All about the Turkish Getup
(Pilates)
BENEFITS & MUSCLES WORKED: Stability, mobility, endurance, muscular elasticity, core (a great all-rounder)
START POSITION: Sit on the floor alongside a dumbbell. Please pick up the weight and hold it tight into your belly, close to your hips. Slowly rock back from your hips (it’s easier if you bend your knees to encourage the weight to push you back, which helps prevent stress on your lower back). Support the weight with the other hand as you roll back onto your back.
Straighten the dumbbell arm directly above your shoulder, keeping it very straight up through your wrist. Place the other arm out to the side, at a 90° angle to the raised arm. Bend the leg that is on the same side as your raised arm so that the foot is flat to the floor, and slide the foot outwards slightly, just beyond shoulder width. The other leg should also be slightly wider than the shoulders and resting on the back of the heel with toes pointing upwards.
Now take a deep breath because the Turkish Getup takes a lot of effort and concentration to master.
NOTES: Difficulty Rating: 92%
To begin, press vertically upwards with your shoulder. Push up with the other arm from the floor until the elbow is supporting more weight. That hand should be flat on the floor now. Push up again with the same arm by straightening your elbow, and your hand will slide in slightly, allowing you to get more of your body weight behind the dumbbell as you push it up. Your eyes should be pinned on the dumbbell, and your head will be tilted back to allow this.
Next, you should push the foot of your bent leg into the floor to raise your hips. Your hands and feet will naturally twist and turn to achieve your objective, but keep your eyes fixed on the dumbbell. Now you can push up again (with the hand flat on the floor), which will bring your body into a straighter position. Now you are halfway up. If you’re a beginner, you can stop here and reverse the whole sequence to bring the dumbbell back down to the floor in a straight line.
Learn the full Turkish Getup in smaller ‘chunks’ – it can be divided into three more manageable sections: two for the upward move and one for the reverse descent.
I recommend practising the first half of the exercise repeatedly until you can do it easily without overthinking. Then do the second part of the exercise:
Slide your knee along the floor so that it is underneath your hip somewhere, so that your foot is now on the floor behind you. Slide your foot in and rotate forward a little from your hip. Keep looking up at the dumbbell and slide your feet and knees as needed to achieve a comfortable, straddled kneeling position. From here, you should be able to stand up by pushing hard down through your front thigh, whilst sliding your rear foot along the ground to rest next to your other foot (side by side).
Now you’ll need to reverse the actions back to the start position.
The Turkish Getup is just about the most complicated Start Position of all the gym and pilates exercises, and the whole movement has so many points where you can make a mistake in Form. Be warned that while the Turkish Getup offers fantastic all-around athletic benefits, if performed incorrectly, it can have the opposite effect and harm you. Please take some time to master the startup position before attempting the whole move. The objective is to move the dumbbell from the start position upwards in a straight line as high as possible using only your body and the floor. Everything else moves around that one objective.
Please persevere with the Turkish Getup; it is truly remarkable and will be a significant achievement. I don’t see many people in gyms doing this one, let alone with perfect form.
If you struggle with learning the form, try breaking down the whole sequence into 3 or 4 sub-sequences until you can perform the entire thing in one fluid, controlled, and stable move.
I classify this exercise as Advanced, but it is worth mastering.
I like this page—a great video showing the proper Form of the Turkish Getup (external).
Here’s another good one. Go on. Give it a try! Imagine how accomplished you will feel when you have mastered this little gem and added it to your exercise repertoire! (external).