Not all exercises are created equal.
Some moves target just your thighs.
Others, just those juicy biceps of yours.
But a nifty move called the Turkish Get-Up? That one targets them all. All at once.
We spoke to Personal Trainer Joseph Bilbao of Average Joe’s Fitness – a name which might evoke fond memories of a particularly artful Ben Stiller movie – about why the Turkish Get-Up is a move you should strongly consider adding to your repertoire.
What is it?
It’s a highly functional sequence of movements that requires all the muscles in your body working together – it’s a little hard to explain, but this GIF demonstrates it pretty well:
“It originally started off as a Strongman movement – it was a badge of honour. The story goes that in the US, if you wanted to train with these strongmen, what they would tell you was you could only train with them if you could do a Turkish get-up with 100 pounds (45kgs),” Joe tells us.
“A lot of exercises isolate just a muscle or two” says Joe. “But the Turkish Get-Up gives you so many benefits – wrist stability, shoulder stability, core work, lower trunk (leg and hip) benefits… The movement could almost be your only exercise… If I was on a deserted island, and I was only allowed to do one exercise for some strange reason, that’s what I would choose.”
When Joe first teaches his clients the move, he gets them to start by lying on their back, with a light weight in their hand. He tells them that they’ve gotta make their way to a standing position, all while keeping their arm straight in the air. It looks complicated, but Joe tells us most people get the sequence right in the first go.
“The strange thing about it though, is there’s something very primal and natural about it. I don’t give people any cues, I don’t direct them – it’s a very natural movement.”
Of course, as the weight increases, the technical requirements are much more intense, and Joe recommends you only try the with a professional PT spotting ya. “Some guys online are using the moves on their girlfriends,” says Joe. “What’s great about it is that the girl has to be incredibly strong to be fully stable while she’s being lifted, too.”
Do u even lift your significant other, bro?
Photo: Million Ways To Live / YouTube.
