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.

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.

After a pretty long break from attending seminars at Dominik Feischl’s Naturtraining centre in Thomasroith (I missed out on the Steve Maxwell seminar due to financial issues), it was a pleasant comeback for me to attend the Kettlebell seminar which took place on September 18th.

Setting

Dominik Feischl and IKFF Kettlebell instructor Oliver Klettner (whom I already knew from the Wintercamp and the Fighter Fitness Forum) paired up with the intention to deliver a complete introduction into the basics of Kettlebell lifting. A complete total of 15 attendees gathered (Dominik, Oliver and Karl Humer excluded) on a warm and sunny Saturday morning (some of the attendees took home some serious sunburn ) to delve into the now so hyped working with those sphere-shaped weights. The experience level of the attendees varied from total beginners with virtually no experience in Kettlebell lifting to somewhat experienced athletes with more than six months thereof. As I have already attended a Kettlebell seminar back in 2008 at Dominik’s, I was amongst the most experienced Kettlebell lifters but still well aware that I had a lot of work to do to get the technique right.

Preperation

Oliver started the seminar with a two-part warm-up-session. First he targeted our general motor skills by moving in all fundamental directions (forward, backward, sideways and rotational) before he started an extensive joint mobility session with a strong emphasis on hip, shoulder and finger mobility – the three key bodyparts in kettlebell lifting. Most of us already experienced this warm-up as being as challenging as a regular workout due to the fact that mobility training with body parts usually disengaged while working out will lead to a serious sensation of fatigue. As for me, I had to struggle with mobility limitations in the area of my hips as well as my shoulders, where some of the exercises really showed me my limits. I was already in awe about Oliver at that point – his mobility skills are the result of a consistent commitment to something of fundamental importance in training — staying mobile and keeping joints and tendons healthy.

Basics: The Swing

This video gives a pretty good impression of the basic techniques we covered during the seminar. The protagonist is Oliver himself.

Warmed up and mobilized, we started the Kettlebell work with the most important movement in Kettlebell sports: The Kettlebell swing. Every other lift in Kettlebell sports heavily relies on the movement patterns used when performing the Kettlebell swing, so a proper swing is the ideal foundation for excelling in lifting. Oliver taught us the Kettlebell swing in the so-called Fluid Style, which is a style of Kettlebell lifting that emphasizes work capacity — the ability to sustain performance for as long as possible. To achieve this, muscles that are strong but fatigue quickly are taken out of the equation as much as possible and the work is transferred to muscles which can endure longer. When performing the swing, the weak spots are the hands and quads (which fatigue quickly), so the work is transferred to the hips and lower back. We prepared for the swing by doing strict straight-leg deadlifts with the Kettlebell, which require the movement pattern used lateron – pushing back the hips with legs extended to gather tension and then explode forward with the hips to generate power upwards instead of relying to the arms to pull the weight. From there on we progressed to the two-arm-swing and then the more common one-arm-swing. Moving from static to dynamic motion (deadlift –> swing), the downward phase of the swing charges the hips, so that the upward phase is done almost effortlessly. It’s important to straighten the legs as much as possible to maximize the tension generated. The arms are extended at the lower part of the movement (swinging through the legs) and slightly bent at the upper part of the movement (bringing the Kettlebell up to chest height) to alleviate tension and thereby fatigue. The proper grip is also important to sustain good form. Oliver taught us the Hook- or O.K.-Grip, where your thumb and index finger used to form a hook at the horn of the Kettlebell near to you – the other three fingers only slightly grip the bell. Using this grip, the Kettlebell is rotated while swinging – on the upswing, the horns are in horizontal alignment, on the downswing, the horns are in vertical alignment. This helps to avoid a rebound on the lower part of the swing, where the bell rotates further as the hands stop on the lowest point on the swing, stealing momentum and possibly injuring the hands. The non-working-hand also helps out: It follows the movement, generating further momentum. Last but not least, Oliver taught us the right breathing patterns of this exercise — the anatomical breathing (breathing out on the downswing, breathing in on the upswing (where the body is extended)), performance breating (exhaling 50% of lung volume on the downswing, exhaling 50% of lung volume on the ignition of the upswing (to generate more tension), inhaling on the upswing) and paradox breathing (breathing in on the downswing, breathing out on the upswing (generating more tension).

