Dutch Get Ups

The ‘Dutch Get Up’ is my attempt at a humorous play on words. The Turkish Get Up is beginning to get some serious love these days (and we chatted about it here). I’m a huge fan of the movement as it combines movement, posture, strength and endurance. I find sometimes that my ability to single mindedly focus on one or two exercises for two or three months at a time is perhaps not shared by the bulk of the gym going population.

In their fantastic DVD, Kettlebells from the Ground Up 2, Brett Jones, Dr Mark Cheng and Jeff O’Connor dissected and reassembled the TGU. The revelation here is that there is one Windmill ‘hidden’ in the TGU and the possibility to perform a further two Windmills.

So to accommodate the need for more variety in my group training sessions I started to teach what I coined ‘Dutch Get Ups’, Turkish Get Ups which contain up to five different Windmills (This is the point where I hope more than half of you get what I did there).

The Dutch Get Up is what I would call an excellent expression of Iron Yoga. Further to just adding the extra windmills there are a multitude of other add-ons that can add a huge amount of variability to your TGU practice. But these are extensions and progressions that you have to earn by practicing the foundational skills.

So, what’s the point of adding all these extras? Apart from the fact that it can be fun to play around, it allows us to investigate similar yet slightly different movement patterns. Possibly revealing restrictions we haven’t previously found or allowing us to become even more robust and awesome by learning to transfer force in different planes (this being applicable to any combat, contact or obstacle sport).

So, firstly own your TGU. Secondly, pimp it out! Add some variety. You aren’t ‘meant’ to do just one version of the Get Up. Make it your own!

If you need help pimping out your TGU, find a StrongFirst or FMS qualified instructor in your area.

Be fit, be strong, be happy!