Ok eveyone, I have been working on what we can do to have an awesome time here in Chiang Mai while learning a lot and being really fit, and below are the details. I have managed to put prices on most of it, however one or two of them are still uncertain for now, I have provided an estimate for those, however.

Accommodation options

I have come up with two guest possible guest houses, one a little better and more expensive than the other.

1. Chiang Mai Thai House

Facilities include a swimming pool, cable tv, bathroom and internet plug. A small and nicely decorated guest house just outside of the inner city. I have taken both my mother and father (separate trips) to stay here.

Prices are:

Deluxe fan room (single or double) – 400 baht per night

Deluxe air-con room (single or double) – 700 baht per night

Deluxe air-con room with personal mini garden (single or double) – 950 baht per night

There are also options for triple share room, if you are interested please let me know.

* Breakfast not included.

2. Tawan guest house (no website)

 

A small, friendly, family run guest house a street over from the above. Rich garden courtyard with water fountain, reasonable rooms and free wi-fi.

Room with air-con, bathroom and double bed – 300 baht per night.

*Breakfast not included

Saturday 19th February

Plan to arrive on this day, hopefully in the morning or early afternoon if is possible. Please provide me with your details and I will organise a transfer from Chiang Mai international airport, either from the Guest House itself (a fee of 80 baht) and I’ll also be doing a few runs myself, so it may be me who picks you up

Saturday afternoon around 3pm or so for those who have arrived we will take a trip up Doi Suthep mountain stopping off at a waterfall and then continuing all the way up to the temple near the top to hopefully catch the sunset.

Follow with dinner at a local, and delicious, Mexican restaurant “Salsa Kitchen”.

Price: Approximately 200 or so baht for red taxi ride up the mountain.

Dinner pay by self (approximately 200 baht a head). Return to guesthouse provided.

 

Sunday 20th February – CST Seminar Day 1

Pick up from guest house at 8:30am. Please be ready and have finished breakfast already by this time.

Seminar start at 9:00am.

Snack break sometime in the morning (snacks provided, expect fruit and nuts and upon request raw goats milk for the protein, fat and vitamin/mineral boost it can help provide for what is likely to be a tough day, every day).

Lunch at approximately 12:00 midday. To be worked out for this first day (alternative gym venue for first day only).

Seminar finish around 5pm and transfer back to guest house.

Spend the evening walking and enjoying the amazing (and kilometers long!) Sunday markets walking distance from your guest house. Enjoy Thai street food and browsing many locally made goods from bags and clothes to woodcrafts and more.

 

Monday 21st February – CST Seminar Day 2

8:15am - Pick up from guest house and transfer to gym.

8:30am – seminar start.

One snack break in morning.

Around midday lunch break, Thai-food lunch provided at restaurant attached to gym.

3:30pm – transfer to a local park for further theory, and perhaps practical, work as the sun sets. Transfer back to guesthouse when finished.

Option to join us for a Khantoke dinner which is a Lanna-Thai (traditional Northern Thai) style meal with a show of music and dancing.

Price – TBD (about 400baht)

Return transfers from guesthouse provided.

 

Tuesday 22nd February – CST Seminar Day 3

8:15am – Pick up from guesthouse and transfer to gym.

8:30am – Seminar starts.

Morning snack break

Lunch around midday.

Sometime after lunch transfer to “Huay Thung Thai” or as we refer to it here “Chiang Mai beach”. A large lake a little north of Chiang Mai city which looks up at Doi Suthep mountain. Many huts to sit and chat. Here we will do our Trial By Fire exam and finish up any theory work that needs to be done.

Optional swim in the lake when we are finished.

Celebration dinner at Soontharee Northern Thai restaurant. Amazing food, great atmosphere and a famous Northern Thai folk singer.

Price – We will split the bill expect around 300+ baht.

Return transfers from guesthouse provided.

 

Wednesday 23rd February – Rest day

Join us for a trip to “Nahm Poo Jet See” which translates as seven coloured natural spring.

A natural spring which has created an amazing limestone waterfall you can literally climb up!

