Looking for an exercise that’s challenging and gives a lot of bang for your buck? Look no further than the Turkish Get Up (TGU). The TGU requires mobility and stability throughout the whole movement. It requires mobility in the ankle, hips, t-spine, and shoulders. We use it mostly as a warm up exercise but have used it as a strength builder as well. When we teach the TGU to others, we break it down into 7 steps:
- Roll to Press
- Press to Elbow
- Elbow to Post
- Post to High Pelvis (if necessary)
- High Pelvis to Knee (or low sweep to knee)
- Knee to Half Kneeling
- Half Kneeling to Stand
What’s also great about the TGU is that mostly anybody can do at least one of the steps in the movement. Based on the individual’s current mobility and stability level, a person for example may just do steps 1-3. The options are limitless.
Whether your goal is fat loss or increase strength & sports performance, the TGU can be a great addition to your training program. Yes, it takes a little time to learn the positions but it’s definitely well worth it.
Here at Method Strength & Performance, we have seen some pretty good feats of strength when it comes to the TGU. We have a couple of women in their 30s-50s doing the TGU with a 20kg bell (44lbs) with ease. One female athlete at age 19 has done a TGU with a 24kg bell (53lbs). We have found that most people get more excited with their TGU weight going up than anything else.
Check out the video below for a demonstration of the TGU (we used the low sweep in this example)!
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6diDLhMy0qQ[/embedyt]