Eric Dermond
RFT Master Trainer
Boston, MA
Santa Barbara, CA
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Dear reader,
Thank you for your curiosity and for coming across The Genius of Flexibility, Bob Cooley and the Resistance Flexibility modality. My name is Eric Dermond and I have had the great privilege to study and work alongside Bob Cooley since 2016. He has been a priceless friend and mentor and it is a great honor to share and help others with what he has so generously taught to me.
Before discovering Resistance Flexibility, I was an avid skateboarder and very passionate about learning how to use my body in new ways. From the age of 3, I was on a skateboard almost every day. My father had a board from the 1970s that he used while taking our dog out for walks. I watched as he would have our dog pull him on our street while riding at top speeds. It amazed me and, in seeing this response from me, my father put me on the board, between his feet, and held onto me as we surfed the street together.
Fast forward 18 years, my enthusiasm for skateboarding had only grown and I even had sponsors, video projects, photographs in big-name magazines, and an amazing networks of friends and connections throughout the United States. In skateboarding, I found an incredibly rich path of creativity, challenge, self-discovery, mastery, travel, camaraderie and connection. To see the world through the eyes of a skateboarder is to see endless potential, fun and creativity in the seemingly mundane infrastructure of everyday life and, by that point, my skateboard felt like a physical extension of myself.
I of course fell a great many times in my progression and evolution as a skateboarder and it had taken it’s toll on my body. In trying to extend my life with skateboarding, I was very interested in increasing my health, strength and flexibility. An older person once told me, “You know, getting older is just learning how to live with pain.” I found that view to be completely unacceptable and in the deepest part of my being I knew that was not true. I could see where they were coming from, but inside of me I knew there must be a way to radically improve and regenerate the human body at any age and in any condition.
Fortunately for me, I had never sustained a catastrophic injury to my body while skateboarding, but I had certainly accumulated thousands of smaller injuries and even required surgery on my elbow after a particularly bad fall. I got to know a variety of doctors and physical therapists over the years and, although I appreciated their well-intentions and helpful nature, I found these options to be limited in their effectiveness and empowerment.
In 2012, my mother tore her ACL in her right knee while skiing and required two surgeries after an initial surgery was determined to have been unsuccessful. In her experience, she also found her recovery to be less than satisfactory. The lack of functionality she was left with in her knee led to problems and pain in her right hip and then in her back. She has always been someone who is open to things on the cutting edge (for example, she started eating an almost exclusively all-organic whole food diet in the early 1990s) and in her endless pursuit to get her body back, she discovered Bob Cooley’s work in 2015.
That summer, after reaching out to Bob, she scheduled an introductory session for both her and myself. We traveled from New Jersey to Boston and met Bob at his studio in Copley Square. A great many amazing and miraculous things happened that day, but in short my mother left feeling better, younger, stronger, more flexible and was radically more able to use her body without pain or discomfort. It was an experience like no other.
I left that day being able to touch my toes comfortably for the first time in my life (I had lost the ability all together a few years earlier and even then it was painful to do). I suddenly had space, freedom, lightness, stability and ease that I had never experienced in my body before. Later that week, I went skateboarding and was shocked at how much easier and effortless it was. My ollie (ability to jump with a skateboard) increased to an all time high after having peaked 4 years earlier. I felt better not just physically, but I also noticed I was mentally clearer, more relaxed, calmer and more in the moment of life. In every way I could perceive, I felt more nourished and capable. I was ecstatic to say the least. If one session with Bob had this effect on me, what was really possible? How far into health and functionality could one go? I needed to find out.
What Bob Cooley introduced to my mom and I that summer’s day was the simplest yet most profound and seemingly counterintuitive understanding of how the body works I had ever encountered. It explained why my previous efforts to become stronger and more flexible did not work while empowering me with a framework and way of problem solving my own physical issues that I could use anytime anywhere, either by myself or exponentially more effective with a partner. I immediately ordered Bob’s book, “The Genius of Flexibility: The Smart Way to Stretch and Strengthen Your Body” and read it in one night. In short order, I found myself spending hours each day working on my body and being amazed by the results.
I then began using Bob’s system and associative database as a map to help guide me with whatever I was doing in my life that day. If I was nervous before a presentation, I looked up which muscle group/meridian was associated with nervousness (central hamstring/Brain meridian) and I worked on that part of me. If I was anxious before a social event or if I was procrastinating, I found the associated muscle groups/meridians and did the same thing. I soon found myself having very different experiences in situations and environments that I often struggled in or at the very least found to push me off-center. It became increasingly obvious to me that the health and development of one’s body was the single biggest factor in quality of life and functionality in one’s existence. I decided to make the investment in myself.
It’s been over 8 years since I met Bob in Boston and was introduced to his work. Since then, my life has changed in incredibly fortunate ways. I’ve spent hundreds, if not thousands, of hours working alongside Bob and learning his ways while discovering my own. The list of people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and spending hours with include everyone from top-tier professional athletes, scientists, performers, business leaders and celebrities to a people with physical alignments and disorders that western medicine has no solution for. The transformations and improvements I have witnessed first-hand are nothing short of miraculous and this has profoundly affected my perspective on life and what we as human beings can do for each other.
It is an immense privilege and honor to be in a position to empower others with their own body and help people learn to help themselves. I currently reside and work in Boston, but I travel regularly to Santa Barbara for trainings and clients there as well.
I would love to speak with you and can easily be reached by email or phone. I wish you much success and good fortune in your journey of health, self discovery and empowerment.
