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Kettlebell Are Getups better than Presses?

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Stephen B.

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I've been doing getups for a while, and my press has always improved alongside with my getups.
More significantly, this WTH effect is very common even for very strong individuals:

After 6 months of only S&S, Pavel Macek easily pressed his previous Military Press best, and set a PR in the Bent Press

Basically, strong getups seem to create strong presses, developing stronger getups seems to improve overhead presses as well, but the reverse is not true. In my opinion, carryover to other exercises are one of the first considerations in picking strength movements.

In addition:
The getup trains movement quality and whole body coordination, partly through the incorporation of multiple athletic movements, including a OA floor press, technical lift and a lunge, under a heavy load.
Getups challenge the shoulder from multiple angles, as opposed to simply from above in a press or waiter's walk.
Getups train straight-arm pushing, a valuable skill in many sports.
Heavy getups develop strong abs (my limited knowledge tells me that the KB Press does this too with proper technique and tension, but that Getups tend to do this naturally.)

On the other hand...
Presses are better for adding mass using a high volume program.
Presses can create greater maximal pressing strength.
Presses are safer- Dan John pointed this out when he explained why he doesn't do heavy getups: It's a bit risky to hold a very heavy weight overhead with the other hand stuck posted in the ground. During the press, it's much easier to turn or step away and drop the bell if something gets out of control.
Presses are a more popular gauge of strength- for instance, the SFG 2 tests the 1/2BW Press, not a getup strength standard.

Most athletes outside the kettlebell world just do the Military Press, and rarely use Getups. This makes sense for sports like throwing and competitive lifting, where exceptional strength is required, but only in one specific movement. But I feel many athletes, especially in combat sports, would benefit more from heavy Getups.

Should people train one, or both, or neither? Getups with a press at every position? I want to hear what you guys think (and feel free to object to anything I've said).
 
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There's no reason to pit them against each other.

My main criteria for any lift is how much I enjoy doing it. Personally, I don't enjoy get ups and I haven't done a full get up since I last had to for a certification in 2009. However, I sometimes do partial get ups (or rather "get downs") from standing to half-kneeling and back up, or standing to the half-kneeling windmill and back up. Many others absolutely love the get up, and I'd never discourage anyone from doing them.

I'd also question whether get ups necessarily have a lot of carryover to presses. I seem to see a lot of people who've done S&S exclusively, up to 32 or even 40kg, post about starting to train presses and dropping back to 24kg. I trained get ups pretty consistently for a few years in the past and did not find any significant carryover. The degree of carryover will vary by individual, but my sense is that a a low degree is not at all rare, especially for people who don't already have a base of pressing skill.

So I'd say people should just do what they enjoy and respond to.
 
There's no reason to pit them against each other.

My main criteria for any lift is how much I enjoy doing it. Personally, I don't enjoy get ups and I haven't done a full get up since I last had to for a certification in 2009. However, I sometimes do partial get ups (or rather "get downs") from standing to half-kneeling and back up, or standing to the half-kneeling windmill and back up. Many others absolutely love the get up, and I'd never discourage anyone from doing them.

I'd also question whether get ups necessarily have a lot of carryover to presses. I seem to see a lot of people who've done S&S exclusively, up to 32 or even 40kg, post about starting to train presses and dropping back to 24kg. I trained get ups pretty consistently for a few years in the past and did not find any significant carryover. The degree of carryover will vary by individual, but my sense is that a a low degree is not at all rare, especially for people who don't already have a base of pressing skill.

So I'd say people should just do what they enjoy and respond to.
I’m one of those - I worked up to Simple, from no athletic/training background, and when starting RoP could only eke out a rep or two of press with 24kg. The getup didn’t do much for me for the first half of the press. It’s great for building that all-around stability (e.g. I could walk around in waiter’s walk with 24kg for a while), but I had to build the press “starting strength” from scratch.
 
