Indian Wrestling: Two Powerful Souls Consisting Of The Akhara Vs The Olympic Stage

 Good morning everyone. Hope you all had a kick ass weekend. I was thinking last night what I wanted to get into for an article so I did some research into Kushti Wrestling or Pehlwan in contrast to Olympic Freestyle competition and training methodologies (among other things) so this is what popped up and holy shit this is fascinating stuff. Let's see where it leads and diving into a world that encompasses two styles in a region of the world where the two collide yet show patterns of fierce competition.

Two distinctive beasts that share the same DNA for devouring opponents from different sides of the same coin. On one hand, you've got the ancient entity of the Akhara: Red Earth that seems to look like something out of Mars, oil lamps that light up the competition and the Monkey God Hanuman looking down at worshippers as they prepare for practice and developing skills. The other side of this crazy spectrum, the Olympic rooms of the best of the best in Freestyle/Greco-Roman Wrestling: The lighting changes, timed intervals, diets that involve protein scoops instead of Ghee (Clarified Butter) and a mat that squeaks when going in for a single or double leg takedown. Both create monsters of epic proportions yet the way they're built is where the real interesting things come into play.

The Representation That Showcases The Nature Of Either Athlete

Pehlwans: Temples That Share Sacred Ground

When it comes down to it, the Akhara isn't a typical ground of training or a facility. It is an ancient tradition rooted in the life and devotion to the art of Kushti that dates back to the Mahabharata (maybe even further). You're not "going to practice", it is a lifestyle that involves words like discipline, diet and dharma in the same breath or treated as one formality. The sacred ground is the mud pit. It's not about medals, fortune and glory or even aesthetics, it's about the development of functional strength & conditioning that lasts for decades of Grappling. It's about becoming unbreakable.

Olympic Powerhouses: Out Of The Temple And Inside The Scientific & Time Tested Methods That Builds Championship Caliber Squads

The Olympic Style in this case is the bridge that goes from the mud to international glory. The two arts of Freestyle & Greco-Roman on cleaner mats, 6 minutes of pure explosiveness & strategy, near daily weigh ins and the goal to reach the podium. This takes on more of the lines of specialization that brings in scientific entities and prioritizing the maximum points of developing an athlete. 

The Akhara builds lifelong warriors but the Olympic rooms builds dates for a specialist. 

The Diet: Ghee & Almond/Breads Vs. Specific Foods & Hydration

Food is strength in the world of Indian Wrestling. Many wrestlers devour around 5000-7000 calories a day (if not more for larger athletes). Lots of Almonds, Milk, Butter, Bananas and Curd. Meats do come around but some skip it. 

Pros: More natural and Nutrient Dense food with almost no supplementation risks. Food that is heavily used to aid in recovery, build strength for tendons and bone density along with being able to utilize real world power in the muscular system. 

Cons: Several athletes have a higher percentage of bodyfat and there's very little weight cutting. Because of the constant training through thousands of push-ups, squats, club swinging, rope climbing and wrestling, these heavy foods tend to stick around longer in the system and more induced to bulking in order to stay within the grind. Almost no hydration protocols in order to make weight cutting effective.

Olympic Dieting: Balanced & Specified

Micronutrients such as Complex Carbs for energy, lean protein (Fish, Chicken, Eggs) that repairs tissue, fats that balance out hormones and making hydration one of the top priorities. It's almost a religion to drink water before, during and after. Pre-Competition meal prepping are timed out around a couple hours or more beforehand that eases the digestive process. It builds the science behind weight cutting because making weight is a lot more crucial (unless you're a heavyweight or bigger). More supplementation  are key factors as well like Whey Protein, Creatine and Vitamin D. 

Pros: More Precision and Strategy to hit specific weight goals, recover well and be able to go on command. Also creates greater output due to the higher Muscle Glycogen. 

Cons: Weight Cutting can be brutal and even one pound more or less can shatter dreams of making it through competition. Supplements do have a risk of being contaminated if used on the cheap and food must be cooked to specific needs for the bodies of athletes cause not all of them are able to eat the same types of foods due to allergies and/or digestive issues. 

The Training & Crazy Conditioning: Variables Vs The Heavy Volume

For the wrestlers in the art of Kusht, they train very early in the morning and would go for many hours doing extremely high rep exercise. Gama was said to do thousands upon thousands of Squats & Push-ups per day. Heavy gada swinging, running, rope climbing, bridging and spending time in the uneven pits. Traditionally, there are no time limits so you either devour an opponent or you get gassed out. Metabolic Conditioning that makes athletes go for hours. 

Pros: Base is about as unmatched as you can get. High repetition that recruits the nervous system to wrestle for extended periods of time even in compeition.

Cons: Greater risk of overtraining, periodization is virtually non-existent and doesn't have an easy transfer from Mud to Mat (although some athletes even at a young age have trained on mats that some gurus or coaches used). Heavy joint damage from endless reps is at a high level as well. 

