There is always room for improvement! 💪🏼

Fighting off the fat man. But bodyfat is harder to fight now than it was only a few years ago, not only because I'm older, but also because my self mandated bike rides to work are shorter now than they have ever been in my life, except when I ride into town for errands and postal runs. So I have added Hindu Squats back into my daily activities, regardless of any other exercises I do for the day. Whether I deadlift, or hoist the big kettlebell, it's now guaranteed that I will have done at least 50 Hindu Squat and 25 Hindu Pushups shortly after getting up. When I was in my 20s, this practice alone (aside from commuter cycling) elevated my fitness to the level of at least "enviable" to most people, including fellow, martial arts practitioners and the one life long meat head I knew at the time. I have mentioned them before, but wanted to share this video I watched today, which is possibly the best video I have ever found on the topic in the two decades since I began practicing this movemenet.


Also, a comment on that video referred to Mike Tyson's jump rope style as including a Hindu Squat like movement, which, of course, piqued my curiosity, so futher searching led me to this:


And this:


And this:

David Mary

Post in thread 'Show what you did with your EDC today.'

Discovered why I suck at jump rope. I sized it wrong. Remedied that today.

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Did some practice turns. Pretty muck looks and feels like I have started learning from scratch all over again, however, the rotations do feel tighter, and I think I can surpass my previous "skill" with jump rope, which was never very high to begin with.
 
When I was younger, I could do 50 hindu squats at the drop of a hat. One set, no stopping, no lactic acid buildup, conversational breathing. In fact, even after I had progressed beyond the honeymoon phase, and stopped doing them for a year or more, I tested myself one day, and was still able to bang out 75 before I stopped due to discomfort (on a lunch break at the timber treatment plant, about 28 years old at the time). I was, however, surprised and dismayed to find that my level had degraded substantially, even though my legs might be technically stronger now than they were back then (back then I hadn't started barbell training and wouldn't for another year or two). A couple weeks ago when I first decided to jump back into the hindu squats, I did 35 before I "had to" stop. In quotes because if you had a gun to my head I probably could have done more, but maybe not fifteen more. It wasn't until a couple more days of doing them every day that I was up to 50 total volume for each day.

When I was 26-27, I was doing sets of 50 on breaks and sets of 100 on lunches, five days a week. My best non stop was 300, and my best density block was 775 in 45 minutes, though that was an misguided endeavor and my legs were so trashed for the next week that simply touching my fingertips to my quads caused actual pain. Won't ever do that again, at least not when my previous max volume in a single day was under half that many squats.

Anyway, I am pleased to say that today I did both my 50 nonstop squats in a single set for the first time in at least a couple years, and 25 hindu pushups in a row as well, and this right before my bicycle trip into town for postal run and grocery shopping. The ride in was slow and I had a crosswind that felt like a headwind that made it even more challenging. It really sucked. But the ride back with several pounds of grocery bags on each handle bar wasn't as bad as I expected, despite the crosswind being present on the ride back as well. I used to think nature was trolling me with the wind phenomenon. It literally feels like a headwind both way, and I didn't realize what was going on until a day that I actually rode part way, turned around, and rode partway back, dropped some sand/grass from my hand a few times.

Anyway, I plan to build the volume back up to match, if not exceed my daily volume from 16 years ago. My point is even though I'm still a young man at barely over 40, I am excited to be making decent progress towards my previous level, and it literally takes 2 minutes to do 100 hindu squats once you are efficient, which means that three sessions per day can yield outstanding results with minimal time expenditure. I hope some of you want to try it out as well, and maybe we could have some friendly hindu squat races. A friend and I used to video ourselves and try to beat each other's time to 100. I think my best ever was 1:53.
 
Daily volume is now up to 85 hindu squats and 35 hindu pushups. The squats are 50 before heading out for the day, and another set a little while before bed. The pushups are all in the morning, but I expect to add another set today or tomorrow. Today the 35 was up from yesterday's 30, but required pauses after 25. That's around where I added the second set of squats, i.e. when I was having to pause after 40.

Now that the fifty squat set is nonstop, I will add reps to it once I stop grimacing after rep 40.

B bluemax_1 how is the back?
 
I've been working out with weights now faithfully for about 8 months. Feeling better than I have I a decade!

Today I volunteered at a summer camp facility up in the mountains and we helped do some work on their ropes course. I ran a pick and a shovel for about 4 hours.

