The first time I set foot in a TRX class, I felt confident (and maybe even a bit cocky), about sweating it out for a 45-minute class. After all, I’ve spent decades pumping iron, so how hard could a set of straps hanging from the ceiling really be. Well, about 10 minutes in, my muscles were shaking, my core was on fire, and we were just finishing the warm-up. The instructor, who I desperately wished would have a bathroom emergency, reminded the class that a “full-body workout using a suspension trainer is a lot harder than it looks,” and I swear she was staring right at me.
What is Suspension Training?
Chris Frankel, TRX Head of Human Performance, says “Suspension Training leverages gravity and the users body weight, when at least one part of your body is on the ground and a percentage of your body weight is loaded onto the TRX Suspension Trainer, enabling hundreds of exercises, resulting in the ability to achieve a fast and effective total-body workout that improves mobility and flexibility, builds lean muscle and develops core stability and functional strength.” Born in the Navy SEALs, Suspension Training was invented by a former Navy SEAL Squadron Commander and TRX founder Randy Hetrick, who needed a piece of total-body fitness equipment to keep his fellow SEALs in shape and battle-ready while conduction missions overseas.
Ever since Suspension Training became available to the masses, the popularity of this mode of exercise has skyrocketed; mostly because it’s designed with all levels of fitness in mind. And whether you’re new to exercise or a fitness fanatic looking to add some variety to your training week, Suspension Training has a place in many workout programs. In fact, Frankel says users are in control of how much they want to challenge themselves on each exercise, because they can simply adjust body position (walk closer to or away from the anchor point) to add or decrease resistance and intensity.
Using Suspension Training with your other workouts
Even though my first TRX class challenged every part of my body in ways I didn’t know were possible, I stuck with it, and returned the next week for another workout. And the next week and the next, until I finally ended up buying a TRX system for my house. I’ve been incorporating this style of functional training into my overall fitness program for the past two years and have discovered how easy (and beneficial) it is to mix things up with the TRX Suspension Trainer.
In fact, whether you’re a dedicated gym rat, like myself, and use it to complement your strength training workouts or a distance runner who makes it the main form of resistance training for your overall fitness, the countless exercises available, will help you attack your core, increase mobility and flexibility, and build strength. Frankel says that “using your TRX work as accessory exercises or as a stand-alone strength training modality will increase your results by addressing stabilizer and synergistic muscles.”
A workout anywhere you go