5 May 2016
I would recommend the Turkish Get Up to anyone and everyone! It’s a great way to bulletproof shoulders, offering mobility and helping to strengthen the whole of the shoulder joint allowing you to lift a lot more weight overhead confidently and safely. The shoulder joint is a vulnerable part of the body, it has to be both mobile and strong. In order to keep the shoulder stable and in the correct position it has small stabilising muscles. The small stabilising muscles are often neglected in favour of the larger better looking prime mover muscles called the deltoids. The ability to create rotational force to stabilise the shoulder is not only important in maintaining the health of the joint under load, but also in maintaining a stable and strong spinal position. A loss of rotational force in the shoulder under load will cause a loss in spinal stability and vice versa
There are many other benefits to the TGU:
- Single leg hip stability.
- Both closed and open chain shoulder stability.
- Thoracic extension and rotation.
- Hip and leg mobility and active flexibility.
- Stability in lunge pattern.
- Body awareness and proprioception
- Both rotary and linear stability.
- The ability to link movement created in our extremities to the rest of our body.
TGU allows us to learn how to create this link between lower and upper body, all the while controlling the kettlebell through a variety of planes and angles. Done well it is filled with aesthetic quality, with beautiful movement. The TGU is an exercise that combines almost every shape your body needs to move through and every motor pattern necessary for human development and function. There is a reason this exercise has been around for such a long time.
For beginners I would recommend using very little to no weight, until you have the technique just right. Here is a link to a great demonstration. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bWRPC49-KI
Add weight gradually and do the same reps on each side, the great thing about this workout is that it will be effective with or without weight, you can do it at home, outdoors or in the gym so you can switch between lighter and heavier weights depending on how you feel or where you are.
Satveer Kaur, Personal Trainer