmers who were of average height could have gargantuan hands.

The strange truth, though, is that the farmer’s hands got bigger without great muscular strain. They didn’t grab the cow’s teats and squeeze hard – but they did do thousands of somewhat light reps per day that not only built muscular endurance, but tendon strength as well.

A friend of mine, Jim, was raised on a dairy farm. He has big hands, but his father, who was about the same height, had hands that dwarfed his own.

When Jim grew up, he didn’t milk cows by hand as machines had already taken over – but his father milked 100 cows per day without any assistance – and he did it twice per day.

Training your hands vigorously has its place. It’s not only good for increasing overall body strength, it’s also good for your brain.

You can train your hands naturally, without high-tech gadgetry, by hanging from a pull-up bar or tree branch; from doing farmer’s carries with five-gallon buckets filled with water or sand; from using monkey bars or a peg board; from rope climbing; from doing fingertip pushups; from wadding up newspapers; and so on.

Thing is, you don’t “have to” do any of the above exercises – but the old-time dairy farmers “had to” get’er done – every day, no matter what. Instead of being told to “go pound salt,” it was their daily duty to “go milk the cows.”

Rest and recovery is a big part of increasing strength, speed, endurance, flexibility, and such. So this makes me think how much stronger those dairy farmers’ hands would be if they didn’t have to milk cows daily?

I guess we’ll never know.

Kick ass – take names!

Matt Furey

P.S. We’re getting mighty close to launching my new book, ENTER THE ZEN ZONE: The Natural Way to Get ALL Your Goals. It’s going to be MAMMOTH. And EPIC!

Dear Matt,

I’ve read that you worked out three times per day for over 10 years. How often do you workout nowadays, and for how long?

Roe

Dear Roe,

Based upon my best estimates, I put in five different workouts each day.

My first workout, believe it or don’t, is getting out of bed and walking to the living room, where I lie down to day dream about all the things I’m going to do that day. This is a pivotal workout that tones the muscles of my imagination. If I skip this one, the rest of the day isn’t so good.

Tis why I say: “If you don’t train your mind – you’ll get left on your behind.”

Workout number two involves me picking up a pen and writing the answers to some questions – which I give to you in my new book, Enter the Zen Zone, which I will have copies of next month. It’s at the printers now. Look for a pre-publication offer next week.

Later that morning, if I’m up in the morning, I begin standing around – appearing to be doing nothing, but during that time I’m really up to something. I stand around in what I call Power Postures, and these energize me almost beyond belief(s).

I have found that the more I engage in the practice of stillness, the more movement I create – internally and externally.

Late at night I put myself through a martial arts workout, usually before a mirror or set of large windows. During this session I practice all sorts of movements, strange walking patterns, animal mannerisms, and so on.

Even later at night, after a rest from my martial arts training, I practice calisthenics such as those featured in Combat Conditioning and Gama Fitness – followed by pulsing isometrics, and stretching exercises.

After this I sit and read for quite a while, and when I finally feel sleepy, I hit the hay.

There’s no “set in stone” schedule, time wise, until my first evening workout session, which always begins at 11 PM.

The key thing is that all of my workouts are designed to fit inside my unique schedule and lifestyle. When I train may not work for you, but what I do when I train probably will, regardless of the time frame involved.

Have at it!

Kick ass – take names!

Matt Furey

Hey Matt,
I’m sure you know this but I wanted to say that I found a great benefit to Hindu Squats. I’ll be 61 this year and developed pain in my right knee while walking. Very Bizarre for me. I figured I’d try the Squats because of the range of motion. I can control everything while moving and no real impact on the knee. I did 5 sets of 10 and immediately had no issue walking. That was yesterday and can do them again today. I really think the issue is getting weaker with age and this seems to be a great remedy.
Thanks,
John

Heya John,
Glad to hear about your discovery and what you’re actively doing to strengthen your body and eliminate pain.

So much of the pain humans are experiencing today is due to inactivity – or from imbalanced activity.

There is a whole lot more pain going on in gyms of today than I ever saw in one year as a teenager.

In the locker room and sauna alone, it’s not uncommon for me to see well built men who can’t walk without a gimp, who can’t raise their arms above their shoulders, or who’s vertebra appear to be fused.

Several years back I met with a person who thinks he’s somewhat of a tough guy, yet he couldn’t move freely due to the pain in his back and shoulders.

The fix was simple.

I showed him how to lie across one of those big Swiss-style air balls and let the back of his neck arch and settle in. Theoretically, once the back of his head was resting on the ball, all he had to do was breathe deeply, relax, and… rest some more.

