Tag: alternative to the turkish get up

FitStrong PT

Get Up… and Down Stronger

MoveStrongblog

In this third part of the Get Up series I’ll introduce a great method of getting to the floor and back up that does represent a very real-world method of, well, getting to the floor.

The Strength Get Up I showed you last time has purpose to get stronger whilst performing the get up with a hand weight of some sort or (as I suggested in the scenario) if you had a sore back or broken arm!

The Prone Get Up we’ll look at today is again, a great strength and mobility exercise by itself, but contextually also a super method of getting to the floor to say, look for that lost $50 under the sofa.

The movement could be simplified as a squat down to a push up but it would be boring of me to leave it at that. I could also describe it as a refined healthy variation of a Burpee… but I don’t like Burpees haha.

Here’s a move by move description if the video isn’t sufficient:

  1. Stand upright on the balls of your feet.
  2. Slowly pull yourself down into ‘your’ deep knee bend. Everyone has their own limit to this range of motion and position.
  3. With your arms outstretched, reach for the floor.
  4. Perform a simple reverse push up to lie on the floor.
  5. Chill for a moment.
  6. Pull hands back to the side of the chest and push off the ground with your stomach braced too.
  7. You might need a second push to assist returning to the deep knee bend position. Keep it safe.
  8. From the deep knee bend, brace once more to stand up.

Progressing:

  • Try to slow the whole movement down. It’s not a race to see how many reps you can do in a minute but rather a practice to see how efficient you can perform the move with control.
  • You could lean back a little on the deep knee bend. This will add to the thigh workload considerably.
  • Aim to perform the push from the floor in one go.

Notes: The drop from the deep knee bend to the floor (and reverse) can be performed one knee at a time if that is where your ability is. I do perform it that way myself at times to understand the whole movement more fully. Meet your body where it is. That’s always a great rule.

Got any feedback or questions? Just pop them on the feedback form below.

← Back

Thank you for your response. ✨

FitStrong PT

How to Get Up!

MoveStrongblog

Recently I wrote about how important it is to practice the skills of getting to the ground and up again and shared a video with demonstrations of some variations. Here’s a link to that post. 

As much as I would like to provide a tutorial for the Turkish Get Up right now, that would be hasty. Assuming you drive a car, you didn’t have your first experience driving hard and fast around country roads in a race car. You spent time getting familiar with the controls and skills, maybe manoeuvring and navigating an empty car park.

The Get Up like other strength movements requires the same. Get familiar with what’s what.

In this part, let me just introduce the positions and transitions of the strength get up, minus any added weights. I like to teach the get up these days with a scenario, like you’ve got a broken arm and need to get carefully off the floor.

Check out this quick ‘follow-along’ video.

 

Let me just list the steps of the get up, from the ground up.

  1. Lie on floor with left leg bent, roughly at 90 degrees. Keep this leg out to the side a little.
  2. Place the left arm across the chest.
  3. The straight leg and arm are roughly 45 degrees to the side (from your midline)
  4. Brace your torso.
  5. Push the left foot and the right elbow into the ground to lift the left butt cheek from the floor and continue to roll onto the right forearm.
  6. Brace the torso and push onto the right hand – keep your shoulder packed (pulled into the socket)
  7. Pressing the right hand and left foot into the floor, you can now pull the right leg under you. The right knee replaces the right butt cheek. In this position you should have the right foot, right knee and right hand in alignment.
  8. Pull up into a tall torso position.
  9. At this point rotate the right leg (through the hip) so both feet are facing the same direction. You can alternatively rotate yourself clockwise to position your left leg / foot in the same direction as the right.
  10. Press both feet into the ground to lunge up and stand.
  11. Return to the floor in the reverse and same manner.

That’s 11 points with lots of words! The video does a fine job at demonstrating too.

If and only IF this movement sequence comes naturally to you, maybe try holding a medicine ball or sandbag as in the video below.

 

Next time I’ll run through a different style of get up that offers heaps of benefits to the legs.

In the mean time, keep strong and move every day.

Got any feedback or questions? Drop me a message below.

← Back

Thank you for your response. ✨