Dave,
I just finished one of your Core Chaos workouts, and I just wanted to express my gratitude for all you do: the workout programs you’ve created, the emails you send, the products you sell, etc. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You have been a great help to me.
Sincerely,
Doug Rea
Hey Dave,
Just following up on our correspondence about my knee replacements causing some problems during my training sessions. I turned 60 last month, and I am so grateful for your experience as a coach and inventor of RBT.
I was a power lifter in my earlier years that caused most of my injuries and issues.
After emailing you about them and you advising me about several stabilizer band movements that would help me with my glutes which in turn would help with my knee issues did exactly that. My glutes are stronger and my knee issues are gone!
This my friend is very exciting to me, feeling good and being able to train daily is something I thought was gone. I do some contrast training, no more heavy weights. You have made a product that even extremely injured people can use, anywhere at anytime without a high price tag and a coach that answers every email. Unheard of in these days of outsourcing to foreign entities to answer emails.
Thanks for all of your dedication and commitment to your clients. I will be a RBT gym member for life.
Kind Regards,
Chris S.
At 6’ 8” I was painfully thin growing up. I was introduced to weights in my early 20’s and quickly my goal was to have a bigger, more muscular frame. With age and hard work, I found that 245 pounds felt good as I was muscular and a far cry from the skinny high schooler of decades past…
In early May I cancelled my gym membership and started to incorporate a daily resistance band workout coupled with 4 – 5 days of cardio + a healthy diet. I found that 3000 calories a day broken down to 45% fat, 40% protein and 15% carbs plus keeping sugars below 25 grams a day was perfect for my middle-aged frame. My goal was to lose 25 pounds and get back to the magical number of 245 (lbs.).
About two months into the process, I decided to forego focusing on the scale and instead let my body find its natural weight. Six months later, at age 54, I’m in the best shape of my life. The benefits of resistance band training supersede weight training, especially as I get older. I feel stronger, leaner, more energetic and can’t wait for the next workout to start. The ability to train indoors or outside is a huge plus and I’ve discovered you need very little space to maximize your workouts when using resistance bands. All of these factors plus minimal soreness contributed to my new mindset and I am having FUN…
Back to the scale… I started to notice my body taking shape in a way it never has before. I could see more symmetry and discovered I was leaning up in a whole new way while holding onto muscle mass. When I dipped into the 230’s I thought I would plateau, my waist was approaching 33” and for a brief period my mindset went back to the skinny teenager and being “too thin.” Instead, what I discovered was my body had more room to lean out. My mind began to push away the fear of being too thin and began to welcome the next chapter of Me…
I was pleasantly surprised this part of my journey brought up some old memories that were locked deep inside. I realize mentally and emotionally I still had some work to do. Our scars may run deep but life has a funny way of having them resurface when we’re ready to deal with the past. These moments also free us inside. For the first time I feel really good about my own body and find self-acceptance to be the most important acceptance.
Currently I sit at 228 pounds and begin to think more about how I make this sustainable as I approach my 55th birthday early next year… There’s no shortcut for hard work and I feel grateful to have the tools and desire to continue this part of my journey.
I hope by sharing each of you will also be opened to discovering your own next chapter and self-acceptance plays a big part of your overall well-being. As we approach Thanksgiving I’d like to offer thanks to Dave Schmitz for leading the resistant band movement and for all of his content!!
John B
RBT Fan
I highly appreciate that the newsletter is positive without blowing smoke. There’s no negging, there’s no macho BS, there’s no doomsaying about what’s going to happen if you don’t do the program or buy the stuff. But there are also no grandiose claims of instant success for everyone — just steady encouragement to keep working. All of this is truly, genuinely rare in any corner of fitness culture. Plus, knowing that you actually DO read and respond to emails means that we all know that everything you write is sincere.
Rebecca N
RBT Enthusiasts and Band Gym Member
My RBT journey began when I visited a trainer for an assessment when I turned 50 in 2012. I have always exercised, and was looking for information on how to train more effectively as I age.
The trainer used resistance bands, which I had never seen before. He mentioned RBT, and I ordered a starter set. I have used your bands ever since. I am decidedly stronger, but better yet, I move with less pain (I had an ACL repair in 1985 which hasn’t held me back, but the bands helped me full strengthen and lengthen muscles so that my movement is essentially the same on both sides of my body), and I am leaner. My back doesn’t bother me anymore – I think this is due to better core strength which comes from working with bands!
