Bruno Sammartino: Hindu Pushups & Hindu Squats Quick Tutorial + Simple Program [1963]

Bruno Sammartino is a professional wrestler who has traveled throughout the United States and Canada, thrilling capacity crowds at wrestling shows with his superhuman strength and tremendous physique.

Only in his middle 20’s, this young superman has already won the wrestling Championship of Canada and the world’s championship. His mighty physique and amazing strength and stamina played a large part in his rapid success in the wrestling world.

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Bruno […] has a trim and hard physique which very few men of such giant size can attain. He is very fast and quick on his feet and has such tremendous wind and endurance that he can wrestle against the toughest competition for a full hour without tiring.

Bruno is one of the strongest men that has ever lived He has done the push-up exercise with 600 pounds on his back. On the bench press lift with barbells he has been the world’s champion having lifted 565 lbs. in correct style to arms length. His bear hug is the most feared hold in professional wrestling as his mighty arms can actually snap an opponent’s spine if Bruno should continue to apply the pressure.

How did Bruno get to be such a superman of strength and muscular development ? Was he always strong and wellbuilt ? The answer is NO!

He was weak, skinny and underdeveloped at the age of 14. The skinny young boy of 14 took a keen interest in developing his body and after experimenting with different kinds of exercises , finally hit upon the course he is going to explain to you directly. Bruno is now wrestling all over the United States and Canada and you should be able to get an opportunity to see this 20th century muscular marvel wrestle when he gets your area

Following now is your training course by your instructor, Bruno Sammartino, the worlds mightiest developed man and one of the strongest men who ever lived.

Hindu Pushups or „Dunds”

I use this exercise as a regular part of my wrestling training. It affects the whole body and is tops for developing all over strength and endurance. It is similar to the well known “push-ups” except it is much tougher and uses all the muscles of the body vigorously.

Pay close attention as it is essential to perform it the correct way. Get down in the push-up position, but keep the hips high in the air as you bring your legs towards the front of the body so as to make a hump position like a camel. The legs are straight at the knee with the hips high in the air. The arms are extended straight down upon the floor with the hands about shoulder width apart. Now bend the arms at the elbow and go down as low as you can until the forehead almost touches the floor. Now bend the head upward, lower the abdomen close to the floor and using a scooping up motion of the body come up and back to the hump position. Do as many or as few as you can the first time and gradually work up to two sets of 100 repetitions.

Hindu Squats

This is another exercise I use in my wrestling training. Not only does it build up my wind and endurance, but it also packs strength and muscular development into the thighs and stretches and tones up the entire physique. Do the exercise with spirit and gusto. From the standing position swing the arms back as you sink down into the full deep knee bend on toes and immediately spring back up to the erect position on your heels. The arms swing forward as you come up onto your heels. You do the exercise continuously without pause repeat as many times as you can the first time and gradually work up to two sets of 100 repetitions.

– Bruno Sammartino, The Bruno Course of Bodybuilding, 1963.

Below is a summary of the full course by Brooks Kubik:

This was a course for beginners, so Bruno kept the volume pretty low. You did 3 x 6 on all of your exercises. As you got stronger, you could add a warmup set on heavier exercises such as squats and bench presses, so you’d do 4 x 6 on them.
You trained with weights 3x per week — and on two other days, you did a bodyweight workout.
You made progress by gradually adding weight to the bar. Bruno emphasized the importance of SMALL increases in weight. Over time, the small increases in weight would add up to BIG GAINS!

The weight work was as follows:

Parallel squat
Bench press
Barbell curl
Press behind neck
Upright rowing
Sit-ups

The bodyweight work looked like this:

Hindu squats 1 or 2 sets
Hindu pushups 1 or 2 sets
Behind the neck pull-ups 2 sets
Calf isometrics
Neck isometrics

On the bodyweight work, you did whatever reps you could do at the beginning and gradually added reps, working up to 100 reps in Hindu
squats and Hindu pushups, and 15 reps in pull-ups.

Also, Bruno urged trainees to include some running or jogging – perhaps a mile or two a couple of times a week. He said this was
particularly important if you were trying out for a high school sports team.

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