Don't Drop The Dumbbell On Your Face: A Guide To The Turkish Get-Up

Workout date: 12/4/15

Friday marked my 5th day in a row of working out at the gym.  I could tell that I was starting to run a little low on energy, but my plan was to enjoy a rest day on Saturday, so as long as the Friday WOD wasn't too awful, I'd get one last workout in to cap off the week.  It would be even better if the WOD was something I was interested in doing.  Maybe a workout like...

"Grace"
30 clean and jerks (135/95)

Ahhh Grace...a workout that is beautiful in its simplicity.  Pick the barbell up from the ground, get it to your shoulders, then put it over your head.  Repeat 29 more times.  Definitely a one-song workout, although I would choose a song with an instrumental break in it just to be safe.  I had completed Grace in under 3 and a half minutes three times already, with my best time being 3:10.  Would today be the day I broke 3 minutes?

Before we got to that, we did some shoot through work.  This was my first class with one of our newest coaches, Clayton.  He had us do a tabata that included shoot throughs and rowing.  For those who don't remember shoot throughs, they require a set of paralettes (think white U-shaped piping).  You start in a push-up position with your hands on the paralettes, do a push-up, then shoot your legs through the paralettes so that you are in a dip position.  Do the dip, then shoot your legs back through the paralettes to the push-up position you began in.  Oh, and don't let your feet hit the floor.  The first sign that this might not be my day came during this tabata.  Usually I'm good for a few legit shoot throughs, but I'm pretty sure my grand total of legit shoot throughs this day was zippo.  My feet scraped the floor on the way back in the early rounds and then I wasn't even close on the later rounds.  Perhaps two rest days was the way to go.

No biggie.  Grace was up next and this was my last shot this year at breaking three minutes.  Did a few warmups, thought a little bit about strategy, but more than anything I just wanted to get going.  I tend to overthink workouts much more complex than this one.  Let's just start the clock and see how well I do.  A few minutes later, I got my wish.  I started off by stringing the first six reps.  Quick break, then three more reps.  Another break, then three more reps before dropping the barbell.  12 reps down, 1 minute in, on pace to crack three minutes.

The second minute didn't go so well.  Once I got to 12 reps, I knew I couldn't string reps the rest of the way.  Like always, I was trying my best to control my breathing, but these sprints are tough for me.  As my breathing became more rapid, I was losing the ability to keep my core tight during each clean and jerk.  The result was some shaky jerks.  I wasn't having a lot of trouble cleaning the bar, but getting the bar overhead was becoming much more difficult.  Tired guy + loss of extra energy = more rest needed.  When the clock hit 2 minutes, I had only completed 19 reps.  Breaking three minutes wasn't happening today.

If I could have gotten through 21-22 reps by the two minute mark, then maybe I could have held it together to finish in less than three minutes, but there was no chance I was getting 11 reps in 59 seconds.  I kept churning through reps, hoping that I could at least finish near my personal best of 3:10.  I got a little bit of a second wind as I got to my last three reps, but it wasn't enough to set a new PR.  Final time: 3:21.

That's still a solid time and I wasn't disappointed with it, especially given that I had a hunch early on that I might not be operating at 100% this day.  But getting under that three minute threshold will be one of my goals for 2016.

Advent challenge #4 was finding a max weight for your turkish get-up.  What's a turkish get-up?  Having never done one before, I was probably the wrong person to ask.  However, I had seen Jim and Jess Calciano do approximately 10,000 of these, so I had a general idea of what a turkish get-up was. Here is my very amateurish description of this movement.  While laying on the ground, you hold a heavy object over your head (usually a dumbbell or a KB).  You then contort your body a few times until you can stand with the object over your head.  Then you basically throw it into reverse and contort your way back down to a lying position.  The key to the movement seems to be not dropping the barbell on your face.  I believe in Crossfit parlance that is a "no rep".

I watched Clayton show us how to do the turkish get-up, but the whole thing seemed very unnatural to me.  I was in class with Kevin and Chris and watched them as well, hoping to memorize the steps in the right order so that I could do this smoothly.  It took a while, but eventually I got the gist of it.  I began this human version of Twister mixed with Jenga by using a 35 pound KB.  I went ridiculously slow and needed help along the way as I kept forgetting what to do next, but I kept the KB over my head.  Using the KB felt awkward though, so I switched to a dumbbell from there on out.  I managed to get up with 45 pounds, then 55 pounds, before calling it a day after completing a turkish get-up with 65 pounds.  Did the movement still feel awkward at the end?  Did I have real concerns that I would drop a heavy dumbbell on my face?  Yes and yes.  I'll see you when you come up in class again next year, turkish get-up!

Sunday preview: After a rest day on Saturday, the mature gentlemen of KOP get together to lift heavy weights, tackle girl WODs, and drink beer.