The Best Exercise You Aren’t Doing

Every time I have one of my clients perform a Get up or by its proper name The Turkish Get Up, people who casually walk by will give us a puzzled look.

The fact that the Turkish get up is not more popular or a well known exercise is disappointing, because it is one of the most efficient and effective movements in the fitness world.

To understand just how important a Turkish get up can be,we must first delve into its origin.

The movement, considered in fitness communities to be one of the most complex and taxing, originates from the need for Turkish wrestlers to build strength, power, explosiveness and endurance.  Turkish wrestling is one of the most physically demanding sports in the world, and the get up prepares and conditions the athletes to compete on a high level.

While it was developed to train wrestlers, the Turkish get up is an extremely functional movement which focuses on utilizing and strengthening the core while improving mobility and stability.

The Turkish get up is also a movement that anyone can perform, regardless of experience level.  While there are ten distinct movements to accurately nail down in order to execute one Turkish get up, and may seem complex, it can be done as a bodyweight exercise or with a kettlebell, dumbbell or sandbag to create a variation on difficulty level.  It’s a workout that is truly for anyone that can be performed anywhere.

The most important aspect of the Turkish get up is the focus on hip mobility and extension.  Your hips act like door hinges for your entire body.  With poor hip strength and mobility, your legs and lower back will overcompensate and your risk for injury skyrockets.

The Turkish get up minimizes this risk by utilizing a thrusting movement to generate power. Once you perfect the Turkish get up and the explosiveness of the hip thrust that is involved in it, you will see drastic improvements in strength and mobility as well as a decreased workload being placed on your legs and lower back.

The Turkish get up not only increases core strength and mobility, it also activates nearly every muscle group in your body. This is due to the aforementioned breakdown of what is considered a single rep.  Each time you perform a movement as part of a repetition, it is important to briefly pause to focus on resetting yourself to negate any momentum that may cause injury and encourage poor form.

The following video from Neghar Fonooni demonstrates perfect form:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5-Yf6qGzxk[/youtube]

The benefit of a full-body movement that hits every muscle group and emphasizes the core is that it will also burn fat.  When you hit a wider range of muscle groups, you will see more results in terms of fat loss as your muscles eat away the fat and use it for energy.  For this reason, the Turkish get up one of the most-effective fat burning exercises that combines cardio and strength training, giving you the best of both worlds.

Fitness freak or casual gym-goer, athlete or average  Joe, the Turkish get up will help you look better, feel better and perform better.

Call us to find out more information or to Reserve your spot for one of our group training sessions at 917-432-9418.