How do Hindu squats work out? Know 7 Benefits

Wrestlers in India have been doing Hindu squats for many years. It started in India itself, where early wrestlers used this exercise to build strength. It’s worth considering adding Hindu squats to your workout routine. 

Hindu squats can be effective whether you’re a wrestler or not. In this article, we’ll cover its benefits as well as how to do it properly.

What are Hindu Squats?

Indian wrestlers have long used Hindu squats to build strength. It’s a deep, dynamic bodyweight squat performed with a continuous arm swing, rather than the static stance of a standard squat. Hindu squats are quite different from a typical bodyweight squat.

How To Do A Proper Hindu Squat?

This is a more advanced variation of the standard squat. It’s a good idea to master the fundamental squat pattern before progressing to this more dynamic move. Seeking guidance from an experienced trainer or wrestling coach can help with getting the form and posture right.

• Stand with your feet close together. Begin descending into the squat with a smooth, continuous motion.
• Let your knees track wider than your feet as you go down. Swing your arms down and back as you descend.
• At the bottom of the exercise, your heels rise up onto your toes as your fingertips lightly touch the ground.
• Drive back up to standing, bringing your heels back down and swinging your arms forward and up as you rise.

What Are The Benefits of Hindu Squats?

1. It has several benefits, including helping improve your overall balance and coordination.
2. A key advantage is that it needs no equipment at all – traditional Indian wrestlers typically do it barefoot.
3. It strengthens major lower-body muscles, targeting the hamstrings, calves, quadriceps, core, and shoulders.
4. Most trainers recommend keeping your knees roughly in line with your feet during a standard squat to limit knee stress. The Hindu squat instead lets your knees travel past your toes, which some practitioners feel helps build knee and ankle resilience through a fuller range of motion – though this deeper range also means more load on the knee joint, so it’s not the right starting point for anyone with existing knee problems.
5. Weight loss is a common goal for many gym-goers. More demanding exercises require more energy from the body, which can support fat loss as part of an overall calorie deficit.
6. Wrestlers favor Hindu squats partly because they can be done barefoot and without any equipment, unlike a barbell back squat.
7. As a compound exercise, it builds strength and muscular endurance across the glutes, hamstrings, calves, quadriceps, core, and shoulders together.

4 Precautions with Hindu Squats

1. Because of the deep range of motion and repeated impact, this exercise can be demanding on the knees. Start slowly and build up intensity and volume gradually to avoid injury.
2. The movement requires real coordination between your feet, hands, and rhythm. Take time to learn how your heels rise as your fingertips touch the ground before adding speed.
3. Keep your core engaged as you rise for better stability and results.
4. If you have a history of rotator cuff issues, or feel shoulder discomfort during this exercise, avoid the full arm swing and keep your arm movement smaller and more controlled instead.

3 Alternatives to Hindu Squats

Every exercise has variations that can produce similar results while helping break up the monotony of your routine. Here are a few alternatives to the Hindu squat:

1. Overhead squats
2. Thruster
3. Hamstring curl

Conclusion

Hindu squats have been practiced in India for generations, originally used by wrestlers to build strength and endurance. Combined with Hindu push-ups, they can form a genuinely challenging workout on their own. The technique takes some practice to master, since it involves more coordination than a standard squat, but building up gradually with proper form will help you get comfortable with it over time.

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