[00:00:00] James Breese: Strength Matters Media. Video. Print. Podcasts.
[00:00:05] Josh Kennedy: Today's topic is the 60 minute Turkish get up test. Yes, you heard me correctly. It is indeed the 60 minute Turkish get up test. We are not mental and we don't just give this test to any old person. There is a specific criteria you need to get to in order to warrant to get this test, which we will talk about in this podcast.
[00:00:26] Josh Kennedy: James, do you want to talk about Why and how and what on earth with the 60 minute Turkish get up
[00:00:32] James Breese: test? The number of times we've been called mental for doing this is incredible. Quite literally incredible. And I understand it from the old way of thinking about things. Well, it
[00:00:46] Josh Kennedy: sounds a bit crazy, doesn't it?
[00:00:48] Josh Kennedy: Sounds a bit crazy.
[00:00:49] James Breese: Absolutely. Absolutely. But we've got to put it into context of where we introduce this for the athletes that we're working with and who we're trying to help and what it's for. So, [00:01:00] yes, the old days of FMS, RKC, Strong First. It was all about the one perfect getaway. Get your goniomas out.
[00:01:07] James Breese: And it's the most perfect of perfect getups and thinking about that. It was all well and good. That was the mid 2000s where they were debating how Turkish getups should be done and how they should be executed to let cows come home. And I was privy to many of these conversations which bored the bejesus out of me.
[00:01:24] James Breese: But that's a whole different thing altogether. But what the, the main thing is understanding is this, that a lot of people have focused on, yes, you want to do... You know, it's a gracious movement. It's a quality movement. It knits the body from top to toe in terms of strength. And I think it's a fantastic exercise everybody should do.
[00:01:41] James Breese: So we do. We want to teach it. We teach get ups as a staple for all of our training programs. However, there gets a point where somebody owns this movement 100%, right? And we want to add weight. However, we don't always want to add too much weight because too much weight can get sometimes stupid. If you're a [00:02:00] lot of people i've seen trying to chase the beast get up Which is a kettlebell get up with Turkish get up with a 48 kilos.
[00:02:07] James Breese: It's just way too much for them And there's there's potential to get Injured, there's potential for things to go wrong, i. e. fall on your face, right? Which is all well and good for really advanced people. However, what we're looking for is work capacity and this idea of athletes to have this all day strong mentality.
[00:02:24] James Breese: I remember this phrase by Mark Rifkin, actually, from the kettlebell world, with this idea of all day strong. It's always stuck with me. And in terms of our hierarchy of athletic development, we have this thing called mental resilience. So what are some of the mental resilience tests that we can do? Well, a 10k run is potentially one of them.
[00:02:39] James Breese: And we feel, in terms of strength training, we have this thing called the 60 minute Turkish get up test. Now, you do have to earn the right to get there, but I promise you this, once you get there, it is definitely a test of mental resilience. Right? But, you have to own the movement for it. We're not going to give you and say, hey, go with [00:03:00] X weight and do as many reps in an hour.
[00:03:02] James Breese: That is stupid. It's an advanced test. For an advanced athlete or everyday athlete and you've got to earn new rights to get there So lots of reasons why we do it. Yeah,
[00:03:12] you
[00:03:12] Josh Kennedy: have to be proficient in the movement first
[00:03:14] James Breese: And it's not about before you go anywhere near this test and it's not doing that multiple reps badly.
[00:03:19] James Breese: It's about doing them really well But for us, this is a true expression of this mental resilience, work capacity, and this idea that you can keep on going all day and just replenish your battery. It's all about this thing that we call the strength battery, right? You want to recover as fast as you can to keep going and going and going.
[00:03:36] James Breese: That's what life's all about. We want athletes that can just keep on going. Not burn out after three to five reps, which is what they normally test out on. So for us, it's about this work capacity and resilience that goes beyond just cardiovascular capacity. It's a strength resilience and teaching the body to move efficiently.
[00:03:56] James Breese: Underload and have that economy so they can last that full [00:04:00] 60 minutes, right? I think that's a good way to give a rough idea in the background of where this was born from But am I missing anything out there josh? No, I don't
[00:04:08] Josh Kennedy: think so Um, I was gonna say I think that the turkish get up done. Well is a beautiful expression of movement mobility strength Um, it is a really graceful movement when you can do one When you can do one properly and you can do one well, you've got good technique, which is obviously what we build people up to.
[00:04:26] Josh Kennedy: And at layer 2 2, we have a get up test, which is five continuous reps on each side, which, you know, often people struggle with that test in itself. So there's no way if you can't do that test, then there's no way we're gonna go and tell you to do 60 minutes of Turkish get up. So you have to earn the right.
[00:04:44] Josh Kennedy: Um, and you know, you have to work your way towards that 60 minute test. So, um, Uh, get up test as well. Do you want to talk a little bit about training for it or how we could potentially train for it?
[00:04:55] James Breese: Well, I think as well, we're going to cover the fact that there's weight categories to this as well. I think we've got to [00:05:00] mention the fact that it's not just, hey, pick up an eight kilo weight and just go for as many get ups as you can.
[00:05:05] James Breese: It's all based on body weight. So, for men, if you're under 68 kilos, it's 20 kilos. Under, I think, 80 kilos, it's 24 kilos. And above 80 kilos, it's 28 kilos. So, it's all dependent on body weight. And the same with women. Anything under 58 kilos, it's 12 kilos. And anything above 58 kilos, it's 16 kilos as part of the Gator Test.
