If you are an athlete, and know what TRX is, you better know that its a valuable tool for helping you perform better – regardless of your sport. If you’re not an athlete, but want the best workout you can get, you need to be looking for a TRX instructor near you.

*I have been certified in TRX  teaching for 3 years to athletes & exercisers in the Chicagoland area, and just began teaching athletes via skype/internet across the country. While training with a Fitness Pro is ideal, there are lots of you who have TRX in your home now, and one thing my clients consistently tell me is that the details they learn from me make their TRX home-training that much more effective. So here are some of those tips for you to start using today!

- Always pre-start your exercise in the “B” position. Whatever move you’re about to do will have two end points – one where your arms or legs are fully lengthened, and one where they are bent or flexed – said another way, it will have a point where you are pulled close to the straps and a point where you are farther away from them. Whatever position you would be returning to after doing the move…THAT is your “B” position. You must start there so that you know your feet/arms/body are positioned correctly to allow for full range of motion of the movement.

Example: TRX Standing Row – The move requires you to lean back from the handles, straightening the arms out, then bend the elbows driving them behind you to “row” yourself back to the start position. Just like a Seated Row machine, but standing up, and using gravity as resistance. The “B” position is the one when your hands are near your armpits, elbows fully bent, shoulder blades squeezed together. Start there, ensuring your body positioning is correct, & you have full tension on the straps, no slack in them. Then lean back to begin your exercise.

- For standing exercises, your body needs to be as straight as a surfboard – it may be hard to feel this correctly in the beginning. For most people, the correct position will feel like you’re sticking your butt out too far. The reason is because many people already have too much of an arch in their low back due to tight muscles in the lower back. Thus “straight” to them actually is slightly curved or arched in the low back, which we do NOT want when doing TRX.

To position yourself correctly for standing exercises: If you have a mirror, super! If not, follow these steps – engage the core by drawing the belly into the spine, bend forward ever-so-slightly from the waist, tuck butt under by tilting the pelvis (think Elvis hip thrusts). Keep hip bones directly under shoulders. When done correctly, to many individuals, this will feel like they are almost pitching forward in this standing position. Once moving in the exercise, the tendency is to start using momentum from the hips to complete the move – to fight this urge, ensure your chest is leading the way, NOT your pelvis.

- The angle makes a difference – a HUGE difference. That’s what is so awesome about TRX! My mother could use it & so could my elite triathletes! So if standing facing straps or facing away, or if laying down with heels in cradles, look at the angle your body is making with the anchor point. If you’re standing almost upright – it will be an easier exercise. If you’re leaning at a deep angle, the exercise will be much harder. Also, depending on where you place your handles/cradles in relation to your anchor point, will determine the difficulty of the exercises. If you’re laying down with feet in cradles, exercises where the straps are directly under the anchor point are easy, straps angling ‘behind’ the anchor point will be even easier, straps angling ‘ahead’ of the anchor point will be harder.

Example: When laying with heels in cradles for TRX Hip Press – Bent Knee….if you lay with your feet directly under your anchor point & it’s too difficult for you to execute correctly, move your body so that your feet are now on the other side of your anchor point & your hips are what is centered with your anchor point. You’ll have lessened the load on your posterior kinetic chain & thus make the exercise easier.

TRX Atomic Pushups (full ones, not modified) are not the beginning of your progression point. They are not even the middle. They are only for after you’re able to successfully stay straight as a surfboard while you do suspended pushups, no belly dips, no caved torsos, no tiny bent elbows – a successful TRX suspended pushup has perfectly straight torso at all times, elbows that bend to 90 degrees, and a head that is out in front of the hands, not in line with them. If you can’t do this, you’re not ready for TRX Atomic Pushups (full ones).

Want to modify it so you can eventually d0 the real-deal ones? Method 1. Practice your regular pushups. The right way. No cheating. Method 2. Put feet in cradles, knees bent to floor, hands in ready position for pushups-from-knees. Lower into a proper pushup, elbows to 90, chest out, back in line with shoulders, no arching of low back. Exhale as you push the ground away pressing back to pushup position. Lift knees off the ground while extending them into hand plank position. Hold for a count of 2 then return to knees and start next pushup.

