Whenever any of us step foot into the gym, we expect to find a range of equipment, such as dumbbells, barbells and kettlebells for us to complete our workout. But one man appears to have exhausted all those avenues and has instead turned to home furnishings.
Matthias Mckinnon is a man who appears to know no bounds when it comes to finding ways to push his body further and further. Just one look at either his Instagram or TikTok accounts and you’ll immediately see the crazy feats he regularly completes, all in the name of fitness.
One particular video that caught our eye shows Matthias performing a Turkish get-up using a 3-seater leather couch. The average weight of a 3-seater couch is 280 pounds, or 127kg, which is an astronomical amount of weight not just to lift in general, but is especially the case for the Turkish get-up.
WATCH: Matthias McKinnon Perform A Turkish Get-Up With A 3-Seater Couch
If you’re already aware of the Turkish get-up as an exercise, you’ll know just how hard, and therefore how impressive, Matthias’ strength really is.
What is a Turkish get-up?
A Turkish get-up is a full body exercise and an extension of a Turkish sit-up. At its most basic level, a Turkish get-up requires you to get up off of the ground whilst holding a weight in one hand. But, while that may seem pretty simple, the heavier you go with the weight, the higher the difficulty level.
The Turkish get-up is recommended to virtually everyone, but it’s a particularly effective exercise for athletes and those going through a rehab program after injury. And, if you want to increase the strength of your shoulders, there aren’t many exercises out there that can compete with the effectiveness of the Turkish get-up.
How to perform a Turkish get-up?
As we mentioned, the Turkish get-up ultimately requires you to get up off of the ground. But, rather than just stand up as you normally would, there is a set list of smaller movements you need to complete in order for you to reap the full benefit.
And, while we certainly don’t recommend you attempt Matthia’s method, using a damn couch to lift above your head, we have to say, his technique in performing the lift is pretty spot on. Here’s how to do it yourself.
- Take a dumbbell or a kettlebell in one hand. It’s recommended that you use an incredibly light weight if you’re attempting the Turkish get-up for the first time, this would be around 2 – 4kg.
- Lay down on the ground and press whichever weight you have out in front of you, so that your arm is perpendicular to the floor.
- Bend the knee of the same side of the body that’s holding the weight and, with your other arm, lay it out on the floor around 45-degrees to your body.
- From this position, you want to take a deep breath and push yourself up onto the elbow of the trailing arm. You need to keep the weight in your other hand held up above you, and you need to stay looking at it, throughout the duration of the movement.
- Once onto your elbow, exhale and then roll up and onto the hand of the trailing arm.
- From here, driving through the trailing hand and the foot on the working side, drive your hips up so you almost perform a bridge. You need to drive yourself up high enough so that you can then bring your trailing leg back under your body.
- Sweep the straight, trailing leg under your body and place it behind you. You should end up in a position where the knee of the trailing leg is point the hand on the ground, and the knee of the working leg is pointing forward.
- Once in this position, remove the hand that’s touching the floor and move your body into a lunge position, with your working leg at 90-degrees and the trailing leg kneeling on the floor.
- Drive through the back foot to get yourself to stand up.
- The first part of the Turkish get-up is now complete. From here, you need to move yourself back to the starting position, completing the steps you just performed but in reverse order. Again, you need to make sure you keep the weight held above your head throughout.
- Repeat this entire sequence 6 – 8 times on body sides of the body
As Bodybuilding.com says, make sure you keep the elbow off the arm holding the weight locked out during the entire movement. If you allow it to bend, you’re placing the weight just onto your tricep muscles and you destabilise the shoulder in the process.
This is especially important if you’re holding an incredibly heavy weight. Or, in Matthia’s case, a friggin’ 3-seater couch.
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