We will bring a Thai style BBQ and make a picnic of it.

Pickup at guesthouse around 9am.

Return some time in afternoon, optional detour for Thai massage if people would like.

Price – 400 baht per person for trip and lunch.

Massage – Depending on the venue can vary between 90-150 baht per hour.

Dinner organise by self tonight, we will need the rest especially those continuing on to part two – TACFIT – tomorrow!

 

Thursday 24th February – TACFIT Day 1

8:15am - Pick up from guest house and transfer to gym.

8:30am – seminar start.

One snack break in morning.

Around midday lunch break, Thai-food lunch provided at restaurant attached to gym.

3:30pm – transfer to a local park for further theory, and perhaps practical, work as the sun sets. Transfer back to guesthouse when finished.

Dinner organise by self.

 

Friday 25th February – TACFIT Day 2

8:15am - Pick up from guest house and transfer to gym.

8:30am – seminar start.

One snack break in morning.

Around midday lunch break, Thai-food lunch provided at restaurant attached to gym.

3:30pm – transfer to a local park if needed for further theory info. Transfer back to guest house when finished.

Celebration dinner @ Riverside Restaurant, preceded by river cruise.

Return transfers from guesthouse to restaurant provided.

Price – 500 baht per person.

 

 

Saturday 25th February – Final day

Ok today after a hard week of work we have earned a seriously fun outing (if we can still walk!)

Today it is….

Jungle Flight

A full day of swinging through the trees on ziplines and having a blast.

Pickup from guesthouse (around 8:30am) and lunch is provided on the trip. Full trip (package B) can take up to 9 hours, although possible less.

Price – 1900 baht per person

Farewells after trip and self-organise for dinner (although we can always go somewhere local together).

 

Sunday 27th February – Departures

Please inform me of your departure date and time and I will organise a transfer to Chiang Mai international airport for you.

2nd South East Asia Circular Strength Training Seminar – February 2011

Welcome to the beautiful and relaxing town of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand.

Come and join us for an amazing and full week of Intu-Flow joint mobility, Prasara body-flow yoga, Clubbell swinging and TACFIT specialized tactical fitness with RMAX faculty Head Coach Ryan Hurst.

The seminar will be broken into two parts, the first being a three day CST Instructor Certification seminar (general seminar information) applicable to aspiring or returning CST instructors and also those willing to broaden their fitness horizons with the complete wellness fitness system of Circular Strength Training.

The second seminar will be a TACFIT Field Instructor seminar applicable to aspiring or returning CST instructors willing to expand into the realms of scalable tactical fitness instructors and also those willing to have knowledge on how to expand their own physical limits through tested and proven programming.

Chiang Mai is located an hour’s flight north of Bangkok on a plain surrounded by hills. It is a popular tourist destination and many who visit fall in love with this place. It is well known for an amazing and affordable array of food, massage, shopping and relaxation.

This coming seminar will be one of the most special CST seminars held to date as together we explore the developing concept of a ‘fitness holiday’.

A holiday package is available that will include all accommodation, two special group dinners at the completion of each seminar, two full day really special group outings (during the day off and on the day after the last seminar) as well as airport transfers and daily transfers to and from the seminar venue.

More details to come, including costs, for this package.

 

This will be Coach Hurst’s first time in Thailand and he is excited and ready to make this a memorable experience for all!

 

For those living in South East Asia and the Australasia region this might be the only chance to be certified for some time to come, plus you get to have an awesome holiday.

For those in Europe or the Americas… feel free to join us for the fun and holiday anyway!

 

If you truly wish to be on the cutting edge of worldwide fitness and have a great time doing so, contact us now to reserve your place.

 

Seminars include manuals as well as lunch and snacks for each day.

 

3 day CST IC Seminar Sunday 20^th – Tuesday 22^nd February 2011

18,000 Thai Baht**

2 day TACFIT Field Instructor Seminar  Thursday 24^th – Friday 25^th February 2011

12,000 Thai Baht**

Combined CST IC & TACFIT Seminars

28,000 Thai Baht**

**There is an extra charge of $250 for CST certification and $250 for TACFIT certification required by RMAX Headquarters and payable to seminar host.

