Diary - Swift Retreat in the Pyrenees

Myself and a group of Swift clients have just come back from our Boot Camp retreat in the pyrenees, in the south of France. This wasn't your typical starvation diet plan, or PTI knocking on your door at 530am. This was an action packed 4 day trip full of awesome activities, plenty of sweat, and even more laughs.

Read all about the trip, and check out some of the pics...

Swift Retreat France from SWIFT on Vimeo.

Day 1 - Friday

We arrived at the Chateau after an extremely short flight (just under 90 mins), to be met with a fresh platter of local foods, and refreshments. Most of the people on the trip hadn't met before today so it was all about just relaxing into the amazing setting, and getting to know the group. As you can see from the picture, the Chateau has some real character about it, and the mountains around it are breathtaking. ​

Selfie at the Top!

After showing everyone to their rooms, we set off on our first activity of the trip. We went for a hike up one of the local mountains right next to the house. Many of the surrounding mountains are double the size of Ben Nevis, you could spend a few days at least out here exploring. 

We opted for a climb of around 1.5 hours up, and around 1 hour down. It was the perfect way to blow away a few of the cobwebs from the days travel. 

The pyrenees is one of those places where the pictures don't really do the place justice. We just don't see mountains like these in the UK, and the weather helped too. 

We went straight into our first fitness session of the weekend (1 of 7). Nothing too major, some HIIT Training, a small circuit and some yoga to finish. With everyone feeling suitable worn out from the from travel, the hike and fitness session, it was time to eat! We ventured into the local town for a relaxed dinner. Luckily we had 2 fluent french speakers in the group, which helped massively! 

Great first day with everyone buzzing for day 2. 

Day 2 - Saturday

We kicked off day 2 with a 7am workout to get the metabolism firing for the day. We rocked out the tractor tyres, sledge hammers, dog sleds, and jerry cans for an awesome circuit. I won't bore you with all the details of every workout, but each day we had 2 workouts. The morning workout designed to be the toughest, burning around 500-600 calories in the hour. Everything from circuits, HIIT training & cardio intervals. Then the evening sessions gave us time to work the core, play a few games and stretch off. Often we would finish with yoga overlooking the mountains. 

The main activity for Saturday was Rock Climbing. The group was relatively knew to rock climbing, with only a few who had done indoor climbing before. Again this was one of those moments, where it looks so easy watching others do it, but it's a different ball game when you're up there. The group loved this activity hugely and by the end of the day, everyone had achieved way more than they ever thought they could. 

Once everyone had finished the climbing, we made our way back to the house (10 mins away), for our evening recovery session. Well I say recovery session.... we played a game which was a mix between touch rugby, netball and ultimate frisbee. It's always interesting to see everyones competitive edge coming out! 

We concluded the days activities with a stretch on the lawn. 

The group showered, changed, made themselves look good again, and then off to an amazing little place in the town for some well deserved food (and a little red win)! 

Day 3 - Sunday

We started Sunday with a sunrise yoga flow with some chilled out music. ​It was the perfect start to the day.

Then onto the main workout. It was a 715am workout this time, the entire group worked well, and despite feeling a bit aching from the previous day's climb did really well. 

By the time the last push up had finished, we were welcomed back to the house by the Chef cooking up some eggs and fresh coffee. 

The main activity for Sunday was Kayaking. It was over 30 degrees by this point, so being on the water was a welcome relief! 

Seb, our host led us around the lake (his office) for a few hours, before some of us took a well deserved dip in the lake! The water was pretty low on this occasion, so we couldn't do as much as we'd have liked, but was still great fun! ​

We gave the group some time in the afternoon to chill by the pool, read a book and just enjoy some free time. Our aim was to find the balance between a packed schedule, whilst also having time to relax with some like minded people. 

After everyone had had some time to get some energy back, we headed out to a local river for some river crossing. It involved tying some specialist rope to two trees, and crossing the river 'marines' style. Everyone said how fun this was, and the highlight of the trip. 

Sunday evenings workout was a bit different, we split the group up into abilities and enjoyed a circular running route around the Chateau. We then finished with some really focused core work afterwards. 

We spent the evening with some good food, and finished with a bonfire at the Chateau. ​

Day 4 - Monday

Monday was our final day in France, so we made sure the most of it. 

The final workout was 20/20/20. 20 minutes boot camp hiit training, 20 mins games, 20 mins core and yoga. Despite one of the most full on weekends anyone had done, the energy was buzzing and you could really see everyone pushing it hard. 

After a fresh breakfast cooked by Ben the Chef, we split the group into groups of 4/5 for our strategy sessions. We went through everything from goal setting, barrier prediction, habit tracking, and building your perfect 7 day workout plan. 

Throughout the trip, we left out some Q cards for people to fill in with their questions, we went through all of these answering everything from supplements, planning the week, and getting a thigh gap....! 

On our way to the airport we stopped at the local town for a coffee, and to pick up a few gifts for friends and family at home. 

Final Word from Sam

I loved this trip, and really enjoyed the group. Their was a really positive energy throughout, even when everyone was tired from the activities. On the way to the airport everyone was clearly relaxed, refreshed, and ready to get stuck into the goals we had talked about in the strategy sessions. 

Since returning to London, the group have kept in touch and have met at one of our clapham boot camp sessions on Saturday morning. 

Amazing trip, good company, and I'm looking forward to the next one! 

Want to join us on the next one? 

If you think you'd like to get involved in the next retreat, find out all the detailsright here. 

Swift Retreat France from SWIFT on Vimeo.