Among the areas of fitness, the number of which is growing “like mushrooms after rain,” we can distinguish three global leaders. Crossfit is a high-intensity interval training from American physical training instructor for firefighters and police officers, Greg Glassman. Les Mills - six innovative physical training systems from a family dynasty of athletes founded by 4-time Olympic champion in shot put, New Zealander Leslie Mills. Suspension training, which uses TRX loops, closes the trinity.
If you know a little English, you can understand that the first type is a combination of cardio and strength training, and the second is a nominal training system. What is trx training? Why has it attracted so many fitness enthusiasts around the world and is it right for you?
Expected to be fired
1964 First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Nikita Khrushchev went on vacation to Belovezhskaya Pushcha. On duty and protocol, the first secretary of the CPB Central Committee, Kirill Mazurov, came to see him. A discussion arose. They argued about the system of managing the national economy. Nikita Sergeevich proposed changing everything. Eliminate ministries in Belarus and create economic councils (bodies of self-government of the national economy), as was done in many regions from Altai to Magadan. The main meaning of the proposal is that the villages will be led by some party organizations, and the industry by others. Mazurov objected. As a final argument, he asked: “Do you remember Lenin? He always stood for party unity. And you propose disunity.” This was the last straw. Khrushchev boiled: “You will also teach me!” There's nothing to talk about. I'm leaving immediately." In Moscow, near the train, he told the leaders who met him that he was dissatisfied with the head of Belarus and that he needed to think about replacing him. The state of the BSSR economy looked successful against the general background. Agriculture was not subsidized, unlike in most republics. Everyone understood: Mazurov had a lot to do with this.
In the first half of October 1964, a high Moscow commission was expected, as a result of which it was planned to remove Kirill Trofimovich from his post. One morning, a car with a special communications courier drove up to the building of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus. Mazurov was handed a sealed package. He was ordered to urgently appear in Moscow for an extraordinary meeting of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee. The First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus was sure: they were calling to inform him of his resignation.
Exercises for chest and arms
- TRX push-ups (Push up)
- Lat pull
- Tricep extension
- Bicep curl
- Raising arms to the sides (Reverse fly)
- Squat
- Calf Raise
- Pistol squat
- Floating Lunge
Recommended reading on the topic of TRX training and exercises:
- TRX training for all parts of the body with video
- Review of TPX loops: pros and cons, review of applications
First castlings
Kirill Trofimovich Mazurov was born on March 23, 1914 in the village of Rudnya-Pribytkovskaya near Gomel. My most vivid teenage memory is collectivization. In 1930, the only cow in the family had to be handed over to the collective farm. The mother was grieving. After some time, peasants were allowed to have livestock on their plots. A heifer from the offspring of the previously selected Krasuli was returned to the barn.
In 1933, the young man graduated from the Gomel Automobile and Road Technical School. After serving in the army, he followed the Komsomol line. By June 1941, he headed the Brest regional committee of the Leninist Young Communist League of Youth. After June 22, he helped remove women and children, wounded soldiers and officers from encirclement. Participated in the battles for Brest. With the survivors he went to the east of the country. However, in 1942 he returned to occupied Belarus as a representative of the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Until the end of 1943, he served in partisan formations, including in the Minsk region.
After the Victory, having recovered from his wounds, 31-year-old Mazurov headed the Republican Komsomol. The main concern is to restore the capital as quickly as possible. Thousands of children who had grown up and returned from the front were gathered in the villages. They happily went to the city to build automobile and tractor factories. We lived in the suburbs in military tents. After a while, they became full-fledged Minsk residents and made up a considerable part of the residents of the Stalinsky (Zavodsky) district. In 1947, Mazurov moved to the apparatus of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus (Bolsheviks). By 1953 he headed the Minsk City Party Committee.
After Stalin's death in March, at the next plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, changes in the leadership of the republics were discussed. Beria sharply opposed the first secretary of the CPB Central Committee Nikolai Patolichev. Kirill Trofimovich, having learned about this, proposed to gather members of the Central Committee of the CPB and secretaries of regional committees at the local level. At the meeting they came to the conclusion that there was no reason to release Patolichev. If they are guilty, then everyone should be removed from their positions. The minutes of the meeting were sent to Moscow, where they threw up their hands. Beria was soon arrested, and Mazurov was approved for the post of Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Belarusian SSR. To speak out against the center, especially against Beria, seemed akin to suicide. Khrushchev remembered this brave “partisan,” as he called him. After 3 years, Kirill Trofimovich headed the republic instead of Patolichev, who left for a promotion in Moscow.
Photo by BelTA
To shed light
Mazurov saw one of his tasks as the rehabilitation of the heroes of the Brest Fortress. Many of them were forgotten or condemned as captured and surrounded. But everything happened before his eyes. He was also concerned about restoring the true picture of the work of the Minsk underground during the war. The fascist provocation* in 1942–1943 against Ivan Kovalev, Vyacheslav Nikiforov, Konstantin Khmelevsky and other organizers of the underground movement led to the fact that little was said about organized resistance to the occupiers in the first post-war years, and only the existence of lone underground fighters was recognized. Mazurov created a commission that investigated the issue. We must not forget that he himself was in a partisan detachment during the war as a leader. Was initiated into the secrets. I was in contact with a large number of underground workers. In the end, if they were alone, who developed the operation to destroy Cuba and acts of retaliation - explosions in places where the enemy was concentrated?
