Max·im·ol·o·gy


The Pursuit of Maximum Performance

by
Scott Sonnon, USA National Coach, Master of
Sport, Physical Conditioning Advisor

RMAX.tv Productions
Department of Athletic Performance Enhancement Solutions

Maximology: The Pursuit of Maximum Performance™
Copyright 2003 by RMAX.tv Productions
All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or
reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the
case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

For information address:
RMAX.tv Productions
P.O. Box 501388
Atlanta, GA 31150
Website: www.RMAX.tv
Email comments and questions to: info@CLUBBELL.tv

Maximology™ is a trademark of RMAX.tv Productions

FIRST EDITION
Disclaimer: The information in this book is presented in good faith, but no warranty is given, nor results
guaranteed. Since we have no control over physical conditions surrounding the application of information in
this book the author and publisher disclaim any liability for untoward results including (but not limited) any
injuries or damages arising out of any person's attempt to rely upon any information herein contained. The
exercises described in this book are for information purposes, and may be too strenuous or even dangerous
for some people. The reader should consult a physician before starting clubbells or any other exercise

programs.

IMPORTANT: Please be sure to thoroughly read the instructions for all exercises in this book, paying
particular attention to all cautions and warnings shown for clubbells to ensure their proper and safe use.

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Table of Contents:

1. Introduction
2. The Big Picture
3. The Trinity Path
4. The Philosophy of Strength
5. Strength Channeling
6. Dynamic Mobility & Selective Tension
7. Degrees of Freedom
8. Core Activation & Reactive Strength
9. Performance Breathing & Perpetual Exercise
10. Component Learning
11. Complex Training
12. Specificity over Simulation
13. General Guidelines
14. Basic Exercises – Tips, Tools and Components
15. Advanced Exercises – Tips, Tools and Components
16. Marketing Advice
17. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

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Obviously the video course, Maximology and Freedom By Degree would be of
great value to all CST candidate instructors.

Certification as an Instructor of Circular Strength Training requires you to
accurately apply the following in each of the basic exercises:
i. Overflow (Irradiation)
ii. Pre-tension (Successive Induction)
iii. Selective Tension
iv. Strength Channeling
v. Form (Structural Alignment and Biomechanical Efficiency)
vi. Six Degrees of Freedom (Multi-Planar Movement)
vii.Performance Breathing
viii.Specificity (rather than Simulation)
ix. Component Learning Theory (Elementary Components,
Biomechanical Exercises, Kinetic Chains)
x. Sophisticated Training
xi. Pre-failure (Synaptic Facilitation)
xii.As well as all of the Rules of Circular Strength Training
(outlined in my book), and all of the Essential Elements of
Body-Flow (outlined in Body-Flow)
xiii.Movement Analysis and Diagnostics
1. Self-analysis of weakness & correction
2. Analyzing others & ways to correct


The order above is arbitrary and they will be discussed later and covered during
the Certification Course. Some of the material I cover extensively throughout my
books. Likewise, we will spend significant time in the course on Movement
Analysis and Diagnostics.

We want this to be the most satisfying instructional experience you’ve had, and
provide you with the tools you need to instruct your clients.

Coach Sonnon
RMAX.tv Productions

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THE BIG PICTURE
From Instructors to Teachers

Throughout this Instructor’s Manual, I will refer to passages from my books and
the videos. I will also refer to other resources, some of which are available
through RMAX.tv Productions’ website (www.RMAX.tv) and (www.clubbell.tv).

In the Circular Strength Training program there are four levels of certification:

1. Instructor
2. Trainer
3. Coach
4. Teacher

Anyone receiving certification needs to understand the two primary, physical
culture models making up the underlying philosophy that all CST courses are
built upon. Basically, if it doesn’t adhere to the entire philosophy, it is
categorically not CST. Out of a circle you cannot take a portion and still have a
circle; as a ‘holistic’ approach, you must have a whole.

Training Hierarchical Pyramid Performance Diagnostic Trinity

The Training Hierarchy Pyramid is discussed at later under the Specific Physical
Preparedness section.

Within the Performance Diagnostic Trinity, there are three challenges that
certified instructors face:

1. Skill development addresses challenges in ATTENTION
2. Attribute development addresses challenge in EFFORT
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3. Toughness development addresses challenges in PERSISTENCE


The three challenges are reflected in the levels of certification:
1. Instructor: Practice – Skills – Attention (Attention to Proper Form in
each Skill through Practice.) It is here that this course focuses, since you
seek to gain your instructor certification. Strict attention to proper form
shall be chided again and again, and you will be called upon to assess the
form of others extensively.
2. Trainer: Training – Attributes – Effort (Effort to augment Attributes through
Training.) Once you deepen your “Practice” you’ll THEN be able to begin
training the attributes. This requires three certification courses
successfully completed in order to take the trainer exam. The key here is
that the material content is the same, though your appreciation of it is
deeper. Just imagine trying to train an attribute with poor form. You need
to be an instructor (and gain experience as such) before a trainer.
3. Coach: Competition – Toughness – Persistence (Persistence to create
Toughness through Competition (with oneself or others). Once you can
begin actually developing attributes you will need to be able to face the
self-imposed boundaries and limitations that you have created for
yourself, and to help your clients through those that they have created for
themselves. Understanding the nature of persistence is the single key to
unlocking a person’s freedom. Once reclaiming this virtue, you have
helped your client regain his total autonomy and self-guidance. This is the
final course examination requiring six successfully complete courses in
order to qualify for the coaching examination. Again, same content, far,
far deeper understanding of the material – you. This will become
apparent by the course outlines provided in the next section.


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Certification Program Overview

Applying his Taoist studies to martial art, Bruce Lee said that when beginning
martial art a punch is just a punch. During study, a punch becomes more than
merely a punch. After mastery, a punch becomes just a punch again.

When beginning an exercise will be just an exercise. After you study, practice
and explore, an exercise will be transformed from a mere exercise into a
sophisticated array of principles and concepts, methods and applications. After
significant mastery, an exercise becomes just an interwoven piece of this
strength & conditioning tapestry – again, just an exercise.

Certification Developmental Phases

There are three development phases we go through in development, whether as
teachers or combat athletes. In fact, these three phases are almost universal for
any kind of development. They are:
1. Recovery
2. Coordination
3. Refinement

Recovery Phase

Recovery is as much psychological as it is physical.

Specifically, ego -- manifested by the emotions of pride, anger, frustration,
embarrassment and fear -- intrudes on your ability to see and do (perform) an
exercise. Your ego competes for your health and strength. 


Ego is expressed in action – in acting out your pride, anger, frustration,
embarrassment and fear. And as we covered in the Laws of Conditioning
(Clubbell Training for Circular Strength), every action is an act of conditioning and
follows the three laws you previously saw in the progression from instructor to
trainer to coach to teacher.

Law of Outcome: whatever you do produces an outcome, regardless of how you
value that outcome.
Law of Adaptation: whatever you do over a period of time creates a change in
your organism to find homeostasis, regardless of how you value that adaptation.
Law of Progress: whatever you do with continually increasing volume, intensity,
density or complexity becomes more easily repeatable, regardless of how you
value the progress.

Egotistical actions produce outcomes you adapt to. Depending on how you
adapt, you progress and become capable of greater actions based on your
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adaptation. In other words, the direction of your progress is shaped by the

nature of your adaptation.

Learning an exercise is not simple, because to truly learn it, you must suspend
your ego. This requires vigorous study, practice and exploration. As you do, you
begin to release your potential. In this Recovery Phase of your development,
you reclaim authority over your natural strength, vitality and talents. In the
Recovery Phase, you begin to turn on the lights in the basement of your House
of Power, so that you can begin to clean up the mess your ego has made of your
health and strength.

All of fitness, strength and conditioning is built upon a false assumption: that you
come to it tabula rasa, as a “blank slate.” We are not. We each carry the weight
of traumatic baggage. We enter as a network of unnecessary, harmful tension,
binding Fear-Reactivity.

If we don't unbind these patterns of chronic muscle tension and irritable reactivity,
fitness only REINFORCES and strengthens them. You adapt to the Fear-
Reactivity and… progress upon it, resulting in debilitating conditions outlaid by
the Wheel of Dis-Ease in Body-Flow.

Coordination Phase

As you study, practice and explore, you will extrapolate the far-reaching
implications of the Rules of Circular Strength Training and the Essential
Elements of Body-Flow detailed in my books. Each exercise is a sophisticated
composite of principles and concepts, methods and applications.

As you advance in the coordination phase, you’ll find exercises gain qualities and
dimensions you did not and could not have known because of the tinted glasses
ego makes you see through. Devoid of ego, you can look at yourself and at
others and see flaws and perfections in exercise technique.

The coordination phase enables you to shed egotistical constraints, so you can
move forward upon a strong foundation and sturdy structure, as unique to you as
your fingerprints!

It is here that you are able to realize any daily accumulation of Fear-Reactivity
and discharge the tension through deliberate exercise, concurrent counter-
conditioning. If you realize when you absorb and store unnecessary, harmful
energy, you can coordinate your attention, effort and persistence to release and
resolve the issue before it embeds.

Refinement Phase

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After mastering the basic exercises, you’ll see each component as piece of a
completed puzzle. You can pick up a piece – i.e., a specific exercise -- and from,
its design, know where it fits in creating a complete mosaic of health and
strength.

In the refinement phase, exercises become sophisticated tools: they are your
means to your end(s).

Whereas in the Coordination Phase, you learned to discern the differences
between principles and concepts, methods and applications, in the Refinement
Phase, you gain the clarity to integrate them.

You develop a gem-cutter’s sophistication in selecting exercises to craft Kinetic
Chains and Combination Routines for your health and strength as well as that of
your students.

You will at this stage be able to select and prescribe exercises which will target
and counter-condition any unnecessary, harmful tension as it arises, but
moreover you have progressed to the point where you begin to resolve tension
spontaneously, as well as issue the appropriate efficiency when confronting a
task.

In the refinement phase, you should no longer feel like you’re using the heavy
power tools required to lay the foundation and build the structure. Although you
must vigilantly maintain and care, it is now time to “relax” and enjoy of the results
of your work: functional strength – specific physical preparedness – that can be
applied to any endeavor.

Skill Development Stages

When we learn anything for the first time, especially a new physical skill requiring
our bodies to perform in a certain manner, there are three stages of motor
science we go through as bio-mechanisms.

Psychologist Paul Fitts has described the three stages involved in learning a new
skill (Thomas David Kehoe, 1997) as follows:

• Cognitive, when you learn the performance goals of the skill. You must
consciously regulate and control each skill nuance.


• Associative, which is when you perform the skill. Your skill timing and
rhythm refine unconsciously, increasing fluidity.


• Autonomous, the stage where your skill becomes automatic and
unconscious.

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In the Cognitive Phase you concentrate upon integrating three physical virtues:
breathing, movement and structure. Pay Attention to detail.

In the Associative stage you no longer need to concentrate on the external
performance goals of the skill in order to regulate the movement. Attention
transforms into effort. Effort involves the internal sensation of your skill
performance goals. Feel the outcome of each performance goal inside of you. 



In the Associative stage you begin a “program,” because only through a program
can you actually begin to refine the skill to its final stage.

In the Autonomous stage, you refine the skill to the level of unconscious
performance. You begin to alter your effort and engage your Persistence. 

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10

Instructor Certification Requirements concern the Law of Outcomes: namely,

whatever you do produces an outcome, regardless of how you value that
outcome.

Based on this certification program, CST Instructors will be able to guide their
students how to use proper form in exercises and drills.

Proper Form entails the efficient integration of these three elements:

1. Breathing (patterns, rhythms, techniques)
2. Structure (alignment)
3. Movement (biomechanics)

Form Composition Chart: Proper Form in each technique
involves the total integration of each exercise’s unique
expression Movement, Structure and Breathing.
Red = Breathing
Green = Structure
Blue = Movement
Black = Proper Form, unique in each exercise

I employ my Component Learning Theory (described in Body-
Flow). Basically, each exercise comprises three Elementary Components: a
beginning, middle and ending component. 


Before you can create sophisticated exercise, you must be able to seamlessly
graft the ending component of one basic exercise (Biomechanical Exercise) to
the beginning component of another. This is known as the Kinetic Chain, or in the
case of weight training - Combination Routines.


Before beginning what I call Sophisticated Training, you must master all
elementary components. The same is true, obviously, for your clients. We shall
be covering this quite extensively, since it forms the foundation of not just every
exercise, but all human movement.

Later, you’ll find a section entitled Tips, Tools, and Components, which is a kind
of “cheat sheet” that will help you help your clients.


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11

Trainer Certification Requirements: This is the next step after becoming a

CST instructor. You are expected to apply the Law of Adaptation: namely,
whatever you do over a period of time creates a change in you (your organism)
to find a balance (homeostasis), regardless of how you value that adaptation.

In other words, whatever you do over a protracted period of time will cause your
body to change and then plateau – until you do something else to cause new
changes and subsequent plateaus.

Understanding the Law of Adaptation, CST Trainers learn how to induce the
necessary effort to cause changes leading to new states. Trainer level
certification provides a qualitative and quantitative assessment of your and your
client’s Threshold of Performance (T.O.P.).

Basically, your Threshold of Performance equals your Threshold of Pain.
Pain here refers to your level of Toughness, or resistance to failure, which I
discuss extensively in my system. There are actually three different qualities to
Toughness referring to each level of Performance Diagnostic Trinity. Although
the PDT lists only Competition as addressing Toughness, with Training
addressing Attribute development and Practice addressing Skill development, all
three create toughness. Understanding the “pain” of each level helps you
understand the Toughness you create with each challenge.

Practice develops skills, right? So when you practice, your work with your
Attention. In sport psychology, we call this Attentional Stamina. As you focus
and concentrate, you develop greater abilities with your attention. We all know
that you can get brain fried, for sure. When you fry your grey matter, you’ve met
your threshold for attention. And your attention, your brain, is just like your
muscles; it adapts and grows when you challenge it.

Training creates better attributes, right? Your speed, power, strength, endurance,
flexibility, agility, coordination can all increase. But this all depends on whether
you can put out the Effort. You’ve got the skills, now (okay, so life IS only
practice until we stop breathing. There’s always room for improvement!) But
now you’re working on creating a stronger platform for your skills. All of these
attributes can be boiled down to three types of effort: overcoming, stopping, and
yielding (which directly correspond to the three muscle actions – concentric,
isometric, and eccentric, respectively). In Training, you develop Physical
Toughness, your tissues ability to resist, stop and overcome failure.

I’ll be thoroughly discussing these issues in my upcoming book: Over-Flow –
Escaping the Vortex. Suffice it to say, Competition – with yourself or with an
opponent – develops Mental Toughness: resisting choking, raging, tanking,
quitting, etc.

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12

The overall nature of the Threshold of Performance/ Pain and the proper
assessment of it can determine whether your client progresses, stagnates or
regresses. The formula I created for this follows: Growth = stress / recovery.
Progress equals how closely your recovery balances stress over time. The
following only represents the first column of many in the ATC. I teach the entirety
in Trainer Certification level.

Over-Training
Toughness Training
Performance Zone
Maintenance Training
Under-Training

My combat and sport fighting instructors should immediately recognize that this
spectrum represents the notches between the terms I coined years ago: Soft-
Work and Hard-Work. (For more information on this, go online to www.RMAX.tv
and read my article installment series on the training nature of my system.) There
seems to be a toggle switch in athletics. People lump athletic programs into one
of two categories: over-training or under-training. Either athletes make little
progress, if any, leading to boredom and deconditioning or they find programs
which lead to injury and burn-out. With jaded professionals and disgruntled
gurus and recently discovered legends, even good programs receive a biased
categorization. If challenging, then the program over-trains athletes. If not
physically fatiguing then the program under-trains athletes. This contrast
desperately injures the ability of honest athletes seeking quality education.

I coach my athletes to be more prepared than the challenges they face. There
are people out there who hear that message and assume that equates to over-
training. It’s ADAPTATION not over-training. Why do most marathoners hit the
“20 mile wall” in the race? Because they trained a maximum of 20 mile jaunts
practicing for the event.

If your threshold is 20 miles, guess how you’re going to perform. Wrong. You do
not get 20 miles because you trained 20 miles. You get less. In order to be more
prepared than the challenges you face, you must face a tougher situation than
the impending obstacle. Why? Because the worst you do in training is the best
you can hope for in competitive performance.

Knuckledraggers exceed that which they were capable prior. We adapt and
become tougher. This General Adaptation Syndrome reflexively adjusts to
stresses we place upon ourselves. Toughness Training bears some
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13

resemblance to Over-load training. However with overload training you cannot

tolerate stresses placed upon you resulting in fatigue and failure.

On the other end of the spectrum, you have coaches who totally kid-glove their
athletes never rising out of maintaining the status quo. Recently a coach told me
his athletes never go the marathon distance prior to the event itself. He said he
does this because if his athletes trained at competitive levels, they’d suffer
injuries due to overtraining. I feel badly for the athletes that they must endure
this preconceived limitation of their potential.

Many of these adhere to the KISS principle – Keep It Simple Stupid. Nothing
saddens me more than to here this. All people own natural genius and unique
talents. Unstrained KISS’ing stifles that creative individualism. Don’t let anyone
dumb-down your senses and your abilities. Shine and help our Knuckledragger
brothers and sisters shine right next to you.

What you are about to read will curl the toes of those that worship at the alter of
canonized calisthenics. The following is only for Knuckledragger eyes and not for
those who hold to the gospel of KISS. 



Have you seen the recent trend: trainers turned “coaches” randomly generating
set/rep schemes based upon whim faster than your latest pyramid marketing
scheme? They remain shackled to convention hoping in their next article to
sensationalize the next Biggest, Baddest Ass-Kicking™ protocol. 



Adding the word “Super” in front of slow rate, “High” in front of intensity or “Ultra”
in front of compressed rest periods doesn’t give you a get-out-of-jail-free pass.
You’re still imprisoned, just within a more populated cell block called “the
industry.” If you’re not actively freeing your mind from their marketing
propaganda, you’re becoming enslaved by it. 



Have you seen how basic calisthenics recently boomed across the news? The
pundits dress you with new gadgets, angles and diagrams, but they remain
BASIC movement patterns. These trainers think in terms of out-conditioning
rather than out-performing opponents. 



Research clearly demonstrates though that every exercise conditions your
movement patterns: the more that you perform a certain movement, the more
you condition yourself to respond with that movement pattern. It’s just plain
simple motor science 101. Why do you think SPECIFICITY developed? 



So ask yourself the question and then answer, “If I let these bodyweight mongers
limit my movement, how can I expect to perform with increased agility and
coordination on the field?” 



Basic calisthenics serve the purpose of generally preparing you to do specific
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14

work. Read that again. Now, if you’ve already established a base level work
capacity, what’s next? Like I tell my clients – so you’re an effective fighter/
business/person, so now what? 



Remind these Conformist “Coaches” that unless an exercise serves a specific
purpose to performance, the exercise COMPETES with the performance of your
unique, individual goals. Read THAT again! Unless you design your program to
specifically augment the profile of your peculiar lifestyle, you create “conditioning”
which interferes with performance. 



Unless the movements directly transfer to your given field, basic calisthenics
should be used for: 

1. Rehabilitation to rebuild what atrophy quietly stole; or 

2. Incorporated into an overall general strategy to increase work capacity. 



If you continue a calisthenic beyond these two ends, then your training amounts
to no more than muscular masturbation. Worse – doing so neurologically
conditions these KISS movements into SISS patterns (Stuck in Simplistic
Stupidity). 



Remember that every exercise is an act of making that movement repeatable.
The more you do something, the more likely you are to do it. You’re also
RESTRICTED by and to those movements since the most practiced movement
holds the greatest neuromuscular dominance in performance, especially under
stress of competition or a new trick. 



Yes, the movements continued beyond their BASIC purpose will turn you into a
SISSy. 



Many in the group-think muscle factory adhere to this KISS principle. Nothing
saddens me more. All people own natural genius and unique talents. KISS stifles
creative individualism; it should OFFEND you that someone insists upon a
Simple-Stupid educational approach for your movement capability. Refuse to let
anyone dumb-down your senses and your abilities. Let them be mired in the
pestilence of robotic motion and vulgar mediocrity. 



Pushups, for example, could be the world’s most common basic calisthenic. So
let’s nuke those first! 



When the exercise no longer serves a positive and specific purpose towards
increasing performance, then it’s time to jettison the baggage. It’s time to
sophisticate the motion. Life does not occur static in one plane. We live in a three
dimensional world and life is dynamic. Sophisticate your movement and
emancipate the natural talents that lay there awaiting you.

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15

Toughness training takes you beyond your previous thresholds. Pushes you so
that increase your resistance to failure, not just physically, but more importantly
mentally and spirtually. It does so because when it comes game time, time to
face a new opponent, time to attempt a never-before-tried trick that makes your
bones rattle just thinking about it, well, it takes heart, discipline and intestinal
fortitude to plunge in with total elan. Due to these anxieties, fears, Murphy
moments, and just plain old tough opponents and difficult feats, you perform
BELOW how you perfom in training.

How do you change that? How does some athletes face a new opponent and
then, for the first time in their lives, when everything’s riding on their win, screw it
all, abandon their expectations and do something which they never did before,
which no one ever thought possible?

It’s because of Toughness. It’s because you’ve made challenge your occupation
and because you’ve taken Living Deliberately as a lifestyle. That is what it’s all
about. That’s why the Knuckledraggers smirk at each other and nod. We’re all in
this little race against ourselves. We’re all alone together cluster bombing the
ego, facing our worst fears, choosing hard-earned ethics when two roads
diverge.

Be tough, resist conforming to poor standards, push your threshold of pain to
increase your threshold of performance and stay the course… so you can go with
the REAL flow.



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16

Coaching Certification Requirements: As coaches, you are expected to

understand and employ the Law of Progress: namely, whatever you do with
continually increasing volume, intensity, density or complexity becomes more
easily repeatable, regardless of how you value the progress.

Understanding the Law of Progress, CST Coaches motivate those in their
tutelage to persist through challenges in order to achieve “Flow State,” especially
when they engage in competitive activities.

This connects to the Adaptive Threshold Chart (partially introduced above in the
CST Trainer Certification Course Overview) in that people with more experience
deal with stress better than those with less. When you are taught the details of
the Competitive Stress / Experience Chart (explained in the CST Coaching
Certification Course) the best we can hope for facing the highest degrees of
stress is to be challenged by it. That’s with considerable experience.

You have to understand specifically how to target your client’s emotional level in
order to effectively address their needs and facilitate their growth. There are
absolutely no absolutes.

Assessing your level of toughness is of paramount importance. Why? Because
this is what translates into a better human being: the drive, the will, the heart to
face crises head on blissfully embracing the tempest chaos for the betterment of
your family, community and world. Like I said, wrote and demonstrate, this is
NOT about Malibu Ken and Barbie. That’s never been what this is really about.
If that sounds like too great a responsibility, then you’re in the wrong field.
Teaching physical culture regards grooming better human beings. The unstated
premise there involves you living the part, too. Coach John Davies echoes the
same message in THE CODE of Renegade Training.

How can people expect to face extreme duress, how can people how to
maximize their state of flow in life, without their coaches first doing so
themselves, and then secondly expecting the same out of their clients? This is
Fitness as a WAY!

Trainers talk ABOUT it, whereas the Coach lives it... What most trainers call
mental toughness is categorically not mental whatsoever, but rather physical
toughness. Push an athlete farther than he thought he was capable; push him
farther than he would push himself. I call this fair weather toughness. It doesn’t
matter what you do when you have your coach push you, it matters what you can
do when you don’t. Can you face the challenge when the times get tough?

Physical toughness in A/P refers to tissue’s resistance to failure – how much can
it absorb before meeting ultimate failure point and tear. If you’re deconditioned,
your chances of choking, tanking and quitting increase. However, increased
physical conditioning does necessarily increase mental toughness. Otherwise,
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17

why is it that we see so many top physical specimens emotionally crumbling

under pressure? How often do we see these prima donnas crushed by the
underdog who just wants it more than they do? The mental and emotional and
spiritual will take you farther than your physical can endure.

Mental toughness in sports psych. refers to your ability to resist failure when
faced with hopelessness, overwhelming odds, surprise, or shock. Mental
toughness builds upon the physical, as Lombardi reminded us long ago - fatigue
makes cowards of us all. Without the physical, it’s like a warhorse charging
across thin ice. However, mental toughness needs training just as the does the
physical.

Mental failure is the length of time which passes for you to recover from a
perceived error, unexpected event or catastrophic thought. How long does it take
you to get up after a hard fall, to re-orient after getting your chimes rung? The
shorter that reactionary gap, the less your failure. The victor is often determined
by the person who can face what appears to be defeat, regain focus and get
juiced by the challenge and then pull off a never before attempted trick in spite of
the temporary negative state! How often a match was lost when a player
visualized his lost when he could have used those very same mental tools to go
higher than ever?

Most people don’t realize the amazing mental tools they ALREADY have! If you
can train yourself to live out your visualized catastrophes, you can, by very
definition do the opposite. You can, and already have the faculty to visualize
perfection and SURPASS your own visualized excellence!

1. The first step is in acknowledging that catastrophic thinking is a self-
fulfilling prophecy.
2. The second step is to recognize that you can interrupt these negative
states and let it turn even in the moment.
3. The third step is to understand that a negative state serves a specific
purpose: to tell you that some need remains unmet, whether physical such
as dehydration, lack of effective nutrition, or overtraining; or psychological
such as lack of self-esteem when facing a new challenge or confidence in
your unique genius; or spiritual such as faith in a guiding hand supporting
your risk-taking for a higher calling.
4. The final step is to prepare in advance. Bobby Knight said it best – victory
doesn’t go to those with the will to win, but to those with the will to
prepare. Exercise the grey matter as much if not more than the pink.

Teaching Certification Requirements: The details of this course are too far-
reaching to encapsulate, but refer specifically to helping the individual client find
his or her own unique form rather than sculpting them into some artificial shape.

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18

I despair at the pied pipers of the “industry” musically mesmerizing the critters
into following them towards… an endless labyrinth of delayed gratification. You
will be healthy if you buy their product. You will feel good if you follow their
program. You will be happy if you follow their guidance. 



Sure. Keep telling people that filth… and eventually, and this has been
historically proven… eventually, you’ll be overthrown. The “rabble” as you like to
call them will step up and systematically dismantle your ego, if not your limbs. 



I sent out the warning many times… be careful of presenting yourself as an
oracle, as a guru, for it is the cross you shall bear. And when you are measured,
when you are weighed, when you are judged by the court of public opinion, you
will be found wanting of that pedestal upon which you have placed yourself. 



When you feed that putrescent mind funk to people, you not only do not do good,
you do harm! What are you DOING to people?! Think about the impact you
have upon innocent people still wrapped in the throws of their Fear-Reactivity.
Think about the implications of tricking people into externalizing control – of
deceiving them into believing that you can make them happy, make them healthy,
and make them feel good. 



“If I look like THAT, then I shall be healthy,” blips through the mental radar a
thousand times a day. We each experience the bombarding rain of marketing
spear-heads hoping to penetrate your defenses, pierce your Fear-Reactivity and
activate your submission to purchase their product or program. 



“If I look like THAT, then I shall be feel good,” echoes through our viscera as our
organs, muscles, even our brain aches from the merciless onslaught of stress.
We pine for the fading memory of pain-free movement, pain-free digestion, and
dare I say… endless energy, that physical exuberance marking the life of every
child! 



How good that felt to swing from shore to water on that rope, careen down the hill
in that toboggan, spin wildly in the grass until you dropped, dance totally
unfettered by worry of embarrassment, play with the boundless imagination that
you piloted through the universe in your spaceship, painted with your fingers and
toes… 



“If I look like THAT, then I shall be happy,” screams through the anguish of a
mundane existence. Everyone feels like they’ve somehow lost something
precious, that ineffable quality of bliss we each experienced as a child at play, in
awe of the world, and hoping the day would never end so we would never have
to sleep and miss another moment of PLAY! 



Not only the entire Valley, but all of Time can be seen from the Mountain’s
Summit. And throughout Time, every occurrence in human history can be
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delineated to this undercurrent, the crux and cornerstone of our existence. We

are each an incomplete puzzle piece. Our unique characteristics hide from our
view… because of Fear-Reactivity. Our tension, fears, and trauma conceal our
actual nature. If and when we remove our Fear-Reactivity, not only would we
immediately know our unique form, but we would also immediately appreciate
how we “fit” into everything and with everyone else in the world. 



Everything we seek in excess – nicotine, alcohol, caffeine, sex, appearance,
money, power, fame… are all just substitutes. They are substitutes for that divine
connection to health, happiness and just plain “feeling good” with yourself and
the world. We substitute these excesses for the void we feel, for the vacuous
hole in our heart where once stood that unfettered child ready to take on the
world and sap every ounce of enjoyment from it. 



Shape is the excess of the “fitness industry.” The media slams our minds
countless times a day telling us to chisel our unique puzzle pieces into one
carbon copy clone of some panty-waisted, bleached-tooth pec-junky with 1%
bodyfat. Can you imagine LIVING that way? Let me share a secret with you…
not even the models can live that way. They approach me with the same misery,
the same angst as everyone who pines after their “shape”… if not MORESO!
Why? Because they have been to the summit of that tiny hill and found it
wanting. They have seen the logical conclusion of their lives, and wander lost,
not understanding why their goals did not bring them, CANNOT BRING THEM,
happiness, health and the ability to just “feel good.” 



People constantly attempt to shape me… to place me “within the box” of their
expectations. They express the sheer audacity to be surprised when I defy their
attachments to an “image”… a “shape” that they craft in their minds of who they
THINK I am. Each industry I touch, be it fitness, strength & conditioning, martial
arts, tactical/combatives, psychology, physical therapy, whatever the domain,
they all peer at me through the filter of their expectations, attempting to “fit” me
into the “shape” of their perspective on things. And with each attempt, I move out
of the way, and on to my next adventure. 



I reject their attempts to impose upon me their “shape.” I decline their insistence
that I must fit others into their definition – their concept of “shape.” I only intend to
continue to reveal my own true form, and in doing so, gain the ability to help
others reveal their form. 



One of the most impacting quotes I had ever read, over a decade ago now, was
from Horace Mann – “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for
humanity.” For some reason, that resonated with me and drove me…
Sometimes, honestly, it drove me nearly insane. 



I observed a ubiquitous moral depravity by every “industry leader” who seemed
to be doing the EXACT OPPOSITE of this, who played that lunatic game, “he
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20

who dies with the most toys wins.” And as the old guard passed, one icon at a
time, each dying breath uttered an apologetic cry of loneliness, of a solitary hell –
a coffin of toys. 



What in the world is better because of YOU? This is the question that seared
my grey matter and burned in my gut like an unquenchable fire. But before I
could be of any service to anyone, I intuitively knew that I must remove all of the
baggage I had, the fears, the trauma, the attachments and expectations. 



Form creates function and function produces the appropriate shape for the task
at hand. I needed to find my own form… and in doing so I had to divest myself of
others’ definition of shape. For martial art this was totally obvious in uncovering
the ability which permitted so-called “masters” to create the techniques of their
“style” (shape). Musashi wrote, “you can see the shape by which I am victorious,
but you cannot see the form with which I guarantee victory.” What was that
elusive underlying form? 



Now, I've released volumes of materials on my formula for form... and as a result
made myself one of the most despised "competitors" in the "industry." Why?
Because a formula for form undermines the so-called authority of the shape-
shifters. If people can reveal their own form, why do they need someone else's
shape? 



Body-Flow is the end result of that personal odyssey; or should I say, it’s the
signpost marking the current location on my Path. It’s a handbook to uncovering
your unique form, and a manual for crafting appropriate shape to meet the task at
hand. 



Stay focused upon the REAL GOAL, our true purpose – find your form… and
help others find their own. That is what will make the world better… no matter
how you express it, no matter what your vocation, no matter what venue…



The Trinity Path
"In such a highly developed humanity as the present one, each man by nature has access to
many talents. Each has inborn talent, but only a few have inherited and cultivated such a degree
of toughness, endurance, and energy that they really become a talent, become what they are -
that is, release it in works and actions."
(Nietzsche, Human, All too Human)

Healthy and happy people always impress me. They impress me because I
know that health and happiness require dedication to “overcoming resistance.”
Resistance lay in wait to cannibalize your energy, anchor your spirit, and decay
your motivation. Health and happiness require effort, persistence and attention
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to overcome this nebulous resistance which seeks to mire you in disease and
misery.

We are stone age bodies living in digital age convenience. Our design intended
to sprint across tundra tracking prey and gathering berries. Yet here we rot
bloated with fast food, blinded with infomercial bits and buried with gizmos and
gadgets to distract us from our natural abundant health and divinely inherited
happiness. We managed to create more resistance.

I do not suggest that suffering through uncivilized conditions holds nobility. I do
not suggest that the ascetic life holds more righteousness. Asceticism can be
used as a distraction and escapism just as easily as video games and television.

I “stumbled upon” a strength guru from the former Soviet Union, named Vladimir
Chubinsky who crystallized my world view by pointing me to that which was too
obvious to notice: The barbell does not create resistance. Gravity creates
resistance. The attraction of Iron to Earth creates resistance when one attempts
to move them. As I wrote about in Clubbell Training for Circular Strength, energy
is the “relationship between.” Let me write that another way – the plates and
bars are attached to the Earth. The physical expression of my desire to move
them creates resistance. If I muster the effort, persistence and attention to
overcome that resistance and I break gravity as Vladimir called his Gravitational
Gymnastics then I transcend myself. When he told me he would teach me to
harness squat over 1,000 pounds in two hours, I knew he held special qualities to
his character. He did help me accomplish this, but I took something much more
valuable than breaking the gravity of that lift. I took the final element to my
Philosophy of Strength: that being the notion of overcoming resistance.

In Clubbell Training for Circular Strength, I state that, “it is not what you fight with
but what you fight for” that is important. You find your strongest source of
motivation at your moral and ethical foundation. People need motivation to
overcome the resistance of conveniences, habits and fear. However, for me
helping people find their unique trigger of motivation remains an ever-elusive
mystery. “Each person has within his own control the enormous power of Chi,
the internal strength. It is a sleeping giant within you waiting to be triggered
through an emotional force. You alone can learn to release this power through
your own unique key." (Chi Mind Control Mike Dayton, Mr. America and Kung-
fu Master)

People spend exorbitant amounts of money, travel to remote and “exotic” corners
of the planet, and blindly devote themselves to charismatic figures all in the name
of health and happiness. Why? You can easily answer, “health and happiness
are good and disease and misery are bad.” However, if that were true, WHY
then do people remain unhealthy and unhappy?

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22

You remain unhealthy and unhappy because you have yet to identify your unique
motivational trigger(s) which empower you to overcome resistance.

Over the years I created over 50 bridges to overcoming resistance. This sounds
impressive but it is not because my knowledge is so vast that I require such
prolific work. I created so many and shall continue to craft bridges because
helping people uncover their unique triggers of motivation is my motivation for
overcoming resistance. In servitude, bliss – goes the saying.

