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Last week I wrote about how my dogs “stretch” before I take them for a walk. One reader wrote to inform me that animals don’t stretch, they pandiculate.

True, but being most people have never heard of the term, I use the simplest word there is.

To paraphrase Mark Twain, why write metropolis when I get paid the same for city; why use policeman or law enforcement officer when everyone immediately relates to “cop.”

And so it is with words such as “relax.”

In martial arts, many teachers tell their students to “relax” away all tension, but this is the only word in English they have for what they are translating. The real meaning they ought to be conveying is to be in a relaxed and ready position, to let go of all “unnecessary” tension, not to relax to zero.

In my Power Postures course, I teach my students to “stretch your spine up and down simultaneously.” This is pandiculation, but it also requires more explanation than needed.

While the word “relax” is usually misunderstood, the word “stretch” allows the student to figure out what to do without consulting a dictionary.

For example, when I tell you the following, I want my instructions to be easy as possible to follow:

How to Stretch Without Stretching

1. Stand still with your feet shoulder-width apart and your hands by your sides.
2. Stretch your spine up and down at the same time.
3. Feel the top of your head moving towards the clouds while your feet stretch into the earth.

The above is easy to picture.

But if I say “pandiculate your spine,” I’m going to get a lot of “huh?” looks.

The “stretching” I teach in Power Postures is not stretching in the typical sense, but it doesn’t matter if it gets the job done. And it does, quickly.

Now, here’s the reality of the situation:

When you stretch (pandiculate) the way I am describing, you will instantly feel that you are plugged into a magnetic and electrical force. You will feel energized. Your hands and feet will probably tingle and/or get hot. You will also feel lighter, taller and more expansive.

These feelings are the beginning of you developing internal power.

The “stretch” takes place within. Some external movement is apparent, but most of the “growth” or elongation is taking place internally.

When you combine this principle of inner stretching (pandiculation) with external movement, you recharge your body, much the same way that dogs and cats do when they yawn, then go into a downward or upward posture, where they are lengthening their whole body in both directions simultaneously.

Want more of this double-recharged animalistic energy? Want more magnetic and dynamic strength and power?

Then get my breakthrough course NOW at PowerPostures.com

Matt Furey

You can also follow me on:

Instagram – @mattfureysays
Youtube – MattFureySays
Substack – mattfurey.substack.com

Every newborn child is incredibly flexible. Even at the advanced ages of one, two and four years of age most children are
still very limber. Then all of a sudden.. everything begins to stiffen and get tighter.

Once most people hit their teens their muscles and joints have the beginning stages of rigor mortis. And once you hit your 20’s
and 30’s, several areas of the body feel as though they are ready for the scrap heap.

So if you’re already beyond the age of 40 can you still reverse this inflexibility?

Can you unwind your your muscles, joints and tendons?

Yes you can.

And as your body becomes more flexible so does your mind. There’s a reason why young children under the age of four test as highly creative and a few
years later seem to have lost it 95% of it. As the body goes so does the mind. And vice versa.

So how do we become inflexible?

Here are five ways:

1. We sit for long periods of time in chairs and do nothing to counter the gravitational pull on our bodies.

2. We eat too many toxic foods.

3. We swallow emotional difficulties which get stored in the tissues as tension.

4. We get injured and never learn how to remove the trauma from the tissues.

5. We do too much long distance cardiovascular exercise.

There are many other things we do that can cause inflexibility, but this list of five covers the easily correctible mistakes.

Take number one, for example.

If instead of sitting for hours at a time every single day, if you got up from your chair and did just one Hindu pushup and one slow-motion Hindu squat, then arched over a ball or on a foam roller, think what the exercises can do for your entire body. If you have a dog, you will see that it does a full-body stretch many times throughout the day. Mine do so before going for their twice daily walk. Animals instinctively stretch, each and every day.

Your spine is so vitally important to your health and when it becomes stiff, painful and inflexible, your energy is short-circuited. The good news is it doesn’t take much to open the circuits again. 

Having a loose, limber and flexible spine keeps you swimming in the fountain pool in youth.

In my Combat Conditioning and Combat Stretching programs, I cover back flexibility in a way you’re not being told… and the method works wonders quickly.

Many people think flexibility is all about doing the splits. Although doing the splits is an admirable achievement, the circuit breaker is not turned on from this stretch.

Knowing how to stretch your spine from your coccyx to your occiput is the hallmark of youth.