 

 

For bookings or more information please contact Damien at:

shadow217@hotmail.com

I am willing and ready to create a memorable and highly enjoyable experience for all of us. If there is anything extra you would like to know about or see included or need organized please don’t hesitate to contact me.

 

 

For as long as I can remember there has been a part of me that cared. Cared about people, cared about the world, cared about happiness and joy.

I remember wondering, when I was a child, why is this world so harsh? Why are people mean?

I forgot for a long time and got wrapped up in the world of trying to fit in. The world of fast and easy food. The world of distraction and entertainment, video games and TV. Increasing levels of disconnection to who I really am… to the point of confusion, depression and disease.

After initially choosing to study Engineering at university through being concerned with making some good $$$ as an adult I found it so boring, so dry. I had nothing in common with the other students and out of over 400 people in my course I had a single friend. Another individual, from the mountains, who was as confused as I was in his choice to study this subject.

After a trip to France and spending some time with my cousin in the mountains, walking through the forests with him something deep inside of me shifted. A seed was planted… one that eventually germinated and only now is starting to grow.

I returned to Australia and dropped the Engineering. I could no longer relate to that world, I could no longer fool myself that I actually cared about that, that doing so for a living would make me even more miserable than I already was.

I decided to study Environmental Biology and then found myself as an adult wondering again… how can we have let so much damage happen to the place in which we live?

How did we create such a toxic world?

There is a deep sadness within me, partly for my part in the destruction of this place and partly for the disconnection from my nature that belongs out there.

We do live in a toxic world.

It is not a negative statement, it is a simple fact and the faster we realise this the quicker we can turn it around and do something about it.

I do not subscribe, not for a second, to the extremely misguided view of humans as a destructive parasite. Instead I see us as incredibly influential and powerful beings.

When I was studying Permaculture four years ago my amazing teacher Geoff Lawton said something that has resounded within me since…

“Surely if humans are capable of such destruction then we are as equally capable of the same level of nurture”.

We live in a day and age where every breath we take is polluted from toxins belched out by factories producing crap we don’t even need and food that isn’t even food. There is not a single place on Earth now that does not have DDT in the air from our incredible arrogance thinking we have the right to destroy entire colonies of other animals on our own whim.

We have an ocean that is depleted of it’s life to the point where other animals are going extinct merely by being out competed for food by us… and what do we do with all the stuff we take from the ocean? Most of it gets thrust into cans where it literally rots and then smothered with sugary sauces or cheap oils to dilute what would be a rancid taste. Add to that the extreme amounts of chemicals being poured into the ocean to the point where it is not even safe for a health-conscious human being to eat most seafoods due to contamination by mercury… and then add to that now even fish are having reproductive difficulties due to the massive amounts of phyto-estrogens formed by our man-made plastics and chemicals in shampoos and soaps (that many people ignorantly pour on their bodies) being washed down the drain and into the ocean.

We have our food supply so corrupted and processed. Meats pumped full of growth hormones and anti-biotics. Seas of useless grass, useless to our digestive systems that is.

Most of the food people eat these days isn’t even food, it’s chemicals mixed with mushed up, bleached and processed stuff… gunk that does not in any way even resemble anything that looks like you could find it in nature.

And even for those people who are still compelled somehow to consume something that really looks like food, vegetables and fruits, most of them are so covered in pesticides and pumped up by force feeding salty fertilisers on them. Add to that now the world’s soils have become highly deficient in mineral content.

For most people life is spent moving from one chair to the next in an entirely artificial environment. They sit at work blasted by air-conditioners in tightly sealed boxes only occasionally interrupted by an uncomfortable stroll to the toilet where they might manage to squeeze out a bowel movement through the layers of hardened feacal matter lining their intestines. Finish work and into the car to sit  again in a blast of air-conditioning, or heating depending on the weather for the long ridiculous commute home. Where they will collapse, usually exhausted, into a chair to be bombarded by mind-numbing soap operas and comedies punctuated by brainwashing commercials for more stuff they don’t need.