In working with people over the years in different countries with different goals
and different circumstances, I can tell you that no two people share the same
motivation to overcome resistance. What empowers one person to push away
from her desk to go for a walk does not empower another to get off the couch
and go play with his children. What empowers one person to face an abusive
spouse does not empower another to confront an inappropriate co-worker. Each
of you possesses a totally unique source of motivation.

I cannot tell you in this book your source of motivation, but I can describe some
common, reoccurring markings on the Paths that people share in overcoming
resistance.

Overcoming resistance manifests in three different challenges: those requiring
effort, those requiring persistence, and those requiring attention. You cannot
passively overcome these challenges. You need ACTION! This includes
inactive-action such as “rest” for you over-trainers and workaholics.

Although throughout life you need face all three of these challenges, at any one
time one challenge dominates. Let me share with you a humbling story of an
epiphany I had in this regards.

I moved to the Pacific Northwest guided by Divinity’s enigmatic compass to ask
for a 2nd date with my then future wife. Moving to Washington State dramatically
altered my perception of Seasons, since in the US Northeast I experienced four,
quite-distinct Seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall. However, in
Washington I learned quite rapidly that there were two Seasons: Rainy and
Moving-Towards-Rainy. In this climate, you organize your day so that if the Sun
appears, you make your way outside to start sucking the rays from that glorious
golden sphere.

One day, during my daily personal practice, the wind whipped fiercely through the
trees, leaves blowing into my vision and impacting the balancing act of my
exercise selection. I thought to myself that it was strange that the weather
always reflected the challenges I experienced on any particular day. I always
keep a notebook with me when I am practicing because my best ideas sublimate
to the surface when my body burns with exercise, so I strode over to my tablet to
etch down this interesting thought. Upon ink to pad I realized the arrogance of
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the statement I just made. The weather reflecting MY challenges?! Humility

began to finally return to me as I realized that it was my self which was
influenced by my environment and presenting me with that unique challenge (to
overcome resistance.) Obviously that day’s challenge was attention.

The Trinity Emerges

Throughout my travels and research I discovered that these three challenges
corresponded intimately with three archetypal personalities. I write my
philosophy of strength as the Trinity to represent the meeting of three.

Interfacing Russian Olympic Coaches to former KGB intelligence officers to
receiving mentorship from Siberian shaman, I uncovered an indigenous acumen
which spawned the Soviet psychological research into the notion of “co-
personalities” (Red Gold: Peak Performance Techniques of the Russian and
East German Olympic Victors by Dr. Grigori Raiport.)

In Russian folklore, life is a balance of the prav, yav, and nav (upper, middle and
lower energies). Explained in Zdorovye, the Slavic Natural Health System,
wellness balances these three. This Russian experience mixed with my
American cultural heritage as well as my academic research. The Trinity
emerged.

Consider this Trinity as gender personality "hard wiring" – an archetypal
imprinting upon our character. To these hard-wired patterns, one may trace
traits, social structures, and even cultural mythology, folklore and art. You can
think of this Trinity in terms of the Christian Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
You can think of them as the Hindi Tri-Dosha: pitta, kapha and vata. Martial
artists understand this as the trinity of mind, body and spirit. I state nothing new,
but merely offer my personal interpretation.

Awaken Your Spirit, Free Your Mind & Make Savage Your Body

I present the following from the perspective of the masculine
gender, because I am a man. I cannot, nor do I claim to,
understand the feminine. Femininity holds its own unique
mystery historically described as the Trinity of Maiden, Mother,
Crone (or Siren, Queen, Wise-woman). Whichever feminine
Trinity you wish to express you may choose. I have little
knowledge of it, and as I age femininity grows even more
enigmatic to me.

When comparing the current court of public opinion on the masculine archetypal
trinity as compared to the feminine, we see that society ill-defines masculinity.
For instance, the phrase “fight-flight-or-freeze” has become a household
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aphorism referring to the so-called “reflex” options that males experience when
confronted by aggression or crises. This theory relates to the immature,
untrained tendency of males to combat, retreat, or remain paralyzed when
experiencing an anxiety producing event. Notice how the lesser of these three
demons is fighting. Combating the foe is the best option for which the masculine
can hope in contemporary society. No wonder men feel confused. Either they
are barbarians or they are cowardly eunuchs.

As my emphasis implies, masculine responses may be matured and trained
beyond these raw reflexes. This maturation relates intimately to the Trinity or
Warrior (effort rather than fight), King (persistence rather than flight), and Monk
(attention rather than freeze). The Warrior takes action and expends the
appropriate force necessary to resolve the situation in the most expedient
manner possible – underdeveloped he can only fight with reckless abandon. The
King endures the war, judiciously conserving scarce resources and choosing his
battles – underdeveloped he can only flee. The Monk patiently concentrates and
focuses upon every essential detail of a situation – underdeveloped he can only
freeze helplessly.

Psychology professor and researcher Shelley E. Taylor illuminates the bio-
chemistry of the feminine archetypes. Described as “befriend-mend-or-tend” I
presume relates to Maiden, Mother, and Crone. Professor Taylor describes the
disparity between male and female response to aggression and crisis. Befriend-
mend-or-tend portrays the mature, positive perspective of the feminine
archetypes, compared with the immature, negative perspective of the masculine.

Because our gender has such negative stigma, men receive constant
bombardment through media that we must get “in touch with our feminine side.” I
posit that this results as a by-product of the feminist movement’s intention to
enrich the lives of women who rightly deserve equality. The feminist movement
made great strides to understanding the bio-chemical impact of femininity within
a crisis.

In contemporary times, however, within themselves men do not need increased
femininity. Men feel remarkably overwhelmed by the feminine and actually need
an increase and a strengthening of a mature masculinity. Hopefully, this
chapter will help you see a clearer, more positive, more mature version of the
masculine trinity. We are capable of much grander responses than the immature
reflexes of fight-flight-or-freeze.

Most traits and behaviors that exude masculinity receive social stigma in current
society: such as aggression, competition, confrontation, offense. Some
consider these terms politically incorrect. As a result, masculinity suffers from
ambiguity, ignorance and ridicule. Men endure endless social castration and
emasculation. We critically need a balance of the feminine and the masculine.
We must temper the enchanting, nurturing, and organizing, with the ambitious,
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protective, and forceful. As a result, what I elaborate upon regards the masculine
expression of the Trinity in the hopes of offering a useful, albeit time-specific
contribution.

Warrior, King, Monk

These three archetypes exist throughout all cultures and history: the Warrior, the
King and the Monk. There is a fourth path which is not pursued, but rather
requires overcoming - the slave (or the “thrall”), which I discuss in Clubbell
Training for Circular Strength. My interpretation depicts the Monk, Warrior and
King as a Raven, Falcon, and Eagle (respectively). In Native American folklore
these three creatures remain locked in an eternal struggle: each totem crucial to
the realization of the total person. Through your life you wear the hats of each
archetype to become a complete person. However, you will always find your
greatest challenge with one of the three, and it is that challenge which defines
your life and the archetype which holds the most influence upon you.

This symbolism helps you identify what challenges you most at any particular
time in life, and how to address that challenge. In life you choose to face that
challenge or to turn away from it. Facing challenges creates balance and turning
away – imbalance.



FALCON: The Way of the Warrior

The Way of the Warrior contains the Path of Action and holds challenge of Effort.

In today’s ultra-PC fascism, people seldom comprehend and often vilify the
Warrior. It is the most controversial of the archetypes because people fear the
Warrior’s power. Society recalls the cruel acts of tyrants and villains and wrongly
associates them with the Warrior. The Warrior is not synonymous with rage or
violence, which are distorted expressions of congested and stunted growth.
However, the drive, will and dedication to progress are innate characteristics of
our species. When balanced by the King and Monk, Warriors are calm, tolerant
and forgiving… though ever-vigilant and protective.

The Warrior, properly accessed, empowers your life. Following this path you
create order out of the chaos of your life by courageously confronting wrong-
doing. The Warrior’s vast energy source permits you to aggressively pursue your
goals and protect your right and the right of your loved ones to health and
happiness. Warriors may cautiously begin an activity, but once started exert
every ounce of effort. When lacking balance with the King and Monk, Warriors
tend to gain weight, have slow metabolisms, over-sleep, and may become
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sluggish and lethargic. But as the Warrior, you get yourself moving again after a
period of stagnation.

Though Warriors may be slow to understanding an idea or issue, once they do
they remember forever (including when someone wrongs or aids them.) As a
Warrior, you live an empowered life in the service of your friends, family and
countrymen; and as a result, you demonstrate devotion and loyalty like a wolf to
its pack.

Effort is the hallmark of Warriors. You aggressively destroy the enemies of
transformation: drama, desires, distractions, excuses, rationalizations. You burn
them away in the fires of your training sessions. The Warrior helps you clear
space in your life for renewal: a new, more just order. 



While capable of fighting when necessity demands, the Warrior knows that the
real war is within. You honor this pledge to self-transformation with each Training
Session: the fight between you and the exercise by living life one repetition at a
time. Without consistent exertion through Training Sessions, you will feel out of
sorts. Hard training is the sword of the Warrior! Without steady training, Warriors
digress to greed, envy, and possessiveness. As a result, Warriors tend to require
a diet balancing 40% (complex) carbohydrates / 20% fats / 40% proteins. When
sustaining a vigorous regimen, you become grounded and stable, productive and
industrious.

EAGLE: The Way of the King

The Way of the King comprises the Path of Leadership and holds the challenge
of Persistence.

The King guides his people to endure hardship and persist through life’s
ubiquitous challenges. The King devotes himself to the worthy cause of
stewarding family, friends, and country. He accepts personally responsibility for
the safety and well being of his tribe. As the conduit for channeling energy, he
attempts to allocate resources appropriately.

When balanced by the Warrior’s action and the Monk’s awareness, the King can
endure lengthy bouts of activity and remain centered, calm and determined.
When imbalanced, his attention and efforts become too wide-spread and cannot
address all of his concerns. As a King, you create a balanced life so that you use
energies wisely – not trying to do too much, too fast, too long, too intensely.
However, as a King, you know that even moderation requires moderation;
otherwise nothing gets adequate attention or sufficient effort. As the King you
provide intuitive guidance with great discernment and accuracy. Kings are
natural leaders with great planning skills, so judiciously use your resources
knowing the stamina required for the situation.
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The King needs to test himself. What is ambition without a purpose; drive
without a worthy goal? Kings understand Competition derives from the Latin
roots con and petire meaning “to seek together.” You understand that
competition is not only healthy, but productive. When balanced through
competitive outlets, Kings demonstrate sharp intelligence and piercing charisma
leading their people and themselves to victory. When imbalanced, Kings can be
short-tempered and uneconomical with energy. Without proving their worth to
themselves, Kings can become resentful and jealous.

When balanced by the Monk and Warrior, the King rules with firmness, but with
magnanimity and kindness. You have the patience and clarity to choose your
battles, the compassion to sacrifice for the whole, and the toughness to persist
against overwhelming opposition when necessary. As a result, Warriors tend to
require a diet balancing 25% (complex) carbohydrates / 35% fats / 50% proteins.
When rigorously tested in the cauldron of competition, you face life with
confidence in your abilities and readily attract material prosperity due to your
noble character.




RAVEN: The Way of the Monk

The Way of the Monk entails the Path of Discipline and holds the challenge of
Attention.

The Monk calls you into the unknown as the archetype of awareness and insight.
When the following the Way of the Monk, you quest after internal wisdom, though
you may be clueless as to what you seek when you begin. On this path you
explore hidden knowledge passionately. The Monk owns a creative, flexible spirit
and generates ideas rapidly though forgets them just as quickly. The Monk
thinks, moves, and feels with passion. On this path, you must keep your
attention focused upon on the inner blueprint in order to listen intently to the
compass of intuition.


The Monk guards esoteric knowledge, and as a result must be balanced with the
King’s ability to patiently endure the long Winter and the Warrior’s ability to
engage in combat. If not balancing King and Warrior, you may become out of
touch with the outside world. With lofty ideals you may lack sure-footedness.
During times of imbalance, you experience fear, nervousness and anxiety. Due to
your creative ideas and enthusiasm you need to be well-grounded in the King
and Warrior or face rapid fatigue. The Monk harbors low tolerance for
fluctuations in routine.

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The Monk helps you transform yourself through rigorous physical discipline and
structured attention. The Monk holds sacred the body and mind as a church
within which the spirit flourishes. Should you neglect consistent discipline, you
shall lose confidence and stamina. Elevating the spirit requires a disciplined
mind and body. As a result, Monks tend to require a diet balancing 50%
(complex) carbohydrates / 30% fats / 20% proteins. You create sacred space
and time for personal transformation: Daily Personal Practice. In DPP, you
become centered and deepen the understanding of yourself through strict
attention to breathing, structure and movement. You refine exercise skill to the
level of technical wizardry.

Balancing the Trinity

In Clubbell Training for Circular Strength, I collectively refer to the balanced
integration of Monk, Warrior and King as the “Knuckledragger Within.” Balanced
integration is the key to happiness and health.

For instance, the Warrior is brash and may train solely for exertion’s sake. The
Warrior will ignore the impact of his efforts upon his recovery and his ability to
sustain daily activities. He will over-train himself and use improper technique,
becoming fatigued, exhausted and injured. The Warrior must be balanced by the
attention to detail of the Monk, and the patient, planned endurance of the King.

The King will create the program which challenges prior accomplishments, yet
neglect to concentrate his efforts on any one task sufficiently. He will focus on so
much that he will not attend any goal with enough resources. The King must be
balanced with the singularity of the Warrior’s effort and the scrutiny of the Monk’s
concentration.

The Monk will become so fixated on refining every nuance that he will never
stride to make any advancement, never push the envelope with enough gusto.
He relishes the peace he feels in his routine, but without the drive of the Warrior
and the competitive ambition of the King, his routine quickly becomes an
enslaving habit, leading him to digress and atrophy.

One must learn all three ways by developmentally following each challenging
path of Attention (Monk), Effort (Warrior) and Persistence (King). As a man
passing along the wisdom of the prior generations to the hearts of the
subsequent, one must wear a different hat for different people at different times:
one day a Monk, the next a Warrior, the following a King. So many people are
specialists and, as a result, do not realize that they see life only through the
short-sightedness of any one Path alone. Only in understand all three
challenges can one truly overcome resistance.

Your Current Influence
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At any point in your life, you receive influence of different degrees from the three
archetypes. You should not seek “Absolute Balance” of the archetypes but rather
relative balance appropriate to the demands of your life at any point in time. If
you do not walk the way of relative balance, life finds a way to configure events
demonstrating your weakest link. I see this all too often as a professional trainer.
People seek to develop every attribute equally, simultaneously, daily. They seek
the ABSOLUTE IDEAL and fall victim to any fad or trend marketing to this
desire. Only injury, frustration, fatigue, envy and exhaustion await those pursuing
the Absolute Ideal.

The Trinity represents a dial to which you can adjust to meet the needs or
challenges of your life at any time: three hats which you wear. But knowing the
need for relative balance lacks the power to get you started. To begin any
journey you must know more than just your destination. You must also identify
your point of origin. You can use this following questionnaire to help you target
your archetypal order currently:

1. Would you describe your bodily-frame as:
a. light, narrow shoulders and hips
b. medium hips and shoulders medium width
c. large, heavy frame wide shoulders and hips.
2. Are your proportions:
a. irregular, unusually tall or short
b. proportional and balance frame
c. well-proportioned
3. Is your musculature:
a. Underdeveloped
b. Moderate
c. well-developed
4. Would you describe your weight as:
a. generally lean and hard to gain; any excess stored around the
middle
b. average; gain or lose fairly easily; excess evenly distributed
c. gains weight easily, especially in lower body; hard to lose
5. Is your pulse:
a. fast, feeble, irregular rhythm
b. strong, throbbing, full, moderate rate, regular
c. broad, deep, slow, rhythmic, smooth
6. Would you describe your characteristic gait and movements as:
a. light, fast walker, quick and nervous movements
b. determined stride, purposeful movements
c. slow, measured gait, relaxed graceful movements
7. Is your physical activity:
a. very active, restless, bursts of energy
b. moderate, crave competitive sports
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30

c. lethargic, slow, great endurance

8. Is your mental activity:
a. restless, active, indecisive, creative, nervous, spacey, scattered
b. intelligent, logical, well-organized, precise, competitive, efficient,
determined, stubborn
c. tranquil, slow, patient, tolerant, complacent, stable, methodical,
relaxed, unchanging
9. Would you describe your emotional tendencies as:
a. fearful, insecure, anxious, changeable, joyful, vivacious
b. angry, irritable, critical, impatient, jealous, volatile, courageous
c. calm, steady, passive, greedy, attached, loving, forgiving
10. Would you categorize your sleeping patterns as:
a. light, variable, easily interrupted, tendency towards insomnia
b. go to sleep easily, sleep soundly but little, awaken alert
c. sleep deeply, awaken slowly, love to sleep long hours
11. Would you characterize your learning ability and memory as:
a. learns quickly, forgets quickly
b. learns easily, sharp memory
c. learns slowly, remembers forever

Now add your totals within each category, and order the categories by most
answers. The Warrior refers to C, the Monk to B and the King to A. The results
of this sample self-examination may represent your current archetypal influence.
Use it as a GUIDE, not a dogmatic rule. With the Trinity Path as a guide you can
choose to live a life of fate or a life of destiny. You can take control or you can
await life’s intervention to provide you the education you require for transcending
your current self. Take responsibility for your development and you cut the
sandbags on your balloon.

