Over the weekend I received a surprise in my email inbox.

’twas from Phil Campbell, a master speed coach and author of Ready, Set Go! Synergy Fitness – a book I have raved about for years, as well as his more recent Sprint 8: Maximum Results. Minimum Time, which is another gem on sprint training and its profound positive effect on fat loos and muscle gain.

In his books, Phil teaches how he transformed his middle-aged body and ran a 4.7 40-yard dash at 50 years of age. Absolutely phenomenal, eh? So I think the man knows what he’s rapping about.

Anyway, the big surprise was what Phil wrote about my Combat Stretching program. Here goes:

“Matt Furey’s Combat Stretching gets results! Every athlete needs to get it and follow it to improve performance.

In recent years, a few studies have been taken out of context in an attempt to prove static stretching is not beneficial. This is a ridiculous conclusion.

Matt Furey doesn’t go with the crowd. He teaches what works and his Combat Stretching works.

As a speed technique coach for 40 years, I can tell you flexibility is the secret weapon in speed improvement. If you want to help a young athlete improve performance by improving speed, get “Combat Stretching.” It works, and you’ll physically see and feel flexibility improvement within days.

I didn’t say you will like stretching. I personally dislike it. No, I hate it. But the truth is athletes will not live up to their potential unless they are doing a flexibility program like Combat Stretching.

If you are an aging adult like me (age 70 next year) and your aren’t combat stretching, stop taking the pain supplements and follow Matt Furey’s Combat Stretching. Your lower back, shoulders and knees will thank you.”

Phil Campbell, M.S., M.A. FACHE-R, ACSM C-PT.

Thank you so much, Phil. I’m thrilling you are using Combat Stretching and getting results. Your email made my month. Keep me posted on your progress.

Matt Furey

BTW, if you already have Combat Stretching and you want to find out about Phil’s Speed program for athletes, go to 40speed.com

It only took 15 years for them to catch on… slightly… but we’re now starting to see some “western” fitness trainers touting the benefits of walking/running in reverse.

If we take a look at Christmas past, you’ll note that el Furecat was teaching “reverse training” as early as 2003, but didn’t formalize any of it into a best-selling course until 2007.

That course, Dao Zou, begins with easy exercises, then builds to a crescendo, showing me swimming backwards (in the 3rd DVD), doing the butterfly, the king of all strokes.

Naturally, being able to move the way I move in reverse, led me to becoming adept in many other areas as well. For example, with a pen in my hand, I learned to write cursive, with either hand, in both directions.

When you learn the internal and the external components of reverse training, you are doing far more than what is observable physically.

One of the greatest benefits of Dao Zou is that it engages your brain and nervous system, promoting a coolness and calmness rarely seen, and at a level that cannot be matched with regular walking and running.

I’ve put in tens of thousands of miles in reverse, so I have definitely experienced and lived what I am talking about.

Want to be cool, calm, collected and have a mind that is unstoppable… even in reverse, then…

OrderDao Zou NOW.

It’s a game changer.

Matt Furey

In the fall of 2002, I did a series of seminars in the U.K. and Ireland. ’twas London herself, though, where a martial arts master told me the following:

“I did 500 Hindu squats the first day I received your Combat Conditioning book and DVDs in the mail. I wasn’t able to do all the reps without stopping, but I knocked them out in about 30 minutes. I wanted to prove to myself that your workout was no big deal. And I could barely walk for about a week after.”

I was stunned with this man’s story. His grit and determination are part of what have made him into one helluva martial artist. Yet, I think he would be the first to forewarn you, “Don’t be an idiot. Make haste slowly.”

As for myself, I didn’t do 500 Hindu squats in a row the first day I learned the proper form. Nor did I do 500 cumulatively throughout the day. I did a couple sets of 40 and one of 20, and I was finished. And that was too much, as I was sore for three days. Yes, I was still able to walk. I did enough reps to be sore, but not even close to as sore as my friend in the U.K.

Over a period of weeks and months, I was able to knockout more reps per set. But I was making one big mistake that was holding me back. That mistake was doing squats every other day. When I switched to EVERYDAY, my results shot up much, much faster.

If you do as the U.K. martial arts master did, you cannot do Hindu squats the day after you trained because you abused your body beyond belief. But if you begin with a “slow and steady” mindset, you most certainly can do “at least some” Hindu squats everyday.

Once I embarked upon daily Hindu squats, I was able to do 100 in a row for the first time within a couple more weeks of training. Keep in mind, though, I’d been doing them 3x per week for many weeks prior to the upgrade.

