7 TRX exercises for a total-body workout

Sprinter start
For this drill, place the straps under your arms – with your hands beside your chest and your bodyweight on the handles – and step forward to a 45-degree plank position  on the balls of your feet. Then reach back with your opposite leg while bending your knee and lowering your hip to 90 degrees, with your weight on the ball of your foot. “This improves leg strength and endurance, as well as increasing hip and knee mobility – it increases explosive strength for accelerating on the pitch,” says Morgans.

Low row
Pull your shoulders down and back, with your arms at your sides, and walk towards an anchor point. Hold a straight back and extend your arms while lowering your body. Hold the position, then pull yourself back to the anchor point. “This increases back muscle strength and shoulder stability, helping you hold off opponents during a game,” says Morgans.

Mountain climber
Get down on your hands and knees and engage your core. With ankles fixed in the straps, the idea is to keep your weight over your forearms, lift your hips and bring one knee towards your chest while keeping the other leg straight – then extending your leg back, bringing your opposite knee towards your chest and holding a strong plank position. “This engages the core, which in turn aids efficient energy transfer during running,” says Morgans. “It also benefits muscle control when changing direction.”

Hamstring curls
Position your feet under the anchor point, with your arms to your sides pressing into the ground – then pull your toes towards your body, drive your heels down and pull your knees up and over your hips. Hold, then extend your legs back towards the anchor point, keeping your knees slightly bent. “This increases the robustness of the ‘posterior chain’, helping reduce the risk of hamstring strains,” says Morgans.

Samurai strike
Use the TRX straps with a baton for pushing, pulling and rotating drills. Stand with one leg in front of the other, gripping the base of the baton with your lead hand. Twist and thrust forwards, extending your torso forwards and around, punching forwards with your other hand. “These help develop rotational speed and power, strengthening the core and enhancing multi-directional movements in football,” says Morgans.

Hop press
Standing in a squat position with your arms out in front of you, jump so you land 45 degrees in the opposite direction, pressing the bar in front of you in mid-air. “This will help activate [wake up] the neuromuscular system prior to training,” says Morgans.

TRX Lunges
Place one foot in the strap cradle, stand with your shoulder over your hips and then drive your knee back, lowering your hips until your back knee is two inches from the ground and your front knee at 90 degrees. Then drive through the heel of the grounded leg, squeeze your glutes, lift your chest and keep your eyes forwards. Switch the suspended foot and repeat on the other side. “This works glutes, hamstrings and quads – and trains explosive leg strength,” says Morgans.

The TRX Suspension Trainer is the best-in-class workout system that ­leverages gravity and your bodyweight to perform hundreds of ­exercises