STOP Doing TRX Chest Press Like This (4 Mistakes Slowing Your Chest Gains)

The TRX chest press exercise is arguably the most effective choice for building your chest muscles.

That said, if you don’t do it correctly, rather than working your chest…

You’ll end up working more of your other muscles, like the front of your shoulders and your triceps

There are four chest press mistakes that cause this to happen.

They’re easy to fix…

But they will make a massive difference in your chest press.

Let’s start with mistake number one:

Your arm path…

Mistake 1 – Arm Path

Don’t have time to read the post in full? Then watch the video below to learn the 4 TRX Chest Press mistakes slowing your chest gains…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB_kHohKPkE

The first mistake has to do with your arm path.

Most people only focus on pressing forward with a chest press…

Which makes sense. The clues in the name.

But that brings in secondary muscles like your front shoulders and your triceps a lot more.

The job of the chest muscle isn’t just to push forward.

It’s to bring your arms across your body.

So we can improve the chest muscle activation by instead of pressing forward…

Press outwards away from your body… and then back in.

Focusing on bringing your elbows together to touch at the top.

That really helps to squeeze the chest muscles hard…

So instead of focusing on pressing…

Focus on bringing your elbows together.

That will give you better chest activation, and you’ll get a really good squeeze at the top of the chest press.

Mistake number 2 is your shoulder position…

Mistake 2 – Shoulder Retraction

The second mistake is not retracting your shoulders back at the bottom.

A lot of people, when they press, are hunched forward.

The problem with that is you’re not recruiting the full chest muscle.

You need to open the chest out and take the muscle from a fully stretched position to a fully contracted position.

That’s why we first focus on bringing our elbows together in mistake number 1, for that top contracted squeeze.

As you reach the bottom of the press, actively pull your shoulder blades back and feel a deep stretch across your chest.

Then pause here for a second to hold that stretch.

Then contract backup up.

By getting that deep stretch and the bottom with your shoulders back, rather than hunched forward….

You’re taking the chest muscles through a bigger range of motion.

A bigger range of motion means complete muscle development across the whole chest muscle.

Mistake number 3 is your speed…

Mistake 3 – Speed

Mistake number three is speed.

The majority of people do chest presses as fast as they can with little thought or control of the chest muscle itself.

They are more focused on the movement.

But the goal isn’t to press.

The goal is to work the chest muscle.

And to do that, you need to slow right down

As a minimum, focus on 2 seconds for each of the three phases of the chest press.

1. 2 seconds on the downward phase with a slight pause to feel a deep stretch at the bottom.
2. 2 seconds pressing backup back up.
3. 2 seconds squeeze at the top, trying to bring your elbows together for maximum contraction.

Slowing the movement down allows for better control, mind-muscle connection (that squeeze) and reduces the risk of injury.

Mistake number 4 is your ego…

Mistake 4 – Angle (Ego Leading)

The fourth mistake is angle, or in other words, letting your ego lead.

This is another thing I see many people doing – creating a huge angle to press up from.

Then they will just do any form of press movement to get the heavy bodyweight load up.

The problem with this ego form and lack of focus is that multiple muscles are coming into the equation again:

• Your shoulders are helping you out…
• Your triceps…
• Even your back and biceps…

Just so you can press up.

So that means the load is shared across multiple muscles.

So the chest isn’t taking all the bodyweight load.

When that happens, the chest loses tension.

Tension is transferred to the other ‘helpful’ muscles.

Tension is the number one muscle and strength-building stimulus.

You want to keep as much tension and body weight on the chest muscle as possible.

One muscle handling all the weight is a lot weaker on its own, because it can’t rely on other muscles to help out.

In other words, the chest muscle has to do all the work.

That causes a big muscle-building stimulus.

So don’t think an easier angle means an easier exercise.

Instead, let go of your ego.

Just make a very slight angle and focus on only loading your chest muscle.

So it has to do all the work throughout the entire range of motion

You should feel it squeezing, stretching, and burning throughout every single rep.

By dropping your ego and focusing less on just moving and more on connecting with your chest muscle, and placing all the load onto it…

You’ll get better results, safely.

On Your Next TRX Chest Press Exercise

Add all those movements together:

1. A nice stretch at the bottom
2. Push your arms outwards and then bring your elbows together as you reach the top
3. Squeeze at the top for 2 seconds
4. And slow it right down with just a small angle.

Here’s the thing, though…

The chest press is only one chest move using a suspension trainer.

If you want a complete chest with fullness and thickness, you need to hit it from different angles.

So check out this post next and I’ll show you five different TRX exercise variations and techniques with your suspension trainer…

To build a complete, full and thick chest that screams strength.

Here’s to your Fitness Freedom

Coach Adam aka TRX Traveller