Make sure you’re stretching your spine on a daily basis if you want to live life with gusto, creativity and enthusiasm.

Get these programs NOW – and if you already have them, then learn to stretch from the inside out, the way I teach in my Power Postures course.

All of these courses are game changers.

Matt Furey

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Instagram: @mattfureysays
YouTube: mattfureysays

In Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Veruca Salt exclaims, “Hey Daddy, I want an oompah loompah. I want you to get me an oompah loompah right away.”

“Alright, alright Ruca,” replied Mr. Salt. “I’ll get you one before the day is out.”

This was too much for the Verucabrat, who immediately demanded, “I want an oompah loompah noooow.”

“Can it you nit,” popped Violent Beauregard, who was no prize herself in regard to patience..

The notion that good things take time is lost to so many.

It’s a pity because the feeling of being unable to get what you want immediately after beginning, especially with fitness, usually leads to frustration, bad decisions as well as injuries.

A few years back I was working on a strength feat, wherein I was taught to make gradual progress. Everything was going according to plan, until a friend, who had already accomplished the feat, prodded me to make it happen much, much faster.

Why bother with the slower and steadier approach? Let’s do it today, preferably within minutes.

Even though I knew better, even though I knew the dangers, I caved into the temptation to get it ALL NOW.

The result: a dumb thumb injury that took almost one year to completely heal.

If I had stayed on the correct course, I would have accomplished the feat in three to six months. Instead, six months after “getting out of my comfort zone,” I was still nursing the injury.

When I advise people on various exercises and methods of training, I usually say, “Let’s look at this as a minimum six-month project, but it may take longer.” If the person thinks that six-to-twelve months is too long, then there’s no point in getting started. This doesn’t mean you won’t get ANY results for six months. You WILL get incredible results and quickly – but the biggest bang for your bucks, the biggest return on investment, comes cumulatively. Your routine gathers momentum that blasts through all barriers, just not within the hour.

A few months ago, a man contacted me to get my help reaching his goal of 500-straight Hindu squats. This is a common request, but many people just don’t want to hear that it takes time to reach the 500-level.

They want to be at 500 now.

Back in 20002, I went abroad to teach a few seminars. While there I met a man who got my book and DVDs on Combat Conditioning.

After he read the instructions for Hindu squats, he started doing them with the intention of doing 500 reps in a single workout.

It took him an hour, but he did do it, albeit incorrectly. He was sore for DAYS afterward.

[Note: When you can truly do 500-straight Hindu squats the proper way, you will finish in 15 minutes, or less.]

After the man told me of his accomplishment, I asked him how often he does the exercise now. He told me he hasn’t done Hindu squats since the day he did 500.

You want to know why?

It’s because he did what so many people wrongfully suggest. He pushed himself “out of his comfort zone,” and afterward he couldn’t get himself to go there again.

So I switched him to the “get into your comfort zone” approach, which I learned from my study of Psycho-Cybernetics, as well as my practice of martial arts.

[Note: Incidentally, you will NOT find a single instance in Psycho-Cybernetics, where Dr. Maltz tells you to “get out of your comfort zone.”
In fact, I will emphatically state that the entire book teaches you to get INTO your comfort zone and allow it to expand organically.]

Anyway, after starting him out with the “comfort-zone approach,” he reached 500 reps in a row within six months, and kept doing them afterward, with ease.

One approach fried the man’s nervous system; the other gave him new life. One approach led to frustration and agony; the other to a feeling of personal mastery.

Which road will you choose to travel?

Here endeth the lesson!

Matt Furey

There’s a saying, “Beginning is half-done.” Yes, getting started is often half the battle, if not more.

Yet, we tend to ignore the power of getting started.

We often overlook the fact that walking through the door, or showing up, is of monumental value.

Instead of being taught to win the small battles first, we are admonished to “get out of your comfort zone,” to tackle the big goal. This is clearly bad advice as most people who say they “believe” you must get out of your comfort zone, seldom do so.

The counterintuitive reality is that we are at our best when we begin from within our comfort zone and effortlessly, organically allow ourselves to expand beyond all expectations.

Years ago I figured this out when I kept procrastinating on tidying up and reorganizing my office. Realizing that this was going to take quite a while, I put the chore off. For weeks.

Then one evening I set a ridiculously small goal. Instead of focusing on the job being completed, I put my attention on getting started. I gave myself a simple action goal to “clean my office for five minutes.”

