So the question goes… what is the best time for me to exercise?

The answer most people give is fundamentally sound. Get up early and get started. Get up early, eat a couple frogs, and make yourself busy doing this, that and the other thing.

I did this for many, many years more than I choose to count. Each day, I was up at 5 A.M., showered and ready to train clients by 5:30. And during breaks in the action I exercised.

When I began writing in earnest, I found that saving my energy for what I was writing by exercising later in the day, was a much better way to roll.

Over a good span of time I realized that doing the opposite yielded better results for me in my exercise and in my writing.

Instead of going to bed early and getting up at 5 A.M., I went to bed after midnight, during which time I did the majority of my conditioning and martial arts practice.

I realize this practice is impractical for many, if not most people. So why do I do it?

Because it works for me.

But I also do it because some of the greatest martial arts masters who ever lived were night owls. Instead of going to sleep early and getting up early, some of them, such as Zhang San Feng, the alleged founder of tai chi, trained all night long.

I wondered if these stories were real, surreal or a phantasy? And I asked myself if I were willing to give this midnight askitball a shot. The answer was yes.

So to this very day, many moons after asking myself to give it a whirl, I do the majority of my training when the wolves howl and the owls prowl.

I don’t advise anyone to follow this practice. But I do advise that you follow the exercises I teach at the time of day that works best for you. That could be 6 AM, 12 noon or 6 PM.

Track your results and see what happens. Be open to surprises.

And this, my friend, endeth today’s lesson.

Matt Furey

Just put up a new video for y’all on Longevity Squats.

This one may shock you. And word is that it tells you how young your body is.

If you can’t do it yet – per usual, I break it down for you.

Matt Furey

The War Elephant may sound fictional – but I assure you it’s the biggest, most powerful badass fighting animal on earth.

Historically, elephants have been used in major battles in India, Persia and Southeast Asia.

And there’s much we can learn from them that will strengthen and rehabilitate our bodies – especially our knees, ankles, hips and spine.

I put a YouTube video up yesterday that will get you started.

Matt Furey

Over the years I’ve had a good number of clients who’ve tipped the scales at 400+ pounds.

In fact, yesterday I met with a man, C.B., who weighed 444.8 pounds just six weeks ago, and he’s already down 30 pounds.

I mentioned to him that many people today appear to be living in a reality tee-vee show called “Keeping up with the Lardassians.” He agreed, saying, “I’ll bet a lot of people would watch that show just to see people eat.”

Anyway, as I was advising C.B., I noticed how the enormity of his weight loss goal was weighing him down. Despite having already lost 30 pounds, when he looked at the fact that he has 175 pounds to go, the goal was overwhelming.

So I told him, “I didn’t tell you to set a goal to lose another 175 pounds, did I?

“No,” C.B. said. “I came up with that on my own.”

“And that’s why you’re overwhelmed,” I added.

I then told C.B. NOT to focus on the 175 pounds he has left to lose. Instead, I told him to focus on the positive, the “gain” of dropping one pound at a time.

Guess what happened when he heard this?

He let go of the angst and tension in his neck and shoulders and relaxed.

He smiled and said, “I can do that. That’s a lot easier. It’s not so heavy. It doesn’t weigh on my mind.”

“And if your goal isn’t weighing on you, if it’s not so heavy, neither will you be,” I said.

You may not want to hear this, but I’ll say it anyway.

Your mindset is everything when it comes to weight loss, weight gain, getting stronger, becoming more flexible, running a marathon, or whatever your goal is. All progress and all failure begins in the upper room of your mind.

But the trouble with mindset books and coaches is that they want you to set big goals, goals that scare you, goals that can take years to accomplish.

It’s dumb, dumber and dumbest all wrapped up in a package you hope will be delivered in the future – while not taking care of what’s standing in front of you, in the here and now.

Focus on the small stuff you can do each day and it’ll eventually add up to a mighty big accomplishment.

Here endeth the lesson!

Matt Furey

Where to get started, exercise wise, if you’re waaaaaay over-weight?

Answer: I suggest you get yourself going with Warrior Walking – it’s a weight changer.

I’ve been on a roll recently. I’ve been practicing what I preach. I’ve been sitting on my big phat azz for hours and hours each day.

But I’m not sitting in a chair, not even when I read or write. I’m on the floor – and there’s a whirld of difference between a chair and Mother Ground.

Several weeks ago I bought a floor desk. It’s not as big as my regular desk, but it got me started.

Initially, I used the floor desk for about an hour each day. I figured that this amount of time, when combined with the floor training and standing Power Postures I do at night, was the ideal amount to begin with.

Then, last week, momentum took hold of me. I decided to increase the time I’ve been sitting in front of my floor desk.

Thing is, I lost track of time while editing my forthcoming book, and I ended up being on the floor for hours and hours and hours.

After the first couple days of sitting this way, I was amazed at the rise in my energy levels. But I was also becoming aware of an overall body fatigue, especially in my spinal erectors.

So Sunday morning I slept in. I got up three hours later than usual. Then, to my surprise, I went back to sitting, and did so for the better part of 14 hours.

