When I was lifting heavy using bodybuilder workouts the biggest problem was that I would gas out quickly. My sport is Karate. So during sparring (practice fighting) sessions, I may have been bigger and stronger than my opponents, but I would get tired really quickly.

Hence, my opponents would just dodge my slow punches until I was tired, then hit me with everything they got. That’s how I lost a lot of sparring fights. The day I gave up on bodybuilder workouts, I started reading into the way Indian Wrestlers used to train.

Hindu Squats and Pushups

The two common exercises used by these magnificent ancient wrestlers are the Hindu Pushup and Hindu Squat, made popular by Matt Furey. Honestly, I don’t think these exercises are the BEST bodyweight exercises out there. They are simply two variations out of hundreds of different bodyweight movements.

However, just by replacing these two movements with all my heavy weight training gave me some great results. I already had the bulk, now it was time to teach myself how to move the bulk (my own body). The workouts I used were very basic.

It’s time to peer into my old training diaries and show you a sample of the primitive, but powerful stuff I used to do.

(Before I continue, let me just state that I have shared my old workouts in the past. I used to do a lot of stuff, but this particular post revolves around Hindu Squats and HinduPushups and their relationship to improving my Karate training.)

Back to what I was saying before: I stuck to mostly density training, which is something I shared with you a few days a go. However, my density workouts were much shorter, since my conditioning was very poor.

The Poorly Designed but Powerful Workout

So, instead of using 15-20 minute time intervals, I was using 5 minutes intervals, with around 1-2 minute breaks. So here is what a sample workout would look like:

5 minutes of:

• 5 Hindu Pushups
• 10 Hindu Squats

I would alternate between these exercises for 5 minutes straight through, and decided if I could do anymore. A lot of what I was doing before was extremely random. I didn’t even know about the terminology “density” training. It was just training to me.

But…it worked! I was moving faster and lasting longer on the mat. I even started winning some fights. Some of the kids started getting scare of fighting me since now I was not just a bulky guy, but a bulky guy who could move!

Take Home Point

Now, how can you take what I used to do to your own sport? Well, the simple answer is take a look at how you move in your sport. Karate involves a lot of high intensity techniques for a short period of time (such as a barrage of punches) followed by a short rest period (where you’re just bouncing on the mat and blocking your opponents attacks).

Hence, interval and density workouts were perfect for Karate training. But, you may need a different method of training for your particular sport. Keep experimenting, but if you need some great high intensity bodyweight workouts, be sure to check out the Ultimate Gymless Workout.

Tags: athletic training, Bodyweight Training, bodyweight workouts, high intensity workout, karate

About the Author

Parth Shah is an average joe who’s tired of all the nonsense he sees in mainstream health and fitness media. His thoughts, ideas, and philosophy can be found on his website, ShahTraining.com. (Feed – http://feeds.feedburner.com/shahtraining/UQuk)

This form of training is highly inefficient simply because the calories we burn during activity do not help us burn fat. Our long term weapon against fat relies on our resting metabolic rate (RMR, or a measure of calories we burn while at rest) and certain hormones in our body.

Low intensity training does nothing to raise your RMR, nor does it stimulate any fat-burning hormones such as HGH (human growth hormone). In fact, excessive cardio can release Cortisol , also known as the stress hormone. This is a bad hormone, as it increases one’s appetite and also converts calories into abdominal fat. The following are five reasons why you should be performing quick, intense workouts for better health and fat loss:

Reason #1:

Less Time Commitment for Better Results

• Our bodies are extremely efficient at adapting to training stimuli. In order to continue getting results from our workouts, we need to either make them more intense or make them last longer (increase time). Most individuals will perform low-intensity, longer duration training.
• In this scenario, lets assume it takes a person 30 minutes to burn off 300 calories. As his body become more efficient, he will now need to spend 35,40,45 minutes to burn off 300 calories. Over time, it becomes impractical to do more work for the same amount of results.
• Instead of increasing time and lowering intensity, decrease time and increase intensity. Doing so will force your body to work harder, thus burn more calories in the long run (explained below). The most important thing is that you’ll save time.

Reason #2:

The Power of EPOC

• The higher the intensity of the exercise, the more likely you will use carbohydrates as an energy source rather than fat. However, even though you are using carbohydrates as the primary fuel source with high intensity training, the total amount of calories burnt off will be much greater through high intensity exercise than with low intensity exercise.
• This is because after an intense workout , our bodies experience oxygen and metabolic debt. It needs to return to homeostasis. This process of regaining a balanced state is known as excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). A number of processes take place during EPOC including the restoration of various energy sources, re-establishment of normal ventilation and heart rate, restoration of normal core body temperature, and re-oxygenation and restoration of blood and circulating hormones.

