Best Exercise in Ever: Double Turkish Get Up

This week has been one where I was pretty much on autopilot in every aspect of life, including this blog. You see, I started vacation yesterday and will be taking 2 full weeks off from work on a stay-cation. For those who don’t know what that is, it’s a vacation where you don’t travel, meaning you can sleep in your own bed, work out when you want, eat your own food, not stress out about making a flight or dealing with grumpy in-laws, and is pretty much the best thing since the XFL.

That being said, I’m not off the hook entirely. I still have some writing assignments to get through, as well as a new video series that I’m preparing to launch come sometime in January when I feel like it, and also a couple of bigger projects that I unfortunately can’t talk about at current time. It’s nothing like me trying a hostile takeover of the world or anything like that (but wouldn’t that be sweet??), but they’re pretty cool, and I just have to wait a little while to announce them so the folks I’m working with don’t get mad, mkay?

Anyways, I’m still hitting the gym and trying some new things out every now and then. One of those new things is todays featured exercise: The double kettlebell getup.

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However, I think the name “Double Kettlebell Get Up” is a little too inelegant of a name for something this bad ass. I think, in keeping with the seasons, it should be re-named “The Turducken Get Up.” The main reason for this is, like the Turducken, it uses more than one implement. It also has many layers to it as far as what is needed for success. For the Turducken, it involves duck, chicken, and turkey smashed into each other. For the Turducken Get Up, it involves a lot of core stability, thoracic and hip mobility, shoulder stability, timing, patience, voodoo, and a few other magical ingredients. I’m only using 16kg bells here, but if you’re brave/strong enough to try with 2 24 kg bells, you would be right up there with the Epic Meal Time version of the Turducken.

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THis is a movement for those sick buggers who feel that a normal Turkish get up is too boring for them and they’re ready for the next challenge.

The movement begins with a back to front rock in order to get into a seated position, with conscious attention paid to not letting the weights come forward from the momentum of the movement. If the weights do, you may wind up wearing them as an athletic cup, which will make your future offspring be born with a headache. From there the hips rotate through contralateral internal and external rotation to put both knees on the ground. This is tricky for those who don’t have ninja level hip mobility like yours truly. If you’re limited in this department, this is a series that could help you establish more movement to become less Tinman and more Gumby.

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From there the movement involves getting into a half kneeling position while keeping your arms vertical over your head. If this is difficult, try these regressions out to get some stability training.

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If that’s still too much, try it with just one arm, but go heavier with it.

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A major sticking point to this movement as a whole is t-spine mobility, specifically through extension and rotation. As a result, if you’re getting stuck when moving from the sitting to half kneeling position, you could spend some additional time on training these movements and see whether it makes much of a difference.

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And if you’re still not getting it, it could mean you still need to spend some time with the original Turkish Get Up before you’re ready to step up to the Turducken Get Up.

So this is my Christmas gift to you: the beauty of showing off in your own gym with a tough movement that can make you both incredibly manly (yes, even the women can be manly with this one) and still find ways to humble you simultaneously.

CONTEST TIME!!!

Do me a favour and take a video of you trying this one and post it in the comments section here, Tweet it to me, or put it in the Facebook link to this post. The best version will get a super sweet prize pack with a bunch of really cool stuff inside. It’s going to be a sweet pack, worth close to $500, so you have some serious incentive to do it. I’ll draw the winner on Christmas day.