Benefits of TRX Push Exercise

Beginner Friendly

TRX push exercises are a great way for a beginner to add variety to their push work. A TRX can really help a beginner with the initial muscle and strength gain in the upper body as it can make bodyweight variations much easier by reducing the load. If we take for example eccentric press ups on the floor compared to eccentric press ups (high) in the TRX, the TRX variation is much easier so we can see that a beginner can greatly benefit from TRX push exercises.

Advanced Friendly

Just as the TRX is great for beginners, it is also excellent for advanced individuals who are trying to train their upper body without load. Although the TRX has some weak aspects in terms of targeting the entire body for advanced individuals, especially when trying to target the squat and hinge movement category, it does a brilliant job at allowing advanced individuals to train the push or horizontal press movement pattern.

Simple Progressions

Unlike bodyweight training, where beginners are expected to move from a top of press up hold to a planche in 6 weeks (an impossible progress) the TRX allows you to take your time, take methodical steps towards slowly but surely progressing a movement pattern. In this context, the push movement pattern. It is easy to envisage how someone might start with an eccentric press up (high) and move, over the course of a few months, to a press up in TRX. This is where the TRX is extremely beneficial for building a base layer of body strength.

Shoulder Health

Finally, the TRX offers a great deal of instability into your push training. This instability will require the small muscles in the shoulder to work a lot harder than say if you were just using your bodyweight for resistance. This is great for mitigating injuries from falls or improving sports performance.

TRX Push Training Recommendations

Push Training with a TRX

The TRX is a great tool for full body resistance training. If your looking to progress specifically the push movement category, completing around 8-12 working sets per week would be a great way to ensure your progress.

This can be done by adding push exercises into full body resistance training sessions. Full body resistance training is a very effective and efficient way to stay strong and healthy through as little as two sessions of 30-45 minutes each week. At the bottom of the article is a push pull superset with the TRX, a full body resistance training session may contain two or three of these that target multiple movement patterns in the body.

The 6 TRX Push Exercises to Add To Your Workout Routine

The TRX Eccentric Press Up (high) is a great push exercise that beginners can use to find their feet with this movement pattern. This exercise needs to be performed with precision and control, if it is not it will take all benefit away from the exercise. It’s very important that you bring the chest all the way to the hands and move through the full range of motion.

The TRX Archer Press Up is on the opposite end of the spectrum to the eccentric press up (high), it is only for advanced individuals who are very well trained in the push movement category and have experience with the archer press up on the floor. This exercise is for building strength in the muscles of the pectorals and triceps.

The TRX Bottom of Press Up Hold is an excellent isometric hold that works the same muscles as the push movement category. This style of isometric exercise can be a great secondary exercise to have in your training programme if you’re an intermediate individual. The TRX bottom of press up hold may be too challenging for the majority of beginners. The chest shouldn’t pass the hands at the bottom, this will create a stretch rather than the tension in the pectorals that the exercise is aiming to achieve.

The TRX Feet Elevated Press Up is a great movement for advanced individuals to build strength endurance in the push movement pattern. It is also an excellent way for intermediate individuals who are comfortable with press ups to build strength (3-5 reps) in the push movement category at home. This exercise will be too challenging for beginners and should be avoided.

The TRX Press Up to Pike offers both adaptation for the push movement category and the core musculature. It is a very challenging exercise and needs to be performed with precision and control. If it is performed quickly it will take away from the stimulus presented to the anterior core and create sloppy movement patterns. If you cannot perform the eccentric portion of the exercise with control then you need to chose a movement that you are able to perform correctly.

The TRX Top of Press Up Hold is the exercise that a very beginner who struggles to take their own body weight can use as the first building block of the push movement pattern. Beginners who might be overweight or have been extremely sedentary can use exercises like this as a gate way to more challenging exercises.