As you can see, the Kettlebell swing is a movement which is complicated in all its details. I truly profited from my experience gathered prior to this seminar, so that I could concentrate on the details rather than the big picture, with which numerous attendees struggled. It takes a lot of repetitions to really get it right.

Basics: The Clean

We started our work on the Kettlebell clean by first getting out rack position right. The rack position – where the Kettlebell is ‘racked’ on chest height – is one of the only places where the athlete can rest in Kettlebell sports as well as the proper emphasis for every overhead lift. The hand is placed near the center of the chest to let enough space open for the Kettlebell to rest without generating force, dragging it down on the side of the torso. Ideally, the Kettlebell is placed on the center of the athlete’s gravity – so that another person can push it down without the athlete struggling to maintain the position. With legs straight, the upper body is leaned back to further center the weight – standing upright, the weight would develop a tendency to fall down to the front when not applying force. The fingers are relaxed — a good rack position strives to take the work away from them.

After working on the rack position, we started to work on the clean. The clean is initiated from the rack position with a slight bump of the side of the chest where the Kettlebell is resting. The weight now drops in a swing-like fashion down and through the legs – with the weight being much closer to the body this time. On the upswing, keeping the bell close to the body saves energy and helps avoiding the bell to crash on the wrists (a sensation every beginner has to endure – I have been amongst them during the whole seminar). A drill that has proven to be helpful came from leading Kettlebell expert Dr. Till Sukopp: Putting a T-Shirt or some grass between your elbow and your body and performing the clean. If done incorrectly, it falls to the ground — the elbows have to sustain contact to the torso. Alternatively, wall cleans can be done to improve the technique – you just clean the weight while walking closer and closer to a wall, without touching the wall with the bell. Another challenge [I could not work out] is spare the hands on the clean – when done incorrectly, cleans quickly wear down the surface of the hand because of the stress on the base of the fingers, where blisters are likely to develop. As time progressed, this problem has become so grave for me, that I was unable to do more than three consecutive cleans per hand on this day. Ideally, the Kettlebell slides forward to the tip of the fingers on the downswing, eliminating the much-dreaded wear.

Basics: The Press

The logical progression from the clean is the press. In the rack position, the body is in the ideal position to put the weight overhead. Using Fluid Style, we tried to put the weight overhead in a straight line as opposed to other strict methods of pressing, where the bell is moved upwards in a curved line. Instructions were comparably easy on the press – take the weight and put it over your head. For me, it proved helpful to be reminded that the shoulder should always stay in its socket – I would always pull my shoulders towards my ear, which is bad for long-term shoulder health. To reduce stress when taking down the Kettlebell, it is advised to go on the tip of your toes in order to reduce the distance the weight has to cover in the descent. Another power saver is keeping your hands in the same position as in the rack position – something most people do wrong the first few times.

From the strict press we moved to the push-press. This movement was easier than the strict press for most people, because it incorporated a leg dip and push most people use anyway (they had to be reminded to leave out the legs when doing strict presses).

Advanced: The Jerk

When the press is 100% an effort of the arms lifting the weight, the push press divides the work equally between arms and legs. The jerk is then a variation of getting the weight overhead with a minimum of arm involvement as they are a lot weaker than the legs. This is achieved by adding a second dip to the first – the weight is accelerated by driving the force through the legs and the hips, which are linked with the working arm in a correct rack position and at the point where the arm would have assist, you dive under the Kettlebell until your arm is fully extended and then stand upright again.

This lift is tricky and the most important thing is to get the timing right to really do all the work with the legs. We did an additional drill with a fixed bar as a bell surrogate to learn the second dip. I found it difficult yet doable and had a good feeling about my virgin jerks.

Advanced: The Snatch

Finally, we progressed to the utmost technical Kettlebell lift, the snatch. Technically, Read more…

Back row: Martin, Thomas, Simon, Gregor, Janis, Vinz, Jo, Alex, Lukas
Front row: Karl, Harald, Peter, Dominik, Christian

April 17, 2010. Dominik Feischl once again calls out for all his “Naturtraining-Warriors” to assemble at a seminar, this time taking place in Obermühlau, near Thomasroith at the residence of his mentor and training partner Karl Humer, best known for his rafter pull-up.

