Bring Sally Up. Bring Sally Down. Workout.

My friend Hazel is currently in training to become a personal fitness instructor. Today she introduced a bunch of us skaters to the ‘Bring Sally Up,’ exercise. You perform squats, going up and down in time to the lyrics from the Moby track ‘Flower.’ 

The song lasts 3:26 and includes
30 repetitions of ‘Bring Sally Up, Bring Sally Down,’ and
4 Down holds..

This ‘game,’ can be done with other forms of exercises such as press ups, pull ups, etc,.. (probably drinking games too!).


When eight skaters did this, one dropped out. Another did momentarily too, but we made it to the end of the song. Hazel said this was the first time she did this as a group and it was the first time she’s completed it. So a bit of peer pressure can motivate each other, especially during this somewhat sadistic game where the song just seemed to go on forever!

After saying that does it make me a sadomasochistic that I tried this again at home?! Only this time with press ups and again with chin ups. It was much tougher doing this exercise with the arms instead of the legs. Holding the positions seems to really work those muscles more than just ploughing through a heap load of repetitions. This is my current scores for Bring Sally Up:

Squats: Complete.
Press Ups: 2:10.
Chin Ups: 0:55.

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From my google ventures I've found that the song is based on an old plantation slaves song. Where the lyrics are actually:

Green Sally up. Green Sally down.
last one squat got to tear the ground.

Ole, Miss Lucy dead and gone.
Left me here to weep and moan.
If you hate it fold your arms.
If you love it clap your hands.

‘Green,’ referring to the clothes they were wearing.

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It was a little spontaneous when we did our attempt in Battersea Park's cafe picnic area. Therefore there are no videos of us doing it, but found this video (one of many) instead: