Suspension Trainer
When you introduce instability to an exercise — such as a push-up by placing the hands or feet on a mobile, not fixed, surface — the muscles have to work harder to execute the movement. That’s what suspension training is, and suspension trainers are the means by which you can leverage gravity and your body weight to improve strength, balance, flexibility, and coordination. What you do is lengthen or shorten the adjustable straps for the appropriate exercise and then anchor them to a sturdy overhead support. Once you place your hands or feet in the handles or foot straps, you can change the angle and position of your body to increase or decrease the resistance as you perform the exercise of your choice.1For example, the more upright your body is when performing push-ups, the easier those push-ups are going to be. Get more horizontal so you’re lower to the ground and have to support more of your body weight and those pushups are going to be hard as fuck to do while you’re wobbling all over trying to balance yourself!
Suspension trainers are common in most commercial gyms, so you’re more than likely not going to have to bring your own. But what if your gym doesn’t have one?, you ask. In that scenario, it’s not a stretch to imagine your gym having plenty of other equipment for you to use. Unless you really, really have a thing against lifting weights or your gym is bereft of workout equipment, there’s no need to lug a suspension system around with you. It’s more of something you’d put in your bag for traveling.
Glossary: commercial gym, exercise, exercise equipment, gym, gym bag, muscle, workout
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