Primal Stress Workouts

S C O T T S O N N O N
Primal Stress
REVIVE SURVIVE THRIVE

Exploiting Our Paleolithic
Physiology for Modern
Health and Longevity
through the Science of
R e s i l i e n c e a n d To u g h n e s s
R M A X I N T E R N A T I O N A L
P R I M A L S T R E S S
Primal Stress™ Revive - Survive - Thrive
by Scott Sonnon, Chief Operations Officer

Copyright 2012 by RMAX International
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations
embodied in critical articles and reviews.
For information address:
RMAX International
P.O. Box 501388
Atlanta, GA 31150
Website: WWW.RMAXINTERNATIONAL.COM
Email comments and questions to: support@rmaxinternational.com
TACFIT® is a registered mark of Sconik International LLC.
Circular Strength Training®, Intu-Flow® are registered marks and Primal Stress™ is a trademark of RMAX.tv Productions.
DISCLAIMER:
The information in this book is presented in good faith, but no warranty is given, nor results guaranteed. Since we have no control over physical
conditions surrounding the application of information in this book the author and publisher disclaim any liability for untoward results including
(but not limited) any injuries or damages arising out of any person's attempt to rely upon any information herein contained. The exercises
described in this book are for information purposes, and may be too strenuous or even dangerous for some people. The reader should consult
a physician before starting TACFIT® or any other exercise programs.
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When purchasing equipment or other products from RMAX International the purchaser understands the risk associated with using this type of
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ATTENTION:
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intended use could result in injury.
IMPORTANT:
Please be sure to thoroughly read the instructions in this book, paying particular attention to all cautions and warnings shown for TACFIT to
ensure their proper and safe use.
2
T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
Release the Outer Bag Simplifying Complexity

Dedication 4 43 102
Compensated or Compensating Taking Our Breath Away
About the Author 5 44 110
Levels of Compensations Breathing: Revive Survive Thrive
About the Cover 6 45 111
Most Conditioned Posture? The Resilient Breath
Introduction 7 47 112
Origins of Primal Stress Gender Influences to Sitting Sequence of Resilience Breathing
8 48 113
A Predictable Pattern Revive the Natural State Inhalation vs Exhalation
9 49 114
A Convergent Epiphany The Formula to Revive Reflexive vs Conscious Breathing
11 50 115
Clearing the Unclean Slate Recovery Breathing Technique
12 Flow Physique 51 116
Conversion and Prevention Traditional Survival Patterns Survival Breathing Technique
13 52 117
Ally not Enemy The 13 Warding Postures Tactical Breathing Technique
14 53 118
Freeze Flinch Force Flow Modern Warding Applications Anchoring Breath and Attitudes
15 54 119
Good Stress Bad Stress The Degree of Warding Structure Stress Psychology of Form
16 55 120
Natural Relaxed Readiness Warding Structure Components Courage Before Confidence
17 56 122
Resilience vs Toughness 4 Programs for Survival Resilience Before Toughness
18 57 123
As Fast As Your Form Can Hold It Program 1: Gravity Resisted Momentum of Discipline
19 58 124
Sufficient but Non-Excessive Program 2: Band Resisted Build Willpower
20 59 125
Primal Protective Reflex Program 3: Torque Resisted Gut Up and Through Gracefully
21 60 126
2 Branches of Nervous System Program 4: Survival Challenge Imagine Your Potential
22 61 127
My Fear Removal Technique SAPS in TACFIT “Q” Thriving = Growing by Flowing
23 65 128
Shifting Resilience Gears Recovering to Usable Technique Stress Recovery and Adaptation
24 72 129
Too Much, Too Little, Just Right Tracking with TED Compass Sleep: Foundational Recovery
27 73 130
Progressions and Regressions Mission Briefs
Revive Flow 28 75 131
The Shape of Excessive Stress Breath Controls Heart Rate TACFIT 4 Day Wave
29 77 132
The Origins of Stress Reflexes The Science of Resilience Degree of Recovery
30 78 133
Adapting to the Shape of Reflex Only Better is Better Mission Rx
31 79 134
Dysfunctions from Adaptation TACFIT Research Proof 4x7 Calendar
32 80 135
Upper Crossed Syndrome 4 Phases of Adaptation 7 Day Wave Week Calendar
33 81 136
Lower Crossed Syndrome Current Recovery Score The Physique of Flow
34 82 137
Layered Syndrome Recovery Through Protocol
35 83 [20/10x8+60]6 Exercises 138
Mobility Stability Continuum Tracking Heart Rate (6 Protocols)
36 84 4/1x4 Exercises 157
Layers of Connective Tissue
38 Thrive Flow 97 EMOTM Exercises 170
Double Bag Theory What Comes After Survival
39 98 AMRAP Exercises 183
Snags in the Sweater From Fighter to Warrior
40 99 [90/30x5]2 Exercises 196
Wash the Inner Bag Evolved for Complexity
41 100 AFAP Exercises 212
Shock Absorption Our Paleolithic Blueprint
42 101
3
DEDICATION
When I see my country’s flag, I don't merely see principles, ideas, or events. I see my Dad.
For whatever flaws he had, troubles he faced, and obstacles he encountered, I only remember loving him, and feeling
he was lost, even standing next to me. His face full of rage masked a heart covered in pain.
At the age of four, my earliest memories of my original family together were of the violence in our home leading to my
parent’s divorce. He had been torn from me by a burden he could not bear, and had not been provided the tools to
process.
I see my flag and hold no distant theories regarding it. I have a personal, intimate relationship with it. Regardless of
the circumstances of his life, some innate virtue compelled my father to fight in a war for what it represented, and
sacrifice the heart in his life, his family, for it.
My last memory of my family together in the same home was one of abuse, fear and rage. I do not have one memory
of our family happily together. That is what my father sacrificed.
When my family deteriorated because my father wasn’t given the opportunity to re-acclimate, our family melted down
and as a result I never got to know my father after the divorce and even imported my mother’s emotions as my own.
Only after his death, did I learn the full story. And I lamented that lifetime lost with my father. When I discovered
myself in Israel immersed in the baptismal waters of the River Jordan, I realized it was the precise spot my father had
pilgrimaged to heal his soul. I wept, and rejoined his spirit at last.
As I look upon my beautiful family sleeping today, I cry reflecting upon the unimaginable loss he could not have been
able to consciously comprehend. That I cannot fathom. Several lifetimes, mine, his grand children, theirs... Gone from
him. Gone from us.
With this book, and its content, I honor those who have fallen before and since, those who have been wounded, and
those who bear the horrific sacrifice war incurs.
I will never forget you Dad, or what you gave up for what you believed in.
I love you,
~ your son
4
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R
Master of Sport
SCOTT SONNON
Chief Operations Officer
RMAX International Find Scott on Facebook or Twitter
WORLD NATIO NAL
CHAMPION COACH
Scott was “Born to Lose. And Built to Win.” Against all odds, Scott became a
champion, and has shared the discoveries he made along the way.
Scott Sonnon is most known for being a martial

arts champion in Russian Sambo, Sport Jiujitsu,
Submission Grappling, Amateur Mixed Martial
Arts, and Chinese Sanshou. Sonnon capitalized
upon advances in biomechanics, stress
physiology, athletic biochemistry and coaching
psychology to become a multiple time USA
National Team Coach.
Sonnon trained for six years with the former

USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) and
Special Operations Unit (Spetsnaz) Physical
Conditioning and Performance Enhancement
Specialists at the RETAL (Physical Skill
Consultant Scientific & Practical Training) Center,
and became the first American to be licensed by
the Russian government in these studies. He is
also one of a handful of individuals outside the
former USSR to earn the coveted “Master of
Sport” —the highest athletic distinction
recognized in the former Soviet Union.
Sonnon’s peak performance enhancement

methods are on the scientific cutting-edge,
proving themselves again and again where it
counts: In the real world, on and off the field of
athletics. He now consults for prestigious
agencies such as the United States Marshals
Service Training Academy, US Federal Law
Enforcement Training Center FLETC, State and
Local Law Enforcement Symposium SLLETS, US
Army 160th Special Operations Aviation
Regiment SOAR, US Customs and Border
Protection Advanced Training Center, Israeli
Defense Force LOTAR Counter-Terrorism School,
the Wingate Institute, the Italian Gruppo
Intervento Speciale GIS Special Forces, and the
Italian 1st Regiment Carabinieri Tuscania.
5
ABOUT THE COVER

Prey - Predator - Fighter - Warrior
This book’s cover represents a continuum of increasing awareness and bodily mastery:
We have “fight or flight” animalistic reflexes to provide us with some default overrides to prevent us from
being victimized as frozen prey, unless the stressors are too noxious in which these reflexes forces us into a
catatonic state of fetal surrender.
But our predatory reflexes remain outside of our control. Because your nervous system believes it must
protect you, so it usurps control of your body.
The fighter acquires complex skills that cannot be accessed until control is reclaimed from the animalistic
predator. Once control is reclaimed from our reflexes, we have evolved a biomechanically powerful design
to ward off threats, consciously, deliberately, but aggressively, forcefully. Effective, but not yet efficient.
The warrior continues the refinement of the fighter’s skills and thrives upon the complexity they appear to
manifest. The warrior breaks free of the need for pure force to find graceful confluence artistic expression of
bold action, yet calm resolve.
We are each biologically designed for evolving complexity. Neuroscience has shown that the forebrain
evolved specifically to increase the complexity of movement, and doctors have proven the correlation
between the loss of complexity and accelerated aging.
This book intends to take you through the phases of our genetic heritage by fortifying your health and
fitness, and to provide you with identifiable landmarks to recover from when you backslide.
6
INTRODUCTION
This book serves several purposes:
1. An archive documenting the discoveries I’ve made across my lifetime of research, development,
experimenting with, practicing and teaching the impact of stress physiology upon health, fitness,
physique and performance.
2. A theoretical basis for applied study of stress physiology in exercise, in particular on the
concepts of resilience and toughness.
3. A system of practical applications for programming mobility, compensation, incremental
regression of simplicity and progression of complexity, and flow.
4. A trackable, measurable formula that can be used as a turnkey, follow-along daily calendar, or,
once mastered, can be used as an entrance into the wilderness of an intuitive, adaptive recovery
process to recreational, vocational and life stress.
How to use this book:

1. Even if you’ve been through my programs in the past, please begin by reading through the
theoretical overview. Until you have an established understanding of the purpose of the method,
resist the urge to prematurely tinker with the content of the practical applications. After 30 years,
I’ve learned that before you’ve mastered the basics, nearly anything that you could imagine has
already been weighed, tested and found wanting.
2. Select one of the training calendars which you can incorporate into your lifestyle. Though you
may feel benefit from sampling nuggets of the content, only in following an entire cycle can you
truly appreciate the comprehensive lifestyle quality and performance increases this book will
decode.
3. Download the Revive Flow, Flow Physique, and Thrive Flow videos, and study the instructional
videos to learn the movements, before training with the follow-along videos. Follow the steps on
the calendars for which program to train on a particular day, and mark it on your schedule.
4. Dedicate yourself in advance to the schedule and create plans for when lifestyle patterns and
surprises will attempt to divert you from realizing your goals and achieving your intended results.
These diversions will happen. Prepare for them, and do not be frustrated when you encounter
them. Exhale, smile, and realize it’s part of the process when you implement behavioral
modification such as exercise regimens.
5. Join Facebook and subscribe to my page, so you can share your feedback, read through the
discoveries and results of others, and interact with others around the world who are both new
and experienced with it.
7
PART I:
ORIGINS OF
PRIMAL
STRESS
I have a compelling montage of theories to share. They will require a considerable, dedicated study to
validate, as they involve an interdisciplinary mosaic of principles, including stress physiology,
psychophysiology, biochemistry and anthropology.
To appreciate the scope of the observation and development of these theories, allow me to begin with the
story of their origin.
As my father returned from the Korean War, the violence in our household erupted. Younger than four years,
I could not understand why my family disintegrated. I only knew ubiquitous anxiety. That early childhood
experience set the stage with the impoverishment following the divorce, childhood obesity and severe
learning disabilities for manifesting that anxiety throughout my adolescence and early adulthood.
Presumably a collage of causes led to me being institutionalized in a psychiatric hospital for childhood
learning disabilities and juvenile delinquency. With good intentions, the doctors believed the behavioral
modification would improve my circumstances. They did not improve. They worsened. However
successfully the doctors may have altered my behavior, the anxiety remained and grew, and the outwardly
experienced hostility amplified. I did not know why, yet, but I did know that it generated from me...
somehow.
After being released into mainstream population, only the school

administration were to be apprised of my whereabouts, and under
strict confidentiality. Yet within weeks, it had leaked to teachers, and
then to the entire student body. The violence, humiliation and shame
magnified one hundred fold, accelerating the physiological and
psychological changes anxiety wrought to my body, mind and
emotions.
Fighting became a recurrent felon. Yet, worse than the physical

encounters was my chronic vigilance awaiting violence around
every corner. The stress of hypervigilance became a heavy suit of
armor fettering the clarity of my thoughts, agitating the volatile
chemistry of my emotions, distorting the chassis of my skeletal
alignment and shackling my movement.
8
A PREDICTABLE PATTERN
Had I only had, in early childhood, the capability of objectively analyzing the phenomena, and the
series of resulting adaptations, I would have been able to interrupt the pattern and the destructive
course of events that followed. But I would have had to know and recognize the predictable
patterns that survival stress elicits.
I would have had to know and recognize that “I” was not those patterns; they were something that
happened to me, and as a result, something that could be interrupted. However, I had come to
identify with those thoughts, emotions, postures and movements; my identity was bound to those
behaviors and I defined myself by them.
I could not see the reflection of my own body language, and hear its muted screams of alarm. For
me, that was me. Anxiety was the white noise of my existence. It was my experience of the world.
Distress was my filter, my “rose-colored lenses,” and all the world was bloodied.
Gravitating to the martial arts should have been a forecasted path, not because of the need for
increased violence, but for the elusive, sangfroid calm the masters demonstrated, in spite of
confronting the most lethally skilled violence known to mankind.
Traveling from one martial art instructor to the next, my dissatisfaction grew. I did not merely want
to defend myself. I wanted peace within me, yet not the feigned facade of tranquility worn by those
who had not endured one actual violent encounter. I wanted the aplomb and serenity confronting
violence, and moreover I craved that peacefulness not merely during a fight, but when not fighting.
My chronic anticipation of violence needed to cease. I did not want to learn how to fight. I wanted
to know how to STOP.
Thirty years passed. 30 years. I know this because I

remember the day when I was 13 recognized that in
order to change my circumstances, I walked down
the hallway thinking, “To get out of this hell-hole, I
must change the way I walk, and change the
way I talk.” Crude but accurate, my intuition
guided me toward the solution.
Absorbing one teacher’s instruction after another,

poring over philosophical texts, spending hours
every day training while at university at the expense
of my grades, I studied only those textbooks that
helped me understand my situation, to decipher
this encryption of anxiety. A piece of insight here; a
morsel of discovery there. My university experience
began the investigation of the crime scene which
had become my body.
9
A PREDICTABLE PATTERN
It took another two decades of practical application in
actual competitive fighting to zoom out and see the
image of the mosaic. My entire competition career sought
“the perfect fight,” where I could perform with precision
and effectiveness, but without the strain of chronic
anxiety. This proved to be an oxymoronic goal as
masterful performance demanded competitive anxiety. I
had at the time not understood the distinction between
distress and eustress, between productive and
unproductive stress.
I did find my "perfect fight." But I had to bet the entire proverbial bank -- my sole source of
income, my company reputation, the livelihood providing for my family -- to come out of
retirement from fighting at age 40 and prepare to compete at the World Games as its oldest
athlete against athletes half my age and 100 pounds heavier.
That Championship brought this book to a conscious level of awareness. As I was also the USA
National Coach again, I had the opportunity to both observe and officiate, as well as compete.
Some younger athletes performed with sufficient stress yet without excessive stress disrupting
them; many more older athletes did so. Why the small percentage of youth - why the higher
percentage of older athletes processing competitive anxiety more effectively? Was it
experience; then why did some of equal experience crumble psychologically; and why did
some younger, less-experienced athletes not collapse under the stress?
I knew it wasn’t a particular

style of martial art, as it was
across backgrounds.
Irrespective of age, gender,

or nationality, those who did
not process competitive
anxiety displayed common
physical characteristics.
Excessive stress manifested
a predictable, measurable,
knowable pattern of
common characteristics.
This became my thesis, but
it required a different
direction of my career to
flush it out.
10
A CONVERGENT EPIPHANY
In 1998, I was made the first national coach of the US Police Team, which was to compete at the
1999 World Police Sambo Championships. As a copious data collector, I learned that the
preparation and performance of the police team differed dramatically from the preparation and
performance of the amateur national team, of which I had also been the US Coach.
Cataloguing their experience of training and competing, I found that the national team composed
of amateur athletes prepared three times less effectively than the police athletes, but the police
athletes performed three times less effectively under competitive anxiety. Though the police
athletes did incredibly well in preparatory training and sparring, the amateur athletes dramatically
outperformed them once competitive anxiety was added to equation. The police broke under the
stress of competition.
Logically, one would think the police, due to their real-life experience with violence, would allow
them to process stress more effectively, so they should perform better in competition. Although,
vocational responsibilities of the police offered them an experiential base for processing
competitive stress more effectively, the sum total stress load of their lifestyle became
“excessive” compared to that the amateur athletes, who were primarily collegiate students with
nothing but studies and copious free time contributing to their stress levels.
Regardless of police or amateur team, if they did not process competitive anxiety well, common
characteristics manifested in their mental chatter, emotional disposition, physical position and
motor behaviors. In the 1990s, I couldn't articulate the series of phenomena I had encountered, as I
did not yet have the language, concepts or experience to create a cogent theory as to why these
events transpire.
However, after another decade of investigation, culminating in my personal experience fighting and
coaching for the US Team at the 2010 World Games, I had developed the capacity to ask relevant
questions. But it took another two years of teaching for the federal government before I galvanized
the answers to these questions into a solid concept.
11
CLEARING THE UNCLEAN SLATE

My awareness to the thesis evolved organically and inductively. I initially had not related the two
events together:
1. The phenomena
of ineffectively
processed
“excessive”
anxiety as the
USA National
Martial Arts
Team Coach,
and...
2. The obstacles
that appeared
when teaching
tactical fitness
for the Federal
Law
Enforcement
Training Center
(FLETC) Office of
State and Local
Training at the
State and Local
Law
Enforcement
Training
Symposiums
(SLLETS).
Most of the state and local police could not "enter" the exercise portion of my workshops. Over the
two years of teaching for the government, my presentation transformed from a lecture on theory
and a practical application exercise workshop to a semi-private group recovery session of common
pains, aches, ailments and injuries surrounding the law enforcement job.
Regardless of region, age, gender, race, background, experience, shape, condition or size of the
participants, when excessive stress broke them down, they responded by a predictable,
measurable, trackable series of physical patterns.
They were “wearing” their job like rusty armor. As I learned their universal patterns of rust, I helped
them remove one piece at a time. Yet, whenever we would re-enter intense exercise, or whenever
we would perform a defensive tactics or combatives drill, the pattern would reappear.
Suddenly, the thesis crystallized.

12
CONVERSION AND PREVENTION

During the entire 20th century, the
Russians spent billions of rubles
studying the intricacies of human high
performance. We Americans certainly
had more money to spend, and in no
way were they smarter than American
scientists, but they did have a
fascinating advantage: They have an
old culture very familiar with enduring
extreme stress.
Within the Soviet empire were enclaves

of people who had lived in the same
locations for not merely hundreds but
thousands of years, suffering assault
and occupation by attackers from the
North, South, East and West. This
cultural endurance meant that they had
folk knowledge proven for generations
through practical experimentation.
When living in harsh environments, no
room exists for fanciful adornment. But
that generational stamina was ripe for
deep wisdom, passed from father to
son and mother to daughter.
In places like these, the Soviet sport

and military scientists ferreted out discoveries that, by the middle of the last century, would
be applied not just to the healing of their war-riddled people, but would also be applied in
the largest stress physiology research the world had ever seen -- second only to that of the
wealthiest nation in the world, the United States of America.
Combative efficiency is not merely about strategy and tactics, but moreover about the
impact of friction and chaos (stress) upon morale. The Soviets built into their training
programs not merely physical fitness, but emotional readiness as well. And the most
important aspect of this was resistance to stress, which they described as the “Threshold
of Performance” (elegantly detailed by Dr. Grigori Raiport in his out-of-print book: Red Gold
Peak Performance Techniques of the Russian and East German Olympic Victors but
expansively discussed by Dr. Michael Yessis in Secret of Soviet Sports and Fitness.)
13
A L LY N O T E N E M Y
We’re all familiar with the concept
of stress, the pressures of life that
Catabolism <----> Anabolism

can cause catabolism, immune
breakdown, tunnel vision,
conceptual inflexibility and just
generally screw up your whole day.
The problem may have been
misdiagnosed, and stress
erroneously vilified.
Hans Selye, the genius who

originally popularized the concept
of stress, spoke about five
languages, and English was not his
first. Before he died, he was quoted
as saying that if English had been
his first language, he might have
been known as the “Father of
Strain” rather than the “Father of
Stress.”
What’s the difference? From an

engineering point of view, stress equals pressure per unit area, whereas strain equals deformation per
unit length. The difference is critical. It is stress that triggers all growth: physical, psychological, emotional,
whatever. Think back over your life, and remember the times when you exploded to a new level of
potential. Almost invariably, it was in response to something uncomfortable in your life, either the urge to
avoid pain, or the desire to reach a new level of pleasure.
As long as the stress is handled gradually enough for your body-mind’s progressive adaptation response to
kick in, the only way your system can respond is by growing stronger. This is called Anabolism.
If, on the other hand, the stress happens too quickly, too strongly, or for too long, you get strain, and begin
to break down. Or, contrarily, if the stress does not happen at all, you atrophy and begin to fall apart. This is
called Catabolism.
This stress can be psychological as well as physical; imagined, as well as real. Strange as it may seem,
your nervous system doesn’t differentiate between an actual event and one vividly imagined. The link
between mind and body explains both the efficiency and flaw of a traditional lie-detection apparatus: The
stress of concealing information from an interrogator triggers a cascade of physiological events: depth and
rate of breathing, pupillary contraction, galvanic skin response, blood pressure, heart rate, and more.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that the feedback loop goes both ways. If you can control some of
these physiological reflexes, the others will often come along for the ride.
14
FREEZE - FLINCH - FORCE - FLOW

In the 1990s, I worked for a neurobehavioral clinic for brain damaged and mentally ill children, assisting in
movement therapy program design. One observable trait throughout all of the children was the reflexive
impact of trauma and anxiety upon their state. Specific patterns erupted in movement and bodily position
due to the injuries and emotional duress the children had experienced.
The lead psychologist at the clinic, Dr. Robert Stein PhD, and I tested our observations to task on
Millersville University of Pennsylvania students assessing the impact of anxiety upon mental focus and
managed through biofeedback. Interestingly enough, as the pressure of the examinations increased, very
specific patterns emerged, parallel to the children we observed in the clinic.
These observations were further edified in my martial arts background. In hand-to-hand fighting, I had
discovered what I named the “Four Fs” - specific patterns that people adopted when facing combative
stress:
Freeze: producing a Flinch: eliciting a Force: manifesting a Flow: displaying a highly

cowering, beta posture. protective reflex. dominating, alpha malleable, exuberant
posture. effortlessness.
These Four Fs demonstrated common denominators regardless of martial art style education and fighting
background. I intuited that they related to the “fight or flight” reflex, but imagined that they must expand
beyond it somehow.
By competing in five different sports at a world championship level, and by observing thousands of athletes
from cultures around the world, I could conclude that we require sufficient stress to achieve “flow-state”
regardless of sport, but when we fall into excessive stress, we either freeze with fear, or we attempt to force
the fight, regardless of background. Yet if we master reflexes, then irrespective of nationality or personality,
a mysteriously common series of effortless virtues appear, which sport psychologists have referred to as
“flow-state,” (Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience).
I set about studying coaching psychology in University as a student and collegiate team coach, in order to
better understand the distinctions that were unfolding in my martial art competition, and to prepare for
competing at the World University Games, the Olympics for university students.
15
GOOD STRESS - BAD STRESS

Psychologists describe four types of stress:
1. Hypostress: insufficiently low stress

2. Eustress: sufficient, adaptable stress
3. Hyperstress: recoverable, high stress
4. Distress: excessive, unadaptable stress
In 1996, I was invited to formally intern in Russia as the first Westerner to study behind the
former “Iron Curtain” and learn their Russian System of Training, called Vyzhivaniye, or
“Survival Under Extreme Circumstances” - the program approved by the Russian Olympic
Committee to prepare combat athletes to face the extreme stress of hand-to-hand fighting.
Their Cosmonaut training program was tied to this, and our patch was even painted to one
of their launched rockets, for in zero gravity, without any stress to the body, even the bones
begin the process of dying, becoming osteoporotic. We need sufficient stress to survive.
The spectrum inbetween

the poles of sufficient
and excessive stress
comprises this art of
eustress, and all the
desirable outcomes that
the spectrum yields. The
greater our eustress, the
greater our productive
adaptation. More “good
stress” is always good,
though there is a
crystallization point at
which one, knowable,
trackable, measurable
additional stressor
pushes you into distress.
Unfortunately, most people are taught to believe that stress is bad, and relaxation is good.
As a result, most people receive an insufficient amount of stress. When they experience
their current level of excessive stress, they self-medicate with relaxation activities, forever
stuck in a pendulum of excessive stress followed by insufficient stress. They rarely
progress, and if they do, they do so very slowly with frequent backslides due to aches,
pains and stress-related illnesses.
16
NATURAL RELAXED READINESS

Rest is relaxation: an absence of activity. When you appropriately recover, you don't require or
desire rest. In fact, when you fully recover, you discover that you'd rather be active, due to the
pool of energy you've built.
Rest is only required when you do not sufficiently recover from excessive stressors that you have
experienced and induced. When you're under-recovered, you oscillate between excessive stress
and forced rest; a common, viscous cycle in the modern world.
For example, sleeping is wrongly considered rest. Too much “restless” sleep is like binging on
empty calories: More isn’t better; it’s actually much worse. Many people, as a result, sleep too
long and with insufficient depth and quality and eat too much with insufficient nutrient density
and absorption. Sleep is part of a larger mandatory recovery cycle if your training and food are
going to be useful; and if your sleep is going to be fitful, then you also need your exercise and
nutrition to be switched on. To be effective, sleep, food and exercise need to be of the proper
quality, not merely sufficient quantity. Then, rest becomes unnecessary and undesired.
Traditional relaxation techniques even become unnecessary if one fully recovers from excessive
stress; for relaxation is our natural state when parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous
systems symbiotically function. If one cannot restore parasympathetic tone due to excess
sympathetic arousal, then one must use relaxation techniques.
Unfortunately, since most of us have not been taught how training, nutrition, and sleep factor into
our total recovery cycle, our exercise, food and sleep often contribute to our sum total
stress load, and often push us further into distress.
Hostile, high-stress environments incur drastic costs, but extraordinary situations don’t need to
break your nervous system where rest becomes mandatory. We can better prepare for dealing
with them and emerge less damaged, undamaged, and as my colleague LTC Dave Grossman
has said in his Bulletproof Mind workshops, “better, stronger human beings.” Although you can't
attempt to relax in certain exigent circumstances, you can indeed restore and accelerate
recovery of parasympathetic tone, by front-loading recovery techniques that can prevent
damage to your nervous system.
Many traditional and conventional relaxation

techniques, such as meditation, are in fact,
recovery methods being forced from proactive
and counteractive function into retroactive
desperation.
Dependance upon relaxation techniques for

relaxation is like pharmaceutically ‘solving’ an
illness because the immune system is
suppressed: Yes, it's necessary if the immune
system is suppressed, but there are recovery
methods for unburdening and bolstering the
immune system. In its natural state, the immune
system combats illness.
With an undamaged autonomic nervous system,

we are innately relaxed and ready. As a result, we
have no need for techniques to bring about a
trait of relaxation since we exist in a state of
rapidly restored relaxation.
17
RESILIENCE VERSUS TOUGHNESS

As a national team coach, I knew that I needed to determine a way to measure and track data. Without data
collection, without measurement and tracking, you cannot accurately progress. But if you can measure and track
something, you can improve it.
My training in martial art, fitness and yoga needed to focus on eustress (productively adaptable stress) since I could
not afford excessive stress whatsoever, due to the childhood issues I faced with learning disabilities and joint
disease. Excessive physical stress left me strangled in a corset of agony. So, how could I quantify it?
Calling upon my experience working with biofeedback in the neurobehavioral clinic, and my experience in stress
physiology in Russia studying “Survival Under Extreme Situations,” I started monitoring my heart rate during
competitive fighting and preparation, in particular my maximum heart rate.
In decades of fighting, in world championships across five different sports, I discovered that before you can resist
failure, you must first experience failure and learn how to recover from it. I still see coaches who will only allow
their athletes to compete against opponents they’re certain to defeat; and when they confront a worthy challenge,
they are little tougher than when they began, becoming mentally and emotionally crushed under the pressure, unable
to recover from their failures.
Before you can prevent excessive stress, you must first be able to recover from it. Let’s think of Resilience as your
ability to recover from excessive stress (which my Russian teachers called your “Threshold of Performance”). You
must become resilient before you can become tough. Let’s think of Toughness as your ability to resist excessive
stress (which my Russian teachers called your “Threshold of Pain”).
If I could measure resilience and toughness, then I could predict when excessive stress would elicit these universal
patterns of deteriorating performance.
Track the differences in how we die

New England Journal of Medicine, The Burden of Disease and Changing Task of Medicine, David Jones, MD
compared to 100 years ago. The
modern #1 killer of humanity is not
a bullet, not a bomb, but excessive
stress: stress-related heart disease.
You cannot "just relax." We cannot
self-medicate with forced inaction
and physician-imposed passivity.
We must proactively recover. If we
cannot recover from excessive
stress, we will break down.
If you want to become tough

enough to not be fazed by the big
stuff (which we can think of as
'resistance to excessive stress'),
then we must first develop the
tools for when we exceed our
threshold of adaptable stress levels
(which we can think of as
"resilience.") You cannot become
tough until you first become
resilient.
Your life depends upon it. Training

stress, food stress, hydration stress, chemical stress, electrical stress, emotional, psychological, relational, financial,
social, vocational, occupational, stress, stress, STRESS! We can only adapt to so much per day (eustress), but once
we step across that line into distress, we do absorb it to our detriment, and like a daily suicide.
18
AS FAST AS YOUR FORM CAN HOLD IT

I created an exercise approach, called TACFIT (TACTICAL FITNESS), with scores, times and totals
to apply pressure. I knew pressure corrodes performance, but I could now define that anxiety
erodes technique in predictable, knowable patterns. Simultaneously, I had interwoven biofeedback
mechanisms in TACFIT so I could measure and track the internal experience of physical, mental
and emotional stress. As a result, I could determine not only how but, more importantly, when this
performance would hemorrhage and totally rupture.
Through TACFIT, I intended to pressurize technique. “As fast as your form can hold it,” became
our mantra. When the pressure exceeded the individual’s level of mental toughness, I saw the
individual flounder, fall and fail; fleeing to relaxation and rest, with no tools to recover back to
usable technique.
So, I developed recovery tools to seize back technique from the ravages of distress: methods for
reclaiming form under pressure, reactivating shutdown tissues, reframing catastrophizing attitudes,
and reabsorbing volatile chemistry of the sympathetic nervous system's survival arousal. This is my
personal renovation of the term “resilience,” so if you come to this book with your own definitions,
please suspend them for now, and look at the word with fresh eyes, so we do not confuse terms.
You can become better at dealing with stressful situations, not in the grotesque sink-or-swim boot-
camp mentality of “tough it out or go home,” but rather, by providing methods to recover back to a
level where technique can be maintained. Consider it the same as walking edge of the cliff. Only
when you know that precipice can you become tougher. You can’t make someone tougher by
pushing them off, for only those who already are that level of toughness can endure the fall.
I discovered,
toughness is trained,
once resilience is
gained. Training
should not be
organized for the 15%
already tough (at a
particular level), but for
the 85% who are not
yet; and then even the
15% can truly improve,
while the bulk of us do.
Not one man or

woman is left behind.
19
SUFFICIENT BUT NON-EXCESSIVE

By measuring induced stress, I discovered a distinct line demarcating the sufficient from the
excessive: heart rate maximum. As heart rate rapidly approached or exceeded maximum, this
predictable pattern of behaviors and actions manifested.
Heart rate maximum (HRmax) is not a measure of how much you could potentially perform, but
how much you can perform without these patterns manifesting and eroding your technique, which
means how much you can perform with eustress for adaptive potential.
During my martial art background studies, I

learned and experienced the direct
correspondence of heart rate to performance
as illustrated in the illustration to the right
(Bruce Siddle, Sharpening the Warrior’s Edge,
The Psychology and Science of Training).
I should note that this graph is inaccurate. In

modern sport science, we have learned that
HRmax changes from day to day due to
nutrition, sleep, hydration and recovery from
sum total stress load. It also changes based
upon experience with the specific stressor:
The more novel and noxious the stimulus, the
more your heart rate spikes faster, and the
more your sympathetic nervous system
becomes over-aroused, the more it dumps a
chemical cocktail into your system and
causes a rapid degradation in technique
(through this predictable pattern.)
The Central Nervous System (CNS) cannot differentiate between a true physical threat and an
emotional/symbolic threat. For example, your CNS reacts the same way whether an attacker
slashes at you with a knife or whether a two-year-old belligerently throws tantrums in a grocery
store.
Your CNS cannot differentiate between types of conflict stressors induced, whether they be
occupational, social, interpersonal, intrapersonal, financial, familial, etc. The CNS cannot
differentiate between types of stress; it only knows degree. Once you reach a sum total stress
threshold, a predictable pattern of internal events and external behaviors manifest. As you rapidly
approach and exceed heart rate maximum (HRmax), you biochemically experience the same
survival stress response as if someone attempted to use lethal force to end your life.
Fortunately, this means that you can use methods to create non-lethal “emotional/symbolic threats”
to the CNS such as exercise-induced stress to become more resilient and to become tougher. The
CNS cannot differentiate between conflict-induced and exercise-induced stressors. It only knows
degree of physiological arousal: submaximal to maximal heart rate.
20
PRIMAL PROTECTIVE REFLEX

Rapidly approaching and exceeding this “thin line” of heart rate maximum elicits a Survival Stress Reflex (SSR)
commonly known as the “fight or flight” syndrome. Your ancient nervous system assumes that if your stress exceeds
your known (trained) threshold, then you need help... fast. So, it quickly dumps a massive infusion of supercharged
chemistry into your bloodstream.
This reflex evolved for a positive, productive, survivable reason: to give you support if you encounter a situation for
which you’re poorly prepared.
The “adrenal dump” can cause you to urinate and defecate as well as vomit, in order to eliminate any excess
baggage. All gears reverse and all ballast blows.
It may lead to “The Herx” (Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction) when the release of endotoxins occurs faster than the body
can remove them, manifesting as fever, chills, rigor, hypotension, headache, tachycardia, hyperventilation,
vasodilation with flushing, myalgia (muscle pain) and exacerbation of skin lesions.
Even drastic weight loss can cause a redistribution of persistent organic pollutants that are stored primarily in
adipose tissue, which increases temporary total body burden when “burned out” through intense exercise. (Kim M-J,
Marchand P, et al. 2011. Fate and Complex Pathogenic Effects of Dioxins and Polychlorinated Biphenyls in Obese
Subjects before and after Drastic Weight Loss. Environ Health Perspective 119:377-383. http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/
ehp.1002848)
Internally, the Survival Stress Reflex sets off sympathetic alarms such as tunnel vision, auditory exclusion, tachy-
psychia (time warp), short-term memory loss, cognitive dysfunction, and of course fatigue, exhaustion and
weakness. These phenomena happen concordant with sympathetic arousal: maximal heart rate, rapid shallow
respiration, pupil dilation, profuse sweating, elimination, etc.
These internal events remain critical, but the discovery I found most curious,
which I have not read in any other of the hundreds of books I’ve scoured on the
topic, regards how this manifests in an observable pattern of external motor
behaviors.
In some cases, it will cause you to advance forward overaggressively, such as

when you are performing lunges and begin to fatigue but get angry and push
hard: You lean forward, jut your head, curl your shoulders, flair your elbows,
clench your fists, extend your tailbone backward like a battering ram as you
stomp forward into the ground.
And in other cases, it will cause you to retreat backward, literally switching from
front to rear lunges, lifting your shoulders, collapsing your spine inward, curling
your tailbone under, releasing your hands and bending your wrists, exposing your
throat as you lift your chin.
Yet, Fight and Flight are only two of the reflexes. If the stressors are too
excessive, a deeply archaic reflex to “Freeze” arises, from when we faced
predators whose senses and instincts were triggered by sudden movement.
When faced with extreme exercise stressors, in some cases, we totally shut-
down, unable to make decisions or take actions. We’re frozen in place.
Fortunately, we have learned in stress physiology that repeated exposure to stressful stimuli (called “stress
inoculation”) cannot stop the release of chemistry into your bloodstream, but it can modify it from fast-release to
slow-release; it can be conditioned from a “dump” to a “drip.” We can recover back to usable technique through
“resilience” methods. But we need to back up and appreciate our primal blueprint for stress, before we can address
recovery.
21
2 BRANCHES OF NERVOUS SYSTEM

The same neural architecture that boosts us when we are unprepared, can aid us with
specific preparation. The nervous system has two branches: autonomic (reflexed by
internal and external stressors) and somatic/voluntary (consciously or programmatically
controlled).
If a gunshot were to whizz by your head, your heart rate would accelerate rapidly; however,
you can also use recovery drills to recover your heart rate dramatically. You can also modify
your ability to process and recover from the adverse affects of this chemical cocktail
through specific recovery techniques.
But the dump is unadaptable. Anything rapidly exceeding heart rate maximum (HRmax)
burns pure hormones, and you don’t adapt to become stronger at releasing more
hormones. Any exercises performed above HRmax amount to “garbage repetitions.”
Therefore, we must redefine HRmax with regards to fitness. Volatile biochemistry cannot
2+(5(1&(1HZVOHWWHU 6j\jhi'%%-
dictate our maximal output, if we intend to make use of the exercise and adapt to it.
In other words, HRmax is not how much you can perform, but how much you can adapt to
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(which also means HRmax is a measure of your current recovery level.) To understand the
implications of this, we must go deeper into what recovery means. But suffice it to say, that
if we mean to adapt to our exercise, we must approach and not exceed HRmax, and when
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22
MY FEAR-REMOVAL TECHNIQUE
I discovered this quite by accident. As a child living with physical violence and emotional
abuse, I would frequently run away. After an explosive encounter, I’d run into the woods as
fast and as far as I could, jumping, climbing, diving and rolling through the brush and briar. It
became my self-therapy, even when I only felt psychologically out-of-sorts.
I found myself, while on my cathartic parkour jaunts, imagining how I would have dealt with
and productively resolved the previous event, and how I wished to feel about the outcome.
I’d replay the event over and over in my mind, until I believed that it had actually happened
in the way I imagined, and I truly felt the way I had wished.
This was in my tweens, far before I had ever heard of Neuro-Linguistic Programming. It was
a roughly unrefined approach, but highly effective at reframing and repatterning my
destructive environment.
During these therapeutic adventures, I noticed that I calmed down more and more quickly,
the harder that I ran: the higher the intensity, the faster my groundedness from the chemical
storm inside me. The harder that I breathed, the faster I recovered from the violence and
abuse I had endured, and the more rapidly I psychologically reframed my encounter with a
positive outcome.
I had thought, at the time, this was just a silly outlet for me as an individual. Little did I
realize the universal efficacy of the method, and the extensive science that would come to
support it.
23
SHIFTING RESILIENCE GEARS