The TRX Suspension Training System is a fabulous tool for integrating strength work in 360 degrees of motion, all planes of movement, and in angles you will not get to with basic free weights/machines/cables. But it is truly maximized once you learn the details of the movements. Anyone can swing around on some cables, but the best workout results come from getting the details right.

If you’d like to discuss a TRX training program, or coaching for integrating TRX properly into your own workout, you can reach me here.

So here’s a workout for those of you not getting out to shuffle your stuffing in a 5K & for everyone who would rather avoid the ridiculousness that will be your gym’s parking lot. You can do this workout at home, with minimal equipment…if others are around, tell them you’re unreachable for the next bit of time, and if they want to see the light of Thanksgiving meal, they will give you your peace until that you finish said workout. Or, if it’s family members you know won’t laugh at you, but would actually sweat it out with you, invite them to join you for your workout!

One last thing about family before we get to the workout; you may be sitting around talking to family today. If you’ve been following my blog or just the Tip of the Week, and you’ve been helped by something I’ve taught you, please share my site as a resource for any family who is struggling with, or working toward, better fitness, health, & wellness. I appreciate all of you who’ve done that already, and would simply encourage those of you sitting across from a cousin or uncle or parent who is moving away from or sitting static on the road to optimal wellness, that you bring up the topic with them…in fact, you can remain totally neutral by bringing up how you go to this site to get health & fitness news & tips & they should check it out too. Then you can leave the “alright-sister-let’s-have-a-talk-about-that-2nd-piece-of-pie-&-you’re-optimal-wellness” conversation to me! You never know whose life will be changed or saved by a conversation you have with them & a direction you point them in. Today is someone’s lucky day!

Now! Onto the workout! Happy Thanksgiving, many blessings to you all. I count you in my blessings, thank you!

- Warm up: If you want to add weight anymore, go for it! Do your best to keep going the whole time!

- Standing knee to chest pull: 60 sec (lift one knee to chest pulling with arms around knee)

- Jog in place: 60 sec

- Standing straight leg toe touch: 60 sec (kick leg straight out, knee straight!, touch toe)

- Jog in place: 60 sec

- Forward lunges: 60 sec

- Plank hold: 60 sec

- Workout: All time is 45 sec unless noted otherwise!

- Pushups

- V-Ups

- Squats w/ hands straight in front of body

- 1 Leg Balance Reach (stand on 1 leg, bend @ waist, reach arms forward, and leg back, return to standing w/o putting leg down) Do 45 sec on L & 45 sec on R.

- Jump Rope

- Repeat this series than rest 90 sec or less if you feel recovered quicker.

- Cobras (lay face down, keep feet on ground, raise upper body, arms, & hands off ground turning thumbs up & out away from body)

- Plank Climbers (either on toes or knees; start in plank form, put 1 hand on floor under shoulder, push up on that arm & take other hand to ground- you should look like you’re doing a pushup now- place 1 elbow back on ground, then other- you should be in plank form again; keep repeating, leading with both arms, keeping hips steady throughout)

- Reverse Lunge w/ arms straight out at sides (step back & down into a lunge, as if you’re genuflecting); beginner = alt. legs for time, int./adv = all 1 leg, then all other leg 45 sec each

- Straight Arm Plank, Knee to Elbow (pushup position, bring one knee in to touch that sides’ elbow, repeat on other side, alternating)

- Jumping Jacks

- Repeat this series than rest 90 sec

- Cardio Blast finisher: all done for 60 sec: - jog in place, -side to side shuffles, -jog in place,                    -burpees/squat thrusts or power jacks (if you don’t know how to do a burpee/squat thrust, now is not the time to start- power jacks: same as a jumping jack but arms go from chest straight up to ceiling then back to chest)

Bruce Lipton wrote an amazing book, Biology of Belief, about the power our thoughts to control our cells & genes. Along the same lines, there was a surgeon who did many knee replacements for patients. He wanted to determine what part of his surgery was helping the patient the most so he did a clinical trial. Every person in the trial needed the same knee surgery.

