My First TRX Class
Every Monday I go to the same workout class. Every Monday I know what to expect when I set up my mat for Sculpt class. We will do work with resistance band, mix in some cardio, squat like there’s no tomorrow, and work our core at the end. This past Monday was a different story I was not prepared for.
I had set up my mat, gotten my gliding disks, snagged my favorite spot, grabbed some dumbbells, and went for the medium resistance band. Everything was normal: same crowd and same amount of people. That is, until the instructor walked in and twisted everything around. The class has changed, yes in the span of one week, to be a dual class of Sculpt and TRX. Rest in peace to my muscles.
For those of you who are not familiar with TRX, it is resistance training based solely from bodyweight. The man who invented it was in the U.S. armed forces and, because of that, had to travel a lot. Working out became hard for him equipment–wise, so he did what any average Joe would do—took a parachute and created a band with two handles that could be easily transported and wrapped around anything. The beauty is that you use your own weight as the workout, no other equipment needed. The downside—it is incredibly difficult, think push-ups on steroids. At least that’s what I thought when I looked at the Pinterest pictures.
As we began the workout we did one traditional sculpt move, one TRX move, and an ab workout. Some of the TRX moves included: one legged squatting, body weight bicep curls, body weight triceps dips and a type of reverse pushup where you have to lean back and pull your body up. Extreme TRX practitioners sometimes put their feet in the bands hanging and do some absurdly hard exercise, but this was a beginner’s class so we managed to stay fairly basic.
I found that in the end, the idea of TRX was more intimidating than it was difficult. It wasn’t that the workout was impossible – in fact it was very manageable once you got the coordination down. The hardest part was getting past the stigma surrounding workouts such as TRX and cross fit. They have a reputation of being for the elite, the people who work out so much their muscles have muscles. But in reality, you can simplify any workout. You just have to put the effort into finding the right classes for your needs.
I’m probably still going to be sore tomorrow from that workout, but I say that as a positive thing. I not only got over my fear of not fitting into the TRX community, but I challenged myself and saw what my body and mind were capable of, and I can’t wait to go back.