Exercises of the Royal Court?? What are those?
Well folks, these specific exercises are more or less a yoga-like bodyweight fitness regimen that involves 3 exercises namely: Hindu Squats, Hindu Pushups, and Bridges (in 5/6 recommended positions).
They have been popularized by Matt Furey, a National Collegiate Wrestling Champion (NCAA 2, 1985) and Kung Fu Shuai-Chiao World Champion (Beijing, 1997) and even R&B singer Usher wears them. In fact, I saw the clip of him doing the Indian push-ups and the VH1 rock body bridge.
Anyway, the reasons why I am writing about them is simply because, once again, when looking at them, they simply remind you of yoga and its principles.
In fact, bridge poses consist of dolphin, (if you can) headstand, back bridge, and wheel poses in yoga, while Hindu push-ups are basically downward facing dog to upward facing dog with the squats. being the mountain pose and yoga squats. . Let’s not forget the attached name “Hindu”!
That said, on days when you want some variety, maybe you want to do yoga in the morning, Hindu push-ups in the evening or vice versa and swap them with the 5 Tibetan rites mentioned above, below is some information on how to execute the exercises.
So here we go:
Hindu squats:
Folks, if you’ve been following my articles, a consistent feature would be that I draw from experiences and sometimes state what might have happened and how you can learn from it to improve your workouts or avoid a certain trap.
Now, the actual Indian squats that Matt Furey describes are (no other way to put it) hard, and dare I say, bad for the knees and thighs.
I am sorry; they just aren’t worth the way he describes them.
You can Google “Matt Furey + Indian squats” and try the descriptions you find, but
all i can say is good luck! Oh yeah I’ve fucked 200 of these bad boys with no problem and that was after I started slow and thought ok I can do a lot of these I’m pretty fit.
Wrong – the effect of my knees just wasn’t worth the exercise, however the idea of squatting BEFORE hindu push ups is a must, and I’ve tried going straight into hindu push ups is not a good idea . !- so you NEED to squat.
So what squats do I do then?
For the sake of simplicity, I’ll call them Sumo Squats.
The idea is simply to have your hands on your waist, your body akimbo (not in your chest so there is room for your lungs to expand!) and feet wide apart (I’ll say a little further apart than opposite elbows)
-Now, take a deep breath and slightly arch your back.
-Hold that position for a fraction of a second.
-Now lower your body, looking straight ahead and exhale. (Coming from a yoga background, try to make this as quiet as possible, the forceful exhalation some sites recommend for squats is NOT necessary and could actually be damaging to your mucous membranes…again, building on the experience!) here friends!)
-Hold that Position for a fraction of a second.
Folks, this is a much safer alternative to the Hindu squat, it has the same effect on your internal organs and breathing and builds your lower body just as well IMHO.
Start slowly with at least 10-20 as a beginner working your way up to whatever number you can split in half, because you’re going to be doing half your number of squats in Hindu push-ups!
Until the next article.
To health,
Foras Aje
