Get Up . . . or Die Young (er)!

That's right. A major study showed that people who were less able to get up from the floor were more likely to die young. So what can be done to help people stay strong for getting up from the floor and doing it NOW so they can live longer?

Enter The Turkish Get Up (TGU).

​The TGU consists of a series of moves in which you go from lying on your back to a standing position and then reversing your action to go from standing up to lying on your back.

Dan Swinscoe, DPT, CSCS of Peak Sports and Spine in Issaquah, Washington, presented a full day course for our PT’s and a few trainers from the Peak Health and Wellness Center on the use of kettlebells for clinicians. Dan went through the specifics on how to perform a Turkish Get Up and to help people who practice the TGU live longer!

Actually, there’s more to it than that. The TGU consists of at least six different exercises or moves all wrapped into one exercise. It includes an oblique sit up, shoulder press, plank, bridge, squat, and lunge. Doing the exercise can certainly improve your ability to go from the floor to standing. But it’s a tremendous exercise for building total body core and limb stability and strength . . . not to mention having a huge conditioning and stamina component. Check out a 1-minute video on how to do a TGU by clicking here.

Dan covered many other ways to help our patients gain improved mobility and stabile using a variety of kettlebell exercises.

​What a super day it was to have Dan over. It was designed to be an Alpine Appreciation Day as a means of saying thanks to our entire professional PT staff. In that vein, thanks to Dan Swinscoe and to all our PTs at Alpine Physical Therapy!