Several weeks ago I came across the Matt Furey, author of “Combat Conditioning: Functional Exercises for Fitness and Combat Sports”. He advocates almost exclusive use of body-weight exercises in order to achieve strength-endurance and flexibility. After investigating some, I decided that undertaking a regime of body-weight exercises was the best path for me to a strong, yet flexible body. Working at a computer most of the time doesn’t support great strength, endurance, flexibility, or musculature.
I also don’t want to fall into the stereotype of a skinny weak vegan. From a nutritional point of view, there is nothing wrong with a vegan diet. In fact, Robert Cheeke has a website on vegan bodybuilding. There is even a raw vegan bodybuilder here in the Vancouver area. I’m of course not looking for a sculpted body – in order to achieve such sculpted bodies one must isolate and exercise specific muscles. I’m seeking strength-endurance and flexibility.
One of the fundamental body-weight exercises is what some people call “Hindu Push-ups”. They are actually much more challenging than one might first suspect. As Furey puts in in Combat Conditioning: “If you can bench press 400 pounds, I’ll bet dollars to donuts that you’ll struggle with 25-straight Hindu Pushups.”1 My first attempt at doing Hindu push-ups was embarrassing. I could only do a fraction of the number of dive-bomber pushups (what most folks think of when they hear the term push-up) I usually can do.
In the YouTube video below, Garrett Smith demonstrates how to do Hindu push-ups:
So there you have it — the Hindu push-up for strength-endurance. Please share your experiences doing the push-ups in the comments section below.
References:
- Furey, Matt. Combat Conditioning. New Revised Edition, Matt Furey Enterprises, Inc., 2005. pg. 17.
[...] Quick Review of the Power Gym Door Mounted Exerciser May 9th, 2009 by admin. As part of my plan to carry out body-weight exercises, I was on the lookout for a pull-up/chin-up bar. However, I’m currently in a rented apartment. There is no good place in my space to install a pull-up bar, especially without damaging door frames or walls. The answer to my problem was the Power Gym door mounted exerciser. It’s designed for people who weigh less than 113kg (250lb) and for standard North American-sized door frames. It has 6 different grip positions allowing for a greater variety of exercises than a standard pull-up bar. It comes with a chart showing 12 different exercises, 7 of which are pull-up type exercise (hanging cruncher, hanging leg raiser, close grip pull-ups, close grip chin ups, jack knife shoulder pumps, wide grip chine-ups, and wide grip pull-ups). You can also use the unit as a push-up aid, but I’m not interested in using the unit that way. I much prefer simple Hindu Pushups. [...]