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The King Squat & Historical Antecedents by Mark Hatmaker

 



Pehlwani [Hindu wrestlers] have their baithek [Hindu Squats.]

Power Lifters have their back squats.

Well, turns out the early athletes on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean [circa 1800s] had their King Squats.

[For a breakdown of how to use a single repetition of a King Squat as a strength, stamina, balance, stability and injury test see The Old School Squat Test.

For how to program King Squats and the 5 Auxiliary Old School Bodyweight leg exercises in a mere 5-minute per day program see here. Unleaded: Thighs/Hips Anterior & Posterior.

The King Squat is a masterfully simple bodyweight exercise that was used by early combination men, boxers, wrestlers, and, well, it was used by many.

Mose Velsor [more on him later] in his series of articles “Manly Health and Training, with Off-Hand Hints Towards Their Condition” written in 1858 for the newspaper The New York Atlas refers to them off-handedly with the assumption that all knew what he was speaking of.

The date of the articles [1858] lets us know that in the world of Frontier expansion, the frontiersman, the woodsman, the keelboat man, and other hardies of the era were aware of the equipment-less self-cultivation concept.

Here’s Mr. Velsor himself letting us know who he has in mind.

“There is even no hunter, warrior, wild Indian, or the strongest and supplest backwoodsman of the West, but would have all his natural qualities increased far beyond what they are, by judicious training. This is art, the province of which is to take natural germs or gifts, and bring them out in the fullest and best way.”

Across the Atlantic, Alpinism [mountain climbing] was in its Golden Age, where the movement was known as The Alpine Step and was considered invaluable for the training of long effortless climbs at altitude.

We see aspects of the Alpine Step/King Squat in various montane Native tribes on the United States, Canada and Mexico.

It seems prior to the 20th century, in this region of the world, this unilateral movement was valued above its two-legged cousin used in such time-sucking numbers by the Pehlwani.

Bias Note: I’ve done many a Hindu in my day. Used to avidly advocate for them.

I do so no longer.

They top out on strength gains almost immediately. [Hence the advent of weighted squats in the 20th-century. Hello, knee pain, nice to meetcha!]

And the “bottom” stamina gains are garnered only after beaucoup time-eating repetitions.

There’s a more efficient way to gain stamina and a far easier way to garner leg strength that reps no higher than 40 at the top end.

That, Brothers & Sisters, is the beauty of the Old School way of life!

The King Squat and its cousins are to my mind, well, King.

For more details on The King Squat and its five cousins see here.

[PS—Mose Velsor was a pseudonym for Walt Whitman the author of the sublime “Leaves of Grass.”]

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Or perhaps try our podcast, Mark Hatmaker: Rough n Tumble Raconteur. 

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