A few years ago, I found the ideal piece of fitness equipment for adding variety and challenge to bodyweight exercise programmes.
The Suspension Trainer takes personal training sessions to another level.
This deceptively simple device is little more than one long piece of woven fabric with handles at either end. I attach the strap to a strong anchor point, which can take a client’s bodyweight, before asking him/her to perform a variety of exercises whilst holding onto the handles. The equipment has also become an essential part of my own training programme.
Folded up in a rucksack, I use this piece of gear in all sorts of real-world locations, wherever I need to train outside a classic gym environment. Mine has been outdoors in the rain, snow and heat and has been used to mimic sled pulls and doubled up as a tug-of-war rope.
I can target most muscle groups with the Suspension Trainer. Yet it is so challenging, I need to ensure new clients have a good level of core control before they get to use it.
This piece of equipment follows my ‘low tech/high effect’ criteria for effective exercise. For this reason, I find it a refreshing antidote to the vast array of questionable fitness gadgets and gizmos on the market.
