Let’s face it…Instagram today is kept afloat by trendy fitness influencers and models alike. 

And while I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like the models, the shenanigans of the fitness influencers can get on my last nerve! 

Slick, over-produced, and self-important, the content a lot of these fitness guys put out looks more like the trailer for the latest Marvel spin-off, rather than actionable, achievable content for the Average Joe and Jane! 

But in this dystopian echo chamber, a light shines out in the darkness! 

Enter Ms. Naiya and her youtube channel, @msnaiyajourney2u!

THROWBACK TO “THE ROYAL COURT”   

Raw, unedited, and real, Ms. Naiya is a gal who does high rep bodyweight challenges in the 100+ rep range…and records them in their entirety! 

No silly background music, no sound effects, no supplement slinging…just good old fashion fun and hard work! 

My favorite by far is “100 Mike Tyson’s Push’s 100 Duck Walks | Calisthenics Training | Full Body”. 

It consists of 10×10 of Knees-Over-Toes type Push-Ups named for the Baddest Man on the Planet, supersetted with 10 x 10 Duck Walks…as Knees-Over-Toes as you can get! 

It’s a throwback to the “Royal Court” kind of workouts found in lost early Millennium classics like Matt Furey’s Combat Conditioning and Pavel Tsatsouline’s Super Joints…in an easy-to-do set-rep scheme that anybody can get behind!

It makes me think of my own High Rep Bodyweight Journey over the years, and where I am today…

BY ORDER OF THE KING, GOD BLESS HIM

If you know anything about my training doctrine (simple and detailed!), then you know I love High Rep Bodyweight, more than nearly anything else! 

Matt Furey’s “Royal Court” got me started on the craze in August 2018 to help me bulletproof my tendons and ligaments for heavy lifts and BJJ. 

And through his “Hindu Push Ups” and “Hindu Squats”, I discovered Knees-Over-Toes training in practice! There was something very special about those “Hindu Push Ups” and “Hindu Squats”…

Whenever I would do them, I felt a strong connection to my Anglo-Norman Warrior Caste Ancestors fighting the good fight at the far-flungs of the Colonial Frontier, and in the trenches on the Western Front at the First Big One! 

To channel this feeling and the connection to the Heroes of my Blood, I would crank up the WWI British Empire fight song “By Order of the King” on repeat as I’d crank out the reps and dial in the breathing.. 

Soon I’d enter in the flow state, and meditating on the lyrics in what I would later learn was the true WarYoga style revealed by that hero historian and master striker-grappler Tom Billinge: 

“The Empire’s Pride, 

“Stands side by side, 

“Upon the Battlefield! 

“Like Knights of Old, 

“So Brave and Bold, 

“The King and Flag to shield!

“For each brave heart, 

“Will do his part, 

“For Country and for King!

“And gladly go,

“To meet the Foe!

“By Order of the King!”  

And whether you see that King as George V or Jesus Christ Himself, the movement, breath, music, and lyrics always hit home in a way I didn’t fully understand, but always felt.

MEET BEN PATRICK  

From August 2018-July 2019, I mixed in Matt Furey’s “Royal Court” with Pavel Tsatsouline’s Grease the Groove programming for Kettlebells, the occasional Barbells, and Vladimir Vasilev’s Russian Systema. 

But at the end of July 2019, I decided to up the ante on the “Royal Court”…starting with 5 sets of 10x “Hindu Push Ups” and 1 set of 50x “Hindu Squats for a total of 50x each, daily. 

By the second half of August, I had doubled the number up to 100x for each…10x sets of 10x “Hindu Push Ups” and 2 sets of 50x “Hindu Squats” daily. On September 10th, I skipped a day, and so to make up for it and in honor of 9/11, I did 200x on September 11th, doubling up the sets and reps.

At the end of each of these, I finished up with the stretching system of Eiko found in her book Even the Stiffest People Can Do the Splits, holding each stretch for 2 minutes.

I stayed on this program of 200 reps each plus stretching all through the first two weeks of October 2019…that was when I discovered Ben Patrick through the instagram account of Matt Furey himself. 

That was when my friendship with Ben Patrick began, and I gave him my research on the safety and efficacy of Knees-Over-Toes training. At that time, Ben Patrick’s system was far less formalized than it is now in its book form, Knee Ability Zero. 

This was an era of experimentation for him, and static flexibility was a bigger part of his program than it is now, through the then-extensive collaboration of Jeffrey Wolf. 

From the second half of October to Thanksgiving Week, I began exploring Ben Patrick’s system intricately, experimenting with multi-joint KOT Squats and ATG Split Squats, and single-joint Petersen Step Ups, and Tibialis Raises. 

The “long range” multi-joint movements I found were better suited for low rep strength type programming similar to Pavel Tsatsouline’s Naked Warrior, while the “short range” single joint movements were perfect for high reps. 

Both, the latter especially, made Matt Furey’s high rep“Hindu Push Ups” and “Hindu Squats” much, much easier!

WHAT THE WARRIORS REVEALED

In conjunction with this, I also began studying WWI Hero and US Olympic Weightlifting Team Coach Bob Hoffman’s “Daily Dozen” system of High Rep Bodyweight Movements from the 1950s. 

