You’ve walked past those yellow and black straps hanging in hotel gyms countless times. Maybe you glanced at them, shrugged, and headed straight for the treadmill or dumbbells instead. After all, what are you supposed to do with a couple of straps anyway?
Turns out, quite a lot. That unassuming piece of equipment you’ve been ignoring might be one of the most versatile training tools ever created. And for travelers trying to stay fit on the road, TRX could be exactly what you need.
What Exactly Is TRX?
TRX stands for Total Resistance eXercise, and it has a pretty cool origin story. Former Navy SEAL Randy Hetrick created the first version while deployed in Asia, using parachute webbing and a jiu-jitsu belt. Stuck without proper gym equipment and tired of endless push-ups, he MacGyver-ed a solution that would eventually revolutionize portable fitness.
The modern TRX system is far more refined than Hetrick’s original creation, but the principle remains beautifully simple. You anchor the suspension trainer (usually overhead), and then use your own body weight against gravity to work your muscles. The adjustable straps let you modify the difficulty of virtually any exercise by changing your body angle or position.
Can You Actually Build Muscle and Burn Fat with TRX?
If you’re coming from a traditional weight training background, suspension training might seem too simple to be effective. The reality? TRX delivers on both muscle building and fat loss, you just need to understand how.
For muscle growth, your body doesn’t care whether resistance comes from dumbbells or gravity. What matters is progressive tension over time. With TRX, you can continuously increase difficulty by adjusting your body angle, changing leverage, or adding instability. Your muscles respond by adapting and growing stronger.
As for fat loss, the truth is that no equipment can out-train a poor diet. It’s far easier not to eat 1,000 calories than to burn them through physical activity. However, TRX excels at helping you maintain muscle mass while in a calorie deficit, which is crucial for achieving that lean, athletic look. The compound movements also burn plenty of calories during your workout, making it a valuable addition to any fat loss plan.
5 Impressive Benefits of TRX
1. Ideal For Full Body Training
Unlike simple exercises targeting one or two muscles around a single joint, TRX typically engages your entire body. Even if you’re aiming to train a specific muscle like your biceps, multiple other muscles must assist by contracting to keep you in position while doing your reps.
This means you can more effectively train your whole body without needing to do as many exercises, which is perfect when you’re working out in a small hotel gym or your room.
2. It Builds Strength and Improves Balance
Here’s what makes TRX different from traditional weights: the straps are constantly moving and shifting beneath you. This instability forces your body to engage stabilizer muscles and work harder to maintain control throughout each movement.
The result? You develop functional strength that translates beyond the gym. Your core has to constantly fire to keep you steady, your joints learn to stabilize under load, and your proprioception (your body’s sense of position in space) improves dramatically. This kind of training helps prevent injuries, improves coordination, and builds the type of strength you actually use in real life, whether you’re carrying luggage through an airport or navigating uneven terrain on a hike.
3. You Can Use It to Train Almost Anywhere
We’re firm believers in simple and practical solutions, especially while traveling. Having access to a full gym on the road is fantastic, but it’s not always possible. The great thing about TRX is that it allows you to have a solid workout almost anywhere. Whether in a hotel room, at home, outside, or in a small and bare hotel gym, you can use the suspension kit to challenge yourself and get closer to your goals.
A growing number of hotels now incorporate TRX equipment into their gym facilities, reflecting a trend we’re excited to see.
4. It’s Customizable Based on Fitness Levels
Using a suspension kit to exercise might seem intimidating if you’re a beginner, but here’s the thing: an often overlooked TRX benefit is that you can adjust the difficulty of most movements to fit your current abilities.
Whether you’re just starting out or you’re an experienced athlete, the same TRX kit grows with you by simply changing your body position or angle.
5. It’s Light, Portable, and Affordable
To top it off, TRX is affordable, which makes it a great fitness solution if you’re on a budget. Instead of spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on expensive equipment (which you can’t even take on the road), TRX provides everything you need.
It’s also light and compact, weighing less than two pounds and fitting easily in your luggage. This makes it the perfect companion for your travels, along with some other portable fitness equipment you might consider.