[00:05:27] James Breese: So, there's weight categories to this. And that's what the preceding test is all about. Layer 2. 2 is all about us having this. Can they do five continuous reps on the right hand side with your body weight, with your, uh, category weight and do it on the left hand side as well. So that's the prerequisite. So we're not going to even attempt this test until they can do this and do this well.
[00:05:48] James Breese: And that's the, the key to it. Okay. It's movement economy with precision under load, which I think is the highest, one of the highest forms of expression and strength training I believe that you can do. And it turns [00:06:00] you into absolute mutants as a, as an athlete from what we've seen.
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[00:06:38] James Breese: call@strengthmatters.com slash website today.
[00:06:42] Josh Kennedy: And as and as you say, for us, it's all about being, as you said, all day strong and having great, uh, work capacity. Muscular endurance, strength endurance, you know, across all the, um, across all the facets of movement and strength and it's about training someone up because we had a, um, [00:07:00] one of our clients who's got the best score ever, Jerome, who worked with us, uh, a couple of years back.
[00:07:05] Josh Kennedy: What was he got? 100 and was it 164 reps? I want to say off the top of my head, which is absolutely incredible. Uh, and he did provide us with video. Evidence of, uh, the test and I have to say his technique was flawless. So I can't, I can't argue with it because when I, when I saw that score, I was like, my God, that's, uh, that's amazing.
[00:07:27] Josh Kennedy: But we didn't just throw Jerome into that test. We'd built him up. He'd done loads of, uh, mixed modal with the get ups at lighter weights and he worked up to You know, doing 60 minutes of continuous work in a, in a mixed modal setting. So not just 60 minutes of get ups, he'd done some cyclical work with some get ups, with some, um, uh, core work or upper body work, whatever it was.
[00:07:50] Josh Kennedy: He'd done all sorts of stuff and he was. He already had great work capacity, which is why we felt confident about giving him this test in the first place.
[00:07:58] James Breese: Exactly. And it's not [00:08:00] just Geron, there's loads of, loads of the women passed it as well. Like, I think Lydia was the first person who did it, Jeannie did it as well.
[00:08:05] James Breese: I think there are fantastic examples of, of doing it at those, at those weight categories. And again, the baseline for us is over 100 reps. I, however, ideally, we'd love to see 120 minimum. And that, which gives you approximately, well, no, bang on to a minute. Basically left side, 30 seconds, right side, 30 seconds.
[00:08:23] James Breese: And that's the level of intensity. You always get into a flow like state while doing it. And that's what we're trying to look for as they're trying to build onto it. It's a great test, you have to earn the right to get there, and to do it in terms of training, you're right, mix modality work, build it up slowly, like you could add a stop with a clock, do lighter weights to begin with, so 16 kilos for 10 minutes, 15, 20, 24, whatever you want, 28, 30, you know, build it up slowly, then add weight and add volume, so we go for the volume approach first, and then we add weight when we're doing the longevity piece to go for longer.
[00:08:58] James Breese: Yes, you can get stronger by [00:09:00] going heavier, But if you can lift a 48 kilo kettlebell once, great, it means you're strong. I haven't yet seen somebody who can lift that 48 kilo and then go and do this test straight away after. Oh my god,
[00:09:11] Josh Kennedy: can you imagine someone doing the 60 minute test with a 48 kilo?
[00:09:15] James Breese: I bet there'd be somebody out there who gives it a go now.
[00:09:17] James Breese: That's, that's it, that's our beast challenge. That's our beast challenge now, right? We don't recommend that by the way. No, we don't. Definitely, definitely not. But it gives you something to work with. And if you want the standards and levels to aim for, that's us. Not us, it's us. If you want a really well rounded athlete who's strong, who owns the movement, who owns strength, and can recover quickly, it's a fantastic test.
[00:09:39] James Breese: And I implore you to give it a go, at your peril. I was
[00:09:42] Josh Kennedy: going to say, potentially, give it a go, or rather, maybe don't give it a go, but maybe work yourself up to it. Um, and as you say, in a, uh, in a mixed, nice, easy, mixed modal setting is, uh, is a good way to go for it. Uh, James, is there anything you want to add before we wrap
[00:09:58] James Breese: up for today?
[00:09:59] James Breese: Do you know what my, my [00:10:00] favourite way of preparing for this? is doing a 250 meter row, so do 250 meters in an X time, say a minute, okay, let's just do it in a minute, okay? And then you program the row so it's a minute on or a minute off. And in that minute off, you time yourself to get off there and do those two get ups in between and you go back and forth between the two.
[00:10:18] James Breese: I think that's one of my, you know, in the world of kettlebell terms, the program minimum, it's like, that's my, one of my ideal workouts to go to the combined capacity. Resilience right there because 15 20 minutes in you will feel that you will feel that the right intensity So there you go. Just give that a go to help build it up before now.
[00:10:35] James Breese: No, it's
[00:10:35] Josh Kennedy: great workout. Nice Yeah, nice and simple really good workout. And that is it for today Please don't forget to rate review and subscribe And if you want to find out more about our system of training go to strength matters comm forward slash system and get our free ebook