• The other 8 volunteers in a control group, who did not do any interval training, did not show any improvement in endurance. The amazing aspect of this study is that all volunteers were already reasonably fit. The results were attained after just 15 minutes of intense cycling spread out over 2 weeks.
• The ability of the heart and lungs to supply oxygen to working muscles improved 13 percent in a 2007 study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology. The study involved 8 women in their early 20’s who cycled for 10 sets of four minutes of intense cycling, followed by 2 minutes of rest.

I would not be doing proper justice if I did not provide some sample workouts to help you get started with high intensity training:

Workout #1:

Perform max rounds in 20 minutes of:

• 10 Burpees
• 5 Chinups

Best: Performed 7 Rounds
Workout #2:

21 Reps of each for time:

• Sumo Deadlift High Pull, 95lbs
• Push Press, 95lbs
• Hindu Pushups
• Kettlebell Windmills
• Kettlebell Thruster
• Squat Jumps

Workout #3:

3 rounds of:

• Incline Pushups – 2×30 seconds, 30 seconds rest
• Chinups – 2×30 seconds, 30 seconds rest
• Rowers – 2×30 seconds, 30 seconds rest
• Hindu Squats – 2×30 seconds, 30 seconds rest
• Ankle Grabbers – 2×30 seconds, 30 seconds rest

Use this knowledge and these workouts to improve your health and burn some fat!

About the Author

Parth Shah is an average joe who’s tired of all the nonsense he sees in mainstream health and fitness media. His thoughts, ideas, and philosophy can be found on his website, ShahTraining.com. (Feed – http://feeds.feedburner.com/shahtraining/UQuk)

10 Ways to Fatten Up Your Kids

Apr 13th, 2009 | By Parth | Category: Beginner Training, Featured Articles, lifestyle

If you’re a parent, then I urge you to pay attention to what you’re feeding your kids. You may be a healthy parent, or an overweight parent, but either way your kids future depends on the example you set for them. I’m not a parent, I don’t even have a girlfriend, so I’m not going to teach you how to raise your kids. But, I would like to share a few experiences that I believe effected my weight when I was a kid:

1. When I was around 4-5 years old, I began eating pizza on a frequent basis. My mom would take me to this place called Singas Famous Pizza, and order a half a pie of pizza almost every day. A full pie these days is around $4.50, so a half pie was probably extremely cheap back then.
2. Every time I went to the playground, I didn’t really do much. I wasn’t playing with the other kids. I remember my mom was trying to get me to play on the monkey bars, but all I really did was go down slides and swing on theswing set. Swing sets are fun, but they don’t really burn off any calories.
3. Also, at the playground, the only time I did any running was when the ice cream man came. My mom whipped out a dollar every day for me and let me run like the wind.
4. When I started grade school, my mother would pretty much give me the same thing everyday: bread and butter sandwhich, a juice box, and fruit snack. That’s all just carbsand sugar. If she gave me fruit, I didn’t eat it.
5. As I got older and began to receive an allowance. I threw out the food in the lunch box (cuz you can’t trade a bread and butter sandwich), and stood on the lunch line to be fed either a bagel with cream cheese or microwave pizza.
6. In middle school, the lunch lady remembered that I was a vegetarian. So on days where there was no pizza or pasta, she would make me a special cheese sandwich: a bread roll with three-four slices of cheese. Put some ketchup on it, and gobble it up. Eat that everyday and see what happens to your man boobs.
7. In high school, I went into the other direction, and became border line anorexic. I was skinny fat because I probably ate only 1000 calories a day. Combine that with a daily 1-2 mile run, 60 minutes in the weight room, and two intense martial arts training sessions per week, and you’ll have hunger pangs as loud as a speeding train.
8. After high school, I learned how easy it was for me to drive down to Taco Bell in between my classes and gobble up a nice Mexican Pizza or Bean and Cheese burrito. Top it off with a tall cup of soda, and drive back to another boring lecture.
9. Speaking of boring lectures, there was a Starbucks on campus. I began knocking down tall lattes to help me stay awake in class. When those didn’t work, I started a ritual of latte in the morning and Monster energy drink in the evening.
10. Finally, as if this story couldn’t get any worse, there is an Indian restaurant near my dad’s place. It’s good stuff. I would gobble up around 3parotas(a type of bread) with Palak Paneer (literally, spinach and cheese), almost every week.

There you have it. If your goal is to fatten up your kids so that one day they can audition for the Biggest Loser and win half a million dollars for entertaining other fat people who are too lazy to go to ShahTraining.com and try out a quick bodyweightworkout, then just follow my tips, and you’ll achieve your goal.

Over the next few months, I will be spending a lot of time on developing content for overweight and obese individuals looking to lose weight. I realize some of the limitations that even bodyweight training can have for the morbidly obese. But I also see a lot of potential for teaching basic bodyweight movements to these individuals. I’ll get into this in a future post.

About the Author

Parth Shah is an average joe who’s tired of all the nonsense he sees in mainstream health and fitness media. His thoughts, ideas, and philosophy can be found on his website, ShahTraining.com. (Feed – http://feeds.feedburner.com/shahtraining/UQuk)

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