Opinions differ on basic education, but all agree that stability is its primary role. Your midsection stays stable as you move. Some people think a plank for a minute or two does the trick, but they haven’t experienced the TRX Body Saw yet.
The TRX Body Saw improves your ability to support, resist extension and keep your spine locked as you move. It trains your core the way heavy squats, deadlifts and overhead lifts require stiff, stable and rigid under pressure.
If planks feel easy or your ‘core’ needs an upgrade, this is your wake-up call.
What is the TRX Body Saw?
The TRX Body Saw is a swing plank variation in which your core remains stationary while your arms and legs move. Stand in a forearm plank with your feet hanging from the straps, then slide your body back and forward using your shoulders.
This sliding motion is where your core works. Instead of resisting gravity like a standard plank, the Body Saw forces your core to fight the extension the entire time. It trains your core to remain stable while your body moves around it. This is the kind of strength that carries over into big lifts and athletic performance.
How to do the TRX Body Saw
This exercise is all about tension, control and positioning.
Here’s how to do it right.
- Adjust the TRX straps to mid-calf height, place your feet on the foot cradles and tuck your elbows directly under your shoulders, forearms parallel.
- With the body in a straight line from head to heels.
- Work your glutesand press your forearms into the floor and pull them back slightly to squeeze your lats.
- Slowly slide your body back by pressing your forearms.
- Pull yourself back at first with check, reset and repeat.
TRX Body Saw Muscles Trained
The TRX Body Saw may look like “just a board,” but there’s more to it than meets the eye.
- Transverse Abdomen: The TVA acts like a built-in weight belt, supporting your spine and resisting extension as your body slides back and forth.
- Rectus abdominis: The more you slide back, the harder the rectus abdominis has to work to resist the extension of the back.
- Slopes: These stabilize your torso and prevent unwanted rotation or shifting from side to side.
- Gluteals: The glutes lock the pelvis in a neutral position, locking in excessive back extension and keeping tension where it belongs.
- Lats and Serratus Anterior: By pressing your forearms into the floor and pulling back, the lats and serratus fire to stabilize the shoulders and help transfer power through the core.
- Hip flexors: The hip flexors help maintain body alignment as the center of mass shifts.
Advantages of TRX Body Saw
This exercise is no joke and is challenging from the start, but it comes with great benefits listed below.
Resistance against expansion
The Body Saw trains your entire core to resist extension while exerting force, which occurs during squats, deadlifts, overhead presses, and deadlifts. A stronger bracket here means better performance when it matters.
Improved core control
Standard boards reward strength and tolerance. The TRX Body Saw rewards control because your core locks in as your center of mass shifts. Ten clean reps here can do more than minutes of standing.
Improved total body tension
From your shoulders and forearms to your glutes, everything should fire together. This exercise trains the core as a link between the upper and lower body, not in isolation, as many other core exercises do.
Low back friendly
You experience high levels of intensity without repetitive motion of the spine, making the Body Saw a great choice for lifters who want to strengthen their entire core without twisting their lower back.
TRX Body saw common mistakes with fixes
The TRX Body Saw is one of those exercises that provide instant feedback. Get it right and your core lights up. Get it wrong and your lower back tells you. Here are the most common mistakes and the best ways to fix them.
Hip Relaxation
If you don’t lock your glutes or when fatigue hits, the hips drop, the lower back arches and the pain begins.
Correct: Squeeze your glutes harder and perform the exercise with a controlled range of motion. If you can’t maintain a straight line from head to heels, the range of motion is too great, which brings us to the next mistake.
Too much range
As good as this exercise is, more is not necessarily better. Sliding too far back before you can handle it shifts the load from the abs to the lower back.
Correct: Start with small, controlled movements. Increase the range only when you can hold it without losing position.
Slow Your Roll
Driving too far forward throws stress on the shoulder joint and often breaks rib-pelvis alignment, which is the point of the exercise.
Correct: Keep the elbows under the shoulders at the front of the stroke. use the cue ‘nose right in front of the thumbs, not past them.
Installation issues
Leg swings placed higher than mid-calf or nearly touching the floor change the line of pull and make maintaining a plank much more difficult or unstable.
Correct: Place the handles at mid-calf, toes in the cradles, and start with the feet just below the anchor before moving.
Programming proposals
The TRX Body Saw is versatile, but it shines when treated as a strength exercise, not as filler at the end of a workout. Here are some planning suggestions to get the most out of this great core workout.
Where it fits: Use as a warm-up exercise for groove support before squats, deadlifts or overhead work. Or combine it into a superset with heavy compound lifts to amp up the intensity without frying your nervous system.
Sets and reps: 2–4 sets of 6–12 repetitions, slow and controlled, resting 60–90 seconds between sets.
