Has anyone tried this program, or know anyone who has? http://www.gama-fitness.com/index.html A buddy of mine is thinking about getting it, but needless to say he’d like to hear some neutral reviews before dropping that kind of money on it. I’ve heard good and bad things about Furey, so I thought I’d throw this out here and see what everyone knows. Thanks!
To-Shin Do
ToShinDo:
Matt Furey is a very controversial guy, no question. He is a world class Kung Fu (grappling style) master. The only caucasion to ever win this tournament in China. College wrestler as well.
I purchased some of his material. A book called: “The Martial Art of Wrestling.” A tape series: “Combat Conditioning.” A few other minor papers and things.
I have never been disapointed by his material. I gained some first rate body conditioning ideas from him. My only complaint is that he used to promote Dino type training, sandbags, kegs, stones, logs etc. Now that he sells body weight only courses he trashes all other training forms.
I think that he does this to hype his own products. However, with that stated, I think there are far worse “hypsters” around today, who make Furey look conservative by comparison (you don’t want me to get into it so I won’t).
I say go forward and buy the program. Gama was a legendary wrestler in his day. Learning how the greats trained for their sport can only make you better!
Good Luck
Touchy subject here…
Take my personal opinion with a grain of salt, but I think much of Furey’s stuff is hype. I have had the fortune of speaking to someone very familiar with his marketing guru and the guy could sell you anything. Im not kidding. He could take any one of us on this web site and turn us into fighting/lifting/nutrition/whatever experts in the space of a one page article. It would sell too. I dont recall the marketing guy’s name right now, but he tries to recruit everybody he can that has an ounce of credibility.
He then builds a very aggressive advertising campaign around them.
For example, I dont know anything about the Great Gama, but the 5000 matches thing sounds like a bit of mythology to me.
Ive read combat conditioning and it has some good ideas. However, I dont think there is anybody on this website who would recomend a serious athlete train ONLY with bodyweight exercises. Furey trashes everything but bodyweight exercises because that is what he is trying to sell you.
Also, I know he has good wrestling credentials , but a lot of the grappling stuff that I have seen him pushing is pretty bogus(at least based on my experience).
Be very careful what you buy I guess. If you look around on the net, you may be able to find material on Gama’s conditioning program much cheaper if you are really interested. I remember guys saying that you could buy the Farmer Burns book Furey was peddling much cheaper on some historic site.
Actually I’m pretty sure on Sandow its free and a lot of Furey’s stuff can be found for free on file sharing sites.
Wasn’t there just an article here about how all the top gymnasts perform BW only work?
The content of Matt’s work that I have seen is very good. His CC books and vidoes for example have great content. The production on the other hand sucks and the prices are way too high in my opinion. If you are going t charge $100.00 for a video, then at least get a high quality camera to do the shoot.
Thanks for all the replies guys! I’ll let him know what you thought. We’ll definitely have to think about it.
To-Shin Do
Matt Furey’s Combat Conditioning book has lots of great ideas regarding bodyweight conditioning. I doubt that you need to spend all that $$$ on his Gama program. His advice about hill sprints is good too, that will whip your ass.
Scrapper is another resource…lots of free info and reasonably priced programs.
Good luck!
TSD,
i got the Combat Conditioning and Gamma Fitness Course. i would suggest geting the CC bbok, and see how you like it from there…
the marketing hype is much different than his approach to training-he really doesn’t trash everything else, but the ads do look that way. i think Furey’s right for using pushups, pullups,and bodyweight squats in you training reqimen. i don’t really like the calisthenic only workouts though-just a personal thing.