Exercises You Should Be Doing: The Turkish Getup

The squat may be the king of exercises, but it’s definitely not for everyone. I can’t say the same for the Turkish Getup. I can’t think of anyone, including athletes, average Joe’s, and people recovering injuries, that won’t benefit from adding the Turkish Getup to their warm up routine. Why?

3 Reasons to Love the Turkish Getup for Physique Changes

1. It’s a FANTASTIC core exercise. Forgot crunches, side bends, and leg raises. The Turkish Getup will you get you a strong, flat stomach much quicker.
2. It’s a total body movement. It may look slow, but it affects every muscle in your body. And if you’ve been reading our blog at all, you already know what that means.. more calories burned in a shorter time. It’s efficient AND effective.
3. It hits ALL of the major problem areas – shoulders, the arms, the butt, the back of the legs, and the abs. In just one exercise you can train all of those areas effectively. Try it for yourself and see.

3 Reasons to Love the Turkish Getup for Athletes

1. It teaches the core to transfer POWER from one end of the body to the other. Watch a great athlete in action on the field/court.  See how power is initiated in the lower body, transferred through the core, and released through the upper body. No energy leaks. The Turkish Getup finds those leaks, fixes them, and in turn creates a more powerful athlete.
2. It fixes not only strength issues, but also MOBILITY issues.  Male athletes are notorious for being overly tight. They often suffer from tight hips and tight shoulders which prevent them from expressing their true power and speed potential on the field/court. The Turkish Getup finds those mobility issues and addresses them from the ground and standing positions.
3. It’s a great PREHAB exercise for injury prevention. It not only teaches a fundamental movement patterns, but also targets areas that athletes often injure from overuse. How many times have you heard of an athlete injuring his shoulder, hip, or knee?  It’s a great tool that teaches proper shoulder alignment, the ability to demonstrate hip flexion and hip extension simultaneously, and proper core stabilization.

Watch it here:

Here’s the master, Gray Cook, teaching the Turkish Getup. This is who we learned it from.