Adventure Fitness Athletic Club’s gym has almost every piece of fitness equipment you can imagine. Each targets different areas of the body and offers specific types of training — from strength training to aerobic, functional, and balance training. But what would you do if you didn’t have a gym near you like AFAC? How would you work out all your muscle groups effectively, maintain cardiovascular fitness, and preserve your flexibility?

A Navy SEAL named Randy Hetrick found himself asking a similar question. As he traveled to faraway places for his duties, it was challenging for him to get an effective workout. Whether he was in a cramped submarine or out on the battlefield, Randy didn’t have access to a spacious gym or traditional fitness equipment. But he didn’t let that stop him. Instead, he invented a creative solution: He sewed pieces of an old parachute and jiu-jitsu belt together to create the first TRX Suspension Trainer.

Using the TRX, Hetrick and his SEAL team developed hundreds of exercises that leveraged gravity and their own bodyweight. The resulting workouts challenged their strength, flexibility, balance, and coordination simultaneously. After Hetrick retired, he perfected the TRX Suspension Trainer with the help of athletes, sports medicine specialists, coaches, and students.

Today, hundreds of thousands of people worldwide work out with TRX Suspension Trainers, and you can, too. AFAC has several TRX Trainers at our Thornton gym for you to use and our team is here to help you with any questions you have about these versatile fitness tools.

TRX and CrossCore Classes at AFAC Gym

If you’d like to get a fast and effective total-body workout using TRX, join the TRX and CrossCore Classes at AFAC gym. Free to gym members, our classes are held:

Every Tuesday

From 12:00-12:45 p.m.

Led by Jamie McGehee, our TRX and CrossCore classes are safe and accessible for all fitness levels. We hope you’ll meet with us to try these revolutionary workouts that can build your strength, flexibility, balance, coordination, and stability. Gym members can sign up for TRX and CrossCore on our class schedule page or register on MINDBODY.

What Makes TRX Suspension Training Different Than Other Gym Workouts?

The main benefit of TRX Suspension Trainers is that they enhance your functional fitness. Most traditional pieces of gym equipment provide you with seating or some other type of support as you work out. The only downside to this support? Your stabilizing muscles — those muscles you use to maintain your balance and posture — aren’t engaged or developed during the workout. In addition, most gym machines only train your body for one plane of motion at a time.

TRX Suspension Trainers, on the other hand, force you to engage many muscle groups to maintain your stability as you exercise. Plus, with TRX, you’ll move through multiple planes like forward, backward, and side-to-side. You’ll also engage in rotational and twisting motions.

This is functional training at its best. As you use different muscle groups with little support and move through many planes of motion, TRX improves your coordination and stability. This helps you to prevent injury and maintain function, both at the gym and in other areas of your life.

What Are Some Other Benefits of TRX Suspension Training?

In addition to providing you with one of the most functional fitness workouts you can get, TRX Suspension Trainers come with several other benefits.

TRX Provides an Effective Total Body Workout

TRX Suspension Trainers use your bodyweight and gravity as resistance to help you build balance, strength, flexibility, coordination, core strength, and joint stability. People use TRX to achieve pretty much any fitness goal you can think of including weight loss, muscle building, improved endurance, and enhanced range of motion.

TRX Is Fast and Builds Endurance

There are hundreds of exercises you can do with one TRX Suspension Trainer, and you can move from one exercise to the next in seconds without having to go to another piece of equipment. This also helps build endurance because your muscles are constantly working.

TRX Is Great for All Fitness Levels

You can easily adapt each TRX exercise to match your fitness level. Whether you consider yourself a beginner, intermediate, or advanced, TRX workouts will challenge and grow with you as you become stronger.

TRX Is Low-Impact

Because it suspends your body off the ground, a TRX Suspension Trainer takes pressure off your joints and is a very low-impact method of exercise. This allows people of all fitness levels to use TRX comfortably and with less risk of injury. There’s also less risk of aggravating a pre-existing injury.

