Getting Fit Without the Expense of Gym Membership or Fancy Equipment

A few years back I became a half-fan of Matt Furey, and specifically his championing of the traditional Indian wrestling exercise moves, the Hindu Squat and the Hindu Pushup. I don't agree with large portions of what Matt Furey proposes, but his fitness stuff is solid. Mostly.

In any event, I have found body weight exercises to be of paramount use to me over the years and whole heartedly recommend them. A few years back, while attending a gym and going to my Aikido dojo very regularly, my knees began to give me problems again. Due to my past weight issues, and my push my body until it breaks' attitude I have blown both knees out a few times over the years. A chiropractor finally clued me into the most probable agitator of the situation. She said I probably had what is called a joint mouse' in both knees - an errant bit of hard cartilage build up that floated around inside the joint, and when positioned near the middle of the joint was pushing the it open in a way that made it vulnerable to dislocation. She, and a doctor of sports medicine I had examine my knee after one really bad episode, recommended a strict program of strengthening the muscles around the joint and upper leg to keep the joint supported, tight, and strong. I already knew that squats were the single most strengthening exercise a human can do, and had read some of Matt Furey's articles in Black Belt magazine about the wonders of Hindu Squats.

Ta dah!

I began a practice of doing sets of both exercises throughout the day. At my peak I was doing 7 - 10 sets of 100 reps each and every day, often in my cubicle. Well, it worked, and my knees have never given me a problem since.

Later I went through a period of training with Jim Schmidtz for Olympic style power lifting, and again the daily squats were very useful. In five months time my weighted squat went from 8 - 10 reps of 120 pounds to 3 sets of 2 - 3 reps at 325 pounds. Not a bad increase. Jim had to move his operation after a falling out with the gym's co-owner to a location I cannot fit into my schedule. But, the lessons I learned during my stint as an Olympic lifter have stuck.