The so far largest gathering of this kind was formed by twelve athletes (Dominik and Karl not counted) who travelled long distance (two athletes from Vorarlberg, one Swiss athlete) to show up. On a sunny spring day, the perfect stage was set for an perfectly enjoyable day packed with intense training.

The seminar was split up into four parts, which we tackled after a warm-up run (including hill sprint and quadropod action) through the beautiful Hausruck spring landscape:

1. Dominik’s Tactical Strength Challenge
2. Climbing with Karl Humer
3. Toying around with tyres
4. Pressing Power and Climbing Challenge

1. Dominik’s Tactical Strength Challenge

Prior to the seminar, Dominik sent out various e-mails, containing the set-up of the Tactical Strength Challenge. Pavel Tsatsouline, inventor of the Tactical Strength Challenge advised him to adapt the set-up of his exercises to the circumstances of the event – with opened the door for a set-up completely different from the original deadlift – pull-up – snatch configuration. We matched our strength and strength endurance skills in the following disciplines:

1. Rope climbing (for distance)
2. Clean & Press a ~38 kg stone (for repetitions)
3. Parcours climbing (for time under tension)
4. Farmer’s Walk with a ~80 kg tyre (for time under tension)

Rope climbing had to be done without using the feet, pressing the stone way allowed any way we could do so, the parcours climbing demanded crossing the parcours at least once (touching a log at the far end of the parcours) and the Farmer’s Walk required constant movement.

Every single participant showed tremendous performance throughout the disciplines. The fighter spirits were high and the respective winners of the disciplines performed remarkably. Christian won the overall contest, placing first in both the Farmer’s Walk (66 seconds) and parcours climbing (~2’23” time under tension) even after dropping back with a mere 7 repetitions of the clean & press. Thomas, Harald and Lukas were very strong with the clean and press (38, 38 and 50 repetitions).

Side note: If he had competed, Dominik would have won the overall event. He outclassed all of us in the disciplines he tried (Farmer’s walk and Rope Climbing).

2. Climbing with Karl Humer

After such a ‘warm up’, things started to get hard when Karl pushed us along his newly extended parcours. Climbing horizontal ladders in various ways and reaching along logs was probably the hardest part of the whole seminar. Karl has installed six lanes that offer various challenges – including what they call the Trojan Horse, a construction featuring bars in different thickness and a stiff ascent as a finisher.

3. Toying around with tyres

After a short break our legs had to work as well. With an already sore upper body, dragging and carrying around tractor tyres was a welcome change of setting, as it mainly focuses on lower body work. We supplemented the tyre work with decent hill sprints, combined with a quadropod descent.

4. Pressing Power and Climbing Challenge

Coming back to the parcours, Karl made us do push-ups in all variations – then supplemented with dips. Following this push-up madness, Karl took out his garden hose and watered the Trojan Horse – making it more difficult to cross, which we had to do. Climbing the diagonal support poles was another difficult task. Lastly, we worked our abs with leg raises – followed by blocking, if you can. One of the last highlights of the training seminar was hanging on the Trojan Horse with tucked feet and karl throwing punches at our abs for a straight fifteen seconds. This sure was a torture that everyone felt for some time after the seminar.

For dessert, we faced another challenge: How fast can you go through the longest lane of the parcours (horizontal ladder + woodstick climbing, Trojan Horse (minus ascent) and support hold walk along the parallel bars)? Peter won this one with a breathtaking time of 17 seconds. Do I have to mention that speed is his skill?

[---]

To commence the event, we went to a nearby inn together and did what we had to do after such a exhaustive day: Eat freely of whatever feels good to our bodies.

