WARM UP
Stretch and Roll Out:
Wrists/Forearms
Chest
Shoulders
Back
Lats

WORKOUT
Complete 3-5 rounds of each of the following supersets. Rest about 30 seconds between rounds of the superset and up to 1 minute between supersets.

SUPERSET #1:
8-15 reps Inverted Row
8-15 reps Back Fly

SUPERSET #2:
8-15 reps Decline Push Up
8-15 reps Plank Climbers

SUPERSET #3:
8-15 reps Row to Rotational Press
8-15 reps Ab Roll Out

SUPERSET #4:
8-15 reps Chest Flyes
8-15 reps Tricep Extensions

COOL DOWN
Stretch and Roll Out:
Wrists/Forearms
Chest
Shoulders
Back
Lats

NOTES:
Exercisers of all levels should be able to do these moves with the suspension trainer. No weights should be needed. Make sure to do a rep range that challenges you. Do not just stop at 8 reps because that is the minimum. Choose a variation of each exercise that challenges you.

EXERCISE DESCRIPTIONS:
Inverted Row – Hold a suspension trainer strap in each hand. There are three basic grips you can use – palms facing your head, palms facing your feet or palms facing in toward each other. Walk your feet forward toward the anchor point so that you are leaning back. The further forward you walk your feet and the closer to parallel to the ground you get, the harder the move will be. Do not sacrifice form though to get lower. If you can’t row all the way up or your body doesn’t stay in a nice straight line, walk your feet back and make the move easier. Then starting at the bottom of the row with your arms out straight, squeeze your core and glutes and press your chest out so there is tension between your shoulder blades. Make sure you don’t shrug your shoulders and that your body is in a nice straight line from your feet to your head. Then row up, keeping your body in that nice straight line. Drive your elbows down and back as you row up to make sure you don’t shrug your shoulders. Row until your chest comes up to the handles and then lower yourself back down. Do not curl your wrists to row all the way up. Keep your wrists in a nice straight line. Also, do not let your back arch in order to get your chest to the handles. Then lower back down until your arms are straight. As you lower back down, don’t let your hips sink toward the ground or your low back arch. Also, keep your chest pressed out the entire time. Make sure you don’t round your thoracic spine at the bottom, but instead keep tension between your shoulder blades at all times. Move in a controlled fashion. You can change up the tempo of the movement to make it easier or harder; however, make sure you are in control of the movement the entire time and not bouncing off the bottom of the row to get back up. Make sure you row low and don’t shrug your shoulders at any point. This is a great movement to activate the big muscles of our back and help alleviate neck, shoulder and upper back pain if it is done correctly. If you shrug your shoulders when you row, you will not activate the big muscles of your back.

Back Fly – Hold a strap in each hand, facing the anchor point of the trainer. Walk your feet forward toward the anchor point. You will not want to walk them in as far as you do with the Inverted Row. Keeping your body in a nice straight line from your head to your heels, open your arms out to the side. You may open them slightly out and down to make sure you don’t shrug your shoulders. Keep your elbows soft, but do not bend your arms as you open to the side. Do not turn this into a row. Pull yourself up so your arms are even with your body and then lower back down, bringing your hands back together. Keep your body in a nice straight line as you row. Do not arch your back to help yourself get all the way up. If you can’t fly your arms all the way open, walk your feet back so you are more vertical instead of horizontal. Do not let your hips sag or arch as you perform the fly. Squeeze your glutes and keep your abs engaged. Make sure you don’t shrug your shoulders as you open. Keep your chest pressed out as you perform the fly. Move slowly and don’t bounce off the bottom. Focus on squeezing your shoulder blades down and together as you perform the Back Fly. If you feel this too much in your neck and upper traps, you may want to try the Scapular Band Fly first to learn how to engage your lower traps. (This post has some other great back exercises as well!)

