TRX Force Tactical Conditioning Program

From concept to prototype to design to creation, it took a small army of TRX employees many months to yield the latest evolution of our flagship product: The brand new TRX FORCE Kit: Tactical (released on 11/11/11). In addition to the physical improvements made to the Tactical Suspension Trainer making it lighter and more durable, it’s the new Tactical Conditioning Program that is the star of the show.

The 12 week progressive program is broken down into three distinct phases that progressively build on one another. Each phase is four weeks long and includes four workouts per week.

• Phase 1 focuses on building a solid, stable core, thus increasing the power in your shoulders, arms, hips and legs.
• Phase 2 focuses on arm and leg strength while maintaining core strength developed in Phase 1.
• Phase 3 adds a high intensity interval training component to the movements while emphasizing speed and power.

With a consistent, easy-to-follow daily format, the program places extra emphasis on developing joint mobility so that your body can take the kind of beating that a tactical athlete does and still perform at your peak over long periods. In the video above, TRX Head of Human Performance Chris Frankel describes the logic and design of the program phase-by-phase in this short orientation video that comes on the first of two DVDs included in the Guide.

All 70+ exercises in the program, and their associated progressions, are demonstrated in the massive exercise library in the program DVD and highlighted in the pull-out exercise maps.

The fact that the TRX FORCE Tactical Conditioning Program maps so directly to the demands of military service is partly attributable to all of the feedback that we collected from users in the field over the past two years and partly attributably to the bi-directional relationship that we have developed with the military and first responder training communities. Illustrating that second piece is a gathering that Frankel was invited to this past March at the Army’s School of Physical Fitness at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina.

It was a three-day meeting-of-the-minds that included exercise scientists, drill sergeants and fitness experts from all branches of the military. The goal of the meeting was to evolve the Army’s legacy Physical Readiness Test and training protocol to match the demands of today’s military service and take advantage of the latest research in exercise science. “We were brainstorming and breaking out into focus groups to talk about what was going to work and what wasn’t,” recounts Frankel. “They’re adopting a lot more traditional strength and conditioning stuff but also a lot of functional training that’s bodyweight and calisthenics based. My role was mainly to be a sounding board for ideas.”

UPDATE: In 2013, TRX launched the TRX Force Super App, the ultra-enhanced, digital 12-week Tactical Conditioning Program accessible anywhere on your Smartphone. The Super App comes with the TRX FORCE Kit: Tactical, or you can purchase it on its own