Get Up Revelations
Get Up + Tactical Get Up + Tactical Club Get Up
I once hated Get Ups.
While attending certifications with certain StrongFirst Master SFGs and Team Leaders, I witnessed dictatorial cueing and fanaticism around irrelevant and minute details of the movement.
This zealotry ultimately weakening students’ enthusiasm for the movement. Such a pity: the Get up is the definition of strength in motion. Its components build and refine our individual biomechanics through choreographed precision.
In the StrengthAxis System, the first standard for the Get Up is to achieve beautiful and crisp form. And although standards matter, there is wiggle room in individual interpretations of each movement to suit the athlete’s needs.
What feels strong? What feels precise? What modifications must be individualized?
In Get Up Revelations, I write about how I fell in love with Get Ups. They are one of the most functional movements in the kettlebell lexicon and embody the concept of What the Hell Effects. Do more with less. The Get Up delivers.
The Get Up engrains six distinctive movement patterns that build myriad attributes.
My inspiration for writing Get Up Revelations is my pursuit of tactical pistol and carbine shooting. Moving well with a firearm enhances preparedness. The Get Up stands alone as the ideal movement to create tactical movement performance.
John Parker
July 4, 2023
The Get Up deserves recognition. Each completed repetition contains six distinct movements: their individual components focusing concentration and determination, their integration producing full-body strength and precise movement capacity.
The Get Up dissolves the reliance on “body part” training. Instead, kettlebell athletes honor the true kinetics of human movement. There is no better way to bombproof the shoulders, midsection, and hips than expertly employed and adequately loaded get ups.
Half-Bodyweight Get Up: 40kg at 167lbs Bodyweight.
The Get Up
The Kettlebell Get Up is a pinnacle of StrongFirst’s SFG I training. It is the second movement taught to course candidates after the swing. StrongFirst drills this movement until students can execute each phase with expert-level ability.
The Get Up can be trained with light, medium, or heavy loads. I have found that 16-20kg for women, and 32kg+ for men is a sweet spot for advancing Get Up training. A focus on shoulder and midsection bracing is paramount during all Get Up attempts.
The Get Up builds tremendous connection: From the kettlebell to grip, the shoulder must be packed while the midsection must support the full base of the movement. The hips serve to balance a strong and stable spine, while the lower extremities maintain balance of the kettlebell athlete. The Get Up is a “full body” movement.
Author’s Note: The Get Up is extremely beneficial for the beginning kettlebell athlete to learn the importance of locking the ribcage on the pelvis while also packing the shoulder. Because so many individuals lack the connection of the shoulder to the hip (through the lats and midsection musculature), the Get Up ensures that the body moves as one unit.
Get Up Carryover
When performed with tactile precision, the Get Up has a functional and demonstrable carryover to lifting and other physical tasks. Characterized as “What the Hell Effects,” proper shoulder and midsection bracing builds increased resiliency and strength.
The Get Up directly improves:
The Swing
The Snatch
The Clean
The Military Press
The Front Squat
Author’s Note: If you’re new to the concept of “What the Hell Effects,” (WTHE) think about it like this: If you could perform a lift with an emphasis on proper breathing, bracing, and movement patterns that improved the foundation and function of your other lifts without even training them, would you do it? I would too. WTHE are real.
The Get Up teaches the kettlebell athlete to organize their body into one unit for the task at hand. In this example, I perform a 200lb sandbag pick + stand. The midsection bracing of the Get Up carries over to keeping tight in awkward positions to lift objects like heavy stones or sandbags.
Get Up Standards
The Get Up is performed with intention: relying on technique, total-body tension, and with beautiful and crisp form.
The athlete uses one or both hands to safely lift the kettlebell off the ground to the starting position. They use one or both hands to safely lower the kettlebell to the ending position.
The athlete maintains a fully locked elbow on the working arm during the Get Up.
The athlete maintains a fully locked elbow and packed shoulder on the support arm throughout the tall sit of both the Get Up and Get Down.
The athlete maintains a neutral midsection during both the tall sit to standing on the Get Up and from standing to the tall sit of the Get Down.
The athlete’s heel on the kettlebell side stays planted during the sweep, lunge to standing and during the reverse lunge and sweep of the Get Down.
During the Get Down, the knee touches the deck without impact into the half kneeling position.
The athlete’s arm holding the kettlebell maintains a vertical orientation throughout the duration of the Get Up and Get Down.
At the standing position, the athlete’s knees and hips remained locked while the midsection stays packed and neutral.
Get Up Attributes
A potent builder of strong shoulders, midsection, and hips.
A means of moving a heavy kettlebell through precise and direct movements into a standing overhead position.
The Get Up is “strength in motion” that utilizes “breathing behind the shield.”
The Get Up hypertrophies the muscles of the shoulder, chest, and upper back for highly functional “body armor".”
