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We all know that developing and maintaining functional fitness is a critical component to playing our best. We usually promise ourselves that we’ll spend more time on improving our golf fitness during the “off-season”. But the challenge for most of us, even for the tour pros, is making the time to exercise and having access to the right equipment. Hectic work schedules, travel, and the inconvenience of getting to the gym are all obstacles that stand in our way.
To overcome these challenges, more and more top players, coaches and trainers, including the experts at the Titleist Performance Institute are turning to a highly portable performance training tool, the TRX Suspension Trainer. Suspension Training is an effective and time efficient way to improve performance utilizing the TRX to increase rotational power, flexibility, muscular endurance, balance and core strength—all at the same time. “The TRX helped me to get back to the LPGA tour in just eight weeks,” following a hiatus, says LPGA pro Laura Diaz. “The functionality allows me to get great workouts anywhere.”
Created by former Navy SEAL, Randy Hetrick, who needed a way to keep himself and his men mission-fit without a gym, the TRX can be easily hung from just about any sturdy object including: a fence, a pull-up bar, a tree, even a door using the Door Anchor accessory. Made with industrial-strength components, the TRX weighs less than two pounds and fits into a golf-shoe sized bag when not in use.
The simplicity of its design can be deceiving. Suspension Training works by using a variable percentage of your body weight as resistance and then manipulating the angle and plane of motion to perform hundreds of functional exercises. Think of everything you can do with dumbbells, a swiss ball and a cable cross machine and you start to get the idea of the TRX’s versatility. As you train on the TRX, you’ll exploit the body’s natural neuromuscular ability to create “stiffness” and “reflexive stability” for improved core performance and reduced risk of injury.
Here are a few Suspension Training exercises to improve the quality of your movement, strength, flexibility, and power. The great thing about Suspension Training is you can easily increase or reduce the exercise intensity to meet your specific needs and goals by simply adjusting your body’s starting angle and position.
TRX Golfers Rotation
Because the TRX uses a single anchor point it allows for greater freedom of movement. Keeping pressure into the handles keeps your core turned on and lets your train rotation through shoulder turn, hip turn and core strength
TRX Overhead Back Extension
This exercise integrates flexibility with strength of the posterior chain. The shoulders, core and hips work together for a great full body movement to train major muscle groups involved in posture and stance.
TRX Chest Press
Take a traditional exercise like a chest press, add some instability and the requirement of keeping your body aligned and you have a great exercise integrating core stability with chest and shoulder strength. TIP: Try lifting one leg while performing the movement to feel your core fire up even more to resist the added rotational forces.
TRX Balance Lunge
The TRX Balance Lunge lets you unload some of your weight and work through greater range of motion. As you improve your skill and fitness you can add a rotational component to the movement, the TRX Crossing Balance Lunge. Great for hip and core strength, just what every golfer needs.
“You’ll hit the ball farther, improve your longevity, increase mental fitness and have less pain and discomfort when you’re done,” says Greg Rose, cofounder of the esteemed Titleist Performance Institute and co-host of the Golf Fitness Academy on the Golf Channel. Rose teamed up with Fitness Anywhere to create the TRX Golf DVD. The DVD has a complete TRX strength and conditioning program for golfers to follow in addition, a vast library of golf-specific exercises. Golfers can also visit www.fitnessanywhere.com to watch video tutorials, learn more exercises or purchase additional training programs.