"All
throughout the world you will see that animals in the wild are in far better shape
than human beings...how do these animals get into this kind of condition? They
do it by working with their own body weight...If an athlete wants to get the most
out of himself, it is a good idea to copy the way of the animal" - Matt
Furey, from the back cover of Combat Conditioning.
And
there's me thinking that Beer, McDonald's, Doritos and sitting on your arse in
front of a Playstation was to blame for portly peons. So..., exercise, eat n sleep
like a gorilla and you'll get strong like one right? It worked for Tarzan didn't
it? (and he really existed didn't he?) Before you pop out and start rolling around
in your shrubbery and scoffing ants, shoots and the odd small mammal, just do
some pressups, freehand squats and back bridges and you'll have nailed it. And
that, dear SFUKers, is basically the entire gist of the book.
Intro:
Muscles by Post: Mail Order Physical Culture History:
Charles
Atlas. Remember him? He's the one in the back of your old Spiderman comics clenching
his fists in his leopard print pants. Atlas made a mint. Preying on adolescents'
insecurities (bullying, lack of girlfriends, general weedyness) with super hyped
ad copy , Atlas sold them a series of bodybuilding courses based on simple bodyweight
exercises. He even chucked in some bonus 'self defence' material.
The
genius was that, despite
having built his physique by lifting weights, Atlas's mail order course required
no equipment. Perfect because if you were 14 and had a body like PeeWee Herman,
you didn't even have to step foot outside your own bedroom to train. You emerge
all beefed up (well, in your
dreams you did) like the superheros in the comics Atlas targeted. No equipment
meant that anyone could do it and importantly Atlas didn't have
to spend a dime on manufacturing any equipment! An where did Atlas claim he got
his inspiration? Watching animals in Brooklyn Zoo!
Then,
the last stroke of genius was to price it high. Atlas's course cost $30 in depression
era America. That's big money. The high price gave it an aura. Surely it
must have been special to justify that price no? For years the course
sold shiploads, but peetered out when trainees embraced weight training as the
bodybuilding tool of choice.
So,
cheesey hyped ads, no equipment bodyweight exercises, 'animal inspiration' and
a high price. Ring any bells?
Repackaging:
Do
you remember when the Mini Metro was renamed the Rover 100? Same car - different
name.
Furey
took ancient, popular exercises, Dands and Bethaks and called them Hindu Pushups
and Squats (invoking the legendary Indian wrestler Gama and rubbing off some credibilty
by association) , bundled with the wrestler's bridge and named The Royal Court.
Now
mix with canny soundbites squeezed from the Pro-Wrestler, Karl Gotch and there
was a recipe to reel in the punters. Ah, the whiff of Gotch and Gama was
a masterstroke.
Now
athletes have been training with their body weight forever. Pushups, squats, handstands,
bridges, whatever. A squat is a squat isn't it? The British Army have traditionally
prepared our troops for battle with bodyweight exercises, pushups, burpees, running
etc. You can pick up a copy of an army
PT course anywhere. Has Matt Furey discovered a better way to Combat Conditioning
than the Marines
or SAS?
Is a 'Hindu' squat much better than a bog-standard one? Is there anything in the
book that's much better than the calisthenics taught in your local Judo
, wrestling, boxing or gymnastics
club? What makes Furey's body weight exercises so special?
Have
a think about it.
Will
Combat Conditioning really do what Furey claims on his website? Including:
Is
this comic book hype justified?
Burn
fat? Blow-torch off excess weight? Well any exercise burns fat doesn't
it? Curiously enough, Furey uses the photograph of himself posing in front of
the waterfall to promote his book. He looks in great shape - but the photo was
taken when he was still an avid weight trainer, long before he'd met Karl
Gotch and been inspired to write Combat Conditioning. On the actual CC book cover,
Furey appears a lot fatter after having trained in Combat Conditioning.
Will
Combat Conditioning burn fat better than weightlifting? (or even conventional
cardio work?) Have a look at these elderly weightlifters, Dragan
Radovic , Clarence Bass
and Dr Len
Schwartz and see what you think.
Pack
on more muscle than with using weights?
