Our last round of the second round of the Strength and Endurance beta test has been incredibly fun, and equally challenging. Our group has been going through routines that demand a lot of long cycle strength routines, not to mention a lot of conditioning work. We are laying the foundation for the next round of coaching, where I will be releasing the first month of my kettlebell and and endurance training to gear up for some Spartan fun in 2017. Stay tuned for that one!
Speaking of training, I was asked a really interesting question a few weeks ago from one of my buddies in obstacle racing about how to increase grip strength. This brings me to a particular lift in the kettlebell world, for a particular reason. If there is one lift I can think of that carries over into serious grip strength, not to mention full body strength, it would be the Turkish get up.
The Turkish Get Up, a lift that requires full body strength, and a ton of grip work. This single lift starts from the floor and ends as we stand tall, only to reverse the entire lift. To give you all a break down of how to maneuver through the lift, check out this video.
For more information on the technique of the Turkish Get Up, please click this link.
Now, obviously we have to grip our kettlebell with a certain level of tension to stabilize the weight through the lift. What we can do to increase overall strength, especially with our grip, is to stack one turkish get up on to the other. The more time we spend having to grip and stabilize the weight above our head, the more likely we can expect our grip work to increase over time as well.
The Turkish Get Up Ladder
If you are looking to increase your strength and conditioning, all while challenging your grip, train the turkish get up, especially as a laddered system of turkish get ups. To give you an idea of how this is set up, take a look at the set up below.
1 TGU R and 1 TGU L
2 TGU R and 2 TGU L
3 TGU r and 3 TGU L
What you will do is complete 1 turkish get up on the right and left arm. Next set, you will do a turkish get ups in a row on right and left arms. Finally, you will complete 3 consecutive turkish get ups on the right and left arm. Once all three rungs of the ladder are complete, start back up at 1 Turkish get up per arm. What this ladder will do is not only develop full body strength and conditioning, but it will facilitate proper grip strength on every rung of the ladder. Without rest between reps 2 and 3 on the ladder, you will have to grip your weight very tightly to move through the sequence.
Here’s a video of the breakdown of the TGU ladder itself.
Ready for more? Train this ladder 2x a week for the next three weeks for 15 minutes each station. On your fourth week, test a kettlebell size heavier than what you started with, within a 5-10 pound margin. You should notice that the increase in strength comes easily, and that you are not as fatigued when you test the weight due to your increase conditioning.
That’s it for today folks! Do stay tuned for our next text round of the first month of kettlebell and endurance training. Until next time. .
Press on!
