The Get-Up at Sixty-One

Here is the climb as my body files it. I roll to the bell, lace both hands on the handle, and roll back with it hugged to my chest. My right arm presses the iron to lockout above the shoulder. Both eyes find the bell and keep it. My right knee bends until that foot stands flat. Out along the floor goes the left arm, an outrigger. Now the right foot drives, and the trunk rolls up onto the left elbow. From the elbow I climb to the flat left hand, and the sit grows tall. Hips rise next, a bridge from hand to heels. Under that bridge the left leg sweeps back and sets its knee where the hips had been. Then the hand leaves the floor. The torso swings upright, and I am kneeling in a lunge with the iron overhead. Toes turn behind me. The front heel takes the freight, and I stand all the way up into the ordinary miracle of vertical.