Olympic Methodology:

Freestyle & Greco Roman Mat Based Wrestling requires greater demand on higher efforts of intensity. Strategically broken into energy systems such as: Simulated 6 Minute Matches, Explosive Shooting/Takedowns, Pummeling and Scrambling. The Strength Work is heavily more in tuned to Conventional Weight Training, Bodyweight Training in specific formats and Plyometrics to create explosive power. Conditioning is utilized in drills and technique building that's pretty fucking fast. Not to mention more sports specific and tactical. 

Pros: Greater Specificity. Training so you can go within the rule sets competed under. Manageable recovery and planned out peaks of gas tanks.  

Cons: Although Bridging is essential, it may not be as devoted and along with Olympic Athletes showing greater Aesthetically pleasing physiques that are strong and conditioned but function is a bit less on that end of the spectrum. 

So who's really better here? The real truth.....The best wrestlers in this part of the world have done both and utilized what they learned in the mud pits to transitioning into a world of specific methods that have brought them to places beyond their wildest dreams. Some made it to be the very best in the world, others hit their stopping points where medals were just in their grasp but couldn't reach the mark. They're still devoted warriors to the sport and should be respected either way. At the end of the day whether in the mud or on the mat, a wrestler makes the ground sacred and gives hope to those who have aspirations to become their country's best. There's history in those pits but there are also memories of blood, sweat and tears on the international stage that resides in the spirit of a wrestler. 

I hope you enjoyed and learned a thing or two. I sure as hell did and wrestling in that part of the world is an incredible subject. Be amazingly awesome, get your training in and kick ass today to kick off the week. Shoot me a comment or use the Linktree to send me an email. Looking forward to hearing from you.

The DopamineO Band Broadway Workout

 No this isn't a musical of songs and dances. There is a stage though, it's called the gym or wherever you can hook up the Dopa Band to. This is an inspiration from pro wrestling of a long and forgotten tradition. The Broadway, where a champion was in the main event and matches lasted as long as 60-90 minutes to a draw. These matches go as far back as the 40's up until the early 2000's that evolved into the Ironman Match where a competitor had to get as many "points" as possible within the time limit. Before the days of television when real matches were more common, matches at times lasted for hours. One of the most famous is Ed Lewis & Joe Stecher who went at each other for more than 5 hours. 

 Unlike a match, this was a workout that consisted of a circuit of 5 exercises for 10 reps each (my kind of circuit) and I would do as many rounds as possible within an hour. Here are the exercises:

10 Chest Flys

10 Wave Pulls

10 Uppercut To Squats

10 Alternating Skis

10 Propellers

The first few rounds weren't too difficult but once I started reaching 12-15, things got interesting. I may have gone one round where I did more than 10 reps of the propeller exercise but I kept on going. It got to a point where the knots came undone from the sweat which happens. I did a round or two without having the knots that were used to make handles but gripping it hard enough to remain efficient was tough and my hands kept sliding where the band nearly slipped out of my hands. After those rounds, I moved fast to wipe down the sweat and create new knots in them and tightened them as much as possible so the chances of them slipping out again was very slim. It worked so I was hammering away again. That was probably my longest "rest" since after each round I would mark off the circuit. 

The last few rounds were hard believe me but I still felt like I was in a groove and focused to the point where everything other than the exercises and the marking off went black. It felt like being in a different realm, I swear I thought I was somewhere else and the only thing I noticed was the band and the moves. I barely even remember what songs played on my spotify, that's how far out I was in that workout. The last three rounds, basically felt like a sprint, just going sonic the hedgehog on that fucker and keeping form as best as possible. The last round, I put practically my entire heart and soul into it before the timer went off and finish strong.

At the end, sweat pouring out of me, my durag on the floor cause during one of the rounds towards the end it got knocked off my head but I just didn't stop to care it happened, high as kite, breathing like I went into a battle and seeing how many rounds I got in was just icing on the cake. I managed 29 Rounds in 1 HOUR!!! that's an average of just over 2 minutes per round. I wanted to drop and die right there but I had to get back home somehow and nobody was in there so I don't think they'd want to see some dude lying on the floor in a puddle of his own sweat. I unhooked everything, put them in my little bag, grabbed my keys and walked out of there back to the apartment. 

Saying the shower felt like being in a rainfall in the amazon would be an understatement. Just feeling good all over, no soreness and the surge of positive energy was at peak levels. Can you say dopamine high? No drugs or alcohol, just good old fashioned post workout bliss. 

A workout like this doesn't happen all the time, quite frankly most of the time it rarely goes past 35 minutes and I wanted to challenge myself to see how many rounds I can get in 60 minutes. Safe to say I thought I'd get in at least 25 but I went more than that and I'm happy I did it. This band is a phenomenal tool you can add to your arsenal, it doesn't need to be relied on but it has usefulness that even Olympic Caliber Wrestlers would agree with. These men and women use bands like these to reach peak levels of conditioning that are unbelievable. In the recent Olympics, one woman won gold in Freestyle Wrestling at the age of 21 for the United States in the 68 kg weight class (Amit Elor) and credits Dopamineo as part of her training. Several men have medaled as well in the last three Olympics from various countries. It builds champions and world-class athletes. 

Be amazingly awesome and kill it in your own training with this band. Use my Discount Code POWERANDMIGHT to get 10% OFF your order.