One group had the surgery as normal with regular rehab afterwards, another group had surgery with no rehab, & the third group he brought into the operating room, made incisions as you would for the knee surgery, but never did the full procedure. He simply talked to the nurses as if he was actually doing the surgery & after 40 mins (avg. surgery length), he closed them up & told them to go home & let it heal without rehab. The group that had no surgery at all, only believing they had indeed been treated for their knee issue healed as well as the group that had the surgery & rehab!

The surgeon was astounded at the findings, which showed that the skill with which he performed the surgery actually was not the ‘make or break’ difference in whether a person recovered with a stronger knee. The patient believing in the procedure that they thought had been given to them was all that was needed for optimal healing to occur. This was shocking since before surgery, every patient struggled to walk for any distance & in the end, it did not matter whether they had the surgery or not…their mind created healing in their body.

Does that mean that knee surgery is unnecessary? No, but what it does show you is just how critically important thought control is in the function of the body.

Use this motivation, realization, grain of hope, to realize that your brain & thoughts will be one of the biggest indicators of health & wellness goal achievement, and really in achievement in anything. You’ve seen the ESPN documentaries about athletes who came out of the most difficult neighborhoods & childhoods to become superstar athletes today who are making a difference today in the lives of others.

While Jeremy Schapp will probably not be interviewing you anytime soon for your documentary, just like those high-profile athletes, you do have the power to control what thoughts you have & which ones you let go of- this will in turn help you either achieve & break out of your current circumstance, or well…fail.

“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” -Wayne Dyer

Don’t misunderstand me – exercise does not have to be exhaustive, expletive-filled, hate every minute of it type stuff. Should it be that sometimes? Heck yes! If we never tested our limits, we’d never know how hard we actually can go, and we’d be limiting the results we could achieve. Also, changing up the intensity of workouts is critical to the success of the program! What I mean here is that those hot new workout devices that promise to make working out easier & require less effort, are going against what working out is all about.

Results with exercise happen when the body is put into an environment that is uncomfortable & it’s the body’s attempt to adapt to that situation that creates new muscle fibers, less body fat, better balance, more endurance. So why should we buy any more equipment that makes the movement or work of exercise easier? If you’re going to buy a piece of workout equipment, buy something that is going to challenge the way in which you move, exert, & contract your muscles (including your heart muscles!)

Enter the TRX Suspension Training System. The TRX Bands are unlike anything in fitness today. They are two long fabric straps with both handles & foot cradles at the ends, that can hang from any stable structure – your door, the ceiling, a tree, a post, a soccer goal, a jungle gym, seriously! – anything!! They were designed to withstand a huge amount of force exerted on them & as long as the structure you attach it to is sturdy e.g. NOT a young sapling tree or a screen door, a large man could put all of his weight against these straps & they’d support him.

The TRX is so unique because it takes “core” training & “functional” training in a whole new direction. Most core work allows you to stabilize in up to 180 degrees of motion, as a stability ball does. The TRX requires you to stabilize in 360 degrees because your body is suspended from the TRX with only your hands or feet keeping you attached to the earth.

TRX in home exercise room

 As you can see, the TRX can anchor to a ceiling with a simple X brace that is sold by the TRX people. A simple exercise like pushups – which is a great one to begin with! – becomes challenging on a whole new level as your hands that before were on solid ground, now are having to stabilize themselves in mid-air. In addition, your core will work harder the deeper your angle is to the ground. But if you’re a beginner, you too can work on the TRX by simply decreasing the angle at which you work. The higher the angle of the body i.e. the more upright you stand, the easier it is! So anyone can do this – from beginner to pro athlete. This tool will take you from wherever your fitness level is at today all the way to when you hit pro-elite-extreme status!

In addition, most of us want a fast, effective workout & if we can get our cardio & strength training done in one shot? Even better! On the TRX, you can transition from one exercise to the next in a matter of seconds by just changing your position. To go from the position shown above – working chest, shoulders, triceps, & core – to the one below – working back, biceps, butt, & core literally requires a second to transition.