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The Philosophy of Strength

Knuckledragger Mantra:
%L.Science explains WHY, while you must DO.
%L.To DO, you must be motivated.
%L.To be motivated, there must be necessity.
%L.The need must be greater than the forces you intend to overcome.
%L.The most powerful necessity in the human world is tribal.

When doctors said that my knees would never athletically function again, I got
angry and let it turn to something positive. After having my arm broken at World
University Games battling for the gold against my Russian counterpart, I was told
that one of the bones in my arm had “died” and I would never possess full
capabilities again – a death knell for a grappler. I got angry and let it turn. Now,
coaches who consider me their “competition” say that my methods are
unrealistically demanding and my claims outrageous. Yet, I have not only taken
society’s so-called rabble and transformed them into erudite warriors pushing the
extreme envelope, but I prove and continue to prove this on myself. I’ll never ask
an athlete to do what I haven’t done first. As I said in my book, I consider myself
an ambassador to athletics, and that means leading from the front, from trenches
to charge.

Most gyms and schools rage about their aspirations of the powder pump derby.
They suffer a deep moral depravity, owning more mirrors than iron, more display
cases than resource guides and more injectables than nutritional support. My
heart goes out to the garage gym Knuckledragger who bucks this Malibu Ken-
and-Barbie muscular masturbation. Training and physicality in general was
intended to free us from the ego, not reinforce its stranglehold upon us.

The bottom line is that without great élan to willingly close with the Extremes,
without the esprit de corps to support our unrecognized kin, without the moral
edge of fighting for a greater purpose than yourself, you shall lack the leverage to
risk what you are for who you could become. Truly, sport, like life, is a trial of
moral and physical forces by means of the latter.

I call the following my Pillars of Strength. I challenge you to walk the Trinity Path
to free your mind, awaken your spirit and make savage your body.

1. All people suffer.
2. People suffer due to desire, or attachment.
3. Attachment manifests physically as gravity. Gravity holds us down.
4. As the mind, spirit and body are one, so can gravity indicate weigh down
the mind and spirit.
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5. Breaking gravity frees the mind and awakens the spirit.

6. However, attempting something new or walking into the unknown requires
leverage.
7. Leverage can be found only in the Higher Source of Energy.
8. Faith is the only force that can leverage this Source.

Pro athletes and world champs alike approach me expressing discontent with
their lives, with their ubiquitous aches and injures, fatigue, boredom, and general
disappointment with what they thought life would be. To a person, they admit
that despite financial and competitive “success” they wallow in a cesspool of
expectations – from coaches, fans, friends, family and worst from their own self-
aggrandizing ego.

Suits ask me why I continue to return to the chalkboard, why I do not franchise
my soul away on my prior accomplishments. I laugh at the athlete I was as an
international champ. It was a lot harder to remove myself from the social
conditions I faced in my youth than facing one opponent in a known environment
with expected parameters. Come on.

I ask the three-pieces how they can stop their lives and feel that what they have
done in the past was enough. At the moment you do that, you put your shovel in
the ground to begin the final descent. There’s no growth without love, risk, and
persistence, for they alone are omnipotent.

Almost all programs (and the coaches crafting them) totally neglect the first law
of athletics: the pursuit of human excellence, the strengthening of the moral
caliber of the athletes, and the transcendence of the ego which limits personal
emancipation from societal mediocrity. To those of you whom read this and
resonate with the message, join in and walk the path of the Trinity… for it’s much
deeper and more rewarding than just the toughest physical approach out there.

We don’t see life as it is, but as we are. Conceive a limitation and it becomes
one. Perceive your own artistic genius and ignore those acclaiming themselves
as experts, gurus and legends. Keep faith that your dreams are not mad, but
that the masses are for not daring to dream as big as you. Do what the
entertainment station zombies fantasize behind sore thumbs. Live deliberately.
Make Fun a vocation and Challenge havoc’s cry. Embrace your fears and sour
high. And remember the words of Master Yoda, “luminous beings are we. Not
this crude matter.”


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Channeling Strength

Channeling Strength regards “tuning-in” to personal expression of proper
technique – the integration of breathing, movement and structure. “Technique”
was the oldest definition for exercise regarding the gross physical mechanics.
Pencil pushers started to introduce more scientific terminology – such as
“neuromuscular pathways” for skills. This more recent name lends a better
understanding of the Mind-Body connection of strength and conditioning.
However, when we hear neuromuscular pathways we think of sinewy white
strings entwined throughout our muscles communicating from brain to motor
response. Very clinical, right? Too vacuous and too sterile! Remember,
KNUCKLEDRAGGER Mantra #1: Science explains WHY, while you must DO.
The scientific analysis of human movement pales in comparison to when you
personally invoke true strength and channels it into your body. No textbook
could contain your description, no definition your rapture. Channeling Strength
illuminates the Mind-Body-Spirit connection. Call it social, moral, or personal
spiritual motivation. You’ve read Channeling Strength in Clubbell Training for
Circular Strength, or you wouldn’t be here.

Work-in not Work-out: Practice vs. Training – Instructor’s Emphasis!
“Awaken your Spirit, Free your Mind, and Make Savage your Body!” – What does
this mean? How do you accomplish this? It’s both simple and complex. But to
begin you need to focus on form, and be limited by no preconceived notion. That
means suspending belief on your capabilities. No, I do not mean risking injury or
death.

Let’s get specific. You’ve read my RPE in CT4CS. Is the Rate of Perceived
Effort an absolute or relative? If relative, can it be internally influenced? If we
imagine something to be impossible, it is. The obverse is true, as well. It’s a
matter of Faith, as I’ve alluded to in The Philosophy of Strength.

Performance Enhancement Techniques are essentially flawed in that they are
merely techniques. You can trick the body using mental skills. You can unhinge
the mind, using physical skills. But both of these lack integration with a larger,
more substantial sphere of energy. I don’t need to wax metaphysical in order to
describe this. You know what I mean, and the fact that each and every person
intuitively knows demonstrates the validity of this maxim. We are capable of
much more than we believe we are.

At the Instructor level certification, you neither concentrate upon trainer’s
emphasis on effort nor upon the coach’s emphasis on persistence. Rather, you
focus upon attention to perfecting form in yourself and your clients.

Most people assume because the strength conditioning and fitness industry
leaders do not overtly discus such esoteric concepts. As a result, the public
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assumes that an individual delimiting his or her potential involves a haphazard, or

even a unpredictable pattern. Most assume talent is a fluke and genius a genetic
anomaly. I beg to differ.

At the instructor level, you will begin with the first layer of this technique to
facilitate your client’s learning curve. You can do this with bodyweight, with
dumbbells, barbells, kettle bells, clubbells, machines, an opponent, any tool with
which you can employ incremental progression.

This is an advanced synaptic facilitation methodology so you must always
remember your goal is to perfect form. You could use this methodology for the
mundane goal of tricking your body into lifting heavier weight. But that’s not why
I created the method. We’re perfecting technique here, now.

When I tell people that they should approach Training as Practice until they
master the skills, they ask for a set/rep scheme. You see? The industry made
people THINK in the context of resistance training as sets/reps. Just like what I
call the “dumbbell perspective.”

The Dumbbell Perspective:
The general gym enthusiast and fitness conscious individual perceives weight
with the perspective of a calibrated number s/he most often lifts. For instance,
not many Americans understand the number of kilograms lifted, nor do they
relate to kilometers, liters, Celsius, etc. When approaching clubbells, people bias
the weight of the apparatus attempting to relate a one-to-one poundage
relationship with dumbbells. As every clubbell enthusiast knows, this leads to
dangerous underestimation of lifted weight. The suitcase ready mobile gym may
go easily on your travels, but the light weight concentrates extremely upon its
leverage goals, and thus surprises many folks.

The same result can be found from any expectation, or as I call it in The
Philosophy of Strength, attachment. Ever expect another stair only to find the
landing? Ever expect to hit an opponent who suddenly disappears out of reach?
Ever go to push a door you thought would require great effort only to discover it
fly open with ease (with you stumbling, if not flat on your face)? Ever go to lift a
bag of groceries, an empty bowling ball bag, or dufflebag, expecting it to be
extremely heavy, only to discover that you nearly launched it through the ceiling
with your internal preparation? This is expectation, attachment, or affectionately
the Dumbbell Perspective.

In the Trainer and Coaching Certification Programs we look deeply at how to
manipulate this quite dramatically. But at the instructor level, you need to get
your clients familiar with their expectations. You need to help them realize that
they limit themselves – and by no one and nothing else. You can’t do it for them.
You can only open the door. And that door opens only through physical drills and
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methods. Creating Strength Channels will help them shift paradigms and not
have expectations, and release themselves from dumbbell perspectives.

Eventually, you and your clients will unhinge attachment and you will transcend
the methodology altogether. You won’t need to manipulate attachments because
you can see them for what they are. And that’s what this whole thing is about.
That’s the ultimate goal of Maximology – the pursuit of human excellence. You
need to see this goal and understand it in order to truly benefit from this system.
If not, you’re just lifting more weight, more times, over less time, yada, yada,
yada. Who cares about that ultimately? That’s just a means, process, and path.
Always remember the End-goal, our mutual betterment as human beings.

How do you create a Strength Channel? Much like grooving a neuromuscular
pathway involving effective visualization skills. I use this method not just for
attribute training, but with my combatives, tactical, self-defense and sport fighting
clients. Your visualization must be personal, empowering, specific and realistic.
For more on this, re-read Channeling Strength in CT4CS.

Creating a Strength Channel:
So what is the set/rep scheme in Practicing a Skill? While integrating the 3
elements (efficient breathing, movement and structure) and three components of
the skill, follow this process:

A. Light-weight with imagined heavy weight: You imagine that a weight much
heavier than in reality. When you tell you instruct yourself that what you
intend to do will be difficult you set up braces through out your body to
handle the load safely even if it is a load that we could easily heft into the
air. If you approach the Iron with the attitude of a light load then our natural
internal bracing will not be efficiently utilized and which can lead us to
injury. At the very least, the attitude impacts proper form – since with every
repetition we groove the skill more deeply.
B. No-Weight with imagined heavy weight: Now you imagine complete the
above process, but with no weight. You need the prior step first in order to
give yourself the tactile signature of resistance. This step requires greater
Attentional strength than the prior! Most people attentionally fatigue within
8-10 repetitions. That’s about the average person’s “attention span.”
You’re doing them (and yourself) a much greater service with this than
increasing Attentional strength in lifting!
C. Heavy weight with imagined no weight: This is a one rep event. You have
them visually imagine and kinesthetically recall Step B before any
resistance. Your goal is to imagine how you just completed the exercise
with no weight. Although in Step B, you imagined heavy weight, there
were degrees of recruitment failure which can be improved. By
recruitment failure, I mean that until you transcend this method, there will
be degrees to which you do not FULLY channel an imagined heavy
resistance. Step C takes these degrees of “failure” and calls upon what
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your body remembers of a no-weight exercise. Your no-weight

visualization reinforces the kinesthetic memory. Now, you must always do
this in order. If you try this Step first, you will not set up the internal
bracing mechanisms necessary to handle heavy weight. That spells
danger! But in this step-by-step process, you will at this Step both be able
to imagine light weight while recruiting the necessary bracing mechanisms
to handle the weight.
D. Moderate weight with imagined light-weight: Step D is for cruising. This is
a transition step into the Trainer’s territory. Once you handle a moderate
weight (say, 65-80%1RM) for 5-8 reps while attending Perfect Form, then
you created a Strength Channel.

To widen the Channel and improve “reception” in the Trainer Certification level
you will be manipulating Effort through Program Design, and in the Coaching
Certification level manipulating Persistence to overcome personal records (your
perceived limitations or “attachments”).

Sympathetic Learning’s Hebbian Rule or “What the Hell?” Effect
Begin with non-dominant arm. When completed Step D, add a set of dominant
arm.

Joints of Steel
According to Supertraining, by Mel Siff, high-rep local muscular endurance
training causes an increase in the strength of ligaments and tendons in the area
being trained. This is partly due to an increase in capillarisation and blood flow in
the surrounding tissue, from which tendons and ligaments get all their nutrients
by diffusion (having no direct blood supply of their own). Bryan Haycock, of
Thinkmuscle.com fame, suggests doing two weeks of such high-rep training at
the beginning of each new cycle as regular "maintenance" for the joints.

The Eyes Have It! Optical Repatterning Voodoo
The brain anchors experience as a whole tapestry of sensory input. Just like the
visceral control of breathing affecting heart rate, muscular tension, respiratory
pattern, blood pressure, etc., so can the deliberate manipulation of one sense
impact on your experience through the others (in this case, the kinesthetic.)



There is no such thing as an untrained person!
In order to condition with proper technique, one must counter-condition improper
technique. Everyone is conditioned in some form. And the deconditioned and
the heavily conditioned all have technical flaws and inefficiency. Your goal in
practice is to unhinge those habitual inefficiencies. Don’t focus on learning some
vague Platonic “ideal” technique. Instead get out of your own way. This is a very
important distinction. Talent and genius are YOURS; they are the birthright of
every person. Approach breathing, movement and structure as something you
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release, reveal and let happen. Don’t try and force something artificial. Don’t try
to just do it. BE every motion, skill, exercise.


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Dynamic Mobility and Selective Tension

Selective Tension leads to Dynamic Mobility

Relaxation and Tension are two wheels of the same cart – reference this part in CT4CS.
In order to have maximal contraction you must have maximal relaxation.
Soft-Work, Shock Absorption, Pendulum (absorb kick, clean and jerk, kick) Performance
Breathing

Agility and coordination

Dynamic Mobility – Degrees of Freedom

Push Drill
Yield (Collapsing with no resistance)
Yield-Halt (Melting to inoculate)
Yield-Halt-Overcome (Following back the force)
Marionette Drill
Soft-Work
Shock Absorption (absorb kick, send it back)
Pendulum – Olympic lifting
Performance Breathing
Stored Elastic Energy
Functional Neuromuscular Conditioning
PNF


Neck Mobility for Reactive Strength

Recently quite a few of fighters and coaches asked me how to prevent concussions and
knock-outs in MMA. I recently read a trainer commenting that because people said his
neck "looked stronger and thicker" he advised people to do what he does: Nose-to-Mat
Bridges. Guys like this always try and out-condition rather than out-perform opponents.
They concern themselves with exhausting the opponent by trying to make the opponent
work harder. But they always fail to develop the notion of paralyzing the adversary by
denying him the OPPORTUNITY TO EXPEND EFFORT. They remain locked inside
the box lacking an understanding of SPECIFIC performance enhancement.
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The Russian national boxing coach advised me many years ago, when it comes to
absorbing blows to the head, it is less about girth and more about enhanced muscle
reactivity: timing, rhythm, coordination, suppleness and AGILITY!

These two strategies fought it out on the only 3D battlefield - the skies. The convention
was one of attrition: superior speed and strength targeting decisive victory. These jets
were either loaded to the teeth and armored like flying concrete bunkers or lightly armed
and armored jets that could sprint flat-out. This strategy derives from Carl von
Clausewitz, the foremost Western philosopher of War. Even the US Marine Corps
fighting doctrine - War-fighting - finds its basis on Clausewitz’s On War.

Clausewitz advised attacking the most densely concentrated mass – the center of gravity.
The reciprocal was also true – fortify one’s center of gravity and then strike out from it.

This overwhelming force is the dominant model for competition (whether the average
grunt or coach knows his philosophical influences or not). We see this in the creation of
many effective fighters in short training time. However, you will never find a great
athlete using this strategy, especially with a cradle-to-grave history of efficiency, potency
and triumph.

Enter one USAF fighter pilot John Boyd. His premise was that a moderately fast,
moderately armed & armored but HIGHLY AGILE jet would be victorious over the
(heavy) "bricks" and the (fast) "needles." He proved this over and over again: agility
could outmaneuver the both power and speed, respond decisively to fast-changing
conditions, and defeat its rivals consistently. And he helped design and champion the
F-16 a jet which defies physics, and represented everything Boyd knew about
competition. It maneuvers like Baryshnikov unfettered by gravity and Randy Couture
with 29,000 pounds of thrust.

Clausewitz and the thick-necked cadre neglect the impact of magnifying uncertainty in an
opponent. You Renegades out there know this as the difference between the Zone and the
Upward Performance Spiral and the Vortex and the Downward Performance Spiral.
They don’t get inside the opponent’s mind, or as Col. Boyd described – the OODA loop.

Strike at the vulnerable yet critical connective tissue and the activities which permit a
large center of gravity to exist, Boyd guided. An agile athlete transitions more rapidly
than thicker or faster counterparts can respond, and so opponents fall farther and farther
behind the swift sword of agility.

Ever see an opponent that just doesn’t know where to move next, who gets increasingly
more confused by the blitz of an agile athlete? Agility can help you move and strike like
a swarm of bees destabilizing the opponent’s center of gravity and causing many
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conflicting and independent centers of gravity with him. How many times have we seen
a great fighter just rip the rug out from under a “stronger and thicker looking” opponent?

Are you training to be an F-16 or a B2 Bomber? Victory isn't simply a matter of being
fastest to strike, or of expending the greatest effort, or of having the largest girth. You
MAY win by using any of those methods but only if you do one thing more:
outmaneuver your opponent. Agility is the essence of strategy in the air and on the mat.
Agility will help you decode the environment before he does, act decisively, and then
capitalize on his initial confusion by confusing him more – Push him in the Vortex!

Neck mobility is more important than girth. That's the bottom line. Here’s one drill
which will give you the maneuverability critical to preventing adverse shock and to
imposing that shock upon your opponent.