Decline Push Up –  Place your feet in the straps and walk your hands out so that you are in a plank position with your hands under your shoulders and your body in a nice straight line. Squeeze your glutes and quads and draw your belly button in toward your spine. Keep your feet together and your body in a nice straight line as you lower your chest down toward the ground. Do not let your elbows flare out toward your shoulders. You want to create an arrow shape with your arms and body as you lower down. Then press back up, making sure your body moves together as one unit. Do not let your hips sag or your butt rise up toward the ceiling. To make the move harder, make the suspension straps shorter so that the push up is even more of a decline push up. You can also walk your hands forward and pull the suspension trainers straps forward so that when you do the push up, the straps are trying to pull you backward. This Decline Suspension Trainer Push Up is an advanced move to begin with. Do not attempt this if you can’t easily complete a perfect push up from your toes on the ground.

Plank Climbers – Place your toes in the straps and set up in a high plank position from your hands. Your hands should be under your shoulders and your body should be in a nice straight line from your head to your toes. The farther out you set up in the plank from the straps hanging straight down, the harder the move will be because the trainer will work to pull you back. Then, engaging your quads, glutes and abs to keep your body in a nice straight line, lower down onto one forearm and then the other. Once in a plank position from your forearms, climb back up one hand at a time, placing your hand where your elbow was. Keep your core engaged and wiggle your hips as little as possible as you climb up and down. Make sure that both hands lead the climb up and down. You can alternate which hand leads each rep or you can switch after a certain number of reps.

Row to Rotational Press – Hold a strap in each hand and walk your feet forward so that your body is at an appropriate incline. The closer to parallel to the ground you are, the harder the move will be. Start at more of an incline than you would for the Inverted Row because of the press portion of this movement. Once you are set at an appropriate incline, place your arms outstretched in front of you with your hands together. Then row your hands in toward your chest, driving your elbows down and back. Do not shrug your shoulders as you row. Once you’ve brought your chest up to your hands, rotate and press your hands out to the right. Then bring them back to the center of your chest and lower back down, straightening your arms out in front of you. Make sure to keep your shoulders down the entire time. Do not let them shrug up by your ears. You want to make the big muscles of your back work. Throughout the entire movement, keep your body in a straight line. Do not let your hips sag toward the ground or your low back arch as your row and press. Alternate presses, rowing up and pressing to the right and then the left. As you fatigue, do not bounce or swing to get up. If you need to make the movement easier as you fatigue, walk your feet back so that you are more vertical.

Ab Roll Out – Kneel on the ground behind the trainer with a hand on each handle. Extend your arms straight out in front of you at about chest height. Then, keeping your core tight, begin to reach your hands up toward the ceiling, leaning forward as you do. Keep your body in a nice straight line as you lean forward and extend your arms up overhead. Squeeze your glutes and brace your abs so that you don’t feel the move in your low back. Reach up as far as you can and then, pulling your arms back down with your lats, lower your arms back down in front of you, bringing your body back up. Do not let your butt sit back first as you come back up. You want your body to move as one unit driven by your lats pulling your arms back down to push your body back to the starting position. Repeat, reaching up as far as you can each and every time. Do not let your low back arch. Engage your abs and glutes to keep your low back safe!

Chest Flyes – Stand facing away from the suspension trainer anchor point with a hand in each strap. Hold the straps so that your palms are facing each other. Walk your feet back so your body is at an incline. The closer to parallel to the ground you get, the harder the move will be. Set up with your arms out in front of you in line with your shoulders and your feet together. Your elbows may be slightly bent. Then, keeping your body in a nice straight line, let your arms open up to the sides as you lower your body down forward. Your arms may bend a little as you open them up; however, you don’t want to turn this into a press. Do not let your arms flare up above your shoulders as you open them. Drop your chest in between your open arms. Then, keeping your body in a nice straight line, pull your arms back together and move back to the top of the fly. As you pull your hands back together and return to the top of the fly, do not let your butt go up in the air or your hips sag down toward the ground. You want your body to move in a nice straight line. Only open your arms out as wide as you can control. If you can’t maintain a straight line with your body or you can’t open your arms up very far, regress the movement by walking your feet forward so you are more vertical instead of parallel to the ground.

