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Of late I’ve been adding the Turkish Get-Up (TGU) to my own workouts more than ever. About two months ago I witnessed my neighbor take a spill while working in her yard. She lives on a slope and when she fell, she was unable to catch herself, resulting in a broken right arm and broken left hand. She is my age. Since that day the TGU has been coming to mind over and over.

By adding it to my program I’ve also gone through a cycle of self-realization. One, progress comes more rapidly when I get completely uncomfortable. You know that whole “suck it up Buttercup” thing. Secondly, the brain and central nervous system play a huge role in Turkish Get-up.

I’m strong, that’s not a secret. But I lean to the rather uncoordinated side for sure. In example, some folks take to the snatch and overhead squat like they were born to do them both. Me? It took months and months of skill drills to improve on both of those movements. Same with the TGU.

The TGU shows the uncoordinated and off-center balance I have and the need for unilateral training better than anything else I’ve ever done.

I have also begun adding the TGU to clients training protocols as well. The pictures below are of one of my clients. She turns 65 years young on Friday. She is just as concerned with functional fitness and mobility as I am. She successfully completed 3 sets of TGU yesterday. We both learned a lot about where our focus needs to shift in her training. She gladly allowed me to take these photo’s to share with you. And BTW, at a few days shy of 65, she can dead-lift her own body weight.