TRX Training

TRX Suspension training.

Suspension training is a unique take on strength training that uses a system of ropes and webbing called a suspension trainer to allow the trainee to work against their own body weight. The most popular trainer, the TRX was born out of necessity in the Navy SEALs. Randy Hetrick, founder of TRX, spent 14 years serving as a Navy SEAL commando. While there he experimented with an old jiu-jitsu belt and some surplus parachute webbing, hung his handmade contraption and found he could do dozens of exercises with it. Although suspension training dates back much further than that and there are now multiple suspension training devices on the market today.

Over the weekend I went to visit an old uni friend, she often trains on Saturday and had invited my other friends and I who were visiting to join her on her class. I had never heard of TRX training before so the idea of trying something knew sounded very interesting so although going for a night out Friday we were still fairly cheery on our way into Cambridge on the Saturday. We were going to a TRX class focusing on strength and this week was mostly on core and upper body, arms aren't my key focus at the moment but the core will really help.

You have two suspended handles which you can change the height of depending on your exercise, it was an hour long session and we did each exercise for about 4 minutes, 20 seconds on 10 seconds rest although when you did really start to struggle the trainers counting seemed incredibly slow.
With most of the exercises you can change the difficulty by standing nearer or further from the centre point, above they are doing a technique a little like a bench press where you are pushing away your own weight.
We then moved onto something resembling bicep curls, pressups using the handles as footholds to increase the difficulty and dips, even the everyday plank can advanced by adding in the option to crunch up your legs from one side to the other...at this point I was getting shaky.

Plank crunches

After not going to the gym for at least 2-3 years I knew this was going to be a shock to the system but I would highly recommend it to anyone, I advise going to classes first rather than just giving it a go as even a slight variation in your technique can make the exercise completely different and so could end up using the wrong muscle groups or putting extra strain on you.