Every seminar poses to me the question of “What did I learn?” My answers for this time:

• Janis made me aware of a dysbalance in my balance, stance and power that I have noticed but mostly ignored throughout the last years.
• The core is the weakest part of the body for most athletes. This problem is particularly striking while climbing. A weak core leads to a lack of stability which in course leads to an inefficient technique
• Companionship is by far the most important factor in a training group. People have to fit together well in order to achieve more than they would be able to do individually. I am looking forward to work on this one with my CrassFit comrades in future
• Every athlete has a very different profile of strengths and weaknesses so that every one has the chance to shine in a specific discipline as well as the chance to learn a tremendous lot in others
• Attitude is of utmost importance – your attitude not only partially decides whether or not you will succeed in all challenges
• Harald mentioned that one can only teach things that one has learned three steps down the way. There is no way one can teach the things one has learned just yet
• Kettlebell technique seems to be an issue for most people. Working with kettlebells sure is easy to learn and hard to master
• Dominik and Janis both confirmed from their experiences that most Americans do not care too much about the quality of their nutrition – even strength coaches
• Most of the participants have a reasonable attitude towards nutrition that relies heavily on their experience of what is good for them – experience seems to trump science

Furthermore, I have to congratulate all of my comrades. Some I knew from former seminars, some were new to me. Likewise they shared an utmost uplifting spirit. Some of my observations:

• Janis has a good eye for posture problems in other people. He had just returned from a Underground Strength Coach certification prior to the seminar and I am convinced he will make a greatly positive impact on the people he works with in future
• Thomas has made so much progress that it is hard to believe that he was barely able to perform a pull-up last Winter. He handled the climbing challenges with an ease and grace that is stunning. Hats off!
• Harald has impressed me with his ability to focus. To me, he is prototypical for the calm warrior – I have great respect for him
• Gregor has a most uplifting spirit he carries along with him. On most pictures I see him smiling while he performs at his best. He is one of the athletes I would consider indestructible under normal circumstances
• Peter is a tremendously quick athlete – as expected from a former short distance runner. No wonder he managed to win the speed climbing challenge. His ability to push himself farther is remarkable – it’s like he is unable to experience unbearable pain

Once again, this seminar has proven to be extremely enjoyable while being just as exhaustive. What can be better than a day with like-minded people – training hard, chatting about things that matter to you and have a great time? Few things come to my mind.

I am looking forward to see you at the next seminar held by Dominik. Make sure you don’t miss out if you’re around.

Train on and stay strong,
Simon

P.S.: It’s now Wednesday and I’m still feeling a wee soreness in my forearms, shoulders and back. The sheer training density on this day caused deep muscle fatigue, I guess.

It’s a great idea to start one’s year with a blast – and so did we.

Like the year before, Dominik Feischl invited a limited audience to his winter training camp. The objective was clear: Train hard, train often, train outside!

After a few weather-wise disappointing days to end the year, winter had returned just with the second of January 2010 – to welcome us in the region of the Hausruckviertel in Upper Austria, where Dominik’s underground strength gym is situated.

After a short greeting sequence with the six fellow athletes attending the camp (our instructors Dominik and Charly not counted in), we started off our journey with a light jog from the warm changing rooms down to Dominik’s gym. I knew most of the Athletes before – like Thomas, a fellow from the muscle-corps.de-forums, where I participate, Harald, a fellow CrassFit-Attendee and expert Kettlebell- and mental trainer or Gregor and Bossk, who I knew from the Gorilla training in Summer 2009.

Further warm-up-sessions were installed in form of Burpees and a game: Catch a piece of fabric from the person currently holding it. It was like being a child once again – just that we were all grown-up men and this was not only grass but snow below us, rendering it a struggle to sprint.

After come-back, the first of the three following parts started off officially:

1. Climbing Power with Karl “Charly” Humer
2. (Body) Weight Workout Challenge with Dominik Feischl
3. Forest Trail Run + Workout with Dominik Feischl

1. Climbing Power

Charly is an expert at getting past poles and ropes like a monkey. We trained to attain this skill as well. A horizontal rope was our first challenge – climb past it, without letting go or ever touching the ground. This exercise is a challenge indeed – as you have to climb upwards towards the end of the rope, where your power is already nearing its end. After that, we climbed from pole to pole on a self-built horizontal ladder. To progress further, the next part had to be done with one arm only. We were assigned in groups of two and handed a brick – which we had on to our partner and vice versa – while switching arms. As if this wouldn’t have been hard enough, the next challenge was to do this as a group – with the objective to not ever let go of the bar while the brick is in movement. I have to admit that I was not able to hold out that long – static holding assignments are tremendously hard on your arms and core.

