[slab_happy]

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?

[Dingdong]

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

[slab_happy]

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.

[Dingdong]

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

[mrjonathanr]

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.

[Aussiegav]

I’ve always thought that these are the type of exercise you do if you have ample of time to train. 

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?

[Scouse D]

Full body workout so can wreck the CNS a bit

What do you mean?

[Plattsy]

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. 
IIRC Paul was keen so long as there were LOTS of spotters.

[Aussiegav]

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.

[duncan]

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.

[slab_happy]

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. 
IIRC Paul was keen so long as there were LOTS of spotters.

Correct form if you wish to TGU an entire person:

[rjtrials]

I’ve always thought that these are the type of exercise you do if you have ample of time to train. 

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.

[User deactivated.]

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.

[Dingdong]

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.

[cheque]

barbel exercises

 

[Falling Down]

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. 
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.    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??

[Fiend]

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. 
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.    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 

[Wellsy]

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...

[slab_happy]

A two armed Turkish get up! That sounds fun, never seen that before

Here you go:



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.

[Wellsy]

Very impressive! I might try that this week

[Aussiegav]

My knees, pelvis and elbows winced watching that. 
 
Impressive

[slab_happy]

My top tip:

As soon as you start using a decent weight, train yourself to bail properly if the kettlebell starts toppling, and by "bail properly" I mean getting out from under it fast and letting it drop.

A lot of us have the instinctive tendency to try to "save" the floor, the nearby furniture, etc. by trying to fight the kettlebell on the way down, and this is a fast way to wrench the shit out of your joints.

[slab_happy]

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

Seconded. Seriously increases the stabilization demands, at a much lower weight.

[slab_happy]

I’ve always thought that these are the type of exercise you do if you have ample of time to train. 

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 feel like they're not something that can or should replace a big, simple strength move, whether that's bench or deadlift or whatever.

But they do seem to have a certain "secret sauce" effect if you add them on to a strength training program, in terms of tying other things together and making you more resilient.

Also, they take much less time than you might think.

For me, one set of 10 TGUs, alternating sides, done slowly (as mentioned elsewhere, doing them on the minute works for me, so I'm done in under 10 minutes) is enough to get something out of it.