TRX Training Club review: could this replace your gym membership?
THE days of lockdowns may be behind us *touches wood*, but that doesn’t mean working out from home has to be relegated to the past.
We test out TRX’s training club to see if it can help replace an expensive gym membership.
- TRX Training Club, from £5.99 a month – buy here
Pros
- Good variety of personal trainers
- Options for long or short sessions
- Easy to adjust intensity
- Live classes for added motivation
- Can book personal trainers
Cons
- Limited training programs
- You’ll need to buy TRX gear or similar
TRX Training Club review: quick summary
It can be tricky to motivate yourself to work out from home, especially when you don’t have a lot of free time, so we found the TRX training club a useful tool for fitting workouts into our busy schedule.
Whether you’re looking for a quick 15 minute burnout, a gentle recovery session or an intense, 40-minute HIIT class, the TRX Training Club can cater to your needs.
We liked the range of trainers you could choose from, which made it easier to find someone who fits your style; whether you like plain and simple tuition or a full-blown cheerleader, there’s trainers for everyone in TRX’s stable.
With every class we completed, we were surprised at the innovative ways the trainers managed to get our muscles screaming in a short space of time with minimal equipment.
The downside of the TRX training club is the lack of long-term programs to complete. For our money, knowing you’ve got a scheduled class that’s part of an extended plan in the calendar means you’re more likely to keep training regularly, so we’d like to see TRX add a feature in for this.
You’ve also got to buy into the TRX ecosystem to get the most out of the Training Club. That means spending a minimum of £97.99 (the TRX starter bundle is on sale at the time of writing) on equipment alongside the Training Club membership.
However, even taking that into account, the Training Club is cheaper than the vast majority of gym memberships. And, because the TRX is so portable (and because you can run the Training Club on your phone), you can take advantage of it wherever you are.
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TRX Training Club: full review
- TRX Training Club, from £5.99 a month – buy here
As plenty of people learned during lockdown, working out from home is not that bad. Actually, it can be pretty great: you don’t need an expensive gym membership, you don’t have to drive or run or train to your nearest gym and you don’t have to drag your sweaty clothes around work with you when you’re done.
But, no matter how many variations of a press-up you can conceive, eventually your well of ideas will run dry and you can quite easily find yourself in a training rut. Enter TRX Training Club.
Not only can you work out with minimal equipment (in our review we used the TRX Home2 suspension trainer and the Bandit resistance trainer, both of which would easily fit into a rucksack) but suddenly there’s an almost-unlimited pool of live and on-demand workouts to choose from to keep your exercise routine fresh and challenging.
Now, when we’ve got somewhere between 15 and 45 minutes free for a workout, it’s easy to login to the Training Club, pick an area that’s not too sore from a previous session and prepare to feel the burn.
The workouts
Training Club has a good number of trainers to choose from which allowed us to avoid our personal pet peeve: overly enthusiastic/cheerful PTs (come on guys, you’re exercising, what have you got to be so happy about?).
If you’re concerned that training without heavy weights won’t be able to give you a challenging enough workout, think again. Some of TRX’s trainers seem to have degrees in lactic acid and how it can be inserted into your muscles more effectively; we’ve lost count of the number of times we’ve had to pause mid-set and shake out a cramping leg or arm.
There’s a decent set of sub categories to pick from in the workouts: bootcamp, core, recover, start, strong, sweat, and yoga. From these categories you can see upcoming live classes, which are free to book in with an All Access subscription.
Plus, you can access an extensive back-catalogue of on-demand workouts, which can be further filtered by trainer, duration, intensity level and required equipment. It’s really easy to quickly find a class for the mood you’re in that day.
Our only criticism of the available workouts is that there’s not enough long-term programs that you could really sink your teeth into. There’s some options that will show you the ropes of TRX exercises and expand your repertoire, but (with the exception of the Army Combat Fitness Test program) they don’t tend to build into anything more than a couple of quick workouts a week.
We reckon TRX could expand this area and give more advanced users more long-term goals to work towards as a challenge; if other users are like us, it’d keep them engaged for longer.
Live classes
As part of the All Access membership you also get the opportunity to book into and join live classes. They function in much the same way as the on-demand classes, except they’re guaranteed to be fresh and you’ll get a bit of personalised encouragement from one of the trainers as you go.
We were impressed with how they worked and found they definitely motivated us more than an offline class (plus we’re too proud to leave a class halfway through, even if we’re struggling!).
The downside of the live classes is that, because your workout area may differ from the instructor’s, it can be a bit of a rush to find enough space to complete a certain exercise. That’s a pretty small obstacle though, and it didn’t hold us back too much.
TRX Training Club review: the verdict
- TRX Training Club, from £5.99 a month – buy here
The TRX Training Club is the best way of making the most of your TRX fitness equipment. Taking part in the classes, live or on-demand will load you up with tonnes of exercise ideas. And, let’s face it, we all train a bit harder when someone’s leading an exercise, even if they’re not really in the room with you.
Ultimately, TRX is better at increasing your fitness, flexibility and balance than it is at jacking up your one rep max. But it’s more than enough for average Joe or Jane to make significant strength gains at home. And, no matter what level of athlete you are, there will be a fitness area the TRX Training Club can help you improve in.
Whether or not this is worth your investment depends on your circumstances. We’d say the on-demand subscription would be plenty if you’ve got some TRX gear and you’re just looking for additional inspiration for how to use it correctly. The same is true you’re completing a couple of workouts a week at home to supplement your other activities.
If you’re hoping to make TRX a big part of your weekly fitness routine and fully replace a gym membership, we’d opt for the more expensive All Access subscription. Having the option to take part in live classes keeps things fresh and adds to a comprehensive catalogue of content on the site.
Either way, we’d definitely recommend trying out the free 30-day trial of the subscriptions to see if they work for you.
Try a free TRX Training Club trial here
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