Why do we face such distress when we begin exercising? Why is it so hard at first? You experience
a pounding headache, aching lungs, nauseating stomach, phantom joint pains and, as a result, a
cacophony of mental noise telling you to quit, to stop, to go home, to finish an incomplete or
forgotten task.
And for some perfect combination of character flaws, you manage to hold your technique and
keep going, only to have all of the pains and chatter evaporate. You’re left with the euphoria of
“Second Wind.” How glorious that feeling! Where is it? What is it? How can you consciously go
right at that adaptation, tap into it, and not just a second time, but a third, fourth and fifth?
Circulo-respiratory distress (CRD) is that condition of great discomfort – such as labored

breathing and pumping heart rate - you experience when your body is about to up-shift to a higher
degree of efficiency. If you sustain the activity, the body adapts to kick in greater performance,
because for some strange reason, you resist quitting. This willpower causes a “neuroplastic”
adaptation in your brain to allow you to use less effort to continue the same activity.
What the heck does neuroplasticity mean? I had to research it extensively for years to understand.
And I discovered that if you find a way to recover back to usable technique and refuse to quit, the
brain creates new neural and chemical pathways to make the activity easier, immediately. Not in 3
weeks or 3 months, but in 3 milliseconds.
Suddenly, the activity just feels effortless. Some call this a “Second Wind.” However, since there
are ever-deepening cycles of increased efficiency, it’s more effective to think of this as 1st, 2nd, 3rd,
4th, and 5th “gears.”
And it’s not just the nervous system that must adapt to make your exercise easier. The nervous
system is just the beginning. It also forces your endocrine system, your hormones to adapt; as well
as your immune system! Science calls this the Neuro-Immuno-Endocrine Response (NEI).
The NIE response happens when you experience initial distress, recover back to eustress, refuse to
quit, and up-shift to the next gear. When accepting a challenge that causes us severe distress,
resiliently recovering back to usable action, behavior and thought, and refusing to quit the
discomfort, our brain chemistry adapts to create a solution.
Since the neural, endocrine and immune systems are interrelated, an adaptation in one is reflected
in the others. Nerve impulses tend to produce their effects within a few milliseconds, while
hormones can act within seconds or several hours or longer and the immune system from
immediate to up to days or weeks to bring about their responses.
24

“Starting in the 1980s researchers found evidence of strong connections between the
immune, nervous and endocrine systems. First they identified direct links between nerve
fibers and immune organs. More recently researchers determined that hormones of the
endocrine system help the immune and nervous systems defend the body. For example,
stress hormones can initiate actions in the brain and immune system in response to injury or
germs. This stress response acts as an immune system regulator. It can dampen down the
immune system so it doesn’t go overboard.
Scientists also recently discovered that immune molecules, known as cytokines, can initiate
brain actions. For example, some cytokines help the body recuperate by sending messages
to the brain that set off a series of sickness responses, such as fever. The high body
temperature of a fever is thought to create an unfavorable environment for the foreign
invaders. The immune molecules also can trigger feelings of sluggishness, sleepiness and
loss of appetite. The behaviors can keep sick people out of harm’s way until they feel better.
Researchers found that cytokines can activate certain nerves for quick brain activation or set
off actions from posts in the blood (see illustration). Scientists also discovered that some
cytokines are produced directly in the brain.
The increasing number of links that researchers are discovering between the immune,
nervous and endocrine systems is leading them to investigate whether excess stress or too
little stress can abnormally alter the immune defenses.”
- Dr. Lydia Kibiuk,“The Mind-Body Link” Brain Briefings (July 1998, Society for
Neuroscience)
25

Together with the nervous system, the immune and endocrine systems coordinate functions of all
body systems. The nervous system controls balance through nerve impulses conducted along
axons of neurons. At axon terminals, impulses trigger release of neurotransmitter molecules. The
result is either excitation or inhibition of specific other neurons. In contrast, the endocrine system
releases messenger molecules, called hormones, into the bloodstream. The circulating blood then
delivers hormones to virtually every cell throughout the body. Finally, the nervous system affects
the immune system via the synapsing of neurons with white blood cells in lymphoid tissues and
through blood-borne neurotransmitters and hormones, which activate receptors on white blood
cell surfaces. The immune system acts upon the nervous system through cytokines released by
immune cells.
The body couldn’t maintain balance (homeostasis) if these three systems were to pull in opposite
directions, so it uses all three simultaneously to adapt to the challenges that you refuse to quit. The
nervous, immune and endocrine systems coordinate as an interlocking super-system. Certain parts
of the nervous system stimulate or inhibit the release of hormones. Hormones, in turn, may
promote or inhibit the generation of nerve impulses. The nervous system causes muscles to
contract and glands to secrete either more or less of their products. The endocrine system alters
metabolic activity, and regulates growth and development. The immune system is composed of
lymphoid tissues, and the fact that these tissues are innervated with sympathetic nerve fibers adds
support to the theory that the central nervous system can directly influence the immune system.
When you step over the “thin line” into distress, recover back to an adaptable level of stress, refuse
to quit and up-shift to a greater level of efficiency, you immediately get washed by a tide of
hormones being released throughout your bloodstream. Let’s call this “drip” rather than “dump”
which we experience as a zone or flow of upwardly spiraling performance rather than a vortex of
downwardly spiraling performance.
We know the obvious “feel-good” chemicals, such as our body’s natural morphine called
endorphines. But, the interconnectedness to your immune system activates an increased level of
positive activity, which some science points to as an increased “strength” of the immune system.
Most research regards the opposite – how adverse stress can cause immuno-suppression: a
dampening of our health. But the shift from pathological research to wellness research has been
underway. An increasing number of studies continue to be released demonstrating that focus on
recovery from intense challenges builds better, stronger neural, hormonal and immune
systems.
Of course it was only a personal study, but as a child, my obesity did not begin to resolve,
regardless of exercise or dietary changes, until I began my self-therapeutic forest runs to recover
from the excessive stress of violence and abuse.
Why did my health improve only then? It is impossible to claim with certainty that the above
science of the NEI Response had been my angel, but it remains the simplest and most plausible
explanation considering Occam’s Razor. My obesity resolved and my health improved because I
had finally learned to process the volatile endotoxins of abuse and violence, bolster my immuno-
support and regain usable fitness through the biofeedback of my breath.
26
TOO MUCH, TOO LITTLE, JUST RIGHT

I’ve written quite extensively about the emotional impact of stress upon performance in my 2003 book
entitled, Body-Flow Freedom from Fear-Reactivity. However, we require a small degree of reiteration for the
current topic of Primal Stress.
This biochemical marker held an identifiable array of STRESS AROUSAL SPECTRUM

traits manifested in my emotion and my preparedness
for situations. My aptitude for a particular situation lay
on an intersection of stress level and skill level: A R O U S A L
How skilled I was to meet a particular stress level
H
determined not only how I felt about a particular
E
challenge, but also strongly influenced my perception
G
V O R T E X Z O N E
of my performance.
I
E
H
When we experience low levels of stress and have low
L
skill levels, we feel able to rest and relax; to be inert A N X I E T Y R E A D I N E S S
and “do nothing.”
S
When we have moderate skill and low stress, we can S
actively recover from the stress levels we’ve
E
R E S T C O N T R O L
experienced; to take action to recuperate from prior W
R
events and attitudes.

O
T
When our skills are high and the stress remains low,
S
R E C O V E R Y
we experience a level of control and certainty over the
situation; as if we can either strongly influence, if not L O W H I G H
determine, the outcome of any details.
S K I L L L E V E L
As stress increases moderately, yet our skills remain low,
we begin to have doubts as to our ability to address the
circumstances at hand; that can cause us frustration, worry and anxiety.
But as our skill increases on a continuum to higher levels, although we don’t feel we can control events as
they happen, we feel ready to address them. We feel adequately prepared.
When stress levels become high, and we either have no or low levels of skill, we feel overwhelmed,
outnumbered, hopeless, helpless. This sucks us down a spiraling vortex of desperation and dread, as we
feel farther and farther behind, slower and slower to react, with lesser and lesser potential to not fail,
surrender, quit.
With moderate skills at high stress levels, we feel a sliding scale of agitated to excited depending upon the
continuum of skill development. We are fully aroused and alert, though we may still harbor concerns that
we are not fully ready to handle what happens, but we begin to feel hope that we may bounce back, endure
and triumph.
At some unique crystallization point, our nervous system perceives our skill to be high enough even at high
levels of stress, and we step into a groove of certainty, a zone of optimal performance where everything
seems to go perfectly, where we seem to act with precision, timing and grace. We feel plugged into the
experience as both co-creator and immediate responder. We experience the elusive state of flow.
27
REVIVE
flow ZERO INTENSITY
EXERCISE PROGRAM
Restore Mobility
Regain Stability
Remove Pain
Prevent Strain
Recover Energy
THE SHAPE OF EXCESSIVE STRESS

Earlier in this book, I alluded to the historical events in my career that
allowed me to observe the impact of stress upon myself, and across
diverse vocations and cultures worldwide. My discovery of how
excessive stress affects us coalesced from three different directions:
1. from a socio-anthropological observation as a national coach and

competitor encountering teams from diverse cultures and seeing
specific repeating patterns across backgrounds.
2. from a functional, physiological perspective gained from teaching

martial artists, cops, soldiers and firefighters, and working with a
common list of limiting factors throughout each of these
demographics.
3. from a personal, emotional experience of the distortions and

transformations that happened to me, and that I had to spend many
years resolving (if I am yet entirely finished; if I ever will be.)
How specifically does distress, or excess stress, mutate your structure?

How does it erode technique? What changes happen to your position
and movement? It happens in a very predictable pattern.
I am going to give this stress-induced collection of reflexes a sum label:

Sympathetically Aroused Primal Structure (SAPS).
I must begin by stating that SAPS is not a negative, but rather it’s an
evolutionarily stable survival mechanism. SAPS gives us a physiological
advantage if we have insufficient or ineffective skills for a violent
engagement. However, if we have sufficient, effective skills, SAPS robs
us of our technique and form. Moreover, since the nervous system
cannot differentiate between a true violent threat and false symbolic
threat (let’s use the acronym FEAR: False Evidence Appearing Real),
then SAPS reflex usurps our healthy, sustainable posture and movement
in exchange for increasing the chances of immediate survivability.
Unfortunately, if we neglect compensating for SAPS temporarily seizing

control of our body, then we will adapt to the SAPS and strengthen its position, making it increasingly more
difficult to perform any movement with biomechanically efficient technique. You can’t be smooth on a
stress-distorted structure.
Regardless of martial art style, regardless of firefighting, law enforcement, security, private protection,
military or emergency rescue, and irrespective of culture, nation, gender, or lifestyle, when stress reached
a measurably specific moment, SAPS appears. Only those who know how to recover back underneath
that threshold (“resilience”) can unhinge SAPS reflex and return to biomechanically efficient structure. Of
course there are also those who, after learning resilience, also can become “tougher,” increasing the
threshold before SAPS will appear. But you’re never invulnerable. Toughness can be pushed far, hard, fast,
and you will exceed your prior threshold. SAPS will manifest eventually in everyone.
29
THE ORIGINS OF STRESS REFLEXES

The origins remain controversial in many disciplines, but in bio-anthropology we learn that the
nervous system evolved with a default defense system to protect itself from collisions, pains and
sudden events, sometimes referred to as a “startle reflex.”
However, from a biological standpoint, this is named the “Moro” reflex, identified by Austrian
pediatrician Ernst Moro (1874-1951), who classified the reflex as evolving to help the infant cling to
mother while she carried him throughout the day, and if losing balance, helped him instantly regain
hold on mother, and clutch to mother’s body in times of crises. The Moro can be elicited by any
sudden or intense sensory stimulation, and is the only “unlearned fear”
behavior in newborns.
But Moro is the inborn reflex. And studies have proven that the
Moro eventually extincts itself. The reflex disappears with age and
experience, except in cases of those with mental illness or brain
damage. (Adams and Victor's Neurology, Chapter 28. Normal
Development and Deviations in Development of the Nervous
System.) Moro Reflex or Startle Reflex
The next point could be considered controversial, but the veracity

of it doesn’t affect the overarching theory. Excessive stress (and
resultant issues such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) can and
should be considered a form of mental illness and/or brain damage
due to the neuro-chemical overrides it incurs. I posit that the Moro
reengages in adults due to repeated, excessive stress beyond one’s
threshold capacity to process.
Think of yourself enraged or suddenly frightened. The changes

begin with an acute, rapid, compound movement spreading your
elbows and lifting the hands. At the same time your abdominals
tighten, your shoulder blades shrug upward to protect and tighten
the neck, and your knees bend into a half-squat position. Your neck
often rotates your head as it tilts away from the perceived threat and
your eyes often blink. This all happens at extreme velocity and with
an absence of executive planning or coordination by the frontal
areas of the brain where abstract thought (reason, or rationality)
remains housed.
Not only perceived threat, or sudden sensory overload like loud

noises or blurred movement toward the eyes, but also a sum total of
excessive stress triggers the reflex can manifest SAPS by quickly,
sharply or slowly accumulating across your threshold.
30
ADAPTING TO THE SHAPE OF REFLEX

SAPS is not the reflex itself, however. SAPS refers to the structure the reflex adopts and adapts. If you
do not release yourself from adaptable stress, it progresses to make it less effortful to hold this
ergonomically inefficient structure.
Therefore, after the CNS triggers the 1. Since body-mind is a two-way street, if you mimic a posture of the
reflex, if the tone is not discharged, the reflex, it has the tendency to trigger the biochemistry of the reflex
more often and more easily. Therefore, you will reinforce it.
fascia adapts to it, strengthening the
dysfunctional position even when not 2. Each time you exercise “over” or “with” a dysfunctional position,
excessively stressed. Excessive stress you strengthen the dysfunction called Myofascial Density. So,
aches, pains, and injuries are inevitable, and will increase in
reinforces dysfunction. The corollary frequency and severity as you neglect to compensate by releasing
should be immediately mentioned: the reflexive position.
exercising with excessive stress 3. The less often you return to your non-reflexive, anti-gravitational
strengthens dysfunction. So, let’s position, the more your body will “forget” how to return to its
begin with five key points to appreciate natural state, called Sensory Motor Amnesia. This creates a brain-
body disconnect where you will no longer be able to “tell” the body
the impact of SAPS upon function: to move in its original range of motion, and mobility becomes
“lost.” Physical therapy and body-work will then be required for
What does SAPS look like? You already restoration of function.
know, because you’re genetically 4. If you experience excessive stress in or toward this non-responsive
programmed to recognize it as LTC range of motion, your body will instantly “brace” against it for fear
of injury since the movement has been neuromuscularly forgotten;
Dave Grossman discusses in his book, this is referred to as Fear-Reactivity. This reactivity most often
On Killing. I don’t have to teach you results in micro and sometimes catastrophic tissue ruptures, such
SAPS. You will recognize it instantly in as tweaks, stingers, and spasms, if not full-blown ruptures and
herniations.
others, because you’re hardwired to
cautiously avoid it when you see it. 5. This process becomes a rapidly descending downward spiral
requiring immediate, consistent and comprehensive intervention,
including the cessation of exercise stress, until function has been
SAPS tightens the muscles along the restored by compensating for
front line, pulling you forward. This SAPS adaptations.
"slumping reflex" presents with rounded
shoulders, depressed chest and the
head thrust forward. It is a protective
reflex found in all vertebrate animals that
manifests from fear, anxiety, prolonged
distress or negativity. Loud noises, surprises and emotional disturbance (or
many hours hunched in a chair) can elicit the front line of the body to
contract powerfully as the body collapses inward in a slumping position. If
you neglect to specifically compensate for this position, it can cause chronic
neck pain, jaw pain, widow’s hump, hip pain, mid-back pain, shallow
breathing, lower back discomfort and sciatica. The inability to breathe
deeply deprives your brain, blood and tissue of the oxygen that they
desperately require for proper function. Without this movement-fed nutrition,
you will face fatigue, depression, anxiety, and sleep problems as well
exacerbate allergies.
Let’s discuss its particulars from a physiological perspective, and how it

impacts us functionally.
31
DYSFUNCTIONS FROM ADAPTATION

Dr. Vladimir Janda, a Czechoslovakian
neurologist and exercise physiologist,
observed patients with neurological
disorders and chronic musculoskeletal
pain. He found that common dysfunction
parallels patterns throughout all of his
patients. He concluded that imbalances
are controlled by the central nervous
system (Janda 1987).
Janda believed that muscle tightness or

spasticity is predominant: Weakness from
imbalance results from “reciprocal
inhibition” of its tight antagonist. Where
one is compensated (weak), the other
is compensating (tight).
From a purely muscular perspective, we

can divide the tissues into categories of
weakened or compensated tissues
labelled as Phasic and tightened or
compensating tissues labelled as Tonic.
The degree of tightness and weakness

varies between individuals, but the
pattern rarely varies, patterns that lead
to postural changes, joint dysfunction and
joint degeneration. Though he did not
identify the causality as a stress-induced
structural reflex as is the point of this
book, he did accurately categorize the
patterns, and his work greatly influenced
my assessment of these distortions.
These dysfunctional patterns of

tightness/weakness manifest in three
syndromes of dysfunction: Upper, Lower
(Types A and B) and Layered.
32
UPPER CROSSED SYNDROME

Upper Crossed Syndrome (UCS), also referred to as the proximal or shoulder girdle crossed syndrome, is
characterized by cervical hyperlordosis and thoracic hyperkyphosis.
• In UCS, tightness of the upper trapezius and levator scapula on the dorsal side crosses with tightness
of the pectoralis major and minor. Weakness of the deep cervical flexors ventrally crosses with
weakness of the middle and lower trapezius. This pattern of imbalance creates joint dysfunction,
particularly at the atlanto-occipital joint, C4-C5 segment, cervicothoracic joint, glenohumeral joint and
T4-T5 segment.
• Specific postural changes are seen in UCS, including forward head posture, increased cervical
lordosis and thoracic kyphosis, elevated and protracted shoulders and rotation or abduction and
winging of the scapulae.
• These postural changes decrease glenohumeral stability as the glenoid fossa becomes more vertical
due to serratus anterior weakness leading to abduction, rotation and winging of the scapulae. This
loss of stability requires the levator scapula and upper trapezius to increase activation to maintain
glenohumeral centration.
Forward leaning head, jutting jaw, rounded shoulders and rounded upper back visually represent the most
obvious factors of UCS.
a: tight line b: weak line

a
Compensating Compensated
Pectorals Longus Capitis
Upper Trapezius Longus Colli
Levator Scapula Hyoids
Sternocleidomastoid Serratus Anterior
Suboccipitals Rhomboids
Subscapularis Lower Trapezius
Latissimus Dorsi Posterior Rotator Cuff
Arm Flexors Arm Extensors b
33
LOWER CROSSED SYNDROME

Lower Crossed Syndrome (LCS): also referred to as the distal or pelvic crossed syndrome is characterized
by anterior tilt of the pelvis and hyperlordosis of the lower back.
• In LCS, tightness of the thoracolumbar extensors on the dorsal side crosses with tightness of the
iliopsoas and rectus femoris. Weakness of the deep abdominal muscles ventrally crosses with
weakness of the gluteus maximus and medius. This pattern of imbalance creates joint dysfunction,
particularly at the L4-L5 and L5-S1 segments, SI joint and hip joint.
• Specific postural changes seen in LCS include anterior pelvic tilt, increased lumbar lordosis, lateral
lumbar shift, lateral leg rotation and knee hyperextension. If the lordosis is deep and short, then
imbalance is predominantly in the pelvic muscles; if the lordosis is shallow and extends into the
thoracic area, then imbalance predominates in the trunk muscles leading to two subclassifications of
LCS:
Type A Lower Crossed Syndrome and Type B Lower Crossed Syndrome. Janda observed two different
presentations in patients: one manifested in the lower back (Type B) and the other in the hip (Type A). The
two types are similar and display the same main muscle imbalance characteristics.
• Type B is due to primarily weakness and length of the abdominal wall giving a shallower, longer
lordosis (when compared to Type A) that extends into the thoracolumbar area, with a more cranial shift
of the kyphosis, anterior pelvic tilt, and genu recurvatum.
• Type A is chiefly due to the shortness of the hip flexors leading to a deeper, shorter lordosis (when
compared to Type B), and does not extend into the thoracolumbar region, being confined to the
lumbar spine with chronic shortening of the hip flexors leading to knee flexion.
• Patients with LCS type A use more hip flexion and extension movement for mobility; their standing
posture demonstrates an anterior pelvic tilt with slight hip flexion and knee flexion. These individuals
compensate with a hyperlordosis limited to the lumbar spine and with a hyperkyphosis in the upper
lumbar and thoracolumbar segments.
The “swayback,” muted hip, lower back arch visually represent the most obvious factors of LCS.
a: Tight Line b: Weak Line

a
Compensating Compensated
Iliopsoas Rectus Abdominus
Rectus Femoris Transverse Abdominus
Hamstrings Obliques
Erector Spinae Gluteus Maximus
Tensor Fascia Lata Gluteus
Thigh Adductors Medius/Minimus
Piriformis Vastus Lateralis

b
Quadatus Lumborum Vastus Medialis
Gastroc/Soleus Tibialis
34
L AY E R E D S Y N D R O M E
Layered Syndrome (also referred to as Stratification Syndrome), a combination of both upper and lower
crossed syndromes. There is marked impairment of motor regulation that has increased over a period of
time. Patients with layered syndrome have a poorer prognosis than those with isolated UCS or LCS due to
the long-standing dysfunction.)
In my ongoing observation of individuals with vocations of high stress (competitive fighting, law
enforcement hostile-subject control, military combatives, professional protection and emergency rescue
and firefighting), whenever excessive stress elicited SAPS, Phasic tissues would deactivate (weaken),
and Tonic tissues would immobilize (tighten). The reverse methodology as a solution evolved organically
and inductively: Patterns of stress caused by SAPS were alleviated by activating the Phasic tissues and
mobilizing the Tonic tissues. Universally, this restored function and balance, while removing pain and
improving performance (execution of skills with precision technique.)
Tight: Deep Tight: Upper Trap/

Upper Cervical Flexors Levator Scap Upper
Crossed Crossed
Syndrome Weak: Pectoralis Weak: Lower Trap /
Serratus Anterior
Syndrome
Sternocleidomastoid
Tight: Transverse Tight: Thoraco-

Lower Rectus Ab Obliques Lumbar Extensors Lower
Crossed Crossed
Syndrome Weak: Rectus
Femoris / Iliopsoas
Weak: Gluteus
Min, Med, Max
Syndrome
35
MOBILITY STABILITY CONTINUUM

The jaw tends to be weak and compensated, needing greater
stability.
The cervical region tends to be tight and compensating,

needing greater mobility.
The scapular region tends to be weak and compensated,

needing greater stability.
The shoulder joints tend to be tight and compensating,

The elbows tend to be weak and compensated, needing

greater stability.
The wrists tend to be tight and compensating, needing greater

mobility.
The hands tend to be weak and compensated, needing greater

stability.
The fingers tend to be tight and compensating, needing

greater mobility.
The thoracic region tends to be tight and compensating,

The lumbar and sacral regions tend to be weak and

compensated, needing greater stability.
The hips tend to be tight and compensating, needing greater

mobility.
The knees tend to be weak and compensated, needing greater

stability.
The ankles tend to be tight and compensating, needing greater

mobility.
The feet/arches tend to be weak and compensated, needing

greater stability.
The toes tend to be tight and compensating, needing greater

mobility.
36
MOBILITY-STABILITY CONTINUUM
One of my teachers, Dr. Stephen Levin, in Biotensegrity referred to this as “body as a sea of continuous tension
pulling inward with a series of compressive struts pushing outward.” In balance, the body should act as a tensegrity
structure, alternating mobility and stability, and exhibiting tendencies along a continuum; originally observed by
Neurobiologist Shirley Sahrmann in Diagnosis and Treatment of
Movement Impairment Syndromes (and more recently popularized by
Gary Gray in Functional Movement Screen.)
Now, let’s discuss the Mobility-Stability Continuum, and how these

Phasic-Tonic relationships create Chain Reaction Biomechanics
throughout the body along Myofascial Meridians.
From this perspective, we see that most musculoskeletal dysfunction

occurs when motion is lost in a region that inherently needs mobility. The
body compensates by seeking to gain more mobility from a region that is
more suited for stability. This often leads to overuse syndromes identified
by Janda.
Janda’s approach was from a clinical perspective, but lacked a causal

rationale. It was my observation of the impact of high intensity activities
and high stress environments that irrespective of stressor elicited this
“crossing” to unfold in a predictable and universal pattern.
The Phasic-Tonic cannot offer a total picture, as Feitis Schults in The

Endless Web writes, “the muscle-bone concept presented in standard
anatomical description gives us a purely mechanical model of movement.
It separates movement into discrete, [segmental] functions, failing to give
a picture of the seamless integration seen in a living body. When one part
moves, the body as a whole responds. Functionally, the only tissue that
can mediate such responsiveness is the connective [fascial] tissue.”
All joints in the body are omnidirectional, but their design exists upon a
continuum of greater-to-lesser mobility depending upon how efficiently
they interact with the whole body. How one joint behaves in relation to all
of the joints it impacts can be described as “Chain Reaction
Biomechanics” - along what Thomas Myers explained as “myofascial
meridians” or kinetic chains of fascial lines.
Sheets of fibrous myofascial adhesion can form anywhere and block normal healthy function. Too often, fascia has
been considered by the medical world as merely packing material, simply a connective tissue between areas of
function; the contemporary notion of the musculoskeletal system developed only approximately 250 years ago when
the knife in hunting and the scalpel in dissection served to “cut out the parts” of the human organism. Unfortunately,
what was cut apart and what drained out is the very animating structure that lends us the anti-gravitational potential
we have. The mobility, elasticity, and slipperiness of living fascia can never be appreciated by dissecting embalmed
cadavers in medical school (Leahy and Mock, 1992).
Although for the past several decades, reductionist (bodybuilding) perspectives have reduced the focus of athleticism
to a theory of isolated muscular action, the musculoskeletal system remains an irreducible matrix. Excessive stress
eliciting SAPS in the myofascia impacts the entire matrix, particularly along long chains.
37
L AY E R S O F C O N N E C T I V E T I S S U E
Before we go any further, let’s just do a revamp of very basic anatomy from the perspective of the fascial matrix, rather than
looking at the segments of muscle typical of anatomy education:
Superficial Fascia is attached to the underside of your skin. The Dural Tube surrounds and protects the spinal cord and
Capillary channels and lymph vessels run through this layer, and contains the cerebrospinal fluid. This tube connects to the
so do many nerves. Subcutaneous fat is attached to it. In healthy membranes surrounding your brain. Together, they hold and
superficial fascia, skin moves fluidly over the surface of muscles. protect the cranial sacral system.
In most people, especially due to SAPS but also overuse, misuse The excessive compression SAPS imposes upon the spine
and disuse, it is often stuck, fixed in place and immobile. extends beyond gravitational stress, like climbing vines, it
Unfortunately, you could have the best diet in the world, but if suffocates the pearl-string mobility of your most highly
tissues aren’t moving, the nutrition isn’t being delivered to where articulated joint system, leading to early herniation and
it’s desperately needed, and moreover stress toxicity isn’t subluxation, referring pain throughout the body due to disc
shipped away, creating a stagnant, malnourished cesspool under and nerve impingement.
your flesh.
Sub Serous Fascia, the loose tissue that covers internal
Superficial fascia stores excess fluid and metabolites, the organs, holds the rich network of blood and lymph vessels
breakdown products of chemicals in your body. Consider the that keep them moist. Even cells have a type of cytoskeleton
potential toxic load of this chemistry locked tight under the connected to the fascia network, which is what gives cells
largest organ in your body: your skin. Imagine years of SAPS shape and allows them to function.
solidifying the body into a statue encasing a toxic waste dump of
stress chemicals. Now, think about what could happen when you Consider the impact of SAPS tightening the bag holding your
begin to release that tissue and inject that toxicity back into your individual organs, squeezing out the ability to deliver nutrients
system. Exercise is no longer as simple as it sounds, now, is it? and blood. What was once a fluid hammock gently holding its
Getting ill from excessive stress and intense events begins to precious cargo mutates into a clenched fist. Is it any wonder
make sense, doesn’t it? I know. that (excessive) stress-related disease is the number one killer
in the world?
Deep Fascia, much tougher and denser material than superficial, separates large compartments of the body, such as the
abdominal cavity. Deep fascia covers some areas like huge sheets to protect them and shape them. Deep fascia also separates
muscles and organs. The bag-like covering around the heart (pericardium), the lining of the chest cavity (pleura), and the area
between external genital and anus (perineum) are all made up of specialized deep fascia.
Excessive stress impacts deep fascial tension as well, for fascia is not inert, but alive with contractibility. SAPS can cause your
“gut to wrench” and if not abated, if that chemistry is not processed out, it can fix like concrete and be strangled into a noose
around your organs.
Ground Substance: Fascia also forms adhesions and scar tissue. Healthy, ground substance, having a gelatinous consistency
(like gel-foam medical packing, or like sprayed-on styrofoam insulation), can absorb the forces created during movement,
contraction, stress or trauma.
Ground substance maintains distance between tissue fibers. This prevents adhesions from forming, and keeps tissue supple
and elastic. When excessive stress causes a loss of this critical distance, fibers become cross-linked by newly synthesized
collagen, trapping you in “rusted armor.” Collagen cross links arrange haphazardly, unlike healthy linkages, and become
difficult to break up, requiring more aggressive, persistent compensation.
SAPS can change from liquid to gel to solid form - hardening and losing elasticity and becoming like a glue or cement poured
into fascial gaps that tightens myofascia. It cannot reverse this state back into liquid form without intervention: tactile
manipulation, mobility drills, and compensatory movement. It cannot restore its fluidity unless you “Revive” it.
Ground substance transfers nutrients from where they break down into usable materials to where they will be used and
removes waste products from these areas of use. Without this nutrient exchange and waste transport in ground substance,
tissue starves, become brittle and toxic. If not compensated for by proper movement, SAPS turns a fertile garden into a
rotting landfill.
38
DOUBLE BAG THEORY

Now that we have an idea of the types of fascia, their individual function, and the impact SAPS has upon them, let’s
zoom out and look at the matrix as a whole system.
Where traditional physiology described movement in terms of segmental muscular contraction, your musculoskeletal
system can be thought of, not as a mechanical set of levers, gears and wires, but rather as a “Double Bag
System” (Thomas Myers, Anatomy Trains).
The Inner Bag cling wraps like cellophane (called periosteum), and holds two
or more bones together (called joint capsule). The hard substances within
(bones and cartilage) are cushioned by synovial fluid within the capsule and
bathed when healthy by ground substance throughout their encasing. As I
alluded above, SAPS can strangle this inner, “fluid” bag of ground substance,
and as a result make a viscous concrete mixture of toxic chemistry,
dramatically increasing the likelihood of tearing due to brittle malnourishment.
It also significantly accelerates the aging process, such as with osteoporosis
and osteoarthritis.
The Outer Bag (called fascial tissue) contains an electrical goo (called
muscle). The outer bag tacks down to the inner bag at attachments (or
insertion points). The cellular membranes in these attachment areas can
become extremely convoluted, which increases the surface area and changes
angles of force. This increases the potential for things to get stuck together,
and causes the tissue there to become more easily torn (Simons, Travell and A double layer dome seen from top view.
Simons, 1999).
This outer bag adapts most ostensibly due to SAPS deformations. The biomechanical inefficiency, which this
structural dysfunction causes, leads to joint aches, tissue pain, nerve impingement and eventually catastrophic
ruptures. SAPS can quite accurately mutate your outer bag into an iron maiden, where you remain trapped within and
every attempt at emancipation leads to risk and pain-aversive immobility.
As you can see, your myofascial matrix plays the essential role in the support and structure of your body. It surrounds
and attaches to all the structures within the body, functioning like the guy-wires used to hold up the mast of a ship.
The bones are actually passive structures like compressive struts pushing outward. They would not be able to
provide the stability that they do without a sea of continuous tension pulling back inward by the fascia net.
Think of bones as the mast of the ship and the fascia as the guy-wires that maintain the appropriate degree of
tension which allows the body to remain upright with the proper equilibrium, to propel itself through various physical
tasks within the six degrees of freedom, and to withstand the buffeting of forces it experiences within the
gravitational field and in collision with other objects and subjects.
This delicate balance was named Biotensegrity by Dr. Steven Levin, MD, relating to the engineering concept of
tensegrity developed by Buckminster Fuller. Dr. Levin explains how the compressive struts push outward while
floating in a sea of continuous tension pulling inward for optimal balance and propulsion through the field of gravity.
And like any evolutionarily stable design, this tensegrity structure has specific lines of optimal power reception and
expression.
SAPS as a series of defense mechanisms alters this balanced biomechanical freedom to express power and grace,
in predictable patterns. Let us take a look at these patterns next.
39
SNAGS IN THE SWEATER

Myofascia has an appearance similar to a very densely
woven spider’s web or wool sweater, which lines and covers
nearly everything in the body. It surrounds every muscle
bone, nerve, artery and vein as well as all of our internal
organs including the heart, lungs, brain and spinal cord. The
most interesting aspect about the myofascial matrix is that it
is actually one single fascial sheath that essentially has
pockets, one for each structure. In other words, we are one
muscle with hundreds of insertion points. Every aspect of the
body is interwoven with every other, like yarn in a sweater.
Myofascia is a connective tissue that forms a three-

dimensional web surrounding and supporting the muscular,
skeletal, and visceral (organs) components of the body.
Fascial restrictions bind down and exert pressure and stress
on the body and its soft tissue structures, causing pain and
dysfunction.
Like a pull in the yarn of a sweater, fascia restrictions caused

by SAPS can affect your whole body. For survival strength,
this leads to severe and system-wide leaking of power,
potential and practice.
To understand how the myofascial matrix may impact

seemingly unrelated parts of your body, imagine the fascia
as a wool sweater. If you were to attach a hook to the
sweater at the hip and pull in a downward direction away
from the body, you would feel the effect of the pull at the
opposite shoulder.
A healthy myofascial web remains relaxed and wavy with the ability to stretch like a rubber band, moving
fluidly without restriction and returning back to its original shape when the muscular action diminishes. It
can adapt as a balanced “tensegrity” structure, to play a determining factor in the ability to withstand stress
and strain in strenuous activity such as athletics, as well as normal everyday activities.
When we experience excessive stress and adapt to SAPS (or when we experience trauma), myofascia
loses its pliability. It becomes tight, restricted and a source of tension to the rest of the body, like a constant
snag in a sweater or an overly tight guy-wire on the mast of a ship threatening to snap the mast should
another adverse wind suddenly fill the sails.
This adaptation from SAPS has a cumulative effect over time on the structure. These effects begin during
infancy and progress throughout our life with all stresses placed upon our highly adaptive organism.
Unresolved SAPS adaptation negatively impacts flexibility, agility, coordination, strength, power and
stamina.
Let me reiterate that SAPS serve an effective, temporary survival function, if and when you lack the
sufficient skills to face a specific threat. However, it is indiscriminate, so it erupts regardless of the type of
stress, and whenever you experience excessive stress. SAPS lacks usefulness if you possess adult
40
WASH THE INNER BAG

When myofascia pulls too tightly or too loosely, joints it acts upon can become
dysfunctional as well. Training with intensity can elicit greater SAPS as well as reinforce
dysfunction of currently “bound” SAPS. Therefore, before training, we must completely
reprogram movement involving a joint’s affected movement locally and then integrate it
globally.
In a state of dysfunctional motor coordination, one of the most common responses of the
motor control center is to collapse the space within the joint capsule (and around the
bones themselves). The smooth working of a joint requires the synergistic interaction of
both the inner bag and the outer bag. If the outer bag is dysfunctional, it cannot properly
support the inner bag, and the space between and around the bones may collapse as a
result. This closing of the spacing becomes a part of the dysfunctional pattern that must be
addressed first and foremost in any training program.
Without decompressing and mobilizing each joint (in a specific sequence), the surrounding
tissues do not receive the nutrition and lubrication critical for healthy performance, as
discussed earlier in the Layers of Connective Tissue. They will not be able to ship out
toxins. Joint salts can progress to calcifications. Adhesions can lay down, restricting range
of motion and power. This degeneration of the connective tissue accelerates the aging
process: a significant increase in dry, brittle surfaces; pervasive, chronic aches and pains,
as well as risk of sudden, acute injury.
41
SHOCK ABSORPTION
During every action involving resistance (including basic
locomotion), a shock wave travels up from the point of
contact throughout the body. When working efficiently,
each joint individually and collectively behaves as a
mechanical shock absorber. The shock wave will cause a
slight, temporary compression but then automatically
decompresses like a spring.
However, a dysfunctional joint compresses as the shock

wave hits it but cannot spring back to the proper spacing.
This results in extra pressure on the tissues in the joint
capsule. Such additional pressure leads to the host of
common injuries such as epicondylitis; bursitis; knee, ankle
and hip strain; rotator cuff impingement; spinal disc bulging
and herniation; as well as the array of referred painful
conditions such as neck stingers, radiculopathy, sciatica, et
cetera. This tightness also forces joints, intended to be
stable, into mobility, which against their design function
causes eventual catastrophic failure. Can you see how
SAPS eventually “erupts” at one of these “fault lines”?
These aches, pains and injuries are not coincidences or
accidents. They are the product of a very specific pattern
of dysfunction, wear and tear.
If the joint cannot act as a mechanical shock absorber,

then the fascial matrix itself becomes forced to absorb the
shock. It cannot dissipate this force through movement like
a joint, so it echoes throughout the matrix like vibrations on a guitar string eventually leading to a snap.
Adding resistance over a compressed joint results in greater joint dysfunction and communicates further
dysfunction to both near (proximal) and far (distal) joints (called Chain Reaction Biomechanics.)
The Three Step Process of Motor Mastery
To decompress the joint capsule of each joint and to wash the inner bag with
ground substance to return its natural resilience, elasticity and shock-absorbent
quality, I teach a three-step process that will continually cycle back to #1:
1. Revival of basic ranges of motion (cardinal movement and circles)

2. Coordination of greater sophistication in mobility (basic infinities)
3. Refinement of motor development in highly sophisticated movement
(diagonal infinities and clovers)
For the purpose of this section, since we must always return to #1, we will
concentrate on reviving the natural ranges of motion. For an in-depth
explanation of coordination and refinement, see my book Free to Move.
42
RELEASE THE OUTER BAG

