Look Who it Was Random video

Look Ma No Hands Double Turkish Get Up

1,968 views · Published 25 October 2017 · 0:33 · Indexed 25 October 2026

Channel: Steve Cotter IKFF · 2017 · Education

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Some honest kettlebell history here :) Going back around 13 years ago, I made a little DVD series called "Encyclopedia of Kettlebell Lifting". It sold a lot of DVDs, lots of clips viewed on youtube, even still sells (which is not bad considering DVDs are almost dinosaurs in this age of digital downloads and streaming). The DVD series was the first of its kind. Prior to that, the existing DVDs on the still new "kettlebell fitness market" would typically be 20-40 min, have maybe 5-10 exercises on it max, and would sell for around $50 USD. Myself and my then new partner, Paul Viele discussed and decided we would put a massive amount of content, which at that time was still either brand new to the whole world (with the exception of the yet unknown  Masters of the Girevoy Sport world, which for practical purposes was still behind "the iron curtain". The rest of the world had no access to any of that information yet) or, in the case of that DVD series many technique variations which had never been seen or maybe never been done (not on video). We created a DVD series which had almost 200 individual technical variations and sold it for $99 on a 6-DVD set. That changed the game. One such technique I showed and taught on that series is the "Look Ma, No Hands!" Double Turkish Get-up. Folks in the growing KB community (which existed only of RKC as the source of info) had become fond of the TGU. For accurate history, the person who "brought" the TGU to the kettlebell world was Steve Maxwell and it was immediately adapted into the RKC curriculum. (TGU has its origins in Turkish wrestling, and Maxwell was and is a lifetime grappling teacher and student).Yet, I had never seen anyone perform TGU with 2 kettlebells. I performed the Look Ma, No Hands! Double Turkish Get-up for the first time there on set, and on camera. I did it with 2x32kg. Since that time, I have occasionally seen people perform the Double TGU. However, the way I have seen almost everyone perform it is by first going on to their knees before standing up. I've never seen anyone perform it the way that I did it and can still do it, which gives no intermediate resting base and relies critically on adduction force in the inner legs and stability in the knees. I thought I would try again today. Although not heavy, these are only 20kg and the heaviest I currently have access to. More important though to me, is the movement quality.
A movement like this may beg the question, "why"?To answer the question why sometimes the answer is "because I want to" ; Other times the answer is "because I can"
In my case the question answered here is "can I still?";  and so I'll occassionally test myself by dusting off an old trick from the past to see if I "still got it"
Is it functional?  I can't answer that for you. Give it a try and find your own answer :)
Is it fun? You bet! Is it funky? Oh yeah!

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