Bodyweight Exercise - hindu squat

The best bodyweight exercise for training legs

Earlier I spoke about the hindu pushup as one of the best body weight exercises for the upper body. Today we are going to focus on the hindu squat. The hindu squat works the entire lower body, strengthens your joints and your balance as well. It doesn't take a lot of room and you can quickly get a good workout.

How to work your lower body with the Hindu Squat

If you can't do a normal squat, this is most likely because of constricted range of motion in your ankles, hamstrings or hips. The hindu squat lets you get the benefits of the squat, but won't put you in (as much) discomfort as a normal squat. Because you do hindu squats and are on your toes during the bottom half of the movement, you don't need that large of a range of motion in your lower body. This is how the exercise is performed:

How to perform the hindu squat

• Start with your feet shoulderwidth apart
• Inhale as you drop down to a squat.
• As you start to drop down, start to raise up on your toes and reach the top of your toes, when you hit the bottom of the movement.
• Your arms start to move forward in a circle and should be straight ahead of you at the bottom of the movement.
• At the bottom of the movement start to exhale, lower down off of your toes, pull your arms toward you and start to straighten your legs.
• You should have fully exhaled at the top of the movement, feet should be flat on the ground, and arms should be down straight alongside your body.

Sets and reps for training at home with the hindu squat

I prefer using the hindu squat in a pyramid. You start at 1 rep, pause for 1 rep's time, then 2 reps and 2 rep's pause, then do 3 reps and take the equivalent pause and so on. So if 2 reps take 2 seconds, then I take a 2 second break. At some point I reverse the pyramid and go down to reach 1 rep and then I am finished. So a starting rep scheme could look like: 1 rep, 2 reps, 3 reps, 4 reps, 5 reps, 4 reps, 3 reps, 2 reps, 1 rep. All with corresponding breaks. Once you start getting better and better go up to 10 or 15 or 20 reps. Just be mindful of your knees. If you start out with too many reps, you will get sore knees. So slowly build your reps and keep at it. Patience is the key!