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Bodyweight Matt furey

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lokate

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I am a 57 year old martial artist training all kind of martial arts since the age of 15.
True internet i am confused about my supplementary training because you read on all these mma forums that you have to deadlift and bench press and squat heavy.
I dont have room for barbells or a bench.
Years ago when i bought the book from Matt furey i did the royal court for a few weeks but then i stopped because i read that this routine was bullshit. Even that i felt great.
So i think i start again. What do you guys think of that routine?
Any results?
I just want to be in shape to practice my martial arts. In my case its training for real street fight situations because i dont compete anymore.
And is 3 times a week enough next to my martial arts training?
And i cant figure it out with the pushup.
Is it the same way back?
 
@lokate I like the Hindu pushups, Hindu squats and back bridges as a stretching/joint-mobility training. As for strength & conditioning, I would consider:

- one-arm pushup and one-leg squat (and the progressions leading to them), as presented in Pavel's The Naked Warrior, and taught at our SFB Course and Cert. Add kettlebell swings, or snatches, or barbell deadlifts, and you are set.
- swing, get-up, goblet squat, as presented in Pavel's Kettlebell Simple & Sinister. For martial arts one of the best choices.

Yes, 3 times/week is enough.
 
Hello pavel thanks for reacting but do you mean do simple and sinister 3 days a week and thats it?
I have a bad knee so tgu is a bit hard to do, even squats are hard
 
Hello pavel thanks for reacting but do you mean do simple and sinister 3 days a week and thats it?
I have a bad knee so tgu is a bit hard to do, even squats are hard

If you have a bad knee:

- I would focus on rehab first, then
- go through FMS, then
- start with bodyweight squats only - but not the Hindu squats. Hold onto something (e.g. a door knob), stay on your heels, shins close to vertical, and slowly rebuild your squat.
- swings are very knee friendly
- and as for get-ups, you can perform just partial get-ups (to tall sit)
- yes, if you train martial arts, S&S 3 times a week, that's it

Hope that helps.
 
@pet' Thank you, not my idea - that is @Pavel 's original NW programming. Please see the FAQ section of the book.
 
Hello,

@Pavel Macek
Yes, I picked this session right after reading the FAQ. Everytime I read again this book, I learn new things. So information dense !

Basically, since I read about GTG, I have used it for lots of moves, each time with a excellent outcome :)

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
@lokate , I did fureys royal court after a serious back injury to just do something. I worked up to 100 Hindu squats, 50 Hindu push-ups daily & done the back bridge by instinct. Felt great & got a lot of strength & flexibility back. Eventually I felt confident enough to start using weights again. I've heard people write off the program but worked for me, in your original post you said you stopped because you heard it was bullshit but you felt great. Personally I go on results, not what other people think. If you were feeling great why stop? Who cares what the "internet experts " think if it's working for you, everybody's different. I done nothing but royal court for 2yrs, went from barely able to walk properly to throwing around kettlebells. Just my experience.
Edit: Hindu push-ups you move straight back, not in same arc. That's a different push-up, dive bombers I think.
 
You are right i felt great. And strong even if they say you cannot get strong this way.
It feel like another way of strong. Dont know how to explain it.
You say you did the same reps everyday.
Did this work?
Because you read that you have to progress and work up to 300 squats and 100 pushup.
That was a bit of a problem to. When you do that much it takes a lott of time.
Dont know but 300 squats take maybay 15 minutes orso?
Thanks for reacting
 
I got to 100 squats, 50 push-ups daily, yep worked for me. Once I could do them without much trouble I added other harder body weight exercises randomly. I kept the 100 squats, 50 push-ups & back bridge as my base daily workout. Again you said you felt great & strong, why stop? Why search for other routines or answers to make you feel great & strong. Don't listen to other people, listen to your body. Do the royal court, get your numbers/reps up to a point you're happy with, I just picked 100squats & 50 push-ups as a nice round number, didn't take long to do & didn't think I needed more. Eventually you'll get bored or you'll need more variety, until then think less & Hindu more. Reminder: no one knows your body like you, go on results & how you feel, if it ain't broke don't fix it. Stop listening to people you think know more than you, cause often they don't.
 