An imbalanced matrix means that some tissue chains pull too tightly while others are too loose. These
chains of tension form “snags in the sweater” (called compensations.) In a compensation pattern, one or
more myofascial chains remain in an inhibited state and need continuous assistance from other chains in
order for the body to continue functioning. These bands of tension intertwine throughout the length of the
the body.
Myofascial chains can be defined as structures of contiguous tissue that perform a related action or
maintain structural integrity along one side of an entire limb, or the entire body itself. Within these
structures are many separate, unique muscle bellies. Thus, your chains cross multiple joints to perform
their function (named Anatomy Trains by Thomas Myers in his book of the same name.)
In chains, when along the side of a limb or the entire body, we find the “grain” of the related muscles all
running in one general direction. Therefore, while the fascia weaves itself through a muscle belly, it
continues on as an insertion tendon, then blends itself into the periosteum and joint capsule ligaments.
Nearby, one or more origin tendons arise, and the fascia extends into the next one down the line.
Do you see how immobility across one joint can force a neighboring joint to destabilize in order to provide
additional mobility lacking in the original region? This elegance was designed for surviving imminent
danger, not for longevity, however. If you don’t discharge SAPS, it takes up residence, and permanently
alters the structure.
If You Want Something Done, Ask Someone Busy.
One band compensates for others because your

nervous system assumes it must be the best one for the
job since the other isn’t working. Your nervous system
knows, via proprioceptive feedback, that others are not
working efficiently. It also knows that some bands work
every time it requires them to substitute for a task.
If you were the boss, and some workers were lazy while
others were completely dependable, and you absolutely
had to get a project done right now, whom would you
call upon?
Neurologically, the answer is based upon the Principle of Facilitation: the most reliable neighbors will be
called upon when compensation is required. Like the old saying goes, if you want something done, ask a
busy person; if you want to achieve a movement when some aren’t moving, ask those who’re the most
reliable movers.
43
COMPENSATED OR COMPENSATING
Weak (compensated) and tight (compensating) chains become highly injury prone. A tight band
compensates for other weak or loose bands, in an ever-evolving organic process of compensation called
allostasis:
P. Sterling (Principles of Allostasis: Optimal design, predictive regulation, pathophysiology, and rational
therapeutics) noted six interrelated principles that define allostasis:
1. Your body is designed to be

efficient.
2. Efficiency demands reciprocal
trade-offs. Some tissues
become weak, so some
tissues must become tight (via
the compensated-
compensating balancing act).
3. Efficiency involves predicting
your body’s future needs.
4. Prediction need sensors
(proprioception) to respond to
the expected needs.
5. Prediction demand that
reliable bands (compensate)
adapt to these expectations.
6. The nervous system itself will
adapt to depend less and less
upon unreliable bands, and
strengthen #5.
Whereas a strong band can handle stress of tension, whether internal or external, a weak band is unable to
do so. Tight does not mean strong, as only a relaxed tissue can fully contract and resist, absorb and
retranslate force. Weak does not mean flexible, for weak tissue quickly tears. Only strong tissue can absorb
and deliver force. Tight or weak muscle, already compromised by compensation, cannot rise to challenges.
Eventually, it will either tear in the belly, or more likely, begin to fray at the insertion point.
Compensation should not be viewed as pathology. It is an evolutionarily stable survival mechanism, without
which we would fall down to the ground every time we took one step with a weak psoas, for example.
Without compensation, every trauma to the musculoskeletal system could be debilitating. Presumably, our
ancestors would have been unable to get away from a saber tooth tiger just because of tightness in a leg
muscle from sitting around the fire for too long telling stories. The myofascial matrix recruits whatever it
needs to accomplish the task set forth by the central nervous system.
Compensation is an elegant evolutionary design. But it is only interested in our immediate survival, not
our ultimate longevity and quality of life. As a result, without resolving the compensation, the tension
chains then progress, like all adaptation to internal muscular resistance.
44
LEVELS OF COMPENSATIONS
Not merely in a predictable pattern (of location), adaptation to SAPS happens in a specific progression (of
strength) in four steps. Progression refers to the body’s adaptation to a certain repeated behavior.
Progressive adaptation is also true of any repeated motion, any exercise, any behavior.
The Laws of Conditioning state:
• Law of Outcome: Whatever you do produces an outcome, whether you intended it or not.
• Law of Adaptation: Whatever you repeat creates a change (an adaptation) to find allostasis, regardless of
the long-term value of the adaptation.
• Law of Progress: Since the body will adapt to whatever you repeat, whatever you continue to repeat or
resist progresses to become more easily repeatable or more strongly resistant, regardless of even the
short-term damage of that progress.
Considering these laws of conditioning, compensations then produce an outcome, to which you adapt, and
eventually progress. From a physiological perspective, there are four types of progressive compensations
of your myofascial bands.
The Four Levels of Compensations:
• Residual Tension: Whenever you train a

movement or experience excessive stress
eliciting SAPS, the myofascia (muscle and
connective tissue) retains the tension in the
specifically used bands (whether you intended
to or not). Since true power is not tension, but
rather innervated force (called “nerve strength”),
not only does residual tension leak power as
pre-tense tissue lacks the same contractibility
as relaxed tissues, but since all tension is
specific, it leads to compensations. If you do
not shake out this tension through mobility,
vibration and contract-relax, then the tissue will
adapt to a shortened length, eventually
progressing to myofascial density.
• Myofascial Density: When you neglect to discharge residual SAPS tension, the tissue cross-links
collagenous fibers to make it easier to maintain the structure, substituting collagen to avoid continued
neuromuscular activation. The fascial bag increases its thickness and density in order to not require as
much effort to hold the tension. This diminishes mobility in any skill, and in all movement. The fascial
density must be “pulped” in order to breakdown these leathery adaptations to restore the ability to
express power. Pulping through myofascial release and PNF (proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation)
brings the fascial “net” back into greater biomechically efficient balance. If you neglect to breakdown this
density, then the immobility diminishes the capacity of the nerves of the tissue. The stronger the density,
the longer it remains, the more the tissue forgets how to move in its original ranges, progressing to
Sensory Motor Amnesia.
45
LEVELS OF COMPENSATIONS
• Sensory Motor Amnesia: When tissue isn’t moved through a particular degree of freedom, the fascial “web”
adapts to use it less often by phasing down its innervation (see #6 of Sterling’s Allostatic points). This isn’t merely
atrophy and disuse. If you practice a skill, you adapt to it indiscriminately, leading to overspecializations; but also,
you adapt to SAPS. Elicitation of SAPS will eventually cause tissue to forget how to move in the functional opposite
of SAPS. So, when you attempt to move back in your natural ranges, you literally quake from a disconnect between
the brain and the innervated movement. It cannot access the movement pattern any longer. The fascial web must
be “tricked” into smoothly moving again through the range through myofascial activation techniques. If the
movement remains dormant long enough, it develops protective mechanisms to prevent injury in an “unknown”
range of motion, progressing to Fear-Reactivity.
• Fear-Reactivity: If sensory motor amnesia isn’t

reawakened, then the fascial web develops defensive
measures to protect itself from moving into an
unknown, dormant capacity. These are not reflexes;
they’re not hard-wired. They can be awoken. Until you
awaken them, they will brace, shake, clench and
quake due to the fear of long-forgotten movement
potential. SAPS, then, is further reinforced with each
reactive tension pattern, so you must stay under the
radar of these “registers” so that the fear-reactive
patterns are not strengthened. You must carefully
move to, and not through, this reactivity, shaving off
the tension one layer at a time, like an onion, with
patience and compassion. You cannot fight it, and
should not. It’s designed and evolved to protect you.
Be thankful. And then let it go.
Once your nervous system begins using a

compensation pattern, it is more likely to go to it in
future situations requiring compensation. Locate these
bands and reprogram your nervous system to delete
this tension from motor memory, so you revive optimal
function.
Although you will find the most expedient success of

Revive in the discharge of residual tension in the
mobility, you will discover that with patient and
persistent practice of the compensatory movements,
you will be able to release the deeper myofascial
density, reawaken sensory motor amnesia and defuse
fear-reactivity.
The Laws of Conditioning are Universal.
This process of adaptive compensation also applies to

any movement that you repeat. Any exercise, for
example, if not specifically compensated for, will first
create progress, then diminishing returns, then plateau, followed by regress, and eventually aches, pains, injury,
illness and disease. This is proven, trackable and measurable. There is no perfect exercise that is an exception to
this. So, every exercise program must incorporate a specific compensation program.
But not just deliberate, conscious movements repeated create these progressions into compensation, but
unintentional, and unconscious movements, as well. And, in modern civilization, one movement we repeat more than
any other in our lifetime, since we don’t specifically compensate for it on a daily basis, wreaks havoc on our health
and performance.
46
MOST CONDITIONED POSTURE?

One major contributor must be considered, as my observations were restricted to cultures
that shared one common feature: they all sat in chairs. Cultures who do not “sit” as the
most frequent position across a lifespan,
do not develop some of the stress features
exhibited by those that do.
A compelling theory I’ve observed began

20 years ago: 80% of men I trained had
external rotation hip tightness and 80% of
women had internal. On a scale of 1-10
with 10 being optimally mobile, I would
have qualified the average restriction back
then was around a 5-6 of mobility.
Over the years, the percentage of men and

women with this rotational tightness has
changed to about 60/40 each, but the
degree of tightness has increased
significantly: the level of mobility has
decreased to around a 2-3. (If you know
me, I’m a copious data collector, so
although this seems a nominal change, it’s
quite dramatic quantifiably).
I have several theories here, and

understand that these are theories, as there is currently no discipline that studies the
sociological impact of movement upon structure over the course of a lifetime.
The disparity in rotational tightness between women is not as a result of the theory that
women’s hips have evolved poorly with biomechanical inefficiency. If that were the case,
then male motor restrictions would not represent the polar opposite of inefficient
biomechanical “flaws.”
Instead, I’ve observed that due to the SAID principle (Specific Adaptation to Imposed
Demands), the position or “exercise” if you will, that we perform the most in our lives is
“sitting.” We sit to eat, to drive to work, to sit at our desk, to sit driving home to sit on the
couch (some even sit to exercise).
Whatever we do the most, shapes us. So, literally, we are “chair-shaped.”
47
GENDER INFLUENCES TO SITTING

Men predominantly sit knees wide, feet
inward, causing external rotation; or
with one foot across the other knee -
“figure-of-4” style. As a result, men
become shaped with external hip
rotation and abducted “bow-legged”
structure. This means that internal
rotation and adduction at the hip
becomes restricted in men. It can also
mean that men become vulnerable to
fallen arches due to their eversion
tightness at the ankles.
Women predominantly sit knees

together or tightly crossed one knee
atop the other. As a result, women
become shaped with internal hip
rotation and adducted “knock-kneed”
compensations. This means that
external rotation and abduction at the
hip becomes restricted in women. It
can also mean that women become
vulnerable to over-treading their ankles
due to inversion tightness.
Both can become vulnerable to exacerbated lumbar hyperlordosis, thoracic kyphosis, cervical
hyperlordosis, anterior shoulder roll, scapular protraction and winging.
If you don’t know those terms, look at the image of someone sitting with sloppy, passive structure: The
knees either rotate out (men) or in (women) generally, the tailbone tucks and rounds the lower back, the
shoulders round inward and cave the chest backward, the shoulder blades flair outward and wing forward,
the neck slides forward and the chin juts outward. Now, practice that everyday for many hours for many
years.
Whether anthropologically, sociologically or psychologically, I suspect this relates to genital exposure for
men and closure for women, but the causality is irrelevant. The conditioning effect across decades interests
me since we must “educate” our children to adopt these postures.
I suspect the polarized shift in intensity of restriction and evening of distribution of internal-external rotation
hip compensations in men and women result from a population segment with decreasing frequency of
sitting and increasing activity. A different segment has become more entrenched in seated sedentary
lifestyle. Less sexually oppressive men and less repressed women have modified body language posture
leading to decreased genderization of “sitting” behavioral mechanics.
Regardless, these compensations still present a knowable, measurable, predictable impact on physical
energy, performance and health. Before we can begin to improve, we must first “clean the slate” of this
biomechanical overcompensation we’ve achieved in our hips.
48
REVIVE THE NATURAL STATE

As I explained earlier, mine was a purely
inductive, organic revelation, which crystallized
independent fields of study. I am not a scientist
by education, but I do rigorously apply the
scientific method to make benefits accessible
to the highly stressed individuals I trained.
This “revival” of their natural state of

biomechanical efficiency can be distilled into
the following two lists of tactics:
1. Joints to Mobilize
2. Joints to Stabilize
Some need greater mobility than others. Some

greater stability than others. All have specific
degrees of freedom demanding more than
others. But in general, they alternate mobility
and stability throughout the body.
Even if the joint requires stability, joints are

omnidirectional. They need daily mobility in
order for the positional sensory organs to
recognize “Zero Position” - the position of
optimal stability where the least amount of
effort is required to maintain stability and the most amount of biomechanical efficiency is achieved.
However, the typical problem relates to tightness in the joints intended to be highly mobile (on the Mobility-
Stability Continuum).
I made the following series of steps and observations in the years of reviving this natural state that SAPS
had distorted:
1. Since I have a background in both strength training and mobility education, I began with “strengthening”
exercises to the weakened (destabilized) area. Attempting to improve the destabilized area through
strength training provided slight improvement but resulted with destabilization at a different joint. Like a
snag in a sweater, as you attempt to pull out the snag, you cause a new snare somewhere completely
different on the sweater. Strengthening the unstable area only served to strengthen an invisible
dysfunction.
2. Therefore, if a joint was being destabilized, these weak areas were being “pulled” out of stability by some
adjacent tightness across different joints. So, I could not “strengthen” the “weak” joint because I could
not look at the issue in isolation. It was a systemic issue, not a segmental issue (in almost all, but not
every instance). So, I stopped attempting to strengthen the local problem, and started to hunt down the
global issue through Chain Reaction Biomechanics.
49
THE FORMULA TO REVIVE

1. My movement forensics uncovered that if a “crime” caused destabilization in one
joint movement, the usual suspects were almost always guilty: The neighboring Mobilize Stabilize
joints were the criminals. It wasn’t always the case since the body is a continuous
tensegrity structure; so a compensated tissue could be compensating as far as the Neck Jaw
most distal - head to toes, belly to fingers. But in most of the cases, the next-door
neighbor was the culprit, so I began to gather a profile on these events:
Shoulders Scaps
a. If the jaw was destabilized, then the neck was tight.
Wrists Elbows
b. If shoulder blades were destabilized, then mid-back or shoulders were tight.
Fingers Hands
c. If elbows were destabilized, then shoulders or wrists were tight.
d. If hands were destabilized, then wrists or fingers were tight. Mid-back Lower Back
e. If the lower back was destabilized, then mid-back or hips were tight. Hips Knees
f. If the knees were destabilized, then the hips or ankles were tight.
Ankles Feet/Arches
g. If the feet and arches were destabilized, then the ankle or toes were tight.
Toes
2. If I mobilized the tight joint, then stability was “revived” to the destabilized joint.
Each of the following flow elements can serve individually as a warm-up for your
Flow Physique workouts, with 10 repetitions of each drill sufficing. If performed for one minute each with a slow
and deep mobility emphasis, they become your Revive Flow in your training calendar on the No Intensity Day.
Revive Flow
Exercises 1-4: Kneeling Forward Side Lying Lateral Quad Base Anchored Bridge
Neck Neck Glide Neck Glide Neck Tilt Neck Twist
Exercises 5-8: Sleeping Warrior Double Shoulder Kneeling Arm Kneeling Arm
Shoulders Scapular Twist Prone Circle Thread Screw
Exercises 9-12: Kneeling Elbow Prone Elbow Prone Elbow Kneeling Saber
Elbows Drill Bit Screw Up Gear Up Hammer Wrist
Exercises 13-16: Kneeling Hand Kneeling Seal Walk Kneeling Finger Kneeling Hand
Wrists and Hands Glove Roll Jelly Fish
Exercises 17-20: Spinal Cat Cow Spinal Jump Rope Spinal Shin Kneeling Lunge
Spine Lunge Twist Hamstring Toe Flex
Exercises 21-24: Hip Windshield Hip Hurdler Hip Shinbox Twist Hip Shinbox
Hips and Knees Wiper Extension
Exercises 25-28: Ankle Shin Squat Shin Squat Internal Shin Squat Squat Flatfoot
Ankles and Feet Ankle Roll Exterior Flex Switch
50
flow
physique
HIGH INTENSITY
BODYWEIGHT EXERCISE
WORKOUT SYSTEM
Unlock and Express the

Power and Grace
of your genetic potential through
Primal Movement
TRADITIONAL SURVIVAL PATTERNS

The corollary to reviving natural poise was strengthening the innate power of the human animal. Once
mobility had been restored to excessively tightened areas, then “strengthening” of the areas needing
stability could begin.
In following this process, through my background in several martial arts and my work with many national
teams as USA Coach, I noticed a peculiar phenomenon: When these stabilized positions were
strengthened, and natural power activated, they took on common characteristics irrespective of training,
unit, agency, culture, nation, gender, age, et cetera. These universal traits congealed as a set of universal
power-generation traits.
If the human organism is as subject to natural selection as any other evolutionarily impacted design, then
these joints designed for stability evolved for a specific, unified purpose, and this primal design can only
be observed once the reflexive SAPS had been unhinged, and natural poise has been revived.
The term Warding Patterns was popularized by University of San Francisco Professor Michol Dalcourt. But
I was first exposed to “warding postures” when I began studying my first martial art, Pa Kua Chang Kung-
fu with Tim Warfield in the late 1980s. The 13 warding postures are:
The 13 Warding Postures
peng (ward-off)
lu (roll-back)
chi (press)
an (push)
ts'ai (pull-down)
lieh (split)
chou (elbow)
k'ao (shoulder stroke)
chin (advance)
t'ui (retreat)
ku (look left)
p'an (look right)
ting (central equilibrium)
52
THE 13 WARDING POSTURES

“My grandfather, Hwang Kee, who founded the Moo Duk The Song of Sip Sam Seh (Thirteen Warding Postures)
Kwan (MDK) school of martial art, translated the classic Translated by Hwang Kee
to the right, dedicating his life toward incorporating the
Never neglect any of the Thirteen Wards.
principles of the13 postures, which describe give in the
The source of the will is in the waist.
feet and eight in the upper body: Pay attention to the slightest change from full to empty.
Let energy flow through the whole body continuously.
• Five postures of the lower body are the four cardinal Stillness embodies motion, motion stillness.
directions of a compass (NSEW) and central Seek stillness in motion.
equilibrium in five element footing. Surprising things will happen when you meet your opponent.
• Eight postures of the upper body also refer to the Give awareness and purpose to every movement.
four directions and four corners. When done correctly all will appear effortless.
They are traditional reference points to remind the At all times pay attention to the waist.
practitioner to be mindful of a sphere and not forsake all Relaxed clear awareness of abdomen, the energy will be activated.
for one line of force. When the base of the spine is erect, energy rises to the top of the head.
The body should be flexible.
Hold the head as if suspended from a string.
Peng - to “Ward Off” - refers to the outward Keep alert and seek the meaning and purpose of your art.
multidirectional force. The traditional expression is steel Bent and stretched, open and closed,
wrapped in cotton. Imagine peng as throwing a can into Let nature take its course.
a recycling bin and the plastic bottle inside bouncing the Beginners are guided by oral teaching.
can back out. My grandfather referred to MDK as hard Gradually one applies himself more and more.
and soft style, not completely one or the other, simply a Skill will take care of itself.
balance. What is the main principle of the martial arts?
The mind is the primary actor and the body the secondary one.
Sung or relaxed strength precedes peng. How you What is the purpose and philosophy behind the martial arts?
displace the pull of gravity is based upon your structural Rejuvenation and prolonging of life beyond the normal span.
So an eternal spring.
integrity. Sung refers to the relaxed structure that you
Every word of this song has enormous value and importance.
find with Intu-Flow®. Intu-Flow grounds awareness Failing to follow this song attentively, you will sigh away your time.
following the cephalocaudal proximodistal trend: head down,

center out.
Sung prepares peng: Intu-flow prepares Outward flow. The

combined yin and yang of grounding force down and generating it
back up and outward creates a biotensegrity much like a
Hoberman's sphere: it compresses and expands much like our
pulse, cells and breathing. Forging the neural pathways in the
brain to move properly through its intended full range of motion
promotes health and longevity.
Hwang Kee was revolutionary in being the first martial artist to

include a chapter on physics in one of his books. His mindset
respected the fact that we live in a dynamic and dimensional world.
He envisioned peace through human relations, for he believed
actions transcended language barriers; and the root causes of
actions, such as fear and love, were universal.
The problems addressed in this book have existed for as long as

our species has walked, but these methodologies for us today
have revolutionized a new operating system to address an age-old
problem for modern issues. What you find within this book restores
your natural state so you are free to create your own art.”
- Will Chung, CST Head Coach, TACFIT MMA Division Chief
53
MODERN WARDING APPLICATIONS

However, it was Dalcourt’s seemingly innocuous comment that “Warding Patterns manifest
biologically” that crystalized my observations over the past 20 years of martial arts competition.
Since I have had the honor of competing and coaching at a world championships in five different
styles of martial art for the USA, I had a unique opportunity to observe that at elite levels, styles
become indistinguishable. Certainly, there are nuanced differences, but predominantly fighters at
a master level manifest specific common attributes in breath, movement and structure, which can
be described as the “Power Chamber.”
Later in my career teaching for the federal government, I had the privilege of training many
agencies, offices and departments. My thesis held true across the world in each unit I taught: once
a significant amount of experience had been earned and/or training had been inculcated, the
combatants all displayed common characteristics - the military term, “Battery Position,” and the
law enforcement term, “High, Active Ready Position.”
Throughout all of my athletic experience working with professionals from many different sports
leagues such as the NHL, NFL, MLB, Premier Football League, and Rugby Union, this “Ready
Position” appeared ubiquitous. Gymnasts refer to it as “Hollow Body Position,” Muay Thai as
“Body Curl,” and wrestlers as, well as a grand national champion in wrestling and
world champion in grappling, I can say we’re not eloquent and merely call
it, “Wrestler’s Stance.”
Let’s begin by defining terms.
WARDING:
Literary definition
1. (v) - to guard, protect. To fend off or create space.
Physiological definition
2. The physiological state of maintaining body wide tension
against an external force while producing gross movement
patterns
Athletically, think about a basketball player posting

up, a football lineman blocking under the pads, a
jiujitsu wrestler posturing up, a rugby player
posting off a tackler, or a soccer player
establishing position on the pitch.
The core activates to connect the lower to

upper body and resist rotation along
specific directions: twisting right/left,
bending forward/backward, and tilting
right/left. This creates six degrees through
which the body resists or “wards.”
54
THE DEGREE OF WARDING STRUCTURE

My understanding of warding patterns evolved from studying applied
combative and sportive biomechanics in Russia. You innately own an
established roadmap for power development: from the head down to the
ground and from the belly out to your fingers and toes, along four major
myofascial chains: Back Line, Front Line, Lateral Line, Spiral Line.
Each of these four highways resists rotation in six degrees. Though we see
the incredible dexterity that allows these myofascial bands to move with
strength, twisting, bending, arching through space, these lines are designed
uniquely to protect and maintain antigravitational integrity while “warding off”
potential collision, absorbing and redirecting force. They evolved to provide
mobility while remaining unharmed by movement. In other words, these
fascial thoroughfares evolved to Ward.
In my travels and study, in particular in Russia, and studying Nikolay

Bernstein’s application of aeronautic mechanics to the movements of the
human body, I learned that the body moves in greater complexity than merely
three dimensions that only describe travel across three planes. Tri-planar
movement involves passing through the plane cutting you in halves: top/
bottom, right/left, front/back. But the human body, in its elegant virtuosity,
moves not merely in “translation” (through the three planes), but in rotation.
Bernstein named these the “Six Degrees of Freedom” to represent that the
body moves through three elements of translation: the standard tri-planar movement surging forward/backward, heaving
upward/downward and swaying right/left; and three elements of rotation: pitching forward/backward, rolling right/left and yawing
clockwise/counterclockwise.
Where functional strength training sought to bring the one- and two-dimensional movements of bodybuilding and powerlifting
into the three-dimensional world, our primal power for survival can only be tapped fully in rotation through all six degrees.
Chambering the Power of the Basic Warding Structure
Let’s begin by discussing the most common of these warding patterns: the
basic warding structure. The basic warding structure involves a contraction
in:
• the front to resist rear pitch (arching backward),
• the lateral lines to resist roll (tilting right/left), and
• the spiral line to resist yaw (twisting right/left).
The anthropological reason for the strength of this position regards its
primal root in all fighting postures with which we evolved to protect
ourselves. This differs from SAPS, which involves a set of reflexes if our
CNS perceives insufficient or ineffective skills to match the situation.
Biomechanically, this warding structure remains the most evolutionarily
stable survival structure to absorb and deliver force. And as a result, you
have been neurologically hardwired to deliver power most effectively
through the fascial chains of this structure.
As a result of its biological heritage, it has additionally become essential to

perfecting a proper handstand, the strict pullup, the body lever, the back
lever, the barbell squat, deadlift, a clean or a snatch, the kettlebell rack
position and the clubbell order position. The physical range may not be as
dramatic from a handstand to a fighting stance, but it “resists
rotation” (sometimes referred to as “midline stabilization”) by eliciting the
neuromuscular efficacy of the power chamber.
55
WARDING STRUCTURE COMPONENTS

1. Crown to Coccyx Alignment: To tap into this biologically hardwired strength in the basic standing posture, begin
by rotating the crown of your head upward to slightly drop your chin, while lifting your neck into natural anti-
gravitational alignment. Though your eye sockets will be pointing downward at an angle, look up toward your
eyebrows so that your vision points to the horizon, as this predatory head position gives you the optimal distance
for your peripheral sight.
2. Shoulder Pack: Roll the shoulders backward without pinching the shoulder blades and depress (pull downward)
your shoulder blades. This brings your shoulders into the safest and strongest biomechanical position possible:
called the “closed, packed position.”
3. Arm Lock: Pinch your elbows together inside your obliques as if holding a ball between your elbows in front of
your abs. Bend or extend your elbows as you wish,
but keep elbow position tight toward your
centerline, at the very least inside your obliques,
with no space between your triceps and your ribs.
This will be a challenge due to the SAPS infecting
you with upper cross syndrome. You must Revive
before you can Survive.
4. Grip Confirmation: Due to a bilateral reflex in your
hands, if you clutch your fists tightly, you can elicit
SAPS, diminish fine and complex motor skills, and
lose hand-eye coordination. As your grip irradiates
forearm flexors, elbows will flare out of arm lock
position, roll inward your shoulders, croon forward
your neck, cave your chest, in full-blown SAPS.
Keep hands loosely curled, but not clenched, and
keep wrist alignment flat: no extension.
5. Core Activation: Pull your ribs downward at the sides, engaging the internal
and external obliques as well as quadratus lumbarum (your “suspenders”).
Pull inward your transverse abdominus (your “corset”) but don’t suck upward,
and crunch downward your rectus abdominus (your “6 pack”) pulling your
chest down to your hips. This creates the strongest core activation possible
with exhalation mandatory. Exhale powerfully and deeply, and hold the pause
after the exhale, before you inhale.
6. Hip Recruitment: Many have trouble with the pelvic tilt and leg drive due to
SAPS wreaking havoc with lower cross syndrome. Revive first. Survive after.
To experience the position without leg drive, lay down flat on the floor with
arms extended above head. Place one hand under your lower back forming
an arch in the lower back. Notice your hand slide under your lower back as if
going through a tunnel. The key aspect of the power chamber is to press
lumbar flat to the floor so that "tunnel" disappears, pressing into your hand
(then remove your hand and press to the floor). Stand and perform it vertically.
Tilt the pelvis, while driving both hips forward into one line. With the pelvic tilt,
contract the pelvic wall upward, as you exhale to contract the muscles
surrounding and within your core. This muscular lock “crushes the can” of the
power chamber, creates a systemic knot of strength, discussed so often as a
series of locks or “banda” in hatha yoga.
7. Leg Drive: Exhale and engage the pelvic floor, drawing it upward to your
navel. Think of it as the space between the pubic bone and the tailbone.
Initially you may need to contract and hold the muscles around the anus and
genitals, but you want to isolate and draw up the perineum (between the anus
and genitals). Engaging the pelvic floor creates both powerful lift and secure
rooting. This is especially useful when jumping, receiving a collision or
administering force. Squeeze your abdominals, thighs and glutes very hard,
while pressing both hips forward in one line. Grab the floor with your toes and
feet, and push the Earth away midfoot while knees remain unlocked.
56
4 PROGRAMS FOR SURVIVAL

Across my career, I’ve had the privilege of learning specifically
how movement optimizes, how we unconsciously sabotage
the warding patterns and how to systematically dismantle
SAPS to “disengage the parking brakes” on your innate power.
I don’t seek to create these patterns as a coach. I help you “let

it out,” much like Michaelangelo spoke about creating his
masterpiece sculpture; he said he just “removed the pieces
which were not David.” You are not your impediments, fears,
doubts or even your reflexes. You are not the SAPS. You don’t
need it, as this default reflex SAPS your power. When you
rechamber [your innate power], you possess effective and
sufficient skills to survive. (Then, it will come time to Thrive.)
Most program design approaches merely progress in weight,

speed, duration or volume. These are elementary. To rapidly
and powerfully adapt in the manner you were genetically
optimized to empower, methodically engage the body-mind
into integrated action. This is why mental and emotional skills
are so paramount to physical success: if you allow excessive
stress to overrun you, then these default reflexes will
substitute for your (perceived lack of) ability.
We are not movers of weight, but movers of Will. Willpower is

the real chamber you’re building. The mind cannot tell the
difference between types of tension; it only knows resistance. Effective program design systematically throws
the light-switches on so that your nervous system can fully fire
its inherent potential, and so your biochemistry can function
efficiently and healthily, without impediment by SAPS.
These programs build through neuro-muscular progressions.

Don’t merely workout the body, and squander the opportunity
to build the body-mind. This unification differentiates the truly
autonomous from the lemming-like robots who mindlessly
addict themselves to an arbitrary number: X pounds bench-
press means you’re strong, Y speed sprint means you’re fast,
Z number of kettlebell snatches means supposedly you’re a
master, regardless of whether you’re riddled with aches, pains,
postural distortions and tissue injuries. Wrong.
Technique is an internal experience of external mastery.

Function ought to follow form, but for so many we have been
taught the reverse. We most rapidly, most sustainably, most
healthily cultivate our inner strength by allowing the beautiful
primal physique to remain a natural byproduct from it. Training
form before function crushes that potential.
Once you have revived your function and unhinged the SAPS,
use the following four programs to unleash that innate survival
power.
57
PROGRAM 1: GRAVITY-RESISTED
Floor “V” Control Pause: Lay on the ground with arms overhead and perform the
basic position. Exhale and at the end of your exhale you should be the tightest. Don’t
forget the pelvis and legs. The body lighter the body is to lift, the tighter it becomes.
Hold the position until you absolutely must inhale (but don’t hold to the point where
you’ll gasp). Start tightening with your exhale, and at the end of your exhale begin the
clock and hold as long as you can not inhale. When you must inhale, only then, relax
the body down for the end of the repetition. As soon as you begin to exhale at the end
of that inhale, begin the next repetition. Don’t add another breath cycle. Repeat 10
times and you’re finished, but you must do it as prescribed above. Ten consecutive
breaths.
Bar Hold Control Pause: Grab hold of a pullup bar. (If you don’t have a pullup bar,
then improvise some sort of recline position, like under a sturdy table or porch, or even by holding a partners hands.)
Shrug the shoulder blades down, locking the elbows, and round the mid-back while tucking the pelvis to get into the
basic structure. If you’re holding on to the pullup bar at dead hang, pull up but only with your shoulder blades and
hold that position. Don’t bend your elbows at all; rather, flex your triceps to keep them locked. Imagine someone is
standing in front of you punching you in the abs: contract your core like in Exercise #1: the Floor V.
Perform the same 10 exhale and controlled pause contraction at the end. When you absolutely must inhale, relax and
let your shoulders go (sliding your delts to your ears), but as soon as you begin to exhale after that inhalation relaxed
phase, shrug them down again, and as you exhale, get into the power chamber to maximally contract at the end of
your exhalation (called the “control pause” by my Russian teachers.) Repeat for 10 consecutive breath cycles,
without taking any extra breaths. This is neurologically vital to fully empowering full core activation, and giving you
this mighty, primal chamber.
Arched Pushup Control Pause: Move back down to the ground onto your belly.
Press up into the top of a pushup position. At the top, begin exhaling and driving your
palm heels to press the ground away. Tighten the quads to squeeze the knees locked,
and kick the heels away pulling toes to shins. Tuck the glutes and squeeze them as
you move into the power hamber position from Exercise #1 and #2. At the end of
your exhale you should be in a slightly cat-arched position at mid-back with your
lower-back flat (as if in Exercise #1).
Tighten strongest contraction at the control pause at the end of the exhale. When you
absolutely must inhale, relax down into the top position of the plank/pushup. But as
soon as you begin to exhale, go up again into the Power Chamber, and repeat for 10
consecutive breath cycles without any extra breaths in between.
Program Protocol:
1. Perform exercises 1, 2 and 3 in circuit sequence.
2. Recover no more than 30 seconds between each exercise transition (from #1 to #2, and #2 to #3) for optimal
effect.
3. Shake out your body in between exercises and rounds while performing fast, powerful exhalations, like if you’re
out in the cold winter and trying to warm yourself.
4. Take a 2 minute break in between.
5. Repeat circuit for four total rounds.
58
PROGRAM 2: BAND-RESISTED
Core Anti-Pitch (Resisting Back Arch) Control Pause: Tie a resistance band to a pole behind
you securely. Grab the band at the end in both hands, one hand grabbing the other. Turn and get
down on your knees, turning away from the band with the band held overhead like a sword
directly over your head, elbows locked tightly. Press your hips forward until fully extended with
arms overhead but so you can just barely see your hands without tilting your chin up, keep your
head in natural neutral position facing forward. Assume the power chamber position from
Exercise #1 on Program I (the Floor V): tuck the tailbone, squeeze the glutes and pelvic floor,
contract the corset, suspenders and 6 pack, pull the lats, shoulder blades down, slightly
rounding mid-back with flattened lower-back, and leaning forward so the band’s resistance starts
pulling you backward. Adjust your knees forward, until you have good nearly vertical position,
and with your hands still visible overhead without tilting your head up. Lean forward so the band
tries to rip you out of power chamber into backward arch. And perform the 10 consecutive
breathing cycles from Program I, with the tightest chamber on the end of your exhale, your
control pause. Inhale to relax shoulders overhead, hips sitting slightly down and mid-back
uncrunching forward, and as soon as you begin to inhale, begin again.
Core Anti-Yaw (Resisting Waist Twist) Control Pause: Tie a resistance band to a pole directly
next to you so the band is horizontal to the ground when taught. Tie it SECURELY! Hook the
band in one elbow and cross your arms on your chest, with your hands touching the front of your
shoulders, elbows to ribs as best you can. Woman, come underneath your chest before crossing
your arms to avoid unnecessary discomfort. Men: if your shoulders are too tight to place your
shoulders to ribs, avoid using your arms to substitute for this core anti-rotation. With the elbow
hooked to the side facing the anchor point, side step away from the anchor point of the band
until it gets horizontal to the ground with no slack, but isn’t tight. Then rotate your hips and feet
away, usually about 45 to 90 degrees; wrapping around the upper arm slightly of the hooking
elbow. Keep your arm tight to your chest! Keep rotating the entire stance, and adjusting your
side step until you find the “sweet spot” where you can just barely hold your position of your feet
while resisting the band pulling your torso twisting in the direction of the band. Now twist your
shoulders fully in line with hips and begin the 10 consecutive breath cycles, holding as long as
you absolutely can without inhaling, at the control pause, and then slightly unwind to inhale,
before you exhale into the anti-rotation posture again. Alternate sides each round, not within the
round; stay on one side the entire 10 breaths.
Core Anti-Roll (Resisting Side Bend) Control Pause: Tie a resistance to an anchor point to the
side of you so that the band will be parallel with the Earth when your arms are held overhead.
Grabbing with both hands, like in Program II Exercise #1 (Core Anti-Pitch), and side step away
from the anchor point until the band threatens to pull your overhead arms to the side, with one
bicep and shoulder threatening to touch your ear. Pull down on the lifting shoulder side, like you
did the pullup “shrug” in Program I Exercise #2 (Bar Hold) to bring both arms perpendicular to
the ground with both shoulders “packed” down. Keep side stepping, and side-crunching, until
you find the “sweet spot” where you can just BARELY hold position (side crunch) without being
pulled off your far foot, and without letting your shoulder blade come out of pack AND without
letting your bicep touch your ear or your elbows bend (which means you need to exhale tightly
and side crunch to use your core and lats!) Exhale into full counter-rotation, anti-side bend, and
at your tightest hold the control pause, until you absolutely must inhale, and then relax with an
inhale slightly into side bend. But as soon as you begin to exhale, move right into the next
repetition. Don’t add any extra breaths, and perform 10 consecutive breath cycles. Alternate
sides each round, not within the round; stay on one side the entire 10 breaths.
Program Protocol:
2. Recover no more than 30 seconds between each exercise transition (from #1 to #2, and #2
to #3) for optimal effect.
3. Shake out your body in between exercises and rounds while performing fast, powerful
exhalations, like if you’re out in the cold winter and trying to warm yourself.
59
PROGRAM 3: TORQUE-RESISTED
Floor V Lift Control Pause: You can use a med ball, dumbbell, kettlebell, sandbag or water jug, but
optimally a clubbell because of the displaced mass on one side. Begin on your back with the weight resting
on your chest in your hands. As you begin your exhale, you’ll start to lift up into your Floor V like on
Program I Exercise #1: legs locked, quads tight and pelvic wall contracted, lower back flat to the Earth,
weight extended overhead with elbows locked and shoulders pulled down into pack position. If you have a
clubbell, hold two-handed overhead with the barrel pointing toward the Earth. (You’ll alternate grips each
round). As you extend the weight overhead and lift into your V, so that the muzzle/bottom of the clubbell
faces the Earth (irrelevant for symmetrical weights like dumbbells, kettlebells, medballs, etc.), exhale resist
the extension. As you reach the Floor V extension, where the weight of the clubbell (or med ball, dumbbell,
etc) threatens to pull your arms overhead toward the ground beyond perfect alignment, your core will resist
the over-extension. Time the end of your exhale, the control pause, for the tightest your power chamber will
achieve, when you meet maximal tension in your V. Make it a tight dead stop, so that as you begin to relax
and extend your back and legs down and return the weight to your chest, you inhale through the nose.
Perform the Floor V Lift 10 times in one grip (if you have a clubbell; irrelevant for symmetrical weights) for 10 consecutive breath cycles taking
no breathing breaks in between. They must be consecutive for optimal impact, or you’ll have to do 100 with breaks to equal the benefits of 10
consecutive. (The core activation effect is “exponentially” cumulative on consecutive breath cycles, rather than “geometrically” cumulative on
breathing rests where you “turn off” the nervous system.) You’ll alternate grips each round.
Lunge Twist Control Pause: Unlike the prior two programs, you’re ready to add external motion, to the
internal anti-rotation you’ve activated. You did this slightly on Program II with the band, and less to not at all
with gravity. You can use a med ball, dumbbell, kettlebell, sandbag or water jug, but optimally a clubbell
due to its displaced center of gravity maximizing the torque assist. Grab anything in front of you with arms
extended elbows locked parallel to the Earth. If you have a clubbell, then hold it in a barbell grip, clubbell
parallel to the ground with the barrel pointing to one side, and with two hands hooked over the neck. As
you step forward into your front lunge, begin twisting at the waist to the outside of the advancing lead leg.
Get two 90 degree angles of upper-to-lower leg, without touching kneecap to ground, but with rear shin
parallel to Earth. When you twist the torso (mid-back rotation), don’t change the relationship of your arms to
your chest. They should remain directly in front of you, equally perpendicular from your chest. Don’t let the
arms twist, but only the waist! Twist less but properly to make this more than a mere delt raise for time,
please! As you begin stepping forward, start your exhale. As you reach the full twist, where the weight of
the clubbell (or med ball, dumbbell, etc.) threatens to pull your arms to the side beyond the perfect
alignment in front of you, your core will resist the over-rotation. Time the end of your exhale, the control
pause, for the tightest your power chamber will achieve, when you meet the end of that twist. Make it a tight dead stop, so that as you begin to
step back and untwist as you inhale through the nose. Perform the lunge twist 10 times on one side for 10 consecutive breath cycles taking no
breathing breaks in between. They must be consecutive. You’ll alternate sides each round.
Standing Side Bend Control Pause: Again, you can use a med ball, dumbbell, kettlebell, sandbag, or
water jug, but optimally a clubbell because of the displaced mass on one side. Hold the weight overhead
with elbows locked and shoulders pulled down into pack position (you should be able to see your neck on
both sides in a mirror). If you have a clubbell, hold it in barbell grip overhead parallel to Earth, with the barrel
to one side. As you lean AWAY from the barrel side, so that the muzzle/bottom of the clubbell faces the sky
(or either side if you have symmetrical weights like dumbbells, kettlebells, medballs, etc.), exhale and side
crunch back down to neutral position. Don’t change the relationship of your arms to your ears. They should
remain directly equally distant from your ears, with elbows locked. Don’t let the arms rock and roll, but only
side bend at the ribs! Bend less but properly! And don’t let your hip lift. Lock your hips by rooting down on
soft knees, strong legs. Keep hips parallel evenly to the Earth the entire exercise. As you begin side
bending, start your exhale. As you reach the full bend, where the weight of the clubbell (or med ball,
dumbbell, etc.) threatens to pull your arms to the side beyond the perfect alignment overhead, and
threatens to pull your opposite hip bending to the side, your obliques and lat will resist the over-rotation.
Time the end of your exhale, the control pause, for the tightest your power chamber will achieve, when you
meet the end of that side bend. Make it a tight dead stop, so that as you begin to stand straight and
unbend, you relax back with your inhale through the nose. Perform the side bend 10 times on one side for
10 consecutive breath cycles taking no breathing breaks in between. You’ll alternate sides each round.
Program Protocol:
2. Recover no more than 30 seconds between each exercise transition (from #1 to #2, and #2 to #3) for optimal effect.
3. Shake out your body in between exercises and rounds while performing fast, powerful exhalations, like if you’re out in the cold winter and
trying to warm yourself.
60
PROGRAM 4: SURVIVAL CHALLENGE

