She chose to do something. With the help of the TRX, Derthick, 50, has dropped 84 pounds during the past two years. She weighs 162 pounds, fits into a size 10 and feels the best she’s ever felt about herself and her body. Forging her new body and mindset wasn’t easy, but Derthick felt she simply had no other choice. “It came from so deep inside of me that I didn’t want to die. If I didn’t want to die, I had to do something for myself and for my family and children. I had to relearn how to eat and adventure up stairs into the gym and figure out things to do.”

The first step came when Derthick enrolled in a weight loss program comprised of physical training and a diet of 1,100 calories a day. “I told every single person I was on a diet, and I asked for everyone’s help staying on it.” She worked with a trainer three times per week and the other four days she trained for two to two and a half hours on her own. “I would try to find different ways to change up my exercise because I don’t like to do the same things all the time. The gym has all kinds of equipment, but I like to do things outside.” When she saw the TRX in an article in Men’s Fitness, she was intrigued and visited the Fitness Anywhere website to learn more. “It had so many different movements to do that wouldn’t harm your joints, and you could take it outside or set it up anywhere.”

Then one day, 11 months ago, she was at her gym when a box from Fitness Anywhere arrived with a TRX the gym had ordered. “I was like, ‘Oh my god, let’s set it up right now!’ It was amazing, the movements I could do on it without hurting myself while strengthening muscles that I wasn’t stimulating with machines.”

She found that the TRX helped her become more flexible and stronger without adding bulk, and she never ran out of new movements to keep her training fresh. “What drew me to the TRX is that it’s so simple but so amazing. It was easy to figure out how to make it harder or easier. The exercise guide was easy to figure out. I have horrible balance, and it has really helped improve my balance. Anyone can use the TRX. You can push yourself as far as your body can go. I have severe rheumatoid arthritis, and it has helped me with every joint in my body.”

Now her training facility has TRX classes that she attends two days per week—after she takes a spin class. She trains about two and a half hours the other five days of the week as well, but the TRX remains her favorite part of her training program. “Women have to realize it’s okay to use the TRX. You can do anything the guys can do, and you can modify it to suit your ability level.” She still visits the Fitness Anywhere website frequently to look for new movements and training ideas she shares with instructors at her gym along with her fellow trainees. The TRX has helped her attain other fitness goals too, like getting back into cycling. “I’ve always had pain in my right shoulder and hadn’t been on a road bike in 24 years. Training on the TRX made my shoulder strong enough to ride again.”

Currently, she’s training for a 64 mile bike ride and wants to drop 10 more pounds to reach her weight loss goal. Training on the TRX and committing to her goal has transformed her body, her mind and her life. “I feel a lot more positive about myself. People say, ‘Diane, you’re always smiling. You’re always filled with laughter.’ I never heard that before when I was fat. I was always a very angry person. My anger was fulfilled with food.” The TRX helped her reach her goal, and she hopes that others see her transformation as a testament to the power anyone has to change. “Believe and achieve—you can do anything you want to do.”

How have you used the TRX to meet your weight loss goals? How has using the TRX transformed your life? Share your thoughts, stories and experiences in the FAI Forums.

TRX Workout

John Penny is a personal trainer at Reebok Sports Club. He sees the TRX workout (a portable suspension training tool with a set of straps and handles) being popular in 2011. John Penny John Penny: Reebok Sports Club personal trainer

‘This is a form of suspension training, a revolutionary leveraged bodyweight exercise,’ he says. ‘You can perform hundreds of exercises that build power, strength, balance and mobility at the intensity you choose. Developed by a former US navy seal, TRX is perfect for rehabilitation, hard-core training and everything in between.

Read more on Metro

Long distance runners for example need the luck of the draw with long trim limbs and a resilience against impact injuries; boxers the reflexes of a cat and disproportionate upper body strength and snooker players a strategic mind like that of a chess master and the patience of a saint.

Imagine that those are just a few of the skills racing drivers have to perfect in equal measure, just to be considered a contender in this all too competitive profession.

Since the increased interest in the off track activities of our Formula 1 drivers, the general public have become increasingly aware of the need for supreme fitness in these athletes. However, it’s important to note that each racing discipline, from endurance prototypes to tin-top sprint racing, exerts a different pressure on the driver’s fitness.

TRX Fitness has presented new training opportunities to athletes of all descriptions but in a new tie up with Clio Cup racer Fulvio Mussi and his innovative team, YourRacingCar.com, both parties are learning new things.

Race car drivers are unlike most athletes in that the successful ones need to be able to perform in three half hour sprint races one weekend and jump straight into a 24 hour endurance race the following. Obviously, no one driver races for 24 hours but the overall event of 2 hour stints followed by short rest periods requires specialist training in itself. It’s a challenge that Fulvio knows all too well having spent this last weekend racing at Brands Hatch in Kent. Two 45 minute test sessions on Friday followed by 30 minutes of qualifying and 30 minutes of racing on Saturday and a further 30 minutes of racing on Sunday. After the drama of a professional race event has passed, Fulvio’s back to the circuit for 7am to coach would-be racers of the future – 6 hours in the passenger seat of a car in the hands of an inexperienced driver. Fulvio talks candidly about the work he does and it’s affect on his fitness levels “It’s essentially like being in a washing machine all day. My clients are learning a completely new way to drive a car and it’s like being 17 again for many of my tutees. Hard on the breaks, stalling, jumping around all over the place looking for some clutch control. In fact my day job is what wears me out fitness wise – being able to recover from these long sessions is more crucial to my race performance than anything else.”

So – what has he achieved in his short time (three months) using the unique suspension training system that TRX offers? “It was a real shock when I was first learning to work with the TRX. I did a training session with Stu and it blew me away really. I thought I was quite fit but it exposed serious areas of weakness in my body and that’s the main benefit I’ve felt. I’ve been improving areas of my fitness which didn’t seem particularly important in the past but are now giving me a real edge. There’s no other way that I’ve found to identify those weak areas – if you don’t know there’s something you can target, why would you look to improve it? Essentially, I feel like I’m finding new muscles! ”.

Motor racing is a game that’s won and lost in fractions of seconds. It’s for that reason that Fulvio’s seeing such benefit from the TRX Fitness training. For many people it’s a fantastic way of getting fit without enduring the impactful stresses of the more conventional training methods but for elite athletes like Fulvio, it’s a fine tuning device. Like the millimetre perfect set up on his race car, TRX is Fulvio’s finest spanner!