There are certain exercises I wouldn’t do if you paid me a million bucks.
At the top of the list is the barbell deadlift.
In my arrogant opinion, it takes the cake as the stupidest exercise of all times as it wrecks the bodies of the people who do it.
Over time, it leads to poor posture and numerous injuries, including hernias, herniated discs and torn tendons.
I think it makes you dumb, too.
The word “dead” in deadlifting alone is enough reason to stay as far away from it as possible.
I’d rather sit on my ass laughing at replays of Dean Martin Roasts than do a barbell deadlift.
The way I see it, the laughter I experience from those replays will do far more to stimulate better health in my body than that ridiculous exercise.
As for the exercises I will gladly and willingly do for free, there are too many for me to make a complete list.
But I narrowed it down to three in my best-seller, Combat Conditioning, which is still kicking butt, 24 years after I came out with it.
Then there’s my Power Postures program, which contains five positions you can work on to boost energy, endurance, strength, power, flexibility, mobility, athleticism, growth hormone, brain power, libido and much more.
This course even improves the bad posture you get from doing deadlifts.
And it doesn’t require grunting, groaning, making goofy faces or the wearing of a strap-on belt to “hopefully” prevent giving yourself a hernia.
As one 90+ friend and client told me several years ago, “Your trainings and teachings are doing far more good than you know.”
This man, Al Grandchamp, lived to 102. And he was active all along the way.
His handwritten letters to me, in cursive, during his latter years, are in my view “national treasures.” Whenever I need a mega-dose of inspiration, all I need to do is open one of them and begin reading.
Al didn’t do “dead” lifts. He did bodyweight exercises and a few movements with light dumbbells. He shoveled the heavy snow off his driveway and rode horses. Even in his 90’s, he taught seminars on roping.
He focused on living life with energy and enthusiasm, the kind you acquire when you practice the Power Postures I teach on a regular basis.
Here endeth the lesson.
Matt Furey