If he would have done this, not only would he have found relief, but I would have given him another exercise to help him more.

Couldn’t even get him to attempt the first exercise. I told him that a mouse has more courage than he does – which was underplaying the truth.

Meanwhile, I’ve helped thousands of men and women improve their knee health by doing Hindu squats and the other exercises I teach.

The key is starting out small, doing 10 squats a day to begin with – or even less.

It’s not how hard you train that matters most in the beginning – it’s where you get started and how you sustain your training over the long haul.

When you don’t try to force the process, you tap into the force – and you end up exercising more, enjoying it more, and making more progress with this process.

Complaining about pain and doing nothing is nothing new.

You gotta be willing to engage. You gotta be willing to give something new a whirl.

Once again, we come full circle to the words “desire” and “focus.”

If you have desire and focus, you can astonish yourself. If you don’t – ain’t nothin nobody can do for you.

Matt Furey

Another health, fitness, and medical myth went out the window this morning.

My friend, Terry, alarmed me by text about his recent hospitalization. He told me how the doctors helped him get his heart rate down to 65 beats per minute – from an all-time high of 245.

Terry’s a tough Irishman from Pennsylvania, who thought his uncomfortable feelings would soon pass, as he sprawled across his bed in a full-body sweat. Thankfully, his girlfriend won their argument, convincing him to go to the hospital.

What Terry thought was “no biggee” turned into a pacemaker to regulate the electricity moving through his body. Remember: Your body is more than skin, bones, and muscle.

Now let me tell you, I sure was empathetic, as well as slightly sarcastic when Terry and I spoke after I received his text.

“It’s all your fault for running all those damn Pittsburgh marathons,” I said. “Especially the ones where you crossed the finish line with a Guinness.”

He laughed as he read my vibe correctly – and proceeded to give me the full story of how he finishes off two cans of Guinness over the course of the last five miles. What’s funny is that other than when he completes a marathon, Terry rarely has a sip of alcohol.

Anywho, I let Terry know I love him and am glad to know he’s still in the land of the living.

Then I got into how we’ve been told that a human’s maximum heart rate is 220 – and how we should train at 65-80 percent of this max, to get into condition and be healthy.

Well hell, I guess we’re in need of some updated math because based upon what I learnt over 40 years ago, a person’s maximum heart rate is 220 minus his current age. Terry is 64 – so that would mean his heart rate shouldn’t be able to go beyond 156 – yet there it was at 245. Yikes!

At any rate, I guess I’m doing things wrong because I don’t make elevating my heart rate above 100 part of my training protocol. And if I ever do elevate my heart rate above 100, I relax and cool off.

All that elevated heart rate stuff is for the young birds. I’m an older, wiser gander now – one who humbles himself daily with lazy crane workouts that produce radical results.

In short, I love getting sumthin while I appear to be doing nuthin.

I enjoy working with nature instead of fighting against her. This means I relax into and use the force – instead of forcing the force with more and more force.

This may sound antithetical in our western whirld, but it makes lots of sense to me after it got passed down to me in my ongoing study of martial arts.

Beat yourself up all you want when you’re younger – then wise up as you get older.

Learn to use the force instead of forcing the force.

How do I recommend you begin applying what I’m rapping about?

First of all, if you don’t want to train the way I am suggesting, I’m not going to force it on you.

But if you do want to give it a healthy whirl, there’s plenty in store for you inside my most recent courses.

I welcome you to click here NOW and take a look.

Matt Furey

Matt,

I have a question about pushups and what you refer to as strength-endurance. I’ve heard that the bigger someone’s muscles are, the faster they run out of gas. Is that the case with Hindu pushups and Hindu squats? And if so, is there a way to overcome it?

Jim Wrat

Hi Jim,

Yessiree, it is true.

Bigger muscles consume more oxygen. An antelope can run a lot longer and a lot farther than a cow.

This doesn’t mean you don’t want your muscles to grow bigger or stronger. Most people want a little more meat on their bones. But there is a breaking point where the rubber doesn’t meet the road anymore – and the muscles slam on the brakes.

You cannot turn a cow into an antelope but you can increase the strength-endurance of an athlete with big muscles if you put in the time.

Genetically speaking, though, the athlete who is built with less bulk will have advantages.

Way back in college people used to call me rhino, mostly due to my short bulky thighs. Be that as it was, after investing a lot of time training in strength-endurance, I was able to get it.

It may be a high hurdle to overcome, but that hurdle can be scaled by focusing on small, incremental improvements each day.

Regardless of the size of your muscles, you can increase their output. The key is having the desire and mixing it with the willingness to follow a program that works.

