The One Exercise That Everyone Should Do
This one movement has incredible benefits to every aspect of fitness
Let me introduce you to an exercise that targets mobility, strength, balance, stability, and fitness all in one.
The Turkish Get-Up
What is it?
The Turkish get-up traditionally uses a kettlebell, although it can be performed with anything (dumbbell, milk carton, can of baked beans). It is a compound, full body, multi-joint movement with myriad benefits. Essentially, you hold a kettlebell over your head, and move from a lying down position into a standing position, and back down to lying on your back. I recommend watching YouTube videos and learning how to do the movement, and then practicing with no weight, before attempting to perform it with weight.
Benefits
- Increased fat burning
- Increased strength conditioning
- Increased recovery on an active recovery day, due to increased blood flow
- Increased strength adaptation due to different weight distribution than traditional weights
- Excellent rotational strength
- Increased neural connections and bodily awareness
- Highly functional — and arguably the most functional movement you can perform
How to implement it
The Turkish get-up is incredibly versatile, and can be worked into any fitness regime. It can be used as a warm up, in interval training, strength training, as part of a mobility routine, a recovery tool, or as a cardio workout.
- Warm up: Before the start of your workout, using a light weight, go through the Turkish get-up slowly and purposefully, focusing on technique. Do 3 to 5 on each side. This will warm up not only your muscles and get your heart rate up, but will warm up your coordination, spatial awareness, and your ligaments and joints.
Ben Greenfield, fitness expert, explains,
“Kettlebells are an ideal instrument for warm-ups because of the dynamic motions that activate separate muscle groups in the same exercise. By engaging multiple muscle groups in a consistent motion, blood-flow is increased, and the body is more prepared to react to physical strain.”
- Strength training: Use a heavy kettlebell and go through the movement slowly and with good form. This will ensure you don’t get injured with the heavy weight, but will also increase time under tension — a great way to improve strength. Do 5x5 each side.
- Mobility: Holding the kettlebell over your head is incredible for overhead and thoracic mobility, and gets all of your joints and ligaments working as they should be, in functional movement patterns.
- Recovery: Turkish get-ups can increase the rate of recovery by increasing blood flow. Use a light weight and go through the movement slowly.
- Cardio: Perform as many Turkish get-ups as you can in a certain amount of time — ideally at least 15 minutes. Try to beat this number every time you do this workout.
For an even bigger challenge, perform the movement with your eyes closed. This will challenge your spatial awareness and coordination immensely, as well as increasing the balance and stability benefits of the kettlebell.
The Turkish get-up is arguably the most powerful and effective exercise you can include in a fitness routine. It can improve balance, flexibility, mobility, and spatial awareness, it can improve muscle strength and power, and it can increase cardiovascular fitness. It’s an incredibly versatile movement and can be used as part of a warm up, strength training session, mobility or balance session, recovery session, or as a cardio or anaerobic fitness session. If you can only do one exercise today, I recommend that you try out a Turkish get-up.