After doing 100 in a row, I learned a few secrets that enabled me to blast through numerous plateaus. In hindsight, I realize it took longer to get to 500 in a row than I expected when I began the journey, but once I was there, the time it took seemed, as the song says, “like a flicker.”

One of the unheralded benefits of doing Hindu squats everyday is how it changes your brain. When you become the type of person who refuses to skip a day, this mindset transfers into other areas of your life. You become super-focused and productive. Anything you put your eyes on, you accomplish. And you do it with far greater ease than most.

The benefits of doing Hindu squats on a daily basis are numerous, but make sure you begin slowly. The trick isn’t how many you can do the first day; it’s becoming the type of fitness phenom who can do some every single day.

Some people, believe it or not, should only do 1-5 repetitions the first day. And they should make no attempt to double that number in the beginning. Just prove to yourself that you can stick with a program of 1-5 reps daily. Prove to yourself that you can set a simple daily goal and stick with it. Do you realize that most people can’t and/or won’t. Sad but true, weakness runs amuck, and the best way to stop being mentally weak is doing something that begins to physically strengthen you.

Always start small and allow yourself to naturally and spontaneously make improvements, without forcing yourself into it.

People who ignore this message and do tons of reps the first day, tend to be the types who NEVER do them again. Why? Because the exercise itself is a reminder of the trauma they inflicted on themselves.

So ignore the pop-psychology of “getting out of your comfort zone,” and “taking massive action.”

Start slowly and be consistent, and the time it takes you to do 500-straight Hindu squats will, in retrospect, seem as though it flew by.

Kick ass – take names.

Matt Furey

P.S. If you don’t have the Combat Conditioning book and DVDs, then you’re avoiding a life-changer. You want results, then follow the Furecat.

P.P.S. You already have the program and you want to go to the next level, to 500-Hindu squats in a row, then make sure you get the coaching I offer on my membership site.

One of the best ways to wake up your body in the morning is to slap yourself… repeatedly. Not in the face, mind you. This isn’t an Aqua Velva commercial. You slap on the arms, the chest, the abdomen, the thighs and calves.

How hard do you slap yourself?

In the beginning, not hard at all. Just a mild “love slap.” Enough to wake yourself up but not enough to hurt yourself or piss yourself off.

If you start with these light slaps, you begin generating vital nerve force, and as this force grows it paves the way for your love slaps to get heavier. Not in a masochistic way by any means, but in a way that you recognize something incredibly positive coming about from the process.

This sort of training is not just for people who want to be able to absorb hard punches and kicks when partaking in combat sports. It’s for people who truly feel fatigued on a regular basis, or those who want to take their training to the next level, wherein the tendons, ligaments and fascia are involved.

In my world famous Dao Zou course, I demonstrate a number of loving slaps to various energy centers of the body. As I walk I let the centrifugal force direct energetic slaps that wake up my nervous system to an entirely new level of sensitivity. With each love slap, you can see me smiling deeper and deeper. I’m having the time of my life, and nobody can take away this blissful state.

Going for a walk to put yourself into a good feeling state is a good idea – but walking in and of itself doesn’t even come close to the psychological and emotional well-being you derive from walking the way el Furecat demonstrates. I was told long ago that the type of walking I am teaching is “shamanic,” and after thinking about it, I agreed.

Walk the way I teach, add in a few love slaps, and all of sudden you’re dreaming in another dimension, and remembering bits and pieces from your past, gradually, that help you put the puzzle of life together in a way that makes sense. Each Dao Zou workout is an AHA unto itself. There isn’t another walking program even remotely close to what I teach.

Make sure you grab this program NOW and go, go, go.

It’s a life-changer in so many ways I cannot stop raving about it.

Kick ass – take names.

Matt Furey

Back in the day, some 22 years ago, when I first learned how to do Hindu squats, I did them every other day. Similar to a bodybuilding approach, I did legs one day and upper body the next. I made progress with this method, but was still unsatisfied. I believed I was destined for MORE, a lot MORE.

So one day I got to thinking. What if I do Hindu squats everyday? I had a sneaking suspicion that this would drive me to the next level.

I ran the idea by Karl Gotch, and he nodded, telling me that my idea was correct.

Later that day, when I was engaged in my workout, I made up my mind that Hindu squats were no longer a part-time exercise. I would work them full-time. I would do them everyday.

Within 30 days, my updated program began to work wonders. I was no longer hitting the same old sticking points. I was zipping past them, with ease.

