It’s starting to become a tradition that a certain circle of fitness enthusiasts meets up in the rural outskirts of the Hausruckviertel midwinter. Almost exactly one year after the Naturtraining Winter Camp 2010, Dominik Feischl yet again invites his inner circle of training comrades to gather for an exciting day of training body and mind.

Training amongst friends was the motto of the 2001 Winter Camp. Dominik told us beforehand that there would be relatively little talking and mostly training throughout the next few hours. I arrived at the gym in Ottnang am Hausruck, where the first part of the training session would take place, with a rather problematic precondition: In the morning of the day before, I had to vomit and was struck ill by nausea and headache. With only one day of recovery and practically no food consumed the last 36 hours, I was unsure whether or not I would be able to participate. Eleven other participants would arrive alongside me – including three locals. As Dominik only invited people who have already attended numerous of his prior seminars, I knew everyone: Harald and Mathias from Graz, Thomas from Regensburg (Germany), Gregor and Alex from CrossFit Munich, Peter from Linz, Patrick from Braunau and Janis from Kreuzlingen (Switzerland). The stage was set for an intense day of training.

The training session was split in three parts, like last winter:

• Warm-Up, Climbing and Hand walking at the Gym in Ottnang
• Outdoor training at the Naturtraining centre in Thomasroith
• An outdoor hike up to the Pettenfirst, a local 700 meter hill

Part One: Warm-Up, Climbing and Hand walking at the Gym in Ottnang

Dominik kicked things off with a short joint mobility session – an element he most probably includes in every workout since his face-to-face meet-up with strength & conditioning coach Steve Maxwell. We worked our body from the top of our head down to our toes – in order to avoid injuries before they can occur out of thin air. Karl “Farmer Karl” Humer led us through a dynamic warm up on inverted long benches (“Langbank”, a common piece of gym equipment, a bench with a narrow plank on its flipside), where we threw medicine balls at each other, did partner balance exercises and did jumps – which tremendously worked our ankles and coordination.

We started off with the most power-oriented part of the day where we split into two groups of six and did the following exercises, one person at a time:

• Timed rope climbing intervals
• Rope climbing on two ropes (maximum height)
• ABC pull up style pulls on the rope (static holds in different angles)
• Box jumps on a gym mat staple (up to 1.20 m)
• Hand walking on vertical ladders
• Static hold for maximum time on vertical ladders
• Pull-ups on a difficult implement (a ~10 cm diameter pipe)

For most of us, our pulling power was already wasted at this point. We finished things off in the gym with two circuit-training-style workouts. Number one was a circuit of six stations (done in pairs), 30” work, 15” rest, two rounds:

1. Knee raises on the wall bars
2. Elevated feet push-ups with hands on small softballs
3. Forward lunges
4. Static holds on the rope
5. Elephant walk on a gym mat
6. Jump squats

Number two was a Parkour-inspired circuit involving the following obstacles:

1. Hand walking on the vertical ladder
2. Rolling over a gym mat
3. Climbing along the wall bars
4. Hand walking across the parallel bars
5. Leapfrogging over the vaulting horse
6. Balancing along the long benches
7. Vaulting over the vaulting box

Part Two: Outdoor training at the Naturtraining centre in Thomasroith

After the training in the indoor gym, we transferred to the outdoor Naturtraining centre in Thomasroith – well-known to be the venue of seminars prior. There we got into a short but intense workout program, again split into two groups of six. We did the following challenges:

• Tyre flips (145 kg tyre) and tyre farmer walks (75 kg tyre) around the field (approx. 400m) as a team
• Maximum time static holds on bar
• Sprints with weighted belt
• Sprints with another person holding you back
• Sprints while carrying a boulder
• Sprints while carrying another person
• Hill sprints up and down a snowy slope
• Climbing ‘around’ our training partners
• Hand-walking across a pipe and bars

These challenges all had a competitive character as the teams competed against each other – in a friendly, uplifting way. It drove us to give our best, despite circumstances – which certainly encompasses me and my physical condition on that day.

Part Three: An outdoor hike up to the Pettenfirst

Lastly, we did an outdoor hike up the Pettenfirst, which is around 700 m high which means it is the highest elevation around the Naturtraining centre. Unlike last year, we omitted the training implements while going up the hill – for most of the participants, the body was already exhausted to a certain point so that a regenerative walk came in handy. Still, the pace was stiff for something called active regeneration. Here I first came to notice the ramifications of not having eaten properly for more than one day: My energy levels plummeted dramatically while approaching the summit and I struggled to barely keep up with the pack, with my mind wandering off more and more into a blank state. I was happy to have reached the finishing point after a steep and icy decent – a warm shower and a wholesome dinner thereafter.

After training, we spent more than two hours conversing about training methodologies, our own experiences, how we approach body and mind development and related topics. Like always, I was able to get the most of the day out of this lengthy conversation – I got to know other perspectives and insights new to me, which included:

• Janis pointed out – again – that the weakness of most people lies with their core stability
• Likewise, he emphasized the importance of learning movement patterns over everything else
• Practice what you preach – There seem to be a lot of foul eggs out there in the fitness information industry
• Unless an exercise really feels good it most probably is not done the right way
• The value of baseline cardiovascular endurance is underrated these days
• Pull-ups and push-ups are all about how you work your shoulders
• Strength and training are lifelong journeys – not a quick fix for a year or two

Like last year, I have to ask myself the ever-important question of what I have learned this day. Lessons include:

• When the variety of the exercises undergone improves, there is a better chance to get to know your own strengths and weaknesses (for me, strengths discovered are grip strength and vertical jumps, weaknesses core stability)
• Keeping the right mind-set highly amplifies the possible output. Harald and Mathias practiced going to a happy place in moments of extreme intensity and fatigue. I tried it as well (under guidance of Harald) and it worked wonders for my momentary performance. Coaching key: Keep your face muscles relaxed.
• The competitive edge: Once you enter a surrounding which endorses competition, performance tends to go up unless negative stress makes it go otherwise. Competition amongst friends almost always proves to improve performance without elevating stress levels. This is the value of a good group of training comrades – which I enjoy in the rare occasions Dominik’s seminars offer
• The dark side of the competitive edge: It’s tremendously hard to go back on your performance when your physical state calls out for doing it. I should have limited myself a tad more than I have during the hours of working out, keeping in mind that I still was convalescent.
• Still, I was impressed how much I could achieve – the sickness just overcome did not hinder me to operate almost at my peak level of performance. The moment I decided I could do it, there was little holding me back (physically).
• You have to plan in recovery time after such a session – I have rarely felt so devastated physically like today, the day following the seminar. The body is unwilling to really move and yearning for an ample amount of calories to be ingested. Surely, this stands in direct correlation with the body still recouping from sickness
• On a side note: Write better lists for taking things with me. It was pretty problematic not to have two pairs of socks with me, given my circumstances.

To summarize things, the third Naturtraining Winter Camp has truly lived up to its reputation as being an institution for training enthusiasts. The community spirit has yet to be matched and I have and will always look forward to events like it in the future. Kudos to Dominik and Karl for setting up this tremendous training program – we will see each other again in spring 2011, when the successor of the Gorilla Camp will take place.

Stay strong!
Simon

P.S.: As always, Dominik has a highlight video to offer. Take the time and enjoy it!

P.P.S.: Three pictures I have taken during the first part of the session.