all posts post new thread

Kettlebell I failed a Turkish Get Up and broke my wrist

Status
Closed Thread. (Continue Discussion of This Topic by Starting a New Thread.)

Dpkg

Level 3 Valued Member
Yesterday, I was working through simple and sinister, as I have been doing multiple times per week for the past 6 months. I have been progressing well and fully own the 32kg; the 40kg was moving well for swings and a getup here and there. This particular session, I completed swings with the 40, a getup each side with the 40, and had begun getups with the 32.

On my right handed rep, somewhere between getting down from high sit to floor, something went wrong. I lost balance, the bell headed toward my face, and I used my left hand to deflect. Everything happened very quickly, like crashing or falling. I reacted as best as I could.

The bell landed on my open palm while my elbow was on the floor, forearm vertical, compressing the radius. My wrist broke. At the ER, they confirmed I had a "foosh" break, or "falling on outstretched hand", like is seen in snowboard or mountain bike injuries. Ironically, I do both of those activities, but this is my first broken bone in my life.

I'm not sure of my point of this post, but I wanted to share. The getup can be dangerous. You're not invincible. The words of Dan John, in which he questions the value of heavy getups, ring loud in my mind.

I guess I'm probably out for a few months. I'll look for ways to prevent total mass loss; swings with my right hand, squats in the right rack, right hand ohp, lots of walking. That's down the road, though. Tomorrow I see a hand specialist to see if I need surgery and to get a cast.

That's my story. I'm lucky it wasn't the 40kg that fell, or my face where the bell landed, I might be dead. Small victories. f*** 2020.
 
Sorry to hear that. I've had a drop myself (once with the 40) but luckily only the concrete floor below me broke. Let us know how the recovery goes. There are some brilliant people on here that I'm sure can recommend some alternative exercises to keep you going.
 
That is scary and I'm sorry to hear that happened. It is something that I've thought about many times while achieving the Timeless Simple goal - the 32kg was a bit "wobbly" at times and I had to really fight to maintain stability. I live alone in a newly purchased condo and besides the possibility of injury there is the concern of damaged property!

The risk:reward definitely increases as you get stronger. While I still love S&S, I've since moved on to pursuing new goals (e.g. snatch, Q&D, A+A).
 
That sucks, @Dpkg. TGU is definitely a lift that one should not attempt if there's any question whatsoever that you'll complete it. And some days, even when you feel confident, the body has other ideas...

My personal near-miss; a couple years ago, I was trying a TGU with the 48, and during the roll to the elbow the bell started to rotate, forcing my wrist to turn. I managed to tense up, stop it, and rotate back - but I'm dang lucky I didn't dislocate my elbow or something, which then could have resulted in something even worse...

f*** 2020.

Hear hear!
 
Thanks for sharing your story, very sobering to hear, and a good reminder that weights over our heads deserve our respect. And you are right, an arm is better than a face.

Having had a FOOSH sort of break myself (in hand, not wrist or arm) I feel for you....because it is frustrating to have your exercise be forced to change, especially if you were progressing and now it is halted. Depending how long you are out of commission, you may be surprised how quickly exercise comes back to you once you restart, so take heart in that. Take advantage of this opportunity to try all sorts of exercise moves you may have never thought of (for me one legged bodyweight deadlifts were awesome to revisit and I was reminded they are harder than they look at first glance) and of course clear things with your doc or physio!

I hope you are not in too much pain and heal quickly. Take care and keep us updated.
 
That's rough. Early on, I had some not-comfortable experiences with 24kg and I decided to do other things, rather than progress to 28kg or 32kg.

Lately I've been considering if maybe I'll try 28kg next year. Your experience has me thinking (again) that it's ok if I never do a TGU heavier than 24kg.

Glad it was just a wrist -- hope you don't need surgery.
 
Last edited:
Yesterday, I was working through simple and sinister, as I have been doing multiple times per week for the past 6 months. I have been progressing well and fully own the 32kg; the 40kg was moving well for swings and a getup here and there. This particular session, I completed swings with the 40, a getup each side with the 40, and had begun getups with the 32.

On my right handed rep, somewhere between getting down from high sit to floor, something went wrong. I lost balance, the bell headed toward my face, and I used my left hand to deflect. Everything happened very quickly, like crashing or falling. I reacted as best as I could.

