I have a buddy who has been leaning to a Matt Furey type of training philosophy ever since he damaged a rotator cuff while doing a heavy bench press of 405 pounds for five reps. He now sends me all the emails he gets from Matt Furey the latest being that bench presses are bad for the shoulders.
What do you guys think of Matt Furey’s anti weight training philosophy? I do believe in bodyweight calisthenics but as part of my weight training program.
i think his words and philosophy he is peddling nowdays are pretty stupid for others to believe his bunk.
i think his training programs are good, but not the best for total conditioning and strength. Because it is a portion of a complete program.
his sales edge is just about talking crap about weight training and reinforcing the myths of weight training. ever read his email about how lifting weights will make women bulky like men? how about the ‘10 things that are bad about weightlifting and why no one should weightlift’. he also claims to have the skills and exercises bequeathed to him by Farmer Burns or was it Karl Gotch? In other words old-school catch wrestling. The Gotch dude totally denies being a mentor to Furey and that he dislikes the person. Furey also has under his belt the many, many grappling accomplishments that he is THE credible source for what makes a grappler a great one.
ALL in ALL I feel that all the hogwash is sales and nothing more.
Positive stuff I liked were mainly in the early yrs (late 90’s to 2000) when he did more workout template articles than how awesome he is and the style of training he does compared to everything else. He has some good bodyweight workouts, but I would never waste money on his books and videos because of the suck ass sales pitch. He basically motivates me to vomit to lose excess weight because his BS is praised about as much as the GWB BS.
I don’t like supporting a man financially who also has lied about who his friends are. He is also not humble and has no reason to be. They say those who have done great things are humble, those who have done nothing are not.
His weight bashing is just a marketing ploy and is untrue and not very classy. Bodyweight exercises are ok, but you don’t need to pay money to someone to tell you how great they are. This kind of turned me off him when I was doing a search a looking at his stuff. At least he’s being honest I guess.
Check out www.trainforstrength.com. A website by a guy in Hawaii named “Fish.” He does the bodyweight thing, but also believes that it’s an additive to weight training. No hard sell either. His girlfriend’s pretty hot too.
I agree with others. bodyweight drills are a great compliment to weight training and there is no need to choose one over the other. Scrapper’s stuff is great. Check it out.
[quote]bejaar wrote:
What do you guys think of Matt Furey’s anti weight training philosophy? I do believe in bodyweight calisthenics but as part of my weight training program.[/quote]
I have very mixed feelings about Mr. Furey, and his training information.
On the one hand, he has put out a couple of excellent books, and with regards to bodyweight exercise, he definitely knows his stuff. I have a copy of his “Combat Conditioning” book, and regard it quite highly. I’ve used much of the information there to create solid workouts, and awesome GPP work.
Additionally, bodyweight exercises are so convenient that it kills almost any excuse to not work out. It’s fairly easy to get a decent workout done in 20 minutes or so, at home in your bedroom, using the techniques in his book.
However, as much as I respect Mr. Furey for his knowledge regarding bodyweight exercises, I can’t help but dislike his anti-weighlifting opinions. I also don’t like how dogmatically he tries to push those same opinions on others. If he wishes to not lift weights, that’s fine, but he should understand that many people do wish to lift weights.
It’s possible to advocate your ideas and thoughts for their benefits, without stooping to attacking ideas that you don’t agree with. I would be much happier if Mr. Furey would stick to pushing what he knows, bodyweight exercises, and would just stop discussing weight training, since he seems incapable of doing so without bias.
[quote]bejaar wrote:
I have a buddy who has been leaning to a Matt Furey type of training philosophy ever since he damaged a rotator cuff while doing a heavy bench press of 405 pounds for five reps.
I have seen and heard a lot regarding the injury producing Bench Press!
However, I agree with the group regarding weightlifting movements being far superior to body weight only when it comes to adding size and strength.
It’s all about progressive resistance and that is hard to get with body weight only.
I don’t agree with most of the training advice given by Furey but you have got to give the guy credit for his marketting skills.
Controversy sells and he makes A LOT OF MONEY by being very controversial!
Good solid training information found here in the pages of T-Mag by some of the most knowledgeable coaches in the industry is free so I don’t plan on spending any of my money on his stuff.
That’s fine if others want to do so but I’ll save my cash for the info put out by guys like Charles Staley, CW, CT, JB, and others.
Furey, Pavel and Fish/Scrapper: their bodyweight exercises have their place. Good for GPP or good, integrated strength training if you’re not near any equipment. Will get you into shape. Won’t get you huge.
As for Furey: he’s good at marketing and probably a really good businessman. Can’t really knock him for selling his product(s).
I can only disagree with him on one thing: his anti-weight training beliefs.
If you want conditioning for wrestling or some other grappling art then Furey’s stuff has some merit, but if you want to be strong then weight training beats it hands down. I have yet to see an champion PL or Olympic weightlifter or NFL Lineman be sucessful by training callisthenics alone.
I was just about to post about Wayne’s “Scrapper” workouts. I use to use Furey’s free workout ideas in mags when I wasn’t near a gym. Then I was able to afford the internet and linked up to Wayne’s site, using his template with better results as well. btw Holly is his ex now, sore subject really.
I also think Scrapper’s workouts are great. They’re no joke and if you need strength/endurance for sports such as BJJ, wrestling, etc then his workouts are perfect.
Scrapper is a class act and his workouts are real tough.
i have no details, but I believe it was before a trip he took to a Sonnon seminar in the mainland US. i was totally shocked by it too when he mentioned his situation on another site. from what i understood (it was last month or the month before that’s why), she still helps teach certain classes of his. That’s all I know. Now fi the situation changed and they are back together then okay forget what i posted…and back to revealing the stinky stinky kaka dookie of Furey.