The TRX Body Saw improves your ability to support, resist extension and keep your spine locked in as you move. It works your core the way heavy squats, deadlifts and overhead lifts are stiff, stable and unyielding under tension.
If planks feel easy or your “core work” needs an upgrade, this is your wake-up call.
What is the TRX body saw?
The TRX Body Saw is a hanging plank variation that keeps your core still while your arms and legs move. You sit on a forearm plank with your feet in the straps, and then let your body slide back and forward with your shoulders.
That sliding motion is where your core gets to work. Instead of resisting gravity like a standard plank, the Body Saw forces your core to fight extension the entire time. It trains your core to remain rock solid as your body moves around it. That’s the kind of power that carries over to big lifts and athletic performance.
How to make 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 in the footrests and place your elbows directly under your shoulders, with forearms parallel.
- With the body in a straight line from head to toe.
- Engage your glutesand press your forearms into the floor and pull them back slightly to engage your lats.
- Let your body slide slowly backwards by pushing through your forearms.
- Withdraw yourself to the beginning with control, reset and repeat.
TRX Body Saw Muscles trained
The TRX Body Saw may look like ‘just a plank’, 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 Abdomen: The further back you slide, the harder the rectus abdominis has to work to resist lower back extension.
- Obliques: These stabilize your torso and prevent unwanted rotation or sideways drift.
- Glutes: The glutes lock the pelvis in a neutral position, preventing excessive extension of the lower back and keeping tension where it should be.
- Lats and Serratus Anterior: Pressing your forearms into the floor and pulling back causes the lats and serratus to fire to stabilize the shoulders and help transmit power through the torso.
- Hip flexors: The hip flexors help maintain body alignment as your center of mass shifts.
TRX body saw benefits
This exercise is no joke and is challenging from the start, but it offers the amazing benefits listed below.
Anti-extension strength
The Body Saw trains your entire core to resist extension while applying force, which happens during squats, deadlifts, overhead presses and carries. A stronger bracket means better performance here when it matters.
Improved core control
Standard planks reward endurance and tolerance. The TRX Body Saw rewards control by tightening your core as your center of gravity shifts. Ten clean reps can do more here than sitting still for minutes.
Improved total body tension
From your shoulders and forearms to your glutes, everything has to fire together. This exercise trains the core as a link between the upper and lower body, rather than in isolation, as many other core exercises do.
Low back friendly
You experience high levels of tension without repetitive spinal movements, making the Body Saw an excellent option for lifters who want to strengthen their entire core without twisting on their lower back.
TRX Body saw common errors with solutions
The TRX Body Saw is one of those exercises that provides immediate feedback. Do it right, and your core lights up. Do it wrong, and your lower back will tell you. Here are the most common errors and the best ways to fix them.
Sagging hips
If you don’t lock out your glutes, or if fatigue sets in, the hips drop, the lower back arches, and the pain begins.
To repair: 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 toe, 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. If you shift too far back before you can handle it, the load shifts from the abdominal muscles to the lower back.
To repair: Start with small, controlled movements. Only increase the range if you can own it without losing position.
Slow down your roll
Driving too far forward creates tension in the shoulder joint and often disrupts the alignment of the rib cage and pelvis, which is the purpose of the exercise.
To repair: Keep elbows under shoulders at the front of the stroke; use the cue “nose just in front of the thumbs, not past them.
Installation problems
Footrests placed higher than mid-calf or nearly touching the floor change the line of pull and make holding a plank much more difficult or unstable.
To repair: Place the handles at mid-calf, toes cradled, and start with feet directly under the anchor before moving.
Programming suggestions
The TRX Body Saw is versatile, but it shines when treated as a strength exercise and not as a filler at the end of a workout. Here are a few programming suggestions to get the most out of this excellent core exercise.
Where it fits: Use it as a warm-up exercise to improve your strengthening before squats, deadlifts or overhead work. Or combine it in a superset with heavy compound lifts to build tension without taxing your nervous system.
Sets and reps: 2–4 sets of 6–12 reps, slow and controlled, with 60–90 seconds rest between sets.
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