Just to your point about carry-over from get up to press but not vica-versa, I'm actually at the point where I believe I need to incorporate some pressing so I can safely advance in the get up. I'm doing S&S with 4/5 of my reps at 40 kg, but I believe I need some more pressing strength to keep things stable before I move to 48 kg.

I did a cycle of floor pressing with the 32 kg bell and the press progression from ROP before I moved from 32 to 40 for my get ups. I was a bit wobbly getting the bell off the ground at that point, so floor press was the most obvious solution.

Now I find I'm still a bit unsteady in the overhead position. Much better than just a few months ago, but I believe adding some pressing strength will greatly improve that. So after taking my S&S to all 40 kg, I plan to spend several months focusing on pressing before moving to a 48 kg get up.

And as Steve W. said above:
I seem to see a lot of people who've done S&S exclusively, up to 32 or even 40kg, post about starting to train presses and dropping back to 24kg.
I'm in that same boat. I've managed to press a 32 for one rep in each hand, but probably with too much back/side bend to count. I could start an ROP pressing cycle at 24 kg, but I'm going to take it right down to 16 just to get familiarity with the movement.

I wonder if one of the reasons you see more carryover from get up to press is that it's more common for people to already have decent pressing strength before they start with kettlebells, so it can go unnoticed.
 
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I haven’t seen any evidence that get ups translate to anything other than get ups.

And vice versa. I spent much of 2021 working on squat, bench, and deadlift. Upon returning to S&S in December, my get ups are struggling compared to where I was when I hit timed Simple.

I am in the same boat to where I could eke out 4 C&P on my weak side with a 24 kg after hitting Simple. Nothing spectacular, but we will see if any magic happens as I improve my getup beyond the 32.

My perception / experience tells me that getups are it’s own kind of strength. They don’t carry over to other exercises that well, and vice versa.

But I do think they are a GREAT exercise. Just appreciate them for what they are.
 
I am one of the cases in which get ups got me pressing 32kg bell for the first time.
I was only on S&S, introducing the 40kg in the Get ups. One day I just found my 32kg bell in the corner, and cleaned it. It's funny I felt capable of pressing it, and I did it for the first time in my life.
Amazing sensation.
 
Most athletes outside the kettlebell world just do the Military Press, and rarely use Getups. This makes sense for sports like throwing and competitive lifting, where exceptional strength is required, but only in one specific movement. But I feel many athletes, especially in combat sports, would benefit more from heavy Getups.
You might be surprised by how strong the core of some combat athletes is even without get-ups - I was able to do get-ups with a 50 kg DB basically the first time I tried them (I weighed around 85 kg at the time). Working up to a 48 kg KB took me a few months, mostly since I hadn't used kettlebells before and found the balance and wrist position awkward, even more so since I was using a cheap adjustable kettlebell.
I also haven't met too many athletes that did military presses at all - if anything, they tend to do the seated press, most just do bench and incline. The only athletes I'm aware of that military press to a significant degree these days are strongmen competitors (although the see-saw press is popular with grapplers in some regions and styles, for example with Russian Greco wrestlers who are expected to be able to be able to do 60 reps with 24s and 40 reps with 32s in the 74 kg class).
Other than that - I'm not at all surprised that someone improved their bent press with get-ups. I should however also point out that overall, the proficiency in bent pressing these days would make Arthur Saxon turn over in his grave. According to early 20th century logic, you should be able to bent press a whole lot more than your get-up weight, and anything below 150 lbs/bodyweight in the bent press wouldn't have been considered worth talking about in the first place.
 
I haven’t seen any evidence that get ups translate to anything other than get ups.

And vice versa. I spent much of 2021 working on squat, bench, and deadlift. Upon returning to S&S in December, my get ups are struggling compared to where I was when I hit timed Simple.

I am in the same boat to where I could eke out 4 C&P on my weak side with a 24 kg after hitting Simple. Nothing spectacular, but we will see if any magic happens as I improve my getup beyond the 32.

My perception / experience tells me that getups are it’s own kind of strength. They don’t carry over to other exercises that well, and vice versa.

