Two exercises, 1 workout. Rowing and Turkish Get Ups.
Today’s workout incorporates my favorite cardio machine, the rower, and an exercise which has become one of my all-time favorite total body strengtheners, Turkish Get Ups.
The rowing machine is a cardio machine that I have a true love-hate relationship with. Rowing provides a tremendous low-impact, high reward workout, regardless of the distance or intensity, therefore I love the training stimulus. I also hate rowing because it sucks my soul out of my body each and every time I use it.
Rowing is hell wonderful.
Turkish Get Ups show up on the Meauxtion blog in a lot of other posts. I love Turkish Get Ups. You should learn to love Turkish Get Ups.
The gist of Turkish Get Ups is to move from a laying position to a standing position, returning to back to the original laying position. While you’re moving, a shoe or weight (kettlebell, dumbbell, etc) is being supported using one arm. The weight starts out over the chest, but eventually ends up vertically overhead.
Turkish Get Ups build tremendous total body movement strength, and are great for reinforcing shoulder stability.
(At the bottom of this post I’ll share a link to other challenging Turkish Get Up variations worth exploring.)
Combining Turkish Get Ups and rowing into the same workout creates a total body training stimulus that is time efficient (30 minutes and you’re toast).
Note: The great part about mixing rowing with Turkish Get Ups is that it fills in a gap. Upper body pulling. Pulling is one motion not included in a traditional Turkish Get Up. One of the main features of rowing is the pulling. Match made in heaven.
Turkish Get Ups tax the legs to some extent, but not horribly. The lunge to stand up and down is the primary lower body movement in a Turkish Get Up (along with lifting the hip lift), and the overall volume of lunges performed is really low. If you’re performing 10 Turkish Get Ups on each side for a workout, that’s 10 reps of lunges per side.
For most people the lunge is not going to be the weakest link in the chain when selecting weight for Turkish Get Ups. The lunge is going to be challenging, especially stabilizing the weight overhead, but a sub-maximal effort. You can likely lunge quite a bit more weight compared to what you’ll use for TGUs (slang for the in-crowd).
Rowing is lower body intense, yet low impact. It’s low impact in comparison to activities like running or jumping rope. Low impact does not means it’s easy. Each stroke requires a big effort from the legs as you unhinge at the waist, extending the knees and hips (along with upper body pull). You’re driving hard with the legs to push away from the flywheel, creating powerful strokes.
Rowing experts might cringe at this statement, but I like to think about rowing strokes as being similar to a repetitive horizontal barbell clean, if such an exercise existed.
Anyways…
The main message is: Turkish Get Ups and rowing make a great pairing for a total body workout, without needing much time.
Cardio and strength in 30 minutes.
The Workout
Set a timer for 15 minutes, start performing Turkish Get Ups, alternating each side. Do not stop until the timer sounds. Of course, grab a drink and towel off the sweat, but keep moving.
Next, hop on the rower. You have a few options with the rowing portion of this workout:
- 10 sets of 250m distance
- 6 sets of 500m distance
No matter what distance you choose (or a mix of both) follow a 1:1 work to rest ratio for rest periods. If it takes 1:45min/sec to row 500m, you’re resting the same amount of time before starting the next round. If it takes you 55sec to row 250m, you’re resting 55sec before starting the next round.
Make no mistake, a 1:1 work to rest ratio is intense. Round 1 might easy, but rounds 4-5 definitely will.
Fatigue breaks people in half.
- Note: If you need to take more rest in between rounds, you make that call and you take the rest that you need. I am only making the suggestion of 1:1, this is not the law.
Bonus Points: Vitamin D 🌞
Doing this workout outside, under the sun, will earn you bonus points.
Much has been written about the importance of maintaining adequate Vitamin D levels.
I live in Wisconsin. We are a translucent, see-through, pale skinned people coming out of Winter. The first 50+ degree day, we flock outside like it’s Summer. Brats, beer and completely underdressed, yet feeling comfortable and happy.
Warmer temperatures and the sun lifts moods in the Spring.
Moving the workout outside, limiting the clothing you’re wearing to allow the sun exposure to as much skin as possible is a nice little bonus.
Attempting to kill too many birds with one stone can create headaches, but this is a seamless tweak to the workout. Just get outside.
In general, if you can transition a portion or all of your workouts from inside to outside, you have an opportunity to reap the benefits of sunlight and the benefits of exercise.
That’s powerful stuff.
Equipment-wise, Concept2 is my rower of choice. It’s bulletproof and used by Olympians, so it’ll be good enough for the average Joe/Jane.
What I’m about to say regarding kettlebells isn’t completely true, but to some extent, weight is weight. Especially now, with the pandemic decimating most of the fitness equipment inventory, find what you can and buy it. I also have a responsibility to be sensitive to everybody’s financial situation. These kettlebells bridge the gap between cost and quality.
Remember, companies will charge you for shipping weights. So now your $1.50 per pound kettlebell is suddenly $2.75 per pound after shipping. Even heavier kettlebells (up to 70lbs) from Amazon bypass shipping costs with Amazon Prime.
Explore: Turkish Get Up Variations
Earlier in the post, I promised you Turkish Get Up Variations.
Get after it today… win the day. 💪 👊
M(eaux)tion Fitness 