Scott Sonnon

Is your Yoga Strong?

May 7, 2012 – 10:52 am
Many of us hold preconceived ideas and notions of what "yoga" ought to involve, its purpose, intent and mission. But physical yoga is intended for one reason: to reunite the body, mind and emotions into one-pointed focus. Where ever you are, in what ever you do, you can "yoke" these apparently separated aspects into union. A strong yoga practice can use any intensity level for its physiological purpose, but do to so safely and appropriately, track and measure your internal arousal level. First, determine your heart rate maximum. HRmax = 205.8 − (0.685 × age). Then, match your intensity to the appropriate fitness level and internal response to the activity. Convalescing: No Intensity (<40%HRmax) Beginners: Low Intensity (40-60%HRmax) Builds aerobic base and aids in recovery Intermediate: Moderate Intensity (60-80%HRmax) increases endurance and trains the anaerobic threshold Experienced only: High Intensity builds high-end work capacity No Intensity: If you're recovering, reconditioning, or recuperating, begin with light joint rotations here, ...

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Your Greatest Strength? (Will Surprise you.)

May 7, 2012 – 6:43 am
A strange post to my page today: "Stick to teaching how to fight and drop the positive attitude shit. I dont care about being a better person. For a lot of people life just sucks and they need to get strong enough to take what they deserve before anyone else takes it from them. Being kind to everyone makes you weak and gets you exploited." I can appreciate your concern about exploitation, about becoming vulnerable. Coming from a history of violence, and experiencing first hand the physical, mental and emotional cruelty, I would never suggest anything but strength. In the mid 90s, I tested for my black belt in Aikido, I had all the skills, as well as my youthful vigor as a nationally competitive fighter. Thrashing my demonstration, sending my ukes flying like broken balsa wood, my Aikido teacher asked me to attack him instead. Seeing this as an opportunity to ...

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Higher than you Imagine

May 6, 2012 – 3:30 pm
After six years in Russia, I was asked to exhibition against a Russian master of sport, and feared I'd let my coach, team, company and family down. What if I FAILED? So my coach asked for my best fighting posture. He pushed me easily over and said, "100% of the attacks you don't take will miss, and 50% of your best defense remains vulnerable. Hold back nothing. Your best odds: whatever you fear, move directly toward it, relentlessly." That lesson has shown me more success than any fearful cautiousness. Like my unlikely win against the Russian master, you will take a few shots, some of them will rock you, but you will earn zero regrets and uncommon success. I once gauged my success on the level of my competition. But now, I find myself transcending 'otherly' competition. Now, I focus on competing with my current notion of my potential: how am I limiting ...

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Don’t Stick Your Neck Out!

May 5, 2012 – 6:36 am
One could argue that the reason I had my neck broken in competition from being thrown by suplex onto the top of my head wasn't because of the power of the throw but because of the biomechanically inefficient displacement of my head creating a structural weakness for absorbing shock. My dramatic forward displacement created a vulnerable force angle for the impact. Your head already weighs generally one seventh your bodyweight. Balancing that large mass atop such a tiny beam qualifies as elegant magic. But for every inch that the head moves forward in posture, it increases the weight of the head on the neck by 10 pounds! Poor neck posture leads to a Forward Head Translation: one of the most common causes of neck, head and shoulder tension and pain. This can be a result of injuries like sprains and ...

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“Life is Short. Have an Affair.” WTH?

May 4, 2012 – 11:06 am
Crossfit's ad agency? "Boo!" Okay, sorry. :P "Life is short. Have an affair." - WTH? Have you seen this new advertisement? Harkens to the Crossfit, "Cheat on your girlfriend, not your workout" ad. Really, what is going on lately? Is it the ubiquitous infidelity of our political leaders, the media inundation of indiscretion, or... something else? Is it really just a money grab? It can't be, can it? Sociologically, there must be a more nefarious influence than merely, "it makes us a lot of money." It seems as if company after company buckles under the pressure for shock marketing: "Let's say something so controversial that we'll go viral, and then once we have the exposure, backpedal with an apology and fire the scapegoat ad agency." WTH. We are so much better than this. I'm not offended that they would try it. I'm astounded that it would work to ANY degree. The recent example of ...