Does Furey look much
bigger after Combat Conditioning? Can you hear the patter of orange
feet as bodybuilders abandon their weights for pushups? Er, c'mon now...well
just try it. Go practice Hindu squats till you can do 500, 1000, whatever. Do
it for a few months. Then try 20 reps with a plain ol' barbell squat with at
least 1.5 x bodyweight in the classic style as outlined by Rader, McCallum,
Strossen,
Leistner, McRobert and Kelso.
Again, train with weights for a few months. See what happens. Go on.
Perhaps
there's a clue in the subjective word 'functional'. Is it a caveat? Maybe
by adding that little word to the phrase 'packing on muscle' means it now somehow
doesn't refer to pure muscle size?
Does
somehow doing hindu squats add 'functional' muscle, whereas barbell squats
do not? Presumably it depends what function you're after. The legendary runner,
Haile Gebrselassie's 'functional' muscle needs are different to Olympic weightlifting
champ, Dmitry Beretov's. Both you could argue are exceptionally strong at their
particular sports. Would you tell Beretov that he could build more 'functional
muscle' by training without weights? Or
convince Gebrselassie that Hindu Squats would give his legs a 'functional' advantage
over his current regime?
Olympic
Gold medalist and 3 Time US Olympic Head Coach, Dan
Gable pumping iron
Perhaps
the word 'functional' applies to Furey's background sport of wrestling? Matt was
fortunate enough to train under all-time-great wrestler and coach, Dan
Gable. Gable was, and is, held in awe for his ball-busting dedication to strength
and conditioning, not just for himself, but for all wrestlers that trained under
him. Gable's recipe for success? Pushups, situps, chins, rope climbs and plenty
of weight lifting. Yep, Gable is a staunch advocate of weight training. As
was Furey, who used to regularly pen wonderful articles about the benefits of
hoisting iron. The articles he wrote for Brooks Kubik's Dinosaur
Files spring immediately to mind. Lift weights standing up and lift three times
a week, Furey cheerfully admonished to all who'd listen.
So
Combat Conditioning must be great for Furey to deliberately turn his back
on Gable's mix of weights + calisthenics? The mix that Gable used to produce
4 Olympic Gold Medalist's, 15 NCAA Championships and 78 individual wrestling champions.
(not to mention the countless other elite athletes that use weightlifting successfully
in their training).
Or
maybe weights+calisthenic courses are too normal, too Men's Health mag,
too dime-a-dozen, and would have much more sales competition in the fitness marketplace?
'Course
it may not be a cynical money-for-old-rope marketing exercise at all, but simply
that Furey has found that not-lifting-weights is best for him, and that's
perfectly okay.
Anyway,
if you can somehow ignore Furey's site's faintly vomit inducing sales patter,
then what you get is a good book. The exercises, all 47 of them are good.
There's The Royal Court, 6 extra, very simple, routines and a 4 page Q&A.
Plus the obligatory ads.
Furey
doesn't give much guidance on training frequency or rep volume. How many reps?
Er, as many as you feel like. How often? Erm, whenever. Furey is a very talented
scribe and the writing is pretty straight forward in the book and actually far
less cheesey than some authors out there.
If
you're looking for a secret, there isn't one. Calisthenics are great. Do
'em. Get fit. Simple.
Summary:
There's
something wonderfully minimalist about training without equipment. It's cheap,
clutter-free , natural and most of all, effective. Indubitably Matt
Furey does deserve props for the publicity he's generated for calisthenics. Many
'fitness gurus' have jumped on his coat tails, some, adopting his comic book advertising
style too. The sales rhetoric is awful, but you could argue it's only following
the grand tradition of naff bodybuilding hype - Atlas, Hoffman et al. Remember,
Furey is the man that also wrote the "How to make $1 Million a Year as
a Fitness Professional" study course. That's a get-rich-quick scheme
isn't it? Anyone fancy forking out $497 for Gama Fitness? Anyone?
Moore's
Law says that computing speeds and densities double every 18 months. In other
words, every 18 months we can buy a computer that is twice as fast and has twice
as much memory for the same cost
Combat
Conditioning is a decent book but it's rather like buying an old computer. You
can get all the exercises and more for free from the links below and you'll get
twice as much info for the same money from Ross
Enamait's Underground Warrior Fitness book and more exercises, more routines
plus diet info from Dr Tamir Katz's
4 dollar Ebook.
Alternatively
sit yourself down at the zoo, imbibe the animal wisdom and some day you too could
be like George of the Jungle.