The good news is that Combat Conditioning and the advanced version of it, Gama Fitness, put you on the road to strength-endurance, and this alone gives you major advantages, even if you’re not an athlete or martial artist.

Why?

Because most people run out of gas just going through their day – yet, the more strength-endurance you have, the more productive you will be.

Grab either of the courses listed above by clicking on the links below:

Combat Conditioning
Gama Fitness

Matt Furey

Hello Matt,

I’m writing to ask if you are still holding the ultimate royal court challenge? I think you gave out awards for the Combat Conditioning Athlete of the Year if I’m not mistaken. Your book has helped tremendously with my physical fitness!

Thanks!

Mike

Mike,

I haven’t had the Ultimate Royal Court Challenge in many years. It was a great event to hold, with additional prizes for Best Hindu Pushups, Best Hindu Squats, and so on. One year the deciding factor was a sumo wrestling match, albeit with your hands behind your back. Glad to hear Combat Conditioning has helped you so much. Keep on squattin’ on.

Matt

Hi Matt,

I’ve been a fan of yours for about 25 years now. Thanks for everything that you’ve done for calisthenics and giving us something beyond chinups and pushups. You’ve definitely broadened our horizons.

I was wanting to start doing hindu squats every day but was wondering about the health of this for my joints. Would 1000’s be ok for most people, even assuming you would build up to that? Thank you so much for everything you’ve done for us.

-Clay

Dear Clay,

Holy Hindu Squats! 25 years of fandom is quite a stretch of time. Much appreciated.

To answer your question, “1000’s” of Hindu squats would NOT be an appropriate goal for most, as so many peoples’ bodies are almost ready for the scrap heap with orthopedic surgeons licking their saws and hammers to help out the cause.

My goal, in the beginning, was getting to 100-straight Hindu squats, then 150, then 200, and ultimately 500 each day (in under 15 minutes).

Back on December 31, 1999, in order to ring in the New Year, I did 2,000 in a row. It took me one hour and 18 minutes – AND – I NEVER did that again. Once was enough.

If most people would do at least 10 Hindu squats per day, their bodies would benefit enormously. In fact, recent studies bear this out. Yet sadly, many people today can’t even do that many, as they sit around texting and scrolling all day. Oddly enough, if you want your joints to wear out quickly, activity is not required. Just sit around restin’ and the rust will get you.

For YOU, though, because you are not the norm, you could probably benefit from the following method:

First, find out what your baseline is, i.e. the max number you can do in a row – which is usually when your legs throb with lactic acid build up. For reasonably fit people, this is usually around 40 repetitions.

Second, begin doing sets that are around 50% of your baseline max. If your baseline is 40, do a set of 20-25 repetitions, then rest a minute or two. Then do another set, and rest again. Continue doing sets this way until you’ve done 100 repetitions.

Third, as you gain momentum over a period of weeks, you will naturally begin making your sets longer. Test yourself every 14 days to see where your baseline currently is, then make adjustments to your sets accordingly.

Fourth, when you get to the point where you can hammer out 100 in a row without your legs being fried, start to add in the Hindu jumper squats. Do 80 regular Hindu squats, followed by 20 jumpers in each set. After this, take a rest, then do another set.

Fifth, over time, the rest period in between sets will get shorter and the number of reps you can do consecutively will get longer. At some point you won’t need to rest at all because you’re able to do five sets of 80 Hindu squats, followed by 20 jumpers, over and over again.

In fact, when you change from regulars to jumpers, even without a moment’s rest, as far as your brain, nervous system, and body are concerned – this will constitute and feel as though it was a rest.

This schedule, can take you to 500-straight Hindu squats in six months to a year.

Keep me posted on your progress. I’m in your corner.

Remember, you can pull this goal off even if you don’t currently believe you can. In fact, after you do 500-straight Hindu squats the first time, you might proclaim, “Holy Hindu Squats! I can’t believe I just DID 500 in a row!”

Matt Furey

Note: For the proper technique on Hindu squats and Hindu jumpers, my Combat Conditioning book and DVDs will serve as your guide. Click the link shown above for more.

Dear Mr. Furey,

I’m not sure that I buy into this idea that you can get stronger by sitting or standing in a specific posture and holding for long periods of time. How does not moving make you stronger when everyone says you gotta move?

Darren D. Aire

Dear Darren,

In gymnastics, someone who is not good at pull-ups or handstands is taught to hang from a bar or get into a handstand against a wall and hold for time.

The longer the gymnast can hold these positions, the stronger he or she gets, because it’s the muscles as well as the tendons and fascia that get stronger when you hold without moving.

