Scott Sonnon: Born to Fail - Made to Succeed

Enter the Clubbell!

Right now, I’m working on developing my Trial by Fire with the 35lbs. Bruiser Jr. Clubbells. The Trial by Fire includes 100 Double Swipes, 100 Mills (each side) and 100 Hammer Swings (half clockwise, half counter). Finally, I’ve developed my Mill with this 2nd heaviest weight in the Clubbell® arsenal. Here is a video sample of the preparation I used. (I’m working my way incrementally to performing the Trial by Fire with the 45lbs Clubbell® Bruiser “Senior” next year this time.)

See more on my new website: www.Clubbell.tv

In my email, I discovered an article which could have been reduced to one sentence as: “tools are not something you do, but something you buy.” I can see the author’s sincere attempt at an insight here. It’s valid argument, but based on a false conclusion: buy whatever tool you want, because it will impose no specific effects in itself; the effects will be independent of the tool, and fully dependent on what you DO with it?

The reasoning is similar to that which leads to the urban myth - “90% of all fights go to the ground.” The original study used to validate this myth was conducted by ASLET (American Society of Law Enforcement Trainers, now bankrupt), was specific to police officers, and in fact a report based on a 1991 study drawn from 1988 LAPD data. It states: “In addition, nearly two thirds of the 1988 altercations (62%) ended with the officer and subject on the ground with the officer applying a joint lock and handcuffing the subject.

Not only was it almost a 1/3 less (28% less) than the popular myth, but it didn’t even regard fights; the statistic regarding police trying to restrain and handcuff hostile subjects. Of course, a little more than 1 out of 2 hostile subjects will go to the ground when resisting being handcuffed. But that statistic has little to nothing to do with a “fight” - for civilians defending themselves, for soldiers combating an insurgent, or for athletes competing in the octagon.

Distortion of logic perverts reality and leads to self-fulfilling prophecy, just like in the case of the author of the article I read in my morning email.

The valid argument that the author alluded to was this: the body only knows resistance. In other words, the nervous system cannot differentiate between a sandbag, a dumbbell, a kettlebell or its own bodyweight. It only knows the affect of the stress imposed on it. However, it’s a false logical leap to state:

• If the nervous system only knows resistance regardless of the tool that it uses,
• then it doesn’t matter which tool that you use.

The logical error is that different tools can be used in such a way to produce a superior quality of training stress. For example, it is impossible to use a dumbbell in the same manner as kettlebell, and yet a kettlebell can be used in all of the manners that a dumbbell can be used (for example, the horizontal yaw or “screwing press” which I use as an assistance exercise to address a strength deficit pulling the Bruiser Jr out of back position component of the shield cast in the mill).

Furthermore, due to those design features, a lighter kettlebell can be used to produce the same training effects if not more than a heavier dumbbell. The design features which make a kettlebell superior for many tasks to a dumbbell are based upon some of the design features which make a Clubbell® superior to a kettlebell in many tasks. But they’re all useful tools specific to the intelligence of their implementation. Let’s look at the intelligence of the Clubbell® training mechanics in this video:

Again, check out my new website: www.Clubbell.tv 

What makes the Clubbell® unique, and how does it offer unique applications and opportunities for complete functional strength?

1. Displaced Center: Due to the center of mass being far away from the hand, the Clubbell® can be very light and yet produce superior force. Other tools must weigh much more because the center is in your grasp.
2. Swung not Lifted: Due to the design, the Clubbell® can be swung in three dimensions rather than lifted in one or two dimensions to give you true whole-body functional strength.
3. Neck not Handle: Since the Clubbell® pulls through the grip rather than against it, the Clubbell® can be much lighter and still produce superior force; with the added benefit of developing superior grip strength (one of the 7 key factors determining health as indicated by longevity).
4. Leverage vs. Weight: Since leverage must be applied against the center of mass must in order to move it, the Clubbell® can be significantly lighter than other tools, for which actual weight must increase out of all proportion to that of the Clubbell® in order to achieve a remotely approximate effect.
5. Portable: All of these factors make the Clubbell® much more portable than any other tool since it can be so light and yet produce superior force. For example, a 25lbs Clubbell® is basically the equivalent of a 70lbs kettle bell or a 90lbs. dumbbell in its force production.
6. Stress not Strain: due to moving around the Clubbell® rather than pulling or pushing weight, the Clubbell® places positive, adaptive stress not only on the muscle tissue but also on the fascia and tendons as well. Other weights, since they need to be so heavy, cause strain to your joints and connective tissue.
7. Traction (Decompression) not Compression: since the Clubbell® is swung rather than lifted, it releases the connective tissue, frees “sticking point” adhesions, and helps reabsorb joint salts which lead to calcifications. Other weights are actually designed to compress your joints.
8. Incremental not Fixed: Unlike traditional kettlebells and dumbbells, the existence of the neck in the Clubbell® design allows one to make micro-adjustments, which vary the displacement of the center of mass, directly resulting in a variance of the work required to control it. It is impossible to create such a broad range of options - by merely adjusting your grip - on other tools.
9. Solid not Shifting: adjustable plates, shot, water and sand shift the center of mass in surprising and unexpected ways when moving them. Those sudden shifts can cause traumatic tears and bracing. The Clubbell® has a fixed center of mass to ensure a steady and constant center of gravity.
10. Fun Factor: Aging and weakness are a process of losing complexity. Our nervous system craves increasing sophistication. The greater the variety, and the greater the depth of skill potentially available, the more versatility and greater satisfaction you get out of it. No other piece of equipment can be used in so many ways, with such variety as the Clubbell®, which is why we say: one tool - infinite possibilities.
11. Engineered not Fabricated: other tools were created in order to get out the door as fast as possible, not to last forever. The Clubbell® was engineered by a firm whose main contracts were aerospace and performance race cars.

To say that a tool is just something you buy is like saying it doesn’t matter where your kids go to school, as long as they do. Frankly, I’d rather my kids get the best education possible… and we should have the same care for our own health as we do our children.

All men may have been created equal, but certainly, not all tools were.

flow thyself,

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