Let's have a Turkish get-ups thread

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slab_happy

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Thought it might be worthwhile, after the subject came up in the elbow injury advice thread.

Pros, cons? Recommended videos or other resources for people who want to learn? Any useful tips?

For those who do them, how do you fit them into your training? What do you think you get out of them?
 
Pros:

They’re excellent for conditioning your core and your shoulders, really just good all rounder

they’re a great tool for learning complex movement across your whole body

Once movement is learnt, easy to push progressive overload over sessions

Can be modified easily to be harder by flipping the kettlebell bottom facing up

Cons:

It’s a complex movement and can be confusing at first

Much harder than it looks - people will think you’re doing the easiest exercise in the gym… until they try it ;)

Full body workout so can wreck the CNS a bit

Tips:

This exercise is composed of a number of movements so make sure to have each one nailed before upping the weight. It’s a great exercise to start with a really small kettlebell, like 2-3kg and really master the movement

wrap a tee shirt or small towel around your wrist you use for the kettlebell as it will push up against the back of your forearm
 
Dingdong said:
wrap a tee shirt or small towel around your wrist you use for the kettlebell as it will push up against the back of your forearm

I don't find I need padding, but I always have to remember to take my watch off or it can get snagged against the kettlebell.
 
slab_happy said:
Dingdong said:
wrap a tee shirt or small towel around your wrist you use for the kettlebell as it will push up against the back of your forearm

I don't find I need padding, but I always have to remember to take my watch off or it can get snagged against the kettlebell.

For me it always pressed against the back of my forearm or rubbed so had to pad it, was kinda annoying
 
slab_happy said:
Thought it might be worthwhile, after the subject came up in the elbow injury advice thread.

Pros, cons? Recommended videos or other resources for people who want to learn? Any useful tips?

For those who do them, how do you fit them into your training? What do you think you get out of them?
Only 4 more Turkish get ups till half term.
 
I’ve always thought that these are the type of exercise you do if you have ample of time to train. :tumble:

I know they are beneficial.

In terms of ROI of time versus gains; how do they compare with against a session of upper body compound exercises?
For example; overhead press and/or bench press?
 
Reminds me of the time FD was well into these and I floated the idea of FD doing a TGU with Paul B as the kettlebell. :w00t:
IIRC Paul was keen so long as there were LOTS of spotters.
 
Scouse D said:
Dingdong said:
Full body workout so can wreck the CNS a bit

What do you mean?

The three main functions of your central nervous system are to:

1.Receive sensory information.
2. Process the information it receives (integration).
3. Respond with motor output.

After your brain gets and understands the data collected by your sensory neurons (nerve cells), it sends an electrical signal through your spinal cord to your muscles and glands to create a motor output.

I assume he’s referring to complexity of the movement. However not sure wrecking it is a choice word.
The CNS copes with significantly greater scenarios.
Climbing wise, Onsighting would be way up there.
 
Scouse D said:
Dingdong said:
Full body workout so can wreck the CNS a bit

What do you mean?

Central Nervous System fatigue. Fatigue sensation not related to local muscle changes. Makes it harder to do other exercises even though the specific muscles of the other exercise have not been targeted. Example would be trying to do a fingerboard session after TGUs even though the latter does not target the forearm muscles.
 
Plattsy said:
Reminds me of the time FD was well into these and I floated the idea of FD doing a TGU with Paul B as the kettlebell. :w00t:
IIRC Paul was keen so long as there were LOTS of spotters.

Correct form if you wish to TGU an entire person:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDQUlshxO_8
 
Aussiegav said:
I’ve always thought that these are the type of exercise you do if you have ample of time to train. :tumble:

I know they are beneficial.

In terms of ROI of time versus gains; how do they compare with against a session of upper body compound exercises?
For example; overhead press and/or bench press?

I use the TGU as part of my warmups most days. I have been doing them for a fair number of years, so doing two to three most days keeps me moving well.

