2009

CST GX: THE HEALTH-FIRST

FITNESS SESNSATION AT-
HOME OR AT THE CLUB!
WITH HALL OF FAME
CELEBRITY FLOW COACH
SCOTT SONNON
FOR FURTHER INFO:
RMAX INTERNATIONAL
TEL: 1.678.867.7629
WWW.RMAXINTERNATIONAL.COM
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[2]
ANCIENT DISCIPLINE
MODERN SCIENCE
EVOLVING BEYOND FLAT WORLD FITNESS...
Enduring an array of childhood disabilities that made conventional exercise impossible, Scott
Sonnon traveled the world learning the ancient disciplines of physical culture,
catapulting him to stardom as a hall of fame martial arts champion,
acclaimed yoga guru, pioneer of joint mobility, and industry leader in
the optimal human experience known only as ow.
Circular Strength Training - Because Life is 3D!
Welcome to CSTGx!
I feel proud to call you one of my students and look forward to you
becoming one of the frontline commanders in my campaign of waging
flow upon the stagnant waters of robotic, two-dimensional movement.
With CSTGx, you engage more than merely your optimal physical expression.
You tap into the limitless energy within you, the melding of mind, body and
spirit, where all things happen effortlessly and perfectly. This psycho-
physiological event can only be described as flow-state - what is often called
the zone in athletics.
When you create flow opportunities for others, you instantly foster abundant
wellness into their lives, as well as your own. You cannot keep this to
yourself. Its impossible. Flow demands out-pouring. Flow finds a way. And I
cannot tell you how excited I am that youve become a way for others to find
flow through CSTGx!

Carved from
the Ancient Martial
Arts of India, Persia and
Russia, Resurrected by
International Hall of
Fame Champion
Scott Sonnon
Flow Thyself,
[3]
How Clubbell Fitness Evolved...
As the USA Police Team Coach of the most
brutal form of martial art created in the former
Soviet Union - SAMBO, I took our national team
to Lithuania for World Championships, and there
we met the team from Tajikistan. Their wrestlers
were incredibly well conditioned, and literally
throwing their opponents off the mats.
Knowing that there was more than meets
the eye, I investigated. They shared with me
their strength training methods transliterated as
zurhkane or zoorkhane - which means The
House of Power.
One of the methods of this millennia old
tradition originating in ancient Persia was club
swinging. This conrmed research I had been
conducting since the beginning of the 1990s
into alternative conditioning methods of Russia,
India and turn of the century North America.
But before I tell you more, lets
wind back the clock a few years to
when the need for the ultimate
combat tness tool rst appeared...
In 1993, I was in the ght of my life against
my Russian counter-part in the nal match at the
Olympics for University athletes, the
Universiade, also known as World University
Games, held in Montreal, Quebec.
Unfortunately, my opponent was the better
athlete that day, and landed me in an arm-bar. I
refused to tap out, since submitting would have
cost the USA Sambo Team more team points. In
his grip, my arm shattered under the precision
force of his technique, as I squelched my pain
since making any noise while in a joint lock
means that you submit. [That rule was for
obvious reasons: with so many different
languages, they had to make a rule that would
allow the referees to know if a ghter was truly
submitting. Even a grunt equals forfeit.]
I managed to ght the nal minutes hiding
my broken limb from the referees to avoid injury
disqualication; since if your opponent breaks
your limb during a legitimate technique, you
lose.
That silver medal was the most important
victory of my career, because it reminded me of
the value of connective tissue strength. I was no
stranger to these type of injuries, being born
with a disease called osteochondrosis, Ive had
many more broken bones, dislocations and
tears as a child than I care to remember.
But in this case, my concealment of the
injury led to avascular necrosis - or bone
death - a condition that locked my hand in
vice-like pain unable to hold anything. When
your sport involves being able to grip a man and
throw him to the ground, the inability to hold
anything is career ending.
