Pehelwani Wrestler

The Great Gama was a pehlwani wrestler from British India.Bruce Lee was a follower of the wrestler and incorporated Gamas exercises in his own routine.

Origins of the push up are not totally clear. One school of thought is that the pushup as we know it today is a joining together of two popular yoga poses- downward dog and upward dog. The roots of yoga can be traced back over 3000 years.   There are zoology observations that certain animals emulate a push up action. Most notably various taxa of the Fence lizard exhibit this display, primarily involving the male engaging in postures to attract the female. The Western fence lizard is a particular species that also engages in this behavior. (It may be noted that in Mexican Spanish push-ups are called "lagartijas", which means "lizards".)  Early examples of the pushup are also cited in Indian culture, where wrestlers would perform many hundreds of “Hindu push up” repetitions. Dands, as they are more commonly known, build massive upper body strength and endurance and have been used by champion Indian wrestlers for years. Legend has it that The Great Gama, the most successful Pehlwani wrestler in history, would perform upwards of 2000 dands each and every morning as part of a grueling training regime. The phrase “pushup” was first recorded in the U.S. during the period from 1905 to 1910. Some 40 years later the phrase “press up” first appeared in the British lexicon.

The "Great" Gama (1880 - May 22, 1963) also known as "Gama Pahelvan" and "Lion of the Punjab", born Ghulam Muhammad in Amritsar, Punjab, British India, was a renowned wrestler, warrior and a practitioner of Pehlwani wrestling. He was awarded the South Asian version of the World Heavyweight Championship on October 15, 1910. To this date he is the only wrestler in history who remained undefeated his whole life which was substantial, as his career had spanned more than 50 years. He has been billed as the greatest Pehlwani wrestler in history. After India's independence in 1947, Gama moved to Pakistan. Kulsoom Nawaz, the wife of Nawaz Sharif is the grand-daughter of Gama. Ghulam Muhammad belonged to the Bhat clan of Kashmir. His descendants includes "The Bhulo Brothers" , and the world famous wrestler Zubair Alias Jahara. The other Prominent descendants includes; Muazzam Zubair Jahara, Imam Bukhsh II, Sohail Bhat, Shoaib Jawad Bhat, Hijaz Raza Mir, Ibraz Bhat and Ahmad Mir. The consecutive generations still continue the legacy wrestling in Punjab Pakistan and now Gujranwala is still the hub of Professional wrestlers and is known as city of wrestlers in South Asia. The Bhat family of Punjab which is now one of the big clans in upper Punjab of Pakistan especially in Lahore, Gujranwala,Gujrat and Sialkot have a long tradition of supporting and promoting wrestling in Punjab.
For complete details check the following link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Gama