Why Do A Turkish Get Up?
If you have been in training recently you have probably noticed we have been doing the Turkish Get Up a lot. I have also seen a couple people asking why we have been doing it so much so I thought I would take the time to write a blog about it!
If you know me than you know I am a huge fan of the kettlebell and all training around it. Even more so the Turkish Get Up is one of my favorite movements with a kettlebell because it is so universal to use. I have used variations of the Turkish Get Up as a warm up, as my main training, and for a cool down, making it a very useful movement in my bag of exercises.
So now that I have talked over my personal love for the movement lets break down why it is such a good movement! If you were to break down the movement piece by piece I would say there are 9 fantastic benefits and health factors it offers being:
- Primitive rolling pattern
- Unilateral development
- A lunge pattern
- An overhead hold
- Two hip hinges
- Glute activation
- Core recruitment
- Improved leg drive
- Rotator cuff stabilization
If you look at that list you will see that the Turkish Get Up is challenge your entire body in a way most other exercises simply cannot by themselves. This movement is also great because it gives you direct feedback with imbalances in the body. You can see right away which side is stronger and during what parts of the movement are harder for you. You can take that information and use it to help strengthen and address the imbalances which will help overall health!
When the Turkish Get-Up is loaded, to what you consider heavy, you will develop ridiculous strength. Heavy get-ups improve your strength in many ways, but one of the most important ways is by teaching the important skill of “linkage” while eliminating strength “leakage.”
According to physical therapist Gray Cook, “Stabilizers are what give you the mechanical advantage to be stronger.” Heavy Turkish get-ups improve your stabilizers, which will improve your linkage, and simply put, more linkage equals more strength.
Hopefully this helped talk about why we do the Turkish Get Ups and all the cool benefits we get doing them!
Keep Making It Happen!
-Coach Brian