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How you Train to Fail

May 4, 2012 – 8:15 am
Train to Win not to Fail! My colleague, MSG. Matt Larsen, contacted me in the mid-90s about developing the US Army Ranger grappling program wanting to include Sambo into the Jiujitsu curriculum. We concentrated our talk on the training foundation to ALL effective combatives, and in doing so had to delineate two primary tactical imperatives which he went on to write as author of the US Army Field Manual on Combatives (FM 3-25.150): The soldier who wins a hand to hand fight on the battlefield is determined by: 1.    the willingness to close with the enemy, 2.    whose backup arrives first with a gun. Closing with the enemy requires courage, and in any fight, the ultimate determinant of failure is often not poor tactics, but primarily poor preparation.  “Fatigue makes cowards of us all!” – Vince Lombardi Contributing to the physical fighting readiness of US Soldiers holds many parallels to preparing fighters for the mat or ...

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Positively Against Scams!

May 3, 2012 – 8:41 am
In my recent objection to Crossfit's unsavory advertisement of a children's hospital, I received a nasty post from a fake facebook profile, "Sonnon your always claiming to be so positive and yet you want to attack Crossfit because we are so much more successful than you. In reality your a bitter competitor using negativeity to criticize your betters. If you were actually a positive person youd say something good about companies who are more successful than you." 1. The poster mistakes "bright-sidedness" for positivity. Sometimes the most empowering message you can utter is, "No." Standing idly by and ignoring malicious and unethical treatment and pretending to see the "bright side" is a form a self-deceptive cowardice. Truly positive messages are not a denial of negativity, but an affirmative resistance to it. I'm "positive" that the advertising that Crossfit has ...

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Crossfit: Strippers and Dead Children? Really?

May 3, 2012 – 8:37 am
Initially, I was willing to dismiss the Crossfit "Cheat on your girlfriend" advertisement as a blundering Reebok faux pas, but this advertisement coming directly from Crossfit HQ leaves me speechless. Perhaps that's their marketing intent: shock and disgust creating virality of the advertisement, attacks by critics, apologizes from advocates, and high profile exposure of the discussions which ensure. But does the end (marketing success) justify the means (abusive immorality, like the D&G "rape" ads)? Is this really the type of ad we want in our industry: a stripper pulling wagons of children sick, puking, dead, or on dialysis? Disgustingly unbelievable. Even if for a fundraiser, would the funds raised justify the message used? Some argue that if it causes enough controversy then it will stimulate more funds, but this was given to me by a Crossfit box owner who refuses to support ...

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Your Heart is the Real Brain

May 2, 2012 – 8:13 am
Recent research documents the heart as the most powerful electrical and magnetic field generator int he human body; despite that the brain continues to be held as our primary power potential. Although the brain does indeed hold its own electromagnetic field, it pales in comparison to the field strength of the heart. Facts: the heart is 100,000 times electrically stronger and 5,000 times magnetically stronger than the brain. If breath controls the heart, and heart produces our most powerful field generator, then breath becomes our catalyst for changing our field. Physics demonstrates that a change in our electromagnetic field, produces atomic level transformation: as we change our energy, we change our state (of matter), and moreover, everyone we encounter. In martial art, yoga, bodywork, counseling and coaching, we use a tool called entrainment: a technique for synchronizing and controlling ...

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BMI: “Morbidly Obese” WTH?

May 2, 2012 – 8:12 am
Both people have the SAME BMI. Person on the right has TWICE as much BODY FAT as the person on the left. On my last BMI check, I categorized as approaching "obesity" and yet had less than 10% body fat. The BMI was invented between 1830 and 1850 by the Belgian polymath Adolphe Quetelet during the course of developing "social physics". It wasn't updated until 1995 after pressure from the WHO and then updated here in the USA in 1998 by the NIH for universal conformity. Even now, it is nothing more than a tool for insurance companies (and now employers) to deny coverage (employment)! BMI was originally created for life insurance companies to be able to charge people according to their risk of death. It was found that people with higher BMIs had a higher risk of death. But this only worked at ...

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