It was a ludicrous goal in comparison to the many hours that were required. But something surreal took place when I set this tiny goal.

First, I had zero resistance to getting started. I began immediately.

Second, once I engaged, five minutes turned into a quick 30.

Third, once I got to 30 minutes, I had so much momentum that I kept going for several hours. I began at 7 PM and continued until 3 AM.

Oddly enough, I had no fatigue. Despite the late hour I wanted to continue. I was waaaay beyond my so-called “comfort zone,” and was totally comfortable being there. I didn’t have a shread of fight, flight or freeze

I stopped myself, though, and went to sleep.

The next evening I employed the same gambit. I set another five-minute goal to see if the same thing would happen. And sure as the sheets of paper I was shredding, five minutes became 30, and 30 minutes turned into hours. Once again, I called it a day at 3 AM.

Incredible, I thought.

On the third day I could smell the finish. I was within range to taste victory. Even so, I began with another tiny goal, and the same thing happened again. The only difference was that instead of retiring at 3 AM, the job was completed by midnight.

There was no dread as I worked. I was in the ZONE, living in the NOW for a grand total of 21 hours. If you had told me I would enjoy spending 21 hours organizing my office, I would have scoffed. There’s no way that could happen, yet it did.

If, on the other hand, I pushed myself to get out of my comfort zone, there is no way I would have had the same zero resistance experience. No way at all..

This story illustrates why I teach people to begin with small daily fitness goals that you can spontaneously upgrade on the fly. You might think the big, hairy goal is better, but nothing favorably compares to eating the elephant one morsel at a time.

Can’t get yourself to work out?

Then start with the idea of “just showing up.”

Then upgrade to something such as, “I’m going to do a few Hindu pushups.”

Or, “I’m going to jump rope for a minute.”

Chances are excellent that once you begin, you’ll keep going for a much longer period of time.

Start with the small and you can have it all.

Matt Furey

By the way, I have much more to reveal to you on this subject in Zero Resistance Living and Theatre of the Mind. Both products are available at psycho-cybernetics.com

These men don’t just sit there. They punish the fat off themselves.

The last couple nights when I entered the sauna, someone was standing next to the wall, doing a series of squats.

No, these were not the Hindu squats I teach in Combat Conditioning, but they are still good.

On night one, a tall slender man wearing headphones and sweating puddles beneath his feet, was doing sissy squats. The term is truly a misnomer as these squats are anything but easy.

He was doing sets of ten, with 60 seconds of rest in between. He had a gallon jug of water with him, that he drank from between sets, which told me he’s no “rassler.” Wrestlers don’t drink water in the hot box.

On day two, another dude was sitting against the pine in the wall chair posture. His thighs were parallel to the floor and his arms were crossed in front of his chest. He held for a minute, then rested, followed by another round. He must have done about ten rounds.

These men are what we referred to as “studs,” back in the day. They gots a lots of testosterones.

Do you need to follow the lead of these two men when you’re in the sweat box? No, but there’s a few in there who probably should do more than sit and look at their eye-phones. The leviathans, the beached walruses and whales, they could add a little extra to the equation.

Squatting and holding for time is a good way to begin. Start with 10-20 seconds. After this sit and rock back and forth. A few rounds of this will beat the passivity, pizza and pasta out of you.

As for myself, I did 30 minutes last night, followed by a dip in the pool, followed by another 21 minutes.

A daily sweat in the sauna is one of the best medicines available. It might even be number one. It benefits body, brain and soul, even if you don’t do any squats.

Matt Furey

 

The current trend to turn everything inside-out is nothing new. The game has been going on for a long time, and it will not end anytime soon.

But that’s not what I am going to write about today. Instead, I am going to explain what I call the Law of Opposites.

In internal martial arts, you learn that you gather or coil your energy in order to release it. You also push the earth away in order to spring off the ground.

You push backward to move forward. You go left internally if you want to move right externally, and vice versa.

If you don’t gather energy first, if you don’t move in the opposite direction internally, you cannot move in the direction you want to go.

Without this realization of opposing forces, you minimize your power.

The smaller a movement is, the greater the power. A tiny needle is feared more than a fist. A big loopy swing has less wallop than a compact one.

Oddly enough, standing still increases energy while long drawn out exercises enervate the body.

Standing still is more than it appears to be.

Why?

