Make Your Body Your Machine

When Cem Eren, of Fitt Quest, approached Randy Hetrick and told him, "I have some stuff you've probably never seen done with the TRX", Randy was skeptical as he had heard this before.  When he took a look at the videos that Cem had shot, his reply, "This guy's crazy."

Now these exercises fall under the category of "Don't try this at home kids."  Cem trains professional boxers and fighters and is always looking for innovative and unique training methods to push his athletes to the next level.  He instantly saw the potential of the TRX and incorporated it into his training sessions, adding his own Cemconditioning methodology.

CemCondition Video

He has trained:

Robert dos Remedios or "Coach Dos" shares a couple of great TRX circuit workouts on his blog, Obervations from a Strength Coach.

Circuit #1:

1. TRX wheelbarrel walks - 2 times across 3 aerobic steps + 5 plyo push-ups
2. "Monkeying around" - pull-up and hang climbing variations two times across the bars
3. TRX push complex - Push-up, T's, and superman's 5 times each
4. Rope battle - 50 reps any style you choose

Circuit #2:

1. TRX feet elevated rows (with hinging hips) - 10 times
2. Hang leg raises - 10 reps of any variation of leg raise
3. TRX plank position pike + saw - 10 reps
4. Rope battle - 50 reps any style you choose.

Check out his post, TRX, Ropes & Bodyweight Circuit, to view video examples of each exercise.

When Alex Roodhouse served in Iraq as part of a Navy combat riverine team, he risked his life every time he went on patrol, often facing a hail of enemy fire. Danger comes hand in hand with active duty. But it’s a reality that Roodhouse has become even more acutely aware of since he completed his service and joined the Fitness Anywhere military sales team. “When I visit the VA hospitals for FA, I often discover that I served in some of the exact same places with the wounded vets that I meet.”

Roodhouse and Dr. Joe ‘Doc’ Martin, D.C., a SEAL team veteran and FA’s director of military education, recently participated in their third Compass Group for combat wounded Marine vets on behalf of FA. As more and more active duty service people use the TRX to stay mission fit on base and while deployed, the TRX has become a familiar tool. “Half of the seminar participants had used the TRX before,” says Roodhouse. “They like the TRX because it’s the same equipment that active duty service people use and because it’s easy to adjust workouts and movements to work with their specific injuries.

Vets have a way to train even with injuries, and the FA team gets something great out of the experience, too. “I got into the health care field for a reason,” says Doc Martin. “I spent my time in the SEAL team learning how to blow things up and I’m spending the rest of my life fixing things.”

LEARN MORE:

At: www.vetfoundation.org

GET INVOLVED:

Buy a TRX FORCE DVD and Guide, $5 of your purchase goes directly into the Fitness Anywhere Warrior Fund to help us support efforts like the Compass Group.

Servicemen and women who end up as patients at the National Naval Medical Center (NNMC) in Bethesda, MD have gone to war for America and paid a toll for freedom that can’t be erased. Some patients suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injuries while others have lost limbs, suffered burns, or have otherwise lost the capacity to think and move the way they did before they went to war.

That’s why SEAL Team veteran Dr. Joe Martin, D.C., an FA team member and chiropractor who specializes in rehabilitation from injuries, journeyed to the NNMC where he gave an educational seminar, worked directly with wounded warriors and provided TRX trainers to the facility. “A lot of the wounded warriors here can’t use free weights or the Nautilus equipment we have. Guys in wheelchairs—whoever—can use the TRX. Anyone can,” says Joe Liptok, Deputy Director of the Marine Liaison Office of Wounded Warriors at the NMMC. “I think it’s for everybody, not just wounded warriors. You can hit everything with it. It’s adaptable to every individual. I just wish I’d had the TRX years ago.”

GET INVOLVED:

Buy a TRX FORCE DVD and Guide, $5 of your purchase goes directly into the Fitness Anywhere Warrior Fund to help support providing education and equipment for wounded warriors like those at the NNMC.

Sometimes the toughest battles soldiers face come once they have left the theater of war. That’s why the Veteran Employment Transition (VET) Foundation created the Compass Group, a nonprofit that has helped more than 200 combat-wounded Marines with 5-day life and business skills seminars. Earlier this year, FA became part of Compass Group’s effort through the FA Warrior Fund, providing equipment and education at Compass Group seminars.

“A lot of the guys have injuries where they don’t feel comfortable going into the gym. This allows them to get back into shape in the comfort of their own homes,” says Chris Hadsall, the VET Foundation’s founder and executive director. “Whether a guy has a lower leg or upper extremity issue, it works. And with the TRX, they are always getting a great core workout no matter what exercise they’re doing.”

Major General T.S. Jones (Ret, U.S. Marine Corps) serves on the VET Foundation board of directors and hosts the Compass Group retreats at his Outdoor Odyssey facility, which he created for a youth leadership nonprofit he also runs. General Jones has made the TRX and Fitness Anywhere educational products an integral part of his everyday PT routine. “I’ve done a lot of testing with the TRX and I haven’t even hit what’s possible with this. There are a lot of extreme situations in the Marines Corps—on a ship, on a site where you can’t carve out PT time. But you can carve out 30 or 40 minutes to do TRX exercises and that time is connected to rapid decision-making and what you can do.”

LEARN MORE:

At: www.vetfoundation.org

GET INVOLVED:

Buy a TRX FORCE DVD and Guide, $5 of your purchase goes directly into the Fitness Anywhere Warrior Fund to help us support efforts like the Compass Group.

Drew Brees continues to impress as he leads the New Orleans Saints through win after win.  We are especially excited as he has been a big advocate of the TRX and used it to regain strength after his shoulder injury.  He continues to use it in his training with his trainer, Todd Durkin.  In Drew Brees Core Workout, he shares his favorite TRX workout moves that he uses to strengthen his core and get ready for the field.