The bell landed on my open palm while my elbow was on the floor, forearm vertical, compressing the radius. My wrist broke. At the ER, they confirmed I had a "foosh" break, or "falling on outstretched hand", like is seen in snowboard or mountain bike injuries. Ironically, I do both of those activities, but this is my first broken bone in my life.

I'm not sure of my point of this post, but I wanted to share. The getup can be dangerous. You're not invincible. The words of Dan John, in which he questions the value of heavy getups, ring loud in my mind.

I guess I'm probably out for a few months. I'll look for ways to prevent total mass loss; swings with my right hand, squats in the right rack, right hand ohp, lots of walking. That's down the road, though. Tomorrow I see a hand specialist to see if I need surgery and to get a cast.

That's my story. I'm lucky it wasn't the 40kg that fell, or my face where the bell landed, I might be dead. Small victories. f*** 2020.
Sorry to hear this. At least it was nothing worse.
It points to the fact however that we never really ‘own’ anything...
 
I'm not sure of my point of this post, but I wanted to share. The getup can be dangerous. You're not invincible. The words of Dan John, in which he questions the value of heavy getups, ring loud in my mind.
Dan John's lack of affinity for the heaviest get-ups one can do is validated here. (I wasn't on board with his distaste, to be honest)

I once dabbled in getting ready for skydiving - never got to go - but all the sky diving publications periodically report on cases of malfunction, injury, and death; for good reason. Safety is not the only consideration - but it should never be left out. So thank you for doing us all a service.

Cautionary tales echo throughout all time and ripple out into the community for good reason.

thanks again for sharing. All my best to you and yours. Godspeed.
 
Wishing you a quick and complete recovery. That is awful, could have happened to anyone and I truly feel for your bad fortune.

Thank You for sharing. It certainly gives most of us pause and reminds us that this is a potentially dangerous endeavor. I applaud you for detailing your incident to look out for the rest of us.
 
Last edited:
On the bright side, I’d suspect that cumulatively, there has been tens of thousands of get ups by folks here and this is the first broken bone I’ve heard of.
 
On my right handed rep, somewhere between getting down from high sit to floor, something went wrong. I lost balance, the bell headed toward my face, and I used my left hand to deflect. Everything happened very quickly, like crashing or falling. I reacted as best as I could.

Wow, that sucks, but glad it wasn't your head. I hope you have a good recovery.

If I understand correctly, it sounds like the bell didn't fall from max height, but from about by 3-4' or so?
 
Thank you for sharing, and I wish you a speedy recovery.

I've been pretty scared of the TGU, avoiding it for some time. I started doing it recently but this has me rethinking whether it's worth it or not!
 
Thanks for sharing. After reaching Simple and moving on to 40kg I have actually questioned my "why" for moving onto a heavy TGU. After some shoulder pain I moved back to using the 24kg and now use the TGU as time under tension and really am trying to accentuate "grace" in the movement.
Hope you have a speedy recovery. I had a similar fracture from snowboarding and spent 8 weeks in a cast, but no long term damage.
 
Last edited:
I once dabbled in getting ready for skydiving - never got to go - but all the sky diving publications periodically report on cases of malfunction, injury, and death; for good reason.
Everything I’ve read about skydiving suggests that many more accidents happen because experienced skydivers take things for granted than because novices lack the skill to do what they’re attempting.

-S-
 
Thanks for sharing. As others have said, good reminder to all of us on many levels. All the best for your recovery and continued training.
 
Hope you heal quickly.
I had been revisiting simple with the 32. I worked up to 10 reps and injured my calf then knee, not get up related and stopped leg stuff for a bit.
The thing is, I never really felt I gained much, over and above doing regular, daily, varied unweighted or light get ups. Prior to the latest 32 get up sequence, I did warm up get up with a 24 for any other kb practice. And always had a danger/stress/safety signal going off this time around that was there when I first practiced heavier get ups but thought had overcome. Perhaps you never do, always a reminder.
So I've reached the conclusion just to keep get ups as I do them now, varied, challenging from a movement practice but not a strength practice. And well within a comfort zone.
You have just validated that decision!
Good luck with your recovery and thanks for sharing your experience.
 
Status
Closed Thread. (Continue Discussion of This Topic by Starting a New Thread.)
Back
Top Bottom