I had no intention of quitting martial art. In
fact, I won Grand National Championships the
very next year, and the international
championships of the Americas on the following.
And to prove my methods, 12 years later, I
came out of retirement and won the International
Chinese Kickboxing Championships - called
Sanshou - at the age of 36, with only 6 weeks to
prepare for a ghting sport I had never
competed in.
How did I go from a genetically-
inferior, broken child to
international champion in two
different forms of martial arts?
Well, all of the conventional training
approaches failed.
Cardio, bodybuilding, powerlifting, and
cross-training each were created within the past
100 years. None of these conventional methods
are appropriate for combat sports - which are
the ultimate test of physical tness. As the USA
National Coach, I sought out forging a
conditioning program that was specically
designed to increase the safety, performance,
health and career longevity of myself and my
athletes.
With my academic background in physical
education, I infused modern sport science into
this montage of scattered ancient physical
disciplines to create a systematic proprietary
system to combative preparation.
And based upon what I had been exposed
to in the House of Power and what I had
studied from the origins of yogic science,
Clubbell training evolved. The Clubbell
resurrects the centuries proven tradition of
swinging weight in three dimensions rather than
lifting it in only one or two.
Starting in 1996, I was exposed to
kettlebells in the 6 years of training that I did
back and forth throughout Russia with the
national and Olympic coaches of various
combat sports such as Sambo, Boxing,
Kickboxing and Bayonet Fencing. Kettlebells
were a middle ground between conventional
training and Circular Strength Training. The
kettlebell displaces its center of mass, but not to
the extent of the Clubbell. They complement
each other beautifully, if you like multiple
modalities.
But for simplicity and economy, the
superiorly displaced center of mass of the
Clubbell creates an extreme leverage
challenge unrivaled by any other. This leverage
challenge produces enormous neurological
force without injury to connective tissue caused
by conventional weights. When you lift weights,
to increase force production you must add
weight. And the greater the actual weight lifted,
the more damaging compression to soft,
connective tissue. This is the reason that
conventional weightlifters are riddled with soft
tissue, joint and spinal injuries.
The displaced center of mass of the
Clubbell (and to a lesser extent, the kettlebell)
allows less actual weight while eliciting superior
force production; thus allowing greater heights
of strength conditioning, but without the
problematic injuries associated with
conventional weight-training.
I had done them all, and nothing
made me so strong, so quickly and
so injury free as the Clubbell!
The kettlebell has a conventional handle
which rests on the skeletal structure (pulls
against the ngers like a dumbbell or barbell),
unlike the Clubbell which distracts (pulls
through the grip like a rope swung around one's
head, so it must be held with muscular strength
alone). The more the actual weight rests on the
skeletal structure, and the greater that actual
weight is, the more that soft connective tissue
(such as around the joints and the spine itself)
accumulates trauma. Therefore, since the
unique club-like handle pulls through the grip,
only muscular contraction can hold the
Clubbell, and thus eliminates the injuries so
rampant in conventional weight-lifting.
Unlike conventional weight-lifting, where
you must increase the weight lifted, the
Clubbell is swung. Swinging weight increases
torque. Increasing torque increases force
production. Conventional weight lifting is
restricted to linear increases of force by adding
weight. Clubbell training increases force
exponentially: swinging them twice as fast
produces four times the
torque. Superior force
production means
superior strength
conditioning in a fraction of the
time and without the litany of
injuries associated with
conventional weight training.
Traction pulls apart the joints,
rather than compressing them,
which is why youre put in traction
in order to mend: it increases
connective tissue strength.
[4]
How Can Swinging Weight Increase
Joint Strength?