Fly like an eagle.
Coach Sonnon
Athletic Performance Enhancement Solutions


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Degrees of Freedom

We will spend significant time on this during the Instructor Certification Course,
but I wanted to provide background information here, because I created Degrees
of Freedom movement program to help create critical skills for instructors
needing to develop troubleshooting techniques and exercises of ANY system of
movement.

Circular Strength Training refers directly to DOF! Just look and KNOW the
definition:
Linear vs. Circular Strength Training: Most strength training programs focus
on increased work capacity by focusing upon exercises such as squat, bench
press, deadlift, clean, as well as sprints, bleachers, bridges, pushups, etc. These
may contribute to general performance, but execute essentially in a one
dimensional plane, which can be understood as Linear Strength Training.  Linear
Strength transfers to athletes hitting harder, running faster, lasting longer &
jumping higher. However, during practice or competition, every sport and physical
activity demands movement in one, two and three planes.
Circular Strength Training comprises Multi-planar movements which develop
rotary and angular/diagonal strength to assist the prime movers. Only Clubbells
were specifically researched, engineered and implemented to target the rotary
and angular/diagonal muscles.  Athletes need Circular Strength Training in order
to develop these motor recruitment patterns so that they are both strong and
functional.  Otherwise, their performance suffers greatly and injury likelihood
significantly increases.
CST also has important rehabilitative and preventative health characteristics. It:


• aids in the removal and prevention of Sensory Motor Amnesia
• aids in the removal and prevention of Residual Muscle Tension
• aids in the removal and prevention of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness
• aids in the providing Joint Lubrication and Joint Nutrition.

Sensory Motor Amnesia is a phrase coined by renowned therapist Thomas
Hanna who described the condition like this. “This is a condition in which the
sensory-motor neurons of the voluntary cortex have lost some portion of their
ability to control all or some of the muscles of the body. Sensory motor amnesia
occurs neither as an organic lesion of the brain nor of the musculoskeletal
system; it occurs as a functional deficit whereby the ability to contract a muscle
group has been surrendered to sub cortical reflexes. These reflexes will
chronically contract muscles at a programmed rate -- ten percent, thirty percent,
sixty percent, or whatever -- and the voluntary cortex is powerless to relax these
muscles below that programmed rate. It has lost and forgotten the ability to do
so.” 



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In essence, SMA is a ‘forgotten’ and ‘ignored’ habitual pattern of muscular

contraction somewhere in the body. It can have tremendous impact on all
aspects of our health, strength, fitness and performance.
 
Residual Muscle Tension is closely related to SMA. However, it often relates to
the presence of an “unconsciously held” partial contraction of muscles following
prolonged periods of stress or activity. While not as habitual as SMA, residual
muscle tension is the bane of every athlete’s training program as it interferes with
rest, recovery, relaxation and subsequent performance by disintegrating proper
performance-related neurological coordination and function.
 
Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS): This is the technical term for the
classic “day after” muscle soreness that virtually everyone has experienced.
Typically from 12-72 hours after any type of exercise or activity that is strong
enough to create biochemical waste products in muscles, an aching soreness
can arise. DOMS is a prototypical adaptive response of the body to new or
unusual activity. Research indicates that eccentric muscular contraction has the
greatest potential for creating DOMS symptoms.
 
Joint Lubrication and Joint Nutrition: The complex system of joints that make up
the human skeletal system absolutely depend upon good circulation to insure
that joints stay supple, loose, well “oiled” and well “fed”. However, in many
instances, circulation of fluids depends not only on the body’s “circulatory”
system, but also upon movement. The pumping action provided by the
contraction and relaxation of muscles is vitally important in joint health as it
serves to nourish and lubricate joints surfaces.

String of Pearls: Dynamic Posture
Posture makes Perfect. You need full range of motion in order to understand that
posture is a dynamic, constantly altering substance. Unfortunately, most martial
artists and most health pencil pushers attempt to impose artificial rigidity of an
“ideal posture.” Life however is not ideal.

Ever hear of a tank being accused of graceful mastery? ‘Course not. If you’re
going to fly, you need to move like a wraith over rocks. The key is transitioning
from GPP to SPP and specifically regards increasing the complexity of your
movement capability. Basically, if you move like a Robocop, you may be able to
stop a truck, but don’t expect to soar like an eagle.

Circular Strength Training comprises Multi-planar movements which develop
rotary and angular/diagonal strength to assist the prime movers, but more
importantly, prime movers can act with rotary and angular/diagonal strength
though most people fail to develop this capacity!

It’s this last point that has the most punch, folks. I know a lot of this reads like
some arcane language only pencil pushers (or is it key pushers, now?)
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understand. But it really is the key to what I call Personal Mastery. You need to
emancipate yourselves from the expecting some guru to tell you how to move,
the optimal pattern for your performance, the ideal sequence for your abilities.
It’s all in you. It always has been. Developing multi-planar strength of the prime
movers increases stability, prevents injuries, multiplies force production and most
importantly, stimulates the neuromuscular patterns required for masterful
performance. Your Personal Mastery is always and already yours. You just need
to call upon it. Invoke it.

You need to train outside the range and depth of "expected" movements, so
when (not if) movements deviate from the expected a “safety valve” prevents
injury and restores normal work capacity without performance interference. So
from physiology we learn the three planes of human motion – our three
dimensional movement – as

3 Planes of Movement:
1. Coronal Plane divides the body into front and rear sections.
2. Sagittal Plane divides the body into right and left sections.
3. Transverse Plane divides the body into upper and lower sections.

3 Axes of Rotation:
1. Medial Axis: the medial axis runs horizontally from back to front.
Rotations around this axis include the cartwheel and turntables.
2. Longitudinal Axis: the longitudinal axis extends vertically from head to
tow. You move along this axis when you twist your torso, as in a skater’s
spin, or a ballerina’s pirouette.
3. Transverse Axis: the transverse axis runs horizontally across your body
from one side of the waist to the other. Somersaults and flips are
examples of movements around this axis.

6 Degrees of Freedom:
1. Top-Bottom
2. Right-Left
3. Front-Back

These three planes have two sides equaling 6 portions to movement. We can
move in each of these 6 portions which in physiology are referred to as
“degrees.” For years, I’ve been coaching DYNAMIC MOBILITY of the joints.
Most coaches will tell you that you shall perform how you train. Wrong. The
worst you do in training is the best you can hope to perform. If you don’t prepare
your joints for extreme ranges of motion which deviate from expected
performance, you will suffer injuries. Why? Because, forceful, repetitive, or
sustained static activities occurring over time with insufficient recovery periods
may cause or aggravate Cumulative Trauma Disorders, affecting soft tissue of
both musculoskeletal and peripheral nervous systems. Any activity can be
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associated with Cumulative Trauma Disorders. Dynamic Mobility prevents injury

for those at risk and rehabs those suffering common sport-related injuries.

I’m going to help you sophisticate your basic movement patterns from single
planes to double and triple planar movements. I’ll give you an example. Consult
my program Warrior Wellness: 6 Degrees of Freedom for more of my exercises.

Multi-Planar Bridging

Bridging for some ungodly reason is held to be the panacea of bodyweight
exercise. Why on Earth I have no idea. Spinal flexibility benefits all athletes.
However, the list of reports and studies on the adverse effects of sustained, static
stretching continue endlessly. I won’t waist your time with the pros and cons of
back bridging. Suffice it to say that even the proponents advise that bridging too
long, too often, and/or too hard results in injury.

Bridging is and always was a preparatory exercise for advanced movement.
Those coaches that use it otherwise negligently imperil the performance and
health of their athletes.

Bridging is in effect a single plane motion. In reality, it is only one half of one
plane. Standard (single plane) bridging occurs within one degree of freedom: the
dorsal half of the coronal plane. How does this transfer to performance on the
field? Simply, it doesn’t. It’s an inarguable myth.

Of the exercise selection for my programs, I created a series of exercises I
named “Multi-Planar Bridging.” MPB provides spinal flexibility in truly complete
range of motion, intra-muscular and inter-joint coordination as well as the
incalculable factor of core proprioception.

Here is one of the MPB exercises which will start you on your way to increased
performance and spinal health. As you follow the progression of photographs
remember the following:

1. Stay in motion and move THROUGH the positions demonstrated in the
photos. These are not “postures” but rather photographic points of
reference to depict movement.
2. The motion is a figure 8 or infinity sign.
3. Your spine should move like a string of pearls WHEN RELAXED. Don’t try
to do Dynamic Mobility training with intensity.
4. When compressed exhale, and when expanded inhale. This should occur
naturally and not forced or consciously applied. Remember that a back
arch is an act of compression on the lungs and hence results in
exhalation.
5. The general protocol is 5 to 10 repetitions every morning to lubricate the
spinal vertebrae and regulate the tone of core musculature. Expect to see
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significant improvements in your health and performance within 3-6

weeks.

Normal Ranges of Joint Motion
The following table indicates the normal ranges of joint motion for various parts of the body. Now
it’s important to read this and understand this is how the public has been taught to perceive
movement – as a collection of limits. They have not been systematically enabled to be
coordinated. Actually, everything from group peer pressure to poor ergonomic designs TEACH
uncoordination. Dynamic Mobility involves the sophistication of these ROMs, so they become
limitless.

Neck
Flexion: 70-90 degrees
Touch sternum with chin.
Extension: 55 degrees
Try to point up with chin.
Lateral bending: 35 degrees
Bring ear close to shoulder.
Rotation: 70 degrees left & right
Turn head to the left, then right.
Lumbar Spine
Flexion: 75 degrees
Bend forward at the waist.
Extension: 30 degrees
Bend backward.
Lateral bending: 35 degrees
Bend to the side.
Shoulder
Abduction: 180 degrees
Bring arm up sideways.
Adduction: 45 degrees
Bring arm toward the midline of the body.
Horizontal extension: 45 degrees
Swing arm horizontally backward.
Horizontal flexion: 130 degrees
Swing arm horizontally forward.
Vertical extension: 60 degrees
Raise arm straight backward.
Vertical flexion: 180 degrees
Raise arm straight forward.
Elbow
Flexion: 150 degrees
Bring lower arm to the biceps
Extension: 180 degrees
Straighten out lower arm.
Supination: 90 degrees
Turn lower arm so palm of hand faces up.
Pronation: 90 degrees
Turn lower arm so palm faces down.
Wrist
Flexion: 80-90 degrees
Bend wrist so palm nears lower arm.
Extension: 70 degrees
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Bend wrist in opposite direction.

Radial deviation: 20 degrees
Bend wrist so thumb nears radius.
Ulnar deviation: 30-50 degrees
Bend wrist so pinky finger nears ulna.
Hip
Flexion: 110-130 degrees
Flex knee and bring thigh close to abdomen.
Extension: 30 degrees
Move thigh backward without moving the pelvis.
Abduction: 45-50 degrees
Swing thigh away from midline.
Adduction: 20-30 degrees
Bring thigh toward and across midline.
Internal rotation: 40 degrees
Flex knee and swing lower leg away from midline.
External rotation: 45 degrees
Flex knee and swing lower leg toward midline.
Knee
Flexion: 130 degrees
Touch calf to hamstring.
Extension: 15 degrees
Straighten out knee as much as possible.
Internal rotation: 10 degrees
Twist lower leg toward midline.
Ankle
Flexion: 45 degrees
Bend ankle so toes point up.
Extension: 20 degrees
Bend ankle so toes point down.
Pronation: 30 degrees
Turn foot so the sole faces in.
Supination: 20 degrees
Turn foot so the sole faces out.

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47

Core Activation & Reactive Strength

Critical to Circular Strength is your “core.” There’s a great deal of conjecture
about what constitutes “core.” Suffice it to say that your core determines the
success, health and strength of your performance in all things. However, let’s
only address for now the abdominals.

We know by definition that circular strength involves the rotational and angular/
diagonal properties of muscle action. The stability of your trunk therefore can be
found only through improvement of your awareness and attention to core
mobility. You can find many more examples in my book Body-Flow
Biomechanical Exercise which should hit the shelves in the very near future. For
now, you can refer to my Be Breathed, Grapplers Toolbox or Zdorovye Fitness
System videos. They all take the Janda sit-up beyond high-gear and to a level of
sophistication not seen anywhere else (and probably it will stay that way for a
long time, since everyone seems to focus on mundane KISS exercises.)

Core Activation Exercise Examples:
• Multi-planar Arch
• Spinal Rock to Rock-up Squat
• Weeble
• Shoulder Plane Roll with Leg Thread
o From pike
o Step-over into lifting shin box
• Twisting Arch
• High-leg Step-over into Spinal Arch
Your abdominal muscles involve both internal and the external portions. The
rectus abdominus (your 6-pack) and the external obliques. If you get horizontal
on the floor for our exercises, you can feel the rectus abdominus flex the spinal
column forward 30 degrees. If you move beyond this, you’re actually engaging
the hip-flexors and going beyond the nature of Core Activation. Reciprocal
inhibition techniques are useful for disengaging the hip-flexors, as demonstrated
by Janda, but we’ll discuss that more in Selective Tension.
Your trunk rotates primarily under the power of the external obliques, which
definitely get blasted by any type of clubbell work as any enthusiast knows.
Swing a sledgehammer or axe all day and you’ll find the same.
For our purposes however your focus lay with the inner unit: the transversus
abdominus and the lumbar multifidus. These muscles exist underneath the
external abdominals and involve the control of your respiration and your
structural core alignment. Furthermore, they contribute to your total performance
and strength. It’s because of your inner unit, that you’ll hear me eschewing the
use of crutches like lifting belts which inhibit the inner breathing patterns which
you need for true strength and performance.
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48

Recent research goes more deeply into understanding this, but to keep it in
simple terminology, your inner unit must fire slightly before your outer unit. If you
train only your outer unit, as the fitness trends would have you do (well, as most
strength and conditioning pundits would have you do), you are rewiring the firing
sequence of your Core Reactive Strength. It’s really too monumental to explain
in one book. If you train your inner unit to misfire you not only diminish your core
reactivity to force (output and input, delivered and received!), you created
structural imbalances which will lead to injury.
How many avid lifters and fitness enthusiasts do you know that after a session
suffer massive back spasms (for “no apparent reason”) or “throw out their back”
from putting on their pants or going to the toilet? The reason of course involves
poor, ineffective and misfired Core Activation.
My exercise selection will help you and your clients address this aspect of their
training, and more importantly be aware of it in all exercises. For Clubbell
training, Core Activation is critical for improving Reactive Strength, performance
enhancement and injury prevention.
Don’t misunderstand my emphasis on attention to the inner unit as a “targeting”
of inner unit exercise. It’s about training in a way that not only does not interfere
with the effective “firing sequence” of our musculature, but also the positive
health and performance impact it has if we augment this procedure deliberately
through training. It’s really one of the most important points I can communicate
to you. This is HOW you integrate your breathing, movement and alignment.
No, this is not the “key” element. It is only one example of one element in
integrating all three in one situation. It’s far more sophisticated and total bodily
than just this one issue. But it’s here at this issue that I can illustrate the crux of
the matter.
If the inner unit impacts breathing and structural alignment, and we interrupt or
rewire the firing sequence through any type of training, we adversely impact the
total performing organism – YOU! If we take the natural firing sequence and
augment it, you powerfully integrate your breathing, movement and structure in
all your activities all the time! This is the key to Perpetual Exercise philosophy
and the precursor to understanding Performance Breathing.

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49

Performance Breathing & Perpetual Exercise

My breathing techniques receive the most amount of interest it seems, most
likely since breathing appears to be the most neglected (hence, the popular
breath holding habit) and most impacting element upon health and performance.

I hold no interest whatsoever in debating with proponents of other techniques.
Researchers present information on both sides. My techniques work for
multitudes of athletes, world champions, national coaches, psychologists,
physicians, and the average fitness enthusiast alike. Below I’ll present you with
some scientific highlights, but let’s not stray away from the fact that these are
“natural” breathing methods which facilitate and augment performance.

Hypoxic versus Hypercapnic: Near the close of the 19th Century, Russian
Physiologist Verigo and Dutch Scientist Bohr independently discovered that
without CO2, oxygen remains bound to hemoglobin, unreleased and incapable of
being utilized by our tissues.  As a result there is an oxygen deficiency in tissues
such as our brain, kidneys and heart, as well as a significant increase in our
blood pressure.

Russian and former Soviet research, by men like Dr. V. Frolov, Dr. K. Buteyko
and Prof. R. Strelkov (Frolov, Endogenous Breathing) surmised that deep
breathing serves as the root cause of many illnesses.  Deep-breathers suffer
from O2 starvation and so they “over-breathe” which begins the cycle called the
Hyperventilation Feedback Loop.

Notice how a person holding his breath becomes increasingly hyperactive. Over
time the level of CO2 increases dramatically causing the rapid consumption of
O2. This hyperactivity continues until syncope (unconsciousness) – a method
used in martial arts to expedite strangulation techniques. The cause of O2
deficiency is not due to the lack of O2 presence, but by the lack of CO2 retention.

Over-breathing causes O2 deficiency.  If we breathe too much, we have less O2
in our body. Two methods of breathing developed from this understanding:
hypoxic (or lowered oxygen count) and hypercapnic (or saturated with carbonic
gas) breathing. Dr. Vladimir Frolov (Endogenous Respiration) concluded from
his research that both methods intend the same goal but achieve it through
different means:

“Buteyko achieved positive results raising the concentration of carbonic gas in
the lungs. Strelkov, in turn, obtained the identical result by lowering the oxygen
content in the lungs. The paradox solves itself if we compare oxygen
concentrations in both methods. It turned out that what united them was an
approximately identical hypoxia regime (lower oxygen content).”