And then, for those who still have some semblance of family, it is on to the dining room table to eat what I hope still at least looks like food… although for many dinner is probably consumed in front of the TV and microwaved out of a packet or perhaps brought to the door in a box by some pimple faced teenager.

I could go on and on.

The simple point is despite the extreme resitance of many to admit, humans and nature are inextricably intertwined. There is no separation no matter how hard we try to create one. No matter how artificial we create our environment to be, we are nature.

And if we damage nature, we damage ourselves.

This is easily seen by anyone who shakes off the slumber of sluggish dullness for just a moment and looks around.

Things are not looking good, and it is time we do something about it.

For me I am finding my own way out of the tangled maze. My first step, the acceptance of this destruction, happened a long time ago. I am well into my second step, rehabilitation.

I still have a long way to go yet I am far enough along now to see where I was. There are many who have walked before me and they have left tools and signposts for the way out of this mess. I will share with you the tools that I have found on my way to be the most effective, in the simple knowledge that your freedom and happiness adds to mine.

Walk with me… and perhaps soon we will run, together, through the mountains and the forests.

This is a statement of my intention to reveal myself.

Originally I designed this blog to be about my physical odyssey with a large part of it using affiliate links to make some residual income.

I choose now to use this blog to be about my odyssey (and still use affiliate links).

I am more than my exercise routines.

I am a whole body: a connection and integration of the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual realms.

I exist within the environment and am a part of nature.

This is my exploration of self, my journey for my truth and my nature and as such will be wide in scope and encompass all that inspires me.

Enjoy

A key turning point in my life happened for me during my last year of university in 2004.

I was a pretty ordinary uni students. My life revolved around my classes and ‘having a good time’. I studied the martial art of Aikido and did a bit of skateboarding but other than that I had no interest in exercise, physical culture or any kind of health.

I ate whatever tasted good to me and I had the money to afford – this was mostly baked goods like sausage rolls, meat pies, cheese and bacon rolls along with other staples like hamburgers, sausages, pasta, pizza, etc. I didn’t have much of a sweet tooth although I did on occasion having cravings for chocolate. I didn’t like sodas or ‘soft drinks’ as we call them in Australia and I didn’t like vegetables or fruit much either.

I did my fair share of binge drinking (or as most people think of it, social weekend drinking – however now I see if you get drunk off it, it is a binge drink) and recreational drugs. Down time was surfing the net, watching TV or playing Playstation 2… although I did (and still do) enjoy reading books particularly science fiction and fantasy.

I didn’t look ahead much or think about consequences of any of my activities, the thought that there was even something not-so-healthy about the way I was living my life never even crossed my mind! I generally lived doing whatever gave me some kind of gratification right now.

In that last semester of the last year of uni I was doing a single subject “Environmental Management”. It was a shock-horror subject where the devastation and environmental damage now occurring on planet Earth was made very real to us. The class was a single six hour day per week. I was not working and so had a lot of free time on my hands.

For this subject we were given an assignment to choose from a list of topics and in a group we would need to complete a report, a website and a 10 minute presentation in front of the class.

When I finally got around to scanning the list of topics I saw one that immediately struck my eye, entitled: “What’s in the food we eat?”

This was something I had never thought about before and seemed like it could be an interesting exploration. Initially I intended to do the website thinking I could learn to do web design at the same time… but then after my first week of studying I quickly asked my group members if I could do the talk.

I can remember that first afternoon I sat down in front of the internet. I can’t remember now what I typed into google or what the first website I looked at was but I do remember the almost real physical sensation of my jaw hitting the floor. I was shocked… food… affected us… could make us sick… weak… cancer… chemicals… genetically modified… toxic… and so on.

Something happened to me that day. Suddenly ignorance was no longer bliss and I was aware for the first time in memory that what I did, what I ate had consequences in the future and the next logical conclusion was that where I was now was a result of what I did and ate in the past.

It was like a haze lifted from over me and I become unpleasantly aware of how I was actually feeling…. and it didn’t feel very good.

I was tired, my body was stiff, I had a layer of fat around my middle (even though I was still a skinny guy) and well actually I felt a lot older than 23.

That moment defined a shift in my thinking that has determined my life since. I became obsessed, as I had so much free time I dedicated probably 10-20 hours a week doing independent research on the internet about food. I changed my entire diet almost overnight. I dropped almost all of the junkey baked goods and switched to whole grains. I began to increase my uptake of vegetables, I began volunteering at an organic co-op for discounts, I began frequenting my local organic markets and making friends with the stall holders and I am not kidding when I say this… without decreasing the volume of food, without increasing the amount of activity I did… I dropped 10kg in three weeks.

Yes, 10kg in three weeks.

Being a skinny guy already this became incredibly noticeable and I started to get concerned questions about my health, constant admonitions to eat more and gentle queries about possible, you know um, anorexia. The truth was I was actually feeling better, I had more energy than before and my thinking was clearer.

However getting sick of the questions and also tuning into my physical state and along with my crazy, obsessive level of internet browsing I began to run into, at the time, ‘alternative’ physical conditioning programs. Almost simultaneously I came across Clubbells and Kettlebells and I knew I wanted to train with one of them (eventually the Clubbells won out) what however really struck me in this search and won me over to the RMAX way of doing things was this video of Coach Scott Sonnon rolling around on the grass. There was something about what he was doing that looked fun, cool and yet attainable and most of all it looked like it felt really really good and free to be able to move like that.

And so I found myself on a new life-path. My focus had now shifted to health and movement. No longer could I be satisfied with instant gratification and I became considerate about how would I feel in 5 years, 10 years, 15 years, etc?

I have been reflecting on this defining moment lately as I take stock of where I am and how I feel about it… and what I see is my motivation at this time was to feel good.

I had noticed that I had been living a life of what feels good right now, this second and momentarily as opposed to one where I would feel good all the time.

I can see now that was the ideal I was chasing, to feel good all the time.

And as I take stock I can see how far I had diverged from that. How the fantasies of superhuman health promoted by the raw food crowd, mad physical skills that would impress the girls and big muscles with a sculpted six-pack like the media tells us we should look like have all influenced me. It was no longer about feeling good, it was about fitting some other person or paradigms version of what feeling good should be, again. Sure this was a much healthier version of before but it was still a path of fear, a path being concerned about living up to someone elses standards.

If you have invested any time in the health or fitness community it is very easy to see this trend. These crowds are promoting products continuously and subversive within this advertising is a hidden message that in order to feel good, look good, be healthy, be fit we need to do things their way. The undercurrent of this is fear, fear that if I as the consumer do not get this product then I will be missing out I will be doomed to feeling bad and being unhealthy. I understand this completely, they are trying to make a living selling a product.

Nevertheless the point I have reached is one where I can now see through all of that advertising. I have done so much chasing, I have bought so many products and read so many websites and books on health. I have tried so many different paradigms. I have been scared into vegetarianism thinking meat was going to give me bowel cancer. I have been scared into raw food thinking anything cooked would create toxic chemicals that would make me sick and have cancer… I have seen almost all of it, read almost all of it, tried much of it to the point where I found my own discovery, my own truth, my own ideal of feeling good was lost.

Until now.

None of my time was wasted. I gained much knowledge along the way, I gained much discernment and through the patterns to see which path was leading the right way.

As I tune into my body these days, I still don’t feel that great. I’m definitely not of a superhuman level of health, I don’t have particularly big muscles, my mad skills are in short supply. I have tried to chase so many different rabbits it made me dizzy.

However if I look back to the time before my insight, if I extrapolate along the path I was on…. well I am certainly a lot better off than that.

And I take comfort from this thought. And I relax.

I believe I have found something that works for me. I am coming back inline with my original motivations. I am stalking my own, and single, rabbit.

To feel good. All the time.

So why do you do it, whatever it is you do?

P.S. That talk I gave at university… I spoke for over an hour to a completely silent and transfixed room of more than 50 students. The professor allowed me to continue well past the 10 minute mark. It was something I had never experienced before and I got the highest grade for this subject in my entire university history.