These errant ideas are:
1. Each movement is "artificially" forced into ten steps.
2. CC is not a "balanced" system, because some of the Master Steps are harder than others.
Both these ideas seem to display a misunderstanding based on a superficial reading of the book.
Regarding the first idea; the "ten steps" is just a conceptual framework to help athletes understand the true nature of progressive cal. I can’t believe so few people actually get this. There aren’t really ten steps, folks! Each step can be turned into lots of little exercises (read the "perfecting your technique" section of each technique.) You can break the push-up progressions he gives into, like, 50 steps!
The use of tens as a guideline just makes things tidy. The author could have used twelves or twenties. But the use of tens is brilliant. The decimal system in CC sits well with our everyday use of numbers.
The step structure just outlines the basic method of making each technique harder, and can be used for any other technique you can name. (Everyone on the internet now is jumping on the "progressions" bandwagon now, but how many other writers really wrote about bodyweight progressions in the years before CC came out? It’s easy to critque the trailblazers.)
Regarding the second idea, that some Master Steps are harder than others; this is true, of course, but if you understand the book you’ll see clearly that this actually makes no difference to the practice of CC. Why? Because you don’t stop when you get to each Master Step!
Again, the Master Steps are just a mental tool to help you understand where you might want to go. If you reach the Master Step, you just keep getting stronger, using even harder exercises. (As in the "Going Beyond" section of each chapter.) So there is no "imbalance"…you just get as strong as you can in every movement you do–until you reach your limit. (And this limit is ultimitely determined by your genetic make-up, not your exercise selection.)
So what if hanging leg raises are relatively "easy" compared to one-arm chins? You don’t stop there. You keep finding ways to make things harder, and if you’ve worked thru CC you’ll understand how.
Hope this helps some newbies who are maybe confused. Good luck with your training, all.
