A few days ago a reader asked how to do a Hindu Pushup. I decided to write a post on it as the Hindu Pushup is one of the best exercises for building full body strength and power. It is perfect for athletes, bodybuilders and martial artists.

Where did the Hindu Pushup originate?

The Hindu Pushup, as the name might indicate, came from India. It is a variation on the Yoga Asana called “Salute to the Sun”. This is my absolute favorite yoga movement which is intended for the early mornings when you wake up. It gets the blood flowing and strentches the spine, hamstrings, abs and chest.

The Hindu Pushup is done a little faster and the motivation is strength training. The idea is to vary the regular pushup so that you can target more muscles and make the exercise a little harder.

What muscles does the Hindu Pushup work?

The next thing we need to look at is what muscles the Hindu Pushup targets.

As you are well aware, the main muscles any pushup targets are the pectorals and the triceps. The Hindu Pushup is no different. However, it also targets so additional muscles such as the glutes, deltoids, rhomboids, forearms, abs and calfs. It is basically a full body exercise that works in a very large range of motion. This makes it a perfect exercise for martial artists, athletes and sportspeople.

How do you do a Hindu Pushup?

It is quite important to do the Hindu Pushup with perfect technique. It can be quite bad for the spine and neck if it is done incorrectly. For this reason I advise you to go to a qualified yoga instructor and ask them to teach you according to the traditional methods.

This is the best video on Youtube to learn how to do the Hindu Pushup. He has excellent technique and goes through the motion slowly.

Here are some essential pointers:

• In the starting pose your head should be in line with your shoulders and your shoulders should be turned out. Your butt should be high in the air as if a crane was lifting it up. Your heels should be shoulder width apart and feet flat on the ground with straight legs. This is hard.
• Breathe into your stomach
• In the moving stage you should run your chin along the ground and breathe out
• At the final position stretch your abs and neck up. Keep your shoulders down away from your head. Tense your glutes to protect your lower back

Here is the video. Take this exercise very slow and learn how to do it before going too hard.

For the last few weeks I have seen massive growth in my triceps muscles. I have been hitting the gym at peak time and as such I decided to change my routine so that I don’t have to sit around and wait for equipment. Lucky for me these forced routine changes resulted in some fast growth.

An overload of sets for a bigger triceps workout

Basically, my gym gets so busy at peak time and you seem to spend half your session sitting on the chair waiting for someone to get off the machine that you want to use. I grew frustrated of this so decided that I was just going to get on one machine and pump out my whole session using only one exercise.

How it went down
I ended up using the cables and it was my triceps day so I decided I was going to do 12 sets of overhead cable extensions. I love this exercise because the cables are always pulling back on your triceps meaning you get zero rest time in between each repetition. I started out heavy and did three sets of six repetitions. I then dropped the weight and made each extension a little faster whilst still keeping the decline part of the exercise slow and controlled. Finally I stripped off some more weight and did a few sets of 12-15 repetitions or until complete failure.

After the workout
As soon as I finished this workout I knew I was going to be sore. My arms were so tired I could hardly take my shirt off to have a shower! I stretched out for about 10 minutes and really felt an amazing burn.

The next day my triceps were as sore as if I had been having a pushup contest with Rocky himself. I cannot remember the last time my arms were this sore. The soreness took a good week to fully go away.

The results
The most important thing, however, is that after a few more sessions done in a similar style my arms have been growing better than they have in a few years. Not only are my arms bigger, they are stronger and my bench and dip weights have all increased.

Why an overload of sets might work

I am not 100% sure why this works so well but I have known a few people in my life who train in this “single exercise” style. They have a range of reasons that support why they do it.

My theory is that you exhaust the muscle properly because you are focussed on one motion and one movement. This means you get the technique perfect and each repetition is really hitting the muscle as hard as you possibly can.

However, the other reason is probably because my muscles were not used to this kind of stress. The fact that this style of training is only done occasionally makes it all the more powerful. It is for this reason that you should only do these overload of sets workouts once in a while. This is in line with one of RMO’s most basic principles - mix it up. Keep your body guessing all the time so it is forced to grow and respond to the changes.

Conclusion on the overloading style triceps workout

I think this workout would be great with any muscle. Perhaps do it once a month for a chosen muscle. For example, you might spend a whole session doing chin ups or a whole session doing just bicep curls. The added intensity works if you only do it once in a while.

Anyone had any other similar experiences?

With a few little tweaks you can take your triceps workout from ordinary to extraordinary. This article will look at five things you can do to make your triceps grow a heck of a lot faster.

5 quick tips for bigger triceps

The triceps are an easy muscle to train. The exercises are not hard to learn and it is pretty easy to get a good burn in the muscle time after time. However, there are some simple things you can do to make those same exercises much more effective.

1. Stretch them well
One of the best things you can do to make sure your triceps get hit well is to stretch them before, during and after your workout. Stretching your triceps makes it easier to tense them. You learn what it feels like to get a proper contraction/stretch and you will warm up the muscles much more thoroughly.

2. Use cables
Getting on the cables is a great way to boost your triceps workout. The reason for this is simply that the cables keep a constant tension on the muscles. This works particularly well for the triceps in exercises like the cable pushdown.

3. Tense hard
When you get to the point in the exercise where you straighten out your arm you should really do a strong mental contraction of the tricep muscle. This is one of the main areas overlooked by a lot of beginner who think that simply doing the movement will bring growth. Tense the muscles and train them to work.

4. Use a lighter weight
A lighter weight? Are you crazy? I can hear you now. However, the reason a lighter weight is good for the triceps is that a lot of the exercises require quite a precise movement. For example, the tricep kickback needs to be done in just the right way or you end up doing some sort of a half triceps, half shoulder exercise. I see people at the gym doing it all the time. However, if you take a light weight and really focus on the muscle contraction and getting your technique perfect then there is no way you can go wrong.

5. Slow right down
Make sure each movement is done slowly. Each rep should be concentrated and mindful. Do not rush to get through them. Weak people rush through exercises; banging them out like they are a tough guy. The really strong people can handle a heavy weight with perfect technique - each repetition slow and steady.

This is how you grow big triceps.