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

The question, which exercise is the best, oftenly arouses. There are proponents of many exercises but generally the choice can be narrowed down to a few basic compound exercises: The clean, the snatch, the squat, the deadlift, the overhead press, either dip or bench press.

But nothing beats the power of a complex. A complex is a continuous compound consisting of a number of exercises that are done consecutively. By doing this, you can combine the advantages of a squat with the benefits of the overhead press by incorporating them both in the exercise complex. I was inspired to do this by my comrade Dominik, who has done a great blog post on his work with complexes. Once again, his source of inspiration is the legend Dan John.

The CrossFit crew also works with complexes and has created a workout of the day (WoD) for this purpose: The Bear.

But there are countless other options how to design a complex. For instance, I tried out a downward ladder complex (starting from 4 repetitions) of clean, push press and front squat with two 16 kg kettlebells

Compare my efforts to Dominik’s training partner Willi. He is doing this exercise with the barbell and from 5 repetitions down (beast ).

I can tell you that this workout brings you to your limits in an extremely short span of time. It is not only the exercise itself that is so exhausting, the grip challenge is even more of a battle. Especially with kettlebells, it’s hard to maintain a firm grip over an extended period of time. Keep in mind that your grip is pre-fatigued with every step down the ladder. I had to fight hard with the grip already at the 3 repetition ladder. Hard to imagine how the 5 repetition downward ladder must feel like – I look forward to trying it!

From what I have experienced, I can wholeheartedly recommend complexes for training. They train the body as one unit and every musle of the body has its share in successfully surviving the workout.

Train on and stay strong,
Simon

Ropes are excellent tools to train with. I started off with a rope, 7 meters in length and 35 mm in diameter, only to hang it onto the branch of one of the trees on the edge of the forest near my house. Although rope climbing is an excellent way to train the whole body, the possibilities to train with the rope are not merely limited to climbing only.

Tara Scott is one of the prime reasons I first became interested in training with ropes, along with her mentor Dr. Rocannon MacGregor . Their blogs Coach Tara and Primal Nature Play are a must read for people interested in natural training – although I am not a dedicated follower of their ideas, they are a inspiration. Look out for posts about rope training. As for the rope training itself, I got into gears after a workshop with Dominik Feischl, whose blog is also highly recommended for all readers who understand German.

Versatility

Ropes can be used in various forms. While they pose a great tool to climb up to (with or without the help of the legs), they also create incredible ballistic and gravitational forces when swung or moved otherwise using momentum. The rope is a training utility that renders training fun while staying extremely effective nontheless – regardless of how you train using the rope, it always turns out to be great investment in your whole body development!

The following exercises are some few out of the vast pool of those possible.

Rope climbing

Rope climbing is the most obvious choice available. Just find yourself something to hang the rope on to, fasten it and start the climbing fun! In contrast to what most people think, ropes do not have to be hung high above ground level to become an effective tool for climbing. Interval climbs of short ropes are a tremendous exercise to strengthen your grip and pulling power – just try to sustain three to four rounds on a rope of approximately 2 meters height – good luck!

Short Rope Climbing – GMX Video

Seilklettern – GMX Video

Rope Pull-Ups

The rope challenges your grip strength – if you easily do a set of pull-ups on a normal pull-up bar you will find a set of pull-ups on the rope to be a hard task to do at first but you will gradually adapt to the more challenging grip on the rope. The less the diameter of the rope, the harder the task. I recommend ropes with diameters between 25 and 35 mm, the thicker, the easier – I am still sticking to the thickest one.

Power Rope

The power rope is an exercise which is very much fun to watch from the side – the rope lining is spinning like a helix, something you do not notice too much when doing the exercise yourself. Hold your upper arms firm and work the forearms only with this exercise. If you can go on 30 seconds without fatiguing: Congratulations! – this exercise is much harder than it looks like and very well suited to be done in circuits. Highly recommended!

In addition to the health benefits I noticed that this exercise works like a magnet when done outdoors and with people nearby. It just looks so much fun that everyone wants to have a try – and quickly find out that it is very challenging in nature!

Power Rope – GMX Video

Rope Swings

Want to feel just like a cowboy? Then do so. Take an appropiate part of the rope and swing it above your head – the longer the rope piece is, the larger the gravitational force working against you. You will feel it everywhere in your body that it has to work hard in order to sustain its stability.

Short Rope Swings

For the short rope swings you will need a shorter rope, length up to five meters. Like with the normal rope swings, swing the rope around above your head – switching hands. The advantage of this exercise is that you can vary the swing gradually in height as you go by – from above head height down to waist height – just be sure not to touch the ground with the rope. Progress with increasing the rope’s length.

Coach Tara writes about this exercise in this blog article. Be sure to read it thoroughly!

Rope Pulling/Dragging

To utilize the rope further, attach an object of varying weight and size to one end of the rope and then go about either pulling the object towards yourself with the power of your muscles or dragging the object along for either a distance or time. With both pulls and drags, you can incorporate intervals of pulling/dragging and sprinting on the other end of the rope’s reach. Three to four rounds and you should be more than well done!

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The rope is one of the exercise utilities I was most surprised to get to know better. Normally I used to climb up the rope as the only exercise I would do but since I took the rope with me on a weekend camp with my group of teenagers I found out that the usages of a rope are tremendously versatile. I will incorporate this great training tool further in my nature trainings and am sure that both the fun and effectivity of my workouts will increase thereby.

Profit from training with ropes as well – go and purchase one. For European customers, the Seilerei Sammt is a great place to go to – places for purchases from that States will follow.

Have fun doing so!

Live the fun,
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