Siegmund Klein: “Fun with Kettlebells" — The One-Arm Get-Up [1960]

The one-arm get-up (Figs. 8 to 12) is a general test of strength which had considerable appeal to most strongmen of yesteryear and was practiced by most of them, even those who did not use it in their public appearances.

It has always made a hit with the theatrical public, for it was obvious to them that magnificent strength was being displayed when an athlete did a one-arm get-up with a heavy bell or a human weight, such as Otis Lambert did with Adolph Nordquest plus two 15-pound dumbbells which were attached to Nordquest, a total of 220 pounds.

G. W. Rolandow did, if memory serves me right, a one-arm get-up with a barbell weighing 190 pounds – and that takes some strength! It was a much simpler feat with a human weight in the “ball-up” position. When the strongmen in vaudeville more or less stopped their weightlifting acts, many went into the hand balancing field, where they still made use of the opportunity to display some strength stunts.

Invariably they would do the one-arm get-up. Clevio Massimo would perform this stunts by supporting his partner in the following manner: Massimo would place his right hand on the upper part of his partner’s chest. Then the partner would grasp Massimo’s wrist with both hands. With the aid of his left hand, Massimo elevated the partner to the overhead position, so that the human burden was now at the strongman’s shoulder with his legs elevated.

Massimo then pressed the partner to arm’s length, after which he would lower himself slowly to the stage floor until he was flat on his back. From this position he would then do a one-arm get-up, all the while holding the partner overhead with the one arm.

This was an extremely impressive balancing stunt which called for enduring strength. Others also performed this stunt. Some European strongmen, to feature the layout part of the feat, would have an assistant place a row of knives under them so that in the event of a miscue a serious injury might result.

I would not suggest that any of you try this dangerous embellishment, which is being mentioned only to let you know to what lengths some athletes would go with this particular stunt in order to impress an audience.

One post-vaudeville athlete who was skilled in the one-arm get-up was our good friend Ray Van Cleef, whose monthly column always proves so interesting in this magazine.

On many occasions when he trained at my gym Ray performed this feat with a solid 120-pound kettlebell. This particular stunt stopped many outstanding lifters of that period, nevertheless I witnessed Ray perform it many, many times.

Favorite of vaudeville performers of yesteryear was the one-arm get-up, which could be done with live weight, a dumbell, or kettlebell as shown here. With kettlebell on floor, athlete lies flat on back, taking bell from near shoulder and pressing to arm’s length (not shown). He then proceeds to shift weight to legs and elbow (Fig. 8), continuing until position shown in Figure 9 is attained. This is held for a few seconds, after which the layout (Fig 10) position is assumed and held for several seconds. To complete the get-up, the athlete once again shifts to the position illustrated in Figure 9, after which he completes the lift by straightening out the body (Fig. 1) and finally standing erect (Fig. 12). Some performers did not consider the lift to be completed until the sequence was reversed and the weight returned to the starting position through the same steps, while others began from a standing position (Fig. 12), worked down until their body was flat on the floor, then came erect again. The one-arm get-up requires great stamina and a good sense of balance.