Scott Sonnon: Born to Fail - Made to Succeed

Your Primary Fitness Attribute?

What is your primary fitness attribute? The conventional cross-training community defines the array of foundational fitness attributes as follows:

1. Cardiovascular/Respiratory Endurance - The ability of the body systems to gather, process and deliver oxygen.

2. Stamina - The ability of the body systems to process, deliver, store and utilize energy.

3. Strength - The ability of a muscular unit, or a combination of muscular units, to apply force.

4. Flexibility - The ability to maximize the range of motion at a given joint.

5. Power - The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply maximum force in minimum time.

6. Speed - The ability to minimize the time cycle of a repeated movement.

7. Coordination - The ability to combine several distinct movement patterns into a singular distinct movement.

8. Agility - The ability to minimize transition time from one movement pattern to another

9. Balance - The ability to control the placement of the bodies center of gravity in relation to its support base.

10. Accuracy - The ability to control movement in a given direction or at a given intensity

Each of these 10 attributes above require a characteristic in order to function. None of these attributes mean anything without the most a priori virtue of fitness: mobility. Mobility is your very existence.

• Without mobility, your lungs do not breathe, your heart cannot pump and your skeleton cannot move.
• Mobility is the prime requisite of strength and power for without mobility, the muscle cannot maximally contract (even “isometric” strength training is internal movement against an immovable external resistance.)
• Mobility is the foundation of sports and athletic performance for it enables speed, agility, coordination and accuracy. The less mobile you are - the slower, less agile, less coordinated, and less accurate.
• Mobility defines range of motion and flexibility. You cannot have range or flexibility without it.
• Without Mobility, you cannot acquire or refine new skills.
• Decrease your mobility, and you accelerate the aging process: we are as young as our mobility!
• Diminish mobility and you increase pain! The body despises immobility and sends you noisily defiant messages when you refuse to move.

12 years ago I coined the terms “joint mobility” and “circular strength” to refer to this most critical attribute of fitness upon which all others are built. In the decade+ that I’ve been traveling the world speaking to various strength and conditioning, fitness, yoga, wellness, academic and clinical organizations, I’ve seen Mobility elevate itself most appropriately to the #1 Attribute.

• I’m not the strongest man, but I can perform strength feats that most people on the planet cannot, such as single arm swiping the 45lbs Clubbell and holding the record for most single arm 25lbs Clubbell Mills in an hour (1,433).
• I’m not the fastest man, but I’ve finished a 42 mile / 68km “ultra” distance marathon in just under 14 hours.
• I may have been branded the “most uncoordinated athlete” in high school, but I’ve performed at the Bolshoy Theater in Russia.
• I may not be the toughest man, but I have won international championships in Russian Sambo submission fighting and Chinese Sanshou kickboxing against far genetically superior opponents.
• I’m not motorically gifted (due to an array of childhood physical and mental “disabilities”), but I’ve become a sought-after yoga guru presenting in 9 countries on different aspects of motor development and accelerated human performance.

The only reason that I’ve been able to accomplish these achievements has been because of Mobility. If you haven’t seen it already, here’s a short video sneak peak at where you can go with your mobility development.

Most people (named the “Late Majority” and the “Laggards” by Malcolm Gladwell in his book, “The Tipping Point”) await the appearance of competing products rather than investing in the innovator’s visionary release. But with the increased number of professionals teaching mobility, the public is beginning to realize Mobility is not a gimmick.

I created Z-Health years ago as an early experiment into systematizing joint mobility; now operated by a former student of mine, Eric Cobb. Pavel Tsatsouline credits me for the mobility exercises in his book on the subject. Steve Maxwell, a former student, credits me in his videos. Each of these new competing products in the market place reinforces customer faith that the original innovation is the “real deal.”

What can you do right now? Begin by performing circles with each of your joints everyday: neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, fingers, thorax, lower back, pelvis, hips, knees, ankles and toes. Start with 3 circles in each direction. Don’t go into, but rather around pain. Only shave off the tension; don’t force it. On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the worst pain, go to a 3: it should be uncomfortable but not very uncomfortable.

The benefits are astronomical! Mobility is life! MOVE IT OR LOSE IT!

Flow Thyself™,