Short résumé:

1. Horizontal Rope Climbing
2. Horizontal Ladder Climbing
3. Handing over Bricks in Pairs
4. Handing over Bricks as Group

2. (Body) Weight Workout Challenge

With our upper body already worn out by the intense climbing experience, Dominik proceeded and handed us a piece of paper with exercise instructions, reading this:

• 30 trap bar deadlifts (70 kg load)
• 20 to 30 tire flips (with an approx. 145 kg tire)
• Farmer’s walk carrying a 70 kg tire, three times approx. 50 meters
• 30 elevated ring push-ups
• 100 sledgehammer smashes (approx. 10 kg sledgehammer)
• 50 “Around the World”, using a Bulgarian bag, weighing approx. 13 kg
• Crawling down and up (in reverse) stairs three times (“Stairs of Death”)

With every line I had to swallow harder – the sheer volume of the circuit training prescribed here felt overwhelming – just as expected from someone like Dominik. We went through explanations of every exercise and then started off – everyone starting at different stations (as for me, I started with the infamous “Stairs of Death” – an exercise that looks neat but is a real killer for your coordination and especially core stability).

I can’t put my finger on the fact how long it took me in particular to finish off each and every station on the schedule. Some felt easier to accomplish, others seemingly impossible and especially the “Around the World” puzzled me until the end – it seems I have never been any good when it comes to coordination. The last exercise – the tire flip – has been a team effort of me and Thomas, as we both lacked the strength to do it alone – and we did great, from my perspective. In the end, the dominating feeling was fatigue – my body already revolted against the workload I was forcing onto it, but still I resisted – since I knew the longest part was yet to come.

3. Forest Trail Run + Workout

In succession of the circuit training we set off for a light jog towards the forests of Thomasroith, we were about to roam. The first few meters downhill were the only ones we saw for the next hour: It was all uphill from here. We started off with a jog upwards but transitioned the pace into a stiff walk – since running was all too much, due to the steepness of the terrain. Thomas had some issues with the challenge, but here the sense of togetherness kicked in I particularly enjoyed at this event: No one was left behind, if just he showed the will to carry on and to never let go.

The way upwards was commenced with a sequence of carrying each other upwards and two sets of extremely intense hill sprints. I felt like fading out after each of the set – sometimes I think that I am a madmen to participate in events like this one . Upwards we go – still. Pauses were utilized wisely – for instance to do several sets of push-ups on our fists or pick up a heavy wooden log from the sideway, soaked in the water from the rain of the last few days. We used these logs as training tools – the heavier ones were paired up, cleaned, squatted and even pressed overhead – the lighter ones were natural barbells for numerous exercises – even overhead squats and pistols (!) were tried out utilizing them. Probably the highlight was the rope pull-up-ladder we did on the swing at the hut up on the hill – where visitors were constantly going in and out and staring at us in disbelief – a unique feeling to be amongst those primal fighters on their way up to the top. Our best athletes set out to finish a pull-up ladder up to ten repetitions, with Dominik finishing the workout with a mind-blowing 20 repetition set on the rope – most probably the hardest two-handed variation of the pull-up. The only problem with the rope pull ups was the long waiting time between sets – and therefore the cool-off of the whole body – which is undesirable. Harald also wrote about the fact that the gloves were freezing over the course of a few minutes – I have to agree, towards the end, their inflexibility made them less and less useful. The top of the hill was reached soon thereafter and truly – we all felt like being “Kings of the Hill” – rightfully so.

We concluded the workout day with a light jog downhill – still in great mood and talking about interesting topics. In total we were in constant motion for about 1h45’ – a tremendous amount of time that passed by oh so quickly.

