Hello My fellow Fitness Anywhere compadres,

I'm a gym teacher who has recently discovered the TRX and have been using it for a few weeks. I'm simply convinced that my Middle School students would benefit extremely if I was able to add the TRX into our schools Physical Educaton Classes. In order for me to get approval I want to show the school board and district that this a very productive, useful and most importantly good for them to use.

My questions are:

1) What are the benefits and or advantages does the TRX present when using it  with children?

2) How can I safely demonstrate and incorporate the TRX with my Students?

3) What if, any are possible areas of concerns are there with regards to the physical development of children if they used the TRX?

4) What are the physical gains that can be expected by using the TRX and Middle School aged children?

5) Can this be used by children in elementary schools, If so at what age group do you will it can effectively be started with?

 I cannot tell you how excited I am about this, at the same time the information I gain will definitely help my cause. Especially now when times and

there's so many limitations that are now being placed on PE classes and is considered suitable and safe for children.                           

 

Thanks for all of your help,

AtownDown

I am very interested in any answers to these questions as well.

 

 

AtownDown,

That's an awesome idea that I think carries a LOT of potential.  I am by no means an expert or authority to be quoted, but IMO the TRX is a great way to introduce strength training and the benefits of exercise to children.  As for your questions, some angles you may want to pursue:

1)  Benefits of using TRX with kids include introducing fitness and healthy lifestyle choices to them early (many studies have suggested that learning the benefits of exercise early encourages healthy lifestyles throughout life), TRX is fun and challenging and will likely encourage class participation, TRX is bodyweight dependant and therefore safer than weight training for developing youngsters.

2) Demonstrating the TRX should be easy enough.  To safely introduce it to your students, I would suggest using some of the more basic exercises (suspended side plank on hands with taps is probably not a good one to start with!!) and starting with the most regressed position until you (and they) are comfortable progressing the movement.

3) Again, I'm not an expert, but I don't see any dangers with the physical development of children that are using the TRX or other forms of strength training.  Heck, all those gymnasts in the olympics are under 18 and most have been training since 3 or 4 years old!!  That said, the TRX does demand a lot of core strength, which many kids probably have not yet achieved.  To that end, I would use simple exercises and progress the movements slowly.  By encouraging the development of their core strength now, you will be setting them up for success later in life by making them less injury prone and better prepared for heavy lifting when (and if) they choose to pursue competitive sports or weight training.

4) I'm not sure where you are in the world, but if you are a US educator I'm sure that you have seen a rise in childhood obesity.  Strength gains aside, encouraging healthy activity and reducing this growing (no pun intended) problem of overweight adolescents would be enough to convince me!

5) I don't see a problem with using the less challenging exercises with elementary aged children.  There are probably professionally certified people on the forum that could better answer this question though, specifically with regards to the appropriate age to start training. 

GOOD LUCK!  I really hope you get your program approved!

 Hi AtownDown

Thanks for your question. It is an important one and i will do my best to answer all of your questions below.

The benefits and advantages of using the TRX with children:

Fun, inexpensive with an emphasis on body weight. Children gravitate toward the TRX as it appeals to their sense of discovery and creativity and the fact that it integrates their entire body muscularly without the use of an external load makes it very safe, functional and effective in providing relevant physical training that will support their movements in life and in sport. It is a much less expensive but equally or more effective option to integrate strength training in a PE setting as a line of them can be set up easily in a gymnasium allowing an entire class to train simultaneously without need for line ups etc. Middle school aged children have an incredibly broad range of physical abilities based on maturation rate, activity levels etc. The TRX allows you to work with all of those kids simultaneously as the difficulty of the exercise is easily adapted to suit the level from the most to the least conditioned. It also offers the social benefit of being somewhat anonymous (ie no labeled weight) which allows the less conditioned group to train side by side with the more conditioned group while limiting the potential for being singled out etc. This is especially important for this middle school age.

Demonstrating and incorporating the TRX with this group is relatively easy. beginning with the basic and easy to comprehend exercises and then progressing as the experience, skill and strength using the TRX improve.

The only possible concern with the TRX is the same when teaching any exercise. Be sure they understand and practice correct technique and there is very little to worry about. There are no developmental concerns.

The physical gains will be increased muscular strength and endurance, conditioning and flexibility.

The TRX can certainly be used with any school aged children. Because it is based on body weight it is not unlike a piece of playground apparatus for them. I have seen kids aged 3 gravitate toward it and use it to play, pull and swing on... all of which ulitmately helps their ability to move. As they age you will be able to move from more of a play and exploration approach to its programming to something that is more structured.

 I hope that this helps you and please let me know if there is any way we can support you as you pitch this to your board.

What school district are you in?

All the best 

 AtownDown,

In a past life I taught PE at the middle and high school level, as well as, taught future physical educators at the college level. As with any programming you are going to have to align your proposal to the PE standards / benchmarks and performance standards for your state/district. As you know, for each grade level you have different standards to achieve. Most states have the requirements written in a general way. For example, “demonstrate competency in locomotor patterns” for K - 4 and “combining basic skills for participating in a variety of fitness activities” for middle school grades. Leverage this last point to your advantage.

I would emphasize the benefits of TRX Suspension Training as being a great teaching and self teaching/experiential tool to break down fundamental movement patterns starting from an unloaded movement, where the TRX is supporting much of your weight, to more challenging progressions. Used appropriately the TRX can unload and supplement balance, so kids of all levels and abilities can be successful! In addition, because middle school students can be experiencing growth spurts, their balance and coordination can be compromised for a time. The TRX can help here as well. As students become better at the movements/exercises additional resistance can be gradually added to challenge even the fittest child or adult.

An additional strategy is to turn the sports coaches on to the TRX and www.fitnessanywhere.com so they can see the benefits of the TRX and work with you to implement this fantastic tool.

If you really want to take it to the next level, I used to design integrated curriculum and it would be an engaging program to integrate PE using the TRX with the math and science of suspension training. But, that may be way more info than you were looking for. 

Thank you to all three of you for such great responses. These will help me out greatly as I continue to push for my school here in Oklahoma to bring the TRX in and become a beneficial part to our school physical education program. I am very excited to present this to them. Thanks again for replying.

Much Thanks!

Atowndown, We all have deferent expertise. If you know how to train with the TRX pass it on. I will speak at an association of private schools next month. There should be 2000 educators at the meeting. What they need to hear and will hear from me is. "we are failing at physical education" Let's be honest here. Look at the physical condition of most Americans and even worse the poor condition of the children. We need to put PE into PE class. The above were great responses as you said. The TRX with all 4 all the time and core training is a great safe way to get our children to develop an understanding about lifelong development of their body. Greg

 Hi Greg

I couldn't agree more with you in regards to your assessment of the current state of the physical education program. The meeting you are speaking at sounds like an exciting forum to make a significant impact! What are you speaking on? Please drop me a line. I'd love to talk to you more on it

 All the best 

I am a middle school PE teacher and have been using the trx for about a year.  I loved them so much that I convinced our department to purchase 24 of them.  My wife is also a High school PE teacher and she is planning on buying 24 of them for her classes.    I would like to hear from other teachers on how they have used them in class.  The kids absolutely love them.  We just finished our first week of teaching the kids how to properly use the trx.  I am not entirely sure how we will fit them in but, I would like them to be a big part of the program.

thanks,

Pete