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Old Forum My point of failure on getups is keeping my elbow straight.

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A bent elbow at lockout overhead (or lack of locking out) is not an elbow problem - assuming there is full elbow extension.  It IS a compensation for a shoulder or thoracic spine mobility restriction.

Depending on how the TGU us loaded and whether the arm is vertical or slightly offset due to the load the elbow should absolutely not bend.

Shoulder or t-spine.  More get ups wont fix it until you address the issues - get screened.
 
If you do it fine on the first reps but eventually your elbow bends from fatigue that is actually very normal.  I would not sweat it, just sit the bell down and rest until you can do it properly again.
 
For all its worth, I was doing half getups a little while ago with my 32.  Probably could have completed the movement, but why rush it?  I will nail the 32 soon enough.  I do my getups on Tuesdays and Fridays, so I will do my getup workout tomorrow morning with 24 before I head down to the coast for a little R n R.  It will take a pretty big fish to put up a fight with Getup Man!

Kingfish: Who are you?!!!

Me: They call me ... Getup Man.
 
Another thing that contributes towards the fatigue of my triceps is the fact that I pause in the high hip bridge position for maybe ten seconds in both the raising and lowering phases of the movement.  That puts the bottom arm under a considerable load.

even though the high hip bridge wasn't originally part of the getup, it looks to me like there are a lot of benefits to it, including the angle that the bottom shoulder is loaded.

I have been trying to switch from one hand to the other with as little rest as possible, which I think is part of the design intent of the program.  I have been doing getups for six minutes instead of five because it always seems like I am about to complete a rep on my first arm at the five minute mark and I want to do the same number of reps on each side, even though counting reps is not really the point.

if I either reduced the time that I held the high hip bridge, or skipped it altogether on the lowering phase, I could reduce the amount of fatigue in the triceps.

Another option would be to set my timer for seven minutes and rest maybe ten seconds between reps. Although taking a brief rest would allow more to do more reps, I thought for the PM, the reps were supposed to be as continuous as possible.
 
"Another option would be to set my timer for seven minutes and rest maybe ten seconds between reps. Although taking a brief rest would allow more to do more reps, I thought for the PM, the reps were supposed to be as continuous as possible."

That's my problem too.
I guess my muscle endurance is an issue.

10 secs is very short for rest, I considered taking 30-45 secs but now I just let my lack of muscle endurance to be some sort of "self-limiting".

Today,  when I was doing my 2nd rep on the left side (I go left, right , left, right), my left arm was giving out, so I skipped the negative and move on to the right side and skipped the negative as well.

Part of me want to re-invent the wheel and do 75 rep sort-of easy swing in the morning and GTG Turkish Getup five to six days a week. I think the party won't approach though! ;-)

I love the hip high position and I decided to keep it.
 
Jeffrey

The high bridge doesn't need to be performed every rep (especially not for 10 second holds)

practice different variations - low sweep, "roll up" etc... high bridge once a session or every 4th rep or something

don't push the get-up to fatigue
 
I like and use the high bridge too, but a 10-second hold sounds like a very long time, especially going up and down both. The TGU already has you under the load for a long time anyway, and adding another 20 seconds seems too long to me.

I usually hold it about 3-5 seconds. By the way, I'm using the 16kg, so you're ahead of me with weight.

I usually set my timer for 10 minutes (again, with the 16kg). I usually start with my weaker arm. When the timer goes off, I do make sure I end with my stronger arm, so I do the same number of reps with each arm. I think I usually get 5-6 reps with each arm, but don't really count them.

Jason
 
The intent of the program and the role of the TGU in it is to prepare your shoulders and triceps for heavy weight and lots of volume. Remember the goal of the program is a half bodyweight press. The TGU is a movement that leads to a bigger press. Try to remember that.

There's no need to keep pausing for 10 seconds or so in a specific position. The time under tension (the 5 minutes of the PM) with as minimal rest as possible is to build some meat on the shoulders and prepare yourself for pressing half your bodyweight bell. But in turn, you must use a lighter weight so you won't go to failure. Heavy singles will strengthen you from head to toe and let you become used to a heavy weight.

Do not fatigue yourself with a bell too heavy or too short rest periods, that's not the intention of the program. Do qualitative reps and you will get stronger, your triceps will follow the rest of your body.
 
I just finished my getups with the 24.  My timer was set for six minutes, but it went off at the beginning of the last rep.  I probably did around 6.5 minutes.  I went to the high bridge both raising and lowering, but after hitting the position I immediately moved on with no pause.  I probably exaggerated the ten second pause from before.  It might have been closer to five seconds, but time is hard to guess when in the moment.  I took a few very brief breaks  betweven reps, but towards the end I felt like my left triceps was going to fail.  I am either going to start taking longer breaks or go back to five minutes.  I don't want to come as close to failure as I have been getting.  Which would be better?  I don't wont to mess with the program, but what if I determined that I was going to do a certain number of reps, say five or six, and then rested as much as necessary to complete the reps while staying safely away from failure?  Would this be in keeping with the intent of the PM, or would it be a different program altogether?