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50

For GPP, the conventional method of breathing entails the Power Breathing
Technique: This hypoxic method was researched by a Russian scientist
Professor R. Strelkov and was propagated by Pavel Tsatsouline in the West.
Power increases immediately, but fine and complex motor skills, such as combat
skills, may suffer. Urgency demands immediate performance increases, such as
with military and law enforcement personnel. Other combat athletes sometimes
choose performance over longevity due to the short career window of
professional sports. When you do, you choose to gain performance by shaving
a few minutes off the end of your life. Do so only out of authentic
Knuckledragger Necessity.

Since CST involves SPP, we use the Performance Breathing Technique: This
hypercapnic method was researched by Russian scientist Dr. K. Buteyko, and
was modified by Alexander Retuinskih, founder of the ROSS Training System,
Distinguished Master of Sport in SAMBO and Judo, and Distinguished Coach of
Russia. Since activity occurs at the end of an exhalation, the body performs at
optimal skill function. Performance Breathing balances health and performance,
a default setting for clients, unless expediency is in URGENT demand. Unless
your life or career is on the line, go with Performance Breathing.

When you transition from GPP to SPP, you must, if you did not start with,
transition to Performance Breathing.

Basically, Performance Breathing is for SKILLED PERFORMANCE. You cannot
be a marksman with Power Breathing, nor an archer, nor an efficient grappler or
fighter. Increasing blood pressure and heart rate, switching blood volume to
large muscles (decreasing digital dexterity), significantly diminishes, if not
prohibits accuracy and precision. Performance Breathing however, approximates
the gains, and through extensive training overcomes the gains of Power
Breathing. More importantly not only does Performance Breathing not adversely
affect, but it greatly improves performance and health.

The different Techniques of Performance Breathing that we shall cover include:
• Normalizing
• Vibration
• Alternating
• Punctuated
• Flushing
• Waving
• Controlled Pausing
• Yield-Halt-Overcome (addressed at Trainer Cert Level)

Performance Breathing is the key to what I call Perpetual Exercise in BE
BREATHED.

Reasons for Inefficient Breathing Patterns:
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51

1. Oxygen Debt
2. Circulo-Respiratory Distress Pre-2nd Wind
3. Habitual hyperventilation – Over-breathing (Discussed in my article
available online “Control Pause”)
4. Defensive Bracing – Breath Holding

Oxygen Debt: In contrast to other types of cells in the body, the muscle cells are
unique in their tolerance for temporary deprivation of oxygen. This ability is a
safety factor which enables muscles to meet emergency situations. When
activity is increased in intensity or duration to the extent that more oxygen is
needed than is available, energy is liberated by anaerobic (“without oxygen”)
chemical processes in the muscles, and an oxygen debt accumulates. The
waste products of anaerobic processes, chiefly lactic acid, are tolerated only to a
certain degree before muscles can no longer contract and a state of exhaustion
is reached. After an oxygen debt has been incurred, a period of mild activity or
rest is needed, during which time oxygen consumption will occur at an increased
rate until the oxygen debt has been paid and a normal chemical balance of the
muscles has been reestablished. The time needed for this recovery depends on
the magnitude of the oxygen debt and the physical condition of the subject.

The heart and the brain, however, cannot tolerate an oxygen debt. They depend
entirely on oxidative energy, and their function suffers immediately when their
supply of oxygen falls. Exercise does not affect the oxygen supply of the brain
as it does in the heart, where there may be a tremendous increase in the need
for oxygen during exercise. This oxygen must be supplied by the coronary
circulation. The ability to meet this need of the heart for oxygen is one of the
most important factors limiting the intensity and duration of activity.

Breathlessness indicates a degree of oxygen debt which muscles have incurred
through strenuous activity. The time necessary for a return to a normal breathing
rate is a function of the magnitude of the oxygen debt. The speed of payment is
influenced by the individual’s manner of breathing which may be habitually too
shallow even when at rest. This habit involves insufficient use of the diaphragm
most of the time, especially in a state of breathlessness. It is logical that poor
muscular habits of breathing will increase the degree and period of
breathlessness brought about by strenuous activity.

It is never advisable to hold the breath during any movement requiring great
power, as in lifting weight, even though this seems to be a natural phenomenon
during “exercises of effort.” Holding the breath closes the epiglottis and
increases the intrathoriacic pressure, compresses the large veins of the thorax,
and interferes with the return of blood to the heart. Whether on inhales or
exhales during a strong movement is of little importance so long as the epiglottis
is not closed.

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Circulo-Respiratory Distress Pre-2nd Wind: Consider "2nd Wind" from a

neurological standpoint as a possible analogy. It represents an adjustment in the
circulo-respiratory process. The adjustment enables you to continue strenuous
or prolonged physical activity with renewed vigor and greater comfort. Preceding
the onset of 2nd Wind, you experience great physical distress - such as rapid,
shallow breathing, an abnormal pulse, and other symptoms of physical distress.
2nd Wind may occur with dramatic suddenness, or may occur so subtly that it
goes unnoticed until upon you and the mental dialogue implores you to stop your
activity. Physicians still cannot explain 2nd Wind. Since your physical limitation in
activity is determined by the circulatory rather than the respiratory system, 2nd
Wind could be primarily a circulatory adjustment in the midst of strenuous or
prolonged activity to meet the oxygen needs of muscles. It is also possible that
to produce 2nd Wind the cerebrum, in concentrating on the goal of movement,
has facilitated a more efficient neuromuscular coordination. Although
explanations are inadequate, 2nd Wind can be described as a sub-cortical reflex
response to the needs of working muscles and to concentration on the
attainment of a specific goal. It is entirely possible that the distress you are
experiencing is a threshold to a neuromuscular adjustment to the activity.


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53

Component Learning Theory

Russian researchers discovered that teaching a new movement in its natural
sequential order from start to finish is not necessarily as effective as teaching the
action in the reverse order (Vorobyev, 1978). They examined the effect of
breaking down movements into basic components and having athletes learn
each element separately before attempting the whole movement. This method of
component learning also proved to be superior to the conventional method of
natural sequence learning. (Siff, p.463)

Definitions:
• Elementary Motor Component: a skill integrating a particular action of
movement, structure, and breathing.
• Biomechanical Exercise: a skill comprising a series Elementary Motor
Components.
• Kinetic Chain: a series of Biomechanical Exercises

For each Biomechanical Exercise there is a BEGINNING, MIDDLE, and an
ENDING component. In some more sophisticated exercises, there are multiple
"middle" components.

The secret to grace is the movement-in-between. Every Biomechanical Exercise
has a Beginning, Middle and Ending Elementary Motor Components. Aspire to
sew together Biomechanical Exercises into Kinetic Chains. Do this by breaking
Biomechanical Exercises into Elementary Motor Components.

How is this possible? The goal is to discover that the Ending component of one
Biomechanical Exercise flows seamlessly into the Beginning component of
another Biomechanical Exercise forming a Kinetic Chain. Realize there is no
Beginning and Ending to movement, but rather there are only Middle
components. Realizing the movement-in-between and you gain the ability:

1. to analyze movement (Biomechanical Exercises) as sequences of building
blocks (Elementary Motor Components); and
2. to alter and combine building blocks into new sequences (Kinetic Chains).

There are times when forceful or rapid movements have to be executed with the
distal extremities far from the relevant joints, thereby imposing large toque on
these joints. If training always ensures that this degree of torque or force is
avoided, then it will not prepare the athlete for the rigors of the sport and will
increase susceptibility to overtraining and injury.

Athletes must create a “safety valve” which will allow the athlete to manage
larger forces than those which may be encountered in competition. High levels
of skill and reactive ability in sport are vital to ensuring that sporting actions are
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54

efficient and safe. Far too many athletes (for example in football and rugby)
believe that increased strength and mass automatically protects them from injury.
If one executes a movement in an inefficient manner or reacts too slowly to
produce adequate force, then even gigantic strength or structural bulk can be
inadequate to prevent injury.

Due to BME, when the athlete confronts suddenly rapid or ballistic forces, the
athlete has a buffer of Agility, Coordination and Balance to prevent or minimize
injuries.


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55

Complex Training

A Combination Routine is a series of two or more basic exercises woven
smoothly together after having mastered each basic component. A Combination
Routine is a NEW, but now COMPLEX skill. Combination Routines demand high
technical precision and thus should be placed at the beginning (if not comprise
your entire session.)

The rationale behind Combination Routines, aside from the obvious enhanced
coordination and agility, is Complex Training. Combination Routines combine
strength and speed/power in the same workout. Complex Training utilizes a
grinding exercise followed by a similar, but ballistic exercise, or utilizing a ballistic
followed by a similar, but grinding exercise. In either case, you may increase the
high tension of the grind or the power of the ballistic exercise or both, and the
increases will be greater than if the exercises were performed consecutively. The
performance of a grinding exercise followed by a ballistic exercise elicits a
neurological response that enables increased power, thereby creating a greater
training effect.

Complex Training augments your neuromuscular system by teaching it to fire at a
faster rate. It develops strength, speed and technique simultaneously. Imagine
having to run across a stream of knee-high water. If you do not go fast enough
you get bogged down. If you go too fast, you get tripped up. What you want is to
develop enough speed to carry you through the sticking point, the “dead zone” in
a range of motion, but you want enough strength to guarantee that you can
prevent deviation from the expected range of motion.

What is Circular Strength? Most strength training programs focus on enhancing
performance and decreasing injury by focusing upon squats, bench press,
deadlifts, power cleans, etc. These lifts directly enhance sport performance, but
execute essentially in a one dimensional plane, which can be understood as
Linear Strength Training.  Linear Strength transfers to athletes hitting harder,
running faster & jumping higher.  However, during practice or competition, every
sport demands movement in one, two and three planes.  Circular Strength
Training comprises Multi-planar movements which develop rotary and angular/
diagonal strength to assist the prime movers. Only Clubbells were specifically
researched, engineered and implemented to target the rotary and angular/
diagonal muscles, such as the multifidi and rotares which aid in rotation,
extension and lateral spinal flexion critical to any sport.  Athletes need Circular
Strength Training in order to develop these motor recruitment patterns so that
they are both strong and functional.  Otherwise, their performance suffers greatly
and injury likelihood significantly increases.

Baseball players (notice the similarity in tools between bats and clubbells!) use
this concept. Prior to stepping up to bat, many players attach weighted rings to
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56

practice swings. When they step up to bat, the player generates more power/
speed because of the neurological trigger switched on through Complex Training.
Imagine what this training will do to your sports through clubbells: hockey,
tennis, football, golf, lacrosse and baseball, obviously. In addition to racquet/
stick/club sports, consider the power generation in throwing sports: football,
basketball, rugby, volleyball, and again, baseball, obviously.

Imagine Combination Routines as “super-setting” two or more exercises for the
same muscle group: grinding, ballistic, grinding etc… This is not ALWAYS the
case. There are routines that contain grinding followed by grinding, or ballistic
followed by ballistic. This does not diminish a Combination Routine if you toggle
within the routine the exercise selection with the method of the lift. As Coach
John Davies wrote (Testosterone Magazine Issue 215), “Because of the
generalized approach to exercise selection, there are benefits to the total
physiological system, thus improving the foundation on which future gains can be
made. For those not consumed with maximizing power production (i.e. those not
yet convinced they should crush everyone at the company picnic), the use of
complexes is also a highly efficient method of time management in the gym and it
provides an interesting break from your usual, perhaps monotonous, style of
training. Oh yeah, and it's also a gut-wrenching shock to your system!”

Complex Training may work for you if you follow the guidelines, and you commit
yourself fully to technique, safety and practice.

Recommended Protocol:

• Ballistic before Grind, the weight is kind. Grind before Ballistic, you’ll
be a statistic.
• Only create or use Complex Training comprising basic exercises that you
have mastered; never engage Complex Training with exercises you have not.
• Grinding exercise should be at 8-9 Rate of Perceived Effort (RPE) and
Ballistic at 3-6RPE.
• Keep reps low for both grinding and ballistic exercises. Shoot for 1–5 in both
grinding and ballistic exercises.
• Work should be at sub-maximal levels and never close to fatigue, even in
later reps in your set.
• Sets should range from 5–10.
• Rest periods should last from 3-5 minutes (even up to 10), and don’t be
reluctant to rest-pause in between reps to finish out your volume.
• Complex Training should only be done 2/week, and switch gears back to
Simple Training cycle after 3-6 weeks to avoid the heavy fatigue this may
cause on our central nervous system.

Combination Routines for Circular Strength builds your grip-strength like no other
method because of the rapid changes in protocol. One of the single most
defining characteristics of athletic performance in sports especially contact
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57

sports and tool-using sports, is grip strength & endurance which elite coaches
consider the measuring stick of one’s total functional strength. The ability to
boldly adhere to an opponent or the strength and proficiency with which one
wields the implements of one’s sport generally determines victory.  This is
certainly true in contact sports such as wrestling, football, and rugby, but also in
tool-using sports such as hockey, baseball, and lacrosse.  However, most
strength programs overlook hand, wrist and forearm conditioning.  Furthermore,
medical studies have proven than poor mid-life grip strength predicts old-age
disability (Journal of the American Medical Association Vol.281 No.6). 

Do not sacrifice form and be careful!


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Specific Physical Preparedness

Training Hierarchy Pyramid™

I developed this training model as a result of my experience with coaching
combat sports, and providing specific conditioning for both athletic and battle-
fields. Basically, my coaching model is a pyramid with General Physical
Preparedness (GPP: increasing fundamental work capacity) on the bottom,
Specific Physical Preparedness (SPP: dedicated performance enhancement)
next, Physical Skills (PS: skill refinement) on the third rung, and Mental/
Emotional Skills (MES: fostering critical psychological attributes) as the capstone.
 I structured this as a pyramid because each level requires more substantial
foundation than the level above, in order for the higher levels to concretely hold. 
These are not clean distinctions, but involve a very gradual transition from one to
the next. 
General Physical Preparedness:  The primary goal of GPP irrespective of
activity or sport is increased work capacity.  If work capacity increases, combat
athletes will adapt more readily to the sustained increases in mental and physical
demands.  GPP holds priority as the BASE of all solid programming because
without this level of readiness the mind and body cannot effectively absorb
specificity.  This theory relates to Maslow's Pyramid in that an athlete cannot
effectively address higher levels of training without the lower level fulfillment. One
can practice MES, but without GPP, it's a house on quicksand. 
Specific Physical Preparedness:  Next up on the pyramid is SPP.  This training
converts the unrefined, nonspecific GPP gains made into activity specific
attributes.  SPP builds upon the GPP foundation by furthering development within
the exact physiological profile of your sport.  SPP refers to the principle of
specificity, or transference, which states that strength and conditioning (training)
must approximate as closely as possible your sport’s conditions and variables in
order to maximize learning and training effects; in other words, how much your
training effect transfers to the performance in your specific sport.  You adapt
specifically to stresses placed upon you; you improve according to the exact type
of training you do. Therefore, your training needs to be as specific as possible. 
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Unfortunately, many athletes utilize the same training methods regardless of the
physiological profile of their activity.  Training must stimulate but not simulate the
biomechanics, neuromuscular patterns and energy system requirements of your
sport’s skills.  Specific Physical Preparedness requires your training play a
physiological role in accessing the following characteristics (SPP extends beyond
these, but the following most obviously exemplify Circular Strength Training):
Range and Depth: It is difficult to mimic the technical skill of a given sport in
training. Therefore one must try to approximate the dynamic structure of the
range and depth of your sport’s skills.   On the other hand care must be taken to
avoid exercising in such a way that the main motion pattern (the sport skill) is
substantially altered.   An example would be a sprinter running while wearing a
weighted vest.  The additional weight makes the runner have to fight gravity to a
greater extent, creating more of an upward push, than a forward thrust.  A fighter
doing punches and kicks with elastic bands attached to the wrists and ankles is
also risks compromising technique by altering the natural rate of force
development.
Specificity vs. Simulation: Specificity should not be confused with Simulation
training.  Specificity refers to an expression of your skill’s physiological profile – a
stimulation of the biomechanics, neuromuscular patterns and energy system
requirements of your sport’s skills. Simulation attempts to use resistance to mimic
the exact movements of the skill.  Although Simulation works during certain
aspects of training, if overused it may cause neuromuscular confusion due to
differences such as center of gravity, rotation and inertia. Specific Physical
Preparedness does not mean merely grabbing a clubbell and swinging it like a
baseball bat for increased batting power.  SPP regards a systematic program
rendering the skill’s expression.  Follow the program design guidelines and use
the program samples as a template for crafting SPP through Circular Strength
Training.




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General Guidelines

• Perfect Form IS the rule:


%L.Remember that your students should begin by choking up on the
clubbell until they have developed the strength to handle the weight
and leverage of the clubbells as well as the neuro-muscular
“knowledge” of the individual drills
%L.When form is less than perfect, stop the current exercise, and
consider dropping back to a less demanding exercise until your
student can do at least one rep with perfect form.
%L.Keep in mind that while it may only take 10 reps to develop the
“habit” of perfect form, it may take 100 reps to “unlearn” imperfect
form.


Warm Ups:



Your warm-up should comprise three phases:

• General activity to raise bodily temperature for five minutes (such as a
high volume set of a bodyweight exercise which generally
approximates your session’s target muscle group, or at least it must be
whole bodily, such as frog hops.)
• General stretch loading of bodily parts to be worked in the session. Do
not do static stretches. This phase should only take 3-5 minutes, since
Clubbell Training for Circular Strength by definition contains flexibility-
enhancing elements.
• Use the specific exercise you shall conduct in your session to open the
neural pathways and pump blood to the target of your session (such as
a set of the same exercise from your session done at increased
leverage, or “choked-up” on your clubbells.)

