Fitness Class Review - TRX Yoga with Joanne at Revolution Buffalo

It's been a while since I've written anything other than a "what's happening this week post", so this should be a fun one that will allow me to knock the rust off of my writing skills.

As some people who know me in "real-life" have heard, I have been out of the game for a while now due to some injuries. Toward the end of the summer, I started intensive PT treatment for a very old (almost 20 years) knee injury caused by muscle imbalances.

 

Ice feels great when your knees swell a bit

Shortly after I started that, I was in a rear-end car accident - nothing too serious, but it goes to show you that even a low-impact (3-6 mpg) crash can mess you up - I've had symptoms of whiplash ever since, and have been treating with chiro, PT, and massage therapy.

Following all that mess, and with my right shoulder already partially incapacitated due to the accident, I decided to finally get surgery on my left wrist for an issue that I've also had for a long time (a little over 10 years). So at that point, my right shoulder, and my left wrist were both out of commission.

Laying around after surgery, hoping people will bring me water and ice cream

The accumulation of these injuries and rehabilitations has taken a toll on my fitness, on my motivation, and not least of all, on my wallet. And as anyone could guess, that's a frightful combination when you're an active person who likes to get out an get moving. Gradually you have to start to break that vicious cycle of not feeling well enough to get moving, feeling less motivated and less energetic because you're a slug on the couch, and feeling sorry for yourself - all of that's just going to make things worse.

Cats are very good for self-care

So through self care, mindfulness meditations, and lots of PT visits, I've been working my way back toward health. Though I'm far from being 100% again, I am really excited to regain control over my activity level, and get back out there again.

One thing that is extremely helpful when you're working through an injury - whether it's a new one, or a chronic one - is a helpful coach or instructor who is patient, and who can show you modifications. My friend Dr. Joanne Wu from Fit2BWell has been fantastic through this whole process, texting me for updates on how things are going, and giving me encouragement over the last few months - so naturally, I was excited when I was given the opportunity to stage my fitness comeback at one of her classes.

I had never done TRX before, and TRX yoga (rather than a full blown, high-intensity TRX class) seemed like a very good place to start - at least the "yoga" part would have me on somewhat familiar ground.

For anyone not familiar, TRX is exercise done using a nylon strap with loops (for feet) and handles (for hands) on the ends, and which is draped in-half over a metal bar or a beam about 7-8 feet off of the ground. The loops at the end of the straps can be adjusted to different heights, depending on what kind of work you are doing.  They are an extremely versatile piece of workout equipment - for example, they can be used for core, legs, or arms, and can be used for strength, flexibility, stability during balance work, and for many other things.

Some of the ways you can use TRX straps. Image from walmart.com

Revolution Buffalo is a very nice, clean studio and while it's not the largest studio I've ever seen, the space is very well utilized with spin bikes set up on one side, and the TRX straps hanging from two large metal structures that are parallel across the other half of the space. This allows you to take the class with your fellow TRXers in two rows, facing each other, and makes the class rather intimate. They also have a full complement of resistance bands, kettlebells, hand-weights, and other props to supplement your TRX workout experience.

Photo of the TRX half of the studio from Revolution Buffalo's website.

The class itself had a very nice flow, moving from one body part to another pretty smoothly, and making sure that the muscles stay warmed up and are ready to go before putting any strain on them. As with standard yoga practices, poses could be modified based on the practitioner's comfort level, flexibility, strength, or just how they're feeling that day - with focus being on good form, rather than just flinging yourself into as difficult a pose as possible.

Joanne encouraged the class to move at their own pace, but to challenge themselves, giving steps to gradually ease into the more difficult positions, and making sure to give verbal correction of positioning - things like "make sure not to pike your hips" and "try flexing your foot more to get a deeper stretch" were very helpful commentary for getting the most out of every moment.

Now, you may think to yourself "oh, you could use the TRX straps to help you balance on yoga moves! That would make it easy." And this is both right, and wrong thinking. For some yoga asanas - tree pose, for example - you could, if you chose, use the strap to supplement your balance while getting into position, and then lessen your reliance on the straps as you got more comfortable. In this way, they certainly could be used to help with balance.

However, in many positions when you would normally have both feet or both hands grounded into the floor, you now have one or two limbs suspended in the TRX straps, which adds an additional challenge to these traditional yoga poses. Where before, you were grounded, now you are activating most of the muscles in your core and/or your legs, shoulders, arms, just to stay in one place. It most definitely presents an additional aspect that you don't normally have in typical yoga practice, and may hit some muscles that you don't normally work.

We ended the class with some really nice hip opening stretches, and I noticed that many of them (pigeon included) were much deeper than I could get into just sitting on the ground. The strap is definitely a great aid in stretching, and I would advocate its use if even just for that purpose.

And finally, we sat quietly in shavasana for a few moments to allow the body and mind to relax, and to engage the consciousness. When I first started my yoga practice, I thought this was the most pointless thing, and that I wanted to go back to doing inversions, or contort myself up like a pretzel. However, I have come farther in my understanding of this pose, and I would almost go so far as to say that it's my favorite part of a daily practice - really allowing me to focus on my breath, and on the connection between my mind and my body. I love when classes end with this pose.

My cat love shavasana even more than I do!

This class is really a fantastic way to wake up and start your week - 6:50AM may seem really (realllllly) early on a Monday morning, but you will not regret attending this class. Just make sure to sign-up ahead of time on their website - space can be limited, and I have to figure that this class sells out.

Thank you for reading, and enjoy your week!