Full body workouts are great. Ever had that feeling at the end of a session where all muscles are pumped? How about getting that feeling from a single exercise?

The Turkish get up is a very popular Kettlebell exercise which is performed in multiple stages to get up off the floor from a supine laying position to standing, with a kettlebell overhead throughout.

History of the Turkish Get Up

The Turkish get up can be traced back over 200 years to Turkish Wrestling Training, where wrestlers would need to perform a kettlebell get up to progress to subsequent stages of training. Today, it is more widely used, in a variety of contexts, from rehab to performance.

What Muscles Does a Turkish Get Up Work?

The Turkish get up is a whole-body exercise that requires high amounts of stability at the core and shoulder complex.

What Are The Benefits of the Turkish Get Up?

Improved Shoulder Strength and Stability

This is great for Olympic lifters, Powerlifters, throwing athletes and functional athletes, all of whom need a strong and stable shoulder complex, which is usually inherently weak in humans and thus benefits from additional attention to make it stronger.

Easily Adaptable to All Experience Levels

Given the step wise nature of the Turkish get up, it can be easily regressed and adapted to varying experience levels. It can also be adapted based on individual difficulties. For instance, if you are managing an injury that prevents you from performing the first step of the Turkish get up, you can skip step one and start at step two.

Can Reduce Side to Side Imbalances

The Turkish get up is a single arm exercise, therefore it can be used to reduce side to side imbalances in strength and stability, which may be limiting your performance or functional capacity in certain exercises or activities in day-to-day life.

How To Perform a Turkish Get Up

Step 1 - Roll to Press

• Lay supine with your right leg out straight and your right arm out to the side, for stability, your left leg bent and the kettlebell in your left hand.

• Press the kettlebell to the sky so that the arm is locked out.

Step 2 - Press to Elbow Support

• Drive into the floor with your right arm and left leg, picking your shoulders and torso off the floor, twisting onto the right elbow and forearm for support.

• Keep the left arm locked out and steady over the top of your shoulder joint, resisting the lateral rotational forces on the core trying to pull you back to the floor.

Step 3 - Elbow to Hand Support

• Continue to press the floor away with the left leg and right arm to come further off the floor so that your right arm is now extended.

• Keep your eyes on the kettlebell throughout.

Step 4 - High Bridge

• Thrust your hips away from the floor to make as much space under your torso as possible.

• Keep most of the weight in the right arm and left leg.

Step 5 - Leg Sweep to Knee

• Sweep the right leg back through the space under your torso. Planting the knee in line with the ground supporting hand.

• You should now have a more even split of weight across both legs.

Step 6 - Knee Support to Half Kneeling

• Drive the kettlebell away from the floor, as if trying to touch the sky as your remove you right hand from the floor, rotating your right knee at the same time so that your legs are both facing forwards.

• Get your legs into a lunge position from foot to hip, ready for the final step.

Step 7 - Half Kneeling Overhead Lunge to Standing

• To complete the first half of the movement, perform and overhead lunge from the half kneeling position to a standing position.

• Keep focus on the kettlebell throughout, with the arm locked.

Step 8 - Complete

• Reverse the movement back to the floor and repeat on the other arm.

This will depend on many factors, but a nice guide provided by Ayash and Hones _{(2012) (Ayash, A. and Jones, M.T., 2012. Kettlebell Turkish get-up: Training tool for injury prevention and performance enhancement. International Journal of Athletic Therapy and Training, 17(4), pp.8-13.}) is shown below. If you class yourself as a beginner but find the beginner weights too easy, then progress into the heavier categories. It is important to remember that guides are just guides and they don’t account for our own individual strengths and weaknesses, which is where we need to take our training into our own hands.

There you have it, the Turkish Get Up. The King of shoulder exercises for many and a great addition to any training programme. Remember, if you struggle with any part of it, you can split it up into 7 individual exercises based on the learning steps above, before bringing it all back together into the finished article…

Written by guest author Ewan Hammond.

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Tags: Equipment > Kettlebells ; Exercise Type > Strength