Just flipped through today’s edition of The New York Post. Saw a headline on page 16 entitled, The Finest Hour.

Beneath the headline was the subhead: 60-minute workouts are key for weight loss.

Hardeeharharhar.

60-minute workouts aren’t bad if you’re training at a sustainable pace, i.e. stretching.

But for the most part, 60-minute workouts are best for personal fitness trainers who work by the hour. I oughta know because I was one of the original personal fitness training gym owners.

I got my start back in 1987, in Soquel, California. My gym had weights, stationary cycles, and a large wrestling mat with plenty of space for bodyweight exercises.

At the time, all my sessions were an hour because we went through a combination of cardiovascular work (20 minutes), loosening exercises (10 minutes), followed by a circuit of weight training and/or bodyweight exercises.

Clients always left the gym feeling fulfilled. They got a good workout in. But the truth is that the workout would have done them FAR more good if it was a grand total of 30 minutes.

Here’s the breakdown:

1. 10 minutes for loosening the joints would be first.

2. A series of bursts or sprints – none of which last longer than 15 seconds.

3. Rest between each sprint.

4. Light stretching

Some details: After each sprint you are well advised to lollygag for 90 to 120 seconds, followed by another burst.

Altogether, you would do five to eight bursts (and no more), each of which gets you huffing and puffing. The lollygagging in between helps you recover as well as assisting with the release of growth hormone.

Total training time for the sprints would be two minutes with sixteen minutes of rest.

30 minutes total – most of which is resting.

The same model can be used for bodyweight exercises such as Furecat pushups, Furecat burpees and Furecat squats. Yes, these are different than those taught in my international, best-seller, Combat Conditioning.

You train long enough to huff and puff, but not to failure or fatigue. Then you yuk yuk for a spell, followed by another set.

You don’t need a personal trainer for this method. Nor do you need an hour. All you need is a method that you consistently follow 3-5 days per week.

This is what I teach to members of the FureyFaithful.com members site.

Forget the 60-minute (or longer) workouts. Results come faster from far less than you are being told.

Here endeth the lesson.

Matt Furey

MattFurey.com

P.S. I’ll be putting up more videos of the different ways you can get your sprints in as well as precautions based upon age and current physical condition. If you’re totally out of shape with joint pain, etc. you’re well advised to begin with the loosening exercises I teach to get the blood and synovial fluid moving throughout your body.

Yesterday “the Bear” came over for some training. I’ve known him for 15 years and have watched him go through some ups and downs.

He’s thick, powerful and strong, but still as gentlemanly as a giant can be. Thus far this year, the Bear has shed over 60 pounds that he didn’t need beneath his coat.

The other day I saw him yapping about how he’s been running sprints to curb his hunger… and how it’s helping him burn fat faster.

I advised him to come over for a visit, to get the latest from me – in reverse.

He replied, “Just let me know where and when.”

My answer: “Tomorrow at 4 PM.”

This is where you discover whether someone’s sincerity is legit. All of us are aware of people who say, “Let me know what I can do for you and I’ll be there.” A second later, after you’ve given the person an indication of what would be helpful, he tells you he can’t. Then why on earth did you say what you said? Dumb asses.

Anyway, the Bear is no dummy. He knows el Furecat well, and if the Furecat says he’s got something good for you, you better be there.

I will be polite now, for a change. I kicked the Bear’s azz yesterday.

And he loved it so much he agreed to appear in my latest video on the FureyFaithful.com member’s site. This installment will give you some winter wonderland tips on how to get yourself super fit, even when it’s cold and snowy outside.

I’ll give you another hint, though, before you watch the new video: Years ago, when I was a young buck growing roots in Iowa, I was a whirld champeen* snow sprinter. The bigger the drifts the faster I ran.

I realize many of you are unable to hoof it the same way in winter that you do in summer, but have no fear, as I’ll cover how to handle that obstacle for you as well.

How, in part, by doing Dao Zou  in the snow. Yes, you can do it in snow. Just don’t do it on the street when it’s icy or snowy. Not a good idea.

