World famous strength coach Charles Poliquin went to see the Conan movie that came out a couple of years ago. He disliked it so much that he mentioned it on Facebook. What caused him to dislike it so much? The physique of the actor that played Conan. He made the comment,”This guy looks like he has a TRX.” Arnold played the original Conan back in the early 1980’s and he lifted real weights and looked like it, too. The new guy, well, not so much.
So when I wrote about suspension trainers being a fad for weak people yesterday, maybe it upset a few people. Let me explain.
Everyone has to start somewhere and most of us are starting at the bootom. No problem with that at all. When I taught my kids to ride a bike, we started with training wheels on the bike like most parent’s do. But here’s the catch: eventually the training wheels have to come off.
Ask yourself really hard: are most people that do suspension training moving on to harder training? Really?
A proper progression on a suspension trainer should look something like this:
back row (high angle)–> back row (low angle) –> horizontal row –>static vertical holds –> pullup negatives –>real pullups.
This was why I designed our old STX with separate handles straps instead of having them together like other suspension trainers. I wanted people to progress to real pullups. So how many people doing suspension training progress to those higher levels? Not many, correct?
Maybe people aren’t ready to do full pullups, right? So how about the 40/40 challenge? The 40/40 challenge is 40 straight low rows followed by 40 straight atomic puhsups. The atomic pushup is a logical progression from chest presses. It looks something like this:
chest press (high angle) –> chest press (low angle)–> suspended pushups –> feet in strap pushups –> atomic pushups
How many people doing suspension training are going through that process to the harder levels? Why are they not completing the 40/40 challenge? If suspension training is so fantastic, why don’t I see more videos of clients being trained to that level? Or even trainers themselves?
We use suspension trainers to get people started and primarily for rehab (they’re great for that). But in the gym, once they’ve reached a level of competence on the STX, we get them doing real pullups and pushups and move them to barbell training. If it’s at-home training, we encourage people to move past the easy movements to higher level/harder moves that will get them stronger. We also encourage at-home trainers to buy heavier kettlebells so they can get the benefit of heavier resistance training.
The fact is you have to move beyond the easy stuff if you really want to get strong, and strength should be the major fitness goal since it’s the one missing the most often. Far too often, suspension trainers are used as a crutch instead of a temporary tool. But eventually you have to leave the crutches behind and learn how to walk on your own.