Magazine Home

Get Fit

Photo: Lacy Atkins/The Chronicle

By Scott Bland

Want to shape up, but can't get to the gym regularly? One alum's invention lets you carry the gym with you wherever you go.

Created by Randy Hetrick, MBA '03, the TRX Suspension Trainer is a set of stretchable straps that can be anchored to just about any door or post. And instead of heavy weights, the TRX uses exercisers' own mass to create resistance for a workout.

Hetrick's idea to slim down the gym came in the mid-90s while he was deployed on ships, submarines and in safe houses with his Navy SEAL squads. "It was an improvised invention of necessity," he says.

That hasn't made the TRX—or Hetrick's company, Fitness Anywhere—any less successful. Since hitting the market in '05, sales of the portable device have exceeded $20 million. The TRX was named 2009's best Total Body Tool by Men's Health magazine, and it has been featured on The Biggest Loser.

"It's an easy way to conduct well-rounded, functional training," says Hetrick. "It is literally suitable for any athlete or person." There's one less excuse standing between you and your fitness goal.

SCOTT BLAND, ’10, is an intern at Stanford.