At the same time, I was also studying Pavel Tsatsouline’s Super Joints, his masterpiece that chronicles Ukrainian Doctor Nikolai Amosov’s 1000 Movement Routine of High Rep Bodyweight program from the 1950s Soviet Union. 

It seemed to me that on both sides of The Iron Curtain, high rep bodyweight was the key to health and toughness alike. At the same time, I was struck by my simultaneous reading of Afghanistan War Hero Roger Sparks’ Warrior’s Creed. 

Sparks credited high rep bodyweight alongside long distance running and swimming as the key to a mystical mental conditioning of himself and his teammates during his time in both the Marine Recon and Air Force PJs. 

At the same time, I was reading how Navy SEAL Stewart Smith, in his book Tactical Fitness, laid out a similar ethos in how-to form. 

To me, there was only one missing link between the old Cold War Heroes and the Modern Day GWOT Warriors?

High Rep Knees Over Toes “Hindu Squats”! 

THE 1000 MOVEMENT

By Thanksgiving Week 2019, I had crossed into a new frontier of fitness: taking on Dr. Nikolia Amosov’s 1000 Movement Challenge laid out in Pavel Tstatsouline’s Super Joints: 

10x sets of 10x different exercises…for 100x reps each! 

The challenge comes from Dr. Amosov’s Theory of Limited Loads: that the human body can regenerate itself…but the key is through intense use! 

This made sense to me…the only way for a joint to get synovial fluid is to take it through full ROM for high reps. It’s the same thing for tendons and ligaments to get blood, as they don’t have their own blood supply.

And as all Powerlifters and Strongmen throughout history know tendons and ligaments are the key to super feats of strength. 

I’d do this program in the morning every day, and got it down to about 45 minutes. Then I’d go to work at the YMCA selling Gym Memberships. And then I would go and do an hour of BJJ and the daylights beat out of me. 

This went on until about January of 2020…

What were the results, you ask? 

THE PLAN ITSELF!

The 1000 Movement Program works on many different levels. Here’s exactly how I did it…

Note: the heels were together and the feet pointed out at 45 degrees unless otherwise noted, as was the standard position in the Swedish Ling System. 

• The 100s…100x reps of Ben Patrick’s bouncing in the bottom of a heels up knees over toes Hindu Squat type position, holding onto a door handle for balance, heels together, feet pointed out at 15 degrees to target big toe, to target the VMO muscle

• 100x Feet Inverted Toe Touches (for IT Band release)

• 100x Side Bend, heels together

• 100x Trunk Twists with PVC tubing on shoulders

• 100x Chest Flys, no weight 

• 100x Shoulder Rolls External Rotation 

• 100x Overhead Raises, no weight 

• 100x Swimming Motion with Arms

• 100x Tibialis Raises leaning against the wall, feet pointed forward (3x sets of 30x, 1x set of 10x)

• 100x Petersen Step Ups each leg, feet pointed out at 15 degrees to target big toe, to target the VMO muscle

• 30x Hindu Push Ups 

• 100x Hindu Squats, heels together, feet pointed out at 15 degrees to target big toe, to target the VMO muscle

• 100x Feet Inverted Toe Touches (for IT Band release)

I would set this to music, listening to either Tchiakovsky’s Greatest Hits or the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Soundtrack. Toward the end of the session, I liked to work in the Indiana Jones Theme Song, and “Stars and Stripes Forever” by John Phillips Sousza. 

On the Hindu Squats, I would always listen to “By Order of the King”, as an esoteric nod to my British Empire Heroes. 

It was also a nod the fact that I had triumphed over a knee injury where many other present-day heroes I admire in my life had not (those who know, know. Even Lions and Eagles alike are wounded). 

I would do this program in the morning, before work selling Memberships at the YMCA. I would use that physically easy job to “relax” my body and recuperate, before going and doing an hour of BJJ after work. 

On Christmas Eve, I set a new record, doing this routine in the morning, and completing the day with a total of 700x Feet Inverted Toe Touches and 600x Hindu Squats, heels together, feet pointed out at 15 degrees.

THE RESULTS ARE IN

Quite frankly, I have never felt better Physically than when I was on this program. And Spiritually too, knowing what I know now, I was being invigorated and protected by linking the Spiritual to the Somatic.

Those were dark days in my life when I was on this program. There would be far darker days ahead. 

But God Almighty granted me this program to keep me sane, and prepare me for the hard days ahead. 

I’ve learned a lot Physically and Spiritually alike since then, doing the 1000 Movement.  

But the Spirit of those days, the Zeitgeist I created by following my Nature according to the Will of God…the Spirit of that Age…

It still stands tall. 

And it inspires today.

Who knows?

Maybe it’s time to bring the 1000 Movement back? 

I think Ms. Niaya would think so!

By Order of the King!

Sincerely,

Richard Barrett

03-05-2024

Written at 8:39 PM in a Subway, somewhere in the USA…

Sources Cited:

Image 1…the painting is of The Last General Absolution of the Munsters at Rue du Bois, given by Fighting Father Francis Gleeson. The Gang is getting ready Spiritually and Physically for the Big Fight Ahead.

It should be noted that this Regiment in service to the British Empire was primarily recruited from County Cork, where my ancestors are from. The Spirit of these Heroes sings in my blood and guards me by the Will of God…a Heritage to live up to indeed!