Over 20 years ago, when I was training with Karl Gotch, he used to scold the inflexible with the following jab: “You’re as stiff as an iron dog, but not as strong.”

As for myself, he never used this phrase. But in the early going, before I mastered the bridge, he told me, “You’ve got a stiff-ass upper back and neck.”

Determined to become the opposite, I worked on the bridge everyday. It took me six months before I could consistently touch my nose to the mat. That was the easy part.

Once I could touch my nose to the mat, I was instructed to hold for three minutes while focusing on my breathing. The deep breathing was a game changer, which allowed me to relax, sink and grow into the stretch.

Eventually, I went beyond touching my nose in the bridge. Imagine the thrill when this formerly “stiff-ass upper back and neck” guy was touching his chin to the mat in the bridge.

After getting my nose and then my chin to the mat in the bridge, I realized that I could have gotten the results I sought far faster. Instead of it taking months, I could have accomplished the feat much sooner.

I tested my ideas with numerous students and found that they could literally double their current flexibility in one evening. In fact, doubling of a person’s range of motion could be done in a single stretch, in two to five minutes.

When I first came out with Combat Stretching, a smart-ass says to me, “So if I can already do the splits, you can make me twice as flexible in one evening?”

“Being a dork must be a nice occupation,” I replied. “What’s that pay per hour?”

He shut his pie-hole and told me that although he could easily do the splits (as could I), he couldn’t bridge at all. He decided to give the bridging a whirl, and he went from stiff as an iron dog to at least twice as flexible… in one evening. Within a few days, to his awe and amazement, he was touching his nose to the mat.

“You made a believer out of me,” he said.

​​​​​​​”Not at all,” I answered. “You made a believer out of yourself by doing the program and witnessing what happened.”

​​​​​​​Going into the holiday season, ask yourself how much giving yourself the GIFT of Flexibility would mean to you.

It’s all available to you NOW, provided you “do the thing.”

Grab your copy of Combat Stretching NOW and you’ll be off to the races.

Matt Furey