In 2002, I published a video called “Be Breathed” where I introduced a concept I called “Perpetual
Exercise” - the controversial notion that if you practice proper internal structure with efficient breathing, any
quality movement you do could create an “exercise effect” leading to greater health.
Ancient martial art masters understood this, though it has been buried for the past 20 years in our (well-
intentioned) advent of mixed martial art sports, and our (unfortunately necessary) development of the
modern science of reality-based combatives. In renovating some of the classical fluff from ancient martial
art (the “copy-errors” which accumulate from transmitting a discipline from one generation to the
subsequent one), we lost much of the “old-school wisdom” of internal strength and healthy, sustainable
power cultivation.
Imagine a particular philosophy of strength, thousands of years old, protected by both the warrior and
healer castes, founded upon our primal heritage, and vetted by current scientific understanding, which
would allow you to “exercise perpetually,” and reap the benefits not of one or two hours of working out, but
seizing every minute of the day as an opportunity to increase your health and fitness. Imagine that the time
needed for that, involved a fraction of the investment. Finally, consider that this method dramatically
diminishes risk of aches, pains, postural distortions and tissue injuries.
The “Power vs Effort Challenge” involves four

conventional exercises, and performing them
unchambered, as if you would before the
Power Chamber programs, and then
chambered, as you did with the primal
activation you have forged through the Power
Chamber programs.
Perform the Challenge after you’ve completed

the 3 prior programs, because it can only be
honestly assessed if you have restored your
basic warding structure to contrast against
SAPS. If you haven’t practiced the basic
warding structure through the first three
programs, then the test will be comparing your
SAPS in one technique against SAPS in
another technique. SAPS infects everything
you do, because you become “SAPS-shaped.”
Through championships in several sports, I’ve learned you can’t talk through the mind. You can’t think your
way to improved excellence. But the mind can trick the mind into higher levels of power; for your brain
is both your strongest ally if you consciously restore your innate power, or your most terrible master, if you
allow reflexes to control you.
Once you’ve re-established the neurological fingerprint of the basic warding structure, you will find it highly
inconvenient when you feel SAPS hemorrhaging your technique. Your central nervous system prefers
warding patterns once reawakened, as the CNS is evolved for skill acquisition and refinement (but if it
perceives you lack sufficient ability, it will give you protective reflexes.) Use your forebrain (which
consciously concerns itself with longevity through skill mastery) to trick your base brain (which desperately
cares only about reflexes to protect against imminent jeopardy). If you want to stay in top healthy fitness for
the “long haul” not merely for today, then generate greater power and use less total effort.
61

The Challenge
4 rounds maximum repetitions, 30 seconds time limit
Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4

• 30 seconds of • 30 seconds of • 30 seconds of • 30 seconds of
continuous continuous Power continuous continuous Power
Conventional Chambered Conventional Chambered
situps. situps. situps. situps.
• 30 seconds break; • 30 seconds break; • 30 seconds break; • 30 seconds break;
record your record your record your record your
score!!! score!!! score!!! score!!!
• 30 seconds • 30 seconds • 30 seconds • 30 seconds
pushups. pushups. pushups. pushups.
pullups (or recline pullups (or recline pullups (or recline pullups (or recline
rows). rows). rows). rows).
Conventional Chambered step- Conventional Chambered step-
step-ups. ups. step-ups. ups.
Sit-up, Push-up, Pull-up, Step-up
* Perform the Power Chambered pushup ending in the top position you’ve practiced, the Power
Chambered pullup without changing the form of your tight dead hang (legs and all), the Power Chambered
situp like the Floor V with feet on floor, and the Power Chambered step-up, with the core tension of your
Lunge Twist you practiced.
If you completed each exercise the entire 30 seconds, add all four exercises of each round together. If you
could not complete a round, then you can’t compare that round Power Chamber versus conventional
technique. For example, if you don’t finish the conventional pushups, still perform the Power Chambered
pushup round, but there is no guarantee you will get an accurate comparison. If you only finish 15 seconds
on the conventional pushups, then do a 15 second set of the Power Chambered pushups.
Once you add all four exercises scores together, then add rounds 2 and 4 (your Power Chamber rounds)
together, and add rounds 1 and 3 (the old conventional skill) together.
62

Why Do Less with Greater Power? Isn’t the point to do more? I grew up in a culture of “more is better.” As my first
university coach, a US Olympic Greco-Roman Team alternate under the Dan Gable school of conditioning, would
scream at us, “Train harder or die faster!” But it was only my second university coach, a world champion and national
team coach, who transformed my performance, when fatigue and stress seduced me to sacrifice technique for
numbers, he whispered, “Only Better is Better. Trust your skills.”
Imagine that on a scale of one to ten, one being terrible technique and teb being perfect technique, when you are
performing your repetition at a level of 8, you are nearly perfect. Well done.
Now, even though you’re using an 8 of good form, there’s still 2 left over. Even with very good technique, you’re still
accumulating a 2 of SAPS-induced bad form which produces unknowable, unmeasurable, untrackable and
undesirable effects. Even with very good technique, you’re still accumulating small deviations which if you
specifically neglect compensating, lead to aches, then pains, then injuries, then “maladaptions” - semi-permanent
changes in your structural alignment causing anything and everything you do to reinforce those imbalances.
And most people, use “conventional technique” with a level of about 5: “not bad” form. With a 5 of good form, you’re
training a 5 of bad form: Half of what they’re doing is productive, and half destructive.
SAPS SURVIVAL
Guess which wins?
VERSUS
EFFORT POWER
The bad form “wins” (causes injury) as most people don’t think about good form in everything they do throughout
their lives. Most people who I have helped recover from injuries, did not hurt themselves in their sport or in their job,
but rather at home and at the gym.
Half of what you’re doing has been working against you, and yet, if you’re like me, you’ve been convinced that
“more is better.” Is it any wonder that although we understand more about the human body than ever before in
history, we have more injuries, and more cases of obesity than ever before?
Let’s say that100 conventional pushups, and 50 Power Chamber Pushups produce an equal amount of force
(technically, it requires about 100 pushups to equal 30-35 Power Chambered pushups, but let’s keep the math simple
for our convenience.)
Tissue and joints wear and tear with excessive use. Have you noticed that the more you exercise and the older you
get, the more this is happening? It’s not just a product of exercise and age. We’ve been conventionally taught to
force output (eliciting SAPS), rather than empower structure to release output (technique built upon warding
patterns).
63

If you perform 100 conventional pushups with a technique of
8, that means you have 80 points of good technique and 20
points of bad technique. Now, if you perform 50 repetitions
of Power Chambered pushups with an 8 in technique: that’s
40 points of good technique and 10 points of bad technique.
But remember Power Chambered pushups create 2X
(actually nearly 3X) the results, so it’s actually 80 (2X40) the
points of good technique and only 10 points of bad form.
So, half the repetitions of Power Chambered pushups
produce an equal amount of results, and half the risk of
pains and injuries.
It sounds convincing already, doesn’t it? But that’s not the

main point. Even though the above assumes a level playing
field. It’s not. You will feel significantly better and more
powerful in your technique with the Power Chamber, than
you do in conventional approaches, because you can’t
perform a conventional pushup, for example, with “perfect
form.” It’s biomechanical sub-optimal for the human body. It
devolved into military calisthenics, from ancient disciplines,
and as it was taught from one generation to the next, it
developed copy-errors, eventually arriving at the SAPS-
influenced mechanics taught today. Most exercises are built by SAPS, rather than resist it,
since we’ve been taught to believe that we must force more output regardless of technique.
The conventional approach doesn’t have a “technique” ceiling of 10, but of around 5-6. You can’t
perform a conventional pushup without hurting yourself and you’ll be wasting half of your effort in
senseless, excessive repetition. In truth, most people perform 100 repetitions at a technique of 5:
half good, half bad. So honestly, we’re looking at 50 points good and 50 points bad for
conventional pushups.
Power Chambered exercise produces dramatically greater results with significantly less risk and
time because we were genetically optimized for this whole bodily activation along these myofascial
chains.
As a result of restoring these primal warding blueprints, you feel better and more powerful
throughout your day in anything you do, because of how it transfers (or “neuro-muscularly
irradiates”) into every movement you perform.
Reviving this potential cleans the slate for survival. To survive our lifetime, not just today, we use
the high brain to overcome the low brain, our will to overcome reflexes cannibalizing our innate
power. We must resist these tendencies during intense exercise when we encounter resistance and
try to force the repetition, rather than empower the structure to perform the technique.
64
SAPS IN TACFIT ‘Q’

Let’s look at the basic techniques in the first Survive program: The TACFIT “Q” and how SAPS will threaten
to siphon off your power. I created these variations of techniques for very specific purposes. Please focus
on the variations I’ve created, so that you can sanitize them of reflexes for a SAPS-free training
environment using your six primal warding patterns.
After teaching this program to thousands of firefighters, soldiers, police, and martial artists, more than any
other program I’ve ever taught, I intimately observed the repeating problems with “entering” the
techniques, due to the SAPS cannibalizing their ability to use their primal warding structure.
Critical Points for Evaluating the distinction between SAPS and WS
• These biomechanical inefficiencies did occur due to a misunderstanding of the technique, or due to
inexperience, for they happened when facing excessive stress. Advanced practitioners manifested the
identical issues as the total novice.
• These problems erupted at a precise moment in every individual: when they rapidly approached and
exceeded their personal heart rate maximum. Regardless of prior conditioning, experience, or knowledge,
when they crossed the line, they deteriorated into SAPS performances.
• Each issue resolved only by using the heart rate recovery techniques which I share in this book. As long as
they focus and concentrated on these techniques, they could maintain warding structure without SAPS
infection.
• In all cases, as practitioners exerted themselves to high intensity, in some part of the program in one or
more of the techniques, SAPS would appear. To exercise at high intensity requires that you ward off
SAPS. This last point encapsulates the entire thesis of this book.
I’ll describe the primal warding function of each technique for contextual reasons when evaluating the
distinction between warding and sympathetically-aroused primal structures. Then, I’ll list the key warding
components, and finally show how each component can be infected by SAPS under fatigue, lack of
awareness, or exceeding the daily threshold of total stress.
65
SAPS IN TACTICAL LUNGE

Primal Warding Function:
1. To efficiently operate and move in lowered ground engaged platform
2. To expedite upright posture and effectively transition to movement
Warding Structural Components:

• Stand tall, spine perpendicular to the ground. Point tailbone down. Lift
crown up.
• Forearms parallel to chest and to each other.
• Pinch your elbows to your ribs.
• Step forward on railroad tracks, feet parallel to each other and shoulders
width.
• Land quietly midfoot, exhaling through the mouth as you land.
• Get two 90 degree angles on both legs.
• Drive back to standing position from midfoot push off front leg.
• Step back to shoulders’ width stance.
Technique Components and SAPS Effects:

• Feet parallel at shoulders width, knee over mid-foot on front leg, double 90
degree angles on knee bend, rear knee hovers but not impacts the ground.
• SAPS causes internal hip rotation making the knee collapse inward on
the forward step. This forces the lateral line of the leg to absorb the
movement, rather than the rear line, which causes knee strain and lower
back vulnerability.
• SAPS causes external hip rotation making the knee collapse outward on
the forward step. This forces the lateral line of the leg to absorb the
movement, rather than the rear line, which causes knee strain and lower
back vulnerability.
• SAPS causes external ankle rotation making the foot over-tread the
outside sword-edge.
• SAPS causes internal ankle rotation making the arch of the foot fall.
• Columnized Spine Vertical to Gravitational Pull
• SAPS causes hip flexion making the torso fold forward and bend over.
This shifts the load to the quads, rather than carrying the verticalized
weight down the spine into the posterior chain of the glutes and hams.
• SAPS causes thoracic kyphosis making the mid-back hunch over. This
shuts off the posterior chain of the torso and forces the front line to
carry the weight of the arms (and anything held in arms.)
• SAPS causes lumbar hyperlordosis to mechanically carry the torso’s
hunched, forward lean across the arched lower back, which disconnects
the core, and diminishes leg drive as a result.
• Elbows in, forearms parallel
• SAPS causes scapular elevation, winging, and anterior shoulder roll
making the elbows flair outward, internally rotating upper arms so the
elbows cannot come together. This fatigues the delts which must
constantly perform a lateral delt raise to hold the elbows bent (and
anything which may be carried in the hands.)
• SAPS causes fist reflex making the forearm flex, which flairs the elbows,
elevates the shoulder blades, that in turn can cave the chest.
66
SAPS IN PLANK PULL KNEE

1. To train the movement patterns of fence, wall
and window climbed ascent.
2. To train the core and leg activation of control
pull down, and prevent isolation of shoulders
in dynamic grappling scenarios.

• Begin on balls of feet, hips pushed back to
heels, belly to thighs and elbows locked.
• Palms push back. Pinch elbows tight in line
with hands, forearms parallel.
• Exhale through the mouth as you pull from your
palms and press your forearms onto the ground
to pull your body forward.
• Keep pulling until forearms lift off the ground,
forearms pinched to ribs and palms at floating
rib height.
• Squeeze your gut tight. Tuck your tailbone.
Keep your eyes down.
• Move your spine parallel with the mat.
• Arch your tailbone and lift your hips back to
return to beginning with an inhale through the
nose. Avoid pushing back.

• SAPS causes forearms to flair outward in the
back-seated position, shifting all of the load to
the delts and leading to shoulder pain. This
further prevents the elbows from being placed
inside the lats against the ribs tight to the
obliques in the forward plank. It prevents the
elbows from being placed on the ground in line
with the wrists on the withdrawal from the plank
position, so it becomes a pushing exercise with
the front chain, rather than pulling with the rear
chain.
• SAPS causes thoracic arching, removing the
frontal warding posture which disengages the
core, and as a result lacks leg drive. The
thoracic arching also prevents the shoulder
blades from packing down and stabilizing, so
that the elbows must flair outward more to
perform the pull.
• SAPS causes tailbone arch which removes almost all leg drive, and completely shuts off core
activation, without which the shoulders must hold the forward position alone.
67
SAPS IN SIT THRU KNEE

1. To facilitate and strengthen thoracic rotation to be used in takedowns, and grappling. (Core is
designed to resist rotation, if not strengthened, lower back is used and injured)
2. To reverse positions when attacked from rear
3. To rotate site horizon without disturbing effective striking and shooting platform.

• Begin on hands and knees. Spine parallel to ground.
• Let gravity pull your hip down to thread your knee through.
• Drop your hip until thigh parallel to ground.
• Lock your elbow on planted arm.
• Keep scapula depressed, flair lat with no scap elevation. Pinch opposite forearm to your chest, elbow
to ribs.
• Exhale through your mouth as you sit through for a strong core activation.
• Switch to alternate sides with no knee touch.

• SAPS braces the spiral line which prevents the core obliques and transverse abs from twisting, so the
thigh cannot reach parallel to ground.
• SAPS causes posting shoulder scapula elevation, shoulder rotation to bring shoulder to ear. This
further causes the non-posting arm to grow tight and lift not under control, not pulling with the lats of
the rear line, but flexing with the bicep. The top elbow cannot pull to ribs, forearm to outside of chest.
• SAPS causes the hand to rotate outward on posting arm, relying upon the flexibility of tight forearms
with bent elbow to carry the load on the bicep. As a result, it cannot rest gravitationally down the
straight arm with tricep lock.
68
SAPS IN TACTICAL PUSHUP

1. To develop forward pressing power connecting chest, with back, core, and most importantly legs,
rather than isolating shoulders and biceps; Including forward falls and cover/concealment dive.
2. To biomechanically close-pack the shoulder joint to prevent injury in force delivery, and to stabilize
shooting platforms.

• Pinch your elbows to your ribs, no space between your upper arms and lats.
• Tuck your tailbone and slightly round your mid-back to create basic warding structure.
• Tighten your gut. Squeeze your glutes. Pinch off the pelvic wall.
• Lock your quads. Pull your toes to your shins and kick your heels away.
• Exhale through the mouth and press elbow-pits away to locked position.
• Inhale through the nose as you lower delts to hands.

• SAPS causes the lower back to arch, the shoulder blades to pinch, the neck to drive forward, and the
midback to sway arched preventing the chest touch and shutting off the core. This compromises the
lower back and causes shoulder strain.
• SAPS creates space between the arms and lats, which causes the delts to carry all of the load of the
press, rather than equally using the warding structure to press from the core. It further prevents the
elbows from locking in top position by making the elbows rotate outward and flair, making the biceps
carry the load entirely with no rest period on top of the aligned arm bones.
• SAPS forces the lower back to arch, which prevents tailbone tuck and the knees to lock. This sag
creates a heavy load of the lower body to shift and to be carried by the shoulders.
69
SAPS IN SPINAL ROCK

1. To develop safe tackled, slipped, or deliberate ground
engagement, protecting lower back and head.
2. To develop effective ground fighting defense (oompa
hip thrust.)
3. To strengthen the core correctly by resisting
extension (pitch) rather than isolating hip flexors (in
traditional situp)

• Begin on your back, knees to your chest.
• Tuck your tail until lower back is flat to ground.
• Exhale your navel to spine. Tuck your chin.
• Kick your hips over your nose. Kick your knees over an
imaginary bar to extend and snap your hips locked.
• Exhale your knees back to your chest.
• Pull with your hands as you roll toward sitting, forearms
tight to thighs.
• Lift your chest up and inhale through the nose.
• Straighten your spine, crown up, feet flat. Find the three
point balance between your “sit-bones” and your
tailbone.
• Roll backward until the lower back stabilizes against
ground, and only then pull the knees to the chest for
next repetition.

• SAPS causes the midback to stay caved inward, which
prevents chest up, chin down, spine perpendicular at
the seated position, so a full breath cannot be
achieved; rather, only short, desperate gulps and sniffs
of air. It further causes the lower back to arch
hyperlordically so on the backward rolling portion, the
lower back impacts the ground heavily, rather than
transitioning smoothly with zero impact.
• SAPS causes hips to externally (or internally) rotate
which prevents the hips from fully extending in inverted
position, and either prevents the technique from
causing the full inverted shoulder bridge, or shifts the
weight onto the neck rather than carrying it on the
shoulder plane.
70
SAPS IN TRIPOD VERT

1. To strengthen the back protecting and compensating for worn armor and belt
2. To resist core rotation (deeper coverage than sit thru.)
3. To facilitate and strengthen hip thrust for ground fighting and grappling.
4. To develop the tactical get up.
5. To protect and strengthen the shoulders.

• Pull your elbow in to your hips in crab position.
• Opposite arm should be straight arm but elbow
unlocked supported by tricep. Flair lat to prevent
scapula elevation.
• Exhale and lift your hips.
• Drive mid foot, knees pinching to keep lower legs
parallel to each other, and heels down.
• Sight down the barrel of your arm.
• Flex your tricep to lock your lifting elbow.
• Lift both shoulders until they’re in one line
perpendicular to the ground. Flair your lat; keep
your shoulder packed.
• Squeeze your glutes to full hip extension.
• Inhale elbow back down to ribs. Bring your hips
down.
• Switch hands fingers pointed away from body.

• SAPS causes feet and knees parallel to each other
• SAPS causes the shoulder blades to slip upward,
shoulders to ears. It prevents the rear line from
stabilizing the bottom shoulder in the lifted
position.
• SAPS causes the elbows to flair, rotating the
elbows fingers pointed toward the feet, rather than
away from the head. This causes a desperate hinging swing at the shoulder, rather than a side plank
stabilization. On the downward portion of the movement, this means that the elbow cannot be pulled
to the centerline between the knees, and remains outside the ribs.
• SAPS prevents the chest from lifting, with extended hips, so it cannot lift from the core, hips and legs,
and is entirely born by the shoulder causing strain, while mobilizing the lower back leading to pain and
injury.
• SAPS tightness on the spiral line prevents rotation at the thorax, sending strain to the shoulder, and
collapses one hip keeping it incapable of extension.
• SAPS causes pelvic arch, so it cannot tuck and lift into full extension, which prevents leg drive. It
remains locked more tightly on the posting arm side, so that side hip is collapsed in the lift, which in
turn causes both knees to fall to that side (opposite knee inwardly rotating and same side knee
outwardly rotating). The knee collapse shifts the drive from midfoot to the outside of posting side arm,
and inside of the foot on the opposite leg.
71
RECOVERING TO USABLE TECHNIQUE

Although many “bootcamp” instructors believe that inducing excessive stress will produce positive effects,
they often lack awareness of when excessive stress begins to cannibalize form, technique and safety. They
cry, “Get Tough,” but lack an understanding of what that means physiologically and as a result, only teach
the 15% of their audience who are already tough. They remain impotent of how to help the 85% of those
who have not become tough enough before they arrived. That’s my job, as a compatriot swimming
upstream from the shallow end of the gene pool, I haven’t had the luxury of relying upon talent. I needed
skill. I teach to those who do, too. The other 15% can also get tougher as result.
If you cannot coach effectively under moderate intensity, it will be nearly impossible under high intensity,
which is why I teach people how to focus on recovering to moderate intensity performance.
In my coaching assessments, I test how much my trainees can perform while recovering back to “usable
technique” - that which can be performed and held by recovering to moderate intensity. In the instructor
examinations I conduct, you have a minimum number of points as a standard, but only those points which
are recoverable to less than or equal to 80% HRmax - “moderate intensity.”
In the near future, all fitness programs will answer the question, "is this tactical?" as people have come to
ask, "is this functional?" Tactical fitness is defined by the question: “How fast does it recover you from
rapidly approaching or exceeding heart rate maximum?”
This is not "target heart rate" training, (which is a general mess of outdated methods.) It is the
understanding that as you rapidly approach and exceed heart rate maximum, not only do you suffer a
spectrum of technique-deteriorating phenomena described earlier as a result of SAPS but all exercise
above HRmax is wasted since you don't adapt to the dump (as it is a biological constant), but you do
adapt to SAPS (which is undesirable).
Research points out that if you want to live long and be strong you must experience brief but intense bouts
of physical exertion. However, how fast you recover from that high intensity (to less than 80%HRmax)
determines how "fit" you truly are.
Many so-called "elite, extreme and hard-core" approaches tout how hard they push you; some brag that
their training may even kill you. But if you cannot perform anything after the workout, or if it makes you ill,
injures you or kills you, are you actually fit? No. A good workout will be as hard as your technique can hold
it but then can you recover rapidly and do it again, and again. All positive adaptation. Little to no negative.
72
TRACKING WITH TED COMPASS

I created a model over the years to zone in on your intuitive awareness of this regression-progression
formula. This ensures that you precisely target your intensity level without exceeding the discomfort levels
and without diminishing the technique levels mandatory for optimal performance and health.
Can you say with specificity how much is too much and how hard is too hard? Unfortunately for our internal
experience, exercise doesn’t come in denominations of much and hard. What might be considered difficult
one day may be difficult the next depending upon your sum total stress load and your unique recovery
cycle.
But if it is so subjective, how do you train yourself to understand your limits and capacities? You do this by
journaling your training and by applying your tools. The TED Compass gives you the ability to differentiate
form, exertion and discomfort subjectively, and you can then use this as a determinant factor in progressive
resistance. By learning to quantify the subjective, you give yourself an immediate sense of where you
stand, and a very accurate gauge of your progress (or need to regress and recover your power chamber).
In order to make this tool work for you, you must first learn how to use it. That takes a bit of diligence at the
beginning. By journaling your training and by rating these three variables, you will better understand your
body and how to calibrate your performance regressing and progressing through stress. The skill of rating
your performance becomes more finely honed with each use, until eventually you barely have to think about
it. But you will have to think about it in the beginning, and you must keep it in mind every time you work to
high intensity, for SAPS affects us universally, irrespective of experience, background, or level.
These are the three variables you you can use to rate your:
• TECHNIQUE: your evaluation of holding the power chamber form on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the best
possible form in that exercise.
• 1-2 very sloppy form
• 3-4 poor form
• 5-6 adequate form
• 7-8 good form
TED Compass
• 9-10 extremely good form
• EXERTION: your evaluation of how much stress
you’re expressing and/or resisting on a scale of 1
to 10, 10 being the hardest you’ve ever worked.
• 1-2 very easy
• 3-4 somewhat easy
• 5-6 hard
• 7-8 very difficult
• 9-10 extremely difficult
• DISCOMFORT: your evaluation of your pain level
on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the worst pain
you’ve ever experienced.
• 1-2 no discomfort
• 3-4 mild discomfort
• 5-6 uncomfortable
• 7-8 very uncomfortable
• 9-10 extremely painful
73
TRACKING WITH TED COMPASS

As a general guideline, seek to sustain a Technique equal to or greater than 8, and Exertion of 6 or higher,
and a Discomfort of 3 or lower.
• If your technique is high enough (greater than or equal to 8),
• and your discomfort is low enough (less than or equal to 3),
• you can hold even an Exertion level of 10 for as long as you remain under excessive stress, and ward off
SAPS from eroding your technique.
As you begin to fatigue and become exhausted, your neurochemistry assumes that you need help, so you
elicit the biological reflexes making SAPS manifest, and even though you can push through with greater
effort, your form begins to fail, as SAPS prevents you from holding proper technique. SAPS will even cause
you to not feel injuries you incur, because it concerns itself purely for imminent survival, not ultimate
longevity.
Without form, you cannot competently hold the force of your exertion, and as a result, you compensate and
strengthen SAPS. As aches and pains appear, and go unaddressed, injuries erupt. Pour your effort into the
components of your technique and into warding off SAPS, instead of the number of repetitions of weight of
the resistance. When you cannot hold the technique and SAPS manifests, regress and revive the lost
neural drive components, until you reclaim your technique, and only then progress.
You productively adapt to technique, and destructively adapt to force and fear. If you allow yourself to
push harder with SAPS eroding your technique, you adapt to those SAPS deviations in your technique, and
strengthen them. A poor technique is as trainable as good technique. Every repetition that you repeat poor
technique increases the likelihood that you will embed SAPS. Whatever you repeat, you will adapt to and
make more likely, whether you want that result or not.
We do not rise to the level of the challenge but fall to the level of our threshold of resistance to SAPS. We
do not even perform at the level of our training. The best we can hope in performance is the worst we’ve
performed in training. We need sustainable training practices, so that we can survive and thrive.
To do that we must balance objective evaluation

criteria (HRmax) with subjective criteria (TED).
We must train very hard with very good
technique with discomfort but not pain.
Diligently pay attention to the difference between
training discomfort (“I can hardly see straight;
my lungs are on fire; I can’t lift my legs,”) and
pain (“my elbow really burns; my toes are numb;
my back’s in spasm.”)
The TED Compass helps you stay on course for

pushing sustainably hard in training, and reviving
lost power, when excessive stress elicits SAPS.
In this way, you prevent overuse, disuse and
misuse injuries associated with training.
74
PROGRESSIONS AND REGRESSIONS

What key ingredient has been missing from fitness approaches, and prohibiting people from tapping into
their thriving flow of empowered mastery: incremental progression. How do you begin with the simple
and move to the complex in such a way that it never frustrates, confuses or halts progress?
Due to my own physical challenges and learning disabilities as a child, I have invested my life to breaking
down movements into their simplest components, and building them step-by-step in an errorless process.
“Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication” - Da Vinci
When Da Vinci wrote this, he had surrounding himself already with sophisticated ideas, plans, inventions
and artwork. He referred not in the repetition of simple tasks, but in their refinement: from gross to fine,
general to specific, simple to complex.
As in martial arts, there are no advanced techniques; only a deepening mastery of the basics, which when
performed by a master demonstrate what gymnastics calls “virtuosity” - the ordinary performed with
extraordinary excellence.
The science to rebuild the power chamber combines influences from my background with the Russian
System of Training (P.O.C.C.), and my license in Russia called “Survival Under Extreme
Conditions” (“Vyzhivianya”) with the work of Nikolay Bernstein, the father of advanced biomechanics; in
particular, Component Learning Theory.
To tap into the warding structures of our evolutionarily stable survival strategies, we begin with simple
movements which reclaim your power chamber, after we have revived it from the infection of SAPS
adaptations.
• We first master these simple movements.

• Then, we string them together.
• And ultimately, we refine the sequence.
This organically evolved the process of neural

programming which I have successfully used
throughout my career:
• Simple: Every movement is composed of simple

components.
• Compound: When these simple movements are
performed together in sequence, we call this a
compound movement.
• Complex: In a compound movement, when we
shave off the end of a simple movement and the beginning of the subsequent simple movement, we
create a complex movement. A complex movement produces a sum total training effect greater than if
the simple components were practiced individually for the same number of repetitions. There is an
increase in complexity, so your gains grow exponentially as your movement ability develops.
75
PROGRESSIONS AND REGRESSIONS

Regression versus Scaling
There are several progressions to each movement:

simple to compound to complex. This lends the
appearance of steady development. But since, we must
use stress as the paint on our canvas, we must realize
that with excessive stress, SAPS infects these
components and mutates the technique into reflexive
structures. So, as we approach heart rate maximum,
with the intention of resisting excess (strain), we must
recover to non-excessive stress when circumstances
cause us to step across the line. We use regressions as
our regulator.
• When you can no longer hold the complex movement STEP 1

with good form, you do not push on, or quit. Instead,
you regress to the compound movement.
• And when you can not hold it with good form, you
regress again, to the simple components.
Regressions differ from scaling exercise. Scaling uses

different weight, volume, speed, or duration of a
particular exercise to address the various differences in
conditioning between individuals. Regressions are
designed to restore the fundamental power chamber
components when stress or fatigue begins to erode
technique through SAPS infections.
STEP 2
For example, we do not drop to our knees in our pushup
because we are at the end of our strength. We drop to
our knees to revive the power chamber as we approach
excessive stress and SAPS begins to infiltrate our
technique. We return to our tactical pushup once we
have recovered our power chamber. After 2-3 repetitions
of keeping our power chamber position on our knees,
we return to the compound movement of the survival
pushup, and if it breaks down again, we drop back to
our knees for several repetitions until we reclaim our
power chamber. Back and forth, keeping optimal form
alive. Everyone from novice to advanced must do this if
they are truly approaching their individualized heart rate STEP 3
maximum that workout.
But, as I’ve alluded above, we do more than objectively track heart rate. We also subjectively track:
• Technique (to ward off SAPS),
• Exertion level (to determine intensity appropriateness), and
• Discomfort (to ensure that our stress hasn’t upgraded to pain.)
76
BREATH CONTROLS HEART RATE

Some people measure heart rate variability (HRV) - a physiological phenomenon where the time interval between
heart beats varies; measured by the variation in the beat-to-beat intervals. But, how we can use this biomarker in
training must begin with an understanding of the distinction between the Autonomic and Voluntary (or Somatic)
nervous systems.
• Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) controls the bodily functions necessary for survival, including breathing,
digestion, heart rate, blood pressure, and organ function.
• Voluntary Nervous System (VNS) involves the consciously controlled daily functions like exercise, walking, typing,
talking, et cetera.
Within the ANS, are two additional sub-branches: The Sympathetic and the Parasympathetic, which exist
symbiotically.
The Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) controls the “fight or flight” reflexes eliciting SAPS (hence,
“Sympathetically” Aroused Primal Structure). When you encounter stress, it increases physiological performance
from a slow-release drip when it perceives your skills equal to the task which gives you access to what sport
psychologists call “The Zone” and sometimes “Flow-State,” or it triggers a fast-release dump when it perceives your
skills ineffective or insufficient, what combat psychologists call “The Vortex” and sometimes, “The Suck.”
The Parasympathetic Nervous System

(PNS) balances the SNS alarm system’s
“fight or flight” with a “rest and digest”
response. It turns off the PNS, if not
inhibited, and allows us to hit the snooze
button on stress alarms. This system,
however, holds much greater responsibility
than taking a nap and absorbing your lunch.
The PNS dictates how much you recover
from training stress, as well as any other
stress. When inhibited, a sharp cliff appears
of aches, pains, injuries, illnesses and
eventually death.
Some will describe them as gas and brake,

like a toggle switch on/off. However, they’re
more appropriately thought of as a yin/yang
in constant, unified mixture working to some
degree along a spectrum.
Tick Tock Goes Your Clock
Some view heart rate (HR) as a steady

metronome beating away in perfectly
syncopated cadence. However, HR changes with every breath. When we exhale, our Parasympathetic nervous
system sends a inhibitory signal to slow the heart; and when we inhale, that PNS signal dissipates and Sympathetic
tone returns, causing the HR to increase yet again. Back and forth.
This ebb and flow offers us a snapshot of the state of our autonomic nervous system. When the “rest and digest”
parasympathetic response triggers, we find a higher HR variability; but when “fight or flight” reflexes usurp our ANS,
then HRV is lower.
That variability, as a result, accurately reflects your current degree of adaptive recovery from the sum total stress
you’re facing and the threshold you’re currently able to accept. HRV provides a knowable, measurable, trackable
bandwidth from sufficient to excessive stress potential, and the demands it places upon your neuroimmunoendocrine
response.
77
THE SCIENCE OF RESILIENCE

In a study performed at the Naval Health Research
Center, by M.K. Taylor, PhD in Cellular and Molecular
Pharmacology, UCSF School of Medicine, in
December 2007, entitled Stressful Military Training:
Endocrine Reactivity, Performance, and
Psychological Impact, special forces soldiers were
shown to have higher levels of noradrenaline during
stressful events, but when training concluded, they
returned to their baseline level, where conventional
soldiers studied exhibited dramatically depressed
levels indicating that their SNS was fatigued.
In a recent study of Age-Matched Comparison of

Elite with Non-elite Military Performers during Free
Living and Intense Operational Stress by Markus
Taylor, Daniel Gould, et al, conducted at the Naval
Health Research Center (Sand Diego, CA) in April
2009, it was discovered that special forces and
conventional military personnel differ across several
criteria both during free living and in response to
intense stress. Elite participants reported better
psychological health in comparison to their non-elite
counterparts, and also demonstrated greater
physiological resilience during both free living and
intense military training.
Although elite performers produced nearly identical

cortisol responses to an overt high-stress encounter
during mock captivity, they generated much lower
cortisol responses in the absence of overt challenge
(selectivity). Their heart rate dipped 8% faster than
their non-elite brethren. Elite performers simply
recovered faster (resilience), and reported greater resistance to subjective stress reactions from mock
captivity (toughness.) They were able to trigger parasympathetic tone much faster than their conventional
counterparts. Recovery is king.
In Russia, training with their special operations personnel and instructors, we underwent rigorous stress
tests, as our initial four year license course was entitled, “Survival Under Extreme Conditions.” Our most
successful performances demonstrated a resistance to sympathetic arousal in anticipation of stressful
events, a strong sympathetic response while executing stress scenarios, and a fast parasympathetic trigger
post-event conclusion. Our least successful performances demonstrated the opposite, and concordantly,
the highest levels of exhaustion, over-training and burn-out. Whoever resisted anticipation, and recovered
fastest performed best.
Imagine you faced a violent encounter, exerted everything you had against your assailant and survived, but
with no energy and power remaining, only to discover more attackers coming at you. Even if you will never
be in a hostile environment, if you're not tactically fit, your health is severely impaired.
78
O N LY B E T T E R I S B E T T E R
In no other athletic activity, would people presume
that you could gain greater benefit from having
lesser skill by “toughing it out anyway possible.”
Yet, even in our modern world of exercise science,
you see this troglodyte attitude attempting to
smash its way into our performance. Why?
Because working harder causes you to adapt
faster. Working harder gets faster results.
However, if you work harder but not better as well,
you adapt faster to poor form. Is there any
surprise that rate of injuries from exercise has
nearly doubled in less than twenty years?!
A recent study found that from 1990 to 2007,

nearly a million Americans wound up in emergency
rooms with weight-training injuries, and that
annual injuries increased more than 48 percent in
that period. (American Journal of Sports Medicine;
data from the US Consumer Product Safety
Commission’s national injury surveillance
database.) About 82 percent of the 970,000
people injured were men, according to the
study. But the annual number of injuries in women
increased faster (by 63 percent, compared with 46
percent among men) presumably because intense
training has grown more popular with women in
the recent two decades.
You adapt to the technique, not the effort.

