It had been a very busy past few days for me at the office leading to zero mileage and zero calories burned at the gym, but last Tuesday, an extreme workout session broke the vicious cycle and gave me one intense experience.

TRXtreme is the latest and most challenging TRX® Suspension® Training class of 360° Fitness Club, and I’m lucky to be at the right place and at the right time when it was held last Tuesday for the first time.  I had only been acquainted with the club when their Boot Camp Race event was announced on this site (more on this later), and I found their “circuit training” concept interesting.

As someone who is very much into fitness and taken Basic Instructor Course from the Institute of a globally popular gym, I had pretty much a good idea on which “exercise” works.  I’ve always been an advocate of everything natural and, as far as fitness routines are involved, encourage “functional exercises” over machines and “traditional” school of thought.  That was why I got very much interested with 360° Fitness Club’s circuit training, and that’s also why I’m a huge fan of TRX®.

360° Fitness Club is the first fitness club in the country to offer group TRX® Suspension® Training, an approach to fitness training that uses a system of ropes and webbing called a “suspension trainer” to allow the user to work against their own body weight.  They say that in as little as 30 minutes, you can get a complete body workout to improve your strength, flexibility, balance, and performance.  Over 300 TRX® exercises can be performed and you simply have to adjust your body position to adjust the resistance and intensity of the exercise.

As part of my “freebies” from signing up for the Boot Camp Race to be held this Saturday at the PhilSports Arena (formerly Ultra) I got a two week pass, which unfortunately lapsed last Monday.  I was too preoccupied that I was unable to use the pass, but the kind people of 360° Fitness Club still granted me access so I was there last Tuesday.  I originally intended to do their signature circuit training but upon speaking to one of their coaches, Coach Martin, I found out that they’re trying out something “new” and invited me to join—and I always love trying new.  I think he got me when he mentioned the word, “TRX.”  I’ve always wanted to try that “toy” and I was so lucky that that opportunity came, for free!  (TRX is currently too expensive for my limited budget but it’s one of the “gadgets” I so desire to have)

Leading the TRXtreme class is Christopher “Chappy” Callanta, Head Coach and Fitness Program Director of 360° Fitness Club.  In fairness to him he did mentioned beforehand that the session was tough, and for the first time in a very long time, I was really challenged hard and long!  Not even a 50 minute, 10 kilometer run can make me that tired and let me sweat that much!  Now I understood why TRX® is very popular!

That session we pretty much covered every part of our bodies, from warm-up to cool down.  What’s intense about TRXtreme were the virtually zero downtime and almost always high intensity, not to mention challenging, routines.  It was quite difficult (which reminds me of my CAT and ROTC days) but at the same time quite fun!  I just hated the time when my calves, quads, and glutes felt like cramping all at the same time, and my clogged nose so I wasn’t able to do some routines as well as I wanted.  Regardless of how many repetitions I did with each set I still felt like I did an entire week’s worth of exercise in an hour’s worth of class.

As of press time I’ve yet tried 360° Fitness Club’s circuit training, but I’ve seen members do it and it looked intense but at the same time fun, all condensed in 30 minutes.  I’m not (yet) a member so I guess my first experience with “the circuit” is through their Boot Camp Race on Saturday.  (Knowing how intense our TRXtreme session got I hope I didn’t went ahead of myself when I joined the “intermediate” level)

If you’re curious about or want to join the Boot Camp Race you still have a chance to do so.  Here are some event particulars:

360° Fitness Club is located at 13/F Strata 100, F. Ortigas Jr. Road (formerly Emerald Ave), Ortigas Center, Pasig City, Philippines 1605.