Former Navy SEAL’s Innovative Training System Leaps from Military to Elite Trainers & Pro Athletes, While Gaining Mainstream Momentum Cutting-Edge TRX Product Line Establishes “Suspension Training” As New Athletic and Fitness Training Category
SAN FRANCISCO, December 12, 2006 – For Special Ops Forces and other members of the military, keeping your body in top condition is literally a matter of life and death. That’s why Navy SEAL squadron commander Randy Hetrick made it a personal mission during his 13-year SEAL career to create a way for his teams to maintain peak fitness on deployments around the world. Now from the ships, subs and harsh environments
common to military operations, Hetrick’s TRX Suspension Trainer has crossed over to become a true breakthrough product in high-performance athletics and mainstream fitness.
The innovative TRX Suspension Trainer is a testament to the resourceful nature of the U.S. Military’s special operations units who are trained to survive and succeed in the harshest and most resource-deprived environments. The TRX’s design uses only bodyweight and gravity to quickly and effectively train the entire body – a new method known as “Suspension Training.”
“Deployed units seldom have access to quality gym equipment, yet it’s imperative to operational readiness and survival that they maintain a very high level of physical conditioning,” said Hetrick. “My guys needed something we could use in the tight quarters of a submarine, a safe-house or in remote operating base environments— literally anywhere. That’s how the TRX Suspension Trainer came about.”
Hetrick’s first designs used parachute materials looped over a beam or tree to allow for basic movements such as rows and presses. These early prototypes quickly proliferated as fellow SEALs took them on deployments and began discovering new strength exercises and functional movements, thereby expanding the range of capability to train the entire body. As Hetrick saw increasing enthusiasm among his friends both in uniform and out, it became clear that this new way of working out was not just a tool for military personnel, but a highly effective athletic training and mainstream fitness solution.
TRX Suspension Trainer
Following his military career and after receiving his MBA at Stanford University, Hetrick was determined to bring his design to a wider audience. Using the skills developed while modifying and customizing tactical gear, Hetrick refined his initial design, dramatically improving its aesthetics and functionality until it was ready for market. With a viable product offering in place, Hetrick created San Francisco-based Fitness
Anywhere, a company devoted to the development, manufacturing and sale of quality fitness products and programs based solely on bodyweight resistance. The company offers several models of the TRX Suspension Trainer, with training programs specified for different audiences.
The genius of the TRX Suspension Trainer resides in its simplicity. Most traditional fitness products use plate weights, elastic or pulleys for resistance. The TRX instead employs the user’s bodyweight and simple physics to create an unlimited range of resistance and complete range of functional motion across hundreds of exercises. Basically an industrial-grade harness of soft nylon webbing, the TRX allows users to safely suspend their bodies in a variety of positions and to adjust resistance from 5% to 100% of their bodyweight. This variability of resistance levels allows users of all abilities
to create a total-body work out that delivers strength, flexibility, and core stability all at once. All that is required is an anchor point sturdy enough to support an individual’s bodyweight, such as a door, crossbar or even a tree limb.
Top trainers and pro athletes around the country are embracing the benefits of the product that is currently deployed with many of our nation’s elite military units. Nationally-recognized personal trainer Gunnar Peterson, whose clients include pro athletes and many of Hollywood’s true icons like Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis, uses the product extensively to train pros and celebs alike. Peterson believes the product’s value far exceeds merely its simplicity and practicality.
“The TRX’s simple design and versatility are great for sure, but those benefits shouldn’t overshadow how effective it is for functional strength and core training,” said Peterson. “Since incorporating the TRX system into the workouts that I design, I’ve become a better trainer.“