Some people who do not understand this basic
neurological principle, believe that intensity is
something you can discuss separately from “Weight-Lifting Injuries on the Rise,” Nicholas Bakalar June 21, 2010
technique. You cannot. You only express effort www.nytimes.com/2010/06/22/health/22stat.html
within a technique. Even very good form in a skill
(8 out of a 10) has 20% of a "poor technique" to
which you are ALSO adapting. Even someone who practices consistently with good form, accumulates "2s" which if not
specifically compensated for lead to the slow creep of plateau, aches, pains, and injuries. And some people will encourage you
to push harder even if your technique drops to a 5 (“not bad not great”): 50% of your intensity in good technique competes
against the other 50% of bad technique. And that 50% of bad technique is still building structure, only dysfunctional,
accelerating overuse and misuse pains and injuries.
This logical flaw comes from misapplying the general biochemical adaptation to intensity (the “general adaptive syndrome”
abbreviated GAS) to the myofascial system, which only adapts specifically. General fitness cannot exist, by biological definition
of Specific Adaption to Imposed Demand (SAID Principle), as we never adapt without a technique; only to the specific
movement practices under intensity. Practice any sport skill with poor form, and you adapt to it. Practice it harder with poor
form, and you adapt to the poor form more strongly. Why would you want to adapt to dysfunction faster and stronger?
Emphasize recoverable technique: Exercise only as hard as your technique can hold it, and the recovery techniques and
biofeedback mechanisms to ensure that you do. This is why our agencies and units are coming back to us with ZERO INJURY
reports on the academy class completions. Readiness is defined as performance / injuries. If your performance increases, but
so do your injuries, you are, by definition, "un-fit."
The recent "harder is better" resurgence is not new. It is an old mentality resurfacing, an archaic "no pain no gain" mentality,
which has reared its ugly head again due to the pendulum swinging in the culture of exercise. Perhaps we had become so
complicated in our machine technology that we neglected to work sufficiently hard. Regardless, you don't get better by working
harder alone. You must work smarter. Harder isn't better. Only better is better.
79
TACFIT RESEARCH PROOF

A tailor-crafted TACFIT program, the approach described within this book, was implemented as the sole
Physical Training for the Spring Class of 2012 of a major federal law enforcement agency training academy.
All data was rigorously tracked, recorded and measured to ensure the effectiveness of the method.
The class conducted an initial and a final examination using the conventional law enforcement fitness
standard: Weight, maximum pushups in one minute, maximum sit-ups in one minute, a 1.5 mile run for
time, and a sit-and-reach flexibility test (called the Physical Efficiency Battery or PEB.) To prove the
transferable, practical value of the approach, the PEB would not be included in the TACFIT sessions: no
max pushup attempts, no sit-ups, sit-and-reach and no 1.5 mile runs whatsoever.
After 9 TACFIT classes conducted across 5.5

weeks, the pre-test scores were compared with the
% IMPRVD WT P-UP S-UP 1.5 RUN FLEX
post-test scores. The class averaged the following
improvements: pre vs post 2.2% 1.9% 11.1% 3.9% 0.5%
TACFIT Class Pre/Post % of Improvement vs prior class 2.8% 12.2% 20.5% 14.7% -1.5%
Improved an average of 2.2% over its initial weight test
Improved an average of 1.9% over its initial pushup test vs combined 3.9% 0.9% 7.5% 19.5% 0.1%
Improved an average of 11.1% over its initial sit-up test
Improved an average of 3.9% over its initial 1.5 mile run
time
Improved an average of 0.48% over its initial flexibility test
Over their predecessors, the TACFIT
TACFIT Class versus Most Recent Class % of Improvement trained class of federal agent recruits:
Improved an average of 2.8% over the 201 class weight test • lost an extra 5 pounds
Improved an average of 12.2% over the 201 class pushup test • grew 7 repetitions stronger in pushups
Improved an average of 20.5% over the 201 class sit-up test • grew 10 repetitions stronger in sit-ups
Improved an average of 14.7% over the 201 class 1.5 mile run time • ran 1:33 faster in the 1.5 mile
Didn’t improve an average of 0.1% over the 201 class flexibility test • lost 1.6% more bodyfat
• gained 0.5 inches more flexibility
TACFIT Class versus Combined Prior Classes % of Improvement
Improved an average of 3.9% over prior classes weight test combined
Improved an average of 0.9% over prior classes pushup test combined
Improved an average of 7.5% over prior classes sit-up test combined
Improved an average of 19.5% over prior classes 1.5 mile run time combined
Improved by an average of 0.01% over prior classes flexibility test combined
However impressive these statistics are, there is one that is most significant, which has not yet been included.
The Spring 2012 Class of this major federal law enforcement agency national academy suffered zero PT related
injuries reported: a phenomenon which had never before happened in the history of the agency. (Though this would
be the second law enforcement academy that adopted TACFIT, and experienced the zero-injury phenomenon.)
Furthermore, the additional training time gained by reducing the PT hours to only TACFIT helped the class gain
almost three times the amount of tactical skill building hands on time, per student, than any other class. In
prior classes, almost three times the amount of time had been squandered with unnecessary, counter-productive,
injury-producing PT. Now, all of that time could be efficiently used for acquiring new and refining tactical skills, and
becoming a better, safer agent.
* This was only one class tested as of the publishing of this book. This is not exhaustively scientific, but the dramatic
and incontrovertible results have merited a validation study to be conducted.
80
4 PHASES OF ADAPTATION
To appreciate the sophistication of this intuitive system, understand the phases of adaptation the body experiences to the sum
total stress load you experience. Hans Selye, the founder of the term “stress” in regards to physiology, describes your General
Adaptive Syndrome (GAS) in 4 phases with regards to stress:
GAS Phase I ALARM: Phase I involves your “resilient” response to stress levels. Most of your training will exist here, as you are
able to recover the technique effectively at these initial “shock” levels of stress. This phase exhibits the following characteristics:
• HRV decrease
• Stress elicits an effect on the nervous system, hormonal system, and motor neurons
• Increased sympathetic tone
• Increased output of stress hormones
• Increased adrenal output of epinephrine, norepinephrine and cortisol
GAS Phase II RESISTANCE: As you start to over-reach beyond your prior threshold of resistance to stress, your current
“toughness” manifests. This phase demonstrates the beginnings of an imbalance between training stress and your recovery.
• Decreased Beta 2 Adrenoreceptor density reduces adrenal response to the central stress hormone ACTH (corticotropin)
• CNS responds to decreased adrenal response by increasing central stress hormone output
• Sympathetic tone during stress (exercise) increases
• Parasympathetic tone during recovery increases
• HRV increases due to increased anti-inflammatory parasympathetic response
• Decreased turnover of contractile proteins (i.e., slower recovery)
• Cortisol and other stress hormone levels remain elevated
GAS Phase III EXHAUSTION: Overtraining begins when you exceed your ability to resist any more stress. This excessive stress
threshold occurs when the body continually fails to be able to adapt further.
• CNS shuts down production of central stress hormones

• Adrenals remain resistant to the central stress hormone ACTH
• Sympathetic response is impaired
• HRV remains elevated due to chronically increased parasympathetic response
• Increased baseline cortisol
• Decreased diurnal cortisol variation
• Decreased heart rate dipping at night
• Decreased testosterone and other anabolic markers
• Psychological symptoms of "burnout"
• Depressed protein synthesis (slow recovery to muscle damage)
• Depressed immune function
• Increased systemic inflammation
GAS Phase IV RECOVER: Sport scientists call this the “Supercompensation” phase of training. However, it requires that in your
over-reaching, you haven’t stepped into over-training. If you exhaust your system in Phase III, you can require many months for
complete recovery.
• HRV decreases back to the baseline

• Cortisol levels decrease back to resting levels with possible improvement
• Diurnal cortisol variation increases
• CNS increases central stress hormone response to acute stressors
• Adrenals regain Beta 2 Adrenoreceptor density and sensitivity to central hormones
• Inflammation is mitigated
81
CURRENT RECOVERY SCORE

You don’t need to over-reach in order to begin recovery. It all depends upon the methodology of your
goals and the accuracy of your tracking approach. But it absolutely requires that you factor the sum total
stress in your life - not merely your training stress, but your sleep, nutrition, hydration, vocational activity,
personal, mental/emotional, relational, financial stressors, and any foreign influences such as temperature,
environmental chemicals, electromagnetic field impact, altitude and barometric pressure.
Test your Current Recovery
Where you are currently is what you’re

adapting to, not merely your exercise.
So, where are you? Take this test (if
you're cleared by your doc for high
intensity exercise):
a. Exercise to achieve your HRmax.

b. In the minute you stop, how low
can you get your HR in that 60
seconds?
c. If less than 10 beats under
HRmax, get your heart checked.
d. If 10-20, you're average
tactically fit.
e. If 20-40, you're above average
tactically fit.
f. If 40-80, you're advanced
tactically fit.
TACFIT is an approach of tactical fitness which does much more than reverse engineer tactical skills and
create strength platforms to absorb, store, retranslate and deliver force. TACFIT is an integrated system of
tools which help you rapidly recover from high intensity experiences.
Many people misunderstand what "toughness" means. From a coaching psychological perspective it
means: the ability to resist failure. But you cannot resist failure until you can recover from it. You must first
develop "resilience" (the ability to recover from failure) before you can become "tough."
From a physiological standpoint, toughness is resistance to the negative affects of rapidly approaching and
exceeding HRmax and resilience is the ability to recover from it; as well as the ability to resist HRmax (to
remain calm under high effort). TACFIT makes you resilient and tough by these definitions.
In the future, the doctrine of tactical fitness will be used to evaluate all fitness programs, by the strategies
of resilience and toughness, and the array of tactics, tools and techniques within the system. Make your
workout tactically fit, before circumstances and your health compel you to discover why you should have
done so.
82
RECOVERY THROUGH PROTOCOL

Within the TACFIT System, including the Flow Physique bodyweight exercise course, you’ll experience six
metabolic training protocols. Each of these protocols requires that you track and record data.
For example, at Field Instructor Certification School, prospective TACFIT leaders are tested on their own
performance as well as coaching others to achieve quantitative output standards while recoverable to
under 80%HRmax. In other words, if the standard qualification score is a minimum of 40, they must each
score a 40 on that test, while being able to have an average heart rate recovery of less than their
80%HRmax that day. They could perhaps do more on points, but if it exceeds 80%HRmax, they fail.
They’re being tested on how well they’ve prepared the physical requirements, and their competency with
the recovery techniques intertwined within the system.
The entire focus of TACFIT is not how much you can do irrespective of form (especially considering
reinforcing SAPS), but how much you can recoverably perform. Recoverable performance means that all of
the exercise skills you performed held maximal adaptive potential; in other words, at minimum of 8 or
higher in technique on the TED Compass, making 80% or more of what you exerted to be productive
adaptation.
Tracking Heart Rate within the 6 TACFIT Protocols
Let’s now discuss the individual protocols, and where you will be tracking your heart rate. I ask you to not
use a heart rate monitor for this aspect of training until you’ve repeated Flow Physique at least 3 full cycles
through the course, so that you are not passively allowing a computer to track your heart rate, but you’re
actively using your breath to impact your heart rate through its biofeedback.
83
TRACKING HEART RATE

Readiness refers to the formula of preparation / injury: the greater the aches and pains and injuries held, the less ready you are.
So, you can be in great shape in the gym, but if you’re among the walking wounded, then it’ll be unlikely that you’ll be able to
express that power when you need it. It will even begin to cannibalize you with its strengthened dysfunctions.
What warrior cultures have understood for millennia and what military scientists have rigorously studied for centuries is the
reality that whoever can recover faster from error, surprise and failure, and whoever uses the least effort to accomplish the
most, wins. One term commonly associated with the highest level of warrior skills or martial arts is “Chi” or “Ki,” which is
translated variously as “intrinsic energy” and “maximum results with minimum effort.” It is this latter quality which concerns us.
Effective efficiency means to perform with greater total results (effectiveness) while using lesser total effort (efficiency). It’s not
how much you can perform, but how little effort it requires you to achieve the objective which determines your “fitness.” You
must quantifiably track this to be assured of our results.
We track our progress in heart rate during Moderate Intensity efforts. Track your high intensity to be aware of your edge! But
we gauge our ultimate success not by maximal effort, but by maximal efficiency. Improve your ceiling of maximal effort during
high intensity sessions, but you prepare to hold your quality repetitions at maximal effort during your moderate intensity
sessions.
If you cannot recover to less than 80%HRmax during the recovery periods, then you’re out of your target.
From a biochemical standpoint, it isn't just as we exceed heart rate maximum Target heart rate for the 4 day wave:
(HRmax) but as we rapidly approach it that the "adrenaline dump" happens. This
cascade of hormones crashes through your body like a waterfall. It's psychotropic • No intensity: <40% HRmax
effects distort reality adversely and impede your ability to function. And you cannot • Low intensity: 40-60% HRmax
adapt to it. Therefore, any reps that you perform exceeding HRmax do not count. • Moderate intensity: 60-80% HRmax
• High intensity: 80-100% HRmax
We convert training stress into bodily growth and development, but if the body feels
the strain then it calls in the jet fuel to insure that you can outrun that saber toothed
tiger.
Complete your scoresheets during your moderate intensity sessions by listing not merely your repetitions achieved but also
your heart rate, and perceived technique, effort and discomfort levels.
You can also keep aware of your breathing as it also indicates intensity level:
• No intensity: Exhale on compression, inhale on expansion. It can be easy to not connect your breathing to movement on a
no intensity session, but be sure to deliberately allow exhalation as you compress your lungs with movement (like bending
over in spinal circles – allow the exhale to happen.)
• Low intensity: Exhale on compression, inhale on expansion; but in some of the more challenging positions, you will find that
you need to exhale through the internal resistance, the tightness. Seek to let the tension melt, and return to allostatic balance
– your normal resting length.
• Moderate intensity: Exhale on effort, inhale on relaxation; if you find that you’re able to exhale on compression, that you
don’t need to exhale through the effort, then turn it up a few notches in intensity until you do. But if you find yourself
beginning to exhale very hard, or even feeling the compulsion to inhale and power through the movement, then dial it back.
• High intensity: resisting the urge to inhale on effort, is the key to high intensity. Stay underneath this defensive bracing reflex,
by keeping at a pace that you can exhale through.
Determining Heart Rate Maximum (HRmax) = 205.8 - (0.685 x AGE)

205.8
HRmax is often listed as [HRmax = 220-AGE] as in the Exercise Zone chart above. However, with so - (0.685 x AGE)
much deviation to this formula, the least objectionable formula has been found to be:
----------------
For example, a 50 year old HRmax by this formula would be: HRmax
205.8 - (0.685x50) = 205.8 - 34.25 = 171.55 or 172.
84
TACFIT PROTOCOL I: [20/10X8+60]6

• Before you begin enter your name, resting heart rate (count your HR for one minute before you begin),
your maximum heart rate (use the formula on the sheet), and both your 60% and 80% heart rate
maximum. Use your recovery techniques to keep your heart rate between these two goal posts as you
train. Moderate intensity days will target 60-80% heart rate maximum, and High days 80-100%.
• Across six exercises, you will perform one exercise at a time for 8 sets. You will exercise continuously
for 20 seconds counting good repetitions. This will be followed by 10 seconds of recovery where you
will write down your score on that set. Performed 8 times, equals 4 minutes.
• On the final set (8), you will finish, write down your score and be prepared for a 60 second recovery
before a new exercise.
• Each of these 60 seconds will be used wisely.
• The first 15, write down your score of set number 8, circle the lowest number scored in those 8 sets,
stand up and place two fingers over the side of your neck to begin counting your heart rate.
• Before the 15 seconds end, exhale sharply and deeply 3 times, then inhale slowly through the nose,
and begin exhaling at the 15 second mark, counting your heart rate for 15 seconds.
• Don’t try to inhale by lifting your shoulders, let gravity relax your shoulders down. Inhale through the
nose by closing your mouth and letting your belly expand outward.
• Then focus again on your exhale through the mouth, until the 15 seconds and your heart rate count
ends. Remember, the longer your exhale the lower your heart rate; and your heart rate slows most on
the space at the end of your total exhale before you inhale (your “control pause.”)
• On the 3rd 15 second period, record your heart rate count, multiple by 4 (quickly in your head, not
with a computer to restore primary function to your forebrain), and quickly write down your TED in the
subsequent 3 blocks, describing your technique, effort and discomfort level in that exercise.
• For the final 15 seconds of your one minute recovery, visualize your next exercise technique, orient on
your tempo to achieve your strategic quantity for that exercise across the 8 sets, and get in position
ready for 3, 2, 1, GO.
• After the final heart rate recovery is taken, then add all 6 of the circled lowest sets together, and add
all 6 heart rate scores together and divide by 6 for your average.
• Then repeat this process to find your average technique, effort and discomfort levels. Your effort
average should approximate your heart rate average; and if it deviates too dramatically, take closer
heed to the disparity between how you subjectively perceive the effort challenge compared to how
your nervous system perceives the effort challenge.
• Check your intuitive T.E.D. against the compass standards: target 8-10 on technique, 6-8 on effort,
and 1-3 on discomfort.
• Record your total score, average heart rate, and average T.E.D.
6 EXERCISES; EACH EXERCISE

PERFORMED FOR 8 SETS OF 20
SECONDS WORK FOLLOWED BY 10
S E C O N D S O F R E C O V E R Y. T A K E A 6 0
SECONDS RECOVERY AFTER ALL 8
SETS OF THE EXERCISE.
85
[20/10X8+60]6 SAMPLE SHEET

Resting Heart Rate Heart Rate Maximum Target Heart Rate
60-80% Maximum: Moderate Intensity
205.8 – (0.685 x AGE) OR 220-AGE 80-100% Maximum: High Intensity
60 220 - 40 = 180 HRmax 180HRmax = 108-144 moderate

and 144-180 high intensity
Exercises Sets Scored Heart Rate Technique Effort Discomfort
Hack Squat 12 12 11 11 12 10 10 10 141 8 6 2
Plank Pull Knee 10 9 9 8 8 9 8 8 155 9 8 2
Sit Thru Knee 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 8 152 9 7 1
Knee Press 6 6 5 6 5 5 5 4 175 7 9 3
Basic Spinal Rock 12 12 11 10 10 10 10 11 125 9 6 0
Table Lift 10 9 8 9 9 9 9 9 136 8 8 2
Score: Add the lowest of 8 sets Average Average Average Average

from each of the 6 exercises Heart Rate Technique Effort Discomfort
47 147 8 7 2
(80%Hrmax)
Record Resting Heart rate.

Calculate Heart Rate Maximum.
Calculate Target Intensity in heart rate beats per minute: for High Intensity days 80-100% heart rate maximum; and for Moderate Intensity
days 60-80% heart rate maximum.
Record Station 1 Sets Scored, Rate of Perceived Technique, Effort, Discomfort and Heart rates beats per minute
Record duration between end of program and return to resting heart rate; not applicable without heart rate monitor.
Circle Lowest Sets of each Station.
Calculate Total Score (add Lowest Sets of each Station).
Calculate Average Rate of Perceived Technique (add all 6 and divide by 6)
Calculate Average Rate of Perceived Effort (add all 6 and divide by 6)
Calculate Average Rate of Perceived Discomfort (add all 6 and divide by 6)
Calculate Average Heart Rate Beats per Minute (add all 6 and divide by 6).
Record Average Heart Rate Beats per Minute to compare with Target Heart Rate Beats per Minute span.
86
TACFIT PROTOCOL II: 4/1X4

train moderate intensity. Shift your goal posts to 80-100% for high intensity days.
• Perform 4 exercises, each for one continuous, smooth and constant four minute round. You must go
slow enough to not need to stop to take a break. If you’re finding that you must stop to recover, go
more slowly until you do not. Smooth and constant flow is required. This will be followed by a 60
second recovery period.
• Each of these 60 seconds will be used wisely, exactly like the [20/10x8+60]6 protocol.
• After the final heart rate recovery is taken, then add all four exercise scores together, and divide by
four for your average, and add all heart rate scores for your average.
• Then, find your average technique, effort and discomfort levels. Your effort average should
approximate your heart rate average; and if it deviates too dramatically, take closer heed to the
disparity between how you subjectively perceive the effort challenge compared to how your nervous
system perceives the effort challenge.
• Check your intuitive T.E.D. against the compass standards: 8-10 on technique, 6-8 on effort, and 1-3
on discomfort.
4 EXERCISES; PERFORM EACH

EXERCISE FOR ONE ROUND 4 MINUTES
IN DURATION. TAKE 1 MINUTE
RECOVERY IN BETWEEN EACH
EXERCISE.
87
4/1X4 SAMPLE SHEET


Exercises Repetitions Scored Heart Rate Technique Effort Discomfort
Walking Lunge 51 135 7 8 2
Shoulder Bridge 96 122 9 7 0

Knee Tuck
Crow Hop 62 173 7 9 3
Forearm Crocodile 59 175 8 9 3
Score: Average 4 Repetition Totals Average Average Average Average

Heart Rate Technique Effort Discomfort
67 151 8 8 2

Record Station 1 Score, Rate of Perceived Technique, Effort, Discomfort and Heart rates beats per minute
Calculate Total Score (add all stations).
88
TACFIT PROTOCOL III: EMOTM

train moderate intensity. Shift your goal posts to 80-100% for high intensity days.
• Every Minute On The Minute (EMOTM) for 20 minutes, you will perform a specific number of
repetitions. If you complete all of the repetitions in under a minute, you get one point. If you do not,
and the minute expires before you complete all the reps, you must start over at the beginning of the
subsequent minute (without a point scored).
• The faster you complete the repetitions, the more time you have to recover before the next minute
begins. The longer you take, the less quantity, and the less quality, so if you space out the repetitions
across the 60 seconds equally, you’ll have less total quality of recovery than if you were to go as fast
as your technique can hold it, and then recover longer at one time.
• As soon as you complete all the repetitions, mark down one point, or leave it blank if you failed to
complete the round (for obviously, you’re already beginning the subsequent round). Then, stand up,
and perform recovery breath technique of 3-4 short sharp exhales through the mouth followed by one
controlled inhale through the nose; finally perform one long survival exhale through the mouth to
recover your heart rate as low as possible before the next round begins.
• After all 20 rounds are finished, stand up and place two fingers over the side of your neck to begin
counting your heart rate.
• After the final heart rate recovery is taken, then add all of your scored round points together for your
total, write down your heart rate score.
• Then, find your technique, effort and discomfort levels. Your effort should approximate your heart rate
recovery; and if it deviates too dramatically, take closer heed to the disparity between how you
subjectively perceive the challenge (Intuitive T.E.D.) compared to how your nervous system perceives
the challenge (Heart Rate %).
on discomfort.
20 ROUNDS; 1 MINUTE EACH.

PERFORM THE CIRCUIT OF EXERCISES
IN LESS THAN A MINUTE. COMPLETE
A L L I N T I M E A N D G E T O N E P O I N T. I F
Y O U D O N T, T H E N N O P O I N T.
89
EMOTM SAMPLE SHEET

EACH MINUTE ON THE MINUTE

Exercises Round 1
 Round 6
 Round 11
 Round 16

4 Quad Presses Round 2
 Round 7
 Round 12 Round 17
4 Basic Spinal Rocks Round 3

 Round 8
 Round 13
 Round 18

4/4 Swinging Tripods Round 4
 Round 9 Round 14 Round 19
4 Knee Presses Round 5 Round 10

 Round 15
 Round 20

Score: Total Rounds you completed Final Final Final Final
all repetitions in under 60 seconds Heart Rate Technique Effort Discomfort
14 174 7 10 3
Record Scored Rounds (1-20).
Record Heart Rate Beats per Minute after Program Completion.
Calculate Total Score (add all round points).
Record Rate of Perceived Technique
Record Rate of Perceived Effort
Record Rate of Perceived Discomfort
90
TACFIT PROTOCOL IV: AMRAP

train on moderate intensity day. High Intensity shifts your goal posts to 80-100%.
• For 20 minutes, you will perform As Many Rounds As Possible (AMRAP) of a specific circuit of
exercises. Each time you complete the circuit, you get one point. Do this continuously for the entire 20
minutes without breaks. You must go slow enough to not need to stop to take a break. If you’re finding
that you must stop to recover, go more slowly until you do not. Smooth and constant flow is required.
• Each time you complete a circuit, mark down one point.
• After all 20 minutes end, stand up and place two fingers over the side of your neck to begin counting
your heart rate.
subjectively perceive the effort challenge compared to how your nervous system perceives the effort
challenge.
on discomfort.
COMPLETE THE CIRCUIT AS MANY

TIMES AS POSSIBLE IN 20 MINUTES.
91
AMRAP SAMPLE SHEET

AS MANY ROUNDS AS POSSIBLE

Exercises Round 1
 Round 6
 Round 11
 Round 16
5 Burpees Round 2
 Round 7
5 Knee Presses Round 3

 Round 8
5/5 Gecko Presses Round 4

 Round 9
5 Shoulder Bridge
Tucks
Round 5
 Round 10
Score: Total number of circuits you Final Final Final Final

completed in under 20 minutes Heart Rate Technique Effort Discomfort
11 165 8 8 2
Record Scored Rounds (1-20).
Record Heart Rate Beats per Minute after Program Completion.
Calculate Total Score (add all round points).
Record Rate of Perceived Technique
Record Rate of Perceived Effort
Record Rate of Perceived Discomfort
92
TACFIT PROTOCOL V: [90/30X5]2

train moderate intensity. On high intensity days, shift your goal posts to 80-100%.
• Over 5 stations, you will perform one station at a time in sequence, and once you have performed
each station, you will repeat the circuit a second time. You will exercise continuously for 90 seconds
counting good repetitions. This will be followed by 30 seconds of recovery where you will write down
your score on that set. Performed 2 times, equals 20 minutes.
• As the 90 second station ends, when you will finish, write down your score and be prepared for only a
total of 30 second recovery before the next station begins.
• Each of these 30 seconds will be used wisely.
• The first 5, stand up and place two fingers over the side of your neck to begin counting your heart
rate.
and begin exhaling at the end of the 5 second mark, counting your heart rate for 15 seconds.
• On the final 10 second period, record your total repetition score for the station, record your heart rate
count (without multiplying by 4). Quickly write down your TED in the subsequent 3 blocks, describing
your technique, effort and discomfort level in that exercise.
• Then in the final seconds, visualize your next exercise technique, orient on your tempo to achieve your
strategic quantity for that exercise across the 90 seconds of continuous movement, and get in
position ready for 3, 2, 1, GO.
• After the final heart rate recovery is taken, circle the lowest of the two sets for each attempt at a
station. You only get the lowest score per station. Then, add all 5 of the circled lowest sets together,
and add all 10 heart rate scores together and divide by 10, and then multiply by 4 to get your average
HRBPM.
• Then, find your average technique, effort and discomfort levels. Your effort average should
approximate your heart rate average; and if it deviates too dramatically, take closer heed to the
disparity between how you subjectively perceive the effort challenge compared to how your nervous
system perceives the effort challenge.
on discomfort.
5 EXERCISES; PERFORM EACH FOR 90

SECONDS FOLLOWED BY 30 SECONDS
R E C O V E R Y. A F T E R Y O U C O M P L E T E A L L
5 EXERCISES, DO IT AGAIN.
93
[90/3X5]2 SAMPLE SHEET


Exercises Flight 1 Flight 2 Heart Rate Technique Effort Discomfort
Forearm Cross Knee 36 30 140 152 8 9 7 8 0 0

Thread
Rocca Bent 21 22 155 143 8 8 8 7 1 2
Jump Up 32 32 176 185 8 8 9 10 1 1
Quad Press 18 15 183 182 8 7 10 10 2 3
Alternating Dolphin 20 13 175 173 8 7 9 9 2 3
Score: Add together the lowest Average Average Average Average

score for each of the 5 exercises Heart Rate Technique Effort Discomfort
111 149 8 8 3

Calculate Target Intensity in heart rate beats per minute: For High Intensity days 80-100% heart rate maximum; and for Moderate Intensity
Record Station 1 Score Flight 1, Heart rates beats per minute, Rate of Perceived Technique, Effort, Discomfort
Circle Lowest Sets of each Station.
Calculate Total Score (add Lowest Sets of each Station).
94
TACFIT PROTOCOL VI: AFAP

train on moderate intensity days. Shift your goal posts to 80-100% on high intensity days.
• For 20 minutes, you will perform a specific number of repetitions per exercise As Fast As Possible
(AFAP), which you can complete in any order strategy. You must go slow enough to not need to stop
to take a break. If you’re finding that you must stop to recover, go more slowly until you do not.
Smooth and constant flow is required.
• There are no points. Only completion. The faster you finish, the better your score.
• After all 20 minutes end, stand up and place two fingers over the side of your neck to begin counting
your heart rate.
subjectively perceive the effort challenge compared to how your nervous system perceives the effort
challenge.
on discomfort.
COMPLETE ALL OF THE REPETITIONS

AS FAST AS YOUR TECHNIQUE CAN
HOLD YOUR SPEED IN LESS THAN
TWENTY MINUTES.
95
AFAP SAMPLE SHEET

AS FAST AS POSSIBLE

Exercises
50/50 Side Lunges
50 Hack Squats
50/50 Forearm Side

Planks
50 Jump Ups
Total Time elapsed for completing Final Final Final Final

all repetitions in Under 20 minutes Heart Rate Technique Effort Discomfort
14:12 177 8 10 2

Record Time for Completion, Heart rates beats per minute, Rate of Perceived Technique, Effort, Discomfort
96
thrive
flow
LOW INTENSITY
EXERCISE PROGRAM
Discharge Excess Stress

R e l e a s e Ti g h t n e s s
Increase Circulation
R e m o v e To x i c i t y
R e s t o r e Vi t a l i t y
WHAT COMES AFTER SURVIVAL

I am simply a fighter, trying to be more. Fighting was just not enough any longer. For me, survival was a
necessary requirement and an insufficient quality of existence. So please allow me to step outside the strict
confines of health and fitness, and speak to wellness; or said another way, well-being.
If you’re anything like me, you’ve fought for so long, with such intense focus, that you too can forget that
we did not fight for hate of what’s in front of us, but love of what is behind, around and within us. Like we
can forget that we were originally getting fit for a purpose, we can lose sight that we were fighting, so that
we could stop.
We can still continue our readiness. But we need not suffer

hypervigilance. We can still keep our sword sharp. But we
don’t need to allow our armor to rust with dents, dings and
breaks. And when we remove the damage from the armor,
and polish it to a mirror-finish, what will it reflect then?
What comes after survival?
I imagine a life my father may have had, perhaps not even

with me, but at the very least, without the internal agony of
latent rage, crushing shame and silent terror. Life is not
merely the absence of those harm; it’s the presence of
good. Not the pleasures with which we self-medicated, but
a return to the innocent excitement for another day of
simple peace.
As you remove the heavy compensations, and knock out the armor dents, as you return to symmetrical
tensegrity and polish off the rust, feelings are going to return, feelings I learned through years of experience
to suppress far down, and lock away for fear of exploitation of perceived weakness. They will start coming,
in drips and drabs, and then, if you’re brave enough and feel safe enough, the feelings return like a torrent.
Joy does not make us weak. It allows us to thrive. There is no other way than to return to our simplicity.
When we unload and decompress, we’re going to need to experience that vulnerability. We do not need to
carry that burden alone any longer. We can set it down, like suitcases full of obsolete armor, we kept
holding on to even as we outgrew it.
We may be called to fight once again, but from our courage to do more than only survive, for our bravery to
be innocent and free of heart once again, we will be stronger than before; more balanced, centered, certain
and clear, more lucid, alert, better prepared and more calm.
I imagine my father’s simple happiness in a life I never saw him get to live. I can imagine it, because like
you, I try to live it every day with my children. Sometimes, I make mistakes, and forget. But it’s getting
easier and easier to remember, and re-shift into more efficient gears, and cruise...
When you move from a focus on surviving to thriving in your life, don’t expect that it will come with ease.
Sometimes, this feels the most challenging; letting ourselves truly appreciate what we worked so hard for.
This book, this section, this point, was why my life culminated to this point... So I could share it with you.
Thank you for allowing me to have this honor, and making available to you, the great opportunities for
quality of life that my teachers have made for me.
98
FROM FIGHTER TO WARRIOR

“The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other from a
strong won't.” ~ Henry Ward Beecher
When the going gets tough, The Warrior does not back down. The Warrior’s indomitable spirit consistently keeps
driving forward, and with a graceful and calm confidence, focuses on creating winning solutions for themselves and
those around them. The Fighter however, often confuses the determination and fortitude of The Warrior, with a
misguided ‘win at all costs’ attitude. To become flexible and agile, The Fighter must learn to let go of ideas and
thoughts which do not gain traction towards success, rather than remain unreasonably fixed on holding out for the
win.
"No matter what your circumstances, you will end up losing everything you love, you will end up aging, you will end
up ill. And the problem is that we need to figure out a way how to make that all be all right." ~ Jane Hirshfield.
The Warrior practices acceptance. The Warrior finds peace in the knowledge that you can never truly lose love when
you are 'being love,' that we are more than simply our physical manifestation and that illness is a way to understand
the opportunities our body presents to us to grow in strength and wisdom. The Fighter accepts none of this and
continues to push rocks up hills.
Becoming The Warrior does not happen overnight. It happens throughout each day.
It is the accumulation of every second of every one of your moments. It is the meaning you assign to your world and
to your purpose within it - always.
The Warrior does not seek to be fear LESS. The Warrior seeks to be MORE than fear.
The Warrior does not seek to turn fear off or on, but to glide effortlessly between all energetic states creating the
illusion of a seamless and formless journey through the past, the present and the future. The Warrior transcends
succumbing to the effect of fear and instead controls its volatile force with deadly precision.
The Warrior is not an action taken in the midst of battle. It is a state of being attained and sustained through intention,
design and determination.
The Warrior does not wait until the moment of truth to determine success, but practices success by turning every
moment into a chosen truth.”
- Athena Scott-Rublee CPC, ELI-MP
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E V O LV E D F O R C O M P L E X I T Y
Neuroscientist and TED keynote speaker Daniel Wolpert, Ph.D. asserts, “our brains
evolved for one reason only; to produce complex and adapted movement.” All
activities, from feelings to thoughts to communication are physical actions designed to drive
or suppress future movements. Wolpert explains that the brain evolved, not to think or feel,
but to control movement, to create the grace and agility of human motion. (TEDGlobal, July
2011, in Edinburg, Scotland, http://blog.ted.com/2011/11/03/the-real-reason-for-brains)
Exercising “complex movements” becomes a compelling, rational argument for an

evolutionary approach to fitness. As we were genetically designed for Paleolithic hunting
and gathering, our brains evolved specifically to enable complex movements which we find
in our ancient and modern martial arts, as well as through tribal dance expressions such as
b‐boy breakdance and urban “locomotive” disciplines
like parkour.
How we have evolved to thrive has been built upon

how we were designed to survive.
If you want to excel in your fitness, you must tap deep

into your genetic makeup, into the symbolism which
movement represents as Joseph Campbell describes,
into the imprinted archetypes of Jungian psychology. As
an increasing number of cutting-edge neuroscientists are
revealing, your nervous system evolved to support your
survival, so that your optimal health benefits “thrive.”
When you begin with that primal heritage in mind, you
discover you must progress by adding complexity.
Often misquoted as “survival of the fittest,” Charles

Darwin actually advised that, “it’s not the strongest which survive, nor even the most
intelligent, but the species most adaptable which is the fittest to survive.” Perhaps you have
managed to be fit to survive. But with your aches, pains, injuries and illnesses, are you fit
to thrive?
Dr. Lewis Lipsitz explains in his article of the same name that “Aging is a Process of
Complexity Loss” (Complex Systems Science in Biomedicine; Topics in Biomedical
Engineering, 2006, Part III, Section 7, 641-654). Lipsitz continues that, our nervous system
craves complexity, and therefore, lacking complex challenges, aging accelerates. The
corollary is also true, that complexity slows, halts and reverses the accelerated aging
process, for our brains evolved to thrive by developing and refining complex and adapted
movement. This too may be one of the central thesis points of this book. Please reread this
paragraph.
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OUR PALEOLITHIC BLUEPRINT

Why do you plateau, backslide, and regress into pain and injury doing the same workout? How do your workouts not
work for you, but rather against you? Because they too often lack effective tactics for being healthily fit the way we
were genetically evolved to thrive.
As a matter of fact, most people exercise in such a way that 50% of what they’re doing causes more harm than
good, and even creates pain, injury and illness. Ask yourself, how can you exercise so you can:
• Minimize time invested to 20-30 minutes/day.

• Maximize results in not just one aspect of fitness, but all aspects (power, strength, stamina, endurance,
flexibility, agility, flow).
• Increase available energy, not just for your workout, but throughout the day and restfully through the night.
• Become pain and injury free, by removing the emergency brake before stomping on the accelerator.
• Regain a powerful, graceful physique and continue to refine this inherent potential throughout your lifetime.
“Tactical fitness” and “primal movement” have erupted across the fitness industry, and many disciplines believe
exercising how we were evolved to move, delivers optimal fitness. But few experts present a rational theory as to
how our movement evolved. Let’s look at the hard science.
In Russia, I learned that the key concept underpinning our

apparently unlimited potential regards a neurological blueprint
of how we develop as infants to adults, called the
Proximodistal-Cephalocaudal Trend (meaning, head to toe –
core to periphery.) Excessive stress follows this specific pattern,
since we’re genetically programmed to the organize physical
growth and motor control along the path of this tendency.
Normal neurophysiological growth of infants follows this
tendency, as does our development as adults.
According to the Proximodistal principle, development

proceeds from belly-outward; near to far outward from central
axis of the body toward the extremities. In the fetus, the head
and trunk are fairly well developed before the rudimentary limb
buds appear. Gradually the arm buds lengthen and develop into
hands and fingers. Functionally, babies can use their arms
before their hands and can use their hands as a unit before they
can control the movements of the fingers.
According to the Cephalocaudal principle, development

spreads over the body from head-downward. This means that
improvement in structure and function come first in the head
region, then in the trunk, and last in the leg region.
However, these principles do not switch off genetically after

infancy. They remain “highways” for neurophysiological growth
and development in teenagers, adults and seniors. (E. L.
Vincent and P.C. Martin: Human Psychological Development.
Ronald, 1961.)
These principles have guided motor skill acquisition curricula for such prominent educational institutions such as the
St. Petersburg Institute of Physical Culture (Russia), the Imperial Society for Teachers of Dancing (UK) and the Classic
Homeopathic Research Center (India).
101
SIMPLIFYING COMPLEXITY
Earlier in the Revive section, I discussed which joint complexes required mobility in order to prevent stable joints needing to
substitute mobility for tightened, weakened or restricted joint movement. I also stated that once mobility had been restored, then
we could begin the process of strengthening stabilization in the joints requiring it. This begins the section on Thriving through
our survival warding patterns. In the Thrive flow portion of this approach, you anchor the stabilizing joints and expand the
potential range of motion through twisting, bending and tilting architecture.
Two means of movement expansion occur: Movement through open-chain and through closed-chain.
The more open a chain of movement, the greater opportunity for you to move a stable joint due
to tightness across a joint intended to be more mobile.
Mobilize Stabilize
Open Chain: Relatively unpredictable movement, due to the detachment from a
fixed surface. For example, throwing a rock, or kicking an opponent. The most Neck Jaw
open chain movement would be free-fall while skydiving.
Shoulders Scaps
Closed Chain: Relatively predictable movement, due to the attachment from a
fixed surface. For example, performing a pushup, or a squat. The most closed
Wrists Elbows
chain movement would be lying prone (face-down) and attempting to crawl without
lifting hands or feet.
Fingers Hands
The more closed a chain of movement, the greater the likelihood of maintaining stabilization
across joints intended to be stable, and the deeper the possible work of restoring lost mobility Mid Back Lower Back
in tightness across joints.
Hips Knees
Now, you must open the chain at sometime if you intend to move from one place. And even if
you stand feet firm to the ground, you can still destabilize joints due to tightness in other places.
Ankles Feet/Arches
However, we must differentiate here between Revive and Thrive.
Toes
• Revive regards restoring lost mobility.
• Thrive regards increasing movement complexity, as the neuroscience research implies.
Therefore, in movement programs with the intention to thrive, we ought to seek to keep the chains as closed as possible in order
to maximize proper symmetry of mobilization and stabilization.
In Survive oriented workouts, we create regressions for ourselves to maintain high levels of mechanical form, we increasingly
“close the chain on the movement until the technique increases to sufficient number (8 or higher.) For example, we may begin
with jump lunges, but as our form begins to dip under “very good technique,” we regress to front lunges, and if by the end of the
round we cannot keep very good technique in the front lunge, we close the chain altogether, and perform lunge squats (standing
in a lunge and squatting up and down without moving the feet.)
Similarly, in Thrive oriented programs we seek to close the chain on stabilizing joints so that we can improve the complexity of
mobile joints, and the movement between them for a cumulative effect of greater efficiency (which biomechanics calls
Sequential Summation of Forces.) For example, due to potential tightness across certain joints, imagine the difficulty in a
standing position to expand the spinal twisting action of the Tripod Vertical pictured in this book. Typically, the lower back and
knees perform the rotations because the posting arm cannot close the chain with the body horizontal to gravity, increasing the
likelihood of a stable lower back and stable knees.
Next, I will discuss how to identify the key structural components of each exercise, so that you can ensure that you’re mobilizing
what ought to move, and preventing movement in what ought to remain stable. SAPS attempts to steal your technique in 7 key
components. Understand how to revive these components through your regressions, and survive them during your
progressions, and expand them as you move on to thrive with greater complexity.
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1. CROWN TO COCCYX ALIGNMENT

This “Long Spine” involves 3 elements to maintain the primal power of your spring-coiled spinal S-curve:
Cervical: Chin down but not tucked - crown lifted: There should be a backward surge of the head and
an upward rotating pitch of the top of the skull in order to bring the head into anti-gravitation. Under stress
we tend to elicit the SAPS reflex; by jutting the chin outward, translating the neck forward, and rotating the
crown down crunching the base of the skull into the neck. The nervous system is a neurochemical highway,
and when we pinch off part of the conduit, we reduce our neural drive and decrease our proprioception
(balance, kinesthetic awareness, position sense, and tension activation.)
Thoracic: Heart lifted, chest down, ribs shut: Under stress or due to adjacent joint tightness, we tend to
cave in the mid-back to compensate for strength deficits, forcing the mid-back to hinge, twist and tilt
(Upper Cross Syndrome). Imagine lifting your heart toward your chin as your chin drops down (#1), but
simultaneously dropping your solar plexus downward and clamping the sides of your ribs toward your hips.
You’ll need to exhale (which correlates to #5: Core Activation.)
Lumbar: Tailbone down not under: Tailbone tucked suffices as a cue but some people suffer too much
tuck (Type A Lower Cross Syndrome) and others too much arch (Type B Lower Cross Syndrome). People
with too much arch really need to tuck, but people with pre-existing structural tuck should imagine pointing
the tailbone down toward the Earth to maximize the appropriate angle. Under load we tend to exaggerate
arching or rounding the lower back, destabilizing it and forcing it to bear weight; primarily due to adjacent
joint tightness (in #6: Hip Recruitment), or lacking sufficient strength of Core Activation and / or Leg Drive.
Regress until the lumber stabilizes.
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2. SHOULDER PACK
Closed Packed Position involves stabilizing the shoulder blades (scapuli) so the spine can carry the
weight of the lift, and not the soft tissues of the shoulder girdle. However, under excessive stress, hard-
wired SAPS reflexes curl forward the shoulder joints (gleno-humeral), elevating and winging the shoulder
blades. Under stress, to elevate the shoulder blades, carry the weight or speed of the motion in the
locomotive soft-tissues rather than by the skeletal chassis. Furthermore, this aspect of SAPS then
destabilizes the elbows in #3: Arm Lock popping them flared away from contact with the ribs, internally
rotating the upper arm. This places high demands upon the fascia holding the rotator cuff, leading to
continual shoulder pain.
Roll Back and Depress, but Don’t Pinch or Tip. To combat the SAPS distortion to the shoulders, depress
or drop the scaps down toward your hips by pulling your shoulders down. Don’t pinch (retract) your
shoulder blades together; nor tip them backward arching the mid-back. Roll the shoulders back without
retracting or tipping the shoulder blades. These active cues used in each repetition will guarantee that the
entire body resists the forced rotation caused by the swung weight.
104
3. ARM LOCK
Arm Lock involves four primary configurations:
Order Position: In Order, position the forearms perpendicular to upper arms, and parallel to each other, as
in the bottom position of the pushup. Shoulder blades are depressed, not retracted / pinched, and not
winged or tipped. The elbows pinch tightly to ribs, in front of lats, and pressing toward obliques and hips.
When SAPS tightens the shoulder joint, scaps wing forward or tipping backward, and elbows destabilize
away from ribs causing weight to be carried by the small delts. Actively flare the lats and pull the tricep into
the cobra fold of the lat, drive the elbow down to the rib and pinch to the ribs to transfer the force through
the skeletal chassis to resist rotation.
Guard Position: In Guard, position the forearms perpendicular to upper arms and forearms at right angles
to each other. If holding a clubbell, then top gripping forearm pinched to ribs, bottom gripping forearm tight
to the belly.
Back Position: Keep the forearm as close to the head as possible, like performing a rising elbow strike or
boxer’s cover, and maintain shoulder pack depressing scap down with ample space between the deltoid
and neck. The pit of the elbow should face behind you when the shoulders are healthy; when they are not,
they will rotate inward to face each other. Back Position is the primary position for handstands, overhead
presses, and clubbell training. If shoulders are tight, then it may force the elbows to flare outward and carry
the load on the rotator cuff, and cause the mid-back to arch as you lift the arms overhead.
Flag Position: As in the top of the pushup position, the elbows should be locked by tricep tension.
Externally rotating the elbows outward, turn the elbow “pits” to face up toward the head - elbow “points”
face your hips. Pinch the chest pecs flexed. If rotators on shoulders are tight, then elbows pits may not turn
upward, and may continue to face each other. This means the elbows destabilize and the weight or speed
of the exercise will be carried by the soft tissue and can lead to elbow tendonitis. Your movements should
be performed by moving to full flag lockout to prevent injury and to use the whole body to move resistance.
105
4. GRIP CONFIRMATION
Without addressing the evolution of the hand, we cannot appreciate or
express our power through our hands. If you imagine the real estate of
your brain allocated to operate your hands, our hands would be land
barons (see the figure of the Homunculus.) The majority of the brain
tissue is devoted to the most sensory rich areas of the body—the
hands, feet, and facial structures. So how can we use this to optimize
training? The hand evolved for clubbing and throwing; therefore, using
club and throw grips will provide the greatest neurological training
benefits. Scientists have proven that the human hand evolved
specifically for two reasons: throwing and clubbing. When our primate
ancestors began to throw rocks and swing clubs at adversaries, this
behavior let to millions of years of reproductive advantages, and as a
result drove natural selection to favor improved throwing and clubbing
prowess. The best throwers and clubbers in our ancestral community
would rise to dominance and secure the greatest breeding
opportunities, and as a result, scientists have shown that the hand
adapted specifically for improved throwing and clubbing.
The two fundamental human grips, originally identified by Dr, J.R.