But I do think they are a GREAT exercise. Just appreciate them for what they are.
me either. I started doing them as a warmup a few years back and was using the 40kg KB easy in no time. Got tired of it and started using the barbell and I think I worked up to around 120lbs with it and I didn't notice any benefit from it other that just being able to do a getup. I do think there is value in getting up from the ground but it doesn't require a Turkish Get-up holding a weight on an extended arm to provide it. I'd say Dan John is right here, do it light or with no weight at all as sort of a mobility exercise, thats where the value of the getup probably shines.
 
I am one of the cases in which get ups got me pressing 32kg bell for the first time.
I was only on S&S, introducing the 40kg in the Get ups. One day I just found my 32kg bell in the corner, and cleaned it. It's funny I felt capable of pressing it, and I did it for the first time in my life.
Amazing sensation.
Interesting. I will report back with my results in a few months of working the TGU. We will see what happens to my press.
 
There is a lot to unpack here so I will do my best.
I've been doing getups for a while, and my press has always improved alongside with my getups.
More significantly, this WTH effect is very common even for very strong individuals:
This is common base building. You don't just improve the specific movements you are training but a host of other movements too.

Much how improving your aerobic capacity will improve your boxing and wrestling conditioning, when compared to the you that just spent that time watching TV.
There is a host of factors to bear in mind with such reviews. Including a person's training history and goals.
Basically, strong getups seem to create strong presses, developing stronger getups seems to improve overhead presses as well, but the reverse is not true. In my opinion, carryover to other exercises are one of the first considerations in picking strength movements.
Definitely in novices. If you a performing a bodyweight press with good form for reps then the TGU will have limited carry over to your press.

This is when 1, frequent work practicing the thing you want to improve upon and 2, tailoring other aspects of training to help improve the thing you want to improve upon comes into play.
In addition:
The getup trains movement quality and whole body coordination, partly through the incorporation of multiple athletic movements, including a OA floor press, technical lift and a lunge, under a heavy load.
Getups challenge the shoulder from multiple angles, as opposed to simply from above in a press or waiter's walk.
Getups train straight-arm pushing, a valuable skill in many sports.
Heavy getups develop strong abs (my limited knowledge tells me that the KB Press does this too with proper technique and tension, but that Getups tend to do this naturally.)
Movement quality is a term often thrown around and misused. A lot like GPP.

Movement quality is dictated by the end goal. For a physiotherapist it will be to resume what they deem as healthy ROM and functionality.

If your goal is to dethrone Julius Maddox then movement quality is dictated by the ability to set up and perform a competition style bench press. With tightness in the right areas to reinforce technique.
On the other hand...
Presses are better for adding mass using a high volume program.
Presses can create greater maximal pressing strength.
Presses are safer- Dan John pointed this out when he explained why he doesn't do heavy getups: It's a bit risky to hold a very heavy weight overhead with the other hand stuck posted in the ground. During the press, it's much easier to turn or step away and drop the bell if something gets out of control.
Presses are a more popular gauge of strength- for instance, the SFG 2 tests the 1/2BW Press, not a getup strength standard.
Because total load used will have the biggest physiological and neurological adaptations. As well as the biggest performance impact.
Most athletes outside the kettlebell world just do the Military Press, and rarely use Getups. This makes sense for sports like throwing and competitive lifting, where exceptional strength is required, but only in one specific movement. But I feel many athletes, especially in combat sports, would benefit more from heavy Getups.
Many combat athletes do. But the reason it isn't used over the press is because total load is the limitations.

More load creates more adaptation. Hence why the press is used over the TGU and why the bench press is used over the press. Think contact sports, throwers etc.
Should people train one, or both, or neither? Getups with a press at every position? I want to hear what you guys think (and feel free to object to anything I've said).
Depends. What are your goals? Why are you training? What do you want to acheive?

There maybe no reasons to have to choose between one or the other.

A lot of factors to bear in mind. It isn't a simple case of yes or no.
 
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