It is common knowledge that hockey players need core stability, muscular and aerobic endurance, strength, flexibility, power and more. Now there is a physical training tool and program that is ideal for off season training and great for supplementing in season training. This training regime is ‘sweeping across countries’ as more and more sportspeople and fitness enthusiasts praising its performance and health benefits. It is suspension training. TRX suspension training is the name given to the original commercialization of suspension training.
This blog is aimed at giving Go Hockey News readers an overview of what it is, an insight into its origin and an example workout that not only educate you but entice you to join the multitude of people who now have become TRX suspension training ‘addicts’.
What Is Suspension Training?
Born in the Navy SEALs, and used by all military. Suspension Training bodyweight exercise develops strength, balance, flexibility and core stability simultaneously.
It requires the use of the TRX Suspension Trainer, a highly portable performance training tool that leverages gravity and the user’s body weight to complete 100s of exercises.
WORKOUT USING THE TRX SUSPENSION TRAINER
The TRX Suspension Trainer is the original, best-in-class workout system that leverages gravity and your bodyweight to perform hundreds of exercises. You’re in control of how much you want to challenge yourself on each exercise – because you can simply adjust your body position to add or decrease resistance. By utilizing your own bodyweight, the TRX Suspension Trainer provides greater performance and functionality than large exercise machines costing thousands of dollars.
ABOUT TRX – THE ORIGIN
TRX SUSPENSION TRAINING PRINCIPLES
There are three principles that enable you to instantly scale TRX Suspension Training movements.
VECTOR RESISTANCE PRINCIPLE
For most standing movements, positioning your feet closer to the anchor point will increase resistance and heighten the challenge. Stepping farther away from the anchor point will decrease resistance and make movements easier to execute.
PENDULUM PRINCIPLE
For ground-based movements, moving your feet away from the anchor point will increase resistance and heighten the challenge. Moving your feet towards the anchor point or behind the anchor point will decrease resistance and make movements easier to execute.
STABILITY PRINCIPLE
In general, performing movements with a narrower base of support or unilaterally (using just one arm or just one leg instead of both arms or both legs) will increase the challenge of TRX movements. The wider your base of support, the more stable you will be during TRX movements and the less challenging they will be to perform.
SCIENCE BACKS TRX
Recent research by Dr. Stuart McGill on spinal health and Suspension Training suggests that TRX training truly does deliver on the motto “All Core, All the Time.” The research examined the amount of core-muscle activation for certain movements on a TRX Suspension Trainer versus using a stable surface and other implements or bodyweight resistance to perform similar exercises.
Using EMG to measure the activation of the musculoskeletal system, as well as 3-D reconstruction and modeling, researchers took measurements from a total of 34 pushing, pulling and core exercises, performed for three reps each. For example, they could measure which muscles were used and how hard they were working while performing a regular push-up on the ground versus a push-up on a Suspension Trainer.
Their findings show that exercises on the Suspension Trainer require more muscular activation across the entire body. “In general, the instability associated with the TRX training system required greater torso muscle activity to maintain a straight body position,” says the study.
Here’s what it means for your training: Using a Suspension Trainer to perform bodyweight exercises that involve pushing or pulling–like a pull-up, push-up or row–requires a greater, total-body effort than performing these same exercises using a fixed bar or the ground. The instability of the Suspension Trainer forces you to brace your core, glutes and lower back in order to create the leverage necessary to perform the movement. The Suspension Trainer really does enable training that’s all core, all the time.
EXAMPLE TRX WORKOUT
Now that you have a better understanding of TRX Suspension Training I suggest you research a local gym to experience a workout. This type of training is ideal as part of any hockey training program as because of its portability.