Author’s Note: “breathing behind the shield” refers to a constant pressurization of the midsection while still maintaining the ability to breathe. This technique is managed through bracing the midsection during inhalation and exhalation while still keeping the abdominals in an advantageous position. Breathing behind the shield has carryover to longer duration events where a tactical athlete must maintain strength ie; rucking with load or carrying a teammate.
Outside of the specific Get Up standards within organized certifying bodies, I prefer to perform my Get Ups in constant motion. This more dynamic variation supports real-world movement patterns where a tactical athlete specifically moves with urgency while still maintaining poise.
Training the Get Up
The Get Up is made of six distinct movements. The Get Down mirrors the same six movements in reverse.*
Starting Position
To the Elbow
To the Hand
Sweep the Leg
Half-Kneel
Lunge Up
*Get Up technique as taught by StrongFirst SFG I
How to Get Up Like A Pro
Notes on Get Up Loading
The Get Up serves as many SFG’s favorite movement. You’ll often see these strong athletes performing very heavy Get Ups (48kg+ for men and 24kg+ for women).
But is such a heavy load useful in this movement? It can be. But more isn’t better, better is better. So how can you find an ideal load for your Get Up practice?
I have performed a Get Up with 48kg on each side. However, a sweet spot for me for Get Ups is around 32kg, what I qualify as the “beginning of heavy.”
I like 32kg for Get Ups because it allows me wiggle room to perform the precise needs of each step without the risk of a small rotation of the bell throwing me off balance.
I don’t want to be under a load with a higher chance of injury. 32kg is heavy enough. Your “heavy” will be determinant on your current skill and strength.
You might find my guidelines of the Tactical Load useful for these determinations:
From StrengthAxis Program Design - March, 2023
Tactical Load
Selecting a Tactical Load requires choosing a Heavy kettlebell that can be trained with daily. It should deliver power, strength, and conditioning goals sustainably. The Tactical Load will represent 70% of the athlete’s current 1RM Military Press:
ie; 44kg 1RM - 44 x 0.70 = 30.8 rounded to 32kg.
The Tactical Get Up
The Tactical Get Up is a variation of the classic Get Up whereby the kettlebell athlete eliminates the tall sit to the sweep, and instead repositions their non-working leg between their working leg’s heel and groin into the half-kneeling position.
From the half-kneeling position, the kettlebell athlete windshield wipers their non-working leg and repositions their working leg to an efficient lunge position. They then pivot to the half-kneeling, then lunge to the standing position.
StrongFirst Team Leader and friend, Louka Krucer, performing and explaining the Tactical Get Up. He later uses a toy AK 47 as an example of how to use this technique when firing a carbine.
Revelations
The Tactical Get Up deemphasizes the need for the support hand to assist. In a practical application, this allows tactical athletes more control of their primary and support hands for a firearm during training simulations and real life applications.
During my training with Mike Glover of Fieldcraft Survival, we ran through continuous shooting drills from standing, to standing on one leg, to squatting, to kneeling, to sitting, and then back up again while placing shots on center mass.
Because of my Get Up training, these transitions were fluid and efficient. In that moment I understood the magic of training this complex and deliberate movement. The (Tactical) Get Up with moderate to heavy load enhances tactical readiness.
With special attention to keeping eyes-on-target, moving from the ground to half-kneeling requires mobility and midsection strength. During live-fire pistol practice, the tactical athlete must maintain fluid and precise movement to eliminate the threat.
Training Tactical Pistol Stance Changes on June 4, 2023 at a private range in Jacumba, CA.
Practicality
As much as we all love kettlebells, I believe that a club is a superior tool for training the Tactical Get Up. Because of the horizontal nature of gripping a club, it better simulates holding a pistol while enhancing front-loaded movement economy.
Loading a Tactical Get Up with a club allows an “eyes on” approach.
Further, the club allows the tactical athlete to perform the Tactical Get Up from a prone straddle position. This lying posture mimics how the operator would shoot from a back-lying posture before needing to get mobile to address the threat.
Training the Tactical Club Get Up
The Tactical Club Get Up (TCGU) should be practiced piece by piece before fully integrating the movement. Like with the Get Up (classic), each component reveals a unique sticking and leverage point that’s must become fluid for successful attempts.
Unlike the Get Up (classic), my recommendation is a smooth and expedient TCGU. Since the tactical operator’s goal is to put themself in the most advantageous position possible, a constant, precise, and fluid TCGU displays elegant and graceful urgency.
Slow is Smooth, Smooth is Fast.
The Club Tactical Get Up is made of four distinct movement combinations. The Club Tactical Get Down mirrors the same four movements combinations in reverse.