Finally, and most importantly, conventional
weight training can only be moved in one or two
dimensions. This limited range of motion
attempts to isolate particular muscles. Isolation,
however, is a myth long since debunked. The
body is composed of an interconnected web: a
double-bag system. The "inner bag" contains
bone and cartilage, and where it 'cling wraps'
the bone it's called "periosteum," and over the
joints, it's called "joint capsule." The "outer bag"
contains an electric jelly we refer to as "muscle"
and covering it we call it "fascia" (and other
names, but let's keep this simple). Where that
outer bag is tacked down to the inner bag, we
call those "muscle attachments" or "insertion
points." You see, our bones and joints 'oat' in a
sea of continuous tension, and our bones act as
compressive struts pushing outwards while this
web pulls inward in a unique balance which Dr.
Steven Levin named Biotensegrity.
Clubbells: More than Tri-Planar
Movement = 6 Degrees of Freedom!
Soft tissue elasticity diminishes as we age
and is primarily responsible for most injuries for
athletes and the aging: which is why these
apparently disparate groups are the Clubbell's
largest advocates. Moving in three dimension
washing the joint capsules with nutrition and
lubrication, breaks up adhesions, smoothes off
boney proles (abating osteoarthritis), and
distracts the bones (abating osteoporosis).
Conventional weight-lifting equipment cannot do
this. But the Clubbell, with its protective outer
coating and smooth prole, was specically
designed for swinging around the body.
Clubbell training is more than merely tri-
planar movement through the sagittal, coronal
and frontal planes. By moving the through the
biomechanical 6 Degrees of Freedom, Clubbells
strengthen the fascial chains across the web in
their full range of motion. This increases soft
tissue elasticity rather than traumatizing it like
one or two dimensional movements in
conventional weight-lifting.
Three Planes of Movement
1. Coronal plane: The coronal plane
divides the body into front and rear
sections.
2. Sagittal plane: The sagittal plane
divides the body into right and left
sections.
3. Axial, or transverse plane: The
transverse plane divides the body into
upper and lower sections.
Three Axes of Rotation
1. Medial axis: The medial axis runs
horizontally from back to front (e.g.,
cartwheels and turntables).
2. Longitudinal axis: The longitudinal
axis extends vertically from head to
toe (e.g., twisting our torso as in a
pirouette).
3. Transverse axis: The transverse axis
runs horizontally across our body from
one side of the waist to the other (e.g.,
somersaults and ips).
Triplanar movements develop rotary and
angular/diagonal strength to assist the prime
movers. More important, prime movers can act
with rotary and angular/diagonal strength,
though most people fail to develop this capacity!
Developing multiplanar strength of the prime
movers increases stability, enhances injury
prevention, multiplies force production abilities,
and, most important, stimulates the
neuromuscular patterns required of athletes.
CSTGx, by its movement through the six
mechanical degrees of freedom, targets the
rotary and angular/diagonal strength to develop
these motor recruitment patterns so that we
become simultaneously strong and functional.
Without this, our performance su!ers greatly
and likelihood of injury signicantly increases.
The term six degrees of freedom refers to
motion in three-dimensional space, namely the
ability to move forward/backward, up/down, left/
right (translation: in three perpendicular axes),
combined with rotation about three
perpendicular axes (yaw, pitch, roll). Because
the motion within these three axes combines
with the rotation about the three axes,
movement gains innite degrees of freedom.
There is no limit to the variations. The motion
indeed has six degrees of freedom.
Six Degrees of Freedom
1. Swaying: Moving left and right; x-axis
translation
2. Heaving: Moving up and down; y-axis
translation
3. Surging: Moving forward and back; z-
axis translation
4. Pitching: Tilting up and down; x-axis
rotation
5. Yawing: Turning left and right; y-axis
rotation
6. Rolling: Tilting side to side; z-axis
"Coach Sonnon, youve done a
wonderful job of applying
biotensegrity in a very practical way.
My focus has been as a basic scientist
as I did not want to limit biotensegrity
to the narrow eld of what I know as
a clinician. I have always hoped that
someone like you would take the ball
and run with it, and with Circular
Strength Training System, youve
done that. Thank you!"