Sincerely,
Eric Dermond
Thank you for your curiosity and for coming across The Genius of Flexibility, Bob Cooley and the Resistance Flexibility modality. My name is Eric Dermond and I have had the great privilege to study and work alongside Bob Cooley since 2016. He has been a priceless friend and mentor and it is a great honor to share and help others with what he has so generously taught to me.
Before discovering Resistance Flexibility, I was an avid skateboarder and very passionate about learning how to use my body in new ways. From the age of 3, I was on a skateboard almost every day. My father had a board from the 1970s that he used while taking our dog out for walks. I watched as he would have our dog pull him on our street while riding at top speeds. It amazed me and, in seeing this response from me, my father put me on the board, between his feet, and held onto me as we surfed the street together.
Fast forward 18 years, my enthusiasm for skateboarding had only grown and I even had sponsors, video projects, photographs in big-name magazines, and an amazing networks of friends and connections throughout the United States. In skateboarding, I found an incredibly rich path of creativity, challenge, self-discovery, mastery, travel, camaraderie and connection. To see the world through the eyes of a skateboarder is to see endless potential, fun and creativity in the seemingly mundane infrastructure of everyday life and, by that point, my skateboard felt like a physical extension of myself.
I of course fell a great many times in my progression and evolution as a skateboarder and it had taken it’s toll on my body. In trying to extend my life with skateboarding, I was very interested in increasing my health, strength and flexibility. An older person once told me, “You know, getting older is just learning how to live with pain.” I found that view to be completely unacceptable and in the deepest part of my being I knew that was not true. I could see where they were coming from, but inside of me I knew there must be a way to radically improve and regenerate the human body at any age and in any condition.
Fortunately for me, I had never sustained a catastrophic injury to my body while skateboarding, but I had certainly accumulated thousands of smaller injuries and even required surgery on my elbow after a particularly bad fall. I got to know a variety of doctors and physical therapists over the years and, although I appreciated their well-intentions and helpful nature, I found these options to be limited in their effectiveness and empowerment.
In 2012, my mother tore her ACL in her right knee while skiing and required two surgeries after an initial surgery was determined to have been unsuccessful. In her experience, she also found her recovery to be less than satisfactory. The lack of functionality she was left with in her knee led to problems and pain in her right hip and then in her back. She has always been someone who is open to things on the cutting edge (for example, she started eating an almost exclusively all-organic whole food diet in the early 1990s) and in her endless pursuit to get her body back, she discovered Bob Cooley’s work in 2015.
That summer, after reaching out to Bob, she scheduled an introductory session for both her and myself. We traveled from New Jersey to Boston and met Bob at his studio in Copley Square. A great many amazing and miraculous things happened that day, but in short my mother left feeling better, younger, stronger, more flexible and was radically more able to use her body without pain or discomfort. It was an experience like no other.
I left that day being able to touch my toes comfortably for the first time in my life (I had lost the ability all together a few years earlier and even then it was painful to do). I suddenly had space, freedom, lightness, stability and ease that I had never experienced in my body before. Later that week, I went skateboarding and was shocked at how much easier and effortless it was. My ollie (ability to jump with a skateboard) increased to an all time high after having peaked 4 years earlier. I felt better not just physically, but I also noticed I was mentally clearer, more relaxed, calmer and more in the moment of life. In every way I could perceive, I felt more nourished and capable. I was ecstatic to say the least. If one session with Bob had this effect on me, what was really possible? How far into health and functionality could one go? I needed to find out.
What Bob Cooley introduced to my mom and I that summer’s day was the simplest yet most profound and seemingly counterintuitive understanding of how the body works I had ever encountered. It explained why my previous efforts to become stronger and more flexible did not work while empowering me with a framework and way of problem solving my own physical issues that I could use anytime anywhere, either by myself or exponentially more effective with a partner. I immediately ordered Bob’s book, “The Genius of Flexibility: The Smart Way to Stretch and Strengthen Your Body” and read it in one night. In short order, I found myself spending hours each day working on my body and being amazed by the results.
I then began using Bob’s system and associative database as a map to help guide me with whatever I was doing in my life that day. If I was nervous before a presentation, I looked up which muscle group/meridian was associated with nervousness (central hamstring/Brain meridian) and I worked on that part of me. If I was anxious before a social event or if I was procrastinating, I found the associated muscle groups/meridians and did the same thing. I soon found myself having very different experiences in situations and environments that I often struggled in or at the very least found to push me off-center. It became increasingly obvious to me that the health and development of one’s body was the single biggest factor in quality of life and functionality in one’s existence. I decided to make the investment in myself.
It’s been over 8 years since I met Bob in Boston and was introduced to his work. Since then, my life has changed in incredibly fortunate ways. I’ve spent hundreds, if not thousands, of hours working alongside Bob and learning his ways while discovering my own. The list of people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and spending hours with include everyone from top-tier professional athletes, scientists, performers, business leaders and celebrities to a people with physical alignments and disorders that western medicine has no solution for. The transformations and improvements I have witnessed first-hand are nothing short of miraculous and this has profoundly affected my perspective on life and what we as human beings can do for each other.
It is an immense privilege and honor to be in a position to empower others with their own body and help people learn to help themselves. I currently reside and work in Boston, but I travel regularly to Santa Barbara for trainings and clients there as well.
I would love to speak with you and can easily be reached by email or phone. I wish you much success and good fortune in your journey of health, self discovery and empowerment.
Sincerely,
Eric Dermond