Napier, were referred to as the precision or throwing grip, and the
power or clubbing grip. The evolution of these two grips is supported
“This scenario accounts for the unprecedented ability
by extensive paleoanthropological evidence. This article addresses the
of modern humans to swing clubs with power.
clubbing, or the power grip, and being a strength and conditioning Selection for improved clubbing produced an
topic, concentrates on the first, original and most neurologically innovative, instinctive, whole-body motion performed
efficient form of primal power: The Clubbell®. from an upright stance that begins with a thrust of the
legs. Improved dynamic upright balance on more
There have been many debates lately as the Clubbell has exploded powerful legs and resilient feet in the service of
across the world with interest and utility, and many new experts argue clubbing would have made upright locomotion more
as to the optimal grip. This article poses that the optimal grip, our efficient, leading to its increasing use and eventually
primal power, is derived from the design which has taken millions of culminating in habitual bipedalism.”
years to adapt, and which our nervous system has optimized for true,
Evolution of the Human Hand: Throwing and Clubbing
full-bodily functional strength and force application. There are many
Journal of Anatomy 2003 January; 202(1): 165–174.
grips one could invent, but there is only one grip for which we were doi: 10.1046/j.1469-7580.2003.00144.x
optimally designed. PMCID: PMC1571064
To capitalize on our primal heritage and maximize our power, Clubbell

training should exploit the power grip in naturally offensive, biomechanically efficient movement patterns. These
movement patterns are opposite of what anthropologists call our innate “warding postures” - the genetic positions to
optimally resist, absorb and redirect force applied against us. Our biologically optimal movement patterns to build
strength and conditioning are designed to express power, or rather to generate and apply force to another object.
Grip Confirmation includes the actions of aligning the wrist to sustain traction and to regulate the gripping
configuration of the fingers. Wrists should be aligned with forearms “flat” so that you don’t exceed flexion or
extension, or deviate with lateral bend, just like you would want your wrist alignment to throw a punch. Tightness in
the forearm flexors can cause you to excessively curl the wrist, and tightness in forearm extensors causes you to
bend back the wrist when holding and swinging weight; leading to wrist carpal tunnel irritation, ganglion cysts and
sprains. Grip should not be a death-tight hook like on a barbell deadlift or a strict pullup, but should change tightness
depending upon the angle the weight gets swung or lifted.
When swinging the clubbell, the wrists, pinky pulls tightest backward, while the joint between the thumb to the
pointer finger pushes forward and downward. In the Back Position, the thumb and forefinger pinch strongest, like
making a tight “OK” sign with your hand, while the pinky side of the hand is used to help push through the rotation of
the swing.
When not throwing or clubbing, if we intend to optimize our training effect, we must still use these grips. Special
attention must be paid to the configuration of the hand placement in all exercises.
106
5. CORE ACTIVATION
Core Activation requires its own dedicated address of content, but involves a process of “crushing the can”
of the core:
Cinch in the transverse abdominus (your corset or spiral line) by bringing the naval toward your spine, but
without “hollowing” and sucking your naval upward to your chest; and cinch in your intercostals and
serators (the belt around your solar plexus). Exhale. The Cinch is designed to resist rotation on twist right-
left.
Crunch down the rectus abdominus (your 6 pack) ribs toward pelvis without rounding the mid-back.
Exhale crunch up the pelvic floor (your Kegel, perenium, anus, urinary muscles) to “lock” and prevent
leakage of power out the bottom of the can. This will aid in activating the multifidus and other intrinsic
musculature which resists rotation on bending front-back.
Lock down: Pull down the internal and external obliques and quadratus lumborum (your lateral line or
“suspenders”) from ribs toward hips. The Crunch is designed to resist rotation on the tilt right-left. To crush
the can, you exhale and cinch tight, crunch down and lock down. Simple, but not easy. Practice. You’ll
improve with practice, if you can only practice one of the cues at a time.
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6. HIP RECRUITMENT
Hip Recruitment enables lumbar stabilization to connect leg drive with core activation and crown to coccyx
alignment. It includes four critical elements to combine the rotation of one hip with the other. If the hips are
tight, then the lower back is forced to destabilize; rotate and twist leading to potential dangers; or the
knees are forced to rotate outward or buckle inward to accommodate the hip tightness.
Double Hip Snap: Pelvic pushed completely forward with full hip extension and tailbone pointed
downward. Knees lock.
Side Hip Snap: One hip pressed forward to extension with downward tailbone.
Sit-Back: Folding at both hips so that the belly comes toward the thighs without mid-back rounding, sitting
backwards as if to sit down in a chair.
Side Hip Root: Folding at one hip like Sit-Back, but rotating backward at an angle as if sitting back in a
chair at a 45 degree angle behind you.
108
7. LEG DRIVE
Leg Drive addresses the downward pressure pushing the Earth away to lift the upper body away, and to
absorb downward resistance applied from the upper body, which the core resists in rotation.
If the ankles are tight, the knees may be forced to track outward or inward, or tilt your foot inward
(inversion; falling arch) or outward (eversion; over-treading), and prevent from tapping into the optimal
pressing power of mid-foot drive.
Pushing the Earth away from mid-foot “grounds” you, stabilizes you, and allows you to attain anti-
gravitation and powerful propulsion. Exhale to resist the rotation, and maintain optimal leg rooting and drive
into the Earth.
109
TA K I N G O U R B R E AT H AWAY
"Life is not measured by the amount of breaths we take in our life,
but the number of moments in life which take our breath away."
Nothing "inspires" us more significantly than our breath. Inspiration. To breathe in. From the root, spiritus:
spirit. Nothing exemplifies our quality of life than the quality of our breath. Every ancient discipline has
concentrated upon breath. Yet only in recent decades has modern science begun to comprehend the
magnitude with which breath affects us, and how life affects our breath.
Breath control remains the most rigorous and esoteric practice in human history: Disciplined preparation to
enhance your quality of life and, as evidenced by powerfully compelling modern research, even your
quantity of life.
"If you're breathing, you're alive. And if you're breathing hard, you're LIVING!"
Those cherished breathless moments throughout our very short existence define us. We recollect them with
loving nostalgia in times of peaceful reverie, and with clutching comfort in calamitous times of imminent
jeopardy.
But what does it mean for a moment to take our breath away? What happens, and why? Many theories, and
a species-wide chronicle of exploration, have offered libraries of ideas. Let us discuss just one: When a dire
moment steals our breath away, how do we rapidly recover from it, to reclaim it, to seize it back from the
vacuum which has sucked it from us?
Breath is our final addiction in life. Our spirited lives, like no other time in history, swim in an ocean of
stressors, anxieties and fears. When overwhelmed by circumstances, we asphyxiate from the seemingly-
necessary evil of excessive stress. If you're going to walk the line of adventure and growth, if you will not
shirk from the challenges which life presents, then stress becomes the currency of our growth.
Stress adapts us, and as Charles Darwin illuminated, "it is not the strongest which survives, nor even the
most intelligent, but the most adaptable, which survives," and thrives as cutting edge neuroscience has
revealed. Those moments which leave us blissfully at the loss of breath, erupted from what psychologists
label as eustress; positive stress which fosters adaptive growth. We develop from eustress; and we can say
that we live for it. Those are the moments which take away our breath... in a positive way.
But another more common perspective of stress pervades... the negative. The founder of the concept of
psychological stress, Hans Seyle, on his deathbed described one of his greatest lamentations involved the
miscomprehension of stress. He said that he had wished that he had used the word strain to distinguish it
from positive stress (eustress.)
Strain (excessive levels of stress to which we cannot adapt) floods over us like a tsunami. Our breath
drowns in its turgid rapids. Psychologists offer the distinction of the negativity of strain by the term distress.
110
BREATHING: REVIVE SURVIVE THRIVE

Distress steals our breath, imprisoning it in a high pressure chamber, with volcanic repercussions. The
Paleolithic aspect of nervous system perceives distress as mortal threat, and mobilizes for fight or flight; and
if nothing can discharge this potential, it freezes us paralyzed from overload.
This one aspect of your nervous system (the Sympathetic) cannot differentiate between a true lethal threat,
such as saber toothed tiger chasing you across the prehistoric tundra, and an emotional / symbolic threat,
like a belligerent coworker, a terrible two year old tantrum, or the dread of a drained bank account and a lost
job. Your nervous system evolved to help you with today's survival, with no consideration of the total length
of your life, nor the quality of you living it. And so it steals away our breath, sending us into the pressure of
rage or into vacuous panic.
Our breath holds near-magical properties in that, both branches of your nervous system plug into it. You
breathe automatically (thank God), but you can also volunteer how you're breathing. Furthermore, how we
choose to upload our breath program to our nervous system server influences your entire operating system;
so, if you need to get excited, vitalized and aroused for action, you can breathe one way, and if you need to
calm down, think clearly and act with precision, then you can breathe another way.
As a yoga teacher for over a decade, I've explored the relaxation methods of breath control, and their
oceans run deep and wide. These proactive measures improve quality and quantity of life. But we also
require counter-active methods for facing distress, recovering from it, and developing a tough resistance to
it.
We must certainly heal our trauma, but we must also have the courage to face those hardships. We must
learn how to retreat to a sacred place and convalesce, and sometimes we must stand firm within a hurricane
of high speed moments of distress, and deal. When we can't retreat, what then do we do?
How do we stand clearly, calmly, in the face of a crisis and respond with higher consciousness, rather
than falling into panic, anxiety, rage, frustration, doubt or hesitation?
The breathing techniques for stress-free relaxation differ from the methods to rapidly recover from distress
while needing to face and resolve it. If you've ever been in a fight for your life, you may be able to repeat
your prayer or mantra in your head, but rarely through your lips. You're just breathing too hard. Strain erodes
the depth and pace of our breath, which exacerbates the already critical situation. When in a distressing
crisis, we can recover our mind and our emotions through counter active breathing techniques.
We need this sangfroid recovery more than we know. If we look at how we are dying today compared to a
century ago, our number one killer across the planet isn't a bullet or a bomb, not a virus or a bacteria, but
stress-related heart disease. Distress does worse than corrodes our mind, it cannibalizes our body, and
literally breaks our heart.
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THE RESILIENT BREATH

The impact upon our health may not be catastrophic for some time, but its daily toll upon us cannot be
denied. Emotional stress can feel so overpowering. Early childhood violence and a family of post traumatic
stress perpetuated a cycle of emotional abuse and anxiety, for which many of us seek out therapies.
Some of us gravitate to the martial arts for a physical catharsis to counter-act the ravages distress wreaks
upon us. As an emotional and mental discipline, the martial arts give us the incremental opportunity to
immerse ourselves in threatening scenarios, and as a result cultivate methods of resilience to distress. Over
twenty years of competitive fighting for my country's national team, as the USA Coach, I applied my
observations to assess the effectiveness of these methods in preparing my athletes to bounce back from
falling prey to excessively high stress.
My research as a national coach took me to Russia where breath training had been refined to a science by
Dr. Nikolay Buteyko and Dr. Vladimir Frolov. However, US research has been successfully organized by LTC
David Grossman, featured in his books On Combat and Warrior Mindset where this esteemed former West
Point psychology professor ironically cited me as a source, though I had been using his research as MY
source. (See his free iPhone app called: Tactical Breathing.)
In the mid 1990s, I began assisting the senior psychologist at a neurobehavioral clinic in movement therapy
for brain damaged and mentally ill children. Taking our early successes with the children to research upon
university students, we discovered that the movements I performed, embedded with specific breathing
techniques, entrained the subjects to perform better under stress. Refining our study we extracted the
breathing techniques from the movements, and pinpointed their effectiveness. The doctor went on to publish
a study in the Journal of Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback proving the validity of the approach.
You can counteract distress, and recover back to eustress. This is the definition of resilience: To recover
rapidly from strain. Breath, like no other mechanism in human existence, provides us with the password to
that encrypted server.
Having survived the pressure cooker due to some incredibly talented coaches and teachers around the
world, and be given such incredible quality of life through their education, I'd like to "pay it forward" to those
of you who didn't have the time and opportunities with which I had been blessed. (Granted, some of those
more violent experiences didn't seem like blessings to me at the time!)
Resilience Breathing involves the researched techniques I've refined over the years as a national team
coach for several different sports, and as a consultant to those who statistically suffer the hardships of
distress with an average mortality of age 54; firefighters, police and soldiers. Using these techniques, and
others, in federal and municipal academies, I've reduced training related injuries to zero, which for them had
never before happened in their academy histories.
These techniques also apply to our health, as we face the same specter as tactical responders and martial
artists; distress is our number one killer. Proactively, we can address it through ancient disciplines such as
yoga, sufism, and bagua. But we can also counteract distress in the moment they happen to us, with other
techniques.
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SEQUENCE OF RESILIENCE BREATHING

We can recover from distress to the point that it can once again transform us as eustress. We can become
stronger, better human beings from stress... if we are able to increase our resilience.
The five sequence technique of Resilience Breathing cannot be described as a singular technique, as it
involves a series of techniques strung together to produce a synergistic effect. They address the challenge
of reclaiming breath from involuntary reflex back to voluntary control while counter-acting the reflexive
breathing elicited by distressing circumstances.
1. The first technique teaches you how to transfer from being out of breath, "gassed" and hyperventilating,
to reclaiming control of the speed of the breath to stop hyperventilation from exacerbating your nervous
system eliciting reflexes.
• When out of breath, perform a controlled inhalation through the nose while closing the mouth. This
slows down the rapid breathing.
2. The second technique teach you how to lengthen the inhalation so that you reclaim depth of tidal volume:
how much total capacity of the lungs you utilize.
• Lengthen the inhalation by expanding the belly while still inhaling through the nose.
3. The third technique then takes the reclaimed control of the inhalation, and shifts the focus to the
exhalation, so that you can begin to calm the nervous system's alarm.
• Perform several short, sharp exhales through the mouth after the nasal inhalation.
4. The fourth technique shuts off the alarm by enabling the "tend and mend" response to counteract the
fight or fight reflex.
• Perform a long, slow deep oral exhale by pulling the belly toward the spine (and still perform the nasal
inhale, but just by relaxing the muscles of the exhale.)
5. The fifth technique reboots the entire nervous system so that all corners of the four aspects of breath
receive their due diligence, and this restores awareness and adaptive potential to the stress you can now
process.
• Perform another oral exhale long and slow exhale for four count, pause at the end of the exhale for
four, release the muscles to perform a nasal inhale for four, and pause for four without bracing and
creating pressure in your chest or head. Repeat.
These five techniques combined produce a synergistic effect far more powerful than any single one of them.
They culminate in shutting down our primitive reflexive breathing, and by restoring conscious breathing. You
may not need to start at #1, but where you start, progress in sequence forward 1-5 for optimal effect.
Resiliency will aid in the prevention of stress related illness, and, as a result, contribute to the prevention of
an early demise. But it will also improve our quality of life. There are no magic pills. These methods don't
stop you from experiencing breathless moments, and if we are truly LIVING, then why would we want to?
But they will help us to quickly bounce back from the negativity of distress while it is happening, rather than
waiting until it has already begun to destroy us bodily, mentally and emotionally.
Even then it's not too late, as there are many effective therapies to assist us. However, with resiliency we
also don't need to wait until it has already taken hold of us. We can halt the advance of distress in the
moment and return to the state where stress creates positive growth and improves quality of life.
It's taken me a lifetime to acquire, comprehend and refine these techniques into an observable, repeatable
method to counteract distress while it is happening. I hope you'll accept this in the spirit in which I've given it:
a deep sense of service to pay it forward so that others can prevent the turmoil that I underwent to develop
it.
113
INHALATION VS EXHALATION
Near the close of the 19th Century, Russian Physiologist Verigo and Dutch Scientist Bohr independently
discovered that without CO², oxygen remains bound to hemoglobin, unreleased and incapable of being
utilized by our tissues. As a result, there is an oxygen deficiency in tissues such as our brain, kidneys and
heart, as well as a significant increase in our blood pressure.
Russian and former Soviet research, such as Dr. V. Frolov, Dr. K. Buteyko and Prof. R. Strelkov surmised
that deep breathing serves as the root cause of many illnesses. Deep-breathers suffer from O² starvation
and so they “over-breathe” which begins the cycle called the Hyperventilation Feedback Loop.
Notice how a person holding his breath becomes increasingly hyperactive. Over time the level of CO²
increases dramatically causing the rapid consumption of O². This hyperactivity
continues until unconsciousness (syncope). We use this method in martial arts to
expedite chokes and strangles; the more he struggles, exerts himself and over-
breathes, the faster he goes unconscious. The cause of O² deficiency is not due to
the lack of O² presence, but by the lack of CO² retention. Over-breathing causes O²
deficiency. If we inhale too much, we have less O² in our body.
Two methods of breathing developed from this understanding: Hypoxic (lowered

oxygen count) and Hypercapnic (carbonic gas saturation) breathing. Dr. Vladimir
Frolov (Endogenous Respiration) concluded from his research that both methods
intend the same goal but achieve it through different means:
“Buteyko achieved positive results raising the concentration of carbonic gas in the
lungs. Strelkov, in turn, obtained the identical result by lowering the oxygen content
in the lungs. The paradox solves itself if we compare oxygen concentrations in both
methods. It turned out that what united them was an approximately identical
hypoxia regime (lower oxygen content) from two different methods.”
For many strength athletes, the conventional method of breathing entails the
“Power Breathing Technique” - a hypoxic method was researched by a Russian
scientist Professor R. Strelkov (popularized by Pavel Tsatsouline in the West).
Power increases immediately, but due to the elicitation of SAPS, fine and complex motor skills deteriorate.
This force level breath is temporarily acceptable for powerlifting competition but highly inefficient for
athletic, combative and life skills.
The problem with inhalation bracing lies with the pneumatic pressure it creates intra-abdominally. When
you inhale and pressurize yourself, you literally attempt to move over an inflated balloon within your torso.
When moving in 1 or 2 dimensions and short range, that may be acceptable. However, when you must
resist rotation in six degrees, you must use muscular control, not pneumatic pressure to withstand forces
while remaining mobile. Inhalation cannot do this, and like twisting a balloon, will eventually rupture. Only
exhalation can, creating space, and muscular activation can resist rotation, and “ward.”
114
REFLEXIVE VS CONSCIOUS BREATHING

In Russia, two respiratory scientists significantly impacted relates to an inhalation and breath
my training: Dr. Nikolay Buteyko (Buteyko Method for FREEZE bracing the held inhale; a reflexive
Asthma) and Dr. Vladimir Frolov (Frolov Breathing collapse demonstrated by prey.
Apparatus for Sports Performance). They both introduced
the concept that our pattern of breathing impacted our relates to an inhalation and a
emotional state, our mental aptitude and our physical FLINCH pressurized exhalation during
structure. reflexive movement, indicative of
predatory readiness.
In a book published a decade ago, Body-Flow Freedom
from Fear-Reactivity, I discussed the impact of emotional relates to a conscious exhalation
state upon performance. In Primal Stress, I am introducing FORCE on effort during a movement with
the postural and structural changes which erupt from a passive inhalation happening
excessive stress, and coordinate with respiratory changes. from releasing the power of the
muscular squeeze to exhale.
Breathing branches to both aspects of the nervous system:
Voluntary and Autonomic. The autonomic controls stress happens as the body shifts to
arousal like a team of sled-dogs: if you make breath the
FLOW exhalation on passive
lead, alpha dog, you will be able to strongly influence compression, so as the body
performance. Inhalation bracing increases heart rate and moves it becomes “breathed” by
the accordion like action of
blood pressure. Exhalation and the control pause (at the gracefully expressed movement;
end of the exhale before the inhale) decreases heart rate and performance is performed
and blood pressure. during and after the exhalation, at
the “control pause” before
When excessive stress takes over, a change in breath takes inhalation begins.
over: We inhale, hold our breath and brace for
impact, and you can hear the suffering in our Rapid Reduction in Heart Rate Using Hard Exhalation
respiration; or we inhale, and pressurize a Diaphragmatic Breathing: Implications for Performance
release of tightly compact air, forcing out our Management.
frustration or anger. Journal: Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback Issue: Volume
25, Number 4 / December, 2000 Pages 247-271
These changes in breath reflexively freeze, ROBERT M. STEIN
ISSN: 1090-0586 (Print) 1573-3270 (Online)
flee or fight, but only if we’re untrained. If we
DOI 10.1023/A:1026411022674
do indeed train to have sufficient skills for the
task, in order to have access to those skills, Abstract: Diaphragmatic breathing or "belly breathing" is
we need to use a breathing methodology preferable to costal or chest breathing, in producing objective and
which can recover back from excessive subjective measures of relaxation. Practicing diaphragmatic
stress. breathing is not too difficult when already relaxed, but can be a
challenge when one is in a high-pressure situation. High-pressure
or "performance demand" situations present themselves with little
Though I began university research into these
opportunity to remove oneself for breathing practice. The current
breathing techniques and biofeedback in the strategy emphasizes bodily movement and orally mediated hard
1990s, trials on my technique were released exhalation to facilitate a rapid transition from costal to
only a few years ago (See study by the doctor diaphragmatic breathing. Bodily movements include rotation of the
I trained, Robert Stein, right). shoulders, movement of the hips, bending at the knees and
expansion/contraction of the torso. Oral movements include
progressively more intense expulsion of air. Training involves
increases in intensity, duration and speed over time. Data will be
presented that demonstrate short-term reduction in heart rate that
is associated with the transition from ordinary resting breathing to a
more specific diaphragmatic breathing pattern.
115
RECOVERY BREATHING TECHNIQUE

This is an effective breathing exercise for daily life, but in exercise, under stress of physical
exertion, you need two very important breathing approaches, which must be trained during
physical conditioning:
When you rapidly approach or exceed HRmax, you become “winded” or “gassed” breathing
heavily to recover from the incurred aerobic debt you owe. This mechanism is an
evolutionarily survivable reflex designed to oxygenate your bloodstream. However, it is only
useful for gross motor activities. Fine and complex motor skills, and cognitive discretion,
require that you recover from this reflexive breathing, and avoid hyper-ventilation (which
itself can elicit greater anxiety if left unchecked.)
It would be preferable to go directly to the the second technique (“Survival” breath), but you
cannot tell a person who is “out of breath” to exhale. They’re inhaling rapidly, and shallowly.
They’re repeatedly shrugging their shoulders to their ears to create active mechanical
expansion of the top third of their lungs. The lungs are inoperable, just sponges, so by
shrugging the shoulders to the ears, you’re creating additional room for lung expansion.
This is a helpful reflex if you’re pressurizing and bracing for impact to your organs, but it
leaves the bottom 2/3 of the lungs underutilized, and keeps your heart rate elevated beyond
your “usable technique” sub-HRmax range.
Exhaling (the only way to recover back to sub-HRmax where usable technique can be
found) is problematic at that point. So, we must first begin by reclaiming the inhale from the
reflex to volitional control.
The recovery breath technique therefore begins with closing the mouth again the
hyperventilation “gulps” and slowing the inhalation through the much smaller nasal
passage. It normally only takes 1-2 nasal inhales to switch off the reflex, and regain control
of the inhalation.
As soon as we reclaim the inhale, we should perform 2-3 short, sharp exhales from deep in
the diaphragm, as if someone were about to hit us in the belly. Tightening the abdominal
muscles in order to squeeze out the exhale, compacting the organs protectively downward,
expanding the diaphragmatic dome so that the lungs can expand downward.
Then, as soon as we reclaim control of the exhale, through these short, sharp explosive
exhalations, it’s time to switch to #2. However, sometimes, we don’t have the opportunity
for #2, such as in an actual combative encounter, in which case #1 is still far more effective
than relying purely upon our reflexive fear and force bracing.
116
SURVIVAL BREATHING TECHNIQUE

Once we can perform several short, sharp exhales, we can
Now on to the depth of the breath.
perform one long, slow, deep exhale from the belly. Exhalation
The depth of your exhalation directly
decreases heart rate. And the controlled pause at the end of the
correlates to the strength that you can
exhalation before the cycle of inhalation begins, holds the fastest
activate throughout your body. There
heart rate decreases possible. So, one long, slow, deep exhale
are four volumes to your exhale:
from the belly, then control and lengthen the pause before the
inhalation begins.
NORMAL what you exhale when
The more that you practice this technique, the longer that the talking. What is not
challenging to you can
control pause extends. It holds optimal performance and
be performed with a
precision, which is why in any of the combative arts, from hand normal exhale.
to hand fighting, to archery and marksmanship, we exhale
sharply (sometimes with a loud “shout” in martial arts to COMPLEMENTA what you exhale when
unhinge the survival reflex, and startle our aggressors), and then RY you move moderately.
at the end of the exhale we deliver impact, for our body is most What is moderately
quiet, rooted, and aware to absorb and deliver force. We also be performed with a
seek to do this in between heart beats, but this comes at much this level exhale.
higher levels of training.
SUPPLEMENTAR what you exhale when
Research has shown that expert marksman trigger squeeze Y you move intensely.
asystole: the point in a heart beat cycle where the heart actually What is very
rests (doesn’t beat) and therefore the body is most still.
be performed with this
(Landers, D. & Daniels, F.. Psychophysiological assessment and level exhale.
biofeedback: Applications for athletes in closed skill sports.)
Timing asystole with the trigger squeeze improves shooting RESIDUAL what you cannot fully
accuracy and as a result has been very successful with Olympic exhale while alive, but
Athletes including those in shooting sports. (Suinn, R. Imagery where all high
performance floats.
rehearsal applications to performance enhancement. What is extremely
The Behavior Therapist.) challenging to you can
only be performed at
As just described, the science behind respiratory performance the end of exhaling all
goes very deep. We concentrate on unhinging the Fear the first three volumes.
breathing (inhale bracing), reclaiming our skills from brute gross This point is called the
motor Force breathing (pressurized exhalation), and discipline “Control Pause.”
our Recovery breathing (controlled inhale and short sharp
exhale with effort), so that we can revive our Survival breathing and restore flow (one long, slow, deep
exhale with compression)... eventually, “thriving” with mastery level breath of the control pause.
The stronger your exhale, the more powerful you become. Martial artists have known this for millennia.
Modern respiratory science (Olympic level training) understand this mechanism, as it mysteriously branches
into both aspects of the nervous system; the autonomic (what you cannot control), and the voluntary (what
you can control.)
The depth of your exhale determines how deeply you access your chamber of power. Physiologically, it is
impossible to tap into the power of the core and spine without exhalation. It will not happen immediately.
You will need practice daily. As it remains impossible to plumb the bottom of residual breath volume, you
can always go deeper and deeper, no matter your age.
117
TACTICAL BREATHING TECHNIQUE

Optimal method of health and performance lies with the exhalation. The deeper the exhalation, the stronger
the core activation, and the more utilization of oxygen at a cellular level.
• Training happens at the level of discipline: When you must actively exhale through the effort of an exercise.
• When you find that you’re no longer needing to actively exhale to press through an exercise, and you’re in
flow; you’ve adapted to the tempo or complexity of the movement, and it’s time to progress.
• However, if you find that you’re having to inhale and hold your breath in order to “force” out a repetition, then
the tempo or complexity is too much (for that day or session). It’s time for you to regress down to a lower level
complexity, or decrease the tempo until you can regain discipline over your breath.
• And if you find that you’re reflexively inhaling and bracing against any effort, then you’ve significantly crossed
into excessive stress. Stop the activity immediately, and re-evaluate, and if you’re in imminent jeopardy, then
you’ll either reflexively move to force with SAPS, or use the recovery breathing techniques described later to
return to “usable technique.” But you should stop, if at all possible.
Exercise over Maximum Heart Rate (HRmax), and the CNS shanghais your performance by dumping a cascade
of chemicals into your bloodstream, making any training unadaptable (completely wasted effort, energy, and
time) and deteriorating performance into SAPS: Dramatically due the surge of epinephrine (vasoconstriction
causing blood flow to be rerouted choosing gross over fine motor skills, tunnel vision, tachipsychia, auditory
exclusion, etc.) This is fine if you have no skills (as it is a biological default survival reflex to give you the extra
boost to remove yourself from a potentially hazardous encounter) but it’s unnecessary and counter-productive
for performance requiring high levels of critical thought and fine and complex skills to apply.
Consider these contrasting results of how fast you can recover your heart rate in one minute after
intense exertion:
• A drop of 20-40 heart beats in 60 seconds is typical of the average, well-conditioned fighter.
• Whereas a drop of only 10-12 beats indicates potential heart disease. Notice how shallow that margin is.
• However, with proper breathing techniques, we have achieved recovery heart rates of 60 beats in 30 seconds
(potentially six times faster than the average fighter.)
• I’ve achieved in my athletes as fast as an increase of 20 beats drop in 2 sessions, though greater results
require longer practice.
One of the most common breathing techniques for calming yourself down is 4 Count Breathing. Four Count
breathing requires you to consciously regulate the amount of airflow your body is receiving over four second
intervals. While it can be a difficult technique to master under extreme stress, the principle of the breathing is
simple. Breathing is as follows:
1. Slowly inhale a deep breath over 4 seconds.

2. Hold the breath in for 4 seconds.
3. Slowly exhale the breath out over 4 seconds.
4. Hold the empty breath for 4 seconds.
5. Repeat until your breathing is under control.
Use Four Count Breathing when you need to quickly regain control of your breathing. It will take focus and
control to maintain this rhythm. This technique may be used to silence any heavy and labored breathing that you
may have developed from a long run carrying lots of gear. You may discover urgency nearby and do not want to
announce your presence or give away your position with the sounds of labored breathing. Tactical Breathing will
also help alleviate the effects adrenaline and stress.
118
ANCHORING BREATH AND ATTITUDES

Many cognitive psychological approaches fix upon the programming of mental messages. However, positive
affirmation without physical action remains merely a wish, and not yet an actual supportive attitude. Confidence comes
from repeating a behavior and observing the success. But you need courage to start before you have any confidence,
and to persevere when a behavior doesn't supply immediately obvious success.
You will find it effective to bombard yourself with positive messages, especially when you prepare for an event,
meeting, challenge or competition. However, rapid and complete transformation to a new attitude comes when we bind
the intended thought with a physical action, which coaching psychologists call an “anchor.”
Your physical anchor can be a ritual, like lacing your shoes

before you begin (which was my anchor before I would
practice and fight in martial arts competitions), but these
preparatory anchors don't deliberately increase confidence.
They concentrate your intention, and focus your will; which is
necessary, but there are also other powerful methods of
preparation.
The most effective daily practice of embedding a positive

message to physical success involves physical exercise:
breathing being the most critical ingredient in exercise. Sync
your breath within the movement. Don't allow yourself to labor
your breath outside the technique of the exercise. The more
integrated the breath to the mechanics of the movement, the
more effective a transformative vehicle each repetition
becomes.
Inhale excitement. Exhale precision. Inhale readiness. Exhale clarity. Inhale alertness. Exhale focus. Each of these
two primary aspects of breathing hold diametrically opposite benefits. First, you sync the breath to the mechanics,
then you can anchor the message to the exercise.
But unless you're in seated meditation focusing on your breath, begin with focus on synchronizing the breath to the
movement mechanics of your exercise. Make this your “meditation” before you concentrate on layering in a positive
message. If you begin with the positive message anchored to the breath before you have effectively synced breath to
the movement, it can still work. However, it takes a lot longer.
Furthermore, to build the confidence when you practice, embed the message to the appropriate energy. Donʼt switch
intentions. Avoid trying to bind calmness on the inhale, or excitement on the exhale. And this jumbling of intentions
with the wrong aspect of the nervous system can happen when you donʼt first have your breath bound efficiently to the
mechanics of the exercise movement. You will find many people will prefer seated meditation on breath and attitude
anchoring because they do not need to practice binding breath to very much movement (being seated.) However, to
“hold” that new attitude, you will find it much more empowering and expedient to implement these attitudinal changes
in your physical exercise.
Since the aspect of the breath corresponds to a branch of the nervous system (sympathetic-arousal, parasympathetic-
recovery), bind the breath to the mechanics first (inhale to prepare or expand, exhale to exert or compress). Then,
interweave the appropriate type of message to pair with the relevant aspect of the breath.
It takes courage to consciously alter your attitude, and persistence, but coaching psychology has given us the above
tools to avoid unnecessarily lengthening the process of successfully rewriting more powerful positive mindsets. Now,
letʼs discuss the finer points of the body-mind intersection.
119
STRESS PSYCHOLOGY OF FORM

How does breathing impact our mind? Many people defeat their efforts because they are using
ineffective awareness. Some say they "lack awareness," but this is categorically inaccurate. Only the
unconscious lack awareness (and even then it remains a controversial topic.)
What actually happens to siphon performance and health, involves using the wrong type of awareness to
match the goal. Like the old parental cliche goes, when a teacher says your child isn't paying attention, he
or she is; just not to the teacher.
I organize training protocols to “dial awareness” - to use the appropriate type of awareness to match the
activity. Initially, I developed this out of a time-compression necessity, as I couldn’t afford separate
opportunities to use coaching psychology with my athletes as the USA National Coach. So, I interwove it
into the layers of the conditioning I taught. But that compressed coaching created a diamond discovery:
Awareness is Trainable! Awareness can be appropriately dialed in performance, through switching the
awareness settings during training.
Additionally, another discovery appeared through the comparison of athletes over time: the stronger your
ability to switch awareness, the faster your recovery. Think of it simply this way from what you’ve read
so far of Primal Stress: if you’re catastrophizing with indecision about the next course of action, distracted
by the ubiquity of non-essential events around you, or fixated on an error you just made, can you return to
your exhale and slow your breath, your heart rate, and as a result, restore your ability to function? No.
It’s a two-way street; restore awareness - recover your state.
120
STRESS PSYCHOLOGY OF FORM

Let's start by discussing the types of awareness, so we can appreciate the aspects awareness holds.
Focus (the narrow to broad intensity of awareness) and Concentration (the external to internal direction of awareness) intersect
to create four different types of awareness:
• Narrowly-focused, externally-concentrating awareness is called Intention. Consider intention as when you're reading these
words and discerning their meaning, or when you're grabbing your phone and auto dialing.
• Broadly-focused, externally-concentrating awareness is called Attention. This awareness is when you're watching traffic merge
into your lane, or when you're changing radio stations searching for a song you might enjoy.
• Narrowly-focused, internally-concentrating awareness is called Meditation. Rather than thinking of meditation as a specific
technique, let's discuss it as an aspect of awareness where you reflect upon a specific internal experience, such as the flow of
your breath, the tension in your posture, the position of your bodily structure.
• Broad-focused, internally-concentrating awareness is called Orientation. When you orient, you create strategies for action like
choosing which way to go at a fork in the road, or deciding which shirt to purchase based on a cost / quality ratio.
Under excessive stress however, the chemical cocktail fires a reflexive dump which amplifies awareness and “resists” switching.
This strengthening of the specific type of awareness is a evolutionarily stable mechanism; the biochemistry increases the
strength of your awareness so that:
• Attention detects many more details at much higher speed.

