Hanuman Power: A Modern Guide to the Ancient Strength Traditions of India

311 Pages·2016·15.07 MB·English

by  Marcus Quijas

Disclaimer
The exercises and advice contained within this manual may be too
difficult or dangerous for some people, and the reader(s) should
consult a physician before engaging in them. The author and
publisher of this book are not responsible in any manner
whatsoever for any injury which may occur through reading and
following the instructions herein.
Hanuman Power-A guide to the ancient strength traditions of
India
A Marcus Quijas book April 2016. All rights reserved. Copyright
2016 The Quiet Power.co.uk.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher
Copyright 2016 The Quiet Power.co.uk.
INTRODUCTION........6
CHAPTER 1: INDIAN PHYSICAL CUTURE........10 KUSHTI AND INDIAN
PHYSICAL CULTURE....11 ANCIENT CIVILISATIONS AND PHYSICAL
TRAINING...12 HANUMAN...13
WHAT IS A PAHLAVAN??...16
GAMA...17
CHAPTER 2-WHY, WHEN WHERE AND HOW TO PREPARE..20 WHY
TRAIN LIKE AN INDIAN?...21
TRAINING CLOTHING...26
CLIMATIC CONSIDERATIONS...28
WHAT TIME TO TRAIN....29
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE ENVIRONMENTS....30
THE WARM UP AND COOL DOWN....31
SAMPLE JOINT OPNENING ROUTINE...38
STRETCHING ROUTINE43
MEDITATION AND PRANAYAMA...46
OPENING MEDITATION AND PRANAYAMA..47
CLOSING MEDITATION AND PRANAYAMA ..48
CHAPTER 3:KUSHTI EXERCISES...51
STANCES...52
GADA SWING...55
1 ARM GADA....62
GADA HAND TO HAND SWING...67
JORI....68
WEIGHTED JORI...71
DUMBBELL EXERCISES...75
DAND....80
BETHAK...82
GAR NAL...83
NAL...86
INDIAN GET UP...89
ROPE CLIMBING..91
KUSHTI DIPS...92
DIGGING AND LEVVELING THE PIT...93
BAN...95
SUMTOLA...98
STONE LIFTING...100
SHISASANA...101
SURYA NAMASARA...103
INTEGRATING OTHER EXERCISES....106
MASSAGE...111
THE WRESTLERS BREATH...114
HOW TO IMPLEMENT SWINGING EXERCISES INTO YOUR
TRAINING...120 CHAPTER 4:GOAL SETTING AND PROGRAMME
DESIGN..125 GOAL SETTING...126
TRAINING METHODS AND SAMPLE PROGRAMMES..137
CHAPTER 5 :SCIENCE,SEX AND FOOD...157 SCIENCEE BEHIND THE
SWING ...158 BRAHMACHAYRA...163
KHURAK-THE WRESTLERS DIET...171 RECIPIES...188
APPENDIX-EQUIPMENT...186 CLOSING THOUGHTS...199
REFERENCES/GLOSSARY..204
FOREWORD
Marcus Quijas’ Hanuman Power, takes you on a journey of his personal
discovery into the world of the ancient strength traditions of India.
His early inspirations for this book come from a mixture of sources like
Vincent Giordano’s DVD series called The Physical Body and YouTube videos
Vincent Giordano’s DVD series called The Physical Body and YouTube videos
made by wellknown mace users.
Because he was deployed overseas, first of all in the army and afterwards in
private security, Marcus found himself having to improvise equipment from
items he had scavenged, scrounged, found and then build by himself.
First came the mace. Marcus started training with his own homemade mace
following his observations from the videos that he’d been watching. The next
step was to make a pair of Jori clubs and learning how to use them. Following
his homemade mindset, Marcus created his first pair of Jori Clubs from a couple
of traffic cones, steel pipe and a lot of concrete. Marcus recalled his experiences
with these clubs during his visit to Perth where we first met. All I can say is that
these clubs sounded like absolute monsters according to Marcus’ description.
Varanasi in the northern India suddenly arrives on the horizon for Marcus
Quijas, apart from being one of the holiest and most ancient Indian cities,
Varanasi is also the home of the Wrestlers Akhara (gym).
Varanasi is also the home of the Gada (Mace) and the Jori Clubs that Marcus
had discovered on videos recorded by Vincent Giordano and myself.
So Marcus decided to visit Varanasi where his passion and commitment to
researching and writing about not only the use of the Gada and Jori Clubs, but
the whole underlying culture of the Akhara.
‘Hanuman Power’ A Modern Guide to the Ancient Strength Traditions of India
will introduce you to Kushti and Indian Physical Culture as seen through the
eyes of a committed practitioner who has actively trained on-site, experiencing
the bare foot connection with the earthen floors and simple equipment that the
Pahlavans use in their daily training.
When I say the equipment is simple, I have to make it very clear that
development of technique is crucial and instrumental in it’s successful use, and
Marcus provides in-depth insights and explanations in all aspects.
To my mind I think that Marcus Quijas’ commitment and personal proficiency in
these ancient arts of India, gives him the authority to record and present the
spirituality, history, mindset, diet and training methods of the Pahlavan in his
book ‘Hanuman Power’ A Modern Guide to the Ancient Strength Traditions of
India’.
India’.
In saying this I feel confident that all who take an interest in their physical
welfare, will find valuable information in the following pages.
Paul Taras Wolkowinski
Owner of www.indianclubs.com.au and Indian Clubs Academy.

