A minimalistic, simple, and time tested “youth-restoring calisthenics” routine of ancient Indian and Chinese martial arts masters.
Limited time offer!
Nick Kato on May 03, 2021
Daniel Mroz, Ph.D. on Nov 21, 2019
Mmatteo on June 14, 2022
In 1890, over 400 bodybuilders gathered at the national physical exercise competition of the Rajah of Jodhpur. All at once, they started performing free squats known as Baithaks. Sometimes called the Hindu Squat, it’s a variant of the regular squat exercise, where you swing your arms to the rhythm of your motion. A standard regimen involves doing one hundred or more of these.
At the Raja’s contests, grown men performed thousands of these squats for hours on end. One by one, they dropped out due to fatigue. By the time there were just 15 athletes remaining, the Raja called off the contest. It was clear that one of them had earned both the crowd’s attention and the prize of the contest – ten-year-old Mian Ghulam Muhammad.
Ghulam would later be bedridden for weeks. But his legendary training regimen is just one of the reasons the Punjabi lion went undefeated in wrestling for 50 years, under the name ‘The Great Gama’.
– “The Great Gama: The Legendary Wrestler Who Inspired Bruce Lee”, in: Madras Courier, November 15, 2017.
The Great Gama protocol is named in honor of one of the most famous warriors in history, Ghulam Mohammad Baksh Butt (22 May 1878 – 23 May 1960), Pakistani wrestler, undefeated champion of the world in a career spanning more than 52 years.
That victory didn’t necessarily show any wrestling ability, but it did demonstrate unusual qualities of physical robustness, will power and competitiveness in the young Gama.
At that time he was routinely doing five hundred Baithaks and five hundred Dands (stretching pushups) daily, and working on pit digging – turning over the earth of the wrestling area with a pharsa (hoe).
– Graham Noble, “‘The Lion of the Punjab’ – Gama in England, 1910”, in: Journal of Alternative Perspectives, May 2002.
You can practice anytime, anywhere. All you need is a few square feet – Chinese masters call it “lying buffalo’s spot” (wo niu zhi di 臥牛之地) – i.e., a space big enough for a buffalo to lie on is big enough to practice.
Although GGP is not a pure strength program. It is an excellent “general physical preparation” program, building a great movement and strength foundation for any subsequent training.
Using some of the most popular and time-tested exercises from the arsenal of the Chinese and Indian warriors. Rehab routine? Possibly, but leave that to your physio.
Prehab and body maintenance routine beneficial to your muscles, joints, sinews, ligaments, and other connective tissue? You bet.
Although GGP is not a conditioning program either. As Strong Endurance™ taught us, the typical HIIT acid baths do work – but for a price. We will use altogether different programming than AMRAP (if you don’t know what it means, good for you). Forget the DEADCONs… I mean METCONs.
As for the conditioning, you will get extra benefits by utilizing nose breathing only, breath holds after exhaling both during and after the exercise, and “fast and loose” drills between the sets.
Limited time offer!
Many sources claim that The Great Gama and many other wrestlers did thousands of Hindu pushups and squats a day. True or not, it doesn’t matter – these exercises deliver multiple benefits, as you will find out on your own: mobility, flexibility, strength, endurance, health.
Pavel writes in Super-Joints:
There are a million exercise complexes out there,” muses Academician Amosov. “Look up the literature on physical culture and you will find very complicated routines that have 40–50 exercises. These for the first week, others for the second, etc. ad nauseam. They argue that every muscle needs its own movement.
Let us not pick on them, an expert’s job is inventing and complicating… Non-athletes training for health do not need complicated routines. Why cram their brains? Let the person bend and squat…
This is exactly what you are going to learn – a straightforward routine with some forward and backward bends, pushups, and squats, plus a few additional exercises: time-tested “youth-restoring calisthenics” routine that you can keep doing for months, possibly years, possibly a lifetime.
Limited time offer!
Pavel Macek’s Great Gama Protocol is a great piece of work. It is beautifully shot and clearly presented. The workbook that accompanies the videos is packed with information that supports his video instruction. Pavel clearly presents exercises from older Chinese and Indian systems of physical culture, even including the Chinese characters and their English translations.
His descriptive instruction is informal and friendly, but also very precise. I improved my Namaskar or Sun Salutation within minutes of watching, with only a small modification of hand positioning. The ‘Protocol’ part of this project is the real jewel here: at the level of the individual exercises, Pavel presents four levels of difficulty or challenge for each one.
At the level of programming, he offers ways of using the same materials for multiple functions: one can imagine using this material as a warm-up, for active recovery, for the main phase of training, or for working on attributes like flexibility and mobility. I teach movement professionally and I’m delighted to share how much I learned from this thorough, accessible presentation. – Daniel Mroz, Ph.D.
I just purchased the GGP at the weekend and included turned it into my morning routine. It makes me feel comfortable trough out the whole workday at the office. I was first skeptical if I should buy it, as the movements are not really new to me and I was already practicing Dands, Baithaks and Crab Reach from Animal Flow.
But It was totally worth it and I’m happy I did! Your approach for programming the exercises is excellent as well as your instructions! I love the protocols simplicity, nothing fancy or complicated, but everything you need to keep and increase the body’s functionality for daily life and sports. Thanks a lot for this! – Nick Kato
Purchased yesterday and watched in one run. Even if I knew majority of exercises from different Pavel Macek’s videos, articles or our lectures, the real devil is in the details…and established system….and the system details. I like the way the traditional Chinese and Indian practices are combined into unique comprehensive system.
I would also like to highlight quite cool Sin City look of the videos. – Petr Šimsa
Great aesthetics with black and white filming. Not often we see that today. – Anders
I love it! Toe Touches, Hindu Squats, Hindu Push-Ups are my all time favorites, and your stuff is spot on progressions and programming! I love how you have given these unjustly maligned exercises the Pavel Tsatsouline, Strongfirst, and SIMPLEXTRONG treatment! – Richard Barret
It is exactly what I’ve been wanting as a supplement to my Simple quest. – cmerow
It gives you an healthy and strong routine for lifetime and, in addition, it matches very well with strength training (I am doing S&S with 32 and 40 kgs) It is a good investment and Pavel Macek is a great instructor. Very good! – Mmatteo
Limited time offer!
StrongFirst Certified Master Instructor & StrongFirst Elite, Practical Hung Kyun & MMA Gym Prague chief instructor, old-time strongman training fan, Flexible Steel Specialist, Oxygen Advantage Instructor, cat lover, Pu-Erh tea drinker, and generally nice guy.
Limited time offer!
by Pavel Macek