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

[---]

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