By Foras Aje
Has anyone heard of Hindu-Push ups?
If you haven’t, boy have I got news for you. Quite simply, they work (they almost made me forego yoga till I found it was actually Yogic) and you need to check them out.
In doing research for an article I wrote a while back concerning Yoga and Calisthenics, I stumbled on a unique form of an upper body exercise known as Hindu-Push ups. Immediately, I was intrigued by the name as I knew anything “Hindu” will inevitably be from India and as such may be related to Yoga.
I clicked on the associated link and came across a description of a totally different kind of push up. Now, although I’m big into exercise and health, one exercise I never really cared too much for is doing push-ups, I just never liked them and only did them occasionally out of necessity.
However, these Hindu Push ups seemed different and the benefits associated with them actually sold me to try a few out on the spot.
Now if an exercise inexplicably, puts a smile on your face while doing it, makes you breathe deeper (which is always good) and strengthens the entire body while making sure you don’t get all stiff with zero flexibility, I think it deserves my vote as well as anyone else’s. (These by the way were all the reasons I picked up Yoga)
Well, that’s what the Hindu-Push ups do.
Here is the technique and like me, after reading this next paragraph, take a pause and try 2-3 out right quick.
-Get on all fours.
-The starting position is with legs spread wide and butt up in the air.
-From there, bend your elbows as in a regular pushup, bringing your back down in a circular arc
-Straighten your arms and end up with your chest up and your hips almost touching the ground.
When done properly and combined with deep breathing (breathing in on the way down and exhaling-looking up) Hindu pushups build amazing lung power as well as incredible upper body strength and endurance. They also improve flexibility in the shoulders and hips as well as the upper and lower back.
Now, when I personally got so intrigued by this exercise, I put 2 and 2 together and it dawned on me that
1. These are “Hindu” Push-ups right? So they must be from India.
2. The starting point is ‘Downward Facing Dog” and the ending point is ‘The Cobra Pose” and its execution is so similar to positions 6-8 of the Sun Salutations…
These factors considered, I concluded that this is simply well combined Yoga poses in motion so I can get the best of both worlds: Yoga (that I love) and Calisthenics (with its push-ups…which I can only tolerate).
That said, just like I wrote in another article, if my schedule doesn’t permit me to do all the Yoga poses I’d love to do for the day, I just simply do the 24+ rounds of sun salutations, the corpse pose and these Hindu-Push ups.
In addition I alternate this combination of exercise now and still feel like I’m pretty much doing Yoga, maybe different styles a day. The main factors are that I’m getting my exercise, I love what it is and it is working great for me.
You should try it out and see how it works for you but trust me, with at least the Sun Salutations (Yoga’s warm up) and These Hindu Push-ups (2 yoga poses in motion), my friend you can’t go wrong for a total body workout again through Yoga.
In Friendship,
Foras Aje is an independent health researcher and founder of Bodyhealthsoul.com For more Yoga tips and information on Yoga for beginners stop by his website today.
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posted by Cheryl Levesque @ 3:23 PM
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