Scott Sonnon, The Flow Coach

POLL: How Well Do You Know… Your Development?

July 8, 2009 – 2:00 am
Have you ever noticed that what you once valued falls out of attention, only to become valuable to you again? Ideas, trends, fashions, even beliefs... We seem to move from one aspect of practice to another, both in individual periods, and also to a degree, in collective periods. As your goals evolve, so do you... At first, you may start your fitness adventure with the preliminary questions about the media promoted ideals: weight loss and muscle gain. "What's the best exercise for X amount of fat loss on the waist, or Y amount of muscle on the chest and arms in Z amount of time?" Digitally enhanced teenage models suffering from diarrhetics and eating disorders "peaking" for photoshoots pervert physique beauty into something... truly ugly. Most of the media surrounding these goals unethically press self-esteem buttons, preying upon feelings of inadequacy, rather than appropriately categorizing physical attraction as a fine ...

Posted in challenges, accountability, social networking, development, mastery, career development, education, change, motivation, leadership, learning | No Comments »

What’s the Punchline in Your Life?

July 6, 2009 – 2:11 am
On July 1st, I was given the honor of speaking as keynote for the MENSA National Conference. Considering the course of my life, presenting my story to the "High IQ Society" seems like an ironic punchline in the riddle which has been my life. It's one thing for me to somehow get "lucky" enough to pass the intelligence examinations to be inducted as a Mensan, but quite another within one year to be featured in their national journal, and then keynote at their national conference! With not an empty seat in the William Penn conference center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and mostly a more seasoned crowd, I shared with my fellow Mensans the story of when I co-presented with the immortal Jack Lalanne - the Godfather of Fitness - at the Arnold Schwarzenegger Active Aging Festival. (Here's a photo of Jack and I; and another with Elaine Lalanne and I - isn't she ...

Posted in passion, challenges, courage, public speaking, inspiration | No Comments »

Social Networking 2.0: Are You Part of the Future or Past?

July 3, 2009 – 6:47 pm
Most social networking talks that I’ve attended amounted to nothing more than a corporate version of group therapy. That, or a client grab. Either it becomes the imbalanced by an overabundance of the feminine aspect, where too much energy is wasted in inappropriate disclosure and endless emotional mining; or imbalanced by too much of the masculine aspect, where heated debate intends to “win” friends through their blustering influence. The inaugural meeting of the Pittsburgh Greenlight Community comprised an intimate cadre of entrepreneurial mustangs who will broker in the 2.0 era. Anyone experienced with professional gatherings and civic clubs, you feel relieved at the distinct lack of fuddy-duddy parochialism which so often degenerate into dueling monologues. Also absent was the sticky-sweet therapeutic temperature which can make you feel nauseated at best, if not emotionally violated by the lack of consensus ambition. In Pitt GC, it was all-go no-show; no posturing, no pandering. Just ...

Posted in social networking, social media, leadership, public speaking, abundance, wealth | No Comments »

Be Better than Happy

July 2, 2009 – 6:41 pm
Have you ever heard the comment about relationships that "it's better to be happy than be right"? It sounds plausible, but it application it's a problematic fantasy. Asking two quarrelsome parties to forfeit trying to prove their point and just acquiesce to the other is like asking wolves to wear sheepskins and bleat. They pretend to be happy, as if they're on a stage... with as much authenticity as a Hollywood film set. Pretending to be happy, submitting to the will of another who intends to prove their righteousness, slowly cannibalizes your self-worth, and leads to a life of silently seething resentment, passive aggressiveness and randomly explosive releases of pressurized emotions. If you wear happiness like a heavy blanket, you'll avoid conflict and confrontation... as a result, you'll prevent growth and development. Rather than risk an argument, you'll suck it in and deny the injustices you see or feel. You'll waste your ...

Posted in suffering, mastery, gratitude, courage, challenges, toughness, motivation, learning, empowerment, love, change, progress | 4 Comments »

The Circular Strength Training® Concept

June 30, 2009 – 2:06 am
A new “map” for exercising the body that is Health-First, Holistic, Functional and Fun. The Circular Strength Training® Tri-Ring Integration allows you to balance work and recovery so that you maximize the effectiveness of your exercise, while accelerating recovery so that you prevent injuries, pain and soreness. Uncover how specifically programming your warm-up, work-out and cool-down determines the percentage of successful results you achieve, and the painful injuries you sustain. Through life, injury, and attitude, you develop compensations which impede your performance. But also through each and every movement you train. Every exercise is subject to “specific adaptation” - and unless specifically compensated creates first - diminishing returns, then plateau, then regress, followed by pain, injury, illness and eventually death: a process that can happen at an imperceptible crawl, or swiftly and acutely. Scott Sonnon called upon the work of Dr. Stephen Levin’s biotensegrity, Dr. Nikolai Berstein’s biomechanics, and Drs. Vladimir Frolov’s and ...