No matter what position you are in on the TRX, your body is required to maintain a multitude of different muscle contractions which is exactly how you want to train your body to be “functionally efficient.” Being functionally efficient means that your body is not just strong in 1 position, but is strong throughout a range of motion. Think of a physical therapist when they work on someone’s knee who had ACL reconstruction. They don’t let that person just keep their leg in one position, they make them improve their strength in every angle from a straight leg to a fully bent knee. Training with a tool like TRX does the same thing for your body – strengthens & tones you in every angle of motion.

And you wanted that cardio right? Try putting together 12 different exercises back to back to back & see how your heart rate is doing after that. The TRX people send a dvd with the straps that is a starting point if you are not working with a trainer who can teach you everything on the straps & they show you how transitioning quickly maintains a high heart rate, which means your heart gets stronger, you burn more calories & body fat & you’re sweating like crazy.

And are you one of the people who think planks have gotten too easy? Try doing them in the TRX where your feet are suspended off the ground & you can apply motion to the plank hold. And if you still think planks are hard, then you too can use the TRX to practice training your muscles in a different way, because remember, any good program should train your muscles differently on a regular basis so that the muscles are forced to consistently grow, get stronger, get leaner & help you be more fit!

suspended plank in TRX

I am not paid by TRX, they don’t give me free stuff, I just think this tool is so incredibly awesome that I think others should know about it & bring the TRX into their own workouts. Winter workout season is upon us & if you can make working out indoors fun, challenging, & easy to jump on & do, then you’ll have a higher likelihood of sticking with your program & actually maintaining or (gasp!) even getting better in the winter season! Just think…coming into spring already in the body you want, at the clothing size you want, at the ability level you want, without any injuries…novel concept huh?

If you have questions about TRX, how to get TRX, what to do with TRX now that you have it, leave your comments & questions here & I will answer them!

playground pull-up

Warm- Up:  5mins of alternating jogging in place with basic stretching

             - Keep moving while stretching, this is not the workout to stand in place in stretch

Workout:  Full Squats (hands clasped above head) – 45sec

                      Body Weight Rows – 45 sec

             -Use a swing to hold the sides of the seat & lean back so your body forms a straight line & you’re hanging   down from the swing with your feet on the ground so your body is at an angle to the ground

             -Bend the arms pulling yourself all the way up to the swing then lower down

                   Bench Step Ups – 45 sec each leg

             -Find a park bench or a high step on the jungle gym & step up w/ the same leg for 45 sec then switch and work the other leg

                   Sprints – 30 sec

            -Work with whatever distance you have to run as fast as you can

                   Plank Hold –   30 sec

          -Lay on the floor facedown with forearms resting under shoulders & elbows bent at 90 degrees. Raise body up into a straight line so only elbows and toes are on the ground & everything else is lifted up off ground, pulling belly button into spine

                  Dips – 45 sec

          -Go back to your bench or high step and sit on edge w/ fingers facing out off bench. Slide butt off step & bend elbows so you lower your body down then push up through your triceps, straightening your arms completely. Repeat

                 Pushups – 45 sec

        -Keep your body in a straight line and try to stay up the whole time, keeping hips in line with shoulders and the rest of the body. If you have to rest on the pushups, your “rest position” is to keep the knees off the ground and push back in your pushup position into a Yoga Downward-Dog Position until you’re ready to start again

               Hanging Leg Lifts – 45 sec

        -Hang from monkey bars, even if they are low, just bend your knees so that your arms are fully extended. Tuck knees up to chest and lower back down, try to not let your feet rest on the ground between reps, using abs to support movement at all times.

              Sprints – 30 sec

We’re not even going to the park for this one, go in your backyard, front yard, anywhere you want.

You’ll need:

- a jump rope(don’t have one handy? do the fake jump rope thing-twirl your arms & jump as if you had a rope…then go buy a rope! it’s a great tool for fitness!)

- a beach towel folded up to serve as a mat (got a mat? great, even better!)