With the holidays upon us, I have received quite a few emails from folks inquiring about whether I have any recommendations for fitness goodies that might make good holiday presents, so I thought I’d throw one of them out there for today’s post. Below, I’ll feature the TRX Rip Trainer.

On the advice of Boston Red Sox head athletic trainer (and Optimal Shoulder Performance co-creator) Mike Reinold, I checked out the Rip Trainer earlier this fall and started to incorporate it more and more into our strength and conditioning programs.

The Rip Trainer is a fantastic option for making chop and lift variations for rotary stability more convenient – especially if you’re on the road and don’t have access to a cable column. To increase difficulty, you simply walk further away from the attachment point.

Along those same lines, it actually affords incremental benefit over the traditional cable column, as it provides a greater excursion distance so that you can extend the range of motion, where appropriate. An example would be the overhead lift, as demonstrated by Kansas City Royals pitcher Tim Collins.

You’ll notice that the asymmetrical load provides a rotary/lateral core challenge as Tim works to resist rotation and lateral flexion, but what’s tougher for the casual observer to appreciate is that Tim is also working his anterior core as he resists extension at his lumbar spine from the pull of the cord. This wouldn’t be possible with many functional trainers because the cable simply isn’t long enough.

The folks at TRX put together the following highlight video that goes into more detail. For more information, check out the TRX Rip Trainer product page.