I found that once I was "comfortable" with about 30% bodyweight (feels like a warmup and not workout) I noticed it was much easier to manhandle my body through and around tough positions while climbing.

I also use the TGU as an antagonist to weighted pullups or hang boarding sessions. My elbows feel much happier of I'm doing something overhead between sets of pulls or hangs.
Generally in this scenario I will do lighter weight and add presses into one or more positions of each TGU.
 
Aussiegav said:
In terms of ROI of time versus gains; how do they compare with against a session of upper body compound exercises?
For example; overhead press and/or bench press?

Almost certainly very poorly. As a relatively complex, low-stability exercise, it's not going to be great for strength outcomes in comparison with more basic exercises like an overhead press. There's nothing about the movement coordination in a Turkish get-up that would translate to climbing (because it isn't climbing), only the strength adaptions, so go for the exercises with better adaptions.

I'd argue the CNS fatigue from a Turkish get-up should be relatively low. It feels hard due to the complexity and lack of stability, but the actual stress (and therefore adaptions) should be less than more stable barbel exercises, for example. They're probably good for warming up.
 
Scouse D said:
Dingdong said:
Full body workout so can wreck the CNS a bit

What do you mean?

They’re similarly taxing as compound exercises like deadlift in that they smash your body quite hard, I thought personally anyways. If you’re doing Turkish get ups with 25-35kg (around 50-60% BW) it’ll feel like you’ve done a bunch of DL sets and can definitely be as taxing as compound lifts imo. The difference here being that I’m not doing them with low weight as a warmup but 6RM 8/10 RPE with a lot of weight…

I would also argue that they’re not wholly unstable because you have 3 points of contact most of the way through the movement. They’re great for shoulder stability anyways so worth doing, I would say my shoulders are my strong point and TGU are just one of the exercises in my arsenal.
 
Plattsy said:
Reminds me of the time FD was well into these and I floated the idea of FD doing a TGU with Paul B as the kettlebell. :w00t:
IIRC Paul was keen so long as there were LOTS of spotters.

Blimey, that’s going back a bit and how funny! I can’t remember my 1RM with a barbell, but I think it was pretty good and probably not far off Paul’s weight at the time. Maybe 60kg or something like that. :strongbench: I was climbing at my best back then too.

I think they’re great as an all-round strength conditioning exercise with a heavy 25kg kettlebell, but also a fab recovery movement with a light’ish 5-7kg kettlebell.

Slab Happy’s spot on with the attention to form, and doing them slow and precise. Used to do 100 (10x10) with lots of time on a Sunday if the weather was shit.

The name’s cool too eh? Who wouldn’t want to be good at something called a Turkish Get Up??
 
Falling Down said:
Plattsy said:
Reminds me of the time FD was well into these and I floated the idea of FD doing a TGU with Paul B as the kettlebell. :w00t:
IIRC Paul was keen so long as there were LOTS of spotters.

Blimey, that’s going back a bit and how funny! I can’t remember my 1RM with a barbell, but I think it was pretty good and probably not far off Paul’s weight at the time. Maybe 60kg or something like that. :strongbench: I was climbing at my best back then too.
Love this story, pity it didn't happen. 60kg 1 arm 1RM, very impressed, my strongest I think was 24kg on one arm, 60kg on both. Miles off that these days tho.

Have it in the vague back of my mind this week that one of my aims is to try some Turkish Get Ups :blink:
 
A two armed Turkish get up! That sounds fun, never seen that before

I've started weightlifting once a week and I will say that all the overhead work seems like it is really strengthening my shoulders. A 60kg strict press hopefully on the horizon soon...
 
Wellsy said:
A two armed Turkish get up! That sounds fun, never seen that before

Here you go:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4JSQU9lyfs

Probably has different pros/cons because each shoulder is going through much less ROM in relation to the torso than in a standard TGU, but it is a thing.
 


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