I rarely do Turkish Get Ups anymore. But I do restoration work on a near-daily basis to make sure I can move and express my strength and do the exercises I want.
By using this restoration kettlebells community program (link above), and doing a little bit every day, I can do a 48kg TGU on any given day without practicing it. And that’s enough for me.
Intelligently Mix Push Presses in with Your Clean + Presse here For Faster Pressing Strength ‘GAINZ’
https://salutis.kartra.com/page/giant-xA Marine ignored my instructor during a Turkish Get Up.
His triceps gave out. The kettlebell hit him in the jaw.
Broke his jaw. Knocked his teeth onto the floor.
That's one reason the TGU has lost favor in much of the kettlebell community.
But there's a second reason nobody talks about — and it's why the TGU never did a single positive thing for my Military Press in 25 years of training.
Here's what actually worked instead.
December 2009. I'm lying on my back in my spare bedroom.
I have two torn labrums — two tears in my left hip, one in my right. Twenty-five years of knee pain. I'd been using a performance mobility system so aggressively it had stripped out all my compensatory movement patterns and left me with zero reflexive core stability.
I pick up a 16kg kettlebell to attempt a Turkish Get Up.
I literally cannot get up.
Not "it was hard." Not "it took a few attempts." Pinned to the floor. No matter how many times I practiced it.
By September 2010 — nine months later — I was doing a 48kg TGU.
Not by practicing the TGU.
By rebuilding the foundation underneath it.
WHY THE TGU IS A TEST — NOT A TEACHER:
The TGU screens the human developmental sequence — the movement patterns your body should own before loading.
But here's the problem most people miss:
Practicing a test over and over doesn't mean you're learning the thing being tested.
What fixed my TGU wasn't more get-ups. It was going back and identifying exactly which components of the developmental sequence were missing — specifically reflexive core stability — and rebuilding them.
Once the foundation was reinstalled, the TGU reappeared. Without a single practice rep.
The RKC2 case study: A certified instructor was stuck at 28kg on her TGU. She stopped doing get-ups entirely and spent six weeks working only on reflexive core stability components. Six weeks later: 32kg TGU on both sides.
Zero get-ups during that entire period.
WHY THE TGU NEVER HELPED MY MILITARY PRESS:
Many in the kettlebell community swear the TGU improves the Military Press.
For some people, that's absolutely true.
For me — across 25 to 30 years of training — the TGU never did a single positive thing for my press.
What did?
The Push Press.
WHY THE PUSH PRESS WORKS:
The Push Press is a press you initiate with your legs — using momentum to drive the bells overhead when your upper body alone isn't strong enough to grind them up.
Two mechanisms make it work:Mechanism 1 — Overload on the way up. Your legs help you move more weight than you can strict press. Your upper body adapts to handling heavier loads.
Mechanism 2 — Overload on the way down. Lowering a heavier-than-you-can-press bell back to the rack — whether passively or actively — is eccentric overload. Eccentrics build strength.
Overload is one of the primary mechanisms of strength development. The Push Press delivers it in both directions.
IF YOUR TGU HAS STALLED:
If you've been practicing the TGU longer than you'd like to admit without progress — you're probably failing the test for the same reason I was.
Something in the human developmental sequence is missing. Most likely reflexive core stability.
The fix isn't more TGU practice. It's rebuilding what's underneath it.
My wife — a Doctor of Physical Therapy — and I built a restoration program specifically for this.
If your Military Press has stalled despite active pressing work — drop the TGU for a period and run the Push Press instead. You don't have to drop the Military Press. Mixing the two in the same training cycle often produces the best pressing results.