• Intention tightly zooms in to highlight a specific target.
• Orientation storms through multiple strategies and opportunities.
• Meditation yokes down to control a specific inner experience.
However, an unfortunate by-product of strengthening the current type of awareness is a decrease your ability to switch between
types. So, when excessive stress amplifies an inefficient type of awareness to match the task at hand, instead of switching to a
more efficient type, it over-amplifies the type into a mutated, dysfunction:
• Attention mutates into distraction. With too many nuances coming in too quickly, you feel flooded by a tsunami of incoming
data which you cannot process. For example, you forget to reassess your strategy after collecting a new set of data on the
changing situation, and become distracted by all of the drama of the incoming information.
• Intention mutates into fixation. The world disappears as you exclude anything else but this one particular tunnel of vision. For
example, you become so fixed on trying to overpower this one frustrating little obstacle, that you neglect awareness of the
passing time, and the opportunity passes without you capitalizing upon it.
• Orientation mutates into indecision. So many ideas, options and approaches lead to a diminished capacity to select a course
of action. For example, you fidget to find a new plan when the original doesn’t immediately work, and you face your first failure
and can’t make any decision to regain your breath and try again with a clearer head and more decisive commitment.
• Meditation mutates into catatonia. Locked within yourself, you collapse within an internal shell, unable to outwardly turn your
awareness. For example, while you become overwhelmed by the poor state of your conditioning and the rapidity of your heart
rate, you lose awareness of task at hand and as a result expose yourself to injury.
In training to increase our Resilience (switching to the appropriate type of awareness) and Toughness (resisting the effects of
over-amplification of a type of awareness), I inadvertently discovered how to ‘fold’ this into one training program.
We can apply specific methods which condition us to rotate to the correct type of awareness under stress.
• Switching to Meditation through biofeedback of heart rate and breath.

• Focusing Intention upon a technique-mechanical components (vs effort).
• Quantifying recording times and repetitions data to switch Attention.
• Strategizing (and revising) a tempo to improve prior performance for Orientation.
In the following score sheets, and the step by step process of performing the 6 protocols, you entrain the ability to dial in the
appropriate type of these 4 aspects of awareness through training itself. The psychological efficacy of this approach cannot be
understated. Although Primal Stress predominantly addresses the somatic, or bodily, conditioning of the Revive-Survive-Thrive
concept, as I’ve alluded above, the body-mind is a two-way street.
121
COURAGE BEFOR E CONFIDENCE

Study these Instructional Briefings
before attempting
the movements.
As you push the boundaries of your prior threshold of
performance, you will need courage, and develop confidence.
Don’t worry if you don’t begin with the confidence that you will
succeed. The confidence comes after you’ve had the courage
to begin, to continue and to elect to face the next greater
challenge.
“Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because

without courage you can’t practice any other virtue
consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing
consistently without courage.” ~Maya Angelou
Although many virtues exist above courage in my value

hierarchy, courage remains the catalyst for all change. To
modify any behavior or situation, it demands that you
courageously adopt and repeat an uncomfortable shift in a
pattern. To be more compassionate, more patient, more
righteous, more tenacious, more loyal, more calm, more
trusting, more meticulous, they all demand greater courage.
I’ve crumbled under the weight of many changes in my life,

but only bravery helped me crawl out of the bottom of the
rubble, back to the light of day. When a problem or circumstance feels threatening, overwhelming, or even just
frustratingly unmoving, be courageous and you’ll catalyze the change you need.
I was asked how to develop the courage to face uncomfortable situations. Life comforts the disciplined and
disciplines the uncomfortable, so make yourself uncomfortable every day with small, consistent discipline in your
training. Practice courage in your exercise and nutrition; small, consistent acts of courage to perform another
repetition with good form, and the bravery to make the next choice in healthier nutrition, and the next with greater
discipline.
Then, you have built the strength to make the choice in thoughts; the courage to remain positive, to resist negative,
and ultimately the courage to switch from negative to positive thoughts. Facing uncomfortable situations will be
empowered by that daily practice.
As my teacher from India once counseled me, “Be courageous, but calm.” Simpler, clearer wisdom could not be
uttered. Life can feel like an asylum run amok, and certainly we will need to face, not flee and not freeze at its
challenges. But if we are to unlock the opportunities lying within, we must exhale, settle down, and get grounded, if
we have any real intention to act reasonably, sufficiently and non-excessively.
Confidence is dervied from the Latin roots con and fidelis; meaning, “the sense that the facts have proven
outcomes.” We experience actual confidence like a factual certainty that our skills will produce a known, positive
result. Feigning confidence creates a disbelief in the nervous system that what you pretend is unreal, which in turn
sabotages your efforts.
Courage is derived from the Latin cor; meaning “the heart enabling the ability to face difficulty.” You can feel entirely
uncertain of the outcome of your impending action, but still act courageously; a willful bravery to face a challenge
with unpredictable results. The courage to face the unknown itself can empower you.
Courage comes first; confidence after proof. When confidence builds, you can face difficulty on faith that the prior
events will reproduce similar results. If the plan fails and your confidence falters, or you face a new, larger or more
intense challenge where you have little proof of expected outcomes, you require courage. Be brave. The confidence
will come.
122
R E S I L I E N C E B E Study
F OtheseRInstructional
E T OBriefingsUGHNESS
before attempting the movements.
Trainers often scream, "GET TOUGH! Don't quit!" but what does that mean practically? HOW do you not quit? Where do you get
toughness from?
There will be a very specific dot on the line of your potential capability each day, whose science I’ve detailed throughout this
book. To one side of that dot exists all that you've currently done and prepared. To the other side, everything you've not yet
dared, and believe yourself incapable. The dot demarcates your quitting point, because you believe that you aren't capable to
exceed that current threshold, so you encounter it and submit.
We lack confidence (which is derived from experiencing evidence), but we can keep
and further develop courage (which involves our willingness to take action even without
confidence). But how can you develop courage to take one step over that critical
threshold of prior performance with good technique, and bump your dot another notch
along the line?
The problem relates to misapplying toughness. Toughness doesn’t require confidence,

because you don’t need confidence to resist quitting what you've already proven to
yourself through repeated evidence. Toughness demands courage: the commitment to
go into the unknown without any certainty of your success. Facing this, our most primal
fear, and bravely acting regardless of that fear, represents our highest defining virtue as
a species.
But, again, if you're about to step into the unknown, how can you resist quitting at any
point within that darkness? You have no point of reference, no gauge, no lifeline to
return. So quitting is inevitable. You cannot, by definition of exceeding your prior
threshold of potential, resist failure, as you’re beyond the known boundaries of
performance. You have exceeded your level of toughness whenever you step beyond
your threshold of prior performance.
So, when someone cries out for you to, “be tough,” they misuse the term. They're
actually intending to say, "Keep Calm and Carry On." Keep Calm - Resilience. Carry “The reservoir of courage draws
On - Toughness.
from faith that we ARE resilient,
You cannot increase your toughness unless you develop greater resilience. Toughness that in failure we WILL adapt and
is your ability to resist failure. Resilience is your ability to recover from failure when it ratchet our performance forward.
happens. Failure, here, refers to the inability to continue and the inability to recover: a Press beyond the threshold of
catatonic state of primal collapse, frozen in the tundra of excessive stress. confidence, find your edge,
recover, grow, adapt, press
In here, I use the definition of failure from physiology which means the inability to
forward again. I have found that
complete (a movement). At that moment of the final repetition, where we may fail,
where all of our attention is demanded in order to seize back form from chaos, where my confidence has shifted away
failure threatens, we can use resilience to hold technique. Every repetition before that from myself, to confidence in this
one was only a prelude, a rehearsal until that final apogee, the critical state where we process. My attitude had shifted
could potentially fail if we didn't use awareness, but do, and recover, and hold. This is from striving for higher
100% of our adaptive potential. I export this physiological approach into the tactical performance, but faster and
and farther outward into lifestyle strategies. Our greatest growth requires that we seek
better quality recovery. Better to
that failure point.
have full access to current
When you step across the point of your prior level of toughness, when you exceed conditioning and cognitive
your prior performance, when you step into the unknown with zero confidence and performance under stress.”
pure courage that you refuse to quit, you will need resilience. ~ LTC Daniel Market, US Army
Resilience tethers you back, like a lifeline, to your known parameters. And if you have
resilience skills, when you outstrip your toughness, and begin to face the specters of
failure, you have tools to recover back to the point where your confidence exists,
recollect your technique and form and attitude, and go again into your unexplored
potential. If you want to get tougher, become more resilient.
123
M O M E N T U M O F Study
D ItheseSInstructional
before
C I P LBriefings
INE
Discipline is not an attitude, but rather it is a
momentum. You can rarely, "Just do it," unless
you've already built up the capacity. You're
capable of doing anything within the inertia
you've already generated.
Like pushing a boulder over small bumps

(challenges), you can overcome the size which
your momentum allows. But a larger hill will rob
your inertia and stop your boulder rolling if you
do not add greater energy to it, in the proper
amount, at the right time and at sufficient
distance before the challenge. If you wait too
long, too close, to try and build up more inertia,
then the boulder will slow, stop and may even
start to roll back on you.
A logical error occurs when we look backwards

on challenges we've overcome. We neglect to
realize that it was not merely a choice to roll the
boulder over the small bumps we encountered,
but rather the inertia we had already generated
long before. Even if we only had to add a little
effort to it, it is the momentum which
predominantly achieved the challenges.
When we face a new challenge, we need to take a running start at it (see the programming “wave” and the
reference the Revive-Survive-Thrive process.) We must surveil the terrain for the small preliminary bumps
which siphon off our momentum, gauge the distance required to build up sufficient speed, estimate the
additional requirements we must invest so that when we hit the base of the mountain, we're not surprised
that our boulder slows and becomes a grinding effort.
Discipline is only a choice within the bandwidth of prior preparation. When you find people complaining that
you should just suck it up and gut it out, try to remain patient with them, and keep compassionate of the
surprise life that is about to throw at them. They are in far worse a situation than they know, for when they
encounter a significant challenge which their current inertia cannot easily overcome, the weight of that poor
preparation will crush their willpower, catastrophize their thoughts, and pollute their self-perception into one
of weakness and incompetency. The language they now use toward you and others will suddenly be turned
on themselves, as we can be most sadistic when we self-critique.
These impatient ones, pity them. Life is coming. It is far more dangerous to be overconfident and fail to
prepare, than to accept your doubts and successfully prepare.
124
B U I L D W I L L P O WStudy
E these
R Instructional Briefings
before attempting
the movements.
We must make good choices, but we must also address the
preparation that must be taken (incrementally, like in stress
inoculation to avoid reinforcing reactive tendencies) to be
capable of making those choices.
Some think that once you’ve been in “shape” then it’s easier
to stay in shape. If you’ve ever backslide, and worked with
those who do, then you know that this idea would be logical
from a psychological perspective, but not necessarily from a
biochemical one. If you’re distressed, eat poorly, don’t
hydrate, drink alcohol, fight with your spouse, scream at your
kids, worry about your finances, breathe in mold, work with
people infected by illness, and fear for your job, then the
same decision “costs” more (of your depleting willpower),
because it’s not merely training stress, but sum total stress
which depletes decisionary strength.
Some think you can simply decide to no longer be over-fat.

The problem with that line of thought is it presumes a reservoir of energy. Many misunderstand and believe over-fat
as caloric surplus; when it’s a toxic waste dump. So this attitude is also a slippery slope in erroneously believing that
people can just stand up and start anything. There is an incremental process to releasing and generating energetic
capacity, while out shipping toxic burden. It’s difficult to understand for those who have never been obese and
haven’t studied the actual implications of immolating the waste dump. You often need to go slowly and methodically
to build up momentum.
As an obese child who overcame sugar addiction, I can appreciate the science which has proven that sugar is a
chronic toxin which holds comparable cellular addiction in the brain as cocaine, and yet is the world’s most socially
acceptable drug abuse. (Researched by Endocrinologist Robert H. Lustig, MD, University of California San Francisco
Professor of Pediatrics, presented on 60 Minutes episode “Sugar: as Toxic as Cocaine.”)
I have observed that no one who has ever been obese and recovered from it believes that it was merely electing to
no longer be obese and made all of the right decisions to suddenly end their obesity. The diminished capacity which
obesity incurs requires a gradual avalanche of energy (willpower capacity building) activities; which in turn provides
the increased capacity to resist chemical compulsions.
It has been shown through many studies that the longer you go without sufficient, nutrient density, the poorer your
decisionary process. Empty calories have been shown to add little to no increase in discretionary efficacy; especially
when attached to addictive chemicals like sugar and caffeine. It often accounts for the “snowball” of why we make
poorer and poorer choices over time in a downward spiral.
How you begin building energy to resist the chemical compulsions of food addictions depends upon the individual.
Each of us begin by making choices within the span of our capacity, which yield greater return in energy which
increases our potential to make more draining choices. For example, many would not be able to begin intense
exercise for nerve impingement for example, but beginning with seated joint mobility would decompress the joints,
open nerve force and access the nutrition locked within the synovium and ground substance.
If you feel impatient with others or yourself for not suddenly making a choice and “POOF” you always make good
choices, then you may want to consider looking at the chemical root of that impatience. What we need when facing a
food addiction, withdrawals and recovery is empowerment, not indictment. Blame, rationalization and entitlement are
psychological symptoms of a chemical imbalance. These attitudes change during increments of behavioral
modification. Don’t attack the symptom. Smooth the process.
Yes, willpower certainly does exist… As a chemical capacity in the brain, which must be built and easily drains when
shifting behavioral patterns, especially against addictive substances.
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G E T U P A N D T H Study
R OtheseUInstructional
G H Briefings
G R A C E F U L LY !
Much of my life had been spent getting knocked down.
Perhaps more will come, but in recent years I have
experienced a transformation. We need the courage to get
up and take it on the jaw, get dropped to the mat, and get
up yet again. This persistence remains critical. But my
confidence grows that the degree to which we must be
knocked down softens as we become more malleable.
It’s easy to throw and sweep most beginners in grappling

because of how rigid their tension fixes their bodies in
place, and for the same reason, it’s easy to knock down
and out novice (or enraged) strikers. Over time, practice
PART IV
and experience, we learn to confluently absorb and blend
to attacks to lessen their impact and to capture and
Mission
exploit their force to our (mutual) Briefing Reports
resolution.
Like in athletics, yoga and meditation, martial art is a micro of the macro, with all of life’s lessons encoded
in it.
We must learn to get up, get knocked down, and get up again and again; we need resilience. Without this
persistence, we will not have the opportunity to learn how to absorb, blend, and confluently resolve our
challenges, and never unlock the opportunities within them. This lesson has been clearly reflected in my
relationships, my personal growth, my vocational development, my finances, and that of those I mentor. So
my confidence grows that though we must get up again and again, eventually we will learn how to fight
less. Like in grappling, we begin by aggressive counter-attacking, but eventually begin to defend without
struggling, and realize that every attack from our opponent creates an opportunity for finalizing the bout.
When I was a child, I began martial art not to learn how to fight, as I was unfortunately intimately aware of
violence. I began martial art so I could learn to STOP fighting. You cannot flee confrontation. You must have
the courage, turn and face it directly to most effectively resolve it. But my confidence grows that in all
things, although you may not be able to end the need for resistance, you can become sufficiently pliable to
absorb it with confluence. Like my teacher has told me personally, you may be in pain again, but you no
longer need to suffer in the pain.
I may be knocked to the ground again to learn the opportunity within a challenge , but the courage to stand
again and again has given me the chance to gain confidence that getting up is only the means, only part of
a greater process. I no longer doubt that we CAN get up. We can. So, get up. But, let’s not merely get up
this time, but let’s get through… with grace.
Getting through gracefully is the real black belt. As a result, we will no longer be required to relearn the hard
lesson that we can get up. We will then discover that our opponents don’t provide an obstacle to growth,
for they are the challenge which allows us to adapt and grow. We can get up. Be confident of that. We will
grow from every challenge. Let’s now confidently learn how to get through gracefully, and transform
these challenges into collective opportunities for something much greater.
I grow more and more confident that we are specifically placed into circumstances to steward a greater
outcome, by not merely getting up, but getting through with grace.
126
I M A G I N E Y O U R Study
P OtheseTInstructional
E N TBriefings
IAL
When I was diagnosed with learning disabilities, people told me I’d never amount to anything academically
or athletically. I wasted many years attempting to prove them wrong. Certainly, there were beneficial
byproducts of my prolific opposition to their imposed limitations, but my rebellious attitude only couched a
hidden fear of my inadequacy.
My entire life until the past few years could be summed by exceeding what others claimed I could not
accomplish. I had become a hyperbole of hot buttons; when someone said I wasn’t capable, that’s damn
well what I would do. But any hot button is itself a limitation. What more could I be without that reactionary
force? What was I above my sensitivity to others feeling I was inadequate, for my overachievement
tendencies were a silent fear that they may be right. I was not proving them wrong, but myself.
I had the courage to attack imposed limitations, but not the confidence that they were false. After decades
PART IV
of reactionary achievement, the evidence had proven that the limitations were illusions. So, with that
confidence, it was time to stop defining myself by overcoming what I was told I wasn’t and to start
exploring what I could not yet imagine I was. Mission Briefing Reports
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and
understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and
understand.” - Einstein
Having the courage to overcome perceived limitations is the first step, but it cannot be the final, for it is
essentially an oppositional advance. To truly reframe your potential, you must avoid defining yourself as
merely capable of what others say you aren’t. And move on to defining your potential by what you have not
yet imagined you are. You are so much more than beyond the limits others perceive you to have. You are
beyond what you can currently imagine.
127
THRIVING = GROWING BY FLOWING

Any one of the following flow elements can individually serve as a cool-down for your Flow Physique workouts. All
6 chained together can be used as your compensation Thrive Flow in your training calendar on the Low
Intensity Day.
You have 3 options when performing Thrive Flow: individual repetitions, held position, or continuous flow. The rogram requires
30-60 minutes.
1. When learning the skills, or when experiencing tightness, focus on repeating each of the 48 exercises for 10 repetitions as a
series of individual mobility drills. Perform all 48 slowly and deeply, but only shave off tension one thin “onion” layer at a time.
Never hold in pain. Remain under the radar of any painful events. Consider this a mobility session, like a deeper version of
“Revive.”
2. If you are experiencing full mobile, and intending deeper releases, then with control move smoothly into (and when ending,
out of) the position and hold for a 20 second exhale to your edge; the point where if you would go any further, you would
want to inhale and brace, and/or your technique decreases below very good form. If you cannot go to your depth with an
exhale, then drop down to #1 for the entire program. If you’re finding yourself spending more than 20 seconds on a particular
position, that’s good. More release = more benefit. You don’t need to cover everything, because you are hunting out hidden
stress to release. If you find it, good of you to stick around until you thoroughly melt it.
3. Finally, you can also perform in circuit fashion, as a flow, concentrating on moving as smoothly as possible through every
transition; one repetition of the skill hemmed to the next in sequence, like a graceful gymnastics routine, dance or yoga
vinyasa (technically, called a “prasara” rather than a vinyasa.) Exhale through the transitions, as well as any depth or
discomfort you encounter. If you cannot transition smoothly with an exhale, drop down to #2 for the entire program. Begin
with one of the mini-flow elements (Lateral, Rear Line, Arm Line, Deep Core, Spiral Line or Front Line) until you have it
mastered, repeating it 5-10 times or until your time expires. Then, once you have one element mastered, master another,
after which you can combine them into a larger, compound flow for synergistic effect.
Lateral Line Rear Line Flow Arm Line Flow Deep Core Spiral Line Front Line
Flow Flow Flow Flow
Seated Shinbox Corpse Leg Thread Seiza Seal to Sphinx Shin Lunge Prone
Prone Reverse Seal
Twisting Shinbox Sleeping Warrior Arm Screw Sleeping Warrior Internal Warrior Leg Thread
Arching Shinbox Arm Thread Spinal Roll Cat External Warrior Shoulder Bridge
1/2 Butterfly Tripod Spinal Rock Cow Internal Twisted Position of

Sidebend Assurance
1/2 Butterfly Tripod Plow Spinal Rock Bird Dog External Twisted Swinging Tripod
Seated Shinbox Arm Thread Spinal Roll Cat Kneeling Position of

Hamstring Assurance
Shinbox Switch Sleeping Warrior Arm Screw Sleeping Warrior 1/2 Seiza Leg Thread
Seated Shinbox Prone Leg Thread Seiza Seal to Sphinx Shin Lunge Prone
to Corpse Reverse Seal
128
STRESS, RECOVERY AND ADAPTATION

One final caveat to ensure that we
don’t bring a scalpel to the gold
mine. Start with a pick axe. If
you’re not getting adequate sleep
and nutrition/hydration, then your
active recovery, intense exercise
and stress management skills are
moot.
There are 3 types of distress:

Misuse, disuse and overuse.
Eustress, however, contributes to
your adaptive potential. So, here
are the primary tools for
adaptation, listed on a graph
intersecting Importance and
Complexity.
The chart can appear to state that

stress management isn’t
important. It’s highly important.
But you can’t breathe your way
out of sleep deprivation. You can’t
exercise your way out of
dehydration. And you can’t
recover in starvation. Sleep is
more important than food.
Food is more important than active recovery (including exercise). Active recovery is more important
than stress management skills. And inversely, they are much more complex down the line. Stress
management (including time management) is the capstone on a very solid pyramid of proper sleep,
nutrition, and hydration.
Passive recovery could be considered the “decompressing” quality of life activities we do; playing
frisbee with your kids, going on a date with your wife, gardening, or reading a book. But they can
also be massage, hot baths, Lighting candles / smudging, what most people call “relaxing.” I
consider the latter to be grounding behaviors which revitalize “centeredness.”
Active recovery includes more intentional recuperation: stretching, yoga, joint mobility, vibration,
breathing, light swimming, hiking or trotting, etc.
Much like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it’s inefficient to try and learn and implement stress
management skills when you are in a sleep deficit, malnourished, and have ineffective
exercise. The increase in complexity becomes accessible when you address the low-complexity
priorities. Please don’t try and excavate the gold mine with just the scalpel. Bring the pickaxe first.
129
SLEEP: FOUNDATIONAL RECOVERY

Both too little (5 hours or less) and too much (9
hours or more) sleep can sap your energy,
decreasing quality movement and exercise,
increasing joint aches, muscular soreness and
nerve pain, and as a result decreasing quality of
sleep, in a viscous cycle.
Researchers report both too little and too much

sleep double the likelihood of medical problems,
including diabetes, heart disease, and increased
risk of death¹. When exhausted, fatigued,
immuno-suppressed and under-restored,
resisting excessive sleep can be very difficult.
We don't get adequate quality sleep so, in
fatigue and perpetual drowsiness, we increase
the quantity.
Position greatly impacts quality of sleep.

Sleeping in fetal position restricts diaphragmatic
breathing causing shallow sleep depth (low
quality rest and recovery). Sleeping on your back
induces severe snoring leading to restless
shallow sleep. Sleeping on your stomach prohibits neutral spine, pressures joints and impinges nerves. Sleeping on
your side produces optimal biomechanics (especially on your left side) as it increases blood flow, maintains neutral
spine, releases pressure from joints and nerves, prevents snoring and releases diaphragmatic breathing; these
combine to allow deep, quality sleep.
Nutrition content and timing are the usual suspects. Research shows that food and sleep have a connection in terms
of eating too much or eating too late. Avoid heavy or spicy foods just prior to bed. These meals can interfere with
sleep by causing heartburn or aggravating a hernia. Avoid anything caffeinated or containing alcohol 4-6 hours
before bedtime. Half of the caffeine consumed by 7PM remains in your system until 11PM.
Limit liquids of any kind for at least 90 minutes before bedtime if the need to urinate wakes you up in the middle of
the night. It takes about 90 minutes for the body to process liquids.
Exercise can increase your odds of getting a good night's sleep. But avoid intense exercise within 3 hours of bed as
this will boost adrenaline and reduce deep quality sleep. Studies have shown that exercising more than 3 to 6 hours
before going to bed has the best effect on falling and staying asleep. Light mobility and low intensity yoga decrease
residual tension and as a result can induce restful sleep if done even immediately before bed.
In most cases, 7 hours is the optimal duration for rest and recovery through sleep; less than 6 leads to health
problems and more than 9. This assumes the other quality sleep issues are fulfilled.
Excessive stress keeps the sympathetic nervous system aroused, and as a result sleep is shallow and low quality,
compelling us to longer durations.
If you find yourself thinking about stressful issues while trying to fall asleep, you will release hormone which prevent
quality sleep, as your nervous system cannot differentiate between a true, physical threat and an imagined one. Don't
think about things that trouble you before sleep. Read a book, rather than watching television. Meditate on all of the
things you want to happen in your life, how you would best act in a situation to bring about the changed you desire,
to displace and reframe catastrophizing thoughts.
¹ Sleep duration predicts cardiovascular outcomes, Dr. Francesco Cappuccio; http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/med/research/csri/sleep/ehj_2011_sleep__cvd.pdf
130
PART V:
MISSION BRIEFS
Study these Instructional Briefings before attempting the movements.

No Intensity Day Program:
1. Revive Flow
The “Video Download
Moderate Intensity Day Program: Briefings” included in this book
2. Thrive Flow explain every single exercise in
all missions using precision
Moderate and High Intensity Missions: coaching cues and performance
1. [20/10x8+60]6
goals.
2. 4/1x4
3. EMOTM
4. AMRAP
5. [90/30x5]2
6. AFAP
131
TA C F I T 4 DAY WAV E
Your training missions develop through a signature periodization pattern in TACFIT, based upon maximizing your
recoverable adaptation from the effort you invest as you work your way through the program. The following
combination of “training days” will be repeated throughout the program.
That’s how the 4 “training days” of TACFIT shape up. This pattern is repeated for a total of 28 days — or one
complete mission. If you are following the traditional 4 wave, your schedule will consist of No, Low, Moderate and
High days. There are no "off days.” Instead, recovery days are factored into the program that involve short sessions
of Revive and Thrive flows to recover, adapt and refine your progress. Variations of this are not as optimal, but
suggestions for conventional calendar weekly training is included in the next few pages.
Day 1—No Intensity Day Two—Low Intensity
1 2
RPE: 1-2; RPT: 8 or higher; RPD: 3 or lower RPE: 3-4; RPT: 8 or higher; RPD: 3 or lower
When you reach the No Intensity day, follow along with Follow along with the Thrive Flow program. Your task
the Revive Flow program. You can also insert in here on the Low Intensity day is to use specific
any strain prevention mobility programs, such as Intu- compensatory movements to balance growth and
Flow - a basic and intermediate program available for remove the parking brake from your high-
free on Youtube. performance output and mobility.
Your No Intensity recovery day is one of the keys to the Insert stress conversion, yoga or stretching routines.
rapid adaptation you’ll experience with this program.
Do not skip it.
Day Three—Moderate Intensity Day Four—High Intensity

RPE: 5-7; RPT: 8 or higher; RPD: 3 or lower
3 4
RPE: 8-10; RPT: 8 or higher; RPD: 3 or lower
Now the work starts. Your task on the Moderate Intensity
day is to ramp up your output according to the specific If you’ve been following orders, this will be your
mission objectives. peak performance day. What prepared you for today,
is the strength you activated yesterday, in the
When you reach the Moderate Intensity day, watch that moderate intensity session.
session’s Video Briefing and follow the program guidelines
for the specific mission and level you’ve chosen to Repeat yesterday’s Flow Physique mission. Go as
complete. hard as your technique can hold it. You’ve practiced
this now, turn it loose and let the engine run hot!
Follow along with the Flow Physique mission on your
calendar included in this book.
132
DEGREE OF RECOVERY
Your nervous system doesn’t know the difference between the types of
tension: It only knows degree of freedom and state of recovery. As Day 1: No Intensity
1
you’ve studied throughout this book, this sounds simple enough, but • Mobility, Tai Chi, Light
amounts to libraries of research and anecdotal experience. Stretching, Walking, Swimming,
Hiking
It could be a sandbag, barbell, rock, or a club, or just your own • Revive Flow
bodyweight. Your nervous system cannot tell the difference. It only • 20-40% heart rate maximum,
knows how hard it must work to achieve the technique mechanics. • 2-4 on a rate of perceived effort
scale of 1-10 (10 being the hardest
effort)
Therefore, you may incorporate other activities which you enjoy into
• Light and easy work.
your Revive - Survive - Thrive progression; or if you practice any other
of my programs, incorporate TACFIT and CST programs into this
formula as well. Day 2: Low Intensity
• Yoga, Pilates, Core, Deep
2
Your CNS only knows how much it has recovered from adapting to the Stretching, Myofascial Release,
work that you keep forcing it to do. (You are, for a fact, forcing change. Jogging, Biking
Your body only knows efficiency: It prefers that you don’t do anything. It • Ageless Mobility, Prasara Yoga,
doesn’t know that it commits suicide a little bit every day that it doesn’t Tactical Gymnastics
experience positive stress. So it craves the absence of distress. You • Thrive Flow
must give it eustress through conscious willpower). • 40-60% heart rate maximum,
• 4-6 on a rate of perceived effort
scale of 1-10 (10 being the hardest
You adapt to positive physical stress in two ways: effort)
1. By increasing muscle developing (by becoming more powerful,) and • Deep but not difficult work.
2. By increasing neuromuscular efficiency (by becoming more graceful.)
Day 3: Moderate Intensity
3
Giving stress doesn’t create these powerful and graceful adaptations.
Only recovering from the stress causes you to adapt. Some people • Climbing, Mountain Biking,
Rowing, Running, moderately
adapt faster in one way than the other, but everyone adapts in both
hard Circuit Conditioning
ways given sufficiently proper and sustained positive physical stress.
• Flow Physique
• 60-80% heart rate maximum,
Unfortunately, most people either neglect sufficiently high enough stress • 6-8 on a rate of perceived effort
(above hypostress) for long enough over time, or they don’t consciously scale of 1-10 (10 being the hardest
reduce the stress low enough (below hyperstress) for long enough. So, effort)
over the decades, I’ve tracked and researched a specific “biorhythm” • Hard or difficult work.
which has proven to be a universal constant tendency (not a law, for
somedays you’ll have more energy and can afford more eustress, and Day 4: High Intensity
some days you crave more recovery to avoid distress. It’s a tendency,
• Sprinting, Hill Runs, very hard
not a law, but it is universal.)
4
Circuit Conditioning, high
intensity weight training, Racing
But you don’t NEED to purchase and use only my programs to do so. It (rowing, biking, paddling)
works regardless of the type of tension. My programs merely • Any high intensity interval
consolidate and distill this into a conscious system where you become training (Commando, Survival,
more powerful and graceful while minimizing room for error (injury) and Warrior, et cetera)
maximizing the effectiveness of this “wave” of intensity. • Flow Physique
• 80-100% heart rate maximum,
To the right, read an example of how to take common activities and plug • 9-10 on a rate of perceived effort
them into this biochemical phenomenon of adaptation called the “4 Day scale of 1-10 (10 being the hardest
effort)
Wave.”
• Very hard, extremely difficult.
133
MISSION RX
Options for “Fixed Living” schedule Scheduling on the 4-day Wave Suggestions for other activities
You may not live in the utopia where Each day of the cycle is tied to a specific
If you feel that you’re ready to
you can train 7 days a week and intensity level - waved in order to elicit the 4×7
knee-deep into mission proper, effect. To make this 4×7 to work for you, then
follow as prescribed. Firstly, stop then the 4 day wave will consist you should align your activity level with the
complaining. You’re infinitely capable of No, Low, Moderate and High guidelines for RPE. It can be highly subjective,
to adapt, improvise and overcome. and there are no hard and fast numbers.
days, repeated 7 times in
Find out where you can insert this into
your life, and slowly reclaim your life
succession for a total of 28
What may be a light recovery jog for a highly
from habits. days. The Program Chart is conditioned runner may be a Moderate or High
formatted on this 4-day wave. Intensity session for someone with little
Gain the greatest results by following This is the ideal choice because running experience. Logging your training and
the mission as Rx. But start where it synchronizes with your applying the TED Compass to rate your
you are, and move forward nervous system for greatest exertion, technique and discomfort will over
consistently but compassionately.
Remember, progress comes from the
results.
output. PART IV
time give you a precise lens for gauging your
recovery not from the work. How do you add other sports Mission Briefing Reports
It will help to determine where your chosen
and programs to TACFIT? activity falls on this spectrum:
Don’t Want to Train 4x7 Style?
Adhering to the 28 day calendar can • No intensity; such as mobility, body rolling,
Though we appreciate your zeal
be challenging, when you haven’t yet tai chi, stretching, long walk
optimized your time tables. Here are
and focus, if you chase two
• Low intensitys such as yoga, pilates, deep
three variations: a conventional 3-day rabbits, you’ll catch neither. If stretching, low gymnastics, light runs
split, a 7-day wave in which the you focus on this one mission, • Moderate intensity = strength practice,
training days remain constant from you’ll achieve all of the results weight training, gymnastics skills, jogging
week to week, and the optimal 4-day you hoped of and much more • High intensity = metabolic conditioning,
sprinting, interval training, high jumps
wave (the 4x7 format). once you’re on the other end.
You have to experience them to On some occasions, different activities won’t
The conventional 3-day Split appreciate what you’re about to match because your body cannot handle the
develop and gain access to. sum total stress load, and then stress turns to
Only have 3 days a week to train? strain. Bad news: over-training, injury and
Better make the most of them! Start Candidly ask, “what do I want illness often result. If you want to continue with
with Level 1. Perform it for each of the extra-curricular training, you may want to
from exercise?” If you find you consider either scheduling out the others for
three days. Only progress to the next
mission Level 2 when your technique
don’t have a specific answer, the month, or lightening your intensity load of
is high enough (RPT greater than or then you may be cocktailing; the high intensity sessions.
equal to 8) and your discomfort is low decreasing your results from
ALL your activities. Cocktailing Perform your mobility recovery exercises daily
enough (RPD less than or equal to 3)
as prescribed, but exclude your high intensity
to move on safely to Level 3. is unhelpful because throwing
workouts. Keep performing the No intensity
together a bunch of random programs daily, until your scheduling becomes
Each mission builds upon the prior. exercises will get you random more permissive of higher intensity workouts.
The movements increase in results. Better focus on one goal As it opens up, then start back on your 4 day
sophistication as your strength and at a time. Going in too many wave as prescribed.
mastery grow. When you’ve mastered directions at once, gets you
Level 1, you’re ready for Level 2, then Lastly, there may be times when Murphy
nowhere fast. makes a visit and knocks you off the wagon.
Level 3.
Just because you get burned, doesn’t mean
Scheduling on the “Week Wave”
Life often doesn’t give us the that you can’t jump back on. Missing one or
optimal circumstances. My two days is fine; just fall back into formation
schedule of travel around often picking up where you left off. Missing 4 or
If you feel that you’re ready for all four more days means you missed a cycle
levels of intensity, then the “week presents insurmountable
completely, so restart at the previous 4 day
wave” involves No, Low, Moderate, problems to routine. Sometimes, cycle on your calendar to catch up.
No, Low, Moderate, High, repeated you just gut it out and make due
4 times in succession for a total of 28 with the hand you’ve been dealt.
days.
134
4X7 WAVE CALENDAR

No Low Moderate High
Intensity Intensity Intensity Intensity
CYCLE revive flow Thrive Flow Flow Physique Flow Physique
[20/10x8+60]6 [20/10x8+60]6
1
CYCLE
day 1
revive flow
day 2
Thrive Flow Flow Physique
day 3 day 4
Flow Physique
4/1x4 4/1x4
2 day 5 day 6 day 7 day 8

EMOTM EMOTM

AMRAP AMRAP

[90/30x5]2 [90/30x5]2
5 day day 18 day 19 day 20

AFAP AFAP

CYCLE revive flow - AM revive flow - AM revive flow - AM revive flow - AM
7
Thrive Flow - PM Thrive Flow - PM Thrive Flow - PM Thrive Flow - PM
day 25 day 26 day 27 day 28
This is how the 4 “training days” of TACFIT shape up. This pattern is
repeated for a total of 28 days — or one complete mission.
If you are following the traditional 4x7 wave, your schedule will consist
of No, Low, Moderate and High days, repeated 7 times in succession
for a total of 28 days. There are no "off days.”
135
7 DAY W E E K WAV E C A L E N DA R
No Low Moderate No Low Moderate High
Intensity Intensity Intensity Intensity Intensity Intensity Intensity
week Revive Flow Thrive Flow Flow Physique Revive Flow Thrive Flow Flow Physique Flow Physique
[20/10x8+60]6 [20/10x8+60]6 [20/10x8+60]6
1
4/1x4 4/1x4 4/1x4
2
EMOTM EMOTM EMOTM
3
AMRAP AMRAP AMRAP
4
[90/30x5]2 [90/30x5]2 [90/30x5]2
5
AFAP AFAP AFAP
6
Routinizing the 7-day Week
Choosing the “Weekly” model of exercise - a 6 week progression - your “wave” of intensity is a No,
Low, Moderate, No, Low, Moderate, and High days, repeated for 6 weeks.
You’ll be on the traditional calendar work week, instead of the four day wave. This allows you to
arrange your workouts so that the High Intensity day falls on the same day each week. For example,
if you’d like to hit your best effort of the week on Fridays, start with Day 1 (No Intensity) on the
previous Saturday. With some good planning you’ll be able to address all of your other scheduling
demands and prevent aborting the mission partly through. If you prefer to train on a 7-day schedule,
simply follow this alternate Program Chart instead of the 4x7 Chart.
136
THE PHYSIQUE OF FLOW

Much of our modern functional fitness remains purely an
aesthetic approach: attempting to gain symmetrical shape.
Please don’t feel judged by that statement, if you’re looking to
look better as your current highest priority. I enjoy “looking
good,” too. But first and foremost, I want you to look as good
as you feel, and I want you to feel awesome: painlessly,
gracefully powerful.
As you have discovered having read this book, the process

must reclaim your bodily life back from the base reflexes, help
you:
• Revive your pain-free state of balance,
• Powerfully rebuild your natural power, and
• Gracefully thrive with high quality living.
At each step through Revive-Survive-Thrive, we desire different

physical attributes:
• At the level of Revive, we want pain removed and energy
restored;
• At the level of Survive, we want to be and look strong,
tough and fast; and
• At the level of Thrive, we want adventurous new
challenges to explore our physical potential.
In the micro of the macro, the Revive-Survive-Thrive process

represents our training program of: In the following pages of this section, called
• Warm-up, Flow Physique Exercise Descriptions,
• Work-out and find each program categorized by protocol:
• Cool-down. • [20/10x8+60]6
• 4/1x4
And in our calendar cycle they represent: • EMOTM
• Activation (restoring mobility and enabling stability), • AMRAP
• Intensity (from strength to conditioning), and • [90/30x5]2
• Compensation (to allow complexity to unfold). • AFAP
Physique is a natural by-product of pursuing the interests of each one of those stages; stages which
aren’t sequential, but cyclical, so what we want today changes tomorrow and the day after that. Don’t
be attached to your current desires, for as we revolve through the process, so too do our goals.
That said, “flow” develops the natural expression of your unique physique. You will look powerfully,
gracefully “you.” You won’t look like a bodybuilder, powerlifter, or strongman. Imagine how a martial
artist, gymnast and dancer appear similar in physique, due to the nature of flow being their medium to
express their physicality.
Muscles don’t “grow.” Movements improve, and the muscle develops to support that. The greater your
movement, the stronger your muscle. This is the “flow physique” which will erupt as a natural byproduct
from your training in this program.
137
[20/10X8+60]6
EXERCISE DESCRIPTIONS
[20/10x8+60]6 has three levels and six exercises per level, each with a different level of
complexity for each skill:
Level I:
1. Hack Squat
2. Plank Pull Knee
3. Sit Thru Knee
4. Knee Press
5. Basic Spinal Rock
6. Table Lift
Level II:
1. Front Lunge
2. Plank Pull 1/2 Knee
3. Sit Thru Extension
4. Pushup
5. Spinal Rock Pike
6. Tripod Vertical
Level III:
1. Reverse Lunge
2. Plank Pull No Knee
3. Sit Thru Hip Lift
4. Forearm Pushup
5. Spinal Rock Knee Drop
6. Tripod Overhead Extension
138
EXERCISE 1 LEVEL 1
HACK SQUAT
Begin standing with feet shoulder width

apart, tailbone pointed down, elbows in
forearms parallel to each other, but
perpendicular to the ground. Balance
midfoot for the entire movement.
Sit back rather than bending over. Avoid

pitching your knees over your toes;
instead, sit backward with a flat back.
Exhale through the mouth, and keep
forearms perpendicular the entire way
downward.
Squat down as far as you can without

bending forward. Attempt to keep feet
parallel to each other, unless you feel
discomfort in the knees, or if the knees
start to rotate inward or outward.
To stand up, start by driving midfoot and

pushing the Earth away, to drive your
crown upward.
139
EXERCISE 2 LEVEL 1
PLANK PULL KNEE
Starting on your knees with your arms

outstretched, push backward as far as
you can glutes toward heels. Stay on
balls of feet if possible.
Pulling with the forearms and hands, like

a horizontal pullup, keep your chest as
low to the ground as possible, as you
pull forward with an exhale.
Begin tucking your tailbone and

contracting your abs as you round your
midback with your elbows pinched
tightly to your ribs (and under your lats if
possible.) Keep your eyes looking
downward, to avoid arching the neck.
Move elbows back until forearms lay flat

on ground. Arching tailbone upward to
sit back.
140
EXERCISE 3 LEVEL 1
SIT THRU KNEE
On balls of feet, sit backward, with one

arm pushing into the Earth with palm
heel. Keep posted arm’s shoulder blade
down (shoulder away from your ear) with
your lats strong. Pull the top arm’s
elbow in tight to your ribs. Sit the
bottom side knee under, dropping the
hip with gravity to create the core
rotation. Exhale strong and deep.
Place the top hand down and come to

base, spine parallel to ground, on balls
of feet. Keep pressing into the Earth to
avoid retracting / pinching your shoulder
blades. Pull the knee back under to this
position and prepare to sit through the
opposite direction.
Reverse direction by dropping the

opposite knee under. Keep posted arm
shoulder blade depressed / pulled down
away from your ear. Right / left equals
one repetition: one point for one pair.
141
EXERCISE 4 LEVEL 1
KNEE PRESS
Begin on the knees, tuck the tailbone

under to flatten the back. Extend the
hips forward to locked position. Lock
elbows at the top and squeeze the
triceps to shut down the biceps and
balance on top of the bones, rather than
hold yourself upward with tension. Feet
can lift. Keep eyes looking downward.
Retract your elbows toward your hips!