Hello,

Again you said you felt great & strong, why stop? Why search for other routines or answers to make you feel great & strong. Don't listen to other people, listen to your body
+1 !

If a training makes us feel better and / or makes us better at what we do (and what we want to do) then this is a good reason to keep doing it IMO

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
I've been doing the Royal Court near daily for about 4 months now and I love it. You'd be hard pressed to find a better set of exercises for martial arts than hindu pushups, hindu squats, and bridging. Not to mention the wonderful supplementary exercises!

I think Matt remains a controversial figure because he puts out some products with questionable presentation quality followed by questionable marketing. But Combat Conditioning itself is pure gold and Matt seems to be a gifted grappler with a true talent for putting together exercises that help strengthen you, stretch you out, and restore a great deal of energy in your spine!

As for results I've never been leaner, more flexible, or stronger (this is big to do with the NW though). Combat Conditioning itself is best for endurance/flexibility, so you might want to add a strength element (like the NW) to it after a while. CC for now is good though.

Biggest thing about CC is to work up to the hindu squats, and keep your heels flat for starters. This will take care of knee issues that people shun CC for. Buy the revised edition, btw, because it explains this stuff. Also do the wall sit for about a minute after each workout, supplementing some of the hindus to save those knees.

I do fifteen minutes of CC every day (per matt's suggestion) but some people like to do it 3 times a week if they lift weights on the other days. I find daily training to be better. just do a new CC each day if you want, or cycle a few of your favorites. Doing as much as you can do in each set of the 250 pushups workout 3 times a week would be enough to get into better "combat condition" than most.

And to answer your question about the hindu pushup, after you reach upward dog (look it up if you need to) you push directly into downward dog. going through the same groove back up would be a divebomber (although tis good to throw those in once the hindu pushups become manageable). doing a Ashtanga yoga class with an instructor who knows how to do the hindu pushup sequence (and the ouija breath) will teach your more than I could regarding the hindu pushup. thats how I learned but for now keep those elbows in real close to your side, arms much more narrow than you think.

Overall rest assured that combat conditoning is a great program that will go a long way towards increasing your flexibility, endurance (lung power), balance, strength, mood and (especially) regularity in your digestive tract. It works the body from the inside out! no joke! since its basically cracked out yoga

I can wall walk down and back up the side of SUV's, hold a wrestler's bridge for more than a minute, and do a gluttonous amount of Hindu pushups now. None of which could i do 4 months ago.

My biggest advice about combat conditioning is to "unlock " the supplementary exercises after a month of hitting the royal court pretty hard. Throw the wall sit in immediately even though its supplementary. Then just make up your own workouts for fifteen minutes each day. Write a little routine down (with 3 or five exercises from CC) and then do it and see how it goes! save the good ones and have fun. CC isn't weights or nothing like that. You'll recover much faster than you think, especially with daily training, but you might wanna start out with a day of rest in between for the first couple weeks (also matt's suggestion).

also, getting, or using, a Bosu ball for starting out bridging would be a great idea if you're currently too tight to do a wrestler's bridge safely. just relax your back onto the ball and eventually get to that bridge over a couple months.

doing this daily (videos below), or on the days when you don't do combat conditioning, would be great for you with almost no added recovery time!

