(View transcript below video.)

The Turkish get up aka Turkish sit up may be the best exercise for people who want to be functionally strong for the rest of their lives. And who doesn’t? It also burns a lot of calories. It’s a true sit up, working your core muscles and abdominals to the max, which is why some call it a sit up instead of a get up. You should absolutely include it into your workout plan. It’s a full-body workout, working major muscle groups such as your glutes, quads, hamstrings, traps, shoulders, lower-back muscles, triceps, lats and calves. My name is Julia Derek and I’ve been a trainer for the last two decades. In this video I’ll show you how to do a Turkish get up correctly as well as a variation of it that will strengthen your core even more and burn even more calories, so make sure you stay till the end. Because you rotate through so many positions, your core is engaged throughout the entire exercise. Last, but not least, the Turkish sit up works your body in all three planes of motions. Most exercises are done in the sagittal plane.

To avoid injury, you should include movements in all three planes of motion. The three planes are sagittal (most common)–walking/running, bicep curls and squats are good examples, frontal–think jumping jacks and lateral raises–and transverse–any exercise that involves a rotation of your torso.

If you do it the Swedish way, my own variation of the exercise aka Swedish sit up, and turn it into a mini workout that you do a few times a week with reverse flies, I promise you’ll be in amazing shape with flat, strong, sexy abs.

After I’ve shown you how to do the Turkish get up, I will show you how to do the Swedish version, which is more core focused.