What floats your boat?

Wow, it has been a long time since my last post! So, here goes.... Today is October 11th, many athletes have completed their final "A" race of the season; I have 12 athletes doing the Des Moines Marathon on 10/16, two athletes heading to Austin 70.3 on 10/23, one athlete doing Ironman Arizona, but the other 22 athletes are done for the season. Most of us are "A-Type" personalities so I know they are asking themselves, "What's next?" We all need a break from our primary form of exercise/racing yet we need to keep active and feel like we are not losing muscle memory and/or fitness.

It is my goal for the next 10 weeks to post a blog about a new form of exercise that I have discovered to be beneficial for "off-season" conditioning. All this in hopes that you find something that "floats your boat" for the long Winter ahead in the Upper Midwest. That's not all...in addition to the blog post, I will be challenging my readers to a little weekly competition. This week, it is all about TRX training. Never heard of TRX? It isn't necessarily new but not every gym has TRX, or has it readily available without paying an additional fee. Basically, TRX was developed by/for Navy Seals, so right away you know it is gotta be tough! What looks like two relatively harmless nylon straps hanging form a ceiling, pull-up bar, or tree is an awesome alternative to standard strength training.

There are countless number of exercises that can be performed on a TRX unit. You can focus on shoulders, legs, back, arms, but it seems like every exercise hits your core. Just type in "TRX" in youtube to view thousands of exercises. My personal favorite is called the "TRX Challenge", which consists of two exercises; apollo pushups and rows. The challenge is quite simple, do as many apollo pushups as you can then take 1 minute rest, finish with as many rows as you can do. Each person gets a number like 28/14, 30/26, with the ultimate goal of calling yourself a 40/40. Take a look at this video to see how it is done properly, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySUML66q_4k.

For all my peep's in Des Moines, come join Coach Loran on Wednesday at Noon or 5:30pm or Friday morning at 5:30am to take the TRX Challenge. Enjoy a FREE general strength class with Coach Loran at Maximum Fitness, which is located at 8850 University in West Des Moines (just West of Des Moines Golf Club).  Email me your TRX Challenge result to coachloran@gmail.com. Each week's winner receive a sweet American Apparel Team IronWorks t-shirt.