Hindu Butter Churns (experimental)

Take a sledgehammer and wrap an old sweater around it. This is your "shovelglove." Every week day morning, set a timer for 14 minutes. Use the shovelglove to perform shoveling, butter churning, and wood chopping motions until the timer goes off. Stop. Rest on weekends and holidays. Baffled? Intrigued? Charmed? Discuss here.
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reinhard
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Hindu Butter Churns (experimental)

Post by reinhard » Fri Jul 15, 2005 3:50 pm

Inspired by the recent posts on hindu squats, I've combined it with the butter churn to get this.

I think it's pretty self explanatory: you butter churn while you squat.

Arbitrary? Unhistorical? Maybe so, but it feels pretty natural actually...

Besides providing a little extra weight to the squat, the shovelglove helps give you balance. It's not extraneous.

And it's hard core. I can barely walk (in a good way)! This isn't just butter we're churning out, man, it's ghee.

Disclaimer: this isn't a regular move for me yet.

Another Disclaimer: I'm not sure how hindu my squats are. Mr. Fury doesn't provide enough "amazing detail" on his site for me know. I basically just squat down to my toes, stand up again, repeat. Not sure how one could do this wrong or much differently.

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Post by Ariel King » Fri Jul 15, 2005 4:53 pm

I find this intriguing since I've included squats in my SG routine from day 1. I've been trying to do curl-like movements with the heavy end of the SG while doing them though. Not sure how Hindu my squats are either, but I do them on my toes and with my knees apart (for balance), which looks kinda like the guy in the pic.

In your Hindu churns, do you raise the SG as you go down, and lower it as you come up? How high do you raise it?

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Post by gratefuldeb67 » Fri Jul 15, 2005 10:20 pm

Hey Ariel! What's up power squatter!!! :D
I'm not Reinhard and I'm sure he'll speak up on that question soon, but I'm chiming in anyway... Heh..

I personally wouldn't advise raising and lowering your arms at the same time... I'm guessing Reinhard "churns" his ghee by going up and down with the squat alone... I think if you mixed the arms and legs you'd have to be pretty darn careful that you don't get off balance and just drop everything or have it wind up swinging into your chest... Seems like the exercise where you have to pat your head and rub your tummy at once.. Too much potential for spazzing out... I'd just let the SG be hanging "dead weight" and watch out that it doesn't swing around at all.... (or poke you in the eye... see Reinhards "embarrassing" way he got hurt a while back doing his butter churns, I think there's a link in RED on the SG homepage near the bottom, by all the disclaimer stuff... Sorry Reinhard, don't mean to make you relive the trauma! :wink: )

Reinhard.. Not sure about Hindu style squats, but regular squats require that you have your knees at least at hip width apart...
I have been doing squats with a forty pound weight lifting bar on my shoulders... Make sure when you come down into the squat, that you stick your behind out a bit, like you are about to sit down on the can or something... (Aren't I charming? LOL...)

Glad you can't walk today... That means you are workin' it baby!!!
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Post by Herman the German » Fri Jul 15, 2005 11:45 pm

I have also included butter churn squats from the beginning of my taking up shovelglove. I raise my arms as bend down into the squat. I find that the sledge does make a good counter-balance and actually helps me keep my form together. The top grip hand only comes up to about my head. Not as high as in Reinhard's videos.

I've also done squats/hoisting the bale and found that it is very difficult to keep good form.

This leads me to believe that squat/butterchurn thing is pretty good.

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Post by JWL » Sat Jul 16, 2005 6:52 pm

I tried these last night. My first reaction is that I didn't like them. But then I'm still adequately challenged by the squats in themselves.

I think for now I'll stick to the squats separately from shovelglove, though I may revisit this later.

One problem is I found that I couldn't get all the way down when holding the sledgehammer.... getting a full range of motion seems important to me.
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Post by VanillaGorilla » Sun Jul 17, 2005 2:44 am

I have Matt Furey's Combat Conditioning book and it is full of useful and interesting bodyweight exercises, imo. Having said that, I will also add that there are plenty of good books out there on bodyweight exercises that probably cost a bit less.

Regarding the Hindu Squat: They are usually done with feet about shoulder width apart. As you come up out of the squat you are supposed to raise your arms up in front of you from a hanging position near your heels and stand up on your toes. As you descend back into the squat, you lower your hands back down to your sides and come down from your toes to the flats on your feet.

