Bay Area Fitness Giants Adding Muscle to Fleet Week

Two Bay Area-based fitness companies, 24-Hour Fitness and TRX, are joining forces to showcase the incredible fitness levels of our military and first-responders in a series of interactive fitness challenges.

Not only are these two prominent companies from the Bay Area, their top brass were formerly in the military. 24-Hour Fitness CEO Carl Liebert is a Navy alum, honing his own leadership skills while serving as a Naval submarine officer. SF native and Stanford grad, Randy Hetrick, the man who invented the TRX® Suspension Trainer™, is a former US Navy SEAL who developed the TRX out of an old jiu-jitsu belt and some surplus parachute webbing. Now Hetrick’s beat up old belt and parachute is one of the hottest products to hit the fitness industry in quite some time.

While these men and their companies may be partnering for Fleet Week, each company’s CEO will go head-to-head in a CEO Challenge to raise money for the Semper Fi Foundation.

The Fleet Week events are designed to showcase the elite operational fitness levels of the military. Using the TRX® Suspension Trainer™, TRX and 24-Hour Fitness will host workouts on October 6 and 7 at San Francisco’s “Marina Green.” These unique Fleet Week workouts will include military, local San Francisco Police and Fire Departments, and the previously mentioned CEOs. TRX and 24 Hour Fitness, true American success stories who have changed the way consumers look at fitness and exercise, continue to be steadfast supporters of the U.S. military and their families.

The TRX® Suspension Trainer™ was born of necessity in the Navy SEALs when Hetrick was looking for a way to maintain peak operational readiness while sequestered in safe-houses, on submarines and in other sub-optimal training areas. Now the once-makeshift exercise system is a multi-million dollar business and arguably the hottest fitness method in decades, utilized by the nation’s leading athletic training and fitness providers including 24 Hour Fitness. The popularity of the TRX® FORCE® Kit (the military edition of the TRX) led to the purchase of more than 24,000 FORCE Kits by the United States Secretary of Defense in November 2010 and is a favorite training tool for service members due to its effectiveness and portability, allowing them to train and maintain combat fitness anywhere in the world.

24 Hour Fitness received recognition as one of the “Top 100 Military-Friendly Employers” of 2012 by G.I. Jobs magazine for its commitment to recruiting and hiring U.S. service members who enter the workforce in the hundreds of thousands each year. The accolade is in addition to the fitness leader being named as one of the “Top 20 Military Spouse Friendly Employers®” of 2012 by Military Spouse magazine this past month.

Following outlines the Fleet Week fitness events hosted by the two local fitness companies:

Saturday, Oct. 6

· CEO Challenge

10:45 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

The Fleet Week events will kick off with the friendly CEO challenge between Liebert and Hetrick, benefitting Naval Special Warfare Foundation and Semper Fi Foundation. Each CEO will do TRX Atomic Pushups and TRX Low Rows, and each rep will be worth $50.

· TRX on the Green

11:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.

The public is invited to watch more than 100 military personnel participate in a TRX workout led by Ingrid Owen, vice president of Group X for 24 Hour Fitness, and Dan McDonogh, senior manager group training and development for TRX and 24 Hour Fitness® Group X instructor.

· Mission Readiness Challenge

12:00 p.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Challenging military branches against each other in a friendly competition, the public is invited to watch a TRX fitness challenge between the USCG, USMC, SWAT and Navy. This punishing total-body challenge was initially designed for United States Marine Corps Officer and UFC fighter, Brian “All American” Stann. The TRX Mission Readiness Challenge consists of five, one-minute rounds of some of our most intense TRX exercises.

Sunday, Oct. 7

· TRX Classes for the Public

Those interested in trying TRX are invited to participate in a series of three TRX classes:

o 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.

o 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

o 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Visit trxtrainingcenter.com for information on how to sign up for one of these free classes.