Tuesday, 16 August 2011

Love for the Turkish Get Up


I cannot describe the emotion I feel for this crisp, clear and humbling exercise.  Just the name gets my blood pumping and the hair on the back of my neck on end.  It's demanding, excruciating in high numbers and makes you feel like every muscle in your body is going to spontaneously combust, that causes butterfly's in my tummy, an accelerated heart beat and hot flushes all at the faint whisper of a 'get up'

That's Love.

For those of you who don't know, a Turkish Get Up is an exercise that requires you to go from a supine position to a standing position, and back down again with a weight held in a fully extended arm.  The 'get up' forces us to react to different situations and adapt to them developing pure functional strength.

The common gym junkie focuses on developing size and pursues aesthetics and aren't concerned about functional strength.  Walk into your local Virgin Active and I guarantee you, the guys walking around with necks the size of tractor tires and arms large enough to force them sideways through the doors while moving very  s l o w l y would struggle if you asked them to drop and give you 20 push ups, let alone attempting the 'get up'. They all about flash and not function.  They can 'picks up heavy fings' but struggle to move their own bodies around with the simplest of movements.  These power houses of the local sweat shops mistake strength for massive muscle when strength is actually the ability to contract our muscles in synergy.

This impressive exercise gives you full body strength and lean muscle.  Executing the 'TGU' improves your thoracic spine extension, boosts core strength and stability, promotes hip mobility in multiple planes and increases shoulder stability in your lower traps and rotator cuffs.

So what do you want?  A body made up of stagnant muscle tissue, that makes you look like you swallowed Jonah Lomu, or a body that can resist a vicious tackle and force your opponent to ricochet off you and run away screaming like Justin Bieber?

Get functional, get Turkish, and get the hell up, it's the choice of champions.

Steve Cotter Turkish Get Up Instructional Video