Holy azz-kicking!

When you sit in a chair your body is locked in one position, one that reduces mobility, one that is not good for blood circulation, your internal organs, and so on.

Sitting on the floor is different. You will find yourself shifting your position quite often. You will naturally make adjustments, putting yourself into various yoga-esque poses and postures that are energetic enhancements.

On top of that, every time you squat to sit on the floor, and pull your legs in to stand back up, you are putting in full-body calisthenic-like reps that you’ll never get when you use a straight-back chair.

I don’t recommend sitting on the floor all day, straight out of the gate. Start with short periods and add to them as your body gets used to sitting this way.

If you have to sit in a chair as part of your job, it is a good idea to get up every 30 minutes and walk around, or to stand in a Power Posture for a few minutes to combat the negative effects of the chair.

These short breaks will break up the tension and do a great deal to improve your health, well-being and energy levels.

Matt Furey

So it turns out that the longest lived people don’t sit in a chair all their life-long days.

No doubt, there are people who live past the point of ripeness, who spent a lot of hours each day in a comfy chair.

But it turns out that a good many people in Okinawa and Ikaria, and other places such as Sardinia, don’t care too much for the chair, and a considerable number of them live longer as a result.

It also turns out that the more time you spend sitting in a chair, the stiffer your body gets, especially your hips, knees and back.

Joint stiffness means a lot of things. It means you’re losing strength and energy, as well as your childlike mobility.

It also means reduced blood flow which then leads to the deterioration of cartilage and decay of the joint itself.

For a long time, my contention has been that sitting ain’t bad for you. Sitting is not the new “smoking.” It’s what you sit on that either heals or destroys your body. And it just so happens that the ground itself heals your body while the chair taketh healing away.

Similar truths can be told about standing and walking.

If you stand still for lengthy periods of time in various regenerative postures, ground force energy begins to heal, strengthen and energize your body. And when it comes to walking, the same-ole, same-ole mode of locomotion ain’t a gonna cut it – but the surgeons, well, they’ll be mighty happy to make a cut, and their patients will be the ones who suffer pay cuts as they increase the cutting.

Joints don’t deteriorate because you’re old. They deteriorate because you’re doing something wrong.

You wouldn’t think that forward walking is wrong. After all, everyone does it. But if you want to put a stop to something negative and degenerative going on in your body, you reverse course immediately, sometime during each and every day, to stimulate your brain and body in reverse, to turn back the clock.

Sitting on the floor, standing in various postures and walking in ways you don’t normally move, makes you childlike again.

The best news of all is that you can restore, rejuvenate and regenerate, if you make a change for the better.

Start to unwind the negative going on in your body with by doing the opposite of what you normally do for short periods of time each day. And as you experience the benefits, continue to add more time into the mix.

Here endeth the lesson!

Matt Furey

For information on courses that will make you childlike again, explore the options below:

Dear Matt,

I heard that yoga is demonic. What’s your take on this?

Abby

Dear Abby,

Yoga means “union.” But the question is, union with what?

We’re told it is the union of body, mind and spirit.

Then again, what kind of spirits?

Alcohol has spirits. If fact, a lot of anti-yoga people drink those spirits every day, and those spirits can take over your body, mind and spirit and make you do some rather demonic things that you wouldn’t do otherwise.

The way it was ‘splained to me many incarnation breakfasts’s ago, if you have a shot gun, you can paint it pink to make it appear loving and peaceful, but it can still be used to shoot someone in cold blood. Or you can keep the black paint on it and never use it to hurt a living body or soul.

And so it is with everything. A pencil can be used to do great good or great harm. The intention, and the attention you pay to the intention, are what matters most.

Matt Furey

Last night I received the following text message:

Matt,

Have you seen the latest Feynman video on YouTube about the powers of walking backwards and how it restores brain and body functions, improves balance and memory, improves intelligence and how 10 minutes of it per day is far superior to walking forwards for any length of time? If you haven’t, the title of the video is “Why Walking Backwards Fixes What Forward Walking Breaks.” It’s awesome and it proves that once again, el Furecat, was way ahead of his time in his products. Your Dao Zou and Warrior Walking products rule. I thought you were full of B.S. when you first said that you only needed five to ten minutes a day of walking backwards to surpass 10,000 or 15,000 forward steps per day. Now the science has caught up to what you’ve been teaching all along. Thank you. Thank you. THANK YOU.

Kyle

Kyle,

Yes, I saw the video. Although I used to feel somewhat ignored on this matter, I can’t ignore a video that scientifically confirms what I figured out over 20 years ago. The video is great but the key thing to keep in mind is that your movement patterns need to be interrupted. If you walk the same-ole, same-ole, you’re going to get insanely old before your time. What I’ve been teaching for so long is neither B.S., nor H.S., nor D.S., or any other sort of S.

Dao Zou, or reverse training, doesn’t just teach “backward walking,” though. It teaches neurogenic pattern interruptions that cause a synap in your synapse. You can benefit just by walking backwards, but that is of little value when compared to all the shifts, changes and speed variances I teach, not to mention how to activate various energy centers of the body.

