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The Turkish Get Up

"It is a splendid exercise and showy feat to lie down and regain upright position holding a dumbbell overhead" - Thomas Inch

I recently received an email from Brian Brown, of Dubuque, Iowa asking the question – Why is the Turkish Get Up not an USAWA lift? Well – my answer was IT SHOULD BE!!!! This was a very popular lift among old-time strongmen. It was a favorite of such greats as Arthur Saxon, George Hackenschmidt, and Sig Klein. Thanks to Brian for providing this writeup about the Turkish Get Up.

The Turkish Get Up by Brian Brown

The Turkish Get Up is a great old-time strongman exercise in addition to being a great shoulder rehab, core building, and flexibility enhancing exercise. It also works all the muscles of the body, so it’s a great exercise to have in your arsenal in case you’re short of time for a workout.

In truth I don’t know what’s Turkish about the Get Up. I do know that you can do a Get Up with two hands or one hand. Typically the Turkish Get Up refers to the one-hand version of the Get Up. And you can use any kind of resistance you like, whether it be a dumbbell, kettlebell, barbell, sandbag, or your kid. I’ve tried it with my kids — it’s a great circus trick and they like it too!

To perform the Turkish Get Up, lie on your back with the weight overhead in one hand. While keeping your elbow locked and the weight overhead you ‘get up’ to a standing position. For competition purposes, this would be the end of the movement. But for training purposes, it’s more challenging if you then reverse the movement until you are lying back on the floor. Then you repeat for the other arm.

The basic sequence of the Turkish Get Up is as follows, to begin the movement, crunch your abs and obliques while moving the dumbbell slowly forward, then push off the floor with your free arm. If you can make it to the sitting position, you are pretty much home free! Then bring your leg opposite the weight underneath your body so that you are in a lunge position, then stand up with the weight.

There is another method whereby after you are in the sitting position, you get in the deep (seriously deep!) overhead squat position and stand up from there. But this is much more difficult than the ‘lunging’ method and requires quite a bit more flexibility and as such, less weight can be used.

Jeff Martone commented that the Turkish Get Up helped to rehab his bad shoulder. I’ve found this to be the case also. I had a delicate right shoulder from too much bench pressing and shot putting when I was in high school. When I discovered the Turkish Get Up a few years ago my shoulder problems disappeared. Also I have a friend with chronic back problems and he said that his back problems diminished remarkably after including the Turkish Get Up in his program. There is something unique to this movement in that the shoulders and hips seem to rotate around the axis underneath the weight, providing beneficial full range of motion.

I recommend sticking with low repetitions with this movement, unless you’re using it for a warm-up. Even with low reps, the Turkish Get Up can provide quite a metabolism boost. In the following video sequence I’m breaking my PR in the Turkish Get Up using 86.25 pounds (not bad for 6’2″, 188 lbs, and 36 years, if I don’t say so myself). Notice that I’m under the load for roughly 55 seconds. How many of these ‘singles’ do you think I could handle in a workout? I can almost get around a 400m track in that amount of time!

A nice, challenging, simple workout is to do the Turkish Get Up as described above, but to insert an overhead squat once you are in the standing position, then continue with the Turkish Get Up by reversing the movement to the floor, and repeating with the other arm. You could also insert a press once you are in the standing position. I also like to superset Turkish Get Ups with a heavy lower body movement like squats since I use dumbbells for the Turkish Get Up and my bar is free for another movement.

What type of resistance you prefer is up to you. Based upon my experience, a barbell is easier than a dumbbell due to the additional balance provided by the length of the bar. And a kettlebell is easier than a dumbbell because the kettlebell rides a bit lower on the arm. For me, it’s easier to get the dumbbell into position compared to a barbell or a kettlebell.

It is said that back in the day, weightlifters had to Turkish Get Up 100 pounds before they were allowed to learn the Olympic lifts. This exercise is also supposed to be a staple of cage-fighters. 100 pounds is my goal, but I’ll leave the cage fighting to the pros!

