Get Down On It, Get Up Off It
Posted by terrepruitt on August 4, 2009
Serious. Do it. Every day. It is a great exercise. Get down on the floor and get up again. Over and over. At least 10 times. For some of you it might be easy, fine then, make it challenging, put a book on your head, hold a glass of water, chew gum, don’t use your arms, do it on one leg, who cares, just make it an exercise for you that challenges your body and your brain. That way your brain will be trained and it will know how to get up.
If it is already a challenge, then do it. And do it again. Start off however you can. Use a couch, a chair, a person, a cane, a dog, whatever . . . .just get down, and get up at least five times. Keep doing it every day until you can do it more and without help.
Whether it is a challenge or not, while you are doing it, think about it. Think about what muscles you are using to get up. Try to get down on the floor differently every time, think about all the different muscles you are using. Also, try getting up differently, thinking about all of those muscles.
No, this will not increase the size of your muscles, for some of you it won’t even tone them, but if you try to make it a challenge it will challenge your muscles. Balance and being able to get up are a key part of health that we just either don’t think about or we take it for granted. But it really is a great exercise, right up there with the push-up, but maybe more functional.
Of course this is just ONE exercise of many that I believe qualifies as a functional exercise. And for a lot of you it should not be your only workout, but for some it might be a start and a good start.
Terre Pruitt's Blog 
judy said
Good advice, especially for people with very sedentary lifestyles. Once I read in Fitness that people get results something like 20% faster simply by thinking about the exercise. Another way to be “in the now.”
Great post, Terre!
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terrepruitt said
Thanks. I figured most of don’t think about the muscles we use getting up and down, so it would help us—like you said, be in the now.
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Jill Campana said
Hi Terre,
Debbie Rosas, co-creator of The Nia Technique, has a wonderful process for “conditioning” the body. And it only takes 7 minutes. I’ve used it in my classes before (and when I announce it I usually get lots of moaning and groaning from my seasoned students who know what’s coming).
Here’s the formula:
One minute each doing the 5 Stages of Self-Healing
–Embryonic (on the back)
–Creeping (on the belly)
–Crawling (on all fours)
–Standing (actually in a squat)
–Walking (upright, walking)
One minute of getting up and down off of the floor (this can be challenging for the most seasoned student).
Full belly laughing for 15 seconds while laying on the back, on the belly, and on each side.
7 minutes to condition the body. It’s a real treat.
Thanks for your post Terre!
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terrepruitt said
Jill, I have this in my lesson plans and look forward to doing it one day soon.
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John Pruitt said
Jiu Jitsu has ways of getting down and up that they consider proper in comparrison to just going for it. Proper support while you are getting up plus proper ways to protect yourself while getting down. I’ve always admired that about it and the exercises I went through.
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terrepruitt said
Jiu Jitsu is very wonderful for its discipline, but when just trying to get people to move, we are less picky about how they do it. SAFE is the proper way, other than that, anything goes!
For people that consider getting up and down easy an additional way to make it challenging would be to do it EXTRRRRRAAAA SLLLLLLOOOOOOW. As if in slow motion, this would be a challenge to the muscles as they would have to hold each movement for a few seconds.
And wait, are you even talking about getting down on the ground or are you talking about FALLING? Falling is totally different. I am NOT suggesting people fall. I am suggesting they use their muscles to get down on the ground.
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