Ultimate Home Gym for 2010

It’s been 4 years now since cancelling my gym membership at Gold’s Gym in Redondo Beach…and I’ve never been in better shape!

I went to the gym year after year to keep fit and get stronger for playing beach volleyball competitively…I was even a sponsored athlete with Gold’s Gym for 8 years (Santa Barbara and Venice locations). I actually have no beef with gym’s or gym-goers but I found that hitting the gym 3-5 times per week was too disruptive to my life and therefore decided to make a change and get in my workouts at home.

The departure from working out at the gym had the following up sides:

• saved money on membership fees
• saved money on parking fees (yes, parking costs money in California!)
• saved money on gas to and from the gym
• saved time spent getting to and from the gym
• less exposure to sweat and germs left on equipment
• no more frustration that the equipment I want to use is taken
• no “prime time” hours and high-traffic hours to contend with
• no more seasonal surges in membership to clog the facility with newbies and short-timers
• no more annoying cell phone talkers yappin away while doing cardio simultaneously

Now that life’s distractions have been trimmed down by letting my membership expire it was time to find a worthy replacement for the thousands of pounds or training equipment I was accustomed to having access to (when not in use or out of order). Ironically enough, the solution for me was a piece of equipment that weighed less than two pounds and looked like a three-legged seatbelt – the TRX Suspension Trainer, a bodyweight-based fitness tool that uses your bodyweight and gravity as resistance to provide whole-body workout capability that’s functional in nature, core-intensive and made easy or extremely difficult depending on the user’s ability, desire and fitness goals.

Granted, Suspension Training took me 2-3 workouts in order to really get the hang of it but now that I’m a proficient TRX user, my workout options are endless…and I have no reason to ever spend money and join a gym again!

My investment in TRX cost $150 and the product has held up for over three years, even with regular use (3-5 times per week…and my wife uses it too). That’s a great return on investment when compared to 3-years worth of gym membership fees!

Check out my website, www.VirtualWorkoutPartner.com which is dedicated to helping people stay fit despite living a busy lifestyle. I hope TRX becomes your fitness solution and saviour from undesirable costs, hassel and lost time as well. Please comment and let me know how your life has improved with TRX added to your arsenal of fitness tools.

Here is a great 10-exercise workout routine I do all the time, usually with my wife…we just alternate and there are no plates to replace or re-rack, no pins or seats to adjust either. Enjoy!

The Ultimate Home Gym…To Go!

It’s one thing to have an exercise apparatus that’s fun to use and delivers results in the privacy of your own home. It’s an entirely new ballgame when that piece of equipment weighs less than two pounds, folds up into the size of a toiletry bag and can literally travel with you anywhere to deliver a whole-body functional workout on your time, wherever you like (home, hotel room, outdoors, gym, beach, etc.), and all within a single station. Add the fact that the TRX System by Fitness Anywhere could replace your gym membership for about $150 bucks and now you’ve got a recession-proof (and excuse-proof) fitness program. Not bad, eh?…and it all stems from Navy SEAL ingenuity!

Two of the latest trends in fitness are functional training and bodyweight-basedexercise. The TRX System is a fusion of these fitness methods and has created a new genre of fitness called Suspension Training. Suspension Training is considered by some to be the evolution of functional training because of it’s emphasis on core engagement and it’s ability to work the body through all three planes of motion (saggital, frontal and transverse).

Suspension Training with the TRX System allows users to make exercises easier or more difficult with simple adjustments in hand and/or foot position, and this can even be done on the fly. Due to it’s versatility, TRX is appropriate for use by kids, baby boomers, weekend warriors and elite athletes alike. No matter how strong or weak you are, there are ways to progress or regress the intensity (hence difficulty) within dozens of exercises so that you’ll not only have a workout for how your body is today, you’ll have a fitness method that can accommodate your improved physique  for years to come.

Why do I love the TRX? I used to be a gym rat who lifted a lot of iron to get strong but found it didn’t improve my athleticism or protect me from injury as much as I would have liked. Since using the TRX System about three years ago (still using the same one!), I’ve become healthier and fit enough to try making a comeback as a professional beach volleyball player on the AVP Tour – at age 38!

