WHAT IS SUSPENSION TRAINING?

 Suspension Training bodyweight exercise develops strength, balance, flexibility and core stability simultaneously.

It requires the use of the TRX Suspension Trainer, a highly portable performance training tool that leverages gravity and the user’s body weight to complete 100s of exercises.

Workout Using the Suspension Trainer 

The TRX Suspension Trainer is the original, best-in-class workout system that leverages gravity and your bodyweight to perform hundreds of exercises.

You're in control of how much you want to challenge yourself on each exercise - because you can simply adjust your body position to add or decrease resistance.

The TRX Suspension Trainer:

• Delivers a fast, effective total-body workout
• Helps build a rock-solid core
• Increases muscular endurance
• Benefits people of all fitness levels (pro athletes to seniors)
• Can be set-up anywhere (gym, home, hotel or outside)
• By utilizing your own bodyweight, the TRX Suspension Trainer provides greater performance and functionality than large exercise machines costing thousands of dollars.

7 Benefits of TRX Suspension Training

1. Suitable for all levels

It doesn’t matter if you’re an Olympic athlete or just venturing into a new hobby of fitness; TRX suspension training is beneficial for all levels of athlete. Just by changing your body position slightly, the load can be increased or decreased on your muscles meaning that everyone can use this method of training.

2. Versatility

Just two adjustable bands provide a comprehensive workout to every single muscle in your body. You can transport them easily and set up the TRX suspension system anywhere, so when you come back from your healthy holiday, totally addicted, you can buy your own and carry on enjoying the benefits wherever you are.

3. Improve cardio and strength

TRX suspension workouts will not only improve your muscle strength but also your cardiovascular endurance. By changing the speed at which you perform the exercise, you can increase the work out you give to your heart and lungs.

4. Help achieve any goal

Because of the versatility of the TRX suspension training, any goal can be achieved. You may wish to gain muscle strength, lose weight or even train for a marathon. Whatever your aim, regular TRX suspension training will get you there.

5. Engages the whole body

The instability that the TRX suspension system creates whilst you perform movements means that your core is constantly activated. Moreover, the functional movements mean that many muscles are worked at the same time, providing a very comprehensive, all over workout.

6. Low impact nature

Because of its suspended nature, TRX suspension training is very low impact and means that your joints are not put under much stress. In turn, this means that there is a low risk of injury, allowing you to train as hard as you wish with less risk of causing or agitating a pre-existing injury.

7. It's different

Sometimes the monotony of going to the gym can be tedious, and we can often struggle to keep motivated with our fitness programmes. TRX suspension training is unlike any other technique for working out and can be mixed into your normal training to liven it up. This will keep you engaged and looking forward to your sessions time and again.

What Is Functional Training and Why Does It Matter and Five Steps to Creating a Functional Training Space in Any Facility

What Is Functional Training and Why Does It Matter?

Most folks exercise because they want to (1) lose weight, (2) maintain their weight, (3) tone up, and/or (4) relieve stress. Those are all valid reasons to commit to a fitness routine, but you can also exercise to simply improve the way you move throughout the world. There’s even a name for better-at-life forms of exercise: functional training.

Functional training helps provide you with the strength, stability, and mobility you need to thrive in your life and sports. You use basic functional movement patterns like pushing, pulling, hinging, squatting, rotating, carrying and gait patterns—walking and running—every day. Functional training utilizes exercises that improve your movement proficiency in these primary patterns to give you an edge so you can achieve your goals safely and with good health. Seems smart, right?

Fitness professionals typically recommend functional training to pregnant women or clients recovering from injuries or illness as a replacement for standard endurance or strength training. The reasoning is that it’s best not to push a person’s body to engage in exercise that it can’t currently handle.

In the case of pregnancy, that could mean substituting upper or lower body exercises for core work. It makes sense: an expectant mother may not be able to execute a plank or a crunch, but she needs to strengthen her glutes and legs to help her walk and climb stairs with a baby bump.

While functional training for pregnant clients often happens at the gym, the foray into functional movement usually starts in physical therapy for clients recovering from injuries. Consider a patient who had knee surgery. Before he can run, he has to re-teach his muscles to do less demanding activities.

Five Steps to Creating a Functional Training Space in Any Facility

Step 1: Designate and Clear Space in Your Facility

Swap out products that only allow for one or two movements per machine for pieces that offer more training options, such as soft-sided plyo boxes and lifting racks.

Step 2: Determine How Much Space You Need

The floor space you dedicate to functional training can depend on a number of variables, including how large your facility is, how high the demand for functional training is in your facility, and more. To simplify determining the amount of space you need, a good rule of thumb is allotting for a minimum of 50 square feet of space per person you would like to have working out in the space at a time. For example, if you expect to have a class of 10 people training at a time in the space, you would want to plan for a space of at least 500 square feet.

