This may take you back a few years, but whenever I hear the term “good grief,” I think of Charlie Brown, looking puzzled and confused. 

Grief is an emotion that can be puzzling and confusing.

You move into a new and better home but feel a sense of loss for the one you left. You graduate from school, but now you feel the sting of saying goodbye to all your friends.

Then there’s the toughest subject of them all, the one they don’t cover in school: death.

We think we are prepared, especially when given advance notice, but when the moment of truth hits, we may still find ourselves on an emotional rollercoaster. One moment we are strong and accepting, and in the next moment we are filled with sadness. 

Over the years I’ve learned various ways to help transform emotions such as grief and sadness into positive alternatives such as courage and confidence. I’ve put many of these practices to the test over the years, but when the rubber hits the road, I’ve found the fastest, easiest way to disconnect from and transform grief and sadness is the practice of Dao Zou. 

When I first learned this shamanic walking technique, I had no idea it would transform negative emotions into positives, and do so without any conscious effort. There was nothing to visualize, nothing specific to think. There were no affirmations, no mantras and no need to even BELIEVE it would work. Just do the practice and notice what happens. 

The first time I realized that Dao Zou helped me transcend grief took place when my goof friend, Mark Ferris, passed away five years ago.

I went for a long walk to come to grips with the new reality I faced. Yet, when I returned home and took a seat, despite walking for well over an hour, I was inexplicably out of sorts.

And then, oddly enough, I sensed that I could hear Mark talking to me, saying, “Hey Furey. Don’t be a dumb ass. You know what to do. Get up and practice Dao Zou.”

So I got off the sofa and began to move, and within 200 steps, I was at changed. I was at peace. 

I was stunned. 

Later that afternoon, another wave of grief arrived. I got up and repeated the morning session, and once again, within 200 steps I was at ease. 

When my father passed away earlier this year, I employed the same technique, albeit for a longer period of time as 200 steps wouldn’t do the job. Every evening, when a big wave would arrive, I would begin transforming the energy I felt into something calmer. Around 800 steps I would be feeling great, but I would keep going until I got to 2,000, as I teach in the course. Then I would stand and feel the vibration pulsating throughout my legs and torso. 

The above protocol is what I would call turning bad grief into good.

When grief is considered good, it ain’t all that bad. 

More importantly, Dao Zou is a program you can do when times are tough or you’re experiencing negative emotions of any kind, as well as when you want to increase your fitness, athleticism and/or brain training. 

Don’t believe it will work for you? 

That’s good. 

Why?

Because Dao Zou has nothing to do with your beliefs. It works whether you believe it will work or not because it taps a cybernetic function of the brain and nervous system. More on that some other time. 

Just keep in mind the idea that grief is good. It’s an opportunity to rise above what you’re currently dealing with. 

Here endeth the lesson.

Matt Furey

P.S. A hearty “thank you” to all of you who reached out to me last week. Much appreciated. Much obliged. 

As a young boy, our family frequently traveled to Omaha to visit my grandma, uncles, aunts and cousins. My mother was born and raised in this city; my dad met her while going to law school at Creighton.

I brought my son, Frank, here seven years ago to play in a baseball tournament and watch a game of the College World Series. Yesterday, I came back, this time for the funeral of my youngest brother, Tim, who passed away from cancer Sunday evening.

If you’ve read my book, The Unbeatable Man, you may recall some of the mentions I had of Tim.

Last night, as I was preparing for sleep, a good many “lost” memories of Tim resurfaced. With closed eyes I revisited the way Tim swam, the way he bridged (he was nearly impossible to pin), the way he walked and ran and talked. Simple, ordinary things, really, but all distinct and memorable.

In 2009, when The Unbeatable Man first came out, I remember how my mother sobbed as she read the passage about Tim in my book. I asked her why she was crying. She showed me the page. Uggh.

A few days ago I took out a copy of The Unbeatable Man to find that passage again.

On that section, I wrote about Tim not watching my matches at the state tournament, how he stayed in the corridor, out of the stands, out of fear that his presence would jinx me.

