Homewood-Flossmoor High School is located just outside of Chicago, Illinois. Head strength coach Coach Steve Szymkowiak, MA, CSCS, ATC (aka Coach Szymko) imagined a radically different high school physical education program using functional bodyweight exercises to support sports specific training.
In his constant search to find fitness solutions for his athletes and students, Coach Szymko turned to TRX Suspension Training bodyweight exercise. He wanted to utilize the existing protocol for strength and conditioning training for high school sports.
Coach Szymko decided to incorporate TRX Suspension Training in a fun, functional and engaging way to get his athletes to master form and strengthen stabilizing muscle groups before loading barbells with excessive weight. He also integrated TRX Training into general physical education classes as a fun and functional tool to keep non athletes engaged. Within a year, he went from using to six TRX Suspension Trainers to over 50 mounted in weight rooms, baseball dugouts and in the school’s main gym.
In the past two years, Homewood-Flossmoor has achieved multiple state athletic titles, multiple alums with professional contracts and a football team that made it to the league semi-finals. The girl’s golf team has taken second, first and second place in the state for three consecutive years. Both the girls and boys swim teams broke two pool records on their way to state competition after undergoing a nine-week, TRX-specific protocol.
