Roughly one year after the initial installment of the Gorilla Camp, an intense one-day seminar on hand walking, rope climbing and all things pulling power (amongst other things) we were welcomed back to Karl “Farmer Karl” Humer‘s greatly extended hand walking and climbing course. 14 attendees were looking forward to an interesting and informative day of intense training amongst friends.

We started things off with a tour through the course. Every station could be tried out to see where one is standing. The stations were:

1. Hand walking across the parallel bars
2. Hand walking using a rope to jump from point to point
3. Regenerative: Sliding over poles using rings
4. Horizontal pegboard climbing
5. Vertical pegboard climbing
6. Rope climbing
7. Hand walking down a ladder
8. Hand walking across wooden sticks
9. Hand walking down a log
10. The Trojan Horse
11. Another ladder

The main portion of the training circulated around these stations. After an initial run-through we did static hold intervals on all implements, dedicated rope climbing and a speed challenge across the three first stations (with Dominik setting a blazingly fast top time just above ten seconds!).

In his article about the seminar (German), my comrade Janis mentioned Dominik and Karl’s outstanding capability to cleverly design workouts. I can only second that opinion. Our legs were challenged with concrete suitcase deadlifts, tire drags, farmer walks, clean and press with a sand bag (which turned out to be utmost uncooperative). Although the emphasis of the seminar still remained on the upper body pulling power, the legs certainly did their part.

The camaraderie was truly enjoyable – everyone pushed his comrades to and beyond their limits. This proves to be the single biggest factor that drives the regulars to ever and ever again show up on Dominik’s seminars. It has become a congregation of friends united with a sameness in attitude and mindset that is rare to be found. The seminars are friendly competitions in and of themselves.

It was very telling that the lunch break (ironically situated at somewhere about 3 p.m.) was partially used to try out new challenges: People were continuing to climb, dragging heavy tires and carrying them back to the start (farmer’s walk). On high spirits, the achievements of people thrive. An impressive display.

It has been great to be a spectator to everyone’s progress. The regulars (Bossk, Gregor, Janis and Thomas) are developing beautifully towards their athletic goals. Thomas has to be mentioned most of all. His development from fat and flaccid to lean and powerful (as the subtitle of Marty Gallagher’s The Purposeful Primitive reads) is very impressive. He is living proof of the concept that steady commitment is able to fundamentally change the physical constitution of a person. I’m thrilled to see how he develops further.

To me, the seminar meant a reintroduction into training. Prior to this seminar, I have allowed myself to wander off the topic, restraining my physical exertion to short full-body workouts exclusively using the barbell for very little sets per week. Sure, the intensity was high but I became increasingly out of touch with my body and how it functions. The seminar sharpened my focus again. I have now made the decision to mainly work on bodyweight feats of strength in 2011. There’s nothing like it.

Furthermore, the seminar was a great experience for me as a beginner photographer. I learned a lot about positioning and photo design in the course of shooting this event – which was a pleasure as well as a challenge. I’m looking forward to the next installment – for the training, the camaraderie and the great pictures.

A full set of pictures taken of the event can be downloaded here. For full quality copies of photos please contact me.

Update 19.04.2011

The local TV station LT1 produced a feature of the Gorilla Camp. Click here to watch it (German). It captures the spirit of the camp in a very good way.