Everyone loves a strong, muscular, and flexible upper body! Even if you happen to be a "squats guy" or a "6 pack guy", the fact is that good looking arms, chest and shoulders are a must to have that complete look. Of course having said that I must admit that with most trainees the problem is to get them to train their lower bodies rather than train their upper bodies. After all gyms are filled with "bench press champs".
In recent years a very old and traditional Indian exercise has become very popular in the strength and fitness community all over the world. That exercises is of course the Hindu push ups. In recent years this exercise has traveled from the local Indian style gymnasiums in India to the far corners of the world, and all have been enjoying the benefits of this wonderful exercise. So without further delay have a look at the video below featuring my training partner Samrat Sen demonstrating how the Hindu push ups are done.
Benefits of Hindu push ups
- Build muscle- they help build up the muscles in your upper body. Your triceps, shoulders, abs and chest will benefit the most.
- Improved stamina- done in high repetitions with deep breathing it will help develop a lot of lung power
- Better flexibility- it will improve flexiblity in the shoulders and hips as well as the upper and lower back
Position:
- Begin with your arms parallel to each other and your body back as far as possible
- If you have very flexible shoulders then you can keep your hands close, if not and for most it is recommended that you keep them a bit more than shoulder width apart and elbows out at 45° or closer into the body
- For beginners keep your feet wider than shoulder width apart. More advanced trainees can keep their feet closer around hip width or narrower. Also try to keep your feet as straight as possible
Movement:
- Start by taking a deep breath, bring your chest in between your arms and as close and possible to the ground without touching it
- Then move forward and raise yourself till your hands are locked out, breathe out at the top
- Quickly return to the starting position and repeat. If you have to take rest between reps, then do so in the starting position
- The speed of the movement will ideally be at a moderate speed while getting a good stretch at both the start and finish positions
Common errors
- Letting your knees and waist touch the ground
- Going up and down in a straight manner and not in an arc or semi circle manner
For beginners I will recommend that they start with 3-5 sets of 5 reps and do it everyday to learn faster. Once you start to get the hang of it, you can do 1-3 sets and do as many reps as possible. If you lack the strength to do even 1 rep, then start by doing them in the beginning of your workouts. The more advanced trainees can do it at the end of their workouts for a great finisher to help release more growth hormones.
