It has been a few months since myself and friend and fellow coach, Ian Fulton, went out to Maribor for a few days training at the.gym with Marck Goran.
This would be my third trio to Maribor, the previous twice was with Andy McKenzie and the Combined Strength Group.
The dates didn’t allow me to go out with them this year so went out with Ian.
This time I was leaving behind our new born Jack but my wife Louise insisted I went and she had things under control. Having someone as supportive as her has allowed me to gain so many valuable experiences over the years, either that or she is just glad to get rid of me for a few days.
Our flights were to and from Vienna which meant we had a 3 hour drive to Maribor once we touched down in Vienna.
Fortunately it was a pretty straightforward drive and we took in some great sights through Austria and into Slovenia.
We arrived in Maribor late afternoon, met up with Marck who sorted out our digs and recommended we got some food in our stomach before the first night’s session, which would be a group based conditioning session with some of the guys from his gym.
As I had already experienced these I had a fair idea of how these sessions panned out, this would be Ian’s first taste of it.
Once our dinner settled we got organised and walked down to the gym in the blazing heat.
It’s hard to explain the initial feeling when you first open the door to Marcks gym. It is a massive space packed with the best equipment but it has an edge about it – you know you are here to put the work in.
My first experience of the.gym really got my thinking about the importance of your environment and how this would impact performance. His gym is an invite only gym meaning you are surrounded by the right sort of people, those that will make you better.
Before each session here I always feel nervous and today was no different.
There was maybe around 10 of us taking part in the session and I had met most of them the previous two years when I had been there, this told me alot about his gym and the people that came along. I can guarantee it will be the same bunch of people there for years to come. All very friendly and welcoming in a somewhat intimidating gym.
The workout was called ‘Grasshopper’ and involved 10 rounds of Walking Lunges, Goblet Squats, Burpee Pull Ups and a Ski Sprint – just for starters or as Marck would consider a Warm Up.
We then moved onto 10 rounds of Reverse Bear Crawls the length of his gym, which was something I hadn’t really done before and were incredibly humbling. These were done alongside some sprinting and core work.
This was all before the sting in the tail the final part of the session.
As many rounds as you could do of Split Jumps, Sumo Jumps, straight into the AD8 for 20 kcals and some leg raises. The AD8, or the Devils Tricycle is an unbelievably brutal assault bike – sprinting on this after the Jumps produced a ridiculous quad pump.
I first used the AD8 at last year’s visit to the.gym and had to purchase one for my gym. It’s hard to explain if you haven’t used one before, but if you can access one then do it. My fitness levels have improved significantly since using it on a regular basis.
It doesn’t look much on paper but when you get into the session it was brutal, I remember looking at the timer and it had actually stopped – we had been going for over 90 minutes. It was a great session and a good intro to our weekend of training.
As you can imagine after over 90 minutes of intense training we were in need of some food and we visited a local steak restaurant for some ‘man’ sized food.
After dinner and some very interesting conversations we got an early night before Friday mornings session called ‘Pillars of Friday’ which was more of a strength based session.
Marck insisted that the DOMs wouldn’t have kicked in yet before Friday mornings session from the previous evenings session.
I woke up on Friday morning and realised Marck lied……..
I train hard at home but very rarely to I hit that amount of volume and with the addition of some different, I was feeling pretty sore.
Friday’s session was a slower pace, heavier weights but excellent nonetheless.
Fat Bar Bench, Deficit Deadlifts, Pendlay Rows, Front Box Squats, Pull Ups – these should all be staples in most people’s training and Marck is no different.
A
lthough the exercises would appear pretty basic, we learned so much from Marck. His attention to detail, his experience and coaching is second to none and we both came away with so much. Things that cannot be learned from a book or YouTube video.
I learned very quickly from Andy McKenzie that immersing yourself in learning in person from better coaches than yourself is essential to be the best coach you can.
After the session we fuelled up on Chicken, Egg, Veggies and cake.
The weather was not great that day and we spent the rest of the day exploring Maribor before heading back to the.gym in the evening for an easy session and to take in the atmosphere of the place.
Some more food and an early night as we had the infamous Valhalla workout on Saturday morning, suitably named ‘Torpeedo Checkout’
Marck does a weekly Valhalla session which is basically one of the worst experiences of your life, but incredibly rewarding once you complete.
On our first trip to his gym, Marck told us that ‘suffering’ was important. People don’t want to, but they realise that they have to. Valhalla is definitely a time to suffer.
Last year I missed out on the group Valhalla due to my flights and had to do it on my lonesome on the Friday before I left, which tool around 3 hours to get through. I knew we were in for a brutal session to finish our time in Maribor.
Again, this was a group session with most of the same people from Thursday night.
We also noticed that the group on Thursday had some food and drinks to get them through the session, we came prepared with bananas and the Slovenian equivalent to Haribo.
The workout itself was a blend of strength and conditioning, with a variety of exercises – Muscle cleans, Farmers Walk, Burpee Pull Ups, AD8, Ski Erg, Push Up Walks – which were ridiculously tough after 30m, then the Torpeedo Checkout.
After a good couple of hours of training, you had 2 minutes to ‘check out’ where you had to complete 15 kcal ski, 8 CTF Burpees and 40 kcal on the AD8 in under 2 minutes. A brutal way to finish a great workout and few days training.
After the workout we said our thank yous and goodbyes before heading to Vienna via the stunning Lake Bled. I will blog about our Vienna trip later.
Every time I head over to Maribor to train with Marck I come away with so many valuable pieces of information and further my experiences. His hospitality is always first class and can’t thank him enough for his help over the years.
Till next year……..
Coach Milligan 