Pinch them tight to your ribs, as you
exhale through the mouth. Maintain
tailbone tuck, and squeeze your pelvic
wall and glutes the entire time.
On bottom position, eyes still look

downward as arching the neck shuts
down nerve force. Pinch the elbows to
the ribs and in front of the lats. Drive the
elbow “pits” away from you to return to
locked position. Inhale through the nose
at the top.
142
EXERCISE 5 LEVEL 1
BASIC SPINAL ROCK
Begin in seated position, legs shoulder

width apart and parallel. Back straight,
feet flat, chin down but not tucked. Find
the balance between the two sits bones
and the tailbone, like sitting on top of a
three legged stool. Keep hands on
knees, but pinch elbows to ribs. Inhale
through the nose to grow tall; expand
the chest but don’t arch the back.
Tuck tailbone as you roll midback

toward the ground. Do not roll to
midback until your lower back gets flat
to the Earth. Exhale, with the
compression, through the mouth.
Once the lower back gets totally flat,

then you can roll backward onto
midback, pulling knees to chest with the
hands, in the deepest exhale through
the mouth.
Roll back to lower back flat, before you

return to a seated position, inhaling
through the nose and lifting the chest
without arching the midback.
143
EXERCISE 6 LEVEL 1
TABLE LIFT
In a seated position with legs

outstretched, push your locked arms
into the Earth with your palm heels;
fingers pointing toward feet. Exhale and
push hips off the ground by driving your
shoulder blades downward. Do not
round the back to lift. Drop the
shoulders to lift.
Swing forward from heels to flat foot,

keeping arms locked and shoulders
pressing downward. Inhale through the
nose.
Exhale through the mouth as you lift with

your quads to extend your hips. Keep
driving off of palm heels, but don’t lift
higher than you can keep elbows locked
without shoulder pain. Tuck tailbone.
Release hips downward, push off feet,

rocking to heels, and then sit backward
to return to original position. Inhale
through the nose, as you sit backward.
144
EXERCISE 1 LEVEL 2
FRONT LUNGE

midfoot for the entire movement. Step
forward into a lunge, with legs bending
at two 90 degree angles, shoulder width
separated. Avoid the knees rotating
inward or outward. Sit down and back;
don’t bend forward. Exhale.
As you release the tension of the lunge,
allow yourself to spring back to standing
position, feet still same distance apart,
with an inhale through the nose.
Reverse with opposite lunge. Right / Left

equals one repetition: a point for a pair.
145
EXERCISE 2 LEVEL 2
PLANK PULL 1/2 KNEE
Starting on your knees with your arms



Lock knees and squeeze your quads.
Place knees down, elbows back and
down forearms flat, arching tailbone
upward, to sit back.
146
EXERCISE 3 LEVEL 2
SIT THRU EXTENSION
On both balls of feet, sit backward, with

one arm pushing into the Earth with
palm heel. Keep posted arm’s shoulder
blade down (shoulder away from your
ear) with your lats strong. Pull the top
arm’s elbow in tight to your ribs. Sit the
bottom side leg under, knee locking
quad tight, dropping the hip with gravity
to create the core rotation. Exhale strong
and deep.
opposite direction.

opposite leg under. Keep posted arm
away from your ear. Right / left equals
one repetition: one point for one pair.
147
EXERCISE 4 LEVEL 2
PUSHUP
Begin in top of pushup position, tuck the

tailbone under to flatten the back.
Extend the hips forward to locked
position. Lock elbows at the top and
squeeze the triceps to shut down the
biceps and balance on top of the bones,
rather than hold yourself upward with
tension. Feet can lift. Keep eyes looking
downward.


at the top.
148
EXERCISE 5 LEVEL 2
SPINAL ROCK PIKE
Begin in seated position, legs straight.

Back straight, feet flat, chin down but
not tucked. Find the balance between
the two sits bones and the tailbone, like
sitting on top of a three legged stool.
Exhale through the mouth as you move
belly toward thighs, reaching hands
toward feet.


shoulder blades, exhale knees to chest
and then squeezing knees locked before
attempting to touch the ground. Don’t
try to kick ground. Let gravity drop.
149
EXERCISE 6 LEVEL 2
TRIPOD VERTICAL
Begin in tripod position. Posting arm

drives from palm heel locking elbow,
and rotating bottom shoulder under top
shoulder in one line perpendicular to the
Earth. Drop bottom shoulder blade
“depressed” toward hip. Top arm
reaches locked, eyes sight up toward
fingers. Drive off midfoot to get both
hips locked extended, knees together.
Exhale through the mouth.
Sit down and backward, keeping
posting arm shoulder down, bending
elbow. Draw top elbow to centerline
between legs to sit down. Switch
elbows between legs before beginning
next extension into tripod.
Lift with top arm, drive off midfoot,

extend hips, “pack” bottom shoulder
and get two shoulders in one line.
Right/left equals one: a point for a pair.
150
EXERCISE 1 LEVEL 3
REVERSE LUNGE

backward into a lunge, with legs
bending at two 90 degree angles,
shoulder width separated. Avoid the
knees rotating inward or outward. Sit
down and back; don’t bend forward.
allow yourself to spring back to standing
position, feet still same distance apart,
with an inhale through the nose.

151
EXERCISE 2 LEVEL 3
PLANK PULL NO KNEE
Keep off of your knees with your arms



Lock knees and squeeze your quads.
Do not place knees down. Pull elbows
back and down forearms flat, arching
tailbone upward, to sit back.
152
EXERCISE 3 LEVEL 3
SIT THRU HIP LIFT
Sit the bottom side leg under like the sit

thru extension, knee locked quad tight,
dropping the hip with gravity to create
the core rotation, but here, drive off back
leg midfoot to extend both hips, and
reach into tripod position. Exhale strong
and deep.

opposite direction.

opposite leg under. Keep posted arm
away from your ear. Lock both hips
extended. Keep extended leg knee
locked.
Right / left equals one repetition: one

point for one pair.
153
EXERCISE 4 LEVEL 3
FOREARM PUSHUP

downward.

On bottom position, drop forearms flat

to ground, eyes still look downward as
arching the neck shuts down nerve
force. Pinch the elbows to the ribs and
in front of the lats. Drive the elbow “pits”
away from you to return to locked
position. Inhale through the nose at the
top.
154
EXERCISE 5 LEVEL 3
SPINAL ROCK KNEE DROP

Back straight, feet together, knees
dropping outward, chin down but not
tucked. Find the balance between the
two sits bones and the tailbone, like
Inhale through the nose, hands pulling
ankles inward to sit tall.


and let the legs relax to drop feet toward
ground. Don’t try to kick ground. Let
gravity drop.
155
EXERCISE 6 LEVEL 3
TRIPOD OVERHEAD EXTENSION
Begin in tripod position. Posting arm

drives from palm heel locking elbow,
and rotating bottom shoulder under top
shoulder in one line perpendicular to the
Earth. Drop bottom shoulder blade
“depressed” toward hip. Top arm
reaches overhead. Neck releases
backward, with no tension. Drive off
midfoot to get both hips locked
extended, knees together. Exhale.
Sit down and backward, keeping
posting arm shoulder down, bending
elbow. Draw top elbow to centerline
between legs to sit down. Switch
elbows between legs before beginning
next extension into tripod.
Lift with top arm, drive off midfoot,

extend hips, “pack” bottom shoulder
and get two shoulders in one line. Reach
overhead, but release neck no tension.
Right/left equals one: a point for a pair.
156
4/1X4
4/1x4 has three levels and four exercises per level, each with a different level of
Level I:
1. Walking Lunge
2. Shoulder Bridge Tuck
3. Crow Hop
4. Forearm Crocodile
Level II:
1. Cossack Lunge
2. Spinal Rock Pike
3. Kong
4. Rear Tank
Level III:
1. Spinning Lunge
2. Kick Thru Spinal Rock
3. Ape
4. Forward Tank
157
EXERCISE 1 LEVEL 1
WALKING LUNGE

apart, tailbone pointed down, elbows in,
forward into a lunge, with legs bending
at two 90 degree angles, shoulder width
separated. Avoid the knees rotating
inward or outward. Lunge downward;
don’t bend forward. Exhale.
allow yourself to spring upward into the
next step, with an inhale through the
nose.

158
EXERCISE 2 LEVEL 1
SHOULDER BRIDGE TUCK
Begin in crunched position with lower

back flat to Earth. Keep hands on knees,
but pinch elbows to ribs. Exhale through
the mouth as you pinch elbows down
and pull knees to chest.
Roll spine completely flat, feet flat, less

than shoulders width. Arms at side,
palms down. Inhale through the nose,
and then begin exhaling through the
mouth as you press with your midfoot
into the Earth.

then exhale and drive off midfoot to
press hips in shoulder bridge. Keep
knees close together.

159
EXERCISE 3 LEVEL 1
CROW HOP
Begin crouching on hands and feet.

Heels down, fingers weight. Weight
distribution about 70% legs and 30% on
your hands.
Shift your weight toward your hands for

about 60% hands and 40% legs weight
distribution. Pinch your elbows
backward, and spread your fingers wide.
Keeping your hips very low to avoid

popping up, slide your knees to the
outside of your elbows with thighs
touching triceps. Shift weight to hands
about 80% and 20% remaining on legs.
Push back on your feet all of your

weight before reaching your hands again
outward for the next advance.
160
EXERCISE 4 LEVEL 1
FOREARM CROCODILE
Prone on the ground, place both

forearms down, one high, one low.
Palms flat, fingers wide. Bring the back
knee upward to the bottom elbow on the
same side. Stay on balls of feet. You can
place your knees down to the ground.
Press off of advancing leg and top

forearm to lift your body up, but don’t lift
your hips high. Advance the bottom
forearm to begin the next crawl. Exhale
deeply through the mouth.
Press off the rear ball of foot and

advance the opposite knee.
161
EXERCISE 1 LEVEL 2
COSSACK LUNGE
Step at a 45 degree angle. Rotate rear

leg hip outward so inside of knee could
touch ground, and rear leg heel rotates
inward onto the ball of foot side of the
big toe. Exhale.

allow yourself to spring upward into the
next step, with an inhale through the
nose.

162
EXERCISE 2 LEVEL 2
SPINAL ROCK PIKE

toward feet.


163
EXERCISE 3 LEVEL 2
KONG
Begin crouching on hands and feet.

Heels down, fingers weight. Weight
distribution about 70% legs and 30% on
your hands.
Pull your weight toward your hands

about 100% hands weight distribution.
Pinch your elbows backward, and
spread your fingers wide. Separate your
knees sufficiently to not hit your arms.
Keep hips down and exhale knees to the
outside of the shoulders.
Keeping your hips very low to avoid

popping up, hop your knees to the
outside of your elbows with thighs
touching triceps.
Stabilize the flat foot squat before

reaching your hands again outward for
the next advance.
164
EXERCISE 4 LEVEL 2
REAR TANK
Begin on your back, feet flat. Bend

elbow, and pinch to ribs before you roll
onto that side, entirely onto the tricep,
back off the ground.
Lift top shoulder blade, shoulder to ear.

Push off of feet, and drive off bottom
tricep like a conveyor belt. Exhale
through the mouth.
Bend the top elbow pinching elbows to

ribs before rolling to the opposite side.
Keep the new distance gained, and
elevate the opposite (now top) shoulder
to the ear to complete on the other arm.
165
EXERCISE 1 LEVEL 3
SPINNING LUNGE
In a deep wrestling shot lunge, rear heel

rotated inward, and balanced on front
ball of foot, shift your weight distribution
to 90% front leg. Keep spine tall and
perpendicular to the ground.
Place hands on ground and revolve on

front leg ball of foot to your “closed”
side (in the direction that you cannot
see) behind you until the rear leg now
face 180 degrees the opposite direction.
Exhale as you pivot.
Keep feet in place, as you carefully

switch through a flat foot squat to move
to the opposite wrestling shot lunge.
166
EXERCISE 2 LEVEL 3
KICK THRU SPINAL ROCK

Inhale through the nose as you sit tall.

compression, through the mouth. Bring
knees to chest, and then over one
shoulder. Look toward the shoulder the
legs roll over.

Exhale and switch the opposite direction

for one repetition.
167
EXERCISE 3 LEVEL 3
APE
In a deep wrestling shot lunge, rear heel

rotated inward, and balanced on front
ball of foot, shift your weight distribution
to 90% front leg. Reach out with your
hands to the side, in one line with the
line of your feet.
Shift your weight onto your hands and

kick your feet through until you land with
your rear leg on ball of foot, front leg
extended. Exhale as you shift through.
Keep feet in place, as you carefully

switch to the opposite wrestling shot
lunge. Exhale through the mouth.
168
EXERCISE 4 LEVEL 3
FORWARD TANK
Begin on your back, feet flat. Bend

elbow, and pinch to ribs before you roll
onto that side, entirely onto the tricep,
back off the ground.
Lift top shoulder blade, shoulder to ear.

Pull with the bottom of your feet,
contracting your hamstrings to bring
your glutes toward your heels. Slide your
bottom tricep like a conveyor belt,
shoulder to your ear. Reach with your
top arm between your legs, dropping the
shoulder blade as far as possible to
advance distance in the crawl. Exhale
through the mouth.
Bend the top elbow pinching elbows to
ribs before rolling to the opposite side.
Keep the new distance gained, and
elevate the opposite (now top) shoulder
to the ear to complete on the other arm.
169
EMOTM
EMOTM has three levels and four exercises per level, each with a different level of
Level I:
1. Quad Press
2. Basic Spinal Rock
3. Swinging Tripod
4. Knee Press
Level II:
1. Quad Pop Up
2. Straddle Spinal Rock
3. Springing Tripod
4. Bent Swing Plank
Level III:
1. Quad Transformer
2. Knee Drop Spinal Rock
3. Two Handed Springing Tripod
4. Extended Swing Plank
170
EXERCISE 1 LEVEL 1
QUAD PRESS
Begin on all fours in quad squat. Back

flat and parallel to ground, on balls of
feet. Eyes look downward. Fingers
rotate inward at 45 degrees. Lock
elbows at the top position.
Lower spine parallel to ground. Move

knees outward, externally rotating hips.
Elbows bend backward at 45 degrees.
Back remains flat. Exhale through the
mouth.
Lower until the inside of the knee

touches. Heels slightly rotated inward.
Exhale most deeply at the bottom, and
contract the core tightly.
Release with an inhale through the nose

upward.
171
EXERCISE 2 LEVEL 1
BASIC SPINAL ROCK
Begin in seated position, legs shoulder

width apart and parallel. Back straight,
three legged stool. Keep hands on
knees, but pinch elbows to ribs. Inhale
through the nose to grow tall; expand
the chest but don’t arch the back.


midback, pulling knees to chest with the
hands, in the deepest exhale through
the mouth.

172
EXERCISE 3 LEVEL 1
SWINGING TRIPOD
Begin in a tripod position, but twisting

torso toward knee, exhaling through the
mouth. Bring top arm around to aid in
the swing.
Swinging around the knee of the posted

arm, exhale to come to flat foot squat.
Continue the rotation until you land in

the opposite side. Drop the rear knee
slightly to keep the heels on the ground.
Right/left equals one repetition: a point

for a pair.
173
EXERCISE 4 LEVEL 1
KNEE PRESS
Begin on the knees, tuck the tialbone



at the top.
174
EXERCISE 1 LEVEL 2
QUAD POP UP
Begin in flat foot squat, elbows in,

forearms parallel and ready. Begin
falling forward in this structure to
engage the ground in quad squat.
Land in quad squat and absorb by

performing the quad press, spine
parallel to ground. Move knees outward,
externally rotating hips. Elbows bend
backward at 45 degrees. Back remains
flat. Exhale through the mouth.


upward. Push upward, and then when in
free fall, pull knees to chest to end in flat
foot squat position again.
175
EXERCISE 2 LEVEL 2
STRADDLE SPINAL ROCK
Begin in seated position, with legs

spread wide in a straddle. Back straight,
three legged stool. Inhale through the
nose to grow tall; expand the chest but
don’t arch the back.

to the Earth. Bring the soles of the feet
together, with knees wide. Exhale, with
the compression, through the mouth.

midback. In the deepest exhale through
the mouth, allow the legs to extend. Do
not try and kick the ground. Lock the
quads, and let gravity drop the legs.
176
EXERCISE 3 LEVEL 2
SPRINGING TRIPOD
Begin in a tripod position, but rotated by

twisting toward the knee, exhaling
through the mouth. Bring top arm
around to aid in the swing.
Driving off of midfoot, extend the hips

upward with a strong exhale. While your
upper body becomes free from gravity
from the hip extension, begin twisting
your core in the opposite direction, with
an exhale.


for a pair.
177
EXERCISE 4 LEVEL 2
BENT SWING PLANK
Start on hands and balls of feet, and

rotate both knees under to one side.
Tuck nose to armpit.
Driving off of midfoot, push forward

shifting your weight toward your hands
in a crescent movement from near
shoulder twisting to far shoulder. Exhale
through the mouth.
Continue the rotation until you complete

the rotation on the opposite side. Rotate
both knees under in the opposite
direction. Drop your heels toward your
glutes in a squat.

for a pair.
178
EXERCISE 1 LEVEL 3
QUAD TRANSFORMER

rotate inward at 45 degrees. Lower
spine parallel to ground. Move knees
outward, externally rotating hips. Elbows
bend backward at 45 degrees. Back
remains flat. Exhale through the mouth.
Explode upward and slightly extend

arms and legs outward in a box.
When you land, you will have

transformed your quad squat into an
extended quad position. Lower slightly,
push off again and retract your limbs to
the original squad squat with another
exhale.
179
EXERCISE 2 LEVEL 3
KNEE DROP SPINAL ROCK

Back straight, feet together, knees
dropping outward, chin down but not
tucked. Find the balance between the
two sits bones and the tailbone, like
Inhale through the nose, hands pulling
ankles inward to sit tall.


and let the legs relax to drop feet toward
ground. Don’t try to kick ground. Let
gravity drop.
180
EXERCISE 3 LEVEL 3
TWO HANDED SPRINGING TRIPOD
Begin in a tripod position but fully

rotated by twisting torso to allow both
hands to touch the ground. Drop the
rear knee inward to ensure this stability
of the lower back.
Drop both heels to the ground and drive

off of midfoot, extend the hips upward
with a strong exhale. While your upper
body becomes free from gravity from the
hip extension, begin twisting your core
in the opposite direction, with an exhale.


for a pair.
181
EXERCISE 4 LEVEL 3
EXTENDED SWING PLANK
Start on hands and balls of feet, and

rotate both knees under to one side.
Tuck nose to armpit.
Driving off of midfoot, push forward until

you extend to pushup / plank position.
Pause in this structure before shifting in
a crescent movement to far shoulder.
After pausing the extension, rotate until

you complete the rotation on the
opposite side. Rotate both knees under
in the opposite direction. Drop your
heels toward your glutes in a squat.

for a pair.
182
AMRAP
AMRAP has three levels and four exercises per level, each with a different level of
Level I:
1. Burpee
2. Knee Press
3. Gecko Press
4. Shoulder Bridge Tuck
Level II:
1. Wave Sprawl
2. Spiderman Pushup
3. Crab Press
4. Spinal Rock Pike
Level III:
1. Quad Sprawl
2. Scorpion Pushup
3. Base Switch
4. Kick Thru Spinal Rock
183
EXERCISE 1 LEVEL 1
BURPEE

Squat down until belly touches thighs

and hands on the ground.
Jump legs backward, and keep elbows

locked, shoulders packed strongly. Tuck
tailbone and contract glutes under, to
prevent hinging at lower back. Any
backward bend should be resisted at
the core, or bent at the knees; never the
lower back. Use the exhale through the
mouth to spring your knees back to
belly on thighs, and then squat to stand,
inhaling through the nose.
184
EXERCISE 2 LEVEL 1
KNEE PRESS
Begin on the knees, tuck the tailbone



at the top.
185
EXERCISE 3 LEVEL 1
GECKO PRESS

rotate inward at 45 degrees. Lift left
elbow outward and back at a 45, while
lifting back knee outward and backward
at a 45. Balance on posting hand and
ball of foot. Exhale through mouth.
Return to quad squat position before

transferring weight to opposite hand /
foot.
Lift opposite hand and foot with an

exhale through the mouth.

for a pair.
186
EXERCISE 4 LEVEL 1
SHOULDER BRIDGE TUCK
Begin in crunched position with lower

back flat to Earth. Keep hands on knees,
but pinch elbows to ribs. Exhale through
the mouth as you pinch elbows down
and pull knees to chest.
Roll spine completely flat, feet flat less

than shoulders width. Arms at side,
palms down. Inhale through the nose,
and then begin exhaling through the
mouth as you press with your midfoot
into the Earth.

then exhale and drive off midfoot to
press hip extended in shoulder bridge.
Keep knees close together.

187
EXERCISE 1 LEVEL 2
WAVE SPRAWL

midfoot for the entire movement. Roll
shoulders backward, push belly
outward, then hips, and finally sit down
fast.
Squat down until belly touches thighs

and hands on the ground.
Jump legs backward, and bend elbows,

and bring chest to ground. Tuck the
tailbone and arch the upper spine,
pressing elbow to lift torso. Use the
exhale through the mouth to spring your
knees back to belly on thighs, and then
squat to stand, inhaling through the
nose.
188
EXERCISE 2 LEVEL 2
SPIDERMAN PUSHUP
Begin in top of pushup position, with

one hand at shoulder height, the other at
chest height. Tuck the tailbone under to
flatten the back. Extend the hips forward
to locked position. Lock elbows at the
top and squeeze the triceps to shut
down the biceps and balance on top of
the bones, rather than hold yourself
upward with tension. Feet can lift. Keep
eyes looking downward.

at the top. Switch hand configuration to
opposite side. Right/left equals one
repetition: a point for a pair.
189
EXERCISE 3 LEVEL 2
CRAB PRESS
Begin in a crab position hips off the

ground. Lift one leg and the opposite
hand. Balance between posted hand
and foot.
Place both hands and feet on the

ground and shift weight to opposite
hand and foot to post.
Lift the opposite hand and foot,

balancing upon the posted hand and
foot with an exhale through the mouth.
Place down.
Right / left equals one: a point for a pair.
190
EXERCISE 4 LEVEL 2
SPINAL ROCK PIKE

toward feet.


191
EXERCISE 1 LEVEL 3
QUAD SPRAWL

Squat down and before belly touches

thighs and hands on the ground, fall
forward ready to catch yourself in a
quad squat.


upward. Push upward, and then when in
free fall, pull knees to chest to end in flat
foot squat position again. Stand with an
inhale through the nose.
192
EXERCISE 2 LEVEL 3
SCORPION PUSHUP

downward.
Bend knee of one leg to a 90 degree

angle. Begin retracting elbows toward
hips to lower to the bottom of the
pushup.
On bottom position, rotate the lifted leg

up and over so the hips become in one
line perpendicular to the ground, with
your weight shifting to the outside of
your foot. Pinch the elbows to the ribs
and in front of the lats. Drive the elbow
“pits” away from you to return to locked
position, rotating back to ball of foot.
Inhale through the nose at the top.
Switch legs. Right/left equals one: a
point for a pair.
193
EXERCISE 3 LEVEL 3
BASE SWITCH
Begin in quad squat position. Lift one

leg and the opposite hand. Balance
between posted hand and foot. Exhale
as you rotate.
Reach under with lifted knee like a sit

thru, and swing the top arm over into
crab position.
Lift the opposite hand and foot,

balancing upon the posted hand and
foot with an exhale through the mouth.
Reverse directions and sit opposite knee
under and arm over.
Right / left equals one: a point for a pair.
194
EXERCISE 4 LEVEL 3
KICK THRU SPINAL ROCK

Inhale through the nose as you sit tall.

compression, through the mouth. Bring
knees to chest, and then over one
shoulder. Look toward the shoulder the
legs roll over.

return to a seated position, inhale
through the nose and lift the chest

for one repetition.
195
[90/30X5]2
[90/30x5]2 has three levels and five exercises per level, each with a different level of
Level I:
1. Forearm Cross Knee Thread
2. Rocca Bent
3. Jump Up
4. Quad Press
5. Alternating Dolphin
Level II:
1. Shoulder Bridge Leg Thread
2. Rocca Flat
3. Commando Pullup
4. Quad Hop
5. Dolphin Locked
Level III:
1. Pushup Leg Thread
2. Rocca Vertical
3. Pullup
4. Quad Clap
5. Dolphin Vertical
196
EXERCISE 1 LEVEL 1
FOREARM CROSS KNEE THREAD
Begin in forearm plank position and

bring opposite knee under to meet the
far elbow with an exhale through the
mouth.
Return to forearm plank position in

center with an inhale through the nose.

for one repetition.
197
EXERCISE 2 LEVEL 1
ROCCA BENT
Begin in a quad squat and extend your

legs so your spine angles at
approximately 45 degrees. Rotate your
hands inward to one another at a 45.
With an exhale through the mouth, begin

pushing your weight off your feet toward
your hands, and lowering the top of your
head toward the ground by retracting
your elbows backward at a 45.
Deeply exhale until you control a gentle

touch of the top of the head to the
ground.
Start bending the knees as you push

backward to begin the next repetition.
Inhale through the nose at the end.
198
EXERCISE 3 LEVEL 1
JUMP UP
Find a bar which has a height so that if

you jumped it is low enough for you to
grab with your elbows bent.
Jump as high as you can, but don’t do

any pull. Stop at the height of your jump
with a sharp exhale through the mouth.
Then, begin a controlled extension of
the elbows. Tuck tailbone and round the
midback.
Lower yourself to full elbow lock before

releasing for the next repetition.
199
EXERCISE 4 LEVEL 1
QUAD PRESS

Lower spine parallel to ground. Move

knees outward, externally rotating hips.
Elbows bend backward at 45 degrees.
Back remains flat. Exhale through the
mouth.


upward.
200
EXERCISE 5 LEVEL 1
A LT E R N AT I N G D O L P H I N
Begin in a “downward dog” position

with heels as low as possible. Lower
one elbow to the ground, forearm flat
with an exhale through the mouth.
Perform a forearm pushup on that side

to return to the shallow, rounded
downward dog position.
Complete the same pushup on the

opposite side. Right / left equals one
repetition: a point for a pair.
201
EXERCISE 1 LEVEL 2
SHOULDER BRIDGE LEG THREAD
Begin in a shoulder bridge. Elbows tight

to ribs, forearms parallel to each other.
Reach one foot under the knee of the

other, and take the opposite forearm
rolling over to the bottom of a pushup
position with forearms touching. Exhale
through the mouth.
Take the same “threading” leg, and

continue in the same rotation, tucking
the knee under to return to shoulder
bridge.
Switch directions. Right/left bridge-to-

bridge back to original bridge equals
one repetition.
202
EXERCISE 2 LEVEL 2
ROCCA FLAT

legs until you lock knees with your back
at approximately a 65 degree angle.
Rotate your hands inward at a 45.


ground.
Keep the knees locked as you push

backward to begin the next repetition.
203
EXERCISE 3 LEVEL 2
COMMANDO PULLUP
Grab a bar with elbows locked. One

hand underhooks like a chinup and the
other overhooks like a pullup. Before
pulling, make sure you pack the
shoulders down and keep your
shoulders off of your ears.
Pull the body toward the chinup hand,

though pull equally 50/50 with both
hands. Exhale through the mouth. The
chinup side will be dominant, so pull as
hard as you have to in order to keep two
shoulders in one line parallel to the bar.
Pull the chinup elbow down to the core

(power chamber) exhaling from the belly.
Lock tightly. Lower yourself with control
until full extension. Then switch grips.
for a pair.
204
EXERCISE 4 LEVEL 2
QUAD HOP


Release with an explosive exhale

through the mouth.
Explode off the ground with all four

limbs leaving the ground at the same
time, with spine parallel to the ground.
Absorb back into the ground softly and

smoothly with an exhale through the
mouth. Use the elastic storage of
absorbing one repetition to create the
potential for the subsequent.
205
EXERCISE 5 LEVEL 2
DOLPHIN LOCKED

with heels as low as possible.
Lower both elbows down to the ground

with an exhale through the mouth. Keep
knees locked.
Press palms into the ground, and drive

elbows back to locked position.
206
EXERCISE 1 LEVEL 3
PUSHUP LEG THREAD
Start in the top of a pushup position,

and begin dropping one elbow to the
ground, forearm down, rolling over onto
that side of the body.
Thread the same side (as the bending

elbow) knee underneath to roll to a
bridge position.
Reach that same leg foot under the

other, while rolling over onto the
forearms like the previous level skill.
Perform a pushup to top position.
Then, reverse directions.
Right/left equal one repetition: a point

for a pair.
207
EXERCISE 2 LEVEL 3
ROCCA VERTICAL

legs until you lock knees with your back
as close to 90 degree angle as possible.
Rotate your fingers inward at a 45.
Come up on toes as high as possible,
extending ankles.


ground.
Keep the knees locked as you push

upward to begin the next repetition.
208
EXERCISE 3 LEVEL 3
PULLUP
Grab a bar with elbows locked. Before

Squeeze the hips forward until fully

extended, but tuck the tailbone and
contract the abs. Exhale through the
mouth and pull your elbows to your lats.
The chinup side will be dominant, so pull
as hard as you have to in order to keep
two shoulders in one line parallel to the
bar.
Lower yourself with control until full

extension.
209
EXERCISE 4 LEVEL 3
QUAD CLAP


Release with an explosive exhale

through the mouth.
Explode off the ground with all four

limbs leaving the ground at the same
time, with spine parallel to the ground.
During weightlessness, bring hands
together and feet together quickly,
before returning them to quad squat to
absorb back into the ground softly and
smoothly. Use the elastic storage of
absorbing one repetition to create the
potential for the subsequent.
210
EXERCISE 5 LEVEL 3
DOLPHIN VERTICAL

with ankles extended as high as
possible, onto toes.
Lower both elbows down to the ground

with an exhale through the mouth. Keep
knees locked.
Press palms into the ground, and drive

elbows back to locked position.
211
AFAP
AFAP has three levels and four exercises per level, each with a different level of
Level I:
1. Side Lunge
2. Hack Squat
3. Forearm Side Plank
4. Jump Up
Level II:
1. Cossack Lunge
2. Squat Jump
3. Top Side Plank
4. Commando Pullup
Level III:
1. Cossack Warrior
2. Jump Tuck Squat
3. Pushup Side Plank
4. Pullup
212
EXERCISE 1 LEVEL 1
SIDE LUNGE
Step to the side placing 80% of your

weight on the bent leg, and your trailing
leg knee locked. Point feet in same
direction, parallel to each other. Exhale
and sit backward, rather than bending
forward. Do not sit lower than you can
keep your spine approximately vertical.
Press off mid foot with an inhale through

the nose to get tall.
Repeat on opposite side.

for a pair.
213
EXERCISE 2 LEVEL 1
HACK SQUAT

Sit back rather than bending over. Avoid

pitching your knees over your toes;
instead, sit backward with a flat back.
Exhale through the mouth, and keep
forearms perpendicular the entire way
downward.


crown upward.
214
EXERCISE 3 LEVEL 1
FOREARM SIDE PLANK
Begin in forearm plank position, and

pack shoulder blade down tightly.
Rotate weight over to the outside of the
foot. Exhale through the mouth and
keep upper arm of posted arm
perpendicular to the ground.
Inhale through the nose as you return

back to forearm plank.

for a pair.
215
EXERCISE 4 LEVEL 1
JUMP UP
Find a bar which has a height so that if

you jumped it is low enough for you to
grab with your elbows bent.
Jump as high as you can, but don’t do

any pull. Stop at the height of your jump
with a sharp exhale through the mouth.
Then, begin a controlled extension of
the elbows. Tuck tailbone and round the
midback.
Lower yourself to full elbow lock before

releasing for the next repetition.
216
EXERCISE 1 LEVEL 2
COSSACK LUNGE
Step to the side placing 80% of your

weight on the bent leg, and your trailing
leg knee locked, but rotate the toes of
the trailing leg upward (externally
rotating the hip). Exhale and sit
backward, rather than bending forward.
Do not sit lower than you can keep your
spine approximately vertical. Exhale
through the mouth.
Press off mid foot with an inhale through

the nose and rotate trailing foot back to
sole flat to ground.

for a pair.
217
EXERCISE 2 LEVEL 2
SQUAT JUMP


crown upward.
Explosively exhale and drive hips fully

extended, and knees locked.
Absorb into squat to elastically load for

subsequent repetition.
218
EXERCISE 3 LEVEL 2
TOP SIDE PLANK
Begin in top of plank position, and pack

shoulder blade down tightly. Rotate
weight over to the outside of the foot.
Exhale through the mouth and keep
upper arm of posted arm perpendicular
to the ground.
Inhale through the nose as you return

back to plank.

for a pair.
219
EXERCISE 4 LEVEL 2
COMMANDO PULLUP
Grab a bar with elbows locked. One

hand underhooks like a chinup and the
other overhooks like a pullup. Before
Pull the body toward the chinup hand,

though pull equally 50/50 with both
hands. Exhale through the mouth. The
chinup side will be dominant, so pull as
hard as you have to in order to keep two
shoulders in one line parallel to the bar.
Pull the chinup elbow down to the core

(power chamber) exhaling from the belly.
Lock tightly. Lower yourself with control
until full extension. Then switch grips.
for a pair.
220
EXERCISE 1 LEVEL 3
COSSACK WARRIOR
Begin in extended lunge position. Rear
heel turn upward foot perpendicular to
ground. Spine perpendicular to ground.
Front knee over foot, midfoot balance.
Rear hip rotated forward, two hips in
one line.
Rotate rear leg externally until knee

locks and heel touches. Sit back on
front leg, rotating foot internally 45
degrees to achieve Cossack lunge.
Bend rear knee, and carefully drive off

currently front leg to push forward into
opposite extended lunge. Exhale
through the mouth.

for a pair.
221
EXERCISE 2 LEVEL 3
JUMP TUCK SQUAT


crown upward.
Explosively exhale and drive hips fully

extended, and knees locked.
Bring knees to chest at top position of

jump. Exhale through the mouth so that
you land midfoot and absorb
immediately into the squat.
222
EXERCISE 3 LEVEL 3
PUSHUP SIDE PLANK
Begin in top of plank position, and pack

shoulder blade down tightly. Rotate
weight over to the outside of the foot.
Exhale through the mouth and keep
upper arm of posted arm perpendicular
to the ground. Draw top elbow high in
one line with two shoulders. Do not do
this so hard or fast that you overrotate
and lose shoulder stability in bottom
posting arm.
Exhale through the mouth and absorb
rapidly to the bottom of a pushup
position.
Explosively absorb and release the

pushup position, pressing up with both
arms, and releasing the top arm, rotating
over two shoulders in one line for side
plank, drawing elbow back like pulling a
bow.

for a pair.
223
EXERCISE 4 LEVEL 3
PULLUP
Grab a bar with elbows locked. Before

Squeeze the hips forward until fully

extended, but tuck the tailbone and
contract the abs. Exhale through the
mouth and pull your elbows to your lats.
The chinup side will be dominant, so pull
as hard as you have to in order to keep
two shoulders in one line parallel to the
bar.
Lower yourself with control until full

extension.
224

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S C O T T S O N N O N

REVIVE SURVIVE THRIVE

Primal Stress™ Revive - Survive - Thrive

by Scott Sonnon, Chief Operations Officer

Release the Outer Bag Simplifying Complexity

Scott Sonnon is most known for being a martial

Sonnon trained for six years with the former

Sonnon’s peak performance enhancement

ABOUT THE COVER

How to use this book:

After being released into mainstream population, only the school

Fighting became a recurrent felon. Yet, worse than the physical

Thirty years passed. 30 years. I know this because I

Absorbing one teacher’s instruction after another,

I knew it wasn’t a particular

Irrespective of age, gender,

CLEARING THE UNCLEAN SLATE

Suddenly, the thesis crystallized.

CONVERSION AND PREVENTION

Within the Soviet empire were enclaves

In places like these, the Soviet sport

Catabolism <----> Anabolism

Hans Selye, the genius who

What’s the difference? From an

FREEZE - FLINCH - FORCE - FLOW

Freeze: producing a Flinch: eliciting a Force: manifesting a Flow: displaying a highly

GOOD STRESS - BAD STRESS

1. Hypostress: insufficiently low stress

The spectrum inbetween

NATURAL RELAXED READINESS

Many traditional and conventional relaxation

Dependance upon relaxation techniques for

With an undamaged autonomic nervous system,

RESILIENCE VERSUS TOUGHNESS

Track the differences in how we die

If you want to become tough

Your life depends upon it. Training

AS FAST AS YOUR FORM CAN HOLD IT

Not one man or

SUFFICIENT BUT NON-EXCESSIVE

During my martial art background studies, I

I should note that this graph is inaccurate. In

PRIMAL PROTECTIVE REFLEX

In some cases, it will cause you to advance forward overaggressively, such as

2 BRANCHES OF NERVOUS SYSTEM

SHIFTING RESILIENCE GEARS

Circulo-respiratory distress (CRD) is that condition of great discomfort – such as labored

SHIFTING RESILIENCE GEARS

SHIFTING RESILIENCE GEARS

TOO MUCH, TOO LITTLE, JUST RIGHT

This biochemical marker held an identifiable array of STRESS AROUSAL SPECTRUM

How skilled I was to meet a particular stress level

events and attitudes.

THE SHAPE OF EXCESSIVE STRESS

1. from a socio-anthropological observation as a national coach and

2. from a functional, physiological perspective gained from teaching

3. from a personal, emotional experience of the distortions and

How specifically does distress, or excess stress, mutate your structure?

I am going to give this stress-induced collection of reflexes a sum label:

Unfortunately, if we neglect compensating for SAPS temporarily seizing

THE ORIGINS OF STRESS REFLEXES

The next point could be considered controversial, but the veracity

Think of yourself enraged or suddenly frightened. The changes

Not only perceived threat, or sudden sensory overload like loud