The Best Technique To Build Muscle With TRX Suspension Training

The analogy ‘slow and steady wins the race’ is the best way to think of using a TRX suspension trainer.

Suspension training gives you more bang for your buck because many stabilising muscles and secondary muscles come into play when performing exercises using it.

Although you may be primarily training and purposely targeting, with intent, your chest, with a TRX Chest Press. There are many secondary muscles incorporated to keep you in a stable position to allow you to perform the range of movement.

Your core, shoulder girdle, glutes and quads will all be slightly engaging and under tension, much more so than if you were lying on a bench with two dumbbells.

This is one of the reasons I believe the physique you can achieve with TRX suspension training appears natural, developed, and well rounded.

Not to mention the functional fitness benefits that come with training instability combined with large ranges of movement, such as flexibility, a strong well-performing shoulder girdle, and a solid-defined core and hip area.

Slow and mindfully controlled

The slower and more controlled you perform TRX exercises the greater all the above comes into play.

To ensure good technique, safety and control, yielding the best results always focus on the slow tempo that is prescribed within the FFA Workout Programs.

For example, in the beginner and intermediate Programs we focus on a tempo of 222 in EVERY SINGLE REP you do.

The exception to this rule would be when performing explosive exercises such as the TRX jump squat. Where it is better to perform the movement as a whole, focusing on moving your body through a 4D space.

This 222 tempo goes:

Upward phase

2 seconds on the upward (concentric/positive) phase: This would be the press-up part of a press-up

Top phase

2 seconds hold and contract/squeeze at the top of the exercise: This would be when you are holding yourself with straightened arms in a press-up position squeezing the chest muscle

Downward phase

2 seconds on the downward (eccentric/negative) phase: This would be lowering yourself to the floor on a press-up

So, every single rep should take you six seconds.

This is a must.

In the advanced Programs the tempo increases and varies as skill acquisition has been increased.

Remember, we don’t just move.

We purposefully isolate a muscle and place it under tension for long periods. This is muscle-centric exercise.