Wildfitness in the Scottish Highlands: going back to nature, the way we were meant to be
It’s more than taking the gym outdoors, as the week-long retreat teaches natural movement and the combat skills our ancestors used to survive in the wild
What exactly do you mean by “Wildfitness”? Believe it or not, humans are not designed to spend their days sitting at a desk, basking in artificial light and bingeing on fast food. Founded by Tara Wood in 2001, Wildfitness takes inspiration from our hunter-gatherer past by temporarily transplanting us back to nature, teaching natural movement and the combat skills our ancestors used to survive in the wild. More than merely take the gym outdoors, the coaches at Wildfitness adapt each session to the environment. You are taught to move with purpose, wean your mind and body off sedentary habits and interact with your surroundings creatively, with fallen logs used as balance beams, gorges for scrambling and open fields for running and boxing. Play also comes into the workouts in the form of ultimate frisbee and hide and seek in the woods; you’ll be having too much fun rollicking around in mud and stag poop to notice how much sprinting, lunging and jumping you’re doing.
Sounds fun. Where does all this mischief take place? Wildfitness runs courses and retreats in a variety of places, from Barcelona and Crete to New York and Zanzibar, and this one is deep in the Scottish Highlands, often referred to as the last true wilderness in Britain. Just as Wildfitness seeks to re-wild us to our primitive selves, so the Alladale Wilderness Reserve exists to re-wild the landscape and ecosystem to its natural state. Purchased in 2003 by British multimillionaire Paul Lister, the estate spans 9,300 hectares and its herd of Highland cattle roam alongside wild roe and red deer, pine marten and black grouse.
What’s a typical day like? No two days in a week’s course are the same; you could be hiking to a mountain loch to learn fly fishing before catching trout for lunch and then mountain biking through a glen, or receiving training in boxing, running and moving like an animal. The lifting workshop is particularly memorable, guests being challenged to toss cabers and hurl shot puts as if they were competing in the Highland Games. The science behind Wildfitness is explained in bite-sized lectures throughout the week, cementing the lessons learned. A highlight of the week is the off-site day, and a visit to Achmelvich beach. The two-hour drive is more than justified by the pristine cove at the end of it, the venue for a morning’s worth of high-intensity running, bouldering and sunbathing, before a seafood feast at a loch-side restaurant.
