The Turkish get-up – a mobility exercise you can’t afford to ignore

The Turkish get-up – strength and mobility in one exercise

The Turkish get-up is slow and measured climb from the floor to your feet and back down again. An old-time strongman move and a modern functional exercise. You can do it with no weight – a naked get-up- or with as much weight as you can comfortably manage. With weight, the get-up will work virtually every stabilizer and prime mover muscle in your body – hard. The Turkish get-up is to mobility what the hardstyle kettlebell swing is to conditioning. It’s the best all-round mobility exercise you can do.

Getting up and down from the ground

When was the last time you sat or lay on the floor? Kids do it all the time. As adults, we use grown-up furniture like chairs, sofas and beds. We hardly ever get down on the floor. But spending time at ground level is a natural human behaviour. And getting up and down off the ground is a fundamental human movement pattern. And what we don’t use we lose. It gets more difficult, eventually challenging, and ultimately impossible. Falling down and being unable to get back up again is a life-threatening risk many seniors have to live with. But you should be able to get up and down from the ground confidently and comfortably all your life. And the Turkish get-up restores this essential movement pattern – and then some!

The Turkish get-up, step by step

This is a quick description, not a how-to guide. Getting the most from kettlebell training is in the details. If you want to learn to do the Turkish get-up correctly and safely – check out our Beginners’ Kettlebell Class here.

What does a Turkish get-up Look like?

So, put it together and what does the get up look like?

The short video below is a demonstration from two (slightly) different angles.

Benefits of a naked Turkish get-up

Without weight or “naked”, the get-up challenges your range of motion, improving your mobility as a result. But the full benefits of the get-up are subtle. And increased range of motion isn’t all it has to offer.

Naked Turkish get-ups

• Train your opposite limbs to work together – left and right hand, left and right leg
• Teach your left and right arms to coordinate with their opposite legs and vice versa
• Ask your left and right brain hemispheres to work together improving cross-body movement patterns like gait
• Develop your balance, stimulating all three of your essential balance systems – visual, vestibular and proprioception
• Sharpen your ability to shift your weight forward and back
• Enhance your spatial awareness

Before you start performing Turkish get-ups with a kettlebell you need to own it. If you’re not confident with the whole movement, doing only the individual moves or sections you do own with weight is a great option. Practice the other movements naked, and when you’re ready can you add weight to the whole get-up.

The benefits of a weighted Turkish get-up

Train the Turkish get-up with a kettlebell and you get all the benefits of a naked get-up and more.

Weighted Turkish get-ups

• Expose weakness in your get-up movement pattern, reinforcing linkage and eliminating strength leaks
• Strengthen your joints
• Promote upper and lower body stability – together and individually
• Teach you to pack your shoulder joints and get you ready for heavy pressing
• Develop the reflexive stability of your trunk and arms and legs
• Go heavy and it’ll really work your midsection, lats, shoulder stabilizers and shoulder girdle

Training the Turkish get-up

The focus is always on the quality of the moves, not adding weight and making it harder for the sake of it. A good get-up is a fluid display of strength, power and control. Aesthetically pleasing and beautiful.

The get-up should take anywhere between 30 and 60 seconds. Going slowly exposes any weaknesses. And if you can’t do it slowly you’re hiding something.  You’re not ready to go heavier until you can do a get-up with your current weight very slowly.

If you can do a get-up with anywhere near a third of your body weight then you know you’re in good shape. Half your body weight is truly strong and a worthy goal.

It’s time to make the Turkish get-up part of your training

Getting up and down off the ground is a natural human movement. But the world we live in encourages us never to go below sitting height. The simple act of getting up off the floor is a restorative functional exercise. The Turkish get-up makes it truly powerful. And the movement can be adapted to suit all abilities. Using a kettlebell is the easiest way to add weight to a get-up, but anything heavy will do – barbell, dumbbell, sandbag, as long as you keep it safe.

The Turkish get-up. One exercise with so many benefits. Can you afford not to make it part of your training?

If you want expert, fun and accessible coaching of the Turkish get-up,  hardstyle kettlebell swing and  goblet squat– check out our Beginners’ Kettlebell Class