Short résumé:

1. Uphill jog
2. Carrying each other uphill
3. Hill sprint x 2
4. Push-ups x 2
5. Picking up a heavy log in pairs and utilizing it
6. Pull-up ladder on the rope: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
7. Picking up lighter logs and utilizing them
8. Hilltop sprint
9. Downhill jog

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A hot shower came in handy after these hours of powering oneself out amidst nature, through the coldness of winter and snowstorms. The atmosphere has been beyond words. To me, the highlight was the feeling of running through the woods, accompanied by the freezing wind and snowflakes and nonetheless working on one’s max with natural barbells – but there have been countless great moments that I will keep as cherished memories.

A highly important part of the day surely was the trip to the inn and the eating – and it was funny as well, with almost everyone of us ordering the same dish at last: Ham and eggs as an appetizer and grilled meat with vegetables (some of us also ordered French fries) as main dish – and a hot tea to warm oneself up. It had become deep winter in the small villages of the Hausruckviertel – the way we wanted it to be (although I was not well-prepared for a journey through snowy streets with a car that sports unfit tires for the purpose…).

An important question to myself is: What did I take with me from this event? The list probably looks like this:

• Great talks with like-minded people. There just is no replacement for company that has the same goals as you – it is a unstoppable force that bears great power – more than the sum of its parts could ever be
• Input for new workout schedules that were previously unknown to me
• Reflection on my own training and life philosophy both by talking to others about it and listening to their philosophies. It’s safe to say that all the characters of the attendees were uniquely inspiring
• First hand information about experiences with steroids. People who have taken them know and it’s amazing to listen to what they can say – no bragging about achievements and no cover on the shortcomings they experienced. Just the truth and thereby another reason never to use them
• New contact information for workouts throughout the German-speaking area
• Information about further seminars taking place in 2010
• Muscle soreness, of course

Also, it is important to look at what I have done wrong and have to change in future:

• I have broken with my eating pattern this distinct day and decided on a light breakfast. The ongoing latent sickness I carried with me is an undesirable result of that. Never experiment on day zero!
• I have too drunk too few water so that I had to cut down performance due to dehydration halfway through the forest trail. This should not have been an issue. Drinking to little feels terrible – it’s like your blood is gradually becoming more and more tough
• My car was most probably unfit to the street conditions. Check your means of travelling before you set out!
• In training, I have let too many distracting thoughts disturb my actions and thereby lessen the overall performance I could show. The mental aspect of training sure is the most important

Still, I have done a lot of things right, such as:

• Becoming stronger of the course of the last six months
• Being rested before such a torturous event
• Compiling a check-list of what to take with me the day before the event
• Picking a time frame for travelling to the chosen destination that allows minor glitches to occur without coming too late
• Showing companionship to my fellows – especially towards those who struggle to keep up the pace.

In summary, it is an experience that I recommend to everyone – at whichever level he or she may be at this precise moment. Dominik’s events are something, where you can only win – you cannot lose. It is not a competition, we’re pulling off here – it’s not about who is better. It’s about training together and motivating one another to jump over one’s shadow and do what one hasn’t ever done before. It is a growth experience, both bodily and mentally and in that a valuable piece of experience.

Surely, there will be more seminars at Dominik’s. Just visit his blog from time to time to stay informed. I hope we will see you there anytime soon

As an appetizer: The highlights of the session, compiled by Dominik.

Train on and stay strong
Simon

Good night, fellow readers!

Last saturday (25.06.2009), Dominik Feischl and Karl Humer hosted the Gorilla Training Workshop in Thomasroith, Central Upper Austria. It was a true feast for everyone interested in increasing their strength in grip, pulling and lifting (as those areas are tightly interconnected).

I started my journey towards the Underground Strength Gym Thomasroith at 9 AM, calculated very sharp, as the workshop started at 11 AM and my route was planned to be exactly 2 hours (1hr 59min to be even more exact ) – I gladly arrived five minutes before time and had a very relaxed meet-and-greet with the other participants – strong and enduring athletes throughout, as they would demonstrate to be afterwards. Warm sunshine awaited me but a day with a heavy mixture of sunny heat and rainshowers promised to lie ahead of us.

Part One : Pulling and Static Holds

Part one started at Karl Humers premises, where he has built up an impressive parcours – the paradise for every athlete with aspirations in terms of grip and pulling power. Warming up was first to come, with some surprises from start on. Old Inline-Skates used as Ab Wheels, crutches as training utility and crawling on hands and knees to warm the whole body up.

