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I was watching standup of the comedian Bryan Callen on YouTube and his set was about how he always wanted to be a hero. He described what heroes are like and one of the aspects of them was the fact that all heroes have very muscular backs. He was making jokes by giving reasons that account for this fact. One of them was the fact that they are saving children by "pulling them out of wells all day". He mimicked a movement of someone reaching down and pulling something up as if he was taking a child out of a well and said:

"This movement right there, gets your back"

What does "get" mean in this context?

I'm supposed to provide some research but no definition really fits for this context even though there is a plethora of them for this word. The only thing I suspect this could be is that this really is a shortening of "this movement really gets your muscles big". The rest of the sentence is implied here. Plz, help guys.

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  • I am sure the meaning is 'affects strongly'. repeatedly bending over and pulling things out of wells could easily hurt someone's back (pull a muscle, 'put their back out', 'get' their back.). Dense smoke will 'get' your throat and maybe your lungs as well. if something strongly affects a person emotionally they may say it 'gets them in the guts'.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Jan 25 at 22:54
  • I would say that the more common way of expressing this in fitness writing would be "hits your back" rather than "gets".
    – Canadian Yankee
    Commented Jan 26 at 0:15

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This movement right there, gets your back.

Sense 5A2 applies to OP's example.

5 VERB A2 If you get a particular result, you obtain it from some action that you take ...

In OP's example, the result is the muscular back.

This movement right there, gets (you) your [muscular] back.

The comma denotes the slight pause in speech while he was mimicking the pulling action.

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  • So I guess my suspition from the OP is confirmed by you. It's a form of a shotening. Feel free to confirm and bolster this answer anyone. Also thank you.
    – Static Bounce
    Commented Jan 28 at 20:54
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    Our interpretations are slightly different; your gets in "gets your muscles big" is a causative verb, like makes, but mine means obtains.
    – Seowjooheng Singapore
    Commented Jan 28 at 22:50
  • Oh, I know what you mean. Like get in "get money". Thanks for ur input sir.
    – Static Bounce
    Commented Jan 29 at 12:06
  • You're welcome, but please don't call me "sir"; I'm not knighted.
    – Seowjooheng Singapore
    Commented Jan 29 at 12:20

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