Getting up in Asia

Sue and I have recently returned from a 5 week trip in East Asia. The primary focus of the trip was assisting the amazing Immaculate Dissection teaching team in Tokyo and Taipei. For avid travellers such as ourselves, however, flying that vast distance without taking the opportunity to sample more of the region’s wonders would seem like madness. And so we added a week in South Korea, another one (hiking) in Hokkaido and a few days exploring Osaka. I won’t spend any more time on the holiday-making part of the trip as that would require an entire lengthy post to itself, except just to say that we had a fantastic time!

If you are a health, fitness or wellness professional, you should really check out an Immaculate Dissection seminar. These series of 2 day seminars bring gross anatomy to life through unique body painting whilst exploring powerful assessment techniques and corrective exercise. You won’t believe how much knowledge can be packed into 2 days!

In addition to anatomy, palpation and muscle testing, every ID seminar focuses on a few key exercises. The primary exercise ‘dissected’ in ID II: Lower Extremity Concepts is the get-up, both the well-known Turkish get-up and a variation called the Czech get-up that mimics an infant’s developmental progression. Like so many in the health and fitness world, we love these exercises! There’s a good reason why, if only allowed to choose one exercise, many would choose the get-up. In fact, here are 20 reasons:

1. Promotes total body stability in all 3 planes of motion

2. Trains the ability to get down to and up from the floor with ease, important for health and often lost in later life

3. Trains the ability to move the upper body from the core and not the neck

4. Promotes cross lateralization (getting right brain to work with left side)

5. Takes your body through all the phases of gait so a great diagnostic, especially for runners

6. Ties the right arm to the left leg, and left arm to the right leg

7. Gets the upper and lower extremities working reciprocally

8. Promotes reflexive stability of the trunk and extremities

9. Stimulates the vestibular system, which contributes to balance

10. Stimulates the visual system, which contributes to balance

11. Stimulates the proprioception system, which contributes to balance

12. Develops a front/back weight shift

13. Develops upper body strength, trunk strength, and hip strength

14. Closed and open chain shoulder stability

15. Thoracic extension and rotation

16. The ability to perform a good get up on each side should be a prerequisite for bilateral loading exercises such as a deadlift or squat

17. Stability in two different leg patterns – lunge stance and squat stance

18. Single leg hip stability during the half kneel and lunge phases

19. A great warm up and self-assessment tool – try performing a controlled get-up on either side to check how your whole body is feeling before you train

20. So easy to perform, even your dog can do it

Okay, you’ve probably guessed that number 20 is a big old fib. But, to be honest, I could probably add a few more to this list without being too repetitive. In actuality, get-ups are a little complicated, especially at first. But part of the reason for this is also one of the most significant benefits of the exercise: that it isn’t just one single movement pattern, rather, it’s an impressive combination of sequencing stability and mobility throughout all segments of the body. Each component of the get-up is an exercise in its own right, and the transitions between components are integral and challenges in themselves. Basically, there’s a lot of exercise bang for your buck!

But with these rewards comes a risk. In this case, it’s the high frequency of points in the routine where faulty movement patterns or lack of core stability can present a real problem. Of course, no exercise should be performed with bad mechanics, but one with as many steps as the get-up comes with that many more chances to do something wrong. This is why it’s so important to break the exercise down and practice each section of it until the full flow can be performed correctly. We often give clients and patients the first phase of the get-up by itself as it’s a great core exercise and, if done well, can help correct many neck and shoulder problems. However, if done badly using the neck or momentum to propel the body upwards, it can make upper body issues worse.

In summary, if you’re not doing this exercise, you should be. And if you don’t know how to, or are feeling a little shaky about your form, we’d be happy to show you. Just book in a session at Backs Etc. and you’ll soon be gettin’ down with the get-up!