When it comes to standing postures, for the most part you are not moving externally – but you are moving in a big way internally. Once again, the tendons and fascia are playing a larger role, one that is almost non-existent when you train with external movement only.

While standing still you learn to move from the inside out, and later on, when you move your limbs, you are more connected than you were previously.

Additionally, most external forms of exercise deplete your energy whereas standing still or holding postures increases it. This is easy to test and verify by getting into a stance and looking straight ahead, without moving, for five minutes.

There’s much more to the story, and benefits galore, when you take the time to explore what really happens to you energetically when you “hold your ground.”

For more on this, look into my Power Postures course. It will probably make a believer out of you.

Matt Furey

“You’re as stiff as an iron dog, but not as strong.”

That’s what the legendary professional wrestler, Karl Gotch, used to say when I was training with him back in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.

Most of the time I wasn’t the person he was referring to as stiff, but when it came to my back bridge, he was.

At 36 years of age, despite all my years of high school and collegiate wrestling, I couldn’t come close to touching my nose to the mat in a bridge. My neck and upper thoracic vertebrae had no give in them, so I couldn’t go farther backward than the top of my head.

If I were to blame genetics, I had one hell of an excuse that many people, including professional fitness trainers and yoga instructors would agree with.

Nevertheless, I practiced bridging every day per Karl’s instructions, even when doing so appeared hopeless.

It took six months before I was able to touch my nose to the mat in a bridge. What helped was the slow and controlled rocking motion I covered for you in Combat Conditioning.

Later on Karl told me to deepen my breathing and concentrate my mind upon the air going into my body as I bridged. As a result of doing this, after another three months, I was able to hold my nose to the mat for three-straight minutes, albeit with my heels elevated.

Some months later, I could hold the bridge for three minutes with my heels flat. Then things got interesting when Karl told me the next mile marker was to go past the nose-down position, and put my chin on the mat.

I thought he had to be joking as I assumed this was impossible, especially for me. Yet, he was as serious as his pit bull, Django.

When I was finally able to get my chin down, which came much faster than I had imagined, Karl taught me to slowly count to 200 (which would take around three minutes) while keeping track of how many breaths I took. I was astonished when I held the back bridge for three minutes and twelve seconds, and only took seven-and-a-half breaths.

The training advancements didn’t stop there, though, as I would later learn to fall into a bridge from my feet with no hand support, kick over and back, and to have two people sit on my chest as I supported them.

As I stated a couple days ago, I have trained people who could do a damn near perfect back bridge the first day they came in to train with me; two of which could put their heels on the back of their head in the bridge.

Those two people were most likely genetically predisposed to being flexible, whereas I cannot make such a claim.

The only genetic traits I may have, aside from male-pattern baldness, are the stubborn refusal to give up and the ongoing desire to look for and find the easiest methods to accomplish what once looked impossible.

And that, my friend, is what I bring to the table with my Combat Stretching course. Easier, quicker, and iron-dog proof ways to limber up your spine and your limbs, not to mention increasing the blood flow, improving athleticism and enjoying an overall feeling of well-being – even if you’re as stiff as an iron dog.

Want some? Then click the link shown above.

Matt Furey

Dear Matt,

Great email yesterday. I ordered your Combat Stretching course and have a quick question if you don’t mind. How long do you recommend holding a stretch? I heard no longer than 10-20 seconds. And another thing, do you bounce? I was taught in high school not to bounce because it supposedly tears muscles. Any truth to that?

Jim Nastick

Dear Jim,

The misinformation runneth amuck. I’ve heard the same things you mentioned but reality often wears an ugly head.

As for time to hold a stretch, if you only hold 10-20 seconds, you’re never going to get anywhere. You might gain a bit of temporary flexibility, but a minute later you’re just as stiff as you started out.

The key for me is holding for a minimum of 30 seconds, but usually at least a minute, during which time I employ isometrics and movement to go deeper into it. As you know, the key to getting a good back bridge is holding for three minutes, and this includes rocking back and forth, slowly.

When it comes to “bouncing,” if you sling your body around without control in a moronic manner, sure, you could tear a muscle, but then again you can tear a muscle doing something simple around the house if you’re a “stiffy.” Slow, controlled movements will loosen the rigormortis-like connections in your body and give you greater freedom.

As a humorless aside, it’s obvious that athletes and martial artists, as well as acrobats and gymnasts, in Russia and in China were not told what our high school coaches repeated about bouncing when you stretch. They bounce all the time and thus they are loose, limber and almost limitless in their movements.

Glad you got Combat Stretching. It’s a game changer. Even better news is that I’m planning on releasing a more advanced course fairly soon.

Matt Furey