Because when you attempt to remain still, a greater amount of energy moves inside your body. Again, this is the Law of Opposites in supposed “non-action.”

If you are feeling drained, you can go for a run or walk to rev up your engine. But you can also accomplish the same objective, and more, by practicing stillness.

The above was figured out long ago, and it is spot on.

Animals instinctively sit or stand in various postures each day, often for long periods of time. They recharge and recover by being physically quiet. Minimal movement externally causes abundant energy within; energy that can then be used later on in a maximal manner.

Taking a rest regenerates the body so you can be more productive. No rest and all work makes for a dull, tired existence.

A superior work ethic includes knowing when to rest and recharge. Those who don’t factor recovery into their plans, cut off the vital flow of energy that is abundantly available to all.

Need more energy? Then practice this Law of Opposites.

My course at powerpostures.com will show you the way. Experience the benefits for yourself NOW.

Matt Furey

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To move slowly is holy.
To go faster is disaster.
When you are able to mix the two,
you easily land strikes with fist and shoe.
And become a living, breathing bugaboo.
– el Furecat

It’s a tough one for many people to accept. They attempt to live their lives the way it was depicted in the 1970’s Marathon candy bar commercial: “I am Quick Claude. I do everything fast.”

But could Quick Claude eat a Marathon bar fast?

He tried but he couldn’t do it. Not for a single bite.

So it goes with learning a new skill. We want to learn fast, we want immediate results, but most of the time, this mindset leads to frustration and failure.

There is, however, a faster way to learn anything, and it is the opposite of what you might think. It is called slowing down. It is called taking your time; not rushing.

Most people opt for faster and what they get are tons of mistakes. These mistakes are correctable, but not if you refuse to slow down.

Last night I spoke with a client who has the first draft of a book finished. Now he’s engaged in the slow, laborious task of editing. “Ugh. Editing sucks,” he moaned. “It’s so slow.”

“All great writing is in the editing,” I said. “Slow it down even more.”

“But I am already going slow. You want me to go even slower?”

“Yes. Slower is faster. To go faster you go slower.”

“Hmm?” he questioned.

“Let’s talk physics for a moment, shall we? Maybe it will help you see through the darkness.”

“Okay.”

“Explain the mechanics of an archer to me. What does he have to do before he shoots the arrow?”

“He has to pull the bowstring back,” he replied.

“And then what?”

“He lets the arrow go by releasing the string.”

“Correct. Does he do this fast to learn the skill?”

“No,”

“Correct. What about a golf swing? Is it done quickly?”

“Not if you want to hit the ball hard and straight.”

“And what about the swing itself? Do you move forward first or do you go backward?”

“You go backward.”

“Why?” I asked.

“So you gather enough energy to drive through the ball.”

“Why not go forward first? It’s seems to me that would be faster.”

“It might seem that way but it isn’t,” he replied.

I continued, “What about the baseball pitcher who is throwing a 100-miles per hour fastball?”

“Uh, he goes backwards first, too.”

“Does the pitcher go backwards fast or slow?”

“Slow,” he replied.

“Yet this helps him throw gas?”

“It sure does.”

“How does this relate to the mental game of writing?” I questioned.

“Slow it down.”

“Correct. But what else?”

“I’m not sure,” he remarked.

“You slow it down even more by sitting in a chair and taking a few minutes to visualize yourself editing. Picture the book being finished. And picture where you are in relation to the goal of being finished. This is the mental equivalent of pulling the bowstring back. It’s the same as a good backswing. You create tension first, then you release it. This is how you create speed.”

“Ah, this makes sense,” he said.

“Have you ever cracked a bullwhip?” I wondered.

“No.”

“Well, in order to do it, you have to bring the whip backward slowly. Then you bring it forward at the exact same slow speed. And as the whip comes forward, at the last instant, you tense your hand. You are relaxed until almost the very end of the movement. You have any idea how fast that whip is moving?”

“I don’t know. Maybe 100 miles per hour.”

“100 miles per hour is not going to make a whip crack,” I chuckled. “For it to crack it has to break the sound barrier. This means the cracker at the end of the whip has to traveling at least 767 miles per hour. You cannot make it crack if you rush. You have to relax and let the whip crack itself. If you force the whip with the idea of adding speed, it won’t crack. And when you try to go really fast, you can damage your tendons. It’s the same with writing and editing. Slow is fast and fast is slow.”

Here endeth the lesson.