Gold Cup Getting Close!

by Al Myers

IAWA Gold Cup 2014

Well the entry deadline has “came and went” for the 2014 IAWA Gold Cup in Burton, England – hosted by Steve Gardner.  This is one of the premier competitions with the IAWA, and attending it is a prestigious occasion for all those involved.  All USAWA members should at least once attend an IAWA Gold Cup.   The USAWA will be represented this year in England by these lifters: Al Myers, LaVerne Myers, Denny Habecker, Frank Ciavattone, and Colleen Lane.  I apologize if I have forgotten someone – and if I have please let me know so I can give you the proper kudos!

Steve is the master lifting promoter, and I’m sure this Gold Cup will be excellent like all of the other events he has promoted in the past.

New Lift – the Turkish Get-Up

The starting position for the Turkish Get-Up.

by Al Myers

This is the only new USAWA lift approved at Nationals that I haven’t highlighted yet with a story.   It is a very unique lift in many ways.   The Turkish Get-Up  is NOT really a new lift as it was a favorite with old-time strongmen, and has been around forever.  It at times was called the “One Arm Get-Up”, and often trained by lifters that also specialized in wrestling, gymnastics or hand-balancing. Guys like Sig Klein loved it.  I first heard of the Turkish Get-Up several years ago when I read Brooks Kubik’s book Dinosaur Training.  In it he described the benefits of this exercise – how it strengthens the stabilizer muscles, improves flexibility, and  increases core strength.  The book mentions the old-time strongman Otto Arco and how he could do a Turkish Get-Up with MORE than his own bodyweight.  That is impressive!

During the rise from the platform, the lifting arm must remain straight.

We have two similar USAWA lifts to the Turkish Get Up – the Half Gardner and Full Gardner.  However, the Turkish Get-Up is a different lift in a couple of ways.  The TGU starts on the floor – the Gardner lifts start standing.  The TGU requires the use of a dumbbell or kettlebell – the Gardner lifts require use of a bar.  It is the “missing link” to the Gardner Lifts. I have mentioned this before but I am going to repeat it again.  This formula “sums” up these three lifts:

Full Gardner = Half Gardner + Turkish Get-Up

Last weekend at the Ledaig Record Day, several of us got to be the first ones to put a Turkish Get-Up record in the USAWA Record List.  This included  Dave Glasgow, Amber Glasgow, Chad Ullom and myself.  The TGU is a very popular exercise for trainees outside of the All-Round crowd.  Just “goggle” Turkish Get-Up and you will see what I am talking about.  The Cross-Fit trainees love this exercise!  But now since the TGU is an official lift of the USAWA, we are the ONLY weightlifting organization that maintains records for it.

Chad Ullom demonstrating the steps of a Turkish Get-Up with a 70 pound kettlebell at the Ledaig Record Day.

The Rules for the Turkish Get-Up

A dumbbell or kettlebell is used for this lift. The lift begins with the lifter lying on his/her back on the platform holding the implement in one hand above the body with a straight arm perpendicular to the platform. Once in this position, an official will give the command to start the lift. The lifter must rise to a standing position, holding the implement overhead with a straight arm throughout. The lifting arm must stay perpendicular to the lifting platform. The lifter may use the free hand to brace against the body or the platform during the execution of the lift, but must not touch the implement or the lifting arm. The implement may rotate in any direction. Once standing with the implement overhead, the implement motionless and the lifter’s feet in line with the body, an official will give a command to end the lift.

The Turkish Get-Up will be included in the updated USAWA Rulebook coming the first of August!

USAWA Getting Involved

By Sanjiv Gupta

In going back through some of the athlete’s biographies on the website and the majority of USAWA athletes were introduced to All-Round Weightlifting by existing members who also competed in Olympic Weightlifting, Powerlifting, Strongman and/or Scottish Highland Games.  No small number of athletes were related to an existing member by blood or marriage.

There are rare occasions when folks like me come across the USAWA via an article in a mainstream publication like The CrossFit Journal or looking up “Bent Press” in an internet search engine.

However, we should keep in mind that these rare occasions are what led to the founding of IAWA and USAWA.  Folks wanted to continue the long-standing tradition of old-time weightlifters and preserve the history of the original forms of weightlifting.