During Mazurov’s tenure, Vera Khoruzhaya, Marat Kazei, Nikolai Goishik and other former partisans and underground fighters were nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In addition, as described in the memoirs, having gone with his deputy Kuzma Kiselyov to pick mushrooms in the Vitebsk direction, he and a colleague discovered a field in the thicket of the forest overgrown with weeds, with chimneys sticking out of it. The name of the destroyed village was suggested by an elderly shepherd he met: Khatyn. Soon Kirill Trofimovich signed a decree on the construction of a memorial there and in the Brest Fortress.
Under him, the industrial and architectural restoration of Minsk was completed. Regions and districts were awaiting their turn. On Mazurov’s initiative, new enterprises began to appear: the Starobinsky Potash Plant, the Polotsk Oil Refinery and the Grodno Nitrogen Fertilizer Plant, and the Berezovskaya and Lukomlskaya power plants were built. In fact, a chemical industry that did not previously exist in the BSSR appeared. Gasification of populated areas and electrification of remote villages began.
Pros of TRX
Among the benefits of training on suspension loops it is worth noting:
- TRX loops can replace the gym. They allow you to do exercises for strength, stretching, flexibility, and also get sufficient cardio exercise.
- You can exercise on the simulator at any age, even small children. Body weight doesn't matter either.
- Basic exercises are available for people with any level of physical fitness. The difficulty of performing the exercise is regulated by long lines, changing the angle of inclination or changing body position. For example, for a weak beginner, standing push-ups (arms with loops and the whole body slightly forward), simulating push-ups against a wall, are suitable. For trained people, bending and extension of the arms is already offered when they rest on the floor and the ankles are secured with loops. The load and complexity for advanced ones is even higher - you need to do push-ups “as usual,” but with your hands resting not on the floor, but on the handles of the loops.
- Functional training occurs without vertical load on the spine, so most simple exercises are accessible even to those who have back problems.
- The unusual position of the body, the absence of the usual and fixed points of support while holding static positions, allows you to simultaneously engage not only the superficial muscle layers, but also the muscles that stabilize the joints, the core and paravertebral muscle groups.
- Working with your own body weight minimizes the risk of injury. Moreover, for those who have injured their legs while practicing another type of fitness, TRX loops will help them undergo rehabilitation faster. This is possible by performing exercises with changed angles of movement and reducing the load on the joints.
- Subject to rational eating behavior, a training regimen on TRX loops, a balance of daily loads and rest (sleep), the body will get rid of extra pounds and acquire the necessary volume and strength of muscles, elasticity of ligaments and tendons.
An important advantage of the TRX suspension trainer for those who will exercise at home is its low cost, compactness and not cluttering up space, quick installation/disassembly for storage or for going out for training in the fresh air. And thanks to its low weight - 1 kg, the loops can go with you on a business trip or vacation.
Conflict was brewing
Mazurov was lucky with the historical period of his reign. All his initiatives, the release of Moscow orders that seemed inappropriate to him, if this had happened earlier, would have ended tragically for him. With all the specifics of his character, Nikita Sergeevich maintained the image of a democratic leader if the issue concerned work issues. Therefore, he simply argued with Kirill Trofimovich. Mazurov respected him for his activity, selflessness and readiness for change. True, the latter were often proposed on the verge of maximalism. For example, the leader of the country believed that the villagers had no need for personal plots. They distract from work on the collective farm. A village resident must go to the collective farm, like a worker to a factory, and buy milk and potatoes in the store. The movement to destroy personal farmsteads, which led to the emptying of villages in the country, selectively began. Kirill Trofimovich did not allow the usual peasant life to be destroyed.
In addition to personal plots, there were areas for which we had to fight. Khrushchev longed to catch up and overtake America in everything. However, primarily for the production of meat and milk. Impossible standards for the procurement of these products were imposed from above. Local officials were forced to either demand that farms send breeding cattle to the knife, or engage in registration. Corn is a different story. Mazurov, by hook or by crook, restrained its mass plantings, not considering the culture so universal, in contrast to the position of Nikita Sergeevich. Thus the conflict gradually matured.
What benefits does training on a suspension trainer provide?
The suspended TRX trainer consists of 3 rigid, Y-shaped, connected slings. One end is attached to the wall, ceiling, clamped in the doorway or fixed, for example, on a tree. The extension insert, carabiners and anchors allow you to practice indoors or outdoors. The ends of 2 other straps, also adjustable in length, end in handles and loops. Their combination allows not only to hold on to them with your hands or fix your feet. The handles make it convenient to perform exercises in support positions. We figured out the design of the simulator, and trx training - what kind of technique is it?
There are quite a large number of branded physical training systems from TRX Academy and other manufacturers of similar types of suspended trainers. However, each trainer or fitness enthusiast can create their own training plans.
With the help of exercises on loops you can solve different problems:
- work out all muscle groups simultaneously and evenly or with an emphasis on the arms, legs or back;
- pump up or, on the contrary, dry out muscle volume;
- improve dexterity, coordination and balance;
- increase flexibility and stretching;
- increase endurance levels by adjusting intervals and intensity of exercise.
For beginners, exercises on a simulator can be a separate type of training, and for advanced athletes, they can become part of any type of fitness class.
