The night before last, due to the rain forecast, a friend who trains with me on Sundays, wondered if we were going to get down to business in the morning.

Being there was a 60% chance of rain, I told him I thought the odds looked good.

He showed up at 8 AM and we trained for a couple hours in humid as hell weather. No rain whatsoever. Man, did we sweat. Holy rain buckets.

We began by practicing a number of bodyweight exercises that emphasize strengthening the tendons, ligaments and fascia, followed by tai chi.

I explained to him that the front of the body is mostly for show, and in terms of overall athleticism and martial skill, it plays a secondary role.

The key to superior skill lies in tapping the power of the unseen. In this case I’m referring to the fascia, as well as the tendons and ligaments.

Yes, your muscles can and do benefit when you train the fascia, but your focus is not on them.

For example, when someone watches me doing Hindu squats, it’s not uncommon to hear: “Great quad burn.” This person thinks Hindu squats are for the quadriceps muscles on the front of the upper leg.

At one time I thought the same. But Hindu squats are not for the quads and if that’s where you are feeling them, you are missing out. Yes, the quads definitely benefit from Hindu squats, but the exercise is not for feeling a quadriceps pump or burn.

Same goes for Hindu pushups. They are not for your pecs and deltoids. You can focus on those areas if you want, but you won’t obtain the ultimate benefits of the exercise if you do.

When it comes to bodyweight exercises, what I teach you to focus on is often the opposite of what most people would think.

That’s part of the reason that Combat Conditioning is a world-wide best-seller.

Same goes for Dao Zou.

Who’d a thunk that you could reverse negative thoughts and emotions by moving in a way that runs contrary to popular opinion?

Me.

Yes, I figured it out by doing it. So have those who gave it a whirl per my suggestion.

One thing I’ve observed over the years is that success often comes to those who do and think the opposite of what everyone else is thinking and doing.

Goes hand in hand with my decision to not cancel a training session because the forecast was 60% rain.

From my perspective, we had a 40% chance of the weather cooperating with our objective.

That it did.

Lucky me.

You want to be lucky, too?

Then follow my contrarian approach and let’s see what happens.

Yeeeeessssss.

Kick ass – take names.

Matt Furey