When a workout system is designed by a former elite Navy Seal and then adopted by trainers in the NFL, NBA and NHL, you know it's not going to be a walk in the park. You pretty much know it's gonna whoop your Badass.
So I learned Sunday, when I and several others spent eight hours getting certified to teach group TRX Suspension Training classes at the fitness studio where I work. We sweated, grunted and hoo-ah'd through two-legged squats, one-legged squats, jump squats, lunges, hamstring curls, side lunges, rows, chest presses (pictured at left), chest fly's, bicep curls, triceps extensions, crunches, planks, pikes (pictured below, right) shoulder presses with squats, deltoid fly's, even pilates roll-ups.
And we did it all without a single dumbbell or weight machine.
Instead, our Badass bodies served as our machines. This is the (genius) basis of TRX, which was developed by Randy Hedrick when he and his fellow Seals were stuck on top-secret international drug missions and had no access to gyms or weights. So he and his buddies rigged parachute material and an old Tae Kwon Do belt to whatever anchor they could find - doors, poles, trees - and worked up a sweat. Voila!
In TRX, the body weight works as resistance against industrial nylon-grade straps attached to a single anchor point -- in this case, a TRX A-frame, but any door or wall mount can serve as an anchor.
We change the resistance by changing the position of our bodies. The more extreme the angle (for example, the more the feet are out in front of you while doing a back row), the more extreme the resistance. We can change the intensity of our core engagement by moving from wide-legged stances to one leg or both feet close together - the narrower our stability rod (i.e. legs), the more intense the workout. And by adding plyometrics like squat jumps instead of squats, or lunges with hops instead of just stationary lunges, we can get our hearts pumping.
The beauty of TRX is two-fold. It is versatile: The system weighs all of 2 pounds and can be taken and used just about anywhere that you have a door, a tree or a pole. It's also adaptable to you and your fitness gains: As you get stronger, you can keep using it to push yourself harder. All you have to do is work at different angles, pick up the pace, or move from what you can do easily (two-legged squat) to what is more challenging (one-legged squat).
TRX is only in 2 percent of gyms and fitness facilities in the United States, including Sweat Therapy Fitness where I work and train in Tallahassee. But it's catching on thanks to "this stuff works" testimonials from professional athletes like NFL quarterback Drew Brees. Men's Health calls it "the best total-body tool," and my sore muscles agree!
TRX continues to grow in popularity at gyms and fitness studios and in home gyms because it's relatively inexpensive (less than $200 for a home setup) and because it works - not just for strength, but for flexibility and agility and core power.
I love lifting weights just as much as the next Badass, but those seated bicep curls and seated leg presses and seated leg extensions aren't doing anything to make us what I like to call "functionally strong." When we sit in those machines, the back rest supports us - which means the core isn't engaged.
We're better off strengthening our Badasses in ways that allow us to live life better - to run up to our seats at a football game, to pick up a heavy box of Christmas decorations, to pick up a grandbaby, whatever.
So find the TRX straps in your gym, or get your own. If it works for the pro athletes and the Navy Seals, it will work for the Badass Army.
Coming Wednesday: Five fitness buys not worth your money.
