Watching someone train with TRX ropes might remind you of your childhood when you went to the circus to admire the performances of acrobats and high-flying daredevils. TRX ropes are fun to watch, but are they purely for the show too?
Training with ropes isn’t new and rumour has it that it was introduced to US soldiers serving during the Iraq war to keep them fit and fight the boredom inherent to being stationed in a brown tent, wearing brown fatigues and staring at a brown desert all day long. The range of exercises that can be performed with these ropes is only limited to your imagination and this form of resistance has a few unique features that set TRX apart.
First of all, since most of the basic exercises involve leaning and fighting off gravity, a great deal of the stability needed to perform the movements correctly will come from your core. This area is highly solicited and you’ll notice a visible improvement in that particular problem area within a few weeks of training only.
Secondly, not only you’ll look better, but your posture will be greatly improved as well: no more shoulder slouching or lower back over-extending as TRX training, and functional training in general, truly promote healthy postures due to the very nature of the range of exercises they have.
Traditional bodybuilding, or machine-touring as I like to call it, won’t yield the same results because your body doesn’t have to work as hard to maintain proper form during movement. To picture this, first think of the typical Bangkok fitness centre: cramped with highly specialised machines designed to make you work your muscles separately, sometimes going as far as dividing small muscle groups into even smaller segments to make extra sure you don’t train any other muscle!
This approach is not very savvy because it makes the practice of working very dull and mechanical and to make things worse, it will exacerbate existing body imbalances and posture issues.
TRX turns your whole body comprised of hundreds of muscles into one, unique muscle that is to be trained holistically. The experience is truly an eye-opener and unless you’re a hardcore bodybuilder (in that case, this blog won’t suit your needs), you eventually will embrace functional training and get rid of your existing gym memberships.
Trying it is loving it!
