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.

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