I recall a recent instalment when I was asked if it is possible to bulk up and build muscle with no equipment whatsoever.

Resourceful fitness professionals should relish such a challenge, as we are forced to ignore the problems and think of solutions, to disregard what we might be missing in terms of equipment and work out how to make the best of what we’ve got.

This is our bread and butter – knowing our subject inside out to a degree of intimacy impossible to replicate with any piece of machinery or equipment.

Do you remember that wonderful series on TV from yesteryear called MacGuyver? MacGuyver himself was a master of survival and could use virtually anything from his surrounding environment to get out of a pickle.

He could escape from jail using nothing more than a paper clip, survive in the Arctic with nothing but a fruit knife and manipulate complex electrical circuits using nothing more than a chewing gum wrapper. Today we’re going all the way, MacGuyver-style.

When it comes to the introduction and promotion of new items of fitness equipment or exercise systems, it would seem the cooler or fancier the name, the better.

If it’s not advanced, super, functional or triplanar, then it can’t possibly be all that good. How about suspension training? What images does that conjure? Is it some kind of anti-gravity device that allows you to float freely in mid-air and acquire seemingly impossible, new physical capabilities?

Well, here’s another one for you: the IST, the most convenient and cost-effective advanced suspension training system known to man. Are you impressed yet?

The TRX is perhaps the best known suspension training system, and it is indeed, like most other suspension trainers, quite a versatile and powerful piece of kit.

But what is it exactly? And what does suspension training even mean for that matter? Well, to put it painfully simple, a suspension trainer is two straps hanging from any point above you, with two handles attached to each end.

The two handles should hang anywhere from about a foot to two feet from the floor. The two straps can be attached to a bracket fixed to the ceiling, to a goalpost, to a tree branch, or indeed anything that is high and sturdy enough to support the weight of your body.

By adopting a range of positions and pushing or pulling on the handles, manipulating your body weight with various exercises in various different ways, you can actually get a surprisingly complete and effective workout.

Most fitness professionals will have a basic understanding of suspension training these days

Upper body pushing and pulling exercises can be employed, as well as core and leg exercises for a complete workout. The handles provide an unstable surface, which means that the body is forced to recruit more stabilising and assisting muscles than it would if you performed the same movements using the floor or a wall.

Most fitness professionals will have a basic understanding of suspension training these days. Despite the fancy jargon, I for one am a dedicated fan of suspension training, particularly when performed outdoors combined with other basic exercises.

That’s suspension training in a nutshell, but what about the most convenient and cost-effective item of equipment I promised you earlier? All you need is a piece of rope.

I like to call it the IST, Improved Suspension Trainer, just like the old broomstick that sits in the corner of our studio that I like to call ‘the Shoulder Mobility Machine’.

With about 2.5 metres of rope of thickness no more than an inch in diameter, but no less than half an inch, you can rig up a perfectly functional exercise device. If you’re training outdoors, even better. You can sling it over a sturdy tree branch. Just make sure to loop it around the branch a couple of times for increased stability.

Now what about the handles? Technically speaking, you don’t actually need any handles. All you need are loops you can hold onto or slide your feet into. Between half an inch to a full inch will be comfortable enough to grip with your hands.

To create loops instead of handles, don’t worry. You don’t need to have earned your knots badge at scouts. It’s a simple knot you’ve probably tied many times before.

Imagine you were to tie off a knot at the end of a string similar to those inside the lining of clothing like shorts. Tying off a loop at the end of a rope is exactly the same, only with the end of the rope folded back up against itself, so you are basically tying off two lengths of rope sitting next to each other in parallel.

The end of the rope will now be a loop. Try it out on a piece of string first and if this description has left you bewildered or confused, ask Google about looping off the end of a rope.

Ensure the two loops are equidistant from the floor. Now you have a complete functional suspension training system at your disposal even MacGuyver would be proud of.

All you have to do is work out. Carry out some research online about suspension training and you’ll never look back further than the end of an old piece of rope.

matthew.muscat.inglott@mcast.edu.mt