Starting Position: Supine Straddle + Club Pullover
Curl Up to Seated Straddle
Sweep the Leg + Shinbox to Half Kneeling
Lunge to Standing Club Presentation
How to Get Up Like A Tactical Pro
Author’s Note: As an MED (Minimum Effective Dose) proponent, the TCGU should be performed as a warm up or finisher. Due to the relatively light loads of the Club as compared to a kettlebell, the tactical athlete should use this movement as a means of movement prep or movement integration rather than a main training exercise.
Programming The Get Up
The Get Up can be performed for a variety of purposes: as movement prep/warm up, as a heavier strength exercise, as apart of a training session of one arm swings + get ups (Simple & Sinister), or “sandwiched” by other compound movements in a workout.
I have had tremendous success in programming Get Ups as both the first exercise and last exercise in a training session. This method allows incredible priming prior to other movements and great time under tension as a finishing movement.
The Sandwich Method
From StrengthAxis Program Design - March, 2023
Training Session A & C
The Climbing Get Up
The Climbing Get Up is a variation built on performing laddering reverse lunges during the first and second phases of the training session. The Climbing Get Up uses the Tactical Load and develops impressive full body strength for tactical readiness.
During March, 2023’s programming, students performed two phases of Climbing Get Ups: at the beginning and ending of the training session. Students reported enhanced shoulder/hip strength and stability, along with hypertrophy in the same areas.
Although the Sandwich Method is my preferred training style for myself and students, the Get Up and it's variations can also be performed in a traditional manner of progressive overload, with either step loading or increasing intensity.
Author’s Note: Take notice that the First Phase of the Climbing Get Up started with increasing reverse lunges per set 1+1, 2+2, 3+3. During the Second Phase, athletes reversed the volume from 3+3, 2+2, to 1+1.
Variable Volume Singles
In the next example, my students performed one get up on each side signified by “1+1.” Although the Get Up may be performed for multiple reps, I prefer to train heavy singles since they provide adequate time-under-tension (TUT) stimulus.
In the programming table, students are recommended to lift from the “Heavy+” category of kettlebells for them. However, depending on experience, fatigue, or other lifestyle factors, they are required to maintain volume but be smart with their loading.
From StrengthAxis Program Design - May, 2023
Training Session A
B2. Get Up
Training Session C
B2. Get Up
In my StrengthAxis Program Design, I program based off of personal experience and random progressive overload for main conditioning exercises and back off strength exercises. Why? I want to keep my students primed and ready, not exhausted.
This is accomplished through careful selection of lifting volume per session. The first session is programmed and then the second uses a different combination of volume so that the athlete doesn’t train the same volume twice in a week.
Author’s Note: The volume of the primary chain, complex, or strength exercise is also juxtaposed with the other primary movements on altering days. Each session also has alternating volume to help the athlete avoid the pitfalls of overreaching and burnout.
Simple & Sinister
Pavel’s Simple & Sinister is a high-output minimalist program featuring the One Arm Kettlebell Swing and the Get up.
Simple & Sinister demonstrates methods of training for each goal. But knowing my body and my aptitudes, I developed an experimental program to achieve Sinister based on the same method I use to train for the Snatch Test.
StrengthAxis Experimental One Arm Swing Standards
One and Two Arm Kettlebell Swings
(This is an eight week plan and I’m offering Week 7 and Week 8 as an example)
After each of the eight week one and two arm swing training sessions, the athlete would take one minute of rest, then perform their Get Ups with the same corresponding load as the swing training session required:
Get Up
Tactical Club Get Up Priming and Finisher
Since starting my tactical pistol and carbine shooting journey, I’ve added the Tactical Club Get Up to my warmup and and as a finisher. The TCGU is ideal to check in with the body’s tension prior to heavier training and as a smooth cool down movement.
Author’s Note: During the Two Hand Grip Tactical Club Get Up, the athlete should alternate their grip depending on their dominate lunging side. If performing the lunge from their right leg, their right hand will be positioned gripping on top with their left hand on the bottom.
Every other training session, it’s advised to change the loading stimulus by performing the TCGU with two clubs vs one. This challenge works both arms and shoulder simultaneously providing enhanced tactile proprioception.
Author’s Note: Because of the increased challenge of holding two clubs bilaterally, the load of the clubs must be trained at a lower intensity.
The Get Up is a movement worthy of exploration. Unique in its demonstration, athletes find tremendous benefit in its asymmetrical loading and step-by-step execution. It is imperative to explore its integrated variations and loading capacities.
For beginning students, I find it vital to program the Get Up into all training sessions. Using the methods listed in this article, athletes will discover the Get Up’s unique advantages through dedicated practice and precise detail to each phase of the Get Up.
Any questions? How do you like to train your Get Ups?
John Parker
July 4, 2023
Great stuff John! I’d love to talk to you in regards to training. What’s the best method for you to communicate currently?