Pure Joy Wellness Approved! TRX Home Suspension Trainer

Welcome to the third edition of my blog series: Pure Joy Wellness Approved! 

The wellness industry is saturated with products. (It’s a multi-trillion dollar industry, afterall.) My goal with this series, Pure Joy Wellness Approved, is to help you cut through the noise, and give you insight into the items and brands that I use on a regular basis. Every month, I’ll be featuring a product I love that can make achieving your health goals easier—whether you want to lose weight, take better care of your skin, develop an exercise routine, find balance with your nutrition, or improve your mental health, to name a few. 

So, let’s talk about this month’s product...

TRX Suspension Training: Home Gym In A Box

As a certified personal trainer and lifelong fitness lover, I’m always on the lookout for simple solutions to common workout woes, of which there are plenty. Vacations, gym closures, inclimate weather, lack of time or resources, and so much more can get in the way of your fitness routine—including this quarantine—leaving you without workouts and setting you back in your wellness journey. The best solution I’ve found for these dilemmas is the TRX Suspension Training set. 

If you frequent the gym, you’ve probably seen TRX straps before. (They’re long bright yellow straps with black handles on the end—relatively hard to miss.) TRX stands for “total resistance exercises” and it’s a collection of workout equipment that allows you to engage in something called “suspension training,” meaning you use your own body weight in suspension to create resistance during exercises. TRX is the ultimate strength training system for so many reasons. Here are a few of them. 

Why I Love It

You can take TRX anywhere. 

Unlike a treadmill or your favorite set of dumbbells, you can easily bring and use your TRX equipment wherever you are, whether you’re traveling, at home, or even outside. It doesn’t take up much space in a gym bag or suitcase, and all you need to use it is an anchor point like a door, exposed beam, railing, tree branch, or metal bar (like at a gym, outdoor workout space, or playground) that can safely hold your weight. TRX gives detailed instructions on how to set it up, but trust me, it’s super easy to set up, use, and pack up. 

The ways you can use it are endless. 

Most workout equipment is meant for one purpose—cardio, strength training, core work, etc. Maybe you can use that equipment for several different exercises, but that’s typically the extent of its use. TRX bands, though, can be used to perform hundreds of exercises and help you achieve whatever fitness goal you’re chasing. You can use TRX to build your strength, lose fat (yes, even menopausal belly fat), work your core, and improve your stability. I love that TRX allows me to work any and every muscle group in my body—I can get my heart rate up if I want, do resistance training, or put together a full body HIIT workout. And because it's such a versatile piece of equipment that accommodates numerous exercises, my workouts are never boring! TRX allows you to constantly switch it up, which makes it a superior fitness product in my eyes. 

It’s a worthwhile purchase for anyone—regardless of your fitness level. 

Another drawback of conventional workout equipment is that it doesn’t change. Dumbbells, for example, are always going to be the weight that they are. Once those 15 pound dumbbells no longer challenge you (e.g. they become easy to press, pull, etc.), you suddenly have less of a use for them. Fortunately, because TRX uses your body weight as resistance, it adapts as you do, and there are so many ways to make each exercise harder, should you want to. On the flip side, TRX is usable for all humans, regardless of your fitness level. It’s simple to modify any exercise to be manageable for you and meet you where you are in your fitness journey. Want a low impact workout? TRX can do that. Have a bad shoulder and can’t do push-ups? TRX has an alternate exercise or modification for that. No matter what your strength or fitness level is, you can benefit from using TRX, and you’ll always be able to benefit from it—that’s just the nature of the product. 

On the Private Pure Joy Wellness Facebook Group, I am going to be showing you my favorite TRX exercises. Every day for a week I’ll post a video of myself demonstrating a TRX exercise—the first of which is a TRX Row, which I show you how to do below!

I hope you’ll try this product and let me know what you think—I’d love to hear from you! If you haven’t already, I encourage you to join our Private Pure Joy Wellness Facebook Group, where you can get all of my product recommendations, fitness advice, and become part of a community that grows bigger and more supportive every day. 

To join, follow this link to the group and then click “Join.” Once I accept your request, you’ll have endless access to all this group has to offer! 

Xo, 

Renata