• Warm Downs


%L.Conclude your sessions with your clients by including a set of
exercises that can help reduce or eliminate Delayed Onset Muscle
Soreness (DOMS), or the day-after soreness we’ve all experienced.


%L.Vibration Exercises: Consult Chapter 4 of CT4CT for specific
vibration exercises or watch the Fisticuffs video series from

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Basic Exercises – Tips, Tools and Components*

Complete descriptions of the exercise protocols are found in Chapter 5 of
Clubbell Training for Circular Strength and on the video of the same name.


As we’ve stressed time and again, start your students off slowly, and emphasize
PERFECT FORM, keeping in mind that by PERFECT FORM I mean:

• Efficient Breathing
• Efficient Structure
• Efficient Movement

All three elements eventually become a single “unity” of form. 


Also keep in mind that your clients will move through the 3 phases of skill
development: cognitive, associative, and autonomous (read above in
Certification Program Overview). That is, at first, they’re going to have to think
through the ways their body is supposed to move and, in the process, they’ll be
“teaching” their neuromuscular system. When they get to the “associative” stage,
they’re starting to “get it.” Finally, at the “autonomous” stage, they’ve gotten it,
and they are ready for further refinement and/or to begin combining individual
components into a complex routine.



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62

Basic Exercise Tips, Tools & Components at a Glance

Basic Prelim/Warm-up, Suggeste Safety Quick
Exercis Fundamentals, &/or d Reminders/ References:
e Variations Correctiv Cautions CB4CS book &
e Actions Video + YOUR
(Drills) NOTES
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63

Swing Choke up or
down to
Preliminary
drills such as
Remember that the
swing is the CORE
Approach with feet
directly under shoulders. adjust vertical leaps exercises and that all
Insert hand in lanyard leverage. with pelvis the others build from
thrusts, or this one.
with an inside pinky curl
gripping the neck. simply doing

Arm straight – clubbell as
standing pelvis
thrusts can help
Arm & wrist are a
single unit of force
an extension, wrist in BEFORE projection.
fencer’s alignment, picking up a
Clubbell.
elbow locked, shoulder
down.

Back flat – spine
Go over with
your students
decompressed. how to use the

Push the earth away
safety strap to
either hang on
from you with your heels to the CB
while gripping with your (prevent it from
toes. becoming a

Forearm pre-swing and
guided missile)
or to let it go (in
rock-it drill for knee bend order to avoid
and clearance test.
 personal

The swing action comes
injury).

from “snapping the hip” &

not from the arms.

Explosive exhalations at
moment of hip/pelvic
“lockout” Clench the
glutes. Quad/knee cap
lift.

Then “relax” and grip the
CB through the eccentric
(negative) movement of
swing as you “load the
spring” of your legs, hips,
and pelvis for the next
swing.
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64

Clean to In lockout position, arm Elbow should

Order and wrist are “fused” into be
a single unit. perpendicular

Elbows are pinched in
to the arm.


Clinch-crush grip can be
Lockout
position = < 5
facilitated by seconds
“performance” breathing.
Performance breathing
helps tighten abs, glutes,
and entire body.

Jerk to Again, arm (forearm Notice how

Torch bicep, and wrist) are one close CBs
unit project force through come to ears –
the arm. poor form can
cause
SERIOUS
injury

Snatch Don’t hold for more than

4 seconds.

Pendulum First CTO (clean to When catching,

• Inward order), execute use breathing &
• Outward pendulum (inward or knee flexes to
outward) & return to
Order
absorb the
“catch” at the

Inward Pendulum comes
end of the
pendulum as
through centerline you come to

Outward Pendulum goes
order

away from centerline

Circles Forward and Backward Can generate

high velocity, so
make sure your
grip is fresh &
strong.

Properly utilize
safety lanyard
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65

Wrist Cast CTO Because of grip (Taken from George

• Pinky Park on bicep of same strength Jowett’s Fulcrum
First arm required, do at barbell courses)
• Bottle & Wrist curl (uncurl) end of workout
Binocular outward

Armpit CTO Keep arms Action is like

Cast Shoulder Park “in,” close to “tomahawk”
Extend CB behind back ears chop
as if doing 1-arm French
Press
Cast (bring forward) to
Order

Shoulder CTO
Cast “Lateral” shoulder park
(arms & elbows out, not
in)
CB goes behind head in
fluid motion like
unsheathing a sword
“Side arm” version of
shoulder cast (bringing
CB forward in front of
your body at level of
head)

Lateral CTO
Shoulder Shoulder Park
Cast Rotate Elbow “out”
laterally
Lateral cast (chop)

Head Cast CTO

Shoulder Park
Arm cast (CB behind
back)
Cast to leverage lift (CB
tipped “back” at angle)

Shield CTO
Cast CB goes behind head
fluidly & then swung
forward & stopped “head
high” (don’t chop down)






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Advanced Exercises – Tips, Tools and Components

Advanced Prelim/Warm- Suggeste Safety Quick
Exercise up, d Reminder References:
Fundamentals Correctiv s/ CB4CS book &
&/or e Actions Cautions Video + YOUR
Variations (Drills) NOTES
Extended Snatch Basic snatch, but
• Ex done on elevated
• Front Squat platform such as
cinder blocks

Pendulum with 2 During

Clubbells cognitive
• phase, lead
• Alternating with stronger
• Simultaneous (dominant)
arm and let
weaker arm
“follow”,

Lunges CTO
• Forward/ Catch on lunge
Backward Step forward to
catch
Breathing critical
to establish
rhythm and to
tighten core to
absorb CBs while
catching

Side Lunge with CTO

Pendulum Circle Pendulum Swing
Sidestep & Catch
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67

Armpit Cast CTO

• Drumming Shoulder Park
Extend CB behind
back as if doing 1-
arm French Press
Alternate arms
when casting (Left
comes forward as
right returns
behind back, etc.
– like playing a
bass drum in a
marching band)

Head Cast • Yielding Head Do at end of

Cast workout
Hold the
negative and fight
all the way down
• Double
Leverage Head
Cast (2CBs at
once to leverage
lift position)

• Seesaw Cast

Alternate casts to
leverage lift
position

2CB Shield Cast • Muscle Out Try not to

(Iron Cross) • Crucifix bang CBs
CTO together.
“Lateral” shoulder
park (arms &
elbows out, not in)
CBs “cross”
behind the head
Extend both CBs
out to side
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68

Parry Cast • Reverse Parry Exercise

Cast requiring
Clean & jerk in high degree
one fluid motion of
CB from Park coordination,
position to behind so put first or
head (as if early in
parrying in routine
fencing) & return
to park position.
See CT4CS video
for exact motion.

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Marketing Advice


Here is some basic marketing advice as a CST Certified Instructor.

• Test your “course” and instructor’s skills on friends and/or family prior to trying
to offer your services. I.e., it’s always safer to “open off-Broadway” and you’ll
find out right away what the uninitiated “get” and don’t get about Circular
Strength Training.

• Remember that what you know as an instructor is NOT what you impart. You
instruct. In most cases, the client needs to know only how to do. Stay away
from heavy, confusing jargon. Stay clear and simple in your instruction.


• The most obvious way to attract potential customers is to let people see you
train with Clubbells. Many instructors train clients outside in parks or at work,
and have been amazed how many passersby have asked about clubbells.

• Simply by developing a very simple, desktop-published pamphlet on the
benefits you can have several people sign up for instruction or at least send
e-mails asking when you might be available to conduct a session.


• Co-workers can become trainees, and you might do well by offering courses
at noon or the like to employees of large companies who have shower/locker
facilities. The companies will appreciate that you’re offering something that
will keep the employees on-site and return them to work refreshed.
(However, see the item below about liability insurance – it will be critical if you
take on on-site training programs.)


• Obviously, having a website or at a minimum, offering e-mail contact
information is a necessity. RMAX.tv Productions will provide a free webpage
and email address for all certified CST instructors as well as help you promote
your services online through the websites, forums and newsletters.


• A press release to your local paper about your unique, one-a-kind offering can
work wonders. There are several books on how to write a press release. We
will be happy to provide basic guidance with individual instructors.


• Simple, inexpensive direct marketing, whether through the mail or e-mail can
also work. In the case of e-mail, you have to be wary that you’re not tagged
as a spammer because the consequences can be dire. Don’t try to sell
people! Instead put the reader’s interest FIRST, and minimize how much
“advertising” you do through this method. Allow people to come to you.

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70

• Before you instruct anyone, make sure you have insurance and get your
students to sign liability waivers. CYA.

• Think of organizations that definitely need to maintain their strength and
training, such as police, fire departments, rescue departments, etc. Offer
them free, ONE TIME instruction. Any more than that and you’re giving it
away and it will be hard to get your trainees to pay for what they think should
be free.

• Body work specialists, such as chiropractors, massage therapists, and even
energy workers all endure extreme vocational decay of their upper body joint
soft tissues. Offer the same one time free instruction and help them
understand the benefits CST offers in preventing overuse injuries and in joint
strengthening rehabilitative benefits. Many massage schools require
continuing educational credits. Look up the schools in the phone book,
request to go in and demo to the head master of the school, and you’ll be
brought in as a CEC – a great way to network and develop private clients!

• Look, act, and BE the part – mind, body and spirit. ‘Nuff said.

• Find a niche. You might want to offer courses at local martial arts clubs (if the
owner will go along with you) or you might consider offering courses through
“alternative treatment” centers.

• As for what to charge: remember that you have invested in equipment and
training to become a Certified Instructor and it is only right that you earn a
return on that investment. Be honest and humble regarding your knowledge
and abilities.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What are the advantages of Clubbells for Circular Strength Training?
Clubbells are the ONLY Combat and Sport Specific Equipment for Circular
Strength:  Only Clubbells were specifically researched, engineered and
implemented to target the rotary and angular/diagonal muscles, to target the grip,
wrist and forearm strength, and to target enhancing shoulder synergy, to be used
in Complex Training as a conservative injury prevention and rehabilitation tool, as
well as sports-specific performance enhancement (SPP).
Displaced Center of Gravity: With dumbbells, the weight can be supported by
your skeletal structure, as if sitting on top of a column. With dumbbells your grip
is located directly upon the center of gravity which remains constant throughout
the exercise for the entire range of motion;  a more gross action, power without
coordination.  The Unique Balance Scheme of Clubbells forces athletes to use
proper technique and concentrate on complex skills during the movement.  The
Displaced Center of Gravity forces you to keep the weight inside of its proper
groove throughout the entire lift.  At times having the weight pull away from you is
desirable. For example, many people do not have the shoulder flexibility to do
overhead squats. The Clubbell will pull your arm into the proper position and
keep it there.
Leverage Lifting Principle: The unique benefits of leverage challenge include a
superior training effect.  Decreased leverage of the Displaced Center of Gravity
translates force more effectively to develop superior grip strength, as well as
lower arm, upper arm and shoulder synergy, stabilization and dynamic flexibility. 
Additionally, Clubbells have a Thick, Crinkle Coated Neck and a uniquely
engineered Phenolic Knob to provide a specialized purchase for the grip in order
to facilitate increased inertia and poundage - a better grip workout than any other
piece of equipment. NO other apparatus translates this amount of leveraged
force!  
Pendulum Swinging Principle:  With Clubbells your grip is at the end of an
extension attached to the weighted center of gravity. As you go through the range
of motion the weight moves in relation to the fixed point of your grip much the
same as a pendulum swings from a fixed point. The leverage and the force
constantly change position along with the strength of the pull throughout the
range of motion creating resistance and stressing your muscles from varying
angles. This gives a totally different dynamic effect to the exercise which is
impossible to obtain with any other piece of equipment. This Pendulum Swinging
Principle which has been used for centuries and has been lost to modern training
reborn through CLUBBELLS, the ONLY equipment of its kind - a patent-pending
breakthrough in sport specific training.



Micro-Loading Adjustable Grip:  Clubbells are a means of Incremental
Resistance Progression.  The special design of the handle allows minor
increases in weight, never overloading your muscles but always challenging
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72

them.  Micro-Loading Adjustable Grip is a special design function that uniquely

promotes constant progress and strength gains.  No other piece of equipment
has this versatility! 
Phenolic Knob: This specialized attachment is both threaded and bonded with
Lock-Tight. The Phenolic Knob design allows for grip purchase in order to assist
in leverage lifting, to protect user from releasing clubbells through slippage, and
to act as a gripping surface for certain lighter-weight exercises.
Rubberized Coating: Clubbells are made from steel, with a Black Urethane
Rubber-coating cast around the weight mass and the portion of the handle to
protect floor surfaces.

What is the difference between old swing-bells, leverage bars, Indian clubs,
with modern Clubbells?

The difference is about 200 years and tens of thousands of dollars of technology,
research, testing, experimentation and experience.  Clubbells were designed
specifically as the physical manifestation of Circular Strength Training.  No
expense was spared for this innovation.  The difference between old designs and
the modern engineering design of Clubbells is analogous to the difference
between a Model-T and a Hum-V.

Can an individual create or find a cheaper alternative to clubbells? Of course
they can. RMAX.tv Productions and Torque Athletic Equipment did not intend to
provide the cheapest equipment, but rather the best, safest and most durable
equipment to fit the needs of the gym, field, home or suitcase.


In which sports will I improve my performance through clubbells?

Firstly, all of them. Secondly, all physical vocations as well as recreational
activities such as computer technicians, beauticians, masons, postal workers,
massage therapists, clerks, janitors, physicians, not to forget police, fireman, and
soliders. Here are a few sport examples:
 
• WRESTLING: Increase clinch dominance, strengthen wrist control, and
increase static strength for sprawls, jams and shucks.
• BOXING: Enhance wrist stability in striking, increase early power
generation and arm endurance.
• MARTIAL ARTS: Strengthen strikes, clinch work, and application of holds
as well as prevent loss by submission.
• POWER-LIFTING: Add tonnage to your max deadlift and bench from
increased bar grip strength.
• ICE & FIELD HOCKEY: Strengthen stick stability and agility. Achieve
stronger, accurate shots, and prevent shoulder injury.
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73

• RUGBY & FOOTBALL: Increase ball handling, blocking and tackling skills
which rely on coordinated arm force generation.
• GOLF: Strengthen fingers to remove handedness bias, and wrist snap to
increase distance, accuracy and consistency.
• RACQUETBALL & TENNIS: Improve racket control & strengthen wrist
action for all strokes.
• ROCK CLIMBING & RAPPELLING: Develop & maintain hand, wrist &
forearm strength and endurance.
• BASEBALL: Develop stronger grip & wrist snap for increased accuracy
and velocity in ball throwing; increase bat control and swing speed and
power.
• MOTOCROSS & BMX: Diminish arm-pump to enhance bar control and
endurance.
• BASKETBALL: Shoot, dribble & pass with a higher level of consistency &
accuracy.
• As well as other sports such as swimming, kayaking, gymnastics,
bowling, javelin-throwing, volleyball, power-lifting, Olympic lifting,
shot-put, fencing, windsurfing, water skiing, bodybuilding, jet skiing,
or any sport using the arms.

I want to begin CST. With which Clubbell weight do I begin?
Ask your physician permission to begin this type of strenuous and circular
resistance exercise.  Physically fit adult males get started with the Clubbell
Training for Circular Strength book, the video of the same name, and a pair of
10lbs. clubbells.  Physically fit adult females get started with the book, the
video, and a pair of 5lbs. clubbells.  For both men and women, these weight
selections of clubbells have been challenging at first but they adapted over the
first two weeks or so and some were even ready for a heavier size within the first
month or two.
Men with thorough strength training experience and above average strength
have begun with a pair of 15lbs. clubbells; women – a pair of 10lbs clubbells. 
Competitive male power-lifters, Olympic style lifters, or experienced Iron Game
Knuckledraggers have begun with a pair of 20lbs. clubbells.  We would not
recommend starting with anything larger than 20lbs. clubbells regardless of your
background since you will always use for lighter clubbells in your training.

I already own my first clubbell. Which should I purchase next: another of
the same weight or heavier weight division?
The usual guideline for adult men is building your home gym to own at least one
pair of any weight for the complex combination routines and to own at least one
each of the 10, 15, and 20lbs. clubbells.  After that, start over from the bottom,
working on your second pair, and purchase the 5 and 25lbs Clubbells to
complete your gym.  Clubbells pairs add variety, challenge and significant gains
 !
74

to your programs.  You can and should begin with a pair of clubbells.  Different
weights help you progress in strength and fitness.
For most adult women, the guidelines are the same but one division lighter. 
Begin with one pair of 5lbs. clubbells, and then collect one each of 10, and 15lbs.
clubbells then start working on pairs of both. 
The exception to this general guideline is the person who is focused more on
coordination, agility, and strength-endurance than on explosive/ballistic strength. 
It is perfectly possible for a male tennis player, baseball player, or wrestler to do
all their work with a pair of 15lbs. clubbells and never use a larger size.  It's
equally fine to stop with a pair of 20lbs. clubbells, though the physiological and
psychological benefits of incrementally increasing heavier weight should not be
underestimated.  Some people prefer to own the heaviest clubbells they can
manage, even if for only low repetitions. 

What about the 45LBS clubbells?
Do not be fooled by the “light-weight” sound of 45lbs. clubbells.  They are Steel
Sadists, the Iron Monsters of Circular Strength Training! Consider these a goal,
the horizon of your strength.  He who swings these with form and ease is one of
the strongest of all men!

Do I need to purchase the entire Clubbell PRO Gym immediately?
No one will use all weights immediately, so in that regard you only ever begin
with one particular weight of clubbells.  However, these questions only comprise
a general guideline.  There is no way to compare with dumbbells, barbells, and
kettlebells weights, since clubbells involve not linear strength, but Circular
Strength Training.  Therefore, without a personal trainer present, you must guess
which weight you can handle.  The advantage of purchasing a Clubbell Total
Gym or Clubbell PRO Gym is the ability to personally discover which weight
you need to start; plus you can work incrementally through each weight
division immediately as your strength and fitness skyrocket.  Additionally, you will
save a considerable amount of money in both cost and shipping by outfitting
your personal home fitness with a complete clubbell gym.

