Ground Get Ups: How to do it and benefits

II’m playing with my baby on the floor and suddenly he decided he’s hungry. The challenge: Get the two of us from the carpet to the nursing chair before my son’s whining turns into a full-blown scream. Also, bring my phone with me so I can monitor my feeding session.

Holding my baby and my phone, there aren’t exactly arms to pick up off the floor, but that’s okay. Without thinking, I put my legs in a straddle position, then bend one leg in front of me and one behind me into a 90-90 stretch. Then I take a deep breath in and as I exhale I engage my core and rise up to kneeling from this 90-90 stretch. From there, it’s easy to transition into basically a lunge, and up to standing. Ta-da!

Does it sound complicated? When I first learned this move, called “on the ground,” figuring out where to place my limbs and in what order confused me. I was also pregnant, so my brain was already cloudy, and I had the built-in challenge of my baby’s added resistance.

But practicing it over and over as my belly got bigger and bigger helped me build strength and muscle memory. It wasn’t until my son came along that I realized I was doing flips when I needed them without even thinking about it.

The ability to subconsciously apply something from my prenatal training to my postnatal life led me to message the trainer and friend who taught me, a health coach and certified personal trainer Azul Corajoria, CPT. She said she was proud “but not surprised,” because movement is what she calls “active daily living” exercise, which is a type of functional fitness she wanted to teach me so I could use it in my everyday life.

“[Ground get ups] it’s a functional strength training movement that teaches you how to get off the ground in a safe way,” says Corajoria. “You want to make energetic exercises of daily living so ingrained that by the time you become a [parent] and you’re thinking about a million different things, that’s one less thing to think about.”

How to make a soil rise

1. Sit on the ground and swing your legs out in a ‘V’ straddle position.
2. Move your feet so that one is further out in front of you and the other is pointing further out to the side.
3. Bend each of your knees so that your feet point in the same direction, each lower leg making a 90-degree angle with the upper leg at the knee. This is called the 90-90 stance. Your front shin/calf should be almost parallel to your back.
4. Take a deep breath.
5. Keeping your calves/shins where they are, engage your core as you exhale so that you rise to a kneeling position.
6. Bring your back leg around to the front so that you are in a half-kneeling stance.
7. Engage your hamstrings and quads as you rise to a standing position.

“[Ground get ups] it’s a functional strength training movement that teaches you how to get off the ground in a safe way.” —Azul Corajoria, CPT

The benefits of soil get ups

Getting off the ground while carrying the extra load of my belly was a useful skill to teach myself, but it also helped strengthen my core muscles and stabilizers without putting pressure on my belly, which is also important for building strength and stability and reducing pain during pregnancy. But Corajoria says these skills can be applied to many more people than those who carry babies (on their bellies or in their arms).

“You’d be surprised how many people can’t get off the floor without using their arms because of a general lack of strength or mobility, which is very common if you’ve never lifted weights and is very common if you have stiff joints,” says Corajoria. “It’s a fundamental skill that most people should be able to do, and [the ground get up] it’s a great functional assessment of how agile and strong you are.”

What makes the movement so “fundamental” is how comprehensive it is as a complex movement.

“It works your core, it works the muscles that run through your spine, it works your hip flexors, your glutes, your legs when you come up from the reverse walk—so pretty much every muscle in your body,” says Corajoria . “And because you’re also working on balance and coordination, it works all the small stabilizer muscles, along with the bigger muscles.”

Not to mention, carrying something on your lap—like a dumbbell or, say, a baby—will also work your arms, back, and shoulders. And that’s just the power element. You will also need to develop your balance and coordination skills. The movement requires mobility in your hips, knees and ankles and flexibility in your hamstrings, quads and glutes. Finally, tying it all together is the breath.

“Breathing as you climb is very important,” says Corajoria. “When you turn from sitting to standing, making sure you’re exhaling teaches you proper spinal alignment. The idea is that you’re not using your arms and you’re not rounding down, so you’re keeping your shoulders back and sitting up straight, which strengthens your back but also teaches you how to maintain proper posture so you don’t get lower back pain later or don’t pull on something when you’re trying to get up with your baby in your arms.”

There’s a lot to remember, but the mental challenge of coordination is part of what makes it great for older populations as well. Corajoria says deadlifts build “neuromuscular function,” which is essentially your brain’s ability to tell your muscles what to do and get your muscles to carry out those instructions. Neuromuscular function may be reduced¹ as you get older, practicing coordination-based movements is important to keep this skill sharp—and build more muscle memory for basic skills like getting up off the floor.

“You always want to build the foundation when you don’t need it the most,” says Corajoria. “That way by the time you need it, you don’t really have to think about it.”

Essentially, getting off the ground is a movement for everyone, no matter what stage of life you are in, because it sets you up for a lifetime of strength and security.

How to work yourself up

Because deadlifts require strength, coordination, flexibility and mobility, putting them all together might not be the best place for you to start. Fortunately, it’s a compound move, so you can break it down into its component parts.

“It’s literally a few different exercises in one, which makes the mental load kind of difficult,” Corajoria says. “But you can always break it up into different pieces.”

Sitting on the ground in a trot may not be feasible for you. Practice walking from an elevated surface, such as sitting on the edge of a couch. Once you feel comfortable, try stepping on the ground. Finally, progress to 90-90. And you can also incorporate some ankle circles separately. To build strength and balance, Corajoria suggests practicing backflips and squats. Runner’s lunges should also help with hip mobility.

How to advance the ground get up

By my third trimester, I had my own form of resistance training incorporated into deadlifts. But you can go through the movement holding a weight in front of you or just to one side for an added stability challenge. Consider trying the Turkish stand up if you want to test your coordination and strength even more.