Make Your Body Your Machine

Is it just me or was he not going up high enough on the Incline Presses? Don' you have to put your body at basically an acute angle (or obtuse depending on which way your looking at it I suppose). That looked more like a suspended pushup with the foot straps a tiny bit higher than normal.

No offense Drew and Todd, but I really don't think those are true suspended incline presses!

I don't know, maybe its just me and the angle the camera was at, that could very well be it...

I would imagine Drew was doing these with caution just before going to camp because of a torn labrum he suffered a few years back.

Drew needs to add a bosu into the incline pushups to make it a little more challenging and the use of the shoulder stability and core. Trx is a great invention and a great purchase for multiple uses. Good torture for clients

jmbrink26,

You're correct - good catch!  That angle is way too low and it's actually a suspended push-up as shown.  The incline press is intended to get the body at an almost inverted angle to create a shoulder press type of feel rather than duplicate a push-up.  

Although, the way this challenge is laid out, it's good that the angle is very low.  Doing 20 total (10 each leg) proper incline presses in succession is not something very many people could do!

It's game time. Let's just say that I am not a football player (though if I had grown up here I probably would be) but I think this one crosses pretty well into rugby. Season is just about to kick off, it'll be a good spotter to see where I am at fitness wise. The moves in TRX Performance: Team Sports DVD were utilizing during my training for last year's Rugby Super League season and will be integral to my performance in the coming seasons.

Let's get it on.

This is a great point and one we have seen especially working in the military because the Suspended Incline Press is part of the MFG. If you look at the pressing motion of Drew it is technically an incline press. Any push up where your feet are higher than your shoulders requires more shoulder flexion than a "flat" press. As you approach a more vertical press - a military press - it increases intensity/load of the exercise, exploiting the pendulum principle.

That is how the military and programming team has been looking at it - what are your thoughts in the community?

I am in for this one.  Look out guys here I come. I thought on that incline press you had to be at a greater angle.

Chris...if you're a very slight incline and the anchor is near your head (as in the video), you're fighting torque from the TRX (with the pendulum principle) more than you are fighting gravity toward the ground.  As a result, you'd be working hard to prevent shoulder extension statically rather than dynamically (by actively maintaining a fixed shoulder flexion position).  

My point: a slight incline yields yet another variation on a push-up...and do we really need that?  Inverting to get more force from gravity than from torque gets more of what people are likely after when using this exercise.

I always teach this one in courses putting people as close to inverted vertically as they are comfortable with so it conveys benefits far different from yet another push-up variation.

Thoughts, anyone?

JR -  great point. I would say that the reason we started looking at less challenging angles (more horizontal vs. vertical) was due to the fact that many people find axial alignment/core stability as much as a limiting factor as vertical pushing strength.

I think your point makes even more sense when you consider the difference of a traditional incline press with different levels of shoulder abduction on the vertical forces vs. rotational forces, something we have to consider in the Incline Suspended Press as well.

BRING IT ON, here we go baby GAME DAY!

BRING IT ON, here we go baby GAME DAY!  High inclines with BOSU and BIG HOPS on the Sprinters Start.

Really enjoyed watching the vid!

Thanks  [img]community.fitnessanywhere.com/.../emotion-4.gif[/img]