After pushing past my old plateaus, I began to make improvements by leaps and bounds. My overall body strength improved dramatically. Even though all I did were two-legged squats and didn’t work on one-legged squats, I found that I could do them with little effort.

Within a years time, every day was a 500-Hindu squats day. And when I say 500, I mean 500-straight Hindu squats. Yes, in a row, without stopping.

When it comes to getting good at something, the key ingredient that most people miss is the idea that you need to DO MORE if you want to BE MORE.

As a young swimmer, I was decent when I trained once a day with my age group, but when I joined the older age groups for a second session, I improved so much that I couldn’t believe it.

My skills in wrestling followed a similar protocol.

Same goes for my training in martial arts.

In the beginning, I start out slowly. I give myself goals that are almost laughable.

For example, one goal when taking on something new is to do nothing but watch the videos everyday.

What good will that do me?

More than you realize.

It’s called “mirror neurons,” if you want to research it.

After about a week of watching, the impulse to DO reaches a point where it catapults me into action. Even though I am now moving, I continue to watch videos on the subject each day, including those I take of myself, so I can compare what I am doing to those I am learning from.

As I watch videos, I make adjustments and refinements. This is why the way I do Hindu squats today is not exactly the same as how I learned them back in 1999, when I came out with Combat Conditioning. In fact, I have multiple variations that I teach on my membership site.

The more I do Hindu squats, the better I get at doing them. But you have to be smart about how you go about your business. You do not just plow straight ahead and force yourself to do 500 each day. There’s a method to the mastery.

Anyway, keep this one idea in mind. If you want to get better at shooting free throws, you work on them each day, physically and mentally. Don’t expect to be great at shooting if you only practice a couple times per week.

Same goes with anything. You condition your body-mind to do the thing – and then you end up having the power.

If you want the POWER, then make sure you get the Combat Conditioning book and DVDs, and NOW. They are game-changers.

Kick ass – take names.

Matt Furey

An 83-year old man recently became the oldest person to walk the Appalachian Trail; all 2,193 miles of it. His name is M.J. “Sunny” Eberhart, but most people know him as Nimblewood Nomad. 

If you think hiking such a distance is incredible, consider that when this same retired optometrist was 60 years of age, he walked from the Florida Keys to Quebec, a 4,400-mile trek. 

The key to walking such distances is NOT training to failure, or going out and giving it “everything you’ve got” each day. Accomplishments such as this are methodical and systematic. Instead of driving yourself to exhaustion, you choose a number of miles that you can consistently walk each day, and then you follow through with action. 

Along the way there will be some difficult steps, but the first step is, in many respects, going to be the toughest. This is why there’s a saying, “Beginning is half-done.”

When I first heard about doing 500-straight Hindu squats, I thought it was an impossibility. And 2,000 squats in a row, that was not a thought I would entertain. 

In the beginning, my thighs would scream around 40-50 repetitions, a far cry from the goal of 500. But I kept working on it. At times I felt as though I wasn’t making any progress. Then one day it all started to come together when I was able to easily crank out 100. 

Being able to do 100 repetitions in a row was a breakthrough moment, and when I think about it, it wasn’t long afterward before I could do 200, 300, 400 and ultimately, 500 in a row.

It took longer for me to get to 100 in a row than it did to go from 100 to 500.

Why?

Because going from 0-100 is when you’re laying the foundation. It takes a number of weeks before your tendons, ligaments and muscles are ready to go to the next level. You do not just forge ahead and force yourself to do 500. You are systematic and methodical, just as Nimblewood Nomad was on his 2,000-mile trek. The key is realizing that there’s some math to this business. 

Keep in mind that each repetition flows into the next in a circuitous manner. There is neither a pause at the top nor is there a bounce out of the bottom position. You might think there is a bounce and a pause, but there isn’t. 

In the beginning, one set of 10-25 reps is enough. Make haste slowly. Thoughts about doing 500-straight should be dismissed from your mind. But as you consistently work on these puppies and your numbers go up, your quest for the Holy Grail will most likely enlarge and expand naturally. 

If you haven’t yet begun doing Hindu squats regularly, make sure you have my Combat Conditioning book and videos, where I cover it. 

Once you’re in a groove and you want more details, then my membership site is the way to go. In fact, later this month I’m going to be revealing “the math” on how you can get to 500-straight Hindu squats to my members, so they will learn how to accomplish the goal with far greater ease.

