How to Do a TRX Chest Press (+ 4 Mistakes to Avoid)

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.

So in this post, I’ll show you how to set up and do the TRX chest press step by step, then the 4 mistakes that stop it building your chest…

And once you’ve fixed these mistakes, put them to work with my 5 best TRX chest exercises to build a fuller, stronger chest.

For the complete TRX exercise list, see my 16 best TRX exercises post

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

What Muscles Does the TRX Chest Press Work?

The TRX chest press can be a compound exercise, which means several muscles work together to press you back up.

However, we don’t want to perform it as a compound movement (movement-centric technique)…

For maximum chest growth results, we want to isolate the chest muscle using muscle-centric TRX technique to place all your body weight load onto it.

Here are the muscles worked:

• Main primary muscle: your chest (pec major), especially the middle of the chest – this is our goal.
• Also secondary muscles worked: your front shoulders, triceps, biceps, and some back – these we want to limit.
• Stabilisers: your core, and the muscles around your shoulder blades that keep you steady on the straps

The problem is, your shoulders and triceps, especially, are always looking for a way to take over.

With the right muscle-centric technique, you keep the tension on your chest instead of letting them steal the work.

Let me show you…

How to Do a TRX Chest Press (Step by Step)

1. Set your straps long.

Adjust the straps to a long length around the midway mark, so the handles sit at the sides of your shoulders when you’re in the starting position.

2. Get into the starting position.

Face away from the anchor, holding the handles at chest height with your arms straight out in front of you.

3. Set your feet and body.

Place your feet hip width and lean forward into the straps at a slight angle. Keep your core activated so your body stays in one straight line from head to heels, like a moving plank. No sagging hips.

4. Lower slowly and stretch.

Lower yourself over 2 seconds, letting your elbows travel out and back. At the bottom, pull your shoulder blades back to feel a deep stretch across your chest, and pause there for a second.

5. Press out and squeeze.

Don’t just press forward. Push your arms outwards, then bring your elbows together as you reach the top…

…like you’re trying to make them touch. This will help you squeeze your chest hard for 2 seconds.

6. Tempo and reps.

2 seconds down, 2 seconds up, 2 seconds squeeze. Aim for 3 sets of 8–10 reps, stopping each set when your technique starts to slip.

Make It Easier or Harder

Easier: walk your feet forward, away from the anchor, so you stand more upright. Less of your bodyweight goes through the straps.

Harder: before you reach for a bigger angle, make the reps harder:

• Slow the lowering phase down to 4 seconds.
• Hold the stretch at the bottom for 2–3 seconds.
• Hold the squeeze at the top for 4 seconds.

Then, and only once your technique is solid, walk your feet back towards the anchor to lower your body angle, a little at a time. (More on why in Mistake 4.)

Progress onto: once the chest press feels easy, move onto chest dips and flys to hit your chest from different angles. You’ll find both in my 5 best TRX chest exercises.

4 TRX Chest Press Mistakes (and How to Fix Them)

Mistake 1 – Arm Path

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 when using a TRX.

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