You asked for more challenge, now we are bringing it!  This second installment to the TRX Boot Camp series take is one step, or jump as the case may be, past TRX Boot Camp: Ropes and Straps. The original Boot Camp: Ropes & Straps was a circuit-style workout with a pyramid design where all the exercises performed in the first half of the workout were repeated in reverse order in the second half. For TRX Boot Camp: Ropes & Straps Round 2, we deliver yet another intense full-body workout, delivering total-body strength and cardiovascular endurance while using staggered block progressions—which means the movements gradually become more challenging as you progress and are incorporated with advanced jump rope intervals. The higher intensity, Round 2, is more technical with more rotational exercises that engage the core, something the TRX does better than any other single piece of fitness equipment available today.

“This is a one-of-a-kind workout that delivers overall strength as well as cardio training, which is why we are so excited to continue the Boot Camp series. Round 2 was designed to be more challenging than the original, to continue to build your strength and improve your performance,” said Randy Hetrick, inventor of the TRX and President of Fitness Anywhere, Inc. “Not very often do you get a workout created by a Navy SEAL and an Olympian, it is the epitome of an elite workout that will push your body to the limits.”

TRX Boot Camp: Ropes & Straps Round 2 will definitely get your heart pumping and your muscles moving!

November is here.  That's means in most parts of the country there's a slight chill in the air, the leaves have changed color, football season is well under way and yep...Thanksgiving is just around the corner. 

What is there not to like about Thanksgiving?  Family, friends, parades, football and the food.  Oh yes, the food. 

I come from a large extended family where the tradition was to all gather at my Aunt's house for a huge Thanksgiving dinner.  My Aunt would cook us this amazing meal with all the fixins...turkey, mashed potataoes and gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce and...well let's just leave it at that.  To top it off, my Uncle is a professional baker and would bring home about 6 different pies for dessert.  I've always had a sweet tooth and almost every year I would try as many of the pies as my already full stomach would allow.  (Lemon meringue was my favorite).

As a child, I could afford this behavior.  I was an active kid and this was not a normal meal...my body would bounce back as long as I didn't keep up this sort of eating. 

But as I entered adulthood and tried to adopt a healthy lifestyle.  Everything about Thanksgiving goes against what I try to practice everyday. Besides making fitness a important part of my life, I've learned to cook and eat in a way that nourishes but doesn't punish my body.  I substitute lean proteins for the fatty ones, I cut the oil or butter, add extra veggies and more.   

I work hard all year to be healthy. How can I let all that hard work go for just one day?  Then I got an idea...how hard would it be to make Thanksgiving a healthy meal for once?  I grabbed my Gourmet Nutrition Cookbook and starting thumbing through the recipes. 

Below is the menu I came up with.  I was surprised how easily I came up with a meal that would scream Thanksgiving but would still be healthy and good for my body.  And there's even dessert!

So maybe you're looking to just stick to your usual Thanksgiving indulgences this year...that's okay. It's a holiday and if you're healthy all year round, one day won't kill you.  But there is an opportunity here for all of us. Maybe you'll be just wrapping up your 30-day Fitness Challenge, or maybe you've just finished training for a marathon.  This might be your year for a healthy Thanksgiving as well. 

To explore all these recipes and make your very own 'Healthy Thanksgiving,' pick up a copy of the Gourmet Nutrition Cookbook in our online store. 

Soup Course: 

Butternut Squash Soup (p 138)

Main Course:

Roast Chicken Breast (Substitute Turkey Breast) (p 118)

Stuffed Zucchini (p186)

Cauliflower Mash (p196)

Sauteed Spinach with Roasted Garlic (p194)

Dessert:

Pumpkin Pie Bars (p 220)

by Jennie Beyer

Are you always using the TRX in the gym, with a trainer or having to borrow a friend’s.  Maybe you want to surprise someone with a TRX package for the holidays.  Well currently there are 3 ways to win a FREE TRX Package.

1. You can enter to win a TRX Home Bundle through Self Magazine.
2. If you are in the military or know someone who is, you can participate in the Military Photo Contest and win a TRX FORCE Bundle.
3. Participate in the 30 Day Thanksgiving Challenge for a chance to win a TRX Package.

Join in the fun and possibly win a FREE TRX!

The prospect of putting in the months of training necessary just to arrive at the starting line for a triathlon is enough to make most people crack a beer and sit down on the couch to catch the latest ‘House’ rerun. But you’ll never find the brave wounded warriors supported by the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF) taking the easy way out.

The nonprofit group Operation Rebound launched CAF in 1994 to help wounded warriors with permanent physical disabilities continue to live an active lifestyle and compete in the sports they enjoyed prior to sustaining their injuries. Fitness Anywhere first connected with CAF two years ago when the FA team demonstrated the TRX and its capabilities to a group of CAF triathletes at the Oceanside triathlon.

An Inside Edition segment aired focusing on the TRX and the CAF athletes who use it including Evan Morgan, a former Marine who was struck by an IED and lost both legs during his second tour in Iraq. “You can make it as hard or not hard as you want. Evan is a bilateral amputee and he’s finding a lot of benefits from using it,” says Nico Marcolongo, Operation Rebound Program Manager. To help more CAF athletes, FA deployed Dr. Joe Martin, D.C., back to the Oceanside triathlon this spring where he provided instruction and equipment. “When they know there’s an entire network supporting them, then they start to think they can do this,” says Marcolongo

Yes, they can. And they do.

LEARN MORE:

At: www.challengedathletes.org

GET INVOLVED:

Buy a TRX FORCE DVD and Guide, $5 of your purchase goes directly into the Fitness Anywhere Warrior Fund to help us support efforts like the Challenged Athletes Foundation.