I look forward to new exercises in your weekly emails. I am really impressed with how accessible you are via email. My husband recently retired, and he is now a member of the Band Gym.
Thanks for all you do to teach us and help us be strong and healthy as we age.
Congrats on 11 years!
Helena Tsotsis
RBT Enthusiast
Just wanted to thank you for always responding both by email and phone. Your advice has been spot on with both my own children (son’s back surgery/Seahawks & daughter’s ACL/Central Arkansas Sand vb) to my NFL, D-1, high school, and probably most impactful the last 5 years of my special needs population. Flying out from Az to your summer seminar and then meeting you for breakfast the next day meant a lot and changed the way I looked at my programming from both a strength and speed aspect. I still share the RBT methods with our high school PE and strength coaches each year and appreciate your passion and willingness to share both professionally and personally how using BANDS is a GAME CHANGER!!!!
Kevin in Az
K-FIT LLC
HS Strength & Conditioning / Adapted PE
Dave,
While it’s great that so many testimonials on your site are about “quitting the gym and weights,” there are some of us who still enjoy the challenge of hoisting plates and DBs. For me, bands don’t replace that. But they sure make it BETTER.
1. Bands give me a safer way to do a lot of things I used to do with weights. For example, I worry a lot less doing tricep extensions with my Thunder Band. It beats the risk of crushing my skull while lifting a barbell over my head!
2. Contrast training gives me much more stability on those heavy compound lifts. In the six months I’ve been using bands with weights, I’ve hit more PRs than ever without any morning-after joint pain. Please do more contrast training videos!
3. Finally… and this is a big one… Bands let me work out in more places and in more ways than would be possible with weights. My basement “gym” has a great setup that includes weights. But during COVID, getting out of the house has been an important part of my mental well-being. Whether my getaways have just been workouts in the park or weekend trips to the beach, bands have kept me fit and optimistic. I always get back to my weights feeling stronger and more invigorated after an RBT day or two.
Anyway, I’m writing all of this because I’m glad to see you explaining that bands are not just for the “quit weights forever” crowd. If anything, they’ve helped me enjoy weights even more. Keep up the great work and keep those contrast training videos coming.
I hope we all can, as you say, “kick COVID’s butt.” At least so far for me, it’s been “bands-1… COVID-zero.”
Cheers,
Michael
Glad I purchased the thunder band set… You are the man!! So glad I joined “The Band Gym” and that you are my coach and if I have a question you answer directly! That is unheard of, most of these so called self proclaimed experts have a foreign base for their customer support and that makes the waters muddy when asking for advice. That’s why I will be a Band Gym member for life 🙂 Thanks Dave and Karen for your devotion and hard work.
Chris Szaroleta
Dave,
I wanted to thank you for all you do. As a bivocational pastor for over 30 years, I have ministered to many people with only a modicum of feedback. The occasional text, note, or email means much. Hence, I wanted to express my gratitude for you and for RBT.
It has been a huge help in my quest for improved fitness. RBT has been the perfect fit for me. Keep up the good work.
Doug Rea
I have a 6×20 space leading into my bedroom where I train. I can use the utility strap on all sides of the door, to change angles and the line of pull. There is enough space to do my locomotion type exercises, shuffles, turn and go’s skaters, and crawls.
I live in an apartment complex where there is a gym equipped with dumbbells and machines. It has been closed since March because of covid-19. And when it reopens there will be a lot of restrictions, wearing masks, staying 10 ft apart from the others, wiping down machines, 40% of capacity. No thanks!
I don’t have to worry about all the above because I can do band alone training, horizontal vector training, I can add dumbbells if I want, all without leaving my apartment.
If I want to train outdoors there are soccer fields, and parks with chain link fences within a 1/2 mile where I live and I just use my band utility strap and I am ready to go, get some Vitamin D.
The versatility of the bands and the convenience it provides within just a small space for me, makes it a no brainer. I use my smart phone for intervals and tabata training, to get metabolic type conditioning. And at 70 years old, reaction time, mobility is very important to me. The bands allow me to train fast twitch muscle fibers more efficiently.
Dave, thanks for all the wonderful content you provide.
Herb D.
RBT Enthusiasts
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