(combat stretching video 1)

I haven't tried the other video's beside the first one for dynamic stretching, but its great let me tell you

Good luck and please feel free to ask any more Combat conditioning questions. As a martial artist you picked a great program!

also you can check this out for more tips and CC workouts if you needs be (Beginner) Naked Warrior and Combat Conditioning
 
Hello,

To a certain extent, high reps can also maintain / increase maximal strength, plus building some endurance. I admit this may not be the most adequate to build max strength, but it works until a certain point.
Strength in Numbers: A Case for Push-up Endurance Training

For instance, I used a lot the "volume" strategy with push ups...and it perfectly maintain my bent press. I vary, using GTG with standard push ups / OAOL PU, using full tension technique. It maintains well a weighted low rep grind (more than 1/2 bdw)

On the other hand, low rep grinds also build max strength:
Surprise Yourself With Strength on This Bodyweight Training Plan

Kind regards

Pet'
 
Scott Sonnon was (years ago) one of the critics of Royal Court. As I said above, I like the exercises, not just necessarily in such high reps and/or stand-alone exercise program. Posting just for reference:

The "Royal Court" includes repetitious ball of foot squatting: terribly dangerous for your knees due to the high angle flexion over the knee while on the loaded heel. This additionally creates chronic tension in the Achilles and calves which slows movement and saps energy. The plodding ball of foot gait and forward stumbling overcompensations which result from this exercise strongly suggest finding an alternative. Use CST trinity squats for superior strength, stamina and health to tap a mid-foot balance of the front and rear myofascial chains.

The "Royal Court" includes repetitious nose bridging and rocking: terribly dangerous for your neck due to the extreme load on the flexion of the smallest vertebrae of your spine; the cervical. The number of severe injuries reports about this exercise strongly suggest finding an alternative. Use CST threading bridges for superior spinal and pelvic mobility and release; and the CST neck roll for superior neck strength and health. Use the CST spinal rock to compensate for all of the backward flexion.

The "Royal Court" includes repetitious tiger pressing: terribly dangerous for your elbows and shoulders due to the outward projection of the elbows and unpacked shoulders. The amount of tendinitis and bursitis reports from this exercise strongly suggests finding an alternative. Use the CST dog press, front ground engagement and quad hop for superior strength production, cardio endurance and health of your arms and shoulders.

That is where The "Royal Court" ends. I was taught the same things in national level wrestling and professional level shootwrestling. We had to perform hundreds of repetitions before practice. These movements are a wrestling perversion of the structural integrity, incremental progression and inherent protocol of hatha yoga. Yogi/ni survive healthily into their long years and wrestlers become debilitated cripples in general for a reason.

One should not be asking what got a particular athlete into the condition that they once were in when they were competitive. One should ask what did they continue to do that got them into the deplorable state that they're in now, and if they stopped what they had been doing which caused them to become so poorly conditioned, what specifically caused them to stop - why was the prior method not sustainable? Nearing 40 now, I am 20 times the athlete I was in my 20s, and because of studying, researching, improving and evolving my fitness approach, there is no end in sight for continued refinement of health.

The "Royal Court" are techniques that developed ignorantly out of lack of physiology and kinesiology, and belong on the junkpile next to crunches and arm curls. Unsurprisingly enough, traditions much older than ours have evolved methods which were evolutionarily survivable and increased health and longevity, rather than targeting teens for chewing up their bones and spitting them out once college ended. Compare the health and fitness of former athletes using the "Royal Court", or even Matt Furey himself, with that of athletes using alternatives. Science, logic and common sense all strongly suggests finding alternatives.

There are alternatives outside of the "Royal Court" which are healthier, safer and produce the same if not greater performance. Check out Ashtanga or Iyengar yoga.
 
Scott can be a controversial figure himself but I think he makes a good case here for finding alternatives for these exercises especially if you're doing high reps. I tried the royal court years ago and it caused me a lot of neck and elbow pain.
 
Ah I remember Sonnon bashing Furey's stuff in order to shamelessly promote his own product (did he say CST enough times?). Very fitting as Furey himself would bash weightlifting protocols to promote his own products. I love it when things come full circle.

They don't even hold Circular Strength Training certs anymore. Cool trip down memory lane.
 
Has anyone given the CST dog press a try? I worked on it long ago and it seemed like a fine exercise. How would you compare it to Hindu pushups?
 




traditional exercises, done a couple of years before scott sonnon

no wrecked knees, no elbow pains, on the other hand theres this dude, whats his name....

ahh...THE GRAT GAMA.
 
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