Strap-based systems such as TRX all have a similar functional purpose: as a bodyweight support exercise training device


Other areas where suspension trainers might be used include postural/corrective exercise and mobility-focused fitness


any negative impact that increased pressure can cause on the nerve pathways that travel through them. As an additional benefit, the user’s


core muscles “tend to work extra hard just to keep you in that suspended position”, says Louise Sutton, head of the Carnegie Centre for Sports Performance and Wellbeing at Leeds Metropolitan University.


diversity & versatility Returning to the more conventional, strap-based suspension training systems, these can be used to make large and difficult movements possible, facilitating exercises that challenge even the most conditioned athletes – one- legged deep range squat jumps, for example, or prone facing oblique pendulum swings (where the user adopts a prone position on the elbows, feet in the suspension stirrups, and


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pendulum swings the knees from one elbow to the other). However, suspension training is not


only about making huge movement patterns and attempting to hold as much of your bodyweight as possible in incredibly difficult poses; it can also be used in reconditioning or post-rehab exercise, allowing the client to place their trust in the straps as they assist in supposedly very simple exercises, such as walking, bending, rotating – just in perfectly good form. Already we can see that the diversity


and versatility of training options available from suspension straps is endless, let alone the environmental accessibility they offer: you can fit the entire kit in a little bag, strap it to your back and off you go. As long as you can find somewhere to anchor your straps, then you’re all set. I have recently returned from a holiday in Thailand where I performed my daily


routines hanging off bamboo huts and palm trees – even a tuk-tuk became my gym for one day. So through the huge variety of


potential exercise patterns available, the accessibility of the equipment, the tension-relieving benefits of inversion training and the ability to assist yourself in lifting your body, the benefit of incorporating suspension training into the workout programmes of a large majority of people is evident.


future potential But what is yet to come? What have we yet to witness? Perhaps combination training with other forms of exercise equipment, or maybe we take suspended training to the extreme. For example, USA Pro has a suspension trainer that’s actually a 20-rung ladder that hangs down from the ceiling. Spanning 16 feet, it’s not for the faint-hearted – but with


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