Step 3: Create a Functional Feel

Training zone with turf creates a performance training feel and a clear distinction between other areas of your facility.

Step 4: Choose the Right Tools

Now that the vision of your functional training area is coming to life, it’s time to fill it with the right tools to engage your members and keep them coming back for more.  Unlike traditional pieces of equipment such as selectorized machines, bars and bumper plates, etc., each of the tools in the following list take up very minimal amounts of space while providing endless training options.  Aim to include pieces that offer a wide variety of usage and are intuitive to the end user.  Some tools that fit this criterion are:

• Slam Balls
• Medicine Balls
• Wall Balls
• Dumbbells
• Kettlebells

• Stability Balls
• Combat Bags
• Suspension Training Straps
• Pull-up Bars
• Suspension Training Bars

Step 5: Utilize a Functional Storage and Suspension System

One of the biggest perceived obstacles when it comes to incorporating functional training into an existing facility is how to store the various tools and keep the space feeling organized. Because many of the functional training tools such as kettlebells, combat bags, and medicine balls, are smaller, loose items, facilities often struggle to find a home for them within their facility and as a result, training areas can become cluttered and feel messy. This is where incorporating a functional storage and suspension system comes into play.

Functional fitness training: Is it right for you?

Functional fitness exercises train your muscles to help you do everyday activities safely and efficiently. Find out more about functional fitness exercises — and what they can do for you.

Chances are you don't live to exercise. For many people, exercise is a way to maintain or improve their quality of life. And that's the focus of functional fitness.

Functional fitness exercises are designed to train and develop your muscles to make it easier and safer to perform everyday activities, such as carrying groceries or playing a game of basketball with your kids.

What is functional fitness training?

Functional fitness exercises train your muscles to work together and prepare them for daily tasks by simulating common movements you might do at home, at work or in sports. While using various muscles in the upper and lower body at the same time, functional fitness exercises also emphasize core stability.

For example, a squat is a functional exercise because it trains the muscles used when you rise up and down from a chair or pick up low objects. By training your muscles to work the way they do in everyday tasks, you prepare your body to perform well in a variety of common situations.

Functional fitness exercises can be done at home or at the gym. Gyms may offer functional fitness classes or incorporate functional fitness into boot camps or other types of classes. Exercise tools, such as fitness balls, kettlebells, and weights, are often used in functional fitness workouts.

What are the benefits of functional fitness training?

Functional exercises tend to use multiple joints and numerous muscles. Instead of only moving the elbows, for example, a functional exercise might involve the elbows, shoulders, spine, hips, knees, and ankles. This type of training, properly applied, can make everyday activities easier, reduce your risk of injury and improve your quality of life.

Functional exercise training may be especially beneficial as part of a comprehensive program for older adults to improve balance, agility and muscle strength, and reduce the risk of falls.

What are examples of functional fitness exercises?

Comprehensive physical movements found in activities such as tai chi and yoga involve varying combinations of resistance and flexibility training that can help build functional fitness.

Other examples of specific functional fitness movements that use multiple joints and muscles include:

• Multidirectional lunges
• Standing bicep curls

Multidirectional lunges help prepare your body for common activities, such as vacuuming and yard work. To do a lunge, keep one leg in place and step out with the other leg — to the front, back or side — until your knee reaches a 90-degree angle and your rear knee is parallel to the floor.

How do you structure your functional training program?

1. The exercises should have gradation. They should start from the exercise that’s most demanding. Thus, when the trainee is most refreshed, they’ll start with the most challenging movement and get the most out of it.

The most demanding exercises are usually deadlifts and squats. That’s why I always start with them. In cases where I start with a unilateral knee dominant movement — Bulgarian squats, Pistol Squats, Lunges — I don’t include deadlifts or squats in that workout.

2. The exercises should be applicable to the particular person. A challenging exercise for one lifter might be a piece of cake for another.

3. The body moves in different planes — this means that the movements we include in a workout should cover all the planes.

You should rotate the movements – in one workout in a horizontal plane, next time a vertical plane and so forth.

For example, pull-ups, one-arm crossover pulldowns, and lat pulldowns are in a vertical plane. Renegade rows, dumbbell rows, and horizontal pull-ups are all in a horizontal plane.

4. When the first movement is knee dominant, the second lower body movement should probably be hip dominant and vice versa.

This means that when you have squats, Bulgarian squats, or lunges as the main exercise, the second lower body movement should be something like hip thrusters, good mornings, kettlebell swings, and so forth.

Conversely, when the first exercise is a deadlift variation, the second should be a knee dominant unilateral movement, such as lunges, pistols, or Bulgarian squats.