How to Use TRX On The Road
Get the Right App
The first step is to download a workout app to pair with your TRX kit. One option is the official TRX app, which offers workout plans, live classes, and exercise instructions. This is good if you’re relatively new to working out and are unsure how to structure workout plans and what to do.
Another option is to download Fitbod. This interactive app generates workout plans based on your fitness level, goals, and available equipment. Its exercise library features TRX exercises, so when you select the TRX kit as part of your equipment during the setup process, it will automatically generate a workout plan with TRX exercises like TRX glute bridges and TRX chest flyes.
However, if you’re more experienced and prefer to write your own workout programs, you can use Hevy. Its exercise library doesn’t have all the TRX movements, but there are enough to get started. You can add movements to your routine (and even create custom TRX exercises), log your workouts (exercises, sets, reps, weight lifted, and RPEs), and track your performance over time.
Start Your Workout
As noted several times, the beauty of TRX lies in its simplicity and ease of use. Though it may seem complex, you only need a door anchor or strap, which allows you to use the kit in your hotel room, outside, or at a hotel gym. You get both of these along with your TRX kit.
First, there’s the door anchor, which you secure against the top of a door. Attach your TRX kit for a stable foundation to do your favorite movements.
You can use this in a hotel room because the square part that goes behind the door is covered in soft fabric, so it doesn’t scratch or otherwise damage the door.
Second, you have a TRX strap (also known as a suspension anchor), which you can tie over an object like a tree trunk, tree branch, or pull-up bar and secure in position with the carabiner at the end. Then, simply attach your TRX kit via the carabiner, and you’re good to go.
3 Ways to Adjust the Difficulty of Your TRX Workouts
1. Adjust Your Body’s Angle
Let’s say you’ve set up the TRX kit, but the exercises you want to try feel too challenging (or not difficult enough). The first and most practical thing you can do is adjust your body’s angle. Doing so instantly changes the difficulty of movements because it allows you to lift more or less of your total body weight.
Take the inverted row as an example. The more upright you are, the less of yourself you have to pull, making the exercise more beginner-friendly. In contrast, leaning back and stepping forward makes you more horizontal, forcing you to pull a larger percentage of your body weight.
TRX works perfectly for this because it comes with adjustable straps you can lengthen or shorten to fit your needs.
2. Vary the Range of Motion
Another way to change the difficulty of each rep is to increase or decrease the range of motion. For example, if you’re doing a chest press, the more you lower yourself (causing your arms to bend and your elbows to travel to your sides and behind your torso), the more challenging each rep will be.
If you lack the strength to perform the movement through such a range of motion, lower yourself to a smaller degree, for example, to the point where your elbows are almost to your sides.
You can apply this to any other TRX exercises you try, whether it’s a squat, lunge, inverted row, or bicep curl.
3. Do Circuits
Circuit training is about doing multiple exercises (typically for different muscles) back to back with little to no rest in between. This can be a great way to save time and give your cardiovascular system a good workout.
You can do only TRX exercises, like so:
TRX squat ⇒ TRX inverted row ⇒ TRX chest press ⇒ TRX bicep curl ⇒ TRX tricep extension ⇒ Recovery
Or combine TRX with equipment-free activities, like so:
Bodyweight squat ⇒ TRX inverted row ⇒ Push-up ⇒ TRX bicep curl ⇒ Chair dips ⇒ Recovery
Our Verdict on TRX
A TRX kit is an invaluable addition to your fitness arsenal. Affordable, incredibly versatile, compact, and easy to transport, it ensures your workouts remain consistent, whether at home, outdoors, or on the move.
Use our GymFactor to find hotels with fitness facilities that match your training needs before you book. Explore HotelGyms.com to get started.
FAQs
Is TRX suitable for beginners?
TRX works for beginners because there are plenty of movements suitable for newbies, and certain modifications can make each repetition less challenging.
Can I take my TRX kit outdoors?
TRX kits come with a strap (suspension anchor) to tie around objects, such as pull-up bars, trees, and even tree branches, to enjoy refreshing workouts outside.
Is TRX safe?
So long as you secure it as outlined in the instructions and do exercises you can handle, TRX is quite safe.
