Wondering what are those black and yellow stripes hanging from the ceiling of your gym?
They are called TRX.
TR…what? Total-body Resistance eXercise.
Suspension trainers are length-adjustable straps, which are fixed to an anchor point and allow your body to perform functional movements in a suspended state. Your body-weight is fighting against gravity! That will permits you to develop strength, stability, in particular in your core area and endurance.
Suspension training is suitable for people of all abilities and can be used to develop elite fitness or improve towards a specific sport.
Nowadays life demands us to move freely through space, not within the confines of a machine or other restrictive motor patterns.
The same natural movements of our everyday life can be reproduced using a TRX and with the challenge of the gravity, it takes a lot of strength and coordination to gracefully control your body movements.
Have a look at the list of benefits and what Suspension Training CAN do for you:
– Increase of strength and muscle mass.
But not only! Your muscle mass increase steadily, preventing injuries.
– Total body workout with one piece of equipment.
Suspension training allows you to adjust your body in countless angles to complete every exercise possible.
Doing sports and everyday exercises require our bodies to move in various planes. Suspension training enables you to do multi-planar exercises, just the way we do in every movement we produce. It does not require that you sit down and do an exercise focused on one isolated muscle in a single plane.
– Optimise your time
Suspension training can be performed for a period of 30 minutes or less. You won’t have any longer the excuse that you don’t have time to workout throughout the day!
– Improve posture and Joints Stability
Resistance machines have seats, supports and benches. Sitting down while doing exercises lessens the opportunity to develop postural and stabilizing muscles that are critical for effective movement. Training while standing, or engaging the whole body, forces you to control and strengthen those muscles often neglected.
– Improve coordination and flexibility
Integrated exercises engage intensive, interconnected movements, or as we mentioned earlier multi-planar, which require coordinated efforts. This type of exercise enhances the nervous system’s ability to effectively coordinate movement at higher levels and build strong motor patterns. The extended range of movement you perform on a TRX enhance the joint motion, making you much more flexible than training solely on a resistance machine.
– Excellent core conditioning and abdominal workout
The core is more than your abs! The core includes pelvis, abs, back and chest muscles. It is the core that improves your body stability, balance and posture. Everything you do in your life connects with the core; whether you bow down to pick up a pen, wash a car or play basketball with the kids. Suspension training challenge your back, shoulders, chest, hips and legs and offers a whole range of movements focusing on abs solely.
Strong and stable core helps significantly prevent injuries not only in the lower back but in the whole of the body.
– Easy to set up everywhere and light to carry
TRX’s compact and lightweight design allows you to set it up and use it anywhere you want: on a door at home or on a tree at the park.
TRX is portable and provides greater performance and functionality than large exercise machines costing thousands of pounds.
– Variety of exercises
One of the key TRX’s benefits is that you are able to complete endless number of exercises with a single training tool. Given that you can boundlessly adjust your body position to add or decrease resistance.
– Combine cardiovascular and strength exercise
Performing dynamic movements for many reps makes you out of breath as much (if not more) as a run on the treadmill. The only difference is that you will use more muscles to fight the gravity, training both endurance and muscle mass.
I really recommend Suspension training to everyone, not only if you are exercising towards a specific fitness goal but also merely for toning and fat-loss.
Are you training with a TRX on a regular basis? Comment below and share your experience.