And yes, it is true that regular human walking, which any zombie can do, gradually wrecks the human body via relentless repetition of the same brain-dead patterns. What’s cool is how you can almost forego forward walking altogether, except when shopping, and your forward gait will still improve. Backwards training improves forward without even working on forward. Isn’t that cool?

Warrior Walking goes many more steps further, though, because you learn numerous walking patterns that challenge the brain, body and balance while strengthening the whole body. Yes, it does sound far-fetched that doing 10 minutes of the walking patterns I teach will do more for your brain and body than any amount of time going forward, but who am I to argue with science that supports my findings?

The simple truth is that your brain is almost in a coma when you walk forward in heel-to-toe fashion. This is why regular walking will do almost nothing to help people with dementia, cognitive impairment, the blues, and so on.

The back of the brain, more specifically, the cerebellum, is the key, as that’s where 50% of your neurons are. The cerebellum is what gets activated in a huge way when you challenge yourself to do things in reverse, or zig-zag, or when you step like a cat, et cetera.

I appreciate you checking in, Kyle. And as they’d say in Ireland, “tanks a million” for all three of your “thank you’s.”

Matt Furey

By the way, you can click the following links to find the programs mentioned above.

Dao Zou
Warrior Walking

A friend of mine, Steve, is 80 years of age, yet his brain and body works better than almost anyone I know.

He can get in his car, drive for 14-straight hours, get out, walk on stage and perform without a trace of fatigue.

He’s also a writer who practices his craft daily – and if you don’t know this already, writing requires substantial brain power. It can drain you of energy faster than almost anything.

How does Steve have this type of energy? Is it genetic or did he do something to foster it?

The answer is that he practices standing postures, ones where he doesn’t move.

When you are still, your brain and body relax so you can recharge and rejuvenate. The way it was explained to me over 30 years ago, “Standing in the stillness is the only exercise where your brain gets a rest.”

I wouldn’t say this is 100 percent true. Even when standing still you might have to throttle your monkey mind a bit for your brain to relax.

But, when compared to other forms of exercise, stillness training is energizing the brain in a major way.

It doesn’t seem possible, yet that is exactly what happens.

When you stand still, the flow takes hold of you from deep within. Then the “deep within” joins forces with our infinite surroundings, and you are energized beyond belief.

I say “beyond belief” because it doesn’t matter if you believe this will happen in order for it to happen.

Your body has various automatic mechanisms at play, and once you allow them to play, they do what they’re designed to do without you thinking about them.

A perfect example of this is breathing. Hold your breath as long as you want, and an exhale will fight its way to the forefront… automatically.

I begin and end each day with stillness exercises that I call Power Postures. I’ve learned dozens and dozens of them over the years and have been teaching them for a long time..

But you don’t begin with dozens. You begin with the first posture, which teaches you how to find your center, to relax your muscles and activate your internal system.

The first Power Posture sets the tone – and from there, you add on.

You can begin with one minute in the beginning and instantly feel that a connection has been made. You feel it in your palms, fingers and feet.

It’s electric. And it’s life enhancing.

Over time you stand for longer periods, but if you never go beyond five minutes, and you do this each day, you’ll be stunned at how quickly your energy and endurance seem to double.

Within one week, you’ll know there’s something special about an exercise that moves you without you having to move.

For more, click here.

Matt Furey

PowerPostures.com

MattFurey.com

A young dentist in China began his career with enthusiasm and energy. But after a couple years of filling cavities and doing root canals, he was exhausted.

Standing on his feet all day was draining him of his youth.

He figured he should engage in the exercises he saw other people doing, but those exercises made him even more fatigued.

Then one day he met a much older man who practiced standing in various postures for minutes at a time. The older man radiated energy while appearing to be doing nothing but standing still.

The dentist didn’t know the benefits of this type of exercise. He only knew that it looked odd.

He asked the older man what he was doing, and why.

The older man told him that when you stop moving externally it causes your energy to bubble up internally. He told him that this was his secret to abundant levels of energy.

He took the dentist under his wing and showed him how to stand still, adjusting his posture and how he breathed.

Within one minute the dentist could feel an electric tingling sensation in his hands and feet. He knew there was something deep going on inside and he began to practice every day.

One week later the dentist was a changed man. His youthful energy had returned. He could work all day without fatigue.

The young dentist visited the older man again and again to learn more – and spent the rest of his life teaching what he learned.

This story about Yu Yong Nian fascinated me when I first heard it. I, too, began practicing standing in what I refer to as Power Postures.

I’ve learned dozens and dozens of them over the years, and they never fail me. At almost 63, my energy levels are that of a youngster.

Power Postures aren’t the only way I exercise, but they are my secret weapon. They are the backbone of everything. They recharge the body by plugging you into the invisible electric sockets beneath your feet.

These sockets are available at all times, but you’ll never notice them if you don’t be still and feel.

Want to tap into and turn on this abundant energy in a big way? In a way that will enhance all your other energetic endeavors?

Then click here.

Matt Furey