One of the biggest crazes in the last 20+ years when it comes to getting in shape has been bodyweight exercises by Matt Furey with Combat Conditioning, bringing to light for the public doing Hindu Squats, Hindu Push-ups & the Bridge as the main 3. Learning them from the legendary Karl Gotch and teaching others to develop a level of conditioning for sports mainly wrestling and MMA forms of fighting. Although the transition went in the direction of getting the average person in shape without needing to be a wrestler or someone in a high level of sports, what did those who wrestled, boxed or did combat sports do before Karl Gotch came along?
The Indian & Middle Eastern wrestlers were a force to be reckoned with when it came to the sport and in parts of those areas, wrestling was called the King Of Games. They believed so highly on the elements of physical conditioning that it became a basic entity if you wanted to wrestle or were brought to the Akhara to learn the craft. Karl learned these exercises from a wrestler of that part of the world in England and in turn, they became his foundation and taught it to other wrestlers from that point on. My question is, if these exercises were the ultimate for wrestling, what were the ultimate for everyone else before Gotch was even born?
The Hindu style wasn't always adopted by some of the greatest wrestlers in the world. I've never read anything about Tom Jenkins, Frank Gotch, George Hackenshmidt, Ed Lewis, Ad Santel or Billy Riley doing those particular exercises for wrestling, so what did they supplement their wrestling?
In Russia, you had wrestlers doing all sorts of exercises but one of their main implements was the Kettlebell, did they know the Hindu style at all during the early 1900's or even in the 50's when they were dominating the Olympics? For the most part, most countries did do some form of supplementation to wrestling yet a lot of what they did was drill, drill, drill and do just wrestling. Japan has Sumo Wrestling but weren't very known for Freestyle, Greco-Roman or Catch Wrestling until someone like Gotch or Lou Thesz came along and turned the tides from their biggest star from the land of the rising son Rikidozan.
Wrestlers never truly needed fancy equipment or do a ton of supplementation but who truly knows what they used in times before technology came along. The Greeks as far as I know, developed the early stages of calisthenics and when they created the Olympics, Wrestling was the biggest event. How did those athletes in that era train for the sport of wrestling? From certain records, it was just that, wrestling.
One of the biggest pioneers in both fitness and modern catch wrestling was Farmer Burns who created a system that included elements of Deep Breathing, Calisthenics, Isometrics and light weight training to condition the body but wrestling was the main form of exercise. If you ever read up on the Farmer, you know he was one of the toughest and greatest wrestlers of his era, losing only 7 matches in his entire career out of thousands of matches. I never saw anything resembling the Hindu Style from him.
Ed "Strangler" Lewis was considered by many to be the greatest wrestler in History. His conditioning was just unbelievable and not only could he cripple you, just wrestling in general would make any opponent tire out regardless of the shape he was in. Once wrestling for more than 5 hours in a professional match, it was a miracle he was still alive to go again within a good period of time. I never read up on him doing exercises like the push-ups and the squats. I'm not saying he didn't do them but there isn't a ton of evidence to what his supplementation was. Could be wrong. He did say however that wrestling was the best exercise and the best body builder (a term in his day for getting in physical condition).
In Senegal, wrestling is one of if not the biggest sport in that area of Africa and some of those guys are just monsters, beasts who don't just wrestle but have a form of knuckle boxing as well I believe. They're style of wrestling is similar to the Hindu Style of Kushti. The supplementation exercises I've seen from a documentary shows some calisthenics and weight training using modern equipment but when it comes down to it, if you can't wrestle, you're not in shape which is more or less a cultural thing from every country.
Some wrestlers don't do supplementation exercises and just wrestle, some coaches or old-timers would say that to test your condition, you wrestled and see where you're at. If they did any form of supplementation, it was merely to keep themselves healthy like stretching, light calisthenics or run. What Karl Gotch brought to the the table is what practically everyone did later to build up to last in the ring or on the mat. He believed conditioning using bodyweight exercises was the start and once you're in shape, you started to wrestle. In part, I believe that to be true but even Billy Robinson has said that it didn't matter if you did 5000 Squats, it's not going to make you a great wrestler. Some of the most conditioned fighters today still gas out after a round or two in the cage/ring or on the mat and there's questions as to why if they put in the time and training, why they still running out of gas in the middle or even in the beginning of a fight?
Wrestling overall is just plain tough, pure and simple. Some are successful supplementing, others just wrestle and dominate. The point is, condition your body to a degree where it comes down to wrestling and preventing injuries as much as possible like any other sport, however; for some, just wrestling isn't going to cut it, do exercises that will help you stay in shape for the entire duration of a match, it doesn't matter how big or strong you are, you can still get your ass kicked and at times it will come down to conditioning and you better be at the top of your game otherwise sooner or later, you'll get tired and your opponent will pick up on it and beat you to the ground.
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