Now that we’ve taken a
look at why the TRX is so ideally suited for bootcamp classes, let’s
take a look at how one trainer has successfully incorporated the TRX
into his bootcamp business model. Corey Belin, NASM-CPT, owner of Belin
Sports and Fitness in Washington, DC.
A former college
athlete, Belin has been a trainer for four years. “Our objective is to
make exercising fun and to help everyone obtain the results their
unable to reach on their own,” he says. Like many of us, Belin used to
rely primarily on weights for his own training. Then one day he walked
into the gym where he was working at the time and saw another trainer
using the TRX.
“I saw him using it and
thought, no way, this can’t be hard. Then I got on the TRX and did
bicep curls. My biceps were swollen like I’d been curling 45-pound
plates.” He became a convert. “The TRX allows me to cheat on workouts.
Instead of working out for an hour, I can workout for 20 or 30 minutes,
and I’m done.”
His experience led him
to incorporate the TRX into his renowned bootcamp courses. At first, he
just dipped a toe in the water, adding four TRX’s to a course. “Some
people were scared, some people weren’t used to how it felt. But I
explained to them, the more the body keeps guessing, the more results
you’ll get.
“It amped up workouts,
but most importantly for me is that I try to make every camp as
different as possible. The TRX allows me to add major pressure. Curling
5 pound weights, after a while you have to curl for twenty minutes to
get a workout. With the TRX, people can always have exactly the level
of resistance they need.”
Sometimes it can be
difficult for trainees to master movements on new exercise apparatuses,
but Belin didn’t experience any problems beyond his class’ initial
reticence to try something new when he introduced the TRX into his
classes. “I explained to everyone how to increase resistance—if it’s
too much walk away from the anchor. If it’s not enough, walk towards
the anchor. It’s that simple.”
They got it, and the
class enjoyed the constant challenge of progressing exercises or trying
entirely new movements they’d never experienced before. Belin added
more TRX’s to the next bootcamp he taught, and now he has TRX’s for
every student in his class.
Belin has found that
using the TRX has advantages beyond providing his students with a great
workout. “Number one, I like it because it gives my classes something
different to do. Number two, I’m one of the few bootcamps to
incorporate equipment and exercises besides bodyweight exercises and
calisthenics. I haven’t seen another bootcamp in DC using the TRX.”
Incorporating the TRX
into his classes has given Belin a unique marketing angle. “When people
see us using the TRX, it turns heads. They want to know what we’re
doing, because they’ve never seen anything like it before. When cars
drive by, they literally slow down to see what the heck you’re doing. ”
In the near future,
Belin has a plan to draw even more attention to the use of the TRX in
his classes. “We do our classes at 6 a.m., not 5 in the afternoon, so
most people don’t see what’s going on. I want to take it out in the
middle of a traffic island and set it up during rush hour so people can
really see what we’re doing. Using the TRX really sets us apart.”
Next time, Belin will share some of his training tips. Until then! FA
Related Posts
TRX for Bootcamp: The Perfect Combination
TRX Advantages for Bootcamp Training
The TRX in Action at Bootcamp