Have at it.

Matt Furey

* I was the only one who showed up for the snow sprinting whirl champeenship. Doesn’t matter. A win is a win. HA. And yes, I can speel whird as world and championship as champeenship. It takes talent to come up with alter-nut schpellings.

Back in 1983, prior to afternoon wrestling practice beginning at the University of Iowa, Coach Gable had us sit in the stands for one of his legendary ‘war stories.’

Most of the time, Gable’s war stories referenced years gone by. They were biographical sketches highlighting the attitude, work ethic and training philosophy of the champions he’d previously coached or been around.

On this particular day, this particular war story was different because it wasn’t about how American wrestling champions trained. In fact, it wasn’t even about how wrestlers trained.

The story was about how a group of Bulgarian Olympic weight lifters trained, and how well they were doing.

“They’re training six times a day,” Gable stated.

What? I thought. How can anyone train that many times a day? How you going to survive?

Six workouts a day would doubl (or triple) the number of workouts most of the wrestlers engaged in each day.

True, some guys on the Iowa team only worked out TWICE a day. I don’t recall ever meeting anyone who only trained once a day. There was no way you would make it if that was all you did.

Yet now, Gable was making us feel better about how rough we supposedly had it, by telling us about athletes who trained six times a day.

The key was that all the Bulgarian workouts were brief, usually never longer than 30 minutes. Moreover, a lot of the workout was rest. The athletes made sure to get plenty of recovery time in between sets. The workouts weren’t continuous non-stop action.

I’ve written about this and I’ll write about it again: If you’re not making progress with a particular exercise, or if you find yourself rebelling against a workout because you think you need an hour or more for the workout to have any value, think again. Stop training to failure and stop doing long workouts.

Whether you do one workout a day, or six, none of them need to be difficult for you to make progress. If you opt for more than one session per day, a simple set of one exercise, stopping well short of failure, is the key to making this method work for you.

I go into much more detail on the above in videos on my membership site. In forthcoming videos, I will explain why this way of training is not only far easier, but far more effective and productive.

The method works whether you’re doing Combat Conditioning, Gama Fitness or Primate Power, or any of our other programs.

Keep in mind that less time spent in each workout equals more progress… and training to failure is pure folly.

Kick a$$ – take names,

Matt Furey

An epic moment, it was.

Yesterday, President Trump became the only person in history to “pin” legendary wrestler, Dan Gable. And he accomplished the task without a struggle.

Gable, the 1972 Olympic Gold Medalist at 149.5 pounds, who won all six bouts without surrendering a single point, stood ramrod still in an emotional moment, as the President of the United States fastened The Medal of Freedom around Gable’s neck, then centered it on his chest.

It was a proud moment for Gable, for his family, and for all wrestlers who were coached by him (myself included). It was also a grand moment for anyone who has ever wrestled because Gable is the ONLY grappler to ever win the medal.

Over the years, I’ve written much about Dan Gable and the influence he had upon me. His influence began in my early teens and follows me to this day.

In high school, I read a biography, The Legend of Dan Gable – the Wrestler, by Russ L. Smith, over and over again. I followed the teachings that were spelled out in the book, as well as what intuitively came to me “through the lines.” I made up my mind that I was going to go to University of Iowa and wrestle for Gable. He was going to be my coach.

At the time I made this commitment, I was a lousy high school wrestler. Yet, each time I read the book, I improved dramatically.

Part way through my senior year in high school, after suffering a semifinal loss in a tournament I had won the year previous, I was emotionally devastated. My record was 8-4 afterward, which in most peoples’ minds, would have completely disqualified me from achieving any of my goals.

On the Monday morning after the tournament, I went to the school library and checked out the Gable biography again. Funny thing is I was the only wrestler at my school who read it, which I could clearly see on the card you signed in order to check it out.

I devoured the bio once again, eager to glean the wisdom I must have missed in previous readings. As I read, I felt something was telling me that “this reading” was going to be pivotal.

