Striving for extreme suppleness

Kalarippayattu is a peerless martial art of the world that focuses on agility of both mind and body of the performers.

Training of this ancient art of Kerala focuses on the synchronous training of body and mind. And this makes Kalarippayattu the most scientific and systematic of its kind.

Co-ordination of mind and body is the key of training. A system of scientifically arranged and well graded series of exercises forms part of the training.

Physical training is known as Meypayattu (mey means body in local parlance and payattu, exercise).

Rigorous exercises are there for hand, legs and other body parts.

Twelve kinds of exercises are there for legs. There are also regulations on how to perform leaps and jumps.

Basic exercises like iruthikkaal and soochikkiruthal are also performed as part of the exercises.

The video is taken from CVN Kalari, Thiruvananthapuram.

There is also a scientific medicine system called Kalarichikilsa associated with this martial art. Kalarichikilsa, the herbal medicine system is highly effective for bruises and sprains.

There are two styles of Kalarippayattu; the North Kerala and South Kerala styles.