How to Make Progress with TRX Suspension Trainers at the Gym

Now that we know TRX training can be adapted to all fitness levels, the next question is, how do you modify TRX exercises to suit your own personal needs? There are several ways to modify your TRX workout to make it more challenging as you develop strength and stability.

Adjust Your Foot Position

The wider your feet are, the more stable your base will be. Beginners start with a wider foot position, while intermediate and advanced TRX users will bring their feet closer together and lift one leg off the ground to challenge their balance. You can also position your free leg in different ways to create more instability. For example, you can extend your leg straight out in front or behind you, lift one knee, or lift your leg to one side.

Adjust Your Body Angle

Beginners will position their bodies more upright, as this allows them to have less resistance and focus on perfecting their form. More advanced TRX users will bring their bodies more horizontal to the ground which increases resistance and forces them to work against gravity and their own bodyweight.

Adjust Your Position from the Anchor Point

Do you see where your TRX Suspension Trainer is anchored? Think of the ground directly under the anchor point as “neutral.” The farther away from neutral (and the more toward your body) you are, the more difficult an exercise will be. To make the exercise easier, you can move closer to neutral until you’re directly underneath it. If that’s still too difficult for you, you can even move past neutral to the other side so that gravity is working with you to help you perform the exercise.

Adjust Your Tempo

Like any other exercise, the faster you move, the more your heart rate will increase. If you perform your TRX exercises with a speedier tempo, you’ll improve your cardiovascular fitness in addition to your muscular endurance. Beginners will usually opt for a slower, more methodical TRX workout while intermediate and advanced TRX users will set a higher number of reps and try to move faster throughout the entire workout. They will also take shorter breaks in between exercises.

TRX Squat Variations

To demonstrate how TRX exercises can be adjusted to different fitness levels, let’s take a look at three variations of squats using the TRX Suspension Trainer.

Basic TRX Squat

1. With the straps at mid-length, face toward the anchor.
2. Stand with your feet a little wider than shoulder-width apart and keep your knees and toes turned out slightly.
3. Hold the handles by your waistline.
4. Lean back and lower into a squat, allowing your arms to extend all the way out.
5. Keep your weight in your heels and try not to lean back too much. Keep your back straight.
6. Press through your heels and stand back up.
7. Repeat 15-20 times.

TRX Single Leg Squat

1. Face toward the anchor and hold the straps about chest level. Your arms should be at your sides, and your elbows should be bent at your waist.
2. Stand with your feet slightly apart.
3. Lift your left leg straight in front of you, putting all your weight on your right foot.
4. Bend your right knee and sit back as if you’re sitting into a chair. Keep your weight on your right heel. Your arms will extend above you as you go down.
5. Go as low as you can to the ground, keeping your left leg parallel to the floor. Don’t let your left foot touch the floor.
6. Pull yourself up while pressing straight up through your right heel, engaging the muscles in the back of your leg.
7. Repeat 15-20 times on your right leg, and then switch to your left leg.

TRX Squat Jumps

1. Stand facing the anchor point with your feet hip-width apart and the TRX straps at mid-length.
2. Hold the TRX handles in front of your chest and keep your elbows bent and relaxed at the sides of your body.
3. Holding onto the TRX handles, drop your hips down and back into a squat position, extending your arms up and keeping your weight in your heels.
4. Squeeze your glutes and drive up through your heels to jump straight up.
5. Hold onto your TRX straps as you land as softly as possible to the starting position.
6. Repeat 15-20 times.

Test Your TRX Skills at AFAC Gym

Whether you join our weekly TRX and CrossCore classes or use our TRX Suspension Trainers on your own, we look forward to seeing you at AFAC gym where we have the equipment and facilities you need to reach your fitness goals. If you’d like to discover more about AFAC and why we’re the best gym in the Thornton area, please visit us to take a look around and speak to our staff. You can also contact our gym owner, Susan, at 720-849-0245 or susan@adventurefitness.club for assistance.

To read more articles from Adventure Fitness Athletic Club, check out our Adventure Corner blogs by clicking here.