Matt Furey

mattfurey.substack.com – follow me for even more riveting articles

The cold snap is over in Florida, for the fourth time this year. I put my heavy cotton and wool sweats away and they are staying put until next winter.

Now is the time to get rid of the winter rolls, if you have any.

Here are some suggestions for you that will make fat burning a piece of cheesecake.

1. Stop eating and start fasting. Begin with intermittent rounds of 16 hours or more. The longer you can go, within reason, the greater the amount of flab that your body will burn. More than 20 years ago, when I wrote about the benefits of fasting, some readers thought I was nuts (some still do). But real science is on my side and it’s not censored.
2. Jump. Many moons ago I read that when you stop jumping your body gets old faster. True? Indeed. When you jump you move more than blood and oxygen. You also stimulate the lymphatic system, and that my friend, is the real secret. Jumping rope is fabulous for your body. 10 minutes of rope skipping is better than 30 minutes of running. But if you want to start off easier on your joints, get a rebounder. I have two and they kick your azz while ramping up your metabolism.
3. Practice body weight calisthenics, such as those championed in my international best-seller, Combat Conditioning, available at mattfurey.com. This ground-breaker has been shipped to well over 140 countries and blazed the trail for the unstoppable move we are seeing today. Yet, once again, when I launched this book in the year 2000, people laughed and jeered. I held strong to what I knew to be the truth. Three years later, people jumped on the wagon with me, and we’ve been enjoying the sunset ever since.To recap, stop eating so much and so often. Start fasting and ditch all those so-called healthy carbohydrates. Jump everyday, with a rope or on a rebounder. And get the last laugh at those who jeer you.Turn jeers into cheers.

   Yes, that’s the ticket and I’ve lived it.

   Matt Furey

P.S. Follow me on my substack mattfurey.substack.com

So, I wrote about Midorifuji two days ago on my page at mattfurey.substack.com (please subscribe).

I wrote about how he was 10-0 in the current Sumo basho, a 15-day tournament held every two months in Japan.

And now, two days later, because of what I wrote, he’s 10-2.

Yep, it’s ALL my fault.

Did what I wrote really jinx him? I doubt it. But this is the way many of us are wired. We think that one little thing we do can make or break a winning or losing streak, even when we are not associated with the other person at all.

You’ll witness this superstition taking place in sports such as baseball, where vendors are hip to capitalizing on the ridiculous notions people have about cause and effect.

In Seattle, when the Mariners are losing in the latter innings, “Rally fries” are sold. Fans rush to buy French fries with the idea that when they do so, the team rallies to drive in the winning runs.

But these psychological antics don’t stop or start with fries. I’ve heard radio announcers say that whenever the team is down, if he/she gets a hotdog, it will change the outcome of the game.

Then there are the fans who turn their caps inside out, which signals to the cosmos, that their team is going to turn it around.

Several years ago, when I was a home plate club season ticket holder for the Tampa Bay Rays, a friend and fellow Yankees fan, texted. “Stay in your seat. Every time you get up to walk through the tunnel, the Rays hit a home run.”

This man wasn’t alone. Another Yankees fan wrote to tell me the same thing. Both were watching the game on the booby tube and saw me move around.

“Damnit Furey, stay in your seat,” the other fan wrote.

Man, I didn’t know I had that much power over the outcome of a game.

Superstition is a serious mind wharp. Yet, could this observation be connected to reality in ways we cannot fathom or explain?

Although I logically think not, sometimes I’m perplexed and go along with it.

Rally fries?

Do they really work? Or do they appear to work because enough people believe they do.

Another great one is to falsely proclaim the opposite of what you want to see happen in a game, as in, “We’re going to get crushed tonight.”

This negative proclamation upsets others who think your negative thoughts will effect the outcome of the game. But when the opposite happens, you gleefully sit back with a smile on your face.

“You’re using reverse psychology,” one fan told me.

“On who?” I question. “I’m not out there playing, or coaching.”

And yet, they still believe.

Rally fries, anyone?

Matt Furey

By the way, to learn the true secrets of rallying yourself to one victory after another, get yourself a copy of the Zero Resistance Living program – a true non-jinxer that will change your life for the better. 

And if you want to learn more about how you can become much more powerful by standing almost perfectly still, check out my jazz-kicking program, Power Postures, which is becoming a huge go-to course for some major movers and shakers.

Last but not by any means the least – make sure you follow me at mattfurey.substack.com