Scott Sonnon is a martial art expert, fitness coach, dyslexia advocate and wellness speaker. He has worked with movie stars such as Peta Wilson and fashion designer Donna Karan as well as Ultimate Fighting Championship mixed martial arts fighters such as Alberto Crane, Jorge Rivera, Andrei Arlovski, and Elvis Sinosic. He currently leads Human Performance for the United States Department of Energy and United States military special operations research in breathing techniques to improve performance and selection rates.

Personal life

Sonnon was born in 1969, in Pennsylvania, USA. His family emigrated to the United States two generations before him from the town of Sonnon, district of Passau, Bavaria, Germany. As a child he was legally blind due to myopia and Thygeson's disease, suffered from Osteochondrosis and obesity, and was diagnosed with dyslexia. Sonnon is a member of Mensa International and has been a keynote speaker for the High IQ organization.

Career

Sonnon is credited as having reintroduced Indian clubs in the form of clubbells to strength training. By 2007 he had been inducted into three halls of fame: the National Fitness Hall of Fame, the International Martial Arts Hall of Fame and the Personal Trainer Hall of Fame, and is known to the Sambo and Russian martial arts communities. As Sonnon is highly regarded in Sambo training, people have traveled great distances to attend his workshops. Sonnon was voted one of "The 6 Most Influential Martial Artists of the 21st Century" by Black Belt Magazine in 2010 and in 2011 he was named one of "Top 25 Fitness Trainers in the World" by "Men's Fitness Magazine". Sonnon is a global staff trainer for the 2014 Nike Academy. His fitness system, Circular Strength Training, has been adopted by members of the United States military and law enforcement community. He is also a published author, a public speaker, and an advocate for education about childhood obesity. As a result of his struggles with illnesses and dyslexia as a child, he became a TED Fellow speaking on the nature of multiple learning styles being misdiagnosed as learning disabilities, and he advocates for dyslexia educational support in public schools.

Career highlights