I’m not saying the journey will be easy. It’ll be tough. But you will have accomplished something monumental by being tough on yourself. 

In so doing, you’ll get to feel that peace of mind that ole Nimblewood Nomad uncovered while walking the Appalachian Trail.

It’s real.

And it…

Kick Azz!

Matt Furey

About 30 years ago, one of my clients showed up at my training facility in California on a Saturday morning. He didn’t have an appointment but wanted to pop by and tell me that he was doing diligence, by going for a five-mile walk. 

“Whenever I wake up and feel a bit blah,” he says, “I go for a walk and it seems to help.”

I nodded. 

Fast forward 25 years. In conversation with a baseball coach, he told me, “Whenever I feel as though I’m coming down with something, I tell myself to walk it off. As a result I believe I can walk off anything.”

What do I believe?

I believe you can walk off negative feelings and signs of stress. You can walk yourself into an incredible feel good state. And while walking, you can find the answers, either to solve persistent difficulties or to figure out how to create the results you want. 

If you want to get answers as you walk, almost any way of walking will do.

But if you want to feel as though you’ve erased what was troubling you and replaced it with a calm, cool and balanced energy, normal walking won’t do it.

I’ve tested this out numerous times, on myself and with my clients. What I’ve discovered is that you need a way to unplug from the stress you are under, and this is difficult to do if your brain and nervous system are engaged in the same motor movements that keep you connected. 

This is where Dao Zou comes into play. You unwind and unplug your mind from the negative, not by changing your thoughts, but by moving differently, which ends up changing your thoughts (and feelings).

As you move and walk and breathe in a different way, your brain naturally and effortlessly begins releasing feel good chemicals. 

Unlike regular walking, where you need three to five miles to get a sense of mild euphoria, with Dao Zou, you can be in an elevated state within a few hundred steps. You don’t need to walk three to five miles to feel better. In fact, less than a mile will do your brain and body a whirld of good, and it will go way beyond your standard walking procedure. Less mileage – less time – better results.  

I’ve been putting people on the Dao Zou program for more than 15 years, and it blows peoples’ minds in short order.

As one client told me, “It’s mystical, magical and miraculous.”

Order Dao Zou today and begin the practice. Quite quickly you will realize that I am under-stating how incredibly valuable this program is.

KATN. 

Matt Furey
 

A few years ago, a big league ballplayer attended one of my  seminars. He arrived late (per their custom of Big Leaguing others), observed the group already performing the first walking exercise, and with no instruction, figured he knew what to do.

“This is what they’re doing, right?” he asked, as he mimicked what he perceived was happening.

“You have an idea,” I responded.

He smiled, thinking I paid him a compliment. So I added, “About 10 percent of the general idea.”

My barb got his attention and that led to him humbling himself a bit.

On the second day of the training, the ballplayer showed up early instead of late. He had a yellow pad to take notes along with a bunch of questions.

My answers made him consider everything he’d previously practiced, including the exercises that were destroying his body over time. He was barely 25 years of age, yet his hips and knees ached.

When I demonstrated how to move, he marveled, not only at the mobility but the fluidity.

“This is why my knees don’t hurt,” I stated. “My knees used to bother me, off and on. And that’s par for the course with almost every former collegiate wrestler. It’s virtually inevitable that you’ll be banged up for life and the longer you go the worse it gets.”

“What did you do to get out of pain?” he asked.

I gave him a 2-part answer:

1. The Hindu squats I teach in Combat Conditioning. They strengthen your knees because you’re building the tendons and ligaments, not just the muscles, by allowing your knees to glide way past your toes (the opposite of what the fitness police tell you to do).

2. The seemingly shamanic walking exercises in Dao Zou, that give your body the action it needs to create balanced development while eliminating pain. 

Here’s what’s amazing: After telling the big leaguer the above, he smiled and said, “That explains why my knees and hips feel so good today. This is the best they’ve felt in two years and I just started yesterday.”

“What does that tell you?” I questioned.

“It tells me that these exercises work,” he answered.

“Correct. And the reason they work is because you’re not just working the muscles anymore. You’re working the tendons, ligaments and fascia by moving in ways you’ve never considered before.”

The big leaguer left the training a changed man. And unlike so many of his contemporaries, he’s avoided the surgeon’s scalpel and extended his playing career.

If you want to help your lower body heal itself with exercises they don’t teach in the Fitness Police School, then you owe it to yourself to grab onto Combat Conditioning and Dao Zou and see what happens.

Kick Azz – Take Names.

Matt Furey