The complete program consisted of the following:
Rollouts on inline skates
Full body swings with crutches
Crawling up stairs
Lat pulldown with elastic band
Side-step slalom
Rotatory exercise (on a kind of motorcycle handle bar)
Crawling down the rest of the distance

A great warmup indeed, which was complemented with stretching exercises for the wrists – they are highly exposed to strain during pulling and static holds on bars and other objects, so we better made sure they were warmed up and good to go!

The program itself started with climbing a ladder – inverse – and working along a horizontal ladder, from step to step, with the difficulty of woodblocks, which hardly enable the athlete to hold on, during the way.

We contined with a complete climbing circle – up the ladder, along the horizontal ladder, along the rings and cross over to the climbing rope which we had to conquer – I am awe struck by the performance of those who completed the circle!

Probably the hardest exercise of all was the static hold circle: We assigned eight static hold exercises, which we performed with 30 seconds work and some seconds rest thereafter. Our forearms collectively were pumped up so heavily that we were merely able to operate our fingers correctly – the forearms just felt like completely swollen!

Another key component were instructions on rope climbing, a great exercise to build strength in all of the upper body, including the abs – of course, you have to do it without your legs help working you up the rope to attain maximum results. Rope climbing has some key factors to watch over when done correctly:
Do not train too often – 2 – 3 times a week is enough!
Do not train if you are not feeling good – best case: You won’t gain anything, worst case: You inflict an injury upon yourself and are out of training for some time
Pull with one arm at a time – not with both arms. Develop pulling power for the one-armed row, hanging at the rope, to climb the rope efficiently
Proceed with a little number of but long pulls instead of a lot of short pulls
Use your legs as stabilisator when coming down from the rope – climbing down without using your feet increases the injury risk beyond reason!

I injured myself during one of the last pulling exercises, when we climbed up the ladder in push-up-position (with explosive push-ups inbetween steps) and thereafter slided down the horizontal ladder in order to hang onto it and proceed the steps from below. I let go too quickly on the descend and ripped off some skin on my palms – very annoying and hurts a lot. Kudos to Karl, treating the injury right away, so that I could still be part of the game!

The first segment was concluded with some heavy rainshowers. We expected them to vanish soon, but they only increased in intensity – that’s life on a cloudy summer day in Upper Austria! It was therefore high time for a break!

After a pause for the lunch (steaks and rice) and waiting for the sun to shine again, we finishedthe pulling and static holds part with means by which you can improve your performance with pull-ups
ABC pullups
Ladders

ABC pullups are a technique, where you do a full pushup, and then do three things
descend to arms extend at a 120° angle – which means hanging low but with tension
pull up again, descend to arms extend at a 90° angle – which means you go down only half the way and hold the position
pull up again, descend to arms extend at a 30° angle – which means you go down only a little bit from top position and hold the position

Start with around three seconds static hold for all the positions (120°, 90° and 30°) and work up to 15 seconds static hold – I promise that this will kill your pulling power. I was out of the game after just one round of five seconds – the 90° position was already impossible to maintain.

Pullup ladders are a technique, where you start with one repetition and then work up to sets of X repetitions (where X is a number of repetitions you can manage), with little breaks between sets. You can also arrange this in the form of a pyramid, descending from X to 1 repetition with every set after reaching X repetitions.

After we finished the pulling part, we proceeded to Dominiks Underground Gym, where we started the second part.

Part Two: Lifting heavy and iron grip

Dominiks Underground Gym is a great assembly of training equipment rarely seen in western gyms. Upon arriving, the eight participants (including me) were split in half, one working with Karl, one with Dominik, switching group by group.

