Demond Thompson said:

Hi all!

I just downloaded the book a couple of days ago, and I'm really licking it alot.  I love innovative ways of working out.  I only have a couple questions before I pick a track and start working.  I am working on some gymnastic static progression skills and was wondering how that would fit into the sessions in the book.  Also, if I stopped working on the progressions for the 1st 28 day cycle, would I have some carryover at least or would I lose a lot of my progress.

Thanks for your help and the great book.

Hi Demond,

Your best bet is to follow the program as outlined – we can only be sure of the results you'll get if you follow our plan. If you do decide to add another skill, just make sure you're not cocktailing your goals (do a search for 'cycle or circuit, but don't cocktail'), and make sure you're hitting the target RPE numbers for that day. That will ensure you reap the full results of the 4×7 wave as intended.

>Also, if I stopped working on the progressions for the 1st 28 day cycle, would I have some carryover at least or would I lose a lot of my progress.

This seems like a simple question, but you've actually hit upon a larger issue. The notion that you can always maintain every gain you reap in a training cycle is flawed. You only get to keep a small percentage of your gains from each cycle, and the notion of "maintenance" is a myth (you can't possibly maintain all attributes all the time – that leads inevitably to breakdown and injury). You're constantly in a state of waving your attritubtes, but the general trend is an upward spiral.

That's the long answer. Short answer is that you're likely to see carry over from each cycle to the goals in your other cycles, as you add strength, endurance, etc. But don't think in terms of losing progress on a specific goal. Think in terms of your larger overall development, and how each skill or attribute waves within that. Your goal is to constantly evolve up that spiral – individual skill sets and attributes will wave a bit within that.

We look forward to reading your updates. Good luck

Hey Demond,

Don't forget you can move up in individual exercises…

For your girlfriend, try picking some of the movements that you feel look the least intimidating and show them to her. You could get her to do a mini-circuit with them. Then gradually show her more movements until you think she is ready to launch into one of the programs.

Cheers,
Adam

Nice!!

Great to hear success stories like this…

Cheers,
Adam

Desmond,

Great results! Well done!

It's always satisfying to beat little kids (in the athletic competition rather than throw down martial art sense, of course).

>Another question:  I love the idea and thought behind the RMAX system, sophistication of movement, etc.  I would like to learn more and possibly go to a semiar or certification.  I am not interested in clubbells however.  Any suggestions?

Full CST Instructor certification obviously includes Clubbells, but there are other options as well. Have a look at this link, and scroll down to the Group Ex certifications. These are the certs we do for trainers at health clubs, etc who aren't yet interested in pursuing the "grad school" of the CST Instructor stream: http://www.rmaxi.com/cst/cst-c…..-intro.php

If you have questions please feel free to post and I'll do my best to answer them.

Hi Demond,

>I'm wondering about the costs of the individual courses.  I had a time trying to find that.

It sometimes depends on the country or region of the world where the course is being offered. Best bet is to stay tuned to the RMAX forum and RMAX Magazine for seminar announcements. These will include the price. In general, full CST Instructor cert is $1000 to $1200. For the group ex certs, a ballpark figure would be $500 to $700. But again, it can vary slightly depending on the country, number of instructors, size of event, etc.

>Also, I have invested quite a bit of money in kettlebells, and I'd like to go back teaching them in a group format.  Would the kettlebell coach course help me do that?

The KB specialist cert applies a specific Intu-Flow joint priming warmup and a specific compensatory Prasara yoga cooldown sequence created to address the needs of kettlebell athletes. So yes, that'd benefit any kettlebell class (on a side note: I use the Prasara sequence from that DVD as part of my regular practice, not just when I'm working KB stuff – it's one of the best prasara sequences Coach Sonnon has filmed). In between the warm up and cooldown, we cover the specific techniques of kettlebell sport. As you know, there are several schools of kettlebell lifting. The KB component of this course only covers sport KB techniques. I found it incredibly valuable. Coach Sonnon breaks down kettlebell swinging in CST terminology, and builds each skill set incrementally. It's the clearest and most direct kettlebell coaching I've experienced (and I've trained under world champions).

If you're more interested in functional Kettlebell training, we've got a couple resources in the works for this as well. Look for these in the first half of 2010.

Lastly, I saw no dates on the website either.

That's just an information page on the various components of the CST system. Stay tuned to this section of the forum for upcoming live events http://www.rmaxinternational.c…..y.php?f=38  (you have to set the page to "display all results" to see everything)

At present, there's a full CST Instructor cert scheduled for Bellingham, WA in March, as well as a TACFIT cert. I'm also coaching a full CST Instructor cert in Norway in May. I'm sure more will be scheduled as we get closer to 2010.

I expect the number of group ex certs to increase next year. We (the Faculty) are finalizing arrangements which will allow CST Head Coaches to conduct certifications in the group ex courses. Faculty Coach Brandon Jones is also opening a facility in LA next month, and he'll be hosting regular classes, all sorts of certs, and bringing in the Faculty coaches to do workshops on a regular basis. See the current issue of RMAX Magazine for a detailed announcement on his new place http://www.rmaxinternational.com/76.pdf

We're also very open to being hosted to run certs if you have enough interested people in your area.

>Now, as far as BER (wonderful and fun book, and would love a course there too), I am about to complete the Athleticism cycle for the 2nd time.  Do any of the others compliment Athleticism?  My goal is to remain fit and have fun exercising for the most part. 

By "any others" do you mean other programs from BER? The Strength program would be a good choice, as would Longevity. Fat Loss is a great program too, and does more than just burn fat.

>I just wish this forum was a bit more busy.

I think that's our fault. The folks who bought our programs all seem like pretty serious athletes. I think they're too tired to type…

Seriously though, feel free to start conversations, post questions, observations, stuff you'd like to see. If you build it, people will come.