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Kushti Wrestling Diet Plan And Training
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Morning to Afternoon Routine
The routine of the pehelwan is drenched in discipline. Before performing any exercises in the akhada the pehelwan usually woke up at 4am and ran a few laps of the compound. Getting ready was a simple matter of putting some oil and getting to the akhada for a workout.
This generation is so stimulated and has pre workout addiction that we forget how the pehelwans used to stimulate the body for exercise. Before working out, pehelwans used to dig up the entire ground, placing buttermilk, oil and red ochre into the pit and removing the stones that might hurt the pehelwans during their bouts. However the pit must be strong enough to not hinder the movements of the pehelwan while he is performing a technique.
Next comes the actual bout itself called the ‘jor’ which literally means strength. Depending on religion, and location, the ustaad or khalifa or master would supervise the wrestling bouts where two opponents grappled each other. In kushti the objective is to pin down the shoulders to the ground although knockout can be achieved by other means as well although this ‘jor’ wouldn’t be a sparring bout and both wrestlers would need to work together so that all exercises in akhada could be carried out smoothly. The senior most candidates would go first and the youngest would be last after which the junior candidates would perform ‘maalish’ or ‘message’. This message was another unique facet to the pehelwan mentality. The younger, more novice athletes messaged their senior counterparts as a sign of respect and humility. This act of respect also transcended all boundaries in the regards to religion and caste as the act of kushti can connect people like nothing else.
Diet of a Pehelwan
This is where it gets really interesting. No akhada workout is complete without the diet and regimen fit to feed a king. The holy trinity in the pehelwaans diet would consist of ghee, milk and almonds and they would have this in copious amounts. It is well known that the famous Gamma Pehelwan would have at least 4 liters of milk and have a mixture of ghee and almond paste for good digestion. For the pehelwans who had meat, having a meat soup, ‘yakani’, made with one chicken was not uncommon along with two loaves of bread.
Believe it or not this was only one meal. The same would also be had for dinner. Now we know you’re surprised as we are that how can one man consume so much food? Well given the amounts of exercise that one individual in the akhada did, I’d hardly be surprised if they didn’t have the metabolism of a tiger!
Exercises for a Pehelwan
After resting the Pehelwan would return to the akhada to perform exercise that would primarily be compound movements. Even then the pehelwan knew the importance of multi joint movements as all their training or were centered around the ‘dand’ (the jackknife push ups) and the ‘baithak’ (the squat). The ratio of these would be twice the amount of baithaks to the amount of dands. A healthy pehelwan would thus perform a minimum of 1000 ‘dands’ and thus 2000 ‘baithaks’.
Other akhada exercises include strengthening the vital points in the body like shoulders with swinging the ‘moongli’ or the ‘jori’, which were wooden clubs and/or the infamous ‘gada’ or mace which was the most popular pehelwani exercises
