Excellent Turkish Get-Up article

One of my favorite exercises is the Turkish Get-Up or TGU. So much so I have previously collected a few of my favorite TGU links into a single blog post. What's a TGU? Basically, you start prone with a weight - usually a kettlebell - held at arm's length above your body. Then, you stand up, never letting the weight waver from its position directly above you. Once standing, you reverse the movement and get back down. It's a full-body movement with excellent potential for shoulder rehabilitation and strengthening, and it's a great torso exercise, too - especially your abdominal muscles and lower back.

Mike Robertson just put together a really nice step-by-step guide to doing a TGU. Others have been done, but what Mike's really excellent is his careful breakdown of the various phases of the exercise. Each phase has two photographs of a side angle and a front angle of the same position. This is borrowing a trick he has used before in his products, such as Inside/Out, and it's very helpful. You can get a very clear idea of where you started (the previous picture), where you should be (the current one), and where you are going (the next picture). Very, very nice.

I can't recommend this highly enough if you do TGUs or hope to. I've also gone ahead and added a link to that article in my previous TGU links blog post. If you plan to do TGUs, check my prior post (linked above) as well as Mike Robertson's article, as the previous post has links to some good video as well.

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Turkish Get-Up links

I'm a big fan of Turkish Get-Ups (aka TGUs or the TGU), and I've bookmarked a number of videos and articles about them. This post is meant to pull them all together both for me and for others.

Yeah, but what's a Turkish Get-Up? You'll see more in the videos below. But this is a pretty classic olde-timey lift right here. Lay down next a weight, and get it held straight up above your head. Then stand up with it overhead. Reverse the motion to get back to the floor. It's been done with dumbbells, kettlebells, barbells, and even people (!) as the resistance.

Here are the useful articles.

Mike Robertson "Examining the Turkish Get Up - This article is just a brief rundown of why the TGU is a good exercise to do. It's not a tutorial on how to do them, nor does it offer tips. It does have links to two .mp3 interviews with kettlebell enthusiasts who discuss the TGU - Dan John and Brett Jones.

Mike Robertson's Turkish Get-Ups Step By Step is outstanding, too.

Jeff Martone's TGU videos:
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

I have no idea where Part 1 is, and I don't recall ever seeing it.

These videos are an excellent primer on the TGU, and I used them when I first learned it. Like any video, it's not a substitute for hands-on coaching, but these are a pretty close second.

Dan John's Kettlebell DVD

These promo clips from the DVD (which I don't have) give you some good basic information on one way to get off the ground in a TGU.


As I find more TGU resources, I will update this post.