I have just returned home from a great weekend in Slovenia with the Combined Strength Group. This was not a holiday but instead an immersion to focus on self development – improve as a coach, improve the business through experiencing different gyms and different strategies and learn from other members of the Combined Strength Group and the coaches at the gyms we visited. It was also great to see a bit of Slovenia, which was also pretty cool to experience a fantastic country.
We arrived in Ljubljana on Thursday evening, after a bit of food we headed off to Vigor gym – a world class training facility which caters for a wide range of professional athletes and also the ‘average Joe’ looking to move better, get stronger and get leaner.
It was a great training space kitted out with all the essentials – racks, barbells, prowlers, battle ropes, olympic rings, kettlebells and much more. There was a lot of energy in the gym with some large team kettlebell sessions and small group personal training going on when we arrived with a major focus on moving better.
After travelling all day we were ready to move! One of our coaches, Tom, took us through a mobility focused session, which was well needed. We went through his variation on the CS10 movement prep – ensuring we were mobilising all the joints – ankles, knees, hips, spine, shoulder and wrists all covered. From there we moved on to crawling patterns and handstands. Before we left Bob put us through a conditioning session which involved 5 rounds of Prowler Sprints, Man Makers and Burpees……… Lot’s of fun had by all……..
We finished the day off with some food in the city centre, an early night ready for day 2…..
Day 2 began with another trip into the city for some breakfast and to see the sights before an afternoon of working on our businesses. Was great to get some valuable input from others in how to improve our business and left with some great ideas and action points to put in place.
After the business side of things were dealt with it was time to head back to Vigor to work with some of their coaches. The coaches took us through some more mobility drills and variations of crawling patterns before finishing off with more handstand work.
After the session we spoke with Matej and Ziga who own the Vigor gym. They ran through their business model and philosophy, discussing various systems and strategies and also took the time to discuss our individual businesses and providing us all with individual feedback. This was a great insight into how they operated such a successful business getting fantastic results with their clients. A big focus for them was training clients in small groups which proves to be highly successful for them in achieving their desired goals.
We then refueled with some smoothies before heading back downstairs to get another session in. This involved some core and bodyweight work, I picked up some good drills to help with my front lever, and since it was Friday we got a major ‘Flex Friday’ workout in…… Floor Press with Bodyweight Rows followed by Curls and Close Grip Press Ups for the guns! Andy then finished us off with some Core Conditioning drills. Workout smashed then we headed back into the city for post workout burgers. 9 people – 18 burgers destroyed.
Andy had arranged for us to head to Maribor on Day 3 to train with Marck at his gym, named ‘The Gym’. The drive to Maribor was full of amazing scenery and after Andy pre-warning us that Marck trained hard we were all excited about what he had in store for us.
We met Marck outside his gym and he took us up to his gym located on the second floor, when we entered his gym it was quite a moment. A massive warehouse space with all the equipment required to build beasts. This was a f*****g gym!
As soon as you entered the gym you wanted to smash a workout, it had that sort of feel about it. You could not help but be inspired by this environment. Marck discussed with us his training approach with his clients and himself, his views on diet and lifestyle. When discussing training intensity he said:
“I do not want to suffer but I know I have to……”
At this point I knew we were in for some tough sessions. It was great to hear what he had to say and get his view point and hear about his programming. The guy was in phenomenal shape and all his members that trained with him were in great shape so his methodologies clearly worked. Despite his ridiculously lean physique he did not diet, he just took a sensible approach to eating and trained hard. Many people could benefit from this approach, the ‘normal’ gym goer these days seems to be looking for a complicated diet with an ‘easy’ workout strategy.
So onto the training……..
Marck gave us 3 different strength training options for the mornings session. My workout was as follows:
Back Squat & Incline Bench Press – Find your 5 Rep Max for that day for both exercises.
Back Squat x 2 Reps @ 5RM / Incline Bench Press x 2 Reps @ 5RM
Complete 20 rounds of this every 2 minutes.
Was a great session that got a lot of volume in and was good to change it from the current 5×5 model of training that I am working on at the moment.
After the strength work we had a nice walk down into Maribor before being treated to a big lunch, lots of fuel for the session in the evening. Marck was a big advocate of conditioning style workouts and we had a team relay lined up which involved 12000m on the Ski-Erg combined with bodyweight exercises (Pull Ups, Leg Raises, Hanging Knee Raises and Press Ups), Rowing and arms only on the Assault Bike. The object was to complete the 12000m on the Ski-Erg as a team whilst alternating between the other stations. The old team managed to win the race taking just over 50 minutes. This session was brutal but you were motivated to work harder in order to help your team mates. It was a great concept and one which I will use in the future with my clients.
It was a pleasure training and learning from Marck in his awesome facility.
My flight was early the next day so unfortunately missed the trip to Lake Bled with the rest of the guys, which sounded like a brilliant day of active recovery.
Home now, great experiences, lots learned.
Another plus point of being part of the Combined Strength Group. If this is something you are interested in check out the link below for all the dates and membership options.
Coach Milligan 
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