You might wonder how someone develops a superstition such as this. It’s rather simple. I watched him and he lost. I watched another time and he lost. I didn’t watch him and he won. Damn, must be my fault when he loses. I want my brother to win, so if I don’t watch him, he will win. 

Strange and true – yet some sort of superstition such as this is part of the reality of every prominent athlete or athletic family I have ever met.

Of far greater benefit to me though, was how Tim met with me in the early morning hours, before school, and once again at night, after wrestling practice. Why? To help me drill the moves I needed to “perfect,” so that I could achieve my goals of making it to the state tournament and coming home a champion.

Three workouts per day, for six weeks.

5:30 AM.

3:30 PM.

8 PM.

Tim was with me for each of these workouts, helping me hone my skills.

As a result of this training protocol, I won 14-straight matches, almost all of them by lopsided margins. The training strategy was a huge difference maker – but it required a cooperative partner for it to work. And Tim definitely was that cooperative partner.

So I’m back in Omaha to say goodbye to my little brother. Uggh.

Rest In Peace, little brother.

Matt Furey

Note: By reading the full story of The Unbeatable Man, not only will you be incredibly moved, but the proceeds will go to Tim’s wife, Anya, and his daughter, Maya.

Some of our aches and pains come as a result of something we did today; other aches and pains are the result of what happened to us years ago.

In my particular case, one of my college coaches put me in a tight hammerlock (arm behind my back) and the more I fought to escape, the worse it got. I didn’t have good shoulder flexibility at the time, and the hammerlock caused pain in my body that I’d never experienced before.

A couple years later, when I was in my early 20’s, I got slammed on the same shoulder during a wrestling match in West Virginia. My opponent was from Kent State, and had beaten me in a close match the week prior with a slick fireman’s carry – but this time, even after being slammed, I mustered the internal strength to whoop him, and continued to do so every time I faced him afterward.

Even though I ended up beating the guy three times to his one, the pain I suffered from getting slammed on my shoulder lived on. As the saying goes, “your body never forgets.”

But what if there was a way to help my shoulder forget, to let go of the pain?

Well, there are numerous healing modalities that can help someone heal. I’ve played around with many of them and found them to be effective.

At the same time, just because something gets you out of pain doesn’t necessarily mean that it will help you regain what was lost.

Did you regain the flexibility you lost? Did you regain the strength you once had? These are important questions to ask yourself.

When I first began doing the exercises in the Farmer Burns course, I was enamored with the power of the deep breathing exercises. As I dove deeper I was impressed with the training for the fast twitch muscle fibers.

But ultimately, what made me smile the most, was how, after taking the exercises seriously, I could put myself into the hammerlock position, and move through it like a hot knife through butter. Not only did I gain flexibility in the hammerlock position I never had before, but I now have strength in this position that was previously foreign to me as well.

So if you’ve been wondering why I keep hammering the Farmer Burns course, now you have one of many vitally important clues.

The exercises in Farmer Burns course can help your body forget what used to cause you pain.

Matt Furey

P.S. For those of you who are catch wrestling or grappling enthusiasts, who want to Tap ‘Em Like a Typewriter…

I was recently speaking with Ed Baran about one of the profound differences between weight training and self-resistance exercises. 

The biggest difference is this: With self-resistance exercises, isometric as well as isotonic, you can directly target, with pin-point accuracy, the weak links in the body’s chain.

With weight training and calisthenics, it is much harder, and in some instances, impossible, to find your body’s blind spots; areas of the body, where regardless of your strength in any number of major movements, you are surprisingly weak when it comes to simple movements. 

You can do a great job targeting energetic weaknesses with calisthenics – but self-resistance exercises allow you to hit the bullseye with every dart you throw. 

If you cannot find your body’s blind spots, you cannot target them and make them stronger. All you can do is continue on the road to ruin, giving yourself injuries that can defy explanation. 

For example, you may be asking yourself: Why does my shoulder hurt? Or why does my knee hurt? Or my elbow?

The quick and easy explanations are that you engaged in a repetitive motion and this caused your injury, or that your mechanics were incorrect, and this lead to other muscles over-compensating. That’s why your body broke down. 

But is that really the whole story? Is there more to the puzzle? 

Indeed there is. 

In simple layman’s terms, your body has energetic leaks, it has blind spots. 

Imagine a 5-gallon water jug. The jug looks fine from a distance, but why is water seeping out of it? You get closer and begin to inspect it. Upon doing so you discover a couple tiny leaks. So you grab a hammer and begin hitting the jug, hoping this is going to plug the leaks. But the hammer does the opposite of what you intended. It expands the size of the leaks. 

This is what happens to your body when you address the biggest muscles in the body and ignore the smaller ones. You have weaknesses and instead of directly targeting them, you grab a barbell and begin to hammer away. 

This method can grow your muscles and make you stronger, but eventually, you find the strength draining. The injuries become so great that you cannot train the same way you once did anymore. 

With self-resistance exercises, you can seal the leaks in your water jug (your body). In doing so, you regain your strength, your flexibility and a newborn feeling of youthfulness. 

That, my friend, is what Farmer Burns brought to the table in his 1914 course. 

At 58 years of age, my days of competitive wrestling are over – but there is nary a day I don’t flip open this course and do the physical culture exercises contained within. 

The exercises appear, at first glance, to be too simple to have much use in our modern-day whirld of machines, gizmos and electronic contraptions.

Yet, it only takes about a minute to discover and say to yourself, “Holy schmokes, these exercises work. I’m hitting the exact weak spots that the other exercises never address.”

Correctomundo.

You are sealing the energetic leaks in your body. You are giving “vision” to your body’s many blind spots. 

That’s why I begin my day with the simple exercises Farmer Burns taught in the first lesson of his course. I can pretend that I’m way too advanced for these exercises – but the truth is that I’m not – and I don’t think anyone else is either. 

Let Farmer Burns show you how to “do your thing” better than you have in years; maybe even better than EVER. 

Rid your body of its many blind spots, NOW.

Matt Furey

A few weeks ago, I spoke to Paul, a man who is 67 years of age. He’s been strengthening his body and doing well with the exercises in Combat Conditioning, and got curious when he saw my writings about Farmer Burns.

He was intrigued by the health and fitness benefits touted in regard to the deep breathing exercises alone.

As the Farmer wrote, “Breathing exercises alone, if done RIGHT, will make many a weak man strong and many a sick man well.”

“I did the first few breathing exercises in lesson one,” Paul said. “And I had an incredible experience.”

“Tell me more,” I replied.

“Well, when it came time to do my calisthenic exercises, I didn’t know what to expect. I was blown away because the rest of my workout was a breeze. It felt super easy.”

“And that’s only from the first time you did the first three exercises in lesson one,” I remarked. “Wait until you begin doing the other exercises in that lesson, not to mention lesson three. I do these exercises almost every morning shortly after arising, and I am continually stunned with how beneficial they are.”

“Yet the exercises are so SIMPLE,” Paul added.

“Simple but profound,” I said. “Keep in mind there are different levels of knowledge, even with the seemingly simple exercises.”

“Do you still do the exercises in Combat Conditioning?” Paul asked.

“I do, but I make sure I do the Farmer Burns exercises first as they get the body primed for more. All the Farmer Burns exercises are targeting the intrinsic energy of the body, and this blends in nice with Combat Conditioning.”

“Could I alternate the two programs? For example, what if I did Combat Conditioning on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and Combat Conditioning the other days? Would that be a good idea?”

“It’s a fine idea. Have at it and let me hear about your positive results. I think you’re going to be more than just a little bit surprised from your results.”

“Me, too. I’m on it.”

Well, guess what? I heard from Paul over Labor Day weekend. He’s now doing all the exercises in the first lesson of Farmer Burns, and he reports that his muscles are longer and stronger, his midsection is flatter and harder, and he has greater mobility, speed and balance than he’s had in years.

How bout that?

Yes, the Farmer knew what he was teaching. Simple is profound.

Get the Farmer’s course and see for yourself.

Matt Furey

Here’s today’s question:

Matt,
I’m loving Combat Conditioning. I’m doing 3 full-body workouts every week. Different bodyweight exercises each session.

How frequently do you work out now at the age of 58?

You’re still a young man, Matt.

Kyle

Hello Kyle. Glad to see you’re enjoying Combat Conditioning and are getting your workouts in.

As for how often I train, the answer is at least once a day, oftentimes twice a day, and sometimes, three times. My martial arts workouts take up more than half of all my training and are the most time consuming. The bodyweight workouts I do are over pretty quickly. You don’t need much each day to be kicking ass.

Combat Conditioning, of course, is my most well-known and famous program, but the exercises in Farmer Burns 1914 mail-order couse, Lessons in Wrestling and Physical Culture, are turning heads all over the world.

Basic, simple bodyweight exercises are the foundation of health and functional fitness/athleticism. The basics, of their own accord, can and do become advanced exercises. Think of it in the same way you would boxing: There are four basic punches. All of them are simple, but the more you work them, the more advanced they become due to internal changes that take place within the body, the breath and the mind.

Keep at it, Kyle, and you’ll go far.

Matt Furey

“A strength over-extended becomes a weakness.” – Kung Fu proverb

Last night I was talking to a friend about the modern-day fitness push toward the EXTREME.

“What do you think about it?” he asked.

“I’m all for it up to a certain age,” I remarked.

“What age is that?”

I replied: “If you’re in your teens, twenties and thirties, go ahead, be as extreme as you want – just keep in mind that eventually there will be a tax. When you’re young, you have plenty of time to gather the funds to pay the tax. When you’re older, it’s not so easy.”

“What about when you’re in your 40’s or 50’s?” he questioned.

“In your forties and fifties, if you’re still pushing toward the extreme, you might be able to get away with it, to a certain extent, depending on your foundation. If you learned how to move properly at a younger age, you might be able to continue. Trouble is, most people never learned to move properly, so their bodies break down quickly as soon as they do anything remotely extreme.”

“So what should you do, stick with the basics forever?”

I answered: “You make it sound as though that’s a bad thing. Oh no, don’t stick with the basics. Meander to the extremes, that’s better for you.”

“I didn’t mean it that way.”

“I’m sure you didn’t, but my point is this: If you stuck with pushups, squats, bridging and other bodyweight exercises for your entire life, in the end you’re going to be better off than the extreme athlete who is so banged up he can barely move anymore. Case in point was Alexeev, the great Soviet weightlifter who won Olympic gold in 1972 and 1976. I admired the man. He was a superstud. But he needed three people to help him get up when he was older – and I don’t mean in his 90’s. I’m talking about his 50’s.”

“So you’re saying the push ought to be for people to do what Herschel Walker did? The simple exercises,” he said.

“Simple is under-rated,” I replied. “People think that something must be physically complicated in order for it to have immense value. But the true value is in the mind. What are you doing with your mind as you do the simple exercises? Herschel Walker figured it out a long time ago and that’s why he can still kick butt. ”

“So what you’re saying is that you can use your mind in an advanced or extreme way while doing something simple, do I have that right?”

“You’re bang on. Look, I’m still able to do what some people might classify as extreme, mostly because, in many ways, I figured out how to move properly at a young age. That’s how I was able to win a world title in my mid 30’s after taking several years off. But what has kept me going are the simple exercises. Extreme may grab the rah-rah factor on social media, but it’s not what people are aching for. Most people are totally banged up from training with weights, playing football, doing idiotic things – or from not doing anything. So is the formula for the banged up to pile on and do even more extreme stuff? I don’t think so. As I’ve said all along, SIMPLE WINS. I’m 58 years of age and I’m still learning to get more out of the simplest of movements. That’s saying something.”

My friend, SIMPLE is what you get and WINNING is the result of following the programs I have to offer.

Farmer Burns 1914 course, Lessons in Wrestling and Physical Culture, is a great starting point for most people.

If you have no interest in wrestling, you’re a member of a very large group of people. Skip over all the wrestling moves. Read and re-read the six lessons on physical culture and you will be in AWE.

And then, when you get out of your chair and DO the SIMPLE exercises that Burns recommends, you just might see modern-day progress being made on ailments that feel ancient.

Also, keep Combat Conditioning in mind. It’s a classic as well. And it’s now available in a super user-friendly spiral bound format. It’s now in the office and selling out quickly, especially at the reduced amount (it will be going up substantially by tomorrow).

If you already have the products listed above, congratulations. Make sure you keep going with the exercises.

Here endeth the lesson.

Matt Furey

Q: Matt, I’ve noticed that many of the fitness gurus on social media are doing exercises that are extreme. What’s your take on them? Are they good for you? I just want to live a long, healthy life with joints that don’t wear out. Correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t see these programs as good for you in the long term.

Ron

A: Ron, I’m not in fan of most of the extreme exercises people are doing. They look great. They are impressive. But I don’t believe they are a good long-term longevity strategy. Your body is not a machine – and machines are prone to wear and tear, too. When you see people getting a joint replaced at an early age, you can be certain that something was fundamentally flawed in how they trained. It’s far better to focus on simple, fundamentally sound movements that incorporate deep breathing.

Last night I was speaking with a gentleman in his 60’s who has incurred various injuries in recent years. He told me that he’s moving away from the ultra-challenging and mega-difficult style of exercise. Why? Because he recognizes that his body is not a machine. He’s doing the SIMPLE breathing exercises and calisthenics that Farmer Burns teaches in his 1914 course, Lessons in Wrestling and Physical Culture, and he’s stunned at how effective they are.

“These exercises change your body fast and yet you would think they couldn’t based on how easy they appear,” he said.

“Simple exercise wins,” I replied.

At some point, you are wise to simplify your own exercise routine. If you beat your head into a post, there is a price to be paid down the road. You may think you’re invincible when you’re doing it, but you’re not.

SIMPLE may not impress people on social media, it may not get you a ton of “likes” – but it’ll give you the results you want.

Train smarter – not harder.

Matt Furey

Question of the Day

Matt,
I’m loving the Farmer Burns course but I’m way out of shape. Used to be fit and lean and then Covid hit and I turned to blub. He says to do 10 to 20 repetitions. I can’t do that many in a row yet but I feel I’m still benefitting, especially with my digestion. Will I still get value if I do less?

Jay

Jay,
Glad you’re digging the course. If you’re already seeing benefits in terms of your digestion, you’ve answered part of your own question.

As for being unfit, look at it as an opportunity to reclaim your body and regain your health. Consider yourself fortunate.

As for repetitions, if 10-20 is too much for you at the present time, then begin with far less. There’s nothing wrong with doing five reps (or fewer) when you begin. Start slowly and soon you’ll be carrying a big stick. Keep me posted on your progress.

Matt Furey

Got a message from a reader of the Farmer Burns course, Lessons in Wrestling and Physical Culture:

Matt,
I got my Farmer Burns course a couple weeks ago and started doing the breathing exercises on page 7 the first day. These exercises are incredible. The Farmer is spot on. When I first read the descriptions I thought no way these are too simple. But whenever I get thoughts like this I check my ego at the door and see what happens when I do them. Oh my. You were right when you called these a type of American Chi Kung. I find them better than the Chinese stuff that’s so popular these days. Now I’ve been doing the breathing exercises on page 20 for the past week and I am totally sold. My energy is up. My digestion is improved and the flabby gut is going bye bye  On top of that, my bedroom skills are no longer waning. I don’t think you’ve ever mentioned that these exercises improve erectile issues, but they sure have for me. Anyway, enough already. Just want to thank you for all you do to promote health and fitness. 

Johnson 

My reply:

Glad to hear about your results, Johnson.

Reminds me of the lady who called our office several years ago to rave about how she rid herself of urinary incontinence using the breathing exercises in the course. She had tried everything to eliminate this embarrassing malaise, and she said that the F.B. exercises were the only method that truly worked.

With this in mind, it definitely stands to reason that you may be able to improve functioning throughout the nether region with these exercises. Thanks for bringing this UP. Perhaps some others will write to mention the same thing.

Matt Furey