Posted in Circular Strength Training | 3 Comments »

PART II: How to Cycle Your Training Efficiently

June 26, 2009 – 6:40 am
What are You Fit For? Before you start rattling off desires for less fat, sexy abs, stronger arms, bigger chest... this isn't asking you, why do you want to be fit(ter). It's asking you to what specific purpose does your fitness point. Training is always specific, like we discussed in the first installment of this series. Saying fitness begs the question: "fit for WHAT?" Fitness implies this very basic question; a become a dirty, little secret closed tightly in the fitness closet. Some of you may be afraid to address this question, because you may fear that if you don't know how to answer it that your training (or education or services) are somehow devalued. The point is that with a bit of mental effort, you'll be able to offer yourself (and your clients) so much more. Be courageous and keep reading, because I'm going to offer you our periodization model to ...

Posted in periodization, flow, progress, Circular Strength Training | No Comments »

Do You Know How to Cycle Your Training Efficiently?

June 24, 2009 – 1:20 am
Do you know how to cycle your training efficiently? Perhaps you do, effectively, but efficiently? Most "periodization" models have such stark, dramatic steps between the compartments of their training that from an objective point of view appear to be a string of different programs, rather than a cascade of seamlessly sophisticating enhancements culminating in a "peak performance." Do You Cycle Your Training At All? But let's back up for a minute. Most people do not even train in "periods." It's a random workout from one day to the next, with no repeat of a particular skill for weeks, if not months. Some supporters claim a "black box" secretly guarding a formula, but let's be honest: the only thing inside the black box is a pair of dice. Even the world's most vocal advocate of randomizing exercises, Crossfit, has evolved toward its very succesful "Crossfit Games." And why are the Games becoming successful? Because ...

Posted in periodization, flow, progress, Circular Strength Training | 2 Comments »

Celebrity Bodyweight Exercise Program Takes TV by Storm!

June 18, 2009 – 12:33 pm
RMAX Faculty Coach Ryan Murdock and legendary glass-shattering Vocal Coach Jaime Vendera are at it again! If you haven't been paying attention to what's being splashed across all of the Entertainment News airwaves, then you're missing out. Here's the episode you MUST see from Canada's entertainment show, CTV eTalk TODAY!!! (Zoom ahead to 10:50 to get right to the program!) 12 Minute Stage Crazy may just be the best kept secret in a musician’s performance enhancing arsenal. This dynamic duo of Rock Docs was first brought together by Metal Monster Jim Gillette of Nitro, who sought out Ryan’s experience in developing fight-specific Circular Strength Training® conditioning programs to enhance his Gracie Jiujitsu practice. The connection they forged was immediate and lasting. Ryan and Jaime together discovered the keys to a powerful stage performance—specific vocal development techniques built on a carefully designed platform of physical power, stamina and longevity. Their collaboration eventually developed into Vocal ...

Posted in singers, physique sculpting, talk shows, bodyweight, travel, Webisodes, weight loss, fat loss, flat tummy, Circular Strength Training | No Comments »

Club Swinging: Primal Play to Functional Fitness to Olympic Game…

June 17, 2009 – 12:16 pm
Yesterday, I posted how to Reclaim Your Primal Health Club - how the resurrection of the original form of exercise, Club Swinging, was leading the way back to our primal roots and how this ancient discipline has been wed with modern science. Today, I'd like to share with you how the club swinging movements represent a map to revitalize your internal experience of exercise. Once a sport in the Olympic Games, club swinging has found a global rebirth. For example, last year marked the 1st World Zurkhaneh Sports Championship in history. BTW: if you're interested in trying out for the USA Team, post a reply here with your email, so that I can contact you with information. 2009's world championship is already over, but we're preparing to enter the first USA Team in history in 2010. Here's a highlight from 2008:   Though light-weight club swinging tradition was primarily a demonstration sport ...

Posted in Iranian clubs, Indian clubs, Circular Strength Training, clubbells, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Reclaiming our Primal Health Club

June 16, 2009 – 6:32 am
The first weapon, the first martial art, the original strength conditioning tool and exercise, wasn't even one's own bodyweight. No, my friends, we're tool-users. We need to see outside of ourselves to discover what's within. And in that quest to discover the world to discover ourselves, we picked up the most primitive tool: the club. Once an Olympic Games sport, club swinging remains an ancient tradition around the world in India, Persia, Russia, Burma, and others... For thousands of years, we intuitively realized the functional nature of this type of tactical training. These traditions were interwoven into the cultural fabric: to be an adult, meant to possess the power to protect the community, and the will to do so. Specific trials by fire provided neophytes with rites of passage to demonstrate their competency, and as a result their membership as a senior member of the tribe. Here one of the oldest traditions ...

Posted in Indian clubs, Iranian clubs, biomechanics, biotensegrity, Circular Strength Training, culture, clubbells | 1 Comment »