Wintertraining

Making single events, which help your development (whatever you are working on), into habits is one way to success.
One thing I can´t do very often but definetly regularly is attending one of Dominik Feischls´ seminars or training-camps. (http://naturtraining.blogspot.com/)

I attended this years "Wintertraining" yesterday and looking back, looking by a blister on my hand(a new low-count considering past events!), several sore muscles in my upper body and a desperate need for sleep to regenerate, I consider it another great experience!


We started the day at 1100 at a gymnasium with Joint Mobility and several warm- up- drills like balancing on the small side of benches while throwing medicine balls at each other, jumping drills on and off the benches,...

The first real training part for my group(Dominiks no-bulls*hit-training, being both strengthening and fun, is attracting more and more people from different countries, so we had to split up into two working groups this time) started with a set of timed rope climbs, static holds, stop- and- go- drills (on the rope),... Well, my forearms were kinda pumped after that. Good thing I knew it was only the start of our workout- day, otherwise I would have been tempted to quit. ;-)
(It´s always a love- hate- relationship with Charly, the second coach beside Dominik, since he turned something aweful like losing part of a leg into a advantage over guys half his age: he started working pullups, all kind of handwalking, etc like a madman and developed into a human being even a chimp wouldn´t challenge on the bar! And since he loves what he is doing we do a lot of all his favourites and to us normal people it just hurts!! But we still love it. ;-D )


The next part was box jumps.
Easy, right.
Well...yeah. Exept we ran in circles, jumped one after another for like 5-10min without rest, steadily increasing the height up to 1,3 meters. I don´t do those very often, I managed to keep up, it did not really hurt but in a strange way those repeated explosive accelerations wear you down...Nice!

We continued with another set on the ropes, this time with more static hang-time and another round of handwalking at fixed ladders which had a slight incline.
So basically after they wore our hands, arms, our whole upper bodies down they made us do the same thing again. Only harder. How can one not love these guys?!

We did a short circuit training with lunges, static rope hangs, elephant walks with pushups, jumping squats, knee- raises and feet- elevated- hands- on- plastic- balls- pushups(2 rounds, 30sec on/15sec off) before finishing our indoor- part with a 5min obstacle course which included backward handwalking, some tumbling, sideway- handwalking, handwalking on bars, balancing over benches,jumping over different obstacles.
I was breathing heavy after this one! :-D


It was about 1300 when we changed into our outdoor- clothes(basically I think everyone added one additional layer of clothing) and made our way to the famous Naturtrainings- center in Thomasroith.

After some mobility- work for our shoulders(we needed that one) we started several team- games.
While one team had to flip a 180kg tire all the way around a soccer field and at the same time carry a smaller tractor tire around the same field Farmer- style, all walking in snow(~ 15cm), the other team had to complete a static hang challenge with a total count of the hung minutes.
Of course we switched and every team had to complete every event.
Since Dominik and Charly were timing us the whole thing developed into a competition between teams.
It was a fair fight. ;-)

Short hill sprints in slippery snow, stone-speed-dragging(stones weighing around 35-40kg I think), partner carries, resistance- sprints(weighted, against a partner,..), even shrugs with a heavy tire for time were integrated into the competition.


After all that fun we went for a 5km hike into snow-covered hills, climbed icy tracks and made our way through fields covered with knee- deep- snow.
After that we called it a day.



There are several things one notices when participating in such events:

-work on your upper body endurance
Because you never know how many additional pushups you have to do, how long you have to crawl over some field, how long you have to hold on to something, be it a bar, a rock, or something you are carrying somewhere.

-do your conditioning
I know it sucks when you have to train so hard you almost puke a lung but if you gas out too soon you will not have any mental capeabilities left for important tasks.

-work on your mindset
With some of the static holds or team challenges it was really tough because there was not much strength left after some of the dynamic pulls, etc. If you have got a happy place, a relaxing thought you can hold on so much longer, perform the next repetitions easier and keep a clear head towards everything else happening around you.
Keep calm, breath.

-competition adds a new dimension to training
Normally I´m a loner. I work out alone, I motivate myself, I plan my training myself...
Being in a team, pulling the same direction as other people can give you that extra burst needed to get another step further out of the comfort zone. You push harder, pull faster and finish stronger.
So now and then, add some people, add some competition to your training.


Some thing which made me very happy:
It was a hell of a day, I was tired, I had my share of blisters...
But:(!)
After we finished I felt like: "WHAT?! I could, I want to run, lift, throw for another 5 hours!" And I still had the potential to do so, my mind was fresh...That was new to me.
It feels good to sense progression in your life, in ones training.





Train hard and enjoy every moment!
All the best,
Harry

Getting to know a U.S. Navy SEAL

Imagine this with me:

Imagine attacking installations, persons, gathering information, all that in hostile territory, thousands of kilometers away from home.

Imagine surviving off the land while being hunted by hundred of enemy soldiers.

Imagine doing things like diving(not the cosy i-learned-it-during-two-days-at-the-holiday-resort-kind of diving), skydiving, climbing mountains in the most aweful of conditions, combat shooting, marching with backpacks up to 60kg, things a normal person would consider crazy and maybe(!) a once-a-lifetime-adventure.

Imagine being shot several times with you guts literally hanging out of your belly(just remeber the last minor injury or even major injury and how much it hurt...how much you were still able to do...) and still being able to move, shoot and, most importantly, still able to think and take care of the man next to you.

Imagine all that.


The truth is: you can´t. Do not worry, I can neither.
Why?
Well...Such intensities, such energetic situation have to be felt.
One has to dive into such situations and still has to be able to act.


When goverments choose people for such requisitions they have to be very careful. Who will stand even a chance? Who will crack too soon? Who will never quit? Who can keep making decisions when all odds are against him?


Who can deal with a situation in which there are two options: succeed or get killed/torured/...


To me, matter is only a supplement, an expression of the mind. And those warriors are the top of the food chain when we are talking about mental toughness, mental capeability.

I have a tremendous opportunity I can share with you, to get into the mind of a former U.S. Navy SEAL, ask questions and learn and he has agreed to publish his answers on my Blog.

How do these guys train, how they keep a physical and mental edge for missions impossible to imagine for 99% of the population...
What has he learned from years in the teams, trial and error (only without room for error).
Who has he been before he entered the teams, how it changed him and what he took with him?
What are the key elements in his mental game which allowed him to keep going during the most intense selection process known in the military?


All this we will try to find out.

I hope you are looking forward to this as much as I do!

Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry