If you’ve considered suspension training in the past but don’t know if it’s really for you, the following list might help. I had been on the fence for sometime and recently made the leap.
I’m glad I did, I love it.
Check out the following signs and see if they describe you. If so, you should give suspension training a try.
1. You’re Bored With Your Routine
This is me in a nutshell. I always get bored with whatever routine I’m working on and it usually happens sooner than later. I’ve been exercising in an organized way off and on since 7th grade. The majority of that time was spent lifting weights.
As I got older, got married, and had kids it became a lot more difficult to find the time to go to the gym and hit the weights for an hour.
This is ultimately what lead me to start working out from home.
Working out from home is great, but my options are a lot more limited. My gym is in my attic, which is also a shared space for the kids’ stuff (overflow from their playroom).
I feel blessed that I have the room for a dumbbell set, a bench, and a couple spin bikes.
But like I said, I get bored real easy.
I’ve also done P90X off and on several times over the years and it works great- but again, I get bored with it.
To get to the point- I decided to switch things up again and try suspension training. I’d never really done it before and it really is completely different than any other training I’d done in the past.
You’re using your bodyweight, but the straps add a level of instability that really bumps up the difficulty factor. I like that you can switch from one exercise to another in seconds and that you can get a full body workout with a single piece of equipment.
I also like that the exercise variety is huge. You can do hundreds of different exercises and exercise modifications with a suspension trainer.
And for me, variation is key, because… I get bored.
If you also find yourself getting bored with routines easily, suspension training could be a fun switch.
2. You Want To Strengthen Your Core
One thing it didn’t take me that long to realize is that pretty much every exercise you do on a suspension trainer works your core. And the exercises that are supposed to target your core REALLY work your core.
And that’s because you have to basically do a plank regardless of what exercise you’re doing.
If you’re doing chest press or rows, you’re still locking out your core (and legs) to stabilize. Bicep curls or tricep extensions?- still stabilizing core.
This is great if you’re looking for core strength (which I am).
And the core exercises themselves can be brutal.
Planks with your feet elevated in the straps, mountain climbers with your feet in straps, abdominal tucks, pikes, etc, etc. The suspension trainer makes all these exercises a lot harder because your feet are on a very unstable surface.
The result is your core has to work overtime- which means it gets a lot stronger.
3. You’re Workout Space Is Limited
Suspension trainers don’t take up much space and you don’t need much space to use them. The strap itself can be hung from a door or suspended from an overhead bar depending on which system you use (the TRX systems can do both).
If it’s a shared space, you can simply take the strap down in seconds and the room returns to normal. And no one is any the wiser that a butt kicking workout just took place.
Depending on which exercise you’re doing, you probably only need an 8’x3′ chunk of floor space to comfortably use a suspension trainer.
Lunges and rows tend to take up the most space for me.
But one of the great perks of a suspension trainer is that you don’t need a ton of floor space to use them (and no floor space to store ’em).
And depending on what trainer you have, you can even workout outside (the Monkii Bars 2 system works great outdoors).
4. You Want An Affordable Home Gym System
Suspension trainers are very cost effective considering what you get. These simple strap systems give you a full body workout that you can perform hundreds of moves on, that are portable, and that don’t take up floor space.
All this for $100-$200 (depending on the quality of your system).
Compare this to a traditional home gym with weights and bars and whatnot that can easily cost you a thousand bucks and it’s hard to say that suspension trainers aren’t a great buy.
Quality suspension trainers will last for years and years too- you shouldn’t have to worry about the straps or handles breaking down (again, if you get a high quality one).
5. You Don’t Have Enough Time To Workout
We all know this is the most common excuse we have for not working out regularly. Nobody has enough time during the day to do all the things that must get done and unfortunately, exercise is usually one of the first things we are willing to give up.
I get this. Believe me I do.
I’ve been forced into waking up at 6 am to sneak my workouts in before the kids wake up and the chaos of daily life takes over.
But one of my favorite things about suspension training is that you get knock out a full body workout fast. And by fast, I mean minutes.
By the time I wake up, get dressed, and get upstairs, I usually have 30-35 minutes of exercise time before my day begins. I like to do 30 min suspension training workouts 3x/week and 30 min rides 2x/wk.
I’m exhausted after 30 min of suspension training- it’s more than enough time to get an intense workout in.
If 30 minutes isn’t doable for ya, that’s ok. You can easily get a full body workout in 10 min (or less) depending on your routine.
I usually do circuits that include upper body, lower body, and core moves combined. With very little rest between moves, it doesn’t take long to get exhausted.
And it only takes seconds to transition from one exercise to the next.
So, with a suspension trainer, the “I don’t have time to exercise” excuse won’t work. I don’t care how busy you are- ANYONE can find 10 min a day to workout.