Dominik introduced to us oldschool training equipment. Clubbells are weights in the form of a club, constructed out of water pipes and screws, filled with screws and other metal materia. They work your shoulder stability and grip strength tremendously, as they are extremely ballistic in nature and move nothing like you want them to – the stability work you have to undertake is huge! The bulgarian sand bag is a sand bag constructed out of a car pneu tube, cut in half and filled with sand, thereafter sealed. This utility is also very ballistic and useful for twisting them around in circles – a great exercise to build up strength in the upper body in general and the rotatory abs escpecially. A wrist roller is an easy training tool, built by taking a wooden pole, some thick string and fastening a weight on the other end – by wrapping the pole, you elevate the weight and train your grip strength thereby. Lastly, we tried out a Captians-of-Crush gripper, the best on the market. Nr. 1 requires around 70 kg of gripping power to compress – I almost attained this skill with one hand (the right one), as I know this tool from home.

Karl instead continued the gripping ordreal on a horizontal tree trunk and some wood blocks – both posed extreme challenges to keep yourself up and not falling down, as the grip is extremely challenged by the kind of force and structure of surface. At least, this proved to be the last pulling / gripping exercise of the day.

We went on with some farmer’s walks – a tremendous exercise to build strength in your shoulders, traps and the whole body in general – carrying a weight from position A to position B works literally every muscle in your body – if not actively, then at least passively in a static hold. We carried along weight carriers (hard to balance), a traktor wheel (around 70 kg, balance required) and a deadlift hex bar (50 kg, easiest of those). Going for speed, our breath was sure to get short! As if the carrying wouldn’t have been enough, we were encouraged to carry each other as well – a funny experience and easier than I thought. For those who liked to, we examined the campus board as well, a training utility, mainly used by climbers to build grip and pulling strength.

Thereafter, the very same traktor wheel had to be dragged using a rope – which showed to be extremely difficult, as you have to work with both your legs and arms to succeed. Again, the one-armed-pull is required, using both hands to pull at the same time was prohibited and beyond reason. A few failed attempts by me, but I finally managed to understand the technique and dragged the beast along the ground.

As the semi-last exercise, we faced each other sitting and had to be resistance force for our counterpart while holding ropes. This was going to become hard, as we did our best to build up the utmost resistance – we worked our best!

The finisher was an atypical exercise: We were presented a big rock to carry around the field for two laps – as a group! We did our best and altough participants like me weren’t able to handle the rock for too long, we surpassed the two laps and did three of them easily – nice!

Now it was time for changing clothes and smalltalk about nutrition and training – a very interesting time and hands down one of the best days in 2009 from my perspective!

Kudos to Till Sukopp for showing me the basic kettlebell techniques after the training workshop – I now have a deper understanding of how the swing should look like and work out!

As a summary, I’d like to write down what lessons I learned through the workshop
Training utilities are not necessarily hard or expensive to build – quite the opposite
Rope climbing is complex and has to obey some rules
ABC pull-ups are a tremendous way to improve strength/endurance for the pull-up
Even in circuit training, the repetition quality counts, and not so much the total repetitions
Activate your shoulders for the kettlebell swing, shins parallel, swing not too high up, weight on heels
The abdominal muscles are the most important for climbing – to keep stable and off the ground
Quality is what counts, overall

What I loved in particular about the workshop was
I was able to compare myself with others but strained from assessing them
Training in groups is a lot more motivating than training alone
The people I got to know were very nice to meet
Networking with people living nearby becomes possible
The workload gives me a tremendous feeling of mild fatigue and relaxation – I feel so un-stressed!

In general, I can wholeheartly recommend this workshop to anyone who is interested in increasing his/her strength levels and looking for new ways how to train. Dominik and Karl are great sources of innovative training concepts and will convince you, if necessary. You will have to understand German to attend, though But I guess, Dominik and Karl will bear with English speaking visitors as well – they would feel honored, actually. Dominik already had guests like Steve Maxwell visiting him, so he is used to foreigners invading the holy halls of the Underground Training Gym.

Check out this opportunity to train like a gorilla to become strong like one!

Warm regards

Simon

P.S.: A comprehensive photo gallery by Karl Humer can be found here.

Here are some excerpts

Karl Humer and Dominik Feischl

Ab-Wheel, Crutches and Rotatory Utility

Climbing Rings and Ropes

Wrist Stretches

Me, standing and training

Farmer’s Walk

Carrying each other and the campusboard

Wheel Dragging

Stone Carrying
Finishing off with a sample video file – enjoy!

Gorilla Workshop Sample Video