Exercises for a Better Workout

Odd-Sounding Exercises You Should Try

These moves have interesting names—but you'll be more interested in the great results they'll give you
By Greg Presto fitbie
 

You Want Me to Do a...What?!

Odd-Sounding Exercises You Should Try // man doing Turkish getup © Beth Bischoff

Image: Beth Bischoff

Some exercises have no-brainer names. (Pressing a barbell while on a bench? That's a barbell bench press.) Others evoke a little more: If you believe exercise titles, Romanians and Bulgarians must have pretty sturdy legs, Turkish people can stand up (er, get up) without a problem, and there's some guy named Zottman (he of the Zottman curl) with rockin' biceps. But the connection between an exercise’s name and its origin isn’t always crystal clear.

Do these interesting-sounding monikers—Romanian deadlifts, Russian twists, Bulgarian split squats—have any real ties to the exercises’ roots? To find out, we enlisted Terry Todd, PhD, an exercise historian and cofounder of the H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports at the University of Texas. And then we asked fitness experts why we should try each of these moves—and how to do them best for our most Romanian (or Turkish, or Bulgarian) results.

More: Get the ultimate guide to the best exercises you could ever do!

1 Comments
More From fitbie
Keywords:
Related Content