Written by Patrick Dale, PT, ex-Marine

There is no denying the effectiveness of gym-based workouts for building muscle and strength. Freeweights and resistance training machines are one of the most convenient ways to overload your muscles and sculpt the body of your dreams.

But, not everyone wants to lock themselves away in an air-conditioned room for several hours per week, especially during the summer. You may even prefer to train outside the gym, for example, in your home or garage.

Bodyweight exercises are an excellent non-gym training option, and you can do them anywhere and anytime.

However, unless you are prepared to spend time learning and mastering things like planch push-ups, muscle-ups, and pistol squats, you will probably be limited to a handful of basic exercises, which will soon become boring.

But, before you write off bodyweight training as being ineffectual, it’s worth mentioning that there is a way to expand your calisthenic workout library without having to become a gymnast.

We’re talking about suspension training.

Suspension trainers like the TRX and suspended rings are one of the best ways to make bodyweight training more effective. Plus, using a suspension trainer means that you can replicate many freeweight and machine exercises using just your body weight.

Lengthen or shorten the straps or move your feet to change the angle of your body and the difficulty of your workout. Suspension training is as easy or as hard as you need it to be – just like working with freeweights or resistance machines.

All you need is a suspension training device and somewhere to hang it.

So, for this article, we’re going to provide you with a four-way split bodybuilding training program built around suspension training. Armed with your TRX device or similar, you can work out anywhere and anytime and build muscle mass without weights.

This suspension trainer bodybuilding workout hits all your major muscles once per week using a four-way split. That means you’ll be training on four separate days.

But, as it’s a bodybuilding program, and bodybuilders LOVE to train their arms, you’ll actually get to work your biceps and triceps twice a week.

So, your weekly schedule looks like this:

Feel free to move the workouts if you need to but try to keep them in the same order. The workouts have been programmed to avoid overlaps and provide plenty of time for rest and recovery.

For example, it would be a mistake to train your shoulders the day after hitting your chest, as these training days involve many of the same muscles.

Here are your four workouts:

Of course, before you begin any workout, you need to spend a few minutes warming up and preparing your body for what you’re about to do. This will not only make your training more productive, but could lower your risk of injury, too.

So, start with a few minutes of easy cardio followed by some dynamic mobility and flexibility exercises for the muscles you’re going to train. Finish your warm-up with a couple of light sets of the first exercise of the workout you are about to do to ensure that you are 100% ready to go.

There are two ways to do any exercise – the right way and the wrong way. The right way is safe and effective, while the wrong way isn’t! So, when in doubt, use less weight, focus on your technique, and remember that injuries are often avoidable if you train with good form and an appropriate level of resistance.

Remember to adjust the length of the straps of your suspension trainer to determine the difficulty of each exercise. Ideally, you should reach muscular failure within the specified 8-15 rep range.

You are 20 to 30-percent stronger eccentrically than you are concentrically. More simply put, you can lower more weight than you can lift. This exercise makes the most of this phenomenon to really hit your pecs hard.

The chest press is a classic suspension trainer exercise. Having already fatigued your muscles eccentrically, this exercise should provide a good challenge for your pecs and produce a deep burn and powerful pump.

This funky-looking exercise involves doing a push-up with one arm and a suspension trainer fly with the other to provide a uniquely challenging chest workout.

The atomic push-up is part chest exercise and part abs exercise. This is the last move for your chest, so make sure you don’t hold back and give it everything you’ve got!

This suspension trainer exercise is basically a bodyweight skull crusher. However, with no barbell to come crashing down on your noggin, you can train your triceps to failure in complete safety. After all, skull crushers are so-called for a very good reason!

Dips work your chest and triceps, making them the perfect way to end this workout. Suspension trainer dips are significantly more challenging than bench and parallel bar dips. You’ll need to work extra hard to stop the handles swinging away from you, which will increase muscle activation.

Pull-ups are a classic back-building exercise. Working your lats and lower traps, as well as your biceps, this move is one exercise you cannot afford to skip. Suspension trainer pull-ups are a little easier than regular pull-ups because your feet remain on the floor.

A lot of people are surprised to learn that they can do single-arm exercises with a suspension trainer. All you need to do is thread one handle through the other to create a secure grip for one hand. This single-limb exercise is an excellent alternative to single-arm dumbbell rows. It will help identify and fix left-to-right strength and muscle size imbalances.

Inverted rows, also known as incline rows and Australian pull-ups, work your latissimus dorsi, mid traps, and rhomboids and involves your erector spinae too. This suspension trainer exercise is an excellent spine-friendly alternative for things like bent-over rows and seated rows.