Tricep Extensions – Stand facing away from the suspension trainer anchor point with a hand in each strap and your palms facing away from you (so thumbs next to each other). Walk your feet back so your body is at an incline. The closer to parallel to the ground you get, the harder the move will be. Remember this isn’t a big muscle group working so don’t go too low to start. Set up with your arms out straight in front of you in line with your shoulders and your feet together. Make sure your shoulders are relaxed and that you aren’t shrugging them up by your ears. Then, keeping your body in a nice straight line and your upper arms in line with your shoulders, curl the backs of your hands toward your forehead. Do not let your hips sag down toward the ground or your butt go back as you curl your hands back. Then, once you’ve brought your hands to your forehead, press your hands back out until your arms are fully extended again at shoulder height. As you press your hands back out, you will press your body away. Curl and press away in a slow and control manner. Make sure to press your arms straight back out. Do not let them go out to the sides. Also, you should not feel this move in your low back. Keep your core engaged and make sure your feel your triceps working.

WARM UP
Stretch and Roll Out:
Wrists/Forearms
Chest
Shoulders
Traps
Upper Back

ACTIVATION

Complete 2 rounds of the circuit below.

CIRCUIT:
30 second Scapular Wall Hold
30 second Dead Hang
30 second Pull Up and Hold

WORKOUT

Complete 4-5 rounds of the first exercise. Rest up to 1 minute between rounds of the first exercise. Then rest 1-2 minutes before moving on to the supplemental circuit. Complete 4 rounds of the circuit resting up to 1 minute between rounds.

EXERCISE:
Max Pull Ups (See below for variations and tips to get the most out of these rounds)

CIRCUIT:
8-15 reps Pull Overs
8-15 reps Inverted Rows
8-15 reps Hanging Abs

NOTES:

With the Max Pull Ups you want to try to go to failure or even past failure each and every round. If you can only do a few pull ups with a variation, you may want to regress right away and complete a few more to try to increase your work capacity. For instance, if you can do 2 regular pull ups, you may want to try to do 5 more reps, but with a little foot assistance or even a jump to the top and then a slow eccentric down.

Or if you can already easily do a ton of pull ups, you may want to use the Max Pull Up rounds to try more challenging variations such as a really slow eccentric variation instead of just do 40 or 50 pull ups.

The circuit will then be used to target a few common areas to help you build your pull ups further. Use a challenging weight or variation for the circuit exercises. Rest as needed so you can increase weight or at least stay the same each round.

Beginners may want to do slightly higher reps and lower weights than advanced exercisers.

EXERCISE DESCRIPTIONS:

Scapular Wall Hold – For a description of the Scapular Wall Hold and variations, click here!

Dead Hang – G

Pull Up and Hold –

Pull Ups – For these pick the hardest variation you can do. Whether you can do full pull ups or need to try a modification like the foot assisted pull ups or jumping pull ups, you want to concentrate on working your back. For Pull Up Variations, click here and see the picture below for a few different options.

   
Pull Overs – Place your upper back on a bench or box. Grab a dumbbell in both hands and bridge your hips up. Keeping your arms fairly straight with only a slight bend to the elbow, reach back over your head toward the ground behind you. Reach back as far as you can without bending more at the elbows and then bring the dumbbell back forward over your chest. Keep your hips up the entire time. Really feel your lats and abs stretch and work to control the reach overhead. Then feel your lats and abs work to pull the dumbbell back over your chest. Do not turn this into a tricep exercise. Keep the arms straight and do not start to bend at your elbows. If you can’t reach very far back overhead, you may want to use a lighter weight. Concentrate on feeling your lats work to pull the weight back over. You can also lie fully on the bench; however, that move doesn’t force you to engage your glutes as much. Having to engage your glutes can help protect your low back from hyperextending as you reach back and over.

Inverted Rows – For the Inverted Row and even variations you may want to include, check out this post. You can easily vary this workout by simply doing a different inverted row variations. To do the workout as written, stick with the basic inverted row shown below.