Hope this helps and does not convolute the issue more!
Fall down seven times, get up eight.

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Hindu squats

Post by Kevin » Wed Jul 20, 2005 12:20 pm

I think the important aspect of the Hindu squat - the thing that differentiates it from other squats - is that you lift up to your toes as you lower your body. I don't know that I'd like it with additional weight. I incorporate it into SG by pretending I'm picking up the spoils of my work.

I, too, have Furey's Combat Conditioning book. It's not bad. The two most important exercises in it are the Hindu squat and the Hindu pushup. The Hindu pushup feels remarkable - sort of Yoga like. It's very difficult to do right and brutal exercise in high rep sets.
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Post by reinhard » Thu Jul 21, 2005 1:52 pm

You know, I wasn't paying close enough attention to what I was doing last time. It turns out I was reversing the arm movements, as Herman the German advises. When I try to do arms and legs in the same direction, it 's awkward, as Freakwitch points out.

Still, even done reversed, it is a busy movement... it might be enough just to hold the SG as a counterbalance (for which I still think it's useful) and save the arm butter churns for a separate movement (as Deb advises).

Keeping the 'experimental' status on this for a bit longer.

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Post by gratefuldeb67 » Thu Jul 21, 2005 3:02 pm

This thread makes me want Indian food..... :P
Love,
Deb

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Deb, power squats versus Hindu squats

Post by Kevin » Thu Jul 21, 2005 5:58 pm

Deb, I read your description of the weighted squat that you do. I wanted to point out that a Hindu squat is quite a different motion - it's back straight, up on the toes, butt to the heels, full range of motion, and unweighted. It's almost more like aerobic Yoga than it is like power squatting. Balance is a key issue, as is full range of motion, and position.

I don't know. I've had people tell me that the Hindu squat is a bad thing, but it feels great, fixed my knee pain, costs nothing, and gives you wind (I mean endurance wind, not the other kind) like nothing else.
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Post by Prodigalsun » Mon Aug 15, 2005 10:14 pm

Ok, where do you find examples of how to do a Hindu Squat? I don't wanna buy Combat Conditioning.
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Post by gratefuldeb67 » Tue Aug 16, 2005 12:37 am

Hey Kevin!
I am happy Hindu Squats work such great miracles for you and your knees! I know that you are supposed to keep your back straight for Hindu or regular squats... I think as long as you do something, and it don't hurt, you are doing something right! :wink:
I am also happy Hindu Squats give you "wind" (sounds like a Red Bull commercial!)
and not *that* kind of wind! Ha ha ha!!!!
As far as the endurance part.. thanks for the info.. I will have to recommend this to all my future boyfriends! :lol:
Oh wait maybe you don't mean that kind of endurance either!!!
Ha ha ha!!!!!!!!!!

This thread still makes me want to have some chutney and naan!
Love,
8) Deb

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Post by JWL » Tue Aug 16, 2005 4:58 am

Hi prodigal,

The basic explanation that I started with is here.

The idea is, stand on your toes, and squat down until your butt touches your heels. As you go down, swing your arms behind you for balance. Then, while still on your toes, move upward while swinging your arms out in front of you.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Be warned, if you aren't used to these they will work your legs like never before. If they seem easy to you, I'd start with like 10 reps the first time, and see how you feel the next day.

The first time I did them I think I managed 15 and it took me several days to recover. But I eventually did, and reached a point where I could do 20 on consecutive days. Once I was there, I started to increment by one the number of squats I do per day. I'm up to 47 now. Tomorrow I'll do 48, etc.

And, I don't do them every day. I do them on N-days, along with shovelgloving. But, if my legs or sore or if I get a good walk in, I'll skip the squats for that day. But if I skip, when I return I stick to the +1 per day thing, so if I were to skip tomorrow, then on Wed I would go ahead and do 49. I do this mostly because I want to do 1 squat for the number of days I've been on my program (ie, today was day 47, so I did 47 squats). This my way to challenge myself... my mid-term goal is to work up to 100 squats.
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Post by Prodigalsun » Tue Aug 16, 2005 3:47 pm

Thanks, Freakster. Now I'm intrigued by Furey's "Royal Court" Of exercise. seems remarkably full body, and truly emphasizes the strengthening and flexibility of the back, something we in the west neglect.
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