Thursday, May 2, 2013

Turkish Get-ups

I need to get back into Turkish Get-ups (TGU's)..  Talking to a couple of like-minded gents last night, the topic of how awesome TGU's are as an exercise came up.  One can work on them in different ways throughout the year, thus keeping this great motor-pattern in your movement vocab.

Two common recommendations for the exercise are:
 1) Do 2 or 3 sets of very heavy 'tonic' strength work at the beginning of your workout (the movement and stabilization effort mean that you don't want to do this heavy mid-way, or near the end of your workout). 

2) Do the exercise at a lighter weight for timed sets.  I must admit I leaned more in the 'tonic' direction when I was training it regularly.  Might try this one too, this time..

HERE is an article from a few years back of an EMG (Electromyography) study of the mean and peak activation of different ab and 'core' exercises for rectus abdominus; internal and external obliques and spine erectors.  TGU rates best 'all-rounder' it the peak activation statistics, and has lots of other benefits to it above and below the trunk.

One thing I really like about TGU's is the effect that training yourself to move around your straight arm (which is holding a big weight) has on the strength-control aspect of the muscles around the arm and shoulder.  It's almost like training the pecs, lats and traps to act more like a secondary rotator cuff (at least that's how it feels in my body). 

My PB for the TGU was 56kg at a body-weight of 71kg (Kit shaved an extra kilo off for me on the youtube description!).. not quite full body-weight, but close enough for me to want to try for this in the future.  HERE I'm doing a 48kg with some bizarre music for ambiance.  

I'd love to have a base strength workout of TGU's; Weighted chin-ups and deadlifts for a year  (and fill in my other training with movement patterning, skill and agility work).  Finding somewhere with a barbell to deadlift in the winter may have to be investigated..  


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