I feel like anybody can compete in All-Round Weightlifting.  In fact, of the (219) lifts in the records list, (161) do not require any special equipment, another (14) require an easily sourced Fulton Bar and another (10) require an easily sourced ring for finger lifts.  The only difficult lifts to train are the (10) requiring a heavy bar and harnesses, Foot Press, and Back Lift.

I started out just doing the Postal Meets and having a lot of fun with it.  $25/year membership was reasonable, and I started experimenting with lifts I had never dreamed of.  My turning point came when I went to the 2023 National Championships and got to meet all the lifters, hear the stories, and find out what has gone on behind the scenes to keep the USAWA alive and relevant.

Now, I want to help grow the USAWA.  The first but not necessarily easiest step is to trick my spouse and children into competing.  A part of that will be securing my status as a Level 1 Official.  This is a somewhat easier task of taking a written exam and completing (3) practical training sessions.  Some of the sessions can be virtual, but at least one should be under the supervision of an existing Level 2 Official.  Finally, I need to rope some of my friends into participating through the Postals, a formal sanctioned meet or an informal throwdown.  You never know when a picture on social media will spark the fire of the next generation of All-Round Weightlifters.

OLD TIME STRONGMAN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP UPDATE

By Clint Poore

Good morning, good afternoon, good day and good night to you!

      We are 4 weeks away from the 2023 OLD TIME STRONGMAN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS and time for an update!

      The 2023 Old Time Strongman Worlds is off to a smoking hot start! We have a current roster, not final roster, of 22 competitors so far!!! The current roster is listed below, if for any reason I missed and did not include someone please let me know ASAP! If you know anyone else interested in competing, let me know and bring them on to the meet!

      WE HAVE A NEW LOCATION! The size of the meet has simply outgrown BUFFVILLE GYM and we are hosting the meet at a 16,000 square foot warehouse just 2 miles from BUFFVILLE GYM! (see photo)

The new address is  2608 North Highway 127 Business in Albany, Kentucky. Located right beside of Hunter’s BBQ. It’s a warehouse building that I own and should be a great location for future USAWA National & IAWA World Championship meets! 2025 Bids are forthcoming and hopeful to be accepted! There will plenty of room to accommodate everyone and 2 bathrooms available all the time. We will have up to 5 referees present at the meet and WORLD RECORDS can be set! 

      All the set up pieces, banners, smoke machine and sound system should be in this week and ready to be assembled!  It will be a great chance to promote the USAWA online with your TikTok, Instagram or Facebook account with the spectacular videos from the meet.

      Please make sure you have a current USAWA MEMBERSHIP. You cannot compete in this meet without a USAWA membership and it can be purchased by clicking on the link ……….

Forms and Applications

      For anyone wanting to set USAWA National Records or IAWA World Records, we will move to BUFFVILLE GYM following the conclusion of the OTSM World Championship. To make sure the Record Day portion goes smoothly, please let me know what national or world records you would like to set or break during the Record Day following the meet, To be fair, there will simply be too many people setting records to look them up the day of the meet, so please have a list of records with you and send me your list before the meet so we can have the proper bars and equipment ready for your awesome records!

You can email your Record Day attempts to me at   clintpoore@hotmail.com

      Also, please bring a portable fold out chair with you. We will have a few chairs available but they will be for referees, spotters, loaders, scores table and staff. If you want a comfortable place to sit, please bring a personal fold-out camping chair with you. 

      With all that said…….. WE ARE EXCITED to have you here in Albany, Kentucky for the 2023 Old Time Strongman World Championships! The team is putting in a spectacular effort to make this an event &meet you will never forget! We look forward to having you with us and look for more updates weekly as we get closer to the competition!  Please feel free to email, call or text me with any questions at 606-688-2600. 

Current US Roster (not the final roster & subject to change)

Holland Millsaps

Chip Hultquist

Brian Gardner

Wendy Gardner

Sarah Waites

David Tompkins

Randy Richey

Ricky Dickerson

Brian Guffey

Tim Spearman

Chris Broughton

Kyle Johnson

John Bunch

Jarrod Gaddis

Anthony Lupo

David Deforest

Phillip Martin

Thom Van Vleck

Denny Habecker

Patrick Hadley

Ashley Stearns

Clint Poore

See you soon & BE STRONG!

Clint Poore

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