I feel completely thrashed. I have not been this sore in... I can't even remember since when.

Good grief, I suck.
 
TRfromMT said:
I've been working out with weights now faithfully for about 8 months. Feeling better than I have I a decade!

Today I volunteered at a summer camp facility up in the mountains and we helped do some work on their ropes course. I ran a pick and a shovel for about 4 hours.

I feel completely thrashed. I have not been this sore in... I can't even remember since when.

Good grief, I suck.
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Sounds to like you’re doing exactly the opposite of sucking, pard. I’m really trying to get more motivated and healthy also. This is inspiring. Keep up the good work and thank you.

Best regards,

Michael
 
David Mary said:
Daily volume is now up to 85 hindu squats and 35 hindu pushups. The squats are 50 before heading out for the day, and another set a little while before bed. The pushups are all in the morning, but I expect to add another set today or tomorrow. Today the 35 was up from yesterday's 30, but required pauses after 25. That's around where I added the second set of squats, i.e. when I was having to pause after 40.

Now that the fifty squat set is nonstop, I will add reps to it once I stop grimacing after rep 40.

B bluemax_1 how is the back?
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2 more weeks for the hernia surgery recovery (where I’m not supposed to lift anything over 15lbs).

But the solar panels got delivered. They’re only 44lbs each .😅
 
Up to 60/30 in the mornings, 40 squats is now drop of a hat easy again, which means it will be 100 total squat volume per day going forward with 60 in the morning and 40 in the evening, and 50 total pushup volume with 30 in the morning and 20 in the evening.

I think for most people, the morning workout alone would be enough to build and maintain good mobility, strength, and endurance, and the silly thing only takes three minutes.


Of course, as I increase volume, mine will go up to probably five to seven minutes, as I am looking for 100+ squats and 50+ pushups in the morning, in one nonstop set each. But I think that is still at least a month or two away.

EMCEE said:
I’m really trying to get more motivated and healthy also
Click to expand...

Why not try this? :) Daily, one set in the morning, as many as you can do without giving yourself the wobbly legs, and keep at it increasing just enough each day that you never get the wobbly legs.
 
David Mary said:
Up to 60/30 in the mornings, 40 squats is now drop of a hat easy again, which means it will be 100 total squat volume per day going forward with 60 in the morning and 40 in the evening, and 50 total pushup volume with 30 in the morning and 20 in the evening.

I think for most people, the morning workout alone would be enough to build and maintain good mobility, strength, and endurance, and the silly thing only takes three minutes.


Of course, as I increase volume, mine will go up to probably five to seven minutes, as I am looking for 100+ squats and 50+ pushups in the morning, in one nonstop set each. But I think that is still at least a month or two away.



Why not try this? :) Daily, one set in the morning, as many as you can do without giving yourself the wobbly legs, and keep at it increasing just enough each day that you never get the wobbly legs.
Click to expand...
Excellent stuff. Thank you ! Also, I just ordered your doubled edged Mini Insomniac. 👊🏼
 
adluginb said:
Is anyone still working out?
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I've been doing carries for distance lately- 15lb dumbbell in each hand for 1 mile, or a single 45lb dumbbell for the 0.3 mile circuit around my neighborhood. Trying to do a set of one of these daily after work. Also made it to Brazilian jiu-jitsu yesterday, I'm only getting to about one class a week right now. We have a 3 year old and a 5 month old so I'm happy with whatever I can get done.
 
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I lost pistol squats after tweaking my back around this time last year. Within the last couple months I decided to get back on them if I could, but before then whenever I tried, it was just too difficult to hold my non working leg out in front once I passed parallel. But a shortly after I started the Hindu Squats again, I found I was able to to cheat pistols while holding my leg out in front with my hand. And last night, I was able to do a couple without the assist, though it was difficult. Today I finally did a proper pistol on each leg. Will be working these again with more regularity, on top of the Hindu Squats. Slowly but steadily regaining previous levels of function.
 
Finally, after 7 weeks (was supposed to be 6, but came down with a bug last week), started lifting again. Funny how you can get so used to working out, that you get withdrawal cravings.

I guess I overdid it with the calorie cut. Was trying to make sure I didn't gain any fat since I wasn't burning all the calories working out, but I ended up losing a few pounds, and some of it was muscle.

I'll see how long it takes to get back to where I was just before the surgery.

Started easy, squatting 5 sets of 225x5, and leg extensions working up to 240x8, leg curls 105x12.
 
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