- Dr. Steven Levin, MD
www.biotensegrity.com
x-axis translation y-axis translation
x-axis rotation y-axis rotation
z-axis translation
z-axis rotation
[5]
What Makes Scott Sonnons Clubbell so Uniquely Effective?
Three-Dimensional: Conventional equipment can
only be lifted in one or two planes. The special
design of the Clubbell permits it to
tap into your maximum
movement potential as a three
dimensional being in the real-
world, not just in the gym!
Traction: The unique exercise
selection combined with the prole
of the Clubbell creates a tractional - or
pulling away - effect which stimulates long, lean
muscles as well as connective tissue and bone health!
Torque: Unlike conventional equipment, the Clubbell was designed
to not only be lifted but swung. Where with conventional equipment you
must add weight to increase challenge, the faster you swing the Clubbell,
the exponentially greater the results you produce!
Micro-Loadable: The special design of the Clubbell handle allows
minor increases in resistance even if only millimeters from your prior class.
This design allows you to never overtrain due to too great of a leap, but
always challenge yourself and gain constant progress!
Synergistic: The special Clubbell movements combine to create
what is called the complex training effect - the sum total training effect
you gain is greater than if you performed the individual components for
the same volume of repetitions. Less training time but greater cumulative
results!
Shock Absorption: Unlike the overly simplistic movements of
conventional equipment, Clubbells dynamic movements allow you to
develop the ability to absorb and retranslate force, which prevents injuries
and develops uid, powerful grace!
Selective Tension: Conventional equipment focuses on heavy
weight in one or two planes to develop overall bodily tension. CSTGx
takes your body through 3 dimensions, training your nervous system to a
much more efcient frequency, which allows you to become
simultaneously greater in strength AND ow!
WHAT CAN CLUBBELL FITNESS DO? BURN FAT BUILD MUSCLE PREVENT INJURY GAIN FLOW
Faster than
anything else
due to the
entire body
being used
like a furnace
to melt fat!
Stronger than
anything else
since it takes
you through
the greatest
range of
motion!
Creates a
safety valve
for when
movements
deviate from
the expected,
as it happens!
Opens every
degree of
freedom to
reclaim your
innate
movement grace
and poise!
CIRCULAR STRENGTH TRAINING
Circular versus Linear Strength:
Most programs focus on improving fitness through exercises such
as squats, lunges, presses. These linear exercises execute in
only 1-2 planes. But in the real world, every physical activity
demands movement in 3 dimensions.
Circular Strength Training not only includes the linear, but
also develops the crucial real world rotary and angular/
diagonal strength to bolster the prime movers. Developing Scott
Sonnons signature 3D Fitness increases stability, enhances
injury prevention, multiplies force production and most
importantly, stimulates the neuromuscular patterns required for
fast, fluid, fitness forever.
The Clubbell was specifically researched and engineered to
target the rotary and angular/diagonal strength: the next
evolution in functional strength training!
CSTGX
GROUP EXERCISE
[6]
Clubbell Basic
Positions
Floor Park:
Muzzles on
the oor,
Clubbell
standing
upward.
Shoulder Park:
Necks in hand,
Barrels
resting
on soft
tissue of the
shoulders.
Arm Stop: One Clubbell neck
in hand with the barrel
cradled in the opposite
elbow.
Order Position:
Standing in
neutral
position,
elbow at
side,
forearm
parallel to
the ground
and
perpendicular to
the torso, neck in hand,
muzzle upward.
Side Order Position: Like
Order, but with the forearm
held outward to the side,
parallel with the torso.
Guard Position: Standing with
two hands on one Clubbell,
muzzle
upward,
held next to
one
shoulder.
Flag Position:
Like Order
Position, but with
elbow locked
straight, arm parallel to the
ground.
Side Flag
Position: Like
Order, but with
arm held out to
the side,
parallel with the
torso.
