While a friend had introduced me to Scott Sonnon's work with TacFit and the Clubbell as early as 2002, my journey with his training methodologies began in 2011 when I certified as a Circular Strength Training Instructor. The following year I completed my first TacFit Field Instructor certification. My training with TacFit allowed me to stay strong and injury-free during a period in which I was not only working as a climbing arborist in the tall trees of Hawaii but also as a professional masseur in some of the islands' top hotels. I recommend TacFit highly as a very 'complete' training system, focused on elite performance and global health all at once.
Circular Strength Training is described as a "health-first" fitness approach. Through strategically combining strength training with clubbells with joint mobility and bodyweight flow, and compensating for these efforts with targeted and work-specific stretching CST prioritizes health of the whole person rather than developing attributes such as strength or aesthetic at the cost of other parts of the being.
TacFit is a fitness system with a highly organized series of exercises building not only complexity but also the capacity to prepare for and recover from stress. The exercises are "functional" in nature, and applied through a range of intensities and intervals. A high emphasis is placed on form of execution, and recovery techniques. A variety of exercise tools are used, including clubbells, kettlebells, gymnastic rings, parallettes, and boxes, however many of the movements are performed using only your own bodyweight.
Scott Sonnon developed TacFit during his tenure as US National Team Coach for Sambo grappling, and is the developer of specific health-first training methodologies implemented by elite tactical communities worldwide. He holds a place in the National Fitness, Personal Trainer, and Martial Arts Halls of Fame. TacFit has been named by Men's Health Magazine "The World's Smartest Workout", and Scott Sonnon one of the "Top 25 Trainers in the World".
Sonnon writes:
"As TACFIT was designed to consider the entire landscape of functional wellness, the primary focus of the system is to rapidly and fully recover from stress. Down to the basics of exercise science, the benefits of exercise do not come from the work, but from the recovery between.
Therefore, the main strategy in TACFIT is to Restore the Unrecovered and the Unrecoverable. The percentage of benefit you receive from your exercise directlycorrelates to how fully and quickly you recover from the effort you expend, and how completely you compensate from your occupational, recreational and lifestyle patterns and activities.
The benefits as a result include the comprehensive physique by-products of leanbiomass, with functional power, endurance and agility - as well as the conventional wellness attributes of cardiovascular health, coordination, balance, pain-free mobilityand real-world flexibility. But these are only the outward, external environment.
What makes TACFIT different from other exercise approaches is how itʼs intelligently organized to address the internal, hormonal environment, through exercise endocrinology. Most workouts donʼt consider your natural biorhythm, and your total stress levels throughout the day. You can have the best diet in the world, the most intense workout, but if theyʼre done at the wrong time in the wrong combination, you just wonʼt get results. In fact, you can even worsen your pain, injuries and body composition."
-Scott B. Sonnon
