Wrestler Does 1000 Press-ups Daily

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31756, 13 August 1968, Page 17

Wrestler Does 1000 Press-ups Daily

People could easily do 2000 press-ups a day if they gradually built up to that number, the Pakistani middle and light-weight amateur wrestling champion, Zaman Khan, said in Christchurch last night.

Khan is in Christchurch to coach the Canterbury wrestlers chosen to compete in the combined Australia and New Zealand championships in Sydney. He will also coach other wrestlers at different gymnasiums during his stay here.

Mr E. Wilson, a judo teacher in Ashburton, questioned an earlier report that Khan did 2000 press-ups a day in lots of 200. 1 “I do 75 press-ups a day in lots of 25, and it’s hard work,” Mr Wilson said. “We do not want people trying to do 2000 press-ups a day and killing themselves.” Khan said that he had recently been doing 1000 pressups and 1000 squats daily without a break. The exercises took him about an hour and a half.

“It is just like your writing,” he said. "If you practise each day it becomes easy: if you don't it remains har'd.” If Mr Wilson gradually increased the number of press-ups he did each day, he would be able to do 1000 each day. Some wrestlers in Pakistan did 5000 press-ups daily as part of their training.

Khan, who weighs 1901 b, said that he had come to New Zealand to train wrestlers to win gold medals in world championship events.

“Your wrestlers here must do more training, not two or three days a week, but six days a week. If a man works well six days a week he will eventually become rich, and if a wrestler trains well six days a week he will become rich in wrestling.”

Wrestlers had to learn the easy holds, and tricks which were not dangerous and were simple to teach. “There is no need for puffing and panting in wrestling,” he said. “Some wrestlers are too strong, but they can easily be beaten by a slight movement of the hand.”

Khan has been a wrestling champion in Pakistan for 20 years and is proficient at five different styles of wrestling.

He has won national titles in Greco-Roman, Pakistani, and Afghanistan! wrestling and has used two other types of wrestling. “These styles concentrate on pressure points,” he said, and demonstrated by lightly touching the reporter on the neck. The reporter felt his left arm go numb and instinctively shrank back as Khan raised his elbow to demonstrate another action. A wrestler needed a good brain, a good heart, a good [character, and plenty of practice. He also needed a good coach. If a wrestler practised each day and went out drinking each night, he

would never be a good wrestler, Khan said. Professional wrestlers made wrestling seem like a strong man’s game, he said. It was not hard, but professionals were actors, not wrestlers, he said, and some of them were very good actors. “John da Silva is an excellent actor,” he said. Khan said that he had had several fights with professional wrestlers and had not lost. His prize money from the bouts had gone to amateur associations.

Last evening Khan coached -at the Crichton Cobbers gymnasium.