Torch Position:
Standing in neutral position,
elbow locked, shoulder
packed overhead, neck in
hand, muzzle upward.
Back Position:
Standing in
neutral
position,
Clubbell over
the shoulder
and behind the
back, neck in
hand, muzzle downward,
elbow upward and tucked
to the ears.
CLUBBELL ANATOMY
Full Choke: grip nearest
cone on neck
Zero Choke: grip nearest
knob on neck
Left Grip: like a left-
handed baseball grip right
hand next to the knob
Right Grip: like a right
handed baseball grip left
hand next to the knob
Split Grip: hands spaced
apart on the neck
Alternating Left Grip:
overhand right hand next
to the knob
Alternating Right Grip:
overhand left hand next to
the knob
Hammer Grip: gripping like
holding a hammer with
thumb and index finger
next to knob
Split Finger Grip: knob
held between the fingers.
Muzzle
CLUBBELL GRIPS
[7]
CLUBBELL DIRECTION
Vertical Up:
Clubbells
vertical with
barrels up
Vertical Down:
Clubbells vertical
with barrels down
Horizontal
Out:
Clubbells
horizontal with
barrels out
Horizontal In:
Clubbells
horizontal with
barrels in
Horizontal
Forward:
Clubbells
horizontal
with barrels
forward
Horizontal
Backward:
Clubbells
horizontal
with barrels
backward
THE 7 KEY COMPONENTS OF CLUBBELL TRAINING
1. Grip Confirmation
2. Arm Lock
3. Shoulder Pack
4. Crown to Coccyx Alignment
5. Core activation
6. Hip Recruitment
7. Leg Drive
[8]
The 3 Rings of the
Circular Strength
Training System
Clubbell Fitness directly applies
the Three Rings of Circular
Strength Training into a
systematic and progressive
program designed to safely and
effectively mobilize, strengthen,
and rejuvenate the entire body.
Each section of exercises have
been careful selected to target
all three of the CST Rings.
Ring I: Intu-Flow Longevity
System
Mobilize and decompress joint structures
utilizing the CST Intu-Flow program. This
section is the critical rst step to allowing
your joints to move smoothly through their
fullest ranges of motion prior to placing a
load demand upon them.
Ring II: Clubbell Training
Activate and strengthen musco-skeletal
system utilizing CST Clubbell training.
The goal of this section is to activate or
awaken the core of body (central hub)
providing the foundation upon which
movement and strengthening can happen.
Unlike traditional types of resistance
training equipment, the Clubbells unique
shape and weight displacement impose
demands not only of strength but
coordination and balance. They offer the
user the ability to move through multiple
planes, strengthening in ranges of motion
few other modalities can duplicate.
Ring III: Prasara Body-
Flow Yoga
Release and rejuvenate the
muscular system utilizing
Prasara Yoga. With the imposed
demands of Clubbell training as
with other forms the muscular
system needs to release the
byproducts of the act of
training. Prasara Yoga
systematically rejuvenates the
muscular system by unloading
and replenishing the system
with the goal of recovering not just for the
next training session but for the next one
after that and the next one after that.
CIRCULAR STRENGTH TRAINING GROUP EXERCISE
Intelligent Design Creates the Powerful Health-First Fitness Effect
Continuing Certication
Scott Sonnons trademarked Circular
Strength Training System conducts
continuing educational development in the
complete curriculum.
Level I CST Certication:
CST Group Ex Instructor
Level II CST Certication:
Full Circular Strength Training Instructor
Level III CST Certication:
Circular Strength Training Coach
Level IV CST Certication:
Circular Strength Training Head Coach
For Further Information See:
RMAX INTERNATIONAL
www.rmaxinternational.com
tel.: 1.678.867.7629
I. Intu-Flow:
Mobilization and
Decompression
II. Clubbells: Activation and
Strengthening
III. Prasara Body-Flow Yoga:
Release and Rejuvination