Blog
Training & Technique
Daaw, conditioning, diet and akhara practice.
A Week Inside an Akhara: What Kushti Training Actually Looks Like
A typical week of serious kushti training involves twice-daily sessions — pre-dawn and evening — combining high-volume bodyweight conditioning, technique work and supervised sparring on the mitti, six days a week, with diet and rest treated as seriously as the physical training itself.
Kushti Diet and Daily Routine: How Traditional Wrestlers Train and Eat
A traditional pehlwan's day is built around pre-dawn training, high-volume bodyweight conditioning such as dands and baithaks, and a diet centred on milk, ghee and almonds intended to support muscle mass and stamina. Discipline around sleep, diet and celibacy has traditionally been treated as part of training itself, not separate from it.
How to Become a Pehlwan: A Beginner's Guide to Kushti Training
Becoming a pehlwan starts with finding a local akhara or talim and a guru willing to train beginners, followed by months of foundational conditioning — dands, baithaks and running — before sparring on the mitti begins in earnest. Diet, discipline and consistency matter as much as raw strength.
Mitti Kushti vs Mat Wrestling: What's the Real Difference?
Mitti kushti is wrestled on a prepared earth surface under traditional rules with no fixed time limit, while mat wrestling (freestyle/Greco-Roman) is fought on a padded mat under standardised international scoring and time limits. The surface changes footing, grip and pacing enough that many wrestlers treat them as related but separate skills.