Face pulls are typically performed using an adjustable pulley machine and a rope handle. They work all the muscles across and between your shoulder blades, namely your rhomboids and mid-traps. This exercise also involves your posterior deltoids. Face pulls are not just a good exercise for upper back size and strength. They are also good for your posture.

The Hercules curl is a unilateral or single-limbed exercise for your biceps. While somewhat unusual, this exercise will provide an intense biceps contraction and build a higher biceps peak.

This exercise looks and feels a little like preacher curls. Preacher curls were one of the favorite exercises of two-time Mr. Olympia winner Larry Scott, who was famous for his amazing biceps.

Single leg squats, AKA pistols, are a hard exercise to learn and master. Using a suspension trainer makes balancing a whole lot easier, and you can use your arms to take some of the weight off your legs. This makes pistols much more accessible and manageable.

Bulgarian split squats, where your rear foot is elevated on an exercise bench, are an excellent unilateral leg exercise. However, using a suspension trainer allows for a more natural range of motion and often feels more comfortable. In addition, using a suspension trainer instead of a bench increases stabilizer recruitment, making this a more challenging, rewarding exercise.

Suspension trainer sissy squats are an old-school leg exercise with a modern twist. Using a suspension trainer makes balancing easier and you are free to focus on working your quads as hard as possible. Think of sissy squats are a bodyweight version of leg extensions.

This exercise is a lower back-friendly glute and hamstring builder. While not quite on par with things like Romanian deadlifts, kettlebell swings, or good mornings, it’s still a pretty good posterior chain exercise. Best of all, you don’t need a lot of heavy, bulky workout equipment to do it.

The suspension trainer body saw is a more dynamic version of the plank exercise. Because it involves a very deliberate weight shift, you’ll need to work harder to maintain core stability and spinal alignment. If you find planks easy or even boring, you’ll definitely enjoy this abdominal exercise.

When it comes to core training, many exercisers are a little too obsessed with the muscle on the front of their stomachs – the rectus abdominus. The oblique crunch works your waist AND the rectus abdominus, making it a more complete core exercise.

Want to train your abs as well as your shoulders? Then this is the exercise for you! Holding a pike position will light up your rectus abdominus as you pump out inverted push-ups for your deltoids.

This full-body exercise really hammers your posterior deltoids and trapezius. Using your legs creates a small amount of momentum, which should help you power through what could otherwise be a sticking point to raising your arms up and over your head. As well as being a great shoulder exercise, this move will increase your heart and breathing rate.

Many exercisers think that reverse flyes, usually done with dumbbells, cables, or on a reverse flye machine, only work the posterior deltoids. Not true! This challenging exercise can also be done using a suspension trainer, and it works the middle trapezius and the rhomboids, too, making it an excellent postural exercise.

You’ve already worked your triceps, albeit indirectly, when you did pike push-ups. Now it’s time to hit your tris with an isolation exercise. Suspension triceps kickbacks involve shoulder and elbow extension, ensuring that you get a very powerful contraction in the back of your upper arms.

This exercise closely resembles cross-body hammer curls. As such, it doesn’t just work your biceps, but it also hits the brachialis and brachioradialis, making it a very complete if slightly unusual upper arm exercise.

When it comes to building muscle, most people automatically gravitate toward freeweight and resistance machine exercises. After all, these are the traditional ways to increase muscle mass.

But that doesn’t mean other forms of training can’t be effective.

Ultimately, your body has a hard time differentiating between doing chest presses on a $50,000 state-of-the-art machine and using a $100 suspension trainer. It just knows muscle tension and fatigue.

Providing you work hard enough, it really doesn’t matter how you overload your muscles. They will respond by getting bigger and stronger.

So, whether you are looking for a way to get in shape without weights, want to train while traveling, or just want to try something new, take our suspension trainer bodybuilding plan for a spin.

The original TRX suspension trainer was invented by a Navy SEAL, and if it’s good enough for those guys, it’ll be good enough for you, too!

Patrick Dale is an ex-British Royal Marine, gym owner, and fitness qualifications tutor and assessor. In addition, Patrick is a freelance writer who has authored three fitness and exercise books, dozens of e-books, thousands of articles, and several fitness videos. He’s not just an armchair fitness expert; Patrick practices what he preaches! He has competed at a high level in numerous sports, including rugby, triathlon, rock climbing, trampolining, powerlifting, and, most recently, stand up paddleboarding. When not lecturing, training, researching, or writing, Patrick is busy enjoying the sunny climate of Cyprus, where he has lived for the last 20-years.

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