Hanging Abs – For 10 different Hanging Ab variations for every level, check out these 10 options! Beginners may want to start with a pelvic tilt while more advanced exercisers may want to do a knees to elbows or even a straight leg variation to work their lats more.

WARM UP
Stretch and Roll Out:
Wrists/Forearms
Chest
Shoulders
Back
Lats

WORKOUT

Complete 3-5 rounds of each circuit below. Rest up to 1 minute between rounds and up to 2 minutes between circuits.

CIRCUIT #1:
30 seconds – 1 minute Inverted Row Hold
10-15 reps Inverted Rows
10-20 reps Soccer Throws

CIRCUIT #2:
30 seconds – 1 minute High Plank Hold
10-15 reps Push Ups
10-20 reps Chest Pass

COOL DOWN
Stretch and Roll Out:
Wrists/Forearms
Chest
Shoulders
Back
Lats

NOTES:

Use a med ball that is at most 10% of your bodyweight. You want to use a light ball that you can throw quickly and powerfully after doing the strength moves.

EXERCISE DESCRIPTIONS:

Inverted Row Hold – Hold a suspension trainer strap in each hand or do the move off a bar. Walk your feet out so you are leaning back. The closer to parallel to the ground you get, the harder the move will be. Squeeze your core and glutes and press your chest out so there is tension between your shoulder blades. Then row up, keeping your body in a nice straight line. Row until your chest comes up to the handles and hold there. Do not let your hips sag or your body arch as you hold. You can also do a scapular hold against the wall if you don’t have a bar or trainer to do the move off of.

Inverted Rows – Hold a suspension trainer strap in each hand or do it off a bar. Walk your feet out so you are leaning back. The closer to parallel to the ground you get, the harder the move will be. Squeeze your core and glutes and press your chest out so there is tension between your shoulder blades. Then row up, keeping your body in a nice straight line. Row until your chest comes up to the handles and then lower yourself back down. Don’t let your hips sink as you lower back down. Also, keep your chest pressed out the entire time (do not let your low back arch though). Do not bounce off the bottom of the row. If there is no bar or XT/TRX on which to do rows, do scapular push ups or corner rows.

Soccer Throws – Hold a med ball in both hands, facing a wall. Step back away from the wall enough that you can catch the ball after it hits the wall. Extend your arms up overhead and back. Your elbows should be slightly bent. Then step forward with one foot and throw the ball into the wall, extending your arms forward and down toward the wall as you throw. Catch the ball and step back. Extend the arms back overhead. Then step forward with the other foot and throw again.

High Plank Hold – Set up on your hands and toes (advanced) or hands and knees (beginner). Feet are together and hands are underneath your shoulders. Draw your belly button into your spine and squeeze your quads, glutes and adductors. Your shoulder blades should be down and back and your shoulders shouldn’t be up by your ears. Do not let your upper back round. Keep your head in line with your spine. If you really draw your belly button in and tilt your pelvic forward, your abs should almost instantly start shaking.

Push Ups – Beginners will do either an incline push up with their hands up on a bench or a push up from their knees. Advanced exercisers will do a push up from their hands and toes. For any variation, start by lying on the ground with your legs together. Place your hands outside your chest. Draw your belly button in toward your spine and squeeze your glutes. If doing this move from your toes, you will then press up onto your hands and toes. Your body should move in one straight line. Everything should move together as you press up to the top of the push up with the arms full extended. Do not let your butt go up in the air or your hips sag toward the ground. Do not tuck your chin. Keep your head in line with your spine. Make sure to keep your core tight so your low back doesn’t arch. Then lower back down, making sure your body moves as one unit. Touch your chest to the ground and then lift right back up. If your body doesn’t move together, if you do the “worm” as you press up or down, regress to your knees or an incline push up.

Chest Pass – Hold the med ball at your chest in both hands and face a wall or your partner.  Throw the ball from your chest straight into the wall. Extend your arms out as you throw and step forward. Catch the ball and step back. Then press the ball out and step with the other foot. Move quickly, throwing the ball explosively until all reps are complete.