As far as the elbow lockout is concerned, I think I might bend my elbow a bit when in the standing position with the bell overhead due to lack of mobility.  I realize this is a limiting factor that would prevent me from progressing to the ROP, but won't getups eventually help me with my shoulder mobility?
 
I dont know where this ideas as come from that you need to rush from one rep to the next in the PM. Your training your neuromuscular system for Strength, take as much time as you need.
 
Say you do a Getup up with the right, in most cases that gives you enough recovery to do a Getup with the left. However you are still fatigued and you are not ready to do another rest, rest as long as neccessary till your ready. To get stronger your training the neuromuscular system it doesnt matter how long a rest you have between rests, trying to rush reps is more likely make you fail and could be counterproductive for strength gains.

The only real advantage of shorter rest periods are if your looking for more of a pump and muscle gain. But for Strength to need to rush between reps. And Getups to take alot of your do to the arge amount of msucle used and the long time under tension if you do them slow and correctly.
 
Jeffrey, as you noticed, there is no non-working or unloaded arm during the entire get up. Both arms are getting worked and for me, the down arm gets the worst of it. Going slowly and decreasing the reps doesn't hurt your progress but I get your question about whether or not it fits the PM. If the idea of the PM is regular practice and progressive strength development with enough recovery to make the next session as productive as possible (which I believe it is), then stay with 5 minutes and do as many quality reps as you can in that time. The arm is just one part of the movement and while it may be a weak link now, as it gets stronger, you'll find another spot on your body that needs to catch up. When you are able to stop compensating, then you know you're getting stronger and can try to increase the speed of the reps.

With regards to mobility of the shoulder, I've found the arm bar and pump stretch (downward dog portion) to be much more beneficial from a shoulder mobility perspective. Practicing the shoulder pack while hanging from a bar was a great addition, too.  Your mileage may vary and getting checked out is still a good path forward.
 
Steve W.,

I see your point about keeping the arm vertical.  I based my assumption on the facts that Jeffrey said he had tight shoulders and labeled the tricep as the weak link.  From my experience and that of others I know I feel that if the shoulder was properly packed throughout the full TGU then the arm would be in a position (the one I was referring to as vertical) that allows the force from the weight of the bell to dissipate through the working arm in a manner that would not cause the triceps to fatigue at a faster rate than other muscles, be it stabilizers or other prime movers. If your point was that this position may in reality not be 100% vertical then I agree, I used a word to convey a position that would not result in tricep (or any other prime mover) failing throughout the TGU.

Personally when I experience fatigue during the TGU it occurs in a way that is not localized to one specific muscle or group of muscles, it occurs throughout my entire upper body, equally between my stabilizers and the larger movers.  This changed for me over the years as several years ago when I had more pronounced shoulder mobility issues (I still do have some ROM issues but they're far better) I would experience a similar pattern of fatigue as Jeffrey in my triceps.  Now that I have a more mobile T-spine this doesn't occur.  I do not see the downside to Jeffrey finding out the techniques and practices that would change his aforementioned tight shoulders.

Applying my experience to others may be inaccurate, those with far more personal and teaching wisdom than I would have to weight in for me to know.
 
Hey Zach,

That's pretty much exactly what I meant about verticality. The best groove is the one that is most stable, and is the "quietest" in terms of the muscular force needed to maintain it, which may not be precisely vertical since the mass of the KB is offset from the axis of the arm.

Even though I was a little argumentative earlier, I get what you're saying. My shoulder and t-spine mobility is less than optimal and one way this manifests itself is that my triceps fatigue much faster on double MPs than on single MPs, since I can't compensate as much and I end up fighting against my mobility restrictions. You're right -- there's no downside to Jeffrey getting a movement screen or improving his mobility.

My previous post was really a reaction to what I felt was a rush on the part of numerous posters to find a movement dysfunction to explain what seemed like a perfectly natural phenomenon -- when Jeffrey does a bunch of get ups, his triceps get tired.

 

 
 
This thread, in combination with the "Blank Serenity of the Invulnerable" blog, have been good for me.  I am going to slow it down and turn my getup sessions into practice sessions, and focus on perfect reps.
 
Steve,

Understand how that could be perceived, and your position is valid from that standpoint. Communication via this medium can be confounding.  Had we been discussing in person it would've been cleared up in under a minute!

Jeffrey,

Sounds good, best with your progress, hope the issue was only arising from your pace

 
 
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