Where to find the new TRX fitness craze

Group Fitness Manager Kristen Gagne leads a class in the... — Group Fitness Manager Kristen Gagne leads a class in the new fitness craze TRX at Equinox Fitness in Woodbury.
(Sept. 13, 2010) Credit: Ed Betz

By NewsdaySeptember 27, 2010

"Hold," "squeeze," "hang on" - these are words anyone can expect to hear during a gym training session. But they have new meaning when traditional exercises are paired with suspension cables, and the resistance force is the user's own body weight.

That's the concept of TRX resistance training, a full body workout system that involves slipping your hands or feet into cradles attached to industrial-grade nylon straps and performing strengthening exercises - sometimes in strange-looking positions.

"People are using it to burn more calories, because you can systematically go from one exercise to another exercise conveniently," says Steven Kornfield, a personal trainer at Powerhouse Gym in Miller Place, one of several Long Island fitness centers where TRX equipment has cropped up in the past year. "Just by changing the height on the bands, you're able to do a different exercise."

THE BACK STORY

Today's TRX is a long way from the original parachute webbing and karate belts that former U.S. Navy SEAL Randy Hetrick sewed together to create a makeshift means of staying fit inside submarines and urban safe houses. Hetrick went on to found Fitness Anywhere, which now sells TRX suspension equipment globally.

But the premise hasn't changed - using one's own body weight to strengthen and condition muscles.

Adam White, fitness director at Synergy in Levittown, describes the workout as a bit deceiving. "It often looks very easy before you try it, but people are actually blown away."

GETTING A WORKOUT

On a recent Friday, 10 women and two men filled Equinox in Woodbury for a TRX group training session. The sweat and lip-biting began within 10 minutes, as fist-pumping dance music blasted, and purple strobe lights streamed from the base of a mirrored wall.

Side lunges, foot crosses, and squats - the moves flowed easily from one to another, along with tricep dips and push-ups. And participants did most of it standing, controlling the amount of the body weight put into the exercise by leaning forward or backward.

"It's one of the best bangs for your buck because it trains flexibility, core strength, and functional training is involved," says Kristen Gagne, fitness manager at Long Island and Westchester Equinox Fitness Clubs. "In any given session, I have a triathlete next to a 70-year-old woman who had hip replacement."

The appeal to mass audiences is not only the fun factor and amount of calories burned, Gagne says, but also the support participants receive by using the straps. Or, as Equinox fitness instructor Michelle Corso put more directly to the class over her headset microphone: "If I was to take the strap away from you, you'd fall on your butt."

But fall, they did not.

"It's the best workout I've ever had," says Julie Scott, 33, of Jericho. "You don't have to have coordination to do it."

For Don Berman, 50, of Huntington, TRX has been a "very strenuous" but integral part of his recovery from shoulder surgery a year and a half ago. "I love it. You don't really move around a lot, but look at how wet I am," he says, pulling on his sweat-soaked orange shirt.

FOR MORE

TRX resistance training with instruction

WHEN | WHERE Various times at New York Sports Clubs locations including Commack (631-462-6400), Garden City (516-741-1500), Huntington (631-424-7100), Oceanside (516-594-8300) and Syosset (516-496- 9800)

INFO mysportsclubs.com

COST $259 ($189 members) for an 8-week group training program, held once a week. Sign up any time.

WHEN | WHERE One-hour sessions 9:30 a.m. and 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays at Synergy Fitness Clubs, 125 Merrick Ave., Merrick

INFO 516-867-7767, synergyfitclubsli.com

COST $130 ($99 members) for 6-week group training program, held twice per week. Sign up any time.

WHEN | WHERE By appointment with trainer only at Synergy Fitness Clubs, 2709 Hempstead Tpke., Levittown.

INFO 516-579-4884, synergyfitclubsli.com

COST $29-$38 per half-hour session; $49.50-$60 per one-hour session, sold in 6- to 40-session packages for one-on-one TRX training session with a personal trainer.

WHEN | WHERE One-hour group classes 7:30 and noon Mondays; 6 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays; 7:15 a.m. Fridays and 10 a.m. Saturdays at Equinox Fitness Club, 7550 Jericho Tpke., Woodbury.

INFO 516-714-8100, equinoxfitness.com

COST Included with $120- $150 gym membership.

Group training classes offered continuously for members.

WHEN | WHERE One-hour group training 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays; 11:30 a.m. Wednesdays and 10 a.m. Sundays at Variations Dance Studio, 180 Spring Rd., Huntington.

INFO 631-425-9220, variationsdancestudio.com

COST $99 for four classes (no membership required).

WHEN | WHERE By appointment, Heavy Hitters Boxing & Fitness Gym at 2100-2 Arctic Ave., Bohemia

INFO 631-567-3538, heavyhittersboxing.com

COST $100 per hour

Personal training session includes TRX resistance.