My First TRX Suspension Training Experience

Recently I mentioned using a Groupon to try out different classes at a fitness studio near me called Fortis Fitness and Strength Training.

My 5-class deal is up, and do you think that I did the same class twice? No way my friends, I like to keep things interesting! I had a lot of fun participating in a kickboxing, spin, heated barre, yoga sculpt (more on that to come) and TRX class. And today I thought it’d be fun to share my experience with my first TRX suspension training class.

TRX (the acronym is for Total Body Resistance Exercise) classes center around the use of a suspension trainer, where you do a variety of exercises using the TRX bands, leveraging gravity and your body weight to develop strength, balance, flexibility and core stability.  A little tidbit that I didn’t know until just now: TRX was born in the Navy SEALs.

I knew little about TRX before going into the class. We started off with a warmup to loosen up our muscles, particularly our backs, which felt great since it was 8 am and I was pretty stiff.

We went on to do a variety of exercises, some of which felt awkward, but most of which felt good. It took me a bit to get used to the idea of letting myself fall back and stand at a complete angle without feeling like I was about to have my butt hit the ground. I definitely was gripping the TRX bands pretty hard! Some of the exercises we did included single leg crossing balance lunges and shoulder stability moves like this one.

The class was broken down into three different segments: the first and the last used the TRX bands, the middle was a circuit training routine. It included things like walking lunges with kettlebells, jumping rope and pushups on a ball. I’m not crazy about circuits like this, but it went by fast because I took the class with my friend Tiffany. We chatted in between panting and bear crawling!

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What killed me were the core moves. We did a series of moves right at the end where we were in planks with our feet in the TRX bands, doing oblique twists and mountain climbers in the bands. I hardly ever have achy post-workout abs, and oh my gosh, the day after this class, my obliques were crazy sore. Every time I laughed I cringed! It certainly got the job done with working my abs. If you’re interested in checking out some TRX core moves, check out this link.

All in all, I loved TRX training. I found it to definitely be a total body workout, and I felt like I used muscles in different ways than I do on a normal basis. I was surprised that my calorie burn wasn’t higher, but then again, I would consider the class more of a strength training workout than high intensity cardio.

Questions: Have ever tried TRX training before? What was the last new workout you tried?