June 26, 2014 Gray Cook

Why There’s a Hip Extension Speed Bump

in the Get-up
Working with StrongFirst and Brett Jones at our rst joint event —
Foundational Strength at Phil Scarito’s DV8Fitness in King of Prussia,
Pennsylvania — was a great experience. It was exciting to introduce
people to the transition from Functional Movement Screening to
corrective exercises and the many ways the kettlebell can be vital to the
process.

The
Beauty of the Get-up
The get-up is one of the few full-body movements we perform with a
kettlebell. It honors mobility and stability at its nest. It also ts the
criteria of our movement screening because it looks at the left and right
side of functional movement individually — you are going to do a right
get-up and you are going to do a left get-up. They should complement
each other. You should not be much better on one side than another
because it is not about right-hand dominance or strength.

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It’s all mobility and stability. It is not pressing. It is not squatting. It is

basically moving in all three planes with respectable proprioception,
mobility, and stability.

Putting a Speed Bump in the Get-up

By imposing a “speed bump” in the get-up, we take an already slow
movement and make you slow it down even more. A speed bump makes
you pay attention. We impose that speed bump to send you to a
corrective strategy and some pretty neat stretching that will basically
enhance the get-up.

I appreciate Mark Cheng bringing the move that became the speed
bump to Brett Jones and me while we were working on Kettlebells from
the Ground Up. In the very center of the get-up, you have a choice of
hovering or you can do a plank up on the elbow. That plank is basically
one leg bent. Imagine the right kettlebell overhead. The right leg is
bent. The left leg is out straight. You lift up your body and basically
demonstrate full hip extension.

We thought, “You know what, this little three-point bridge is a great

way to get people who are using the get-up as corrective strategy to
rst see it as a screen.”

The
get-up has to show you a problem before you have the insight to
correct that problem. By imposing this extra amount of hip extension,
we slowed you down because there are only a few places where you
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really have to have a lot of hip extension in the get-up.

The reason we like bridging and put it into a lot of athletic development
routines is because it is one of the few challenges where we get to put
the glute against the hip exor and your hip extends as opposed to your
low back. But many athletes, the quad-dominant athlete or the person
who is over trained in the hip exor, will gave us back extension
instead of hip extension.

The Purpose of the Hip Extension

The purpose and nature of coaching is to hold you up against your
weakest links, to expose you to your weakness, and to allow you to rise
to a challenge so your opponent or life does not nd your weakness.

When we took on this little study with the get-up, we agreed on all six
positions with everybody else. We modi ed one of the positions. It has
created some controversy and we had a lot of comments on that three-
point bridge. We maintained its value as a corrective strategy — as a
speed bump to increase your awareness that may be you cannot clear
your hips as good as you thought.

Instead of doing a bunch of hip lifts or single-leg bridges to reduce the

dynamic activity of your psoas and hip extension, do a get-up this way.
If it catches you at this stage, then own the stage. The get-up is not
about seeing how quick you can get up and with how much weight. It is
about honoring each stage of the exercise.

A Speed Bump Is on the Road to Somewhere

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Once you are competent with the get-up, once you feel like these
corrective strategies have helped you, once you feel like you are moving
symmetrically on the left and right and the basic little speed bump get-
up we showed you does not present di culty, do whatever get-up you
want — and start thinking about other speed bumps.

The group at Foundational Strength in King of Prussia

Highlights:

Calisthenics began as beautiful moves with weighted implements

Bridges are one of the few challenges where the glute acts against
the hip exor
The get-up begins in a three-point bridge, an intentional speed
bump
The get-up must be screen before it is a strategy
It must show you a problem before you have the insight to correct
it
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The rst populations that used the get-up generally moved better
than people today
The get-up is one of the few full-body movements we do with a
kettlebell
The “speed bump” is imposed to send you into a corrective
strategy
Focus is not about seeing how quickly someone can get up and
with how much weight

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