When I finished, I had my answer. Instead of three workouts per day, two of which were conditioning, I needed to be “on the mat” three times a day. I needed to practice my takedowns, throws, escapes and pinning holds until I could do them in my sleep. Yes, I still needed conditioning, but that would come AFTER practicing my techniques. They were primary.

For the last six weeks of the season, my brother, Tim, accompanied me to the local recreation center before school each morning, where I would drill and drill and drill. Immediately after school I would go to the team wrestling practice, and then around 7 PM, after having a couple steaks, I would go to the recreation center again to practice and drill the moves I wanted to master.

These moves were nothing new. They were the same moves I learned when I began in the sport at age eight. But when I committed to three workouts per day on the mat, I discovered something more within each of them. Day after day, each move became easier to execute. It became effortless. And details upon details upon details revealed themselves to me.

As a result of putting in three workouts each day “on the mat,” I won 15-straight matches, most of them by lopsided margins. As I cover in The Unbeatable Man, I qualified for the state tournament. In the quarterfinals, I got Gable’s attention when I squared off against a blue-chip recruit that he was in the audience to watch. The result of that match catapulted me from a lowly high school wrestling program to a bonafide member of the national champion University of Iowa wrestling team.

For years I swore to audiences that “three workouts per day, on the mat ,” were the exact words I read in Gable’s biography.

A few weeks before Coach Gable spoke at one of my seminars, I ordered a copy of the biography so I could find the exact quote and tell him how much it helped me. I combed the book several times and could NOT find it.

The night before Gable spoke, we got together to discuss details of the seminar. I had the book with me and asked him to sign it. He did, but not before asking how much I paid for it. When I told him the price, he cringed, but didn’t say a word. The next day, in his speech, Gable brought the price tag for the book up as evidence that his work is not yet done yet.

As Gable spoke yesterday before receiving the Medal of Freedom, you could see in his eyes and hear in his voice that his work is not done yet.

Congratulations, Coach Gable.

You’re the BEST.

Matt Furey

Here’s a portion of a fine note I received over the weekend from a Deputy Sheriff, who made my week. From the get-go, his email was impressive as it began with an eye-grabbing subject line.

“Why I’m Investing in Combat Conditioning

Matt,
At age 70, I’m still training and overall I’m doing very well fighting the aging process. I been dealing with joint and muscle aches and bought your Combat Stretching program. I have used it for just five days and the results have been amazing. I’m stronger, slowly increasing flexibility and most of the aches have disappeared.”

C.  

P.S. Enjoyed The Unbeatable Man thoroughly.

El Furecat: Way to go, C. I appreciate your openness to keep going at any age. This is the type of attitude that inspires many. God bless you and thank you for all you do.

Matt Furey

Links to the products C. referred to are shown below:

Combat Conditioning
Combat Stretching
The Unbeatable Man 

It’s Friday and I have a lot of coaching calls to do today.

And before I do them, I want to make sure I reach out to you and tell you how important it is to continuously work on your flexibility.

Grease up your joints. Give them plenty of lubrications. Don’t let your body rust out from within.

Make sure you’re continually moving in a circular way.

This is the key to flexibility, mobility and agility.

I cover it in detail in Combat Stretching.

Take a look. You’ll be ecstatic you did.

Matt Furey

There’s a greatness inside of you, and it cannot be locked down.

No matter where you are, in your home, your office or a hotel room, this greatness arises each morning and takes care of business. No matter what is going on in the whirld, no matter how insane it is, this greatness prods you to get up and get going.

You walk, you run, you jump. Regardless of the weather, or other factors, this greatness makes no excuses.

This greatness realizes what the Great Gama knew. If you give me nothing but a bare floor (or a pit of sand), I will make the most of my body. I don’t need fancy equipment. I can get all the exercise I need with my own bodyweight. My own body is a gym in and of itself.

That’s what the Great Gama understood. That’s how he lived.

And this is why I created Gama Fitness, a program that champions the type of exercises the Great Gama did to have an unbeaten 5000-0 record. I think his record stands for itself, and makes you want to do the same type of exercises that he did. If it worked for Gama, it works for me.

Best,

Matt Furey