5. Exercises are either unilateral or bilateral. Unilateral exercises are performed one limb at a time and bilateral are performed both limbs simultaneously. Clients will often present with some sort of an imbalance between their left and right side. When they perform bilateral movements, they instinctively push or pull more with their stronger limb.

That’s why it is really important to include both types of movements. Military presses, push-ups, and dips are bilateral. Side presses, landmine pushes, and lunges are unilateral.

Considering that most people train 2-3 times a week, I usually rotate the main exercises as follows: one workout starts with squats, the next with deadlifts, and the third with a unilateral movement. This ensures everything is included for optimal development.

6. Exercises included in one workout should logically complement one other

If you have a renegade row in your workout, you don’t need to perform a plank. Both exercises load the torso in the same plane, requiring stabilization. You’d be better off substituting the plank with a twisting movement like the full contact twist or Paloff press.

7. You should choose the exercises based on the mobility and level of physical preparedness of the trainee.

The exercises should be modified accordingly. For example, the deadlift might be performed from bumpers or blocks so the ROM can match the trainee without compromising technique.

The military press might be performed with a different grip or dumbbells.

8. You should consider the imbalances of the particular trainee.

If somebody has serious back issues, meaning his or her back muscles haven’t a clue how to work, it’s better to skip some of the pushing movements and include two pulling movements.

In this example, you’d be better off using more unilateral upper body movements as they allow for stricter technique, so the trainee can feel the load better and thus learn to activate his sleepy muscles.

You (or your clients) should never feel like they have to choose between excellent health and career success. A great functional fitness workout doesn’t have to be a time consuming or complicated endeavor – just a commitment to hitting these 8 key steps.

What Does It Mean to “Boost Your Metabolism”?

If you’re trying to lose weight, you’ve probably come across foods and supplements that claim to “boost your metabolism.” But what does this actually mean, and is it even possible?

Simply put, “metabolism” refers to the process of converting food or drink into energy for your body to use. Meanwhile, the speed at which your body utilizes energy (i.e., calories) is known as your metabolic rate.

Your body utilizes energy in a few different ways. At a very basic level, your body needs energy for all the unseen processes that keep you alive and functioning. This is known as your basal metabolic rate (BMR), and it accounts for a whopping 60–75% of your total daily caloric burn, according to a review in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.

Your BMR is influenced by several different variables, including age, sex, body composition and even organ weight. One study found organ weight accounts for as much as 43% of the differences between individual BMR’s. Your body also uses roughly 10% of your daily calories to digest your food, as well as 15–30% to fuel physical activity.

“Your body is always burning calories,” says Lyssie Lakatos, RDN and co-founder of Nutrition Twins. Anything that increases this burn can be considered a metabolism booster.

3 WAYS TO BOOST YOUR METABOLISM

While your metabolism is constantly humming along, there are a number of ways you can manipulate your diet and exercise to speed things up a bit. Just keep in mind that none of these tactics are quick fixes or major dial-movers. That said, you might see small effects. And if you employ these strategies consistently, you’ll see even greater effects. “It’s small amounts, but it all adds up,” Lakatos says.

1

LIFT WEIGHTS

One of the best ways to boost your metabolism is to add strength training to your routine. Granted, you probably won’t burn as many calories during a strength training session as you might going for a run or a bike ride, but the benefits for your metabolism last well beyond your workout. How? Through the muscle you build. 

“Muscle mass burns more calories, even while you sleep,” says nutritionist Tammy Lakatos Shames, RDN, the other half of Nutrition Twins.

If you’re new to strength training, start with two days per week and work every muscle group. This is the minimum recommended to stay healthy by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

2

DO HIIT

If you don’t mind sweating, high-intensity interval training (HIIT) can be a great way to speed up your metabolism, Lakatos says.

Similar to strength training, the metabolism-boosting effects of HIIT may not be immediately apparent. In fact, you’ll likely burn more calories during longer, steady-state cardio, though that may depend on how long your HIIT session lasts. However, you’ll continue burning more calories up to 48 hours after performing HIIT than you will after your steady-state cardio workout.

The reason: It takes more time and energy for your body to cool down after higher-intensity exercise than following moderate- or lower-intensity exercise. As a result, your body will use more energy (read: calories) while it returns to a resting state. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as the “afterburn effect.”

3

GET SLEEP

If you needed one more reason to get some shut-eye, consider this: Skimping on sleep prompts your body to store fat and slow your metabolism, Lakatos Shames says. More specifically, sleep deprivation throws your hormones out of whack, causing ghrelin (aka the hunger hormone) levels to go up and leptin (the satiety hormone) levels to go down.

In addition to messing with your hormones, sleep deprivation will likely make you less motivated to exercise or make other healthy choices, which can slow your metabolism. So aim to get 7–9 hours of sleep per night to maintain health and keep your metabolism humming along.