HANUMAN POWER
This statue became a familiar sight for me in my time in Varanasi and was my
first encounter with HANUMAN. In this holy city, staues and portraits of
Hanuman abound, depicting him ass holding his Gada and mountain or in
devotion to Lord Rama.
To the wrestlers he is the ideal to live up to.
INTRODUCTION
This book is first and foremost a dedication to all the Wrestlers and Pahlavani
from India. Without them this book would not exist. My intention was to bring
to light and modernise the sparse and dated works on Indian Physical culture. By
making it more accessible I hope to ensure that this form of sport, exercise and
lifestyle gets the audience it deserves. I have researched and collected as much
information as I can up until this point but there are still many unanswered
questions for me. The guys I met in India had been so open and receptive I hope
I can honour them appropriately with this book and not undersell their
achievements in anyway.
Let me state there is nothing “new” or “innovative” in this book. As the old
saying goes nothing is new under the sun. The exercises In this volume are the
living example of this, many going back at least a thousand years or more.
However I feel that practical information with regards to how to use these
exercises and information is the missing ingredient. Many people are given
examples of these exercises, but not how to implement them into their own
training. This is the task this book has set out to at least partly addressed. I
personally have found being given examples to follow and then making up my
personally have found being given examples to follow and then making up my
own mind has helped in my own training evolution.
This is my take on the exercises from my own perspective. This perspective may
be right or wrong, either way I hope it raises some questions in your mind as to
how I came to these conclusions.
This book came about as I went through continuous trial and error trying to
figure out how to use these exercises. Hopefully you can find something of use
that strikes a chord and you agree with. If not, too late no re-funds haha!
I decided to write this book as I felt there was very little information on the
exercises used by the Kushti wrestlers of India that could be used by every day
trainers. Most of the information consisted of do the exercises for this number of
reps with no real depth of thought behind the reasoning. There were no books
written on how to perform the techniques. Much of what I learned was from
analysing what videos there were of the movements and thinking why are they
moving that way? Then I would apply these techniques to my own training. Put
simply I copied what I saw. This worked well initially but I still felt I had gaps in
my knowledge. This lead to me going to India, to the source so to speak to find
the hidden knowledge...
Of course there was no such thing. Aside from a few technique corrections and
pointers, I wasn't too far off the mark. What I learnt was that technique was the
key and so was hard work much like in any effective training programme.
Revolutionary stuff.
Many of the exercises in this book date back over 1000 years and may well even
be older. When I first saw them performed in Vincent Giordanos excellent video
series, The Physical Body. A quick search of the internet found very little
information. Carl Gotch the famous wrestler had shown Jake Shannon the mace
and from there people like Rik Brown and Kevin Wikse had begun to swing
maces and put them in the public eye. Bruce Lee famously used the Hindu squat
and Push up and mentioned them in his book the Dao of Jeet Kune Do.
Still there was not much to go off of. Eventually Paul Taras Wolkowinski went
to India as part of his study of club swinging in all its forms. I decided that it was
time for me to go and see for myself
I took up the mantle of my own quest for knowledge of the Physical Arts in
India.
After arriving in India I was struck by a feeling of being in my own Indiana