Each TRX System comes with the following:

• TRX Suspension Trainer
• Instructional DVD
• Fitness Guide
• Travel Pouch
• 30 day, 100% satisfaction guarantee

For additional support, check out their video library for clips on set up and use, upper body exercises, lower body exercises and core exercises. I’ll soon have some videos of my own that I’ll share through this Blog and my website – www.VirtualWorkoutPartner.com so please come back and visit often…and follow my AVP comeback efforts on this Blog too!…see folder titled “The Comeback of 09′”

TRX used on the Biggest Loser TV show

A Trainer-Athlete’s Use for TRX / Suspension Training

If you’re a fitness trainer, the TRX System should be a permanent fixture in your functional training tool-box to use with clients of all ages and abilities. If you’re an athlete, Suspension Training with TRX should be in your arsenal of conditioning and training methods for improving performance and reducing risk of injury. Since I happen to be both a trainer and an athlete, I wanted to share why I get as much use out of my TRX System as I do with my blackberry…however my TRX (the same one I’ve been using for 3 years) won’t be obsolete in 6 months!

When I’m on the road during the week (and some weekends) I simply bring my TRX with me. It weighs less than 2 lbs and folds into the size of a shoe – so it’s incredibly portable. Furthermore, TRX anchors to virtually any sturdy overhead structure (beam, gym equipment, tree, pole, fence, door, etc.) enabling me to bring my “home-gym” on the road where I can train clients at the local health club, their home/office; or outdoors in a local park or sports field. Imagine the flexibility you could have with training clients if you had your own TRX System!

Due to my road-weary lifestyle, I don’t have the luxury of training clients on a long-term basis. Therefore my goal is often times to introduce, train and educate clients on how they can use the TRX System on their own to achieve their fitness goals. While I still think it’s important for people to work with a personal trainer if they have the means, I’ve found that people really like to take control of their own fitness efforts, on their own time and in their own training sanctuary – wherever that might be (home, outside, hotel-room, etc.). I’ll support an individuals efforts by showing them how to safely perfom Suspension Training exercises (i.e. squats, presses, rows, planks and curls) at basic levels and how to progress in difficulty within each exercise profile as their exercise competency (form, balance, coodination) and strength to weight ratio improves over time.

It gives me great satisfaction to see someone get excited about exercise enough to WANT to learn how to take fitness into their own hands. While I’ll always encourage someone to work with a certified trainer, I’d also encourage people to learn more about living a healthy lifestyle and put that knowledge to use by making good choices. Having a fit body will help you live a long and productive life with increased vitality and more freedom from discomfort and disease.

As a competitive athlete, I consistently train with TRX to improve my athleticism, conditioning and sport-specific performance in beach volleyball. My (variable) resistance is my own bodyweight (205 lbs) working against gravity – which is plenty. TRX allows me to make exercises as easy or difficult as I want them to be…and I tend to work just beyond my comfort zone in order to see incrimental and progressive gains through consistant efforts.

In sport, as in life, there are always going to be people out there that are bigger, faster and stonger than we are. Similarly, with TRX, there are always going to be exercise movements that will make us bigger, faster and stonger than before – regardless of how good of shape we’re currently in.  What’s the message here? We must always strive to become better versions of ourselves. Afterall, that’s what our competition is doing! The TRX System is a single fitness tool that can accompany any athlete on their path to becoming the best they can be. If you’re a recreational athlete or compete in sports, working out with TRX will:

• Increase strength, balance and coordination through the entire kinetic chain
• Improve athleticism and kinesthetic sense
• Improve posture
• Strengthen muscles of the core for spinal stabilization (a precursor to athletic movement)
• Improve sport-specific performance through performing sport-specific movements
• Reduce risk of injury through closed-kinetic-chain exercises performed in multiple planes of motion

Even if you’re a weekend warrior, using TRX regularly during the week will improve how you feel and your overall performance in your sport of choice. Give it a try and share TRX with your teammates! Once you do, come back to this Blog and leave a comment to share your experience with myself and others.

Thanks for reading and please don’t hesitate to leave a comment with any thoughts or concerns you may have on using the TRX System – either as a trainer or athlete (or both). Also, I’ll be adding video content in the weeks to come so come back soon for exercise guidance that will take your game to the next level!