Suspension Weight Transfer Push Up

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Learn how to properly perform the suspension weight transfer push-up in this comprehensive step-by-step instructional video from the Brookbush Institute. This evidence-based video provides expert guidance on set-up, posture, and exercise modifications (including progressions and regressions) to safely build upper body strength, core stability, and full-body control. Enhance chest, shoulder, and triceps development while improving coordination, balance, and functional performance. Perfect for athletes, fitness enthusiasts, and rehabilitation clients seeking to maximize strength training, prevent injury, and optimize results.

Suspension Weight-transfer Push-up:

Start by having your client or patient grasp the handles of the suspension trainer.
Cue your client or patient into a position in which the straps and their fully extended arms are aligned. This is achieved by asking them to adjust the strap length, foot position, body angle, and shoulder and arm position appropriately.
- The foot position and strap length may need to be repositioned during the first few repetitions to ensure that the straps and forearms maintain alignment throughout the motion.
Ask the client or patient to assume optimal form/posture:
- Feet perpendicular to the floor and 2nd toe aligned with ASIS
- Ankles, knees, and hips in alignment
- Pelvis neutral (absence of anterior or posterior pelvic tilt)
- Torso, scapula, and head in neutral alignment
To enhance core muscle recruitment and trunk stability, ask your client or patient to maximally dorsiflex their ankles and attempt to get as much of the ball of their foot on the floor as possible. Have them “squeeze (contract)” their glutes and quads as if they are pushing the balls of their feet back into the floor. Last, have them perform the abdominal drawing-in maneuver before initiating the eccentric phase.
Cue the client or patient to maintain trunk stability as they bend the elbows and slowly lower themselves to approximately mid-range of a sagittal plane push-up (elbows close to sides). They should pause when the upper arm is in alignment with the torso.
Ensure that your client is maintaining the drawing-in maneuver, glutes contracted, and quads contracted before they reach out with one arm. The goal is to achieve full horizontal abduction of the shoulder, near full extension of the elbow, as if performing a “chest fly” with one arm, while maintaining a “push-up position” with the other arm (and preventing any trunk rotation).
Ask the client to slowly return the extended arm to the push-up position, and then extend the other arm into the “chest fly position”.
- Alternatively, you can challenge your client or patient with combinations of the unilateral fly position, the bottom of a full range of motion push-up, and returning to the starting position of a push-up.
Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.

Regressions and Progressions:

Load: Load is reduced if the body is positioned more vertically, increased if the body is positioned more horizontally, and the feet may be elevated for additional load.
Strength: Additional resistance with a weight vest.

Common Mistakes:

The scapula should not be cued into a fixed position. The concentric phase of a push-up should include protraction, and the eccentric phase should include retraction.

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