With these 8 TRX total body workout, you can strengthen your entire body and establish a rock-solid core.
Can You Survive the Suspense?
You’ve probably seen those yellow and black straps hanging from your gym’s ceiling or walls and wondered what you are supposed to do with them. Those are for TRX workout. The Navy SEAL-developed TRX Suspension Trainer uses gravity and your body weight to stress every muscle, particularly your core. They’re also fantastic for exercising at home or when traveling because you can connect them to a door or tree.
Jenn Syracuse, director of Pilates at Pilates ProWorks New York City, devised TRX workout to improve strength, endurance, balance, and core stability.
Read: It is both efficient and effective. “Because of the instability, it’s critical to engage the core throughout each exercise, working the transverse abdominis and other stabilizing muscles,” she explains. If a technique is too easy or too difficult, a simple change in body posture changes the intensity, ensuring you receive what you want out of each session.
TRX Workout specifics: To keep your heart rate up, perform the exercises in order with little rest in between. Complete three circuits, resting 30 seconds to 1 minute between each. Work your way up to the advanced versions of the exercises by the third circuit for increased intensity.
Sprinter Start
- Set the TRX to a mid-length position.
- Stand away from the anchor point, with the handles under the armpits adjacent to the ribs and the elbows bent back outside the straps.
- Get into a back lunge with your right leg, keeping the straps tight.
- Elevate the right leg and bring knee to chest while moving torso forward, and elevate the left heel to balance while keeping hips and shoulders square.
- Return the right leg to the lunge position and continue for 1 minute before switching legs.
Advanced: Before returning to the lunge, add a forward and back hop with the standing leg.
Beginner: Instead of elevating the knee, bring the right toe to the floor adjacent to the left and keep the left heel down.
Biceps Curl
- Set the TRX to a mid-length position.
- Face the anchor point with your hands in the handles and your elbows bent so the handles are next to your ears and your palms face behind you.
- Lean back, stretching the elbows, and keeping the straps taut.
- Bend elbows back to begin a biceps curl while keeping abdominals engaged so that hips remain in line with shoulders and ribs and there is hyperextension in the back.
- Repeat this process for 30 seconds to 1 minute.
Advanced: Take a step forward so that your body is more horizontal.
Beginner: Take a step back so that your body is more vertical. Use a wide or offset stance (one foot in front of the other).
Tabletop Row
- Set the TRX to a mid-length position.
- Kneel on the TRX with your feet level on the floor and your arms extended straight above your shoulders, palms facing in.
- Exhale and engage your abs and glutes as you bend your elbows towards your ribs, squeeze your shoulder blades together, and use your back muscles and arms to lift your body off the floor.
- Keep your shoulders to your knees in a straight line parallel to the floor.
- Lower your back to begin, then repeat for 30 seconds to 1 minute.
Advance: Lift one leg off the floor to do the exercise on a single leg.
Beginner: Do the exercise while standing with your body more vertically.
Suspended Lunge
- In single-handle mode, position the TRX at mid-calf.
- With one foot in the foot cradle with knee bent and hands on hips, stand beneath and slightly forward of the anchor point.
- Bend your standing leg, keeping your weight on your heel and knee over your ankle, and extend your back leg behind you for a lunge.
- Your shoulders and hips are square and facing to the front.
- Maintaining the bend in the front leg, bend the back knee beneath the hip and back out before standing tall.
- A rep for 30 seconds to 1 minute before switching legs.
Advanced: Turn it into a TRX burpee by placing your hands on the floor while lunging, then lifting your front leg off the floor and bringing it back next to your rear leg for a plank. Perform a push-up, then return your standing leg between your hands and stand all the way up.
Beginner: For balance, use a chair or the wall.
Kneeling Rollout with Triceps
- Adjust the TRX to mid-calf.
- Kneel away from the anchor point, hands in handles, and arms outstretched, palms down.
- Maintaining abdominal engagement to support the spine, extend the arms forward, hinge at the shoulder joint, and move the spine forward into a diagonal line from shoulder to knee.
- Bend the elbows, lowering the body closer to the floor, without affecting the form of the spine or moving the handles.
- Pause for a moment, then straighten your arms.
- A rep for 30 seconds to one minute.
Advanced: Stand up and perform the move.
Beginner: Step forward and press the tops of your feet and shins against the floor for stability.
Pendulum
- Adjust the TRX to mid-calf.
- Put your hands on the floor, your toes in the foot cradles, and your inner thighs pressing together in a plank posture.
- Spin your hips to the left and swing your straight legs around to the left side and back to the center while keeping your shoulders square to the floor.
- Rep on the opposite side.
- Repeat for 30 seconds to 1 minute.
Advance: Move from side to side without stopping in the middle.
Beginner: As you bring your legs to the side, bend your knees. Instead of using your hands, use your forearms.
Bridge
- Adjust the TRX to mid-calf. Lie face up, heels in foot cradles; knees bent over hips.
- Tilt the pelvis and engage the glutes and lower abdominals, then articulate through the spine to lift the hips off the floor in a long line from shoulder to knee.
- Maintain abdominal engagement to prevent lower back hyperextension.
- Make sure to rest on your shoulders rather than your neck.
- Hold for 10 counts, then descend down without moving your feet. A rep for one minute.
Advanced: Perform the exercise on one leg with the other leg outside the TRX, hugging the inner thighs together. Each leg should be worked for 30 seconds.
Beginner: Simply raise your hips without going over the bridge.
Teaser
- Set the TRX to its longest length. Lie faceup with your hands in the foot cradles and your legs in the tabletop position (knees over hips, feet parallel to the floor).
- Inhale to lengthen the back of the neck, then exhale to roll the spine up, balancing slightly behind the sitz bones and with a tiny curvature in the lumbar spine.
- Extend your legs as far as possible.
- To engage the lats, keep pressing down on the straps.
- Roll down one bone at a time, keeping the press in the straps, and return to the tabletop with knees bent.
- Repeat 6–8 times more.
Advanced: Begin by lying completely flat on your back with your legs outstretched on the floor, and then lift your legs straight up while you lift your torso.
Beginner: Place both feet level on the floor and bend your knees, or place one foot down and one leg extended.
To Conclude
TRX workout is appropriate for all fitness levels.
The beautiful thing about suspension training is that there are numerous adjustments for each exercise that are suitable for both beginners and seasoned TRX users.