“Sky is the limit” for resilience and strength coach Dominik Luks
Dominik Luks is a top resilience and strength coach who trains MMA fighters and works with Czechia’s top athletes. His desire to overcome limits has led him to break three world records in just over a year.
You could say that Dominik Luks has already reached the top. The fitness and resilience coach is highly sought after by the country’s top athletes and is in a position to pick his clients. But his ingrained need to overcome his own limits is constantly pushing him further.
In 2023 he and a group of five selected athletes whom he handpicked from among his clients, ascended Mount Kilimanjaro in just under 24 hours - the first time any team had summited the peak in so short a time without oxygen and acclimatization. Recalling the climb in an interview for Czech Radio he said it was a severe test of endurance for them all.
“The most difficult moment came close to the end of the route, when we had to climb 1,000 meters on a 5 km route, at an altitude of 5,000 meters above sea level. We walked the stretch for 9 hours and it was hell on Earth. It seemed like time stopped, we all had problems breathing and it felt like the journey was endless.”
But they persevered and reached the peak –setting a world record and pushing their limits further. None of them are professional climbers and the ascent was preceded by tough training in a sauna, an ice bath, running with weights and learning to breathe properly at a high altitude. However, Luks says one particular aspect was of the utmost importance in picking the team.
“I watched them for a year or longer. I knew them all well and had seen them perform in various competitions. They were all strong athletes in their own disciplines, but they all had one thing in common – mental strength and resilience. What goes on in your head is of the utmost importance – it is decisive to how you perform. Training can make you strong, but in the end it is the head that decides how you will act in crisis situations. I would say that 80 percent of the achievement is in your head.”
Dominik Luks proved that with a high fitness level, quality preparation and mental strength it is possible to achieve goals that seem near impossible.
In 2024, he and his team broke another world record. They were the first in the world to undertake a winter ascent of Mt. Fuji in Japan. They climbed the mountain peak in 3.5 hours braving a wind of over 100 km/h and freezing conditions at the top.
In February 2025, Luks organized another feat and set another world record – closer to home -for the largest winter-weather ascent of Lysá hora.
His next ambition is to scale Antarctica's tallest mountain, Mount Vinson, which he would again like to climb with his team in 24 hours, something no one else has managed to achieve.