Anything else I should purchase to help me?
Warrior Wellness: 6 Degrees of Freedom is an incrementally progressing, joint
mobility and joint health program which you should do every day for at least
15-20 minutes daily.  This is your ticket to longevity, freedom of movement, and
pain-free activity.  You will find these type of benefits and this level of benefit no
where else.  Be Breathed: Biomechanical Exercise will help further demonstrate
Performance Breathing.  This program to be performed as a warm-up, an off-
day dynamic relaxation activity, or a stand-alone fitness program will give you the
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75

ability to increase your health and vitality all day long once you master the
technique.

Can I use clubbells with Coach Sonnon’s Zdorovye Fitness System, ,
Warrior Wellness 6 Degrees of Freedom, or other programs?
Clubbell Training for Circular Strength is the resistance training complement to
Zdorovye: the Russian Fitness System.  As long as you follow the Rules of
Circular Strength Training, have your physician's permission, and sensibly
acknowledge that you have no pre-existing conditions which would be
aggravated by the activity, you can safely incorporate light-weight clubbells into
Zdorovye, the Russian Fitness System

How heavy are clubbells really? (contributed by Michael Gannon)
How hard is it to swing a heavier Clubbell?  How much work is it to swing it
faster?  How quickly can I expect to progress in weight?  What is the increase in
perceived effort as I move thought the different weight divisions?  This article
hopes to provide answers to these questions that make both logical and intuitive
sense.
To accomplish this, we will focus on a relatively well known aspect of circular
motion, the applied moment to moment force causing an object to rotate, called
torque.   This is just one part of the total work involved in swinging a Clubbell, but
it is easy to understand and nicely illustrates the answers to our questions.  Also,
the concepts we need will give us a deeper appreciation for the nuances of work
involved in swinging any weight.
There are a couple of ways we might proceed.  We could use Newton's Laws of
Motion, applying vector analysis to the various forces involved, a method more
suitable to the mathematically masochistic.  Or we could look at the work-energy
relationship involved in swinging, using a few easily understood and intuitive
concepts to draw some useful conclusions.                     
For our purposes, we will avoid formulas (well, just one multiplication) and take
the simpler approach, examining circular motion from an energy expenditure
point of view (work), and how it might apply to the various Clubbell weights.
To answer our questions and aid our understanding, we need a few concepts:
·        Force is the product of an object's mass and its acceleration. 
·        Work (perceived effort) is force acting through a distance over time.
·        Energy is the capacity to do work.
·        Power is the rate at which work is accomplished.
·        Torque is force causing rotational motion (Clubbell weight times radius of
swing)
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76

Here, energy can be thought of as potential (inactive) and work as kinetic

(active).  Then power generation becomes the rate at which we can conduct or
channel our energy (convert potential to kinetic) as we swing the club.
From physics, we also know that for an object of constant mass and a circle of
constant radius, the net force required to move the object in a circle is directly
proportional to the square of the object's speed.   If the speed is doubled, the
force is quadrupled.  In other words, to swing a Clubbell twice as fast takes four
times the work.
So the energy (expended as work) required to generate power involves torque
applied over a distance (arc or full circle) for a given time (duration of swing *
total reps).  Things affecting power generation are the mass of the clubbell, the
acceleration (both keeping it going and stopping it on a dime), the distance the
club moves through space (shorter or longer club, arc or full circle), the duration
of the motion, and finally the speed.
We can think of (some of) the work required to swing a Clubbell as torque
applied along the arc of the swing at a given rate (speed) for a given duration
(reps).  This is rather simplistic and ignores many other forces, such as
centripetal force (grip strength) required just to hang on to the Clubbell.  But the
concepts are pretty intuitive.  We all know how the number and speed of reps
influences our perceived effort, and our bodies know that there is a lot more
going on than just torque when we work out.
Looking at the following chart (here's the multiplication), we can see how the
amount of work (torque) goes up quickly as the size of the Clubbell increases:

WEIGH LENGTH TORQU

T E

5 lbs 20 inches 100

10 lbs 25 inches 250

15 lbs 25 inches 375

20 lbs 25 inches 500

25 lbs 27 inches 675

45 lbs 27 inches 1215

The difference in weight between the smallest and largest Clubbell is only forty
pounds.  But the amount of work necessary to use it is more than ten times as
much.  (Units are irrelevant here for torque, since we're just looking at relative
percentages).   And this isn't counting grip strength!  In addition, the explosive
start and the rapid stopping on a dime compress the time component, increasing
the acceleration/deceleration, so the work component jumps up (force equals
mass times acceleration).
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77

An amusing aside, if someone did somehow manage to double the speed and
also jump in size from 5 to 45, it would take an energy expenditure that goes
from 100 to 4860, an increase of 48 times.  Applying this same reasoning, we
can figure out the relationships between any two Clubbells.  For example, just a
five pound jump from the 5 to the 10 pound Clubbell increases the workload by
one hundred and fifty percent, assuming no increase in rotational speed.
It is important to remember that torque is just one aspect of the work involved in
Clubbell training.  The movements are multi-planar and non-uniform, and when
combination routines are considered, it would take a super-computer to figure out
all the forces involved and the energy expended.
Even so, from such a brief and cursory examination, we can readily see how
important it is to accurately assess one's strength and capacity for work before
jumping to the next size Clubbell.  Circular Strength Training places real
demands on the body that increase rapidly with just small increases in weight. 
Adding weight multiplies the work.

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78

OUTCOMES AS A MEANS

By Scott Sonnon
Interacting with the Iron-inclined folk of the athletic community, I can conclude much
from my observations. Of these conclusions, I can say that we have become
obsessed with numbers: 25 pounds heavier, 2 seconds faster, 1 minute more
frequent. We swim in an ocean of numbered protocols, numeric micro-cycles, and
tabulated caloric burn ratios. The entire community crams its life into highly
regimented units. We live 200 milliliters at a time.
It's this number game that concerns me greatest as I work with young athletes. Kids
in their early teens talk about that they suck or they're wimps because they can't
break the "200LBS wall" on their bench. We've taught them to define themselves by
their records, and as a result hindered their growth—and ours—because ultimately,
they are our only immortality. Is the heritage we leave them some ink-filled
notebook recording the vane, lack-luster passage of our life?
The Indian wrestlers had a saying, "That thou art." You are what you define yourself
to be. Basically, they laughed at their own petty pursuits because the results, the
outcomes were never the purpose of all this. The numbers are only the means… to a
greater end.
Pushing the envelope is the end in itself; NOT whatever that relative goal happens to
be! We're all in the business of Adaptation. We deliberately introduce stress into our
lives so that we can awaken our spirits, free our minds, and make savage our bodies.
It's not the number that's the goal whatsoever. Yes, they're there. But we can't
forget that they are not only just means to an end… We can't make a reality out of
this web of illusion.
Yet daily, we define ourselves by outcomes… and worse, these outcomes are our
threshold, our limitation in growth. We literally define ourselves by our limitations.
The more we make those limitations a reality, the more we swim in this ocean of
dull-witted number crunching, the more entrenched these barriers become. But, they
are not real.
The Renegade stands alone outside of this veil of illusion, and musters every ounce
of energy to resist conformity. Conformity to what? To categories, to titles, to
achievements, to records. How many world records seemed impossible to break
because of the definitions set forth by society? How many tricks failed people's
imagination because they neglected to dare greatly?
Renegades approach athletics as art, like they approach life: unquantifiable.
Approach your training, like Tibetan monks approach sand mandalas. Meticulously
crafted, granule by granule, they create images on the ground with the Sistine
Chapel greatness. And as soon as they complete the image, they stand and sweep it
away. It's all illusion anyway. To marvel at the past, is to stop your upward lifting.
Life doesn't last that long, but it lasts long enough to make challenge a habit and to
be systematically heroic every moment in the most ordinary thing. Because
ultimately, no moment's ordinary and every act is a chance for excellence. Use your
small goals as means to transcend yourself—which is the ultimate goal.
Transcendence, like winning, isn't a some of the time thing.
Yeah, you can just do it. But go farther than that. Dare greater than that.
Don't just do it—be it.

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79

The Appearance of Success

Working with a client, he commented that because our training surface
comprised wood he feared falling. The prior session he landed hard
neglecting to absorb the fall with a special method of soft-falling (not
"break-falls"). He became gun-shy as a result. His defensive bracing
causing him tension which in turn made him easier to be driven, lifted
and thrown.



I explained to him that he needed to choose where, when and how he
engaged the ground. He looked at me as if I were mad. He asked how
he could control it. I explained that a very important principle could be
found hidden in Sambo rules - that being, the Appearance of Success.



In Sambo, you may win by Total Victory - an 8 point throw, which can
only be accomplished by throwing an opponent to his back while
remaining standing.
Again, what I now describe may be "unfair" to the hearts of some, but
it regards merely understanding the rules of the sport in which you
compete. In Sambo, many a match I won merely because my
opponent attempted to "fall into the guard." Ground-fighting zealots
want to pull you into their preferred position to work their specialty.
Misunderstanding the rules, they often lose if their opponent
understands Sambo’s Rule of Initiation: whoever initiates the throw,
receives the point award. 



For instance, if wrestler RED attempts to "fall into the guard" while
wrestler BLUE changes his level thwarting the attempt to go to the
ground, the referee signals a "no point award" for RED. However, in
the same situation, if BLUE remains aware of RED's intent to "guard
flop" and gives an aggressively APPEARANCE of actively pursuing a
takedown, the referee will often award BLUE with the points. (And if
BLUE remains standing with RED "flopped" to his back, BLUE wins by
Total Victory.)
I actually won quite a few matches this way, and accrued many points
in matches not immediately won. "Sacrifice throws" by Judo and
Sambo players engage the ground in order to throw the opponent.
Bodily sensing this, the other wrestler may actively appear to pursue a
takedown and receive the point award.



Now, this rule is a lesson. The lesson is: pretend that everything
acts to your advantage and in all cases it will. 



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80

So often people in general "wear their emotions on their sleeves."

They confuse emotional intensity with emotionalism. Hide your fear
and doubts deep inside you. Hide them from your opponents, but more
importantly, hide them from yourselves. Act confident, look confident
and you will be. Conceive, Believe and Achieve.



Many athletes don't understand that pretending and looking confident
IS confidence. Most people wait or pine for the day when they shall no
longer doubt themselves or when they shall no longer fear, have
"butterflies" or negative self-dialogue. That day shall never come.
Confidence comes from smiling in the face of adversity and moving
enthusiastically from failure to failure without hesitation.



You win so many situations in life merely by acting as if that any
adversity you face acts in your favor. This could be an injury giving
you the needed objectivity for a fresh look at your training. This could
be a loss which gives you the opportunity to revaluate your strategy.
This could even be facing the most unlikely, most arduous of
frustrating failure… for so many great things await those who fight on
the face of discouragement, those who remain determined and persist.
As you pretend to have good posture, you become it. As you pretend
to be happy, you become it. As you pretend to be efficient, you
become it. As you pretend to be successful in any endeavor, you
become it. If you’re having trouble, model someone successful in your
field, or collect attributes in common among several who found
success in your discipline… and model their behavior.
It gets weird, the transformation that you experience. You move from
portraying to projecting… from doing to being. You’ll find co-workers,
friends, even family actively resist the changes you make. They see
changes in you that they wish in themselves, and that hurts them. We
live in a society of codependence, collectively enabling each other’s
sand castle of mediocrity and poor health. Anyone that appears to be
emancipating themselves from that community accepted schema
meets great resistance. Transcending yourself is not easy because of
this. How can you be expected to change your nutrition habits if your
spouse refuses? How can you be expected to increase your esprit de
corps if your team acts like a gaggle of showboating prima donnas?
How can you be expected to keep your faith strong when your unit
morale remains ambivalent?
Do what you can, Knuckledraggers. Do what you must… even if you
must go first… even if you must begin by feigning the appearance of
success. Expect to go all the way alone, but hold faith that your
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strong will and guidance will create positive impact on your friends and
family; maybe not in the way you expect or hope, but somehow in
some fashion it will.
Coach Sonnon

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Group-Think Fitness

I know way too many people who live from one magazine issue to the next
waiting for the new set/rep scheme, how to guarantee another 20 pounds to their
bench press, or another God-forsaken ab routine. Now the vogue involves every
BDU-clad legend-in-their-own-mind rushing to release a random exercise
selection and poorly researched program design. And when did they become
sport psychologists having a CLUE about mental toughness???

I understand for these Powder Puff Pumpers® it’s easy to fall into silly belief
systems because they’ve never stared down the business end of a Harbinger
glove. But it certainly doesn’t mean that I’m going to allow their “warrior
fantasies” to hemorrhage the performance of my men and women. Not on my
watch.

A true knuckle-dragger goes to the source if he does not know and learns to fish
him- freaking -self. This whole thing was meant to be something larger than
poundage and more enduring than some 45 minute BRAND-X-bell blast.

The greatest difficulty with the Digital Age is public domain overload. Exercises,
programs, and protocols flood peoples minds. This results in a lack of
understanding of training doctrine (your underlying assumptions and beliefs) and
how particular training strategies deliver performance.

Everywhere we are told that we are incompetent, that we must defer to some
external source of wisdom (and give him “due credit”), that we are somehow
deficient in our perception of truth. The world is rampant with self-proclaimed
legends willing to exchange their ‘true way’ for the coin of the region.

However, if we delve deeply and confront our preconceived ideas and notions,
our fears and doubts, and our desires and needs, we will release the natural
authority over our own lives.

Do you know the nature of your training? Is your philosophy personal and
conscious? Not assessing and assembling your private philosophy leads to self-
sabotage, hesitation, doubt, and resistance. Basically, if you don’t have any
goals in mind, any method will get you there – and, Boy, will the gurus help you
get there (nowhere) FAST!

Here’s a story that should resonate you knuckledraggers.

There was an old man, a boy and a donkey. They were going to town and it was
decided that the boy should ride. As they went along, they passed some people
who exclaimed that it was a shame for the boy to ride and the old man to walk.
The man and boy decided that maybe the critics were right so they changed
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positions. Later, they passed some more people who then exclaimed that it was
a real shame for the man to make such a small boy walk. The two decided that
maybe they both should walk. Soon, they passed some more people who
exclaimed that it was stupidity to walk when they had a donkey to ride. The man
and the boy decided maybe the critics were right so they decided that they both
should ride. They soon passed other people who exclaimed that it was cruel to
put such a load on a poor little animal. The old man and the boy decided that
maybe the critics were right, so they decided to carry the donkey. As they
crossed a bridge, they lost their grip on the animal and the donkey fell into the
river and drowned. The moral of the story is that if you try to please everyone, if
you fall for the “legend” of the week, you will eventually lose your ass.

We each operate from a personal philosophy, conscious or not. Everyone
operates within the parameters of their cultural, social, community and biological
operating system. Whether you are aware of your philosophy or not does not
alter the fact that every creature possesses, and is subject, to an operating
system. Your goal is to massage your philosophy to a conscious level. This
begins at the core. How have you been indoctrinated, and how are you
continuing to be indoctrinated? What have you been taught is truth? What are
your general beliefs?

Only with confronting your world view with a discerning eye, a patient mind, and
a temperament devoid of ego, can you determine the junk crowding the
basement of your mind.

If you can stand naked in front of your reality, growth occurs exponentially, and
you adopt the lifestyle of mastery. If you can do this, if you can take your
philosophy, no matter how obscure and unchallenged, and grasp it by the neck
and shake it from its slumber, you will gain the authority over your training that
every knuckledragger possesses.

The flavor of the month guides the nation’s sheeple like lemmings off a cliff. They
wonder why the mavericks and mustangs resist their “recently-declassified kick-
ass secrets.” Underlying assumptions go unquestioned when introduced by
these gurus and experts. Without a deliberate philosophy how can we ever hope
to see through the distortion of trend and fashion to Truth?

It’s all about personal responsibility and your willingness to go all the way alone.
Oh, don’t worry, knuckledraggers, we’re alone together. Personally, I can’t
imagine how I made it this far alone without the Tribe. Sure, I did my thing, but I
accepted long ago that it would just be me doing what I could for my athletes who
step in harm’s way under my care.

It’s your deliberate philosophy which keeps you from “losing your ass.” You’ll
need it because hazards emanate less from your opponents and more from the
conspiracy of piss poor prep. Having a philosophy will enable you to develop
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intentional training methods, realistic short and long-term expectations and goals,
self-discipline, and an ethical CODE of behavior. If you devote the same, or
hopefully more, time and effort to developing your philosophy as you do to your
skills, you will significantly increase not only the success of your performance but
your groove in life.

Coaches serve a purpose, but only as a guide pointing in the same direction,
seeking next to you our collective potential. But each of us manifest our coaches
at any point in life. We’re perpetually surrounded by lessons which we can
choose to ignore. Training happens every second, and every moment of life,
each decision is an act of conditioning. Choose well, for it does echo an eternity.

Acknowledge that your philosophy engages a continual state of amendment
adapting to the needs of the new day. Cover your ass by knowing precisely what
changes to make and, most importantly, what changes to resist (and what men to
avoid!), for the popular vogue of the media and the trends of the community must
be held with great suspicion. As written by Soren Kierkegaard, “The crowd is
untruth.”



Fraternal,
Coach Sonnon
Athletic Performance Enhancement Solutions
www.RMAX.tv