Freeletics is a fitness-program that combines high intensity functional body weight training with running exercises.
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Freeletics coach – Week 15 HELLWEEK!!
Freeletics – coach week 15 Part 1
The 15th week of a Freeletics program is essential – it’s the Hellweek! That means 7 days of training, no rest-day and always giving everything. The mere amount of exercises might seem impossible at first – but you are a Free-Athlete and nothing is impossible! Just keep going, you will be surprised what potential you developed over the past weeks.
During this week you will put your body under huge stress, so the key elements of a healthy lifestyle (like mentioned many times before) are more important than ever! I can not stress it enough: Eat clean, sleep enough (7-8 hours) and trink a lot of water! During Hellweek the recovery phases will be extremely low so you need to provide your body with the best you can do in this short periods.
Freeletics – coach week 15 Part 2
The most challenging part will be the mental negotiation to do a workout every day. After 3 or 4 days you will reach the edge of your physical capacity. Your workout times will become longer and that is normal. You might want to take a day of and if you must, you can. This was my second Hellweek and as I remember, during my first Hellweek I did a rest-day on day 6 – but did the 6th and the 7th workout on the last day. This time I went through with the whole thing and even did some extra exercises and broke a lot of PBs even on the second half of the week.
During this Hellweek I did:
- 595 Burpees
- 280 HS-Pushups
- 560 Pullups
- 705 Pushups
- 905 Situps
- 1550 Squats
- 275 Jumps
- 425 Straight Leg Levers
- and a little bit of running
To overcome this immense workload will make you strong – mentally and physically. But let’s not talk – let’s do it! Have fun with the Hellweek and don’t let it get you – you can do it!
Freeletics coach – week 13 & 14
Hey, I am back! Sorry for not posting for two weaks – but I had a lot of things to do. My project at work is at a critical state and everybody had to work a lot of extra hours. It is a software development project and we are slowly running out of developers – to complete my currently assigned tasks in time, I would have to clone myself three times 😛
Freeletics coach – week 13
But anyhow, now christmas holidays are about to start and it got a little more quiet and I finally found the time to write this post. During the past two weeks the freeletics workouts were a really good distraction from work. Nothing is better to clear your mind after a hard business week than a good and intense workout – besides alcohol, but you feel much better afterwards…So, today I want to talk about how freeletics – or sports in general – have an influence on my performance at my working place.
Training made me much more resistent to stress and increased my productivity. Before I worked out so much, being at the office for 8 or more hours exhausted me. It was hard to work extra hours and if I did one day, I left earlier on the next day because I had no more energy. And even on a normal working day, I felt that my productivity was at a really low level for the last 2 or 3 hours at work. On a stressful day, this point was reached even earlier. Most of the time, when I returned from work I was so tired,  I didn’t want to go out  anymore.
Now – here are the differences. I worked almost 10 hours every day for the past 2 weeks and this feeling of having my head full of things, that always gave me a headache during the day did not come. Many of my coworkers, who had to work extra hours too, were on a bad mood after short period of time or even got sick because of the stress. I didn’t. I can not really explain why – I had more to do then ever before, and even much more demanding things – but they never tied me down. I suppose it is because of the following things:
Freeletics coach – week 14
First, I feel better than ever before in my life. Eating healthy and habitually doing sports are the basis for this. If you are in a healthy and physically good state, progress will come and with progress comes self-esteem and confidence. And other people realize this and they will treat you in a much better way. You can work much more productive because your body is much more reliable and during stressful times it is easier for you to focus and keep your head clear. I realized this in many grueling meetings during the past days where complex things were discussed over hours. Most of the people got confused, lost their focus, got angry or backed down completely. And even though I was a rather small fish among these people, it was me who tied the important topic back on the agenda or showed solutions when it seemed like we ran into a dead end many times. Before I changed my lifestyle, I was rather the guy who was sitting in meetings and just trying to follow and it was always another person who brought up the solution.
Another key factor is the will to take challenges. If you are doing high intense sports, you will not be able to avoid challenging yourself. And if you do, you will see that almost every challenge can be achieved if you just try it. You may fail for the first time, but in the end you will succeed. You will learn that every challenge, however big it may look, can be beaten. You just have to keep going, focus on the next step but not loose the main target…And always care for yourself. As I said, a healthy body is the basis for all this. Eat clean, do sports, sleep sufficient, trink a lot (water or tee) and no or at least just a little alcohol.
You can see the workouts I did in week 13 and 14 in the two pictures. Week 15 is going to be the last week of this coach ( the coach will continue but I will stop to write a post every week). It is going to be a hellweek, I know this because I am already in it and almost at the end, as I am writing this lines. But you will see it next week. Until then, keep going, take your vitamins and remember: even though life is hard some times – you can be harder!
sincerely yours
Stefan
PS: here are are some inspirational pictures of healthy food 😉
fish with vegetables, brown rice and tzatziki
whole-grain noodles with prawns and pesto
wholemeal sandwich with grilled vegetables, sheep milk cheese and salad
Freeletics coach – Week 9 & Warmup Pro
Freeletics coach – Week 9
I completed week 9 of the strength coach. The first day was monday and it was quite tough. Some Burpees, Pushups and Kentauros. Tuesday, wednesday, thursday and friday I had no time to do the other workouts, so I did the second day on Saturday, the third day on sunday morning and the fourth day on sunday evening. Two times venus on one day is hard – this monday I had shaky hands all day and at lunch I almost dropped my fork in my potato-salad…but now it’s better. No pain no gain…
I checked my profile and I do Freeletics now for over 6 months, thats a half year with at least 4 times sports per week. I never did sports in that intensity for this long before. But the diversity of the generated workout plan and the fast visible progress make it that easy. It is like an addiction – but with only positive effects.
In the last post I talked about the new warmup pro that I unlocked in week 8. I found this video that explains the whole warmup routine. I think that explains it much better than I could with words… Enjoy!
Freeletics coach – Week 8
Freeletics coach – week 8
This week I wanted to work harder on my PBs as the last couple of weeks I was far behind them and did not made any progress. I set the goal to break at least one PB this week and I was highly motivated! The first workout was Venus and although my arms were tired from the hellday  of last week, I gave everything…and missed my PB by 30 seconds. But getting this close only made me wanting more. The next day’s workout was Artemis – and this time I beat his a*s. I was almost 5 minutes faster then my old PB. It is amazing what can be reached with the right mindset and motivation. Even when there are times during the freeletics 15-weeks challenge when you feel like stepping back – do not give up! This is normal, take your time to recover and try to figure out what restricts you like: do you get enough good sleep ? do you trink a sufficient amount of water during the day? do you eat clean? do you feel sick or have pain?  All this are factors that influenced my results in the past. The good thing is that you can do something about it. In this way, Freeletics also helps  to “monitor” the healthiness-level of your current lifestyle. If my workout times get longer, there was something I did wrong.
Outside you can feel that Winter is coming and I did most the workouts inside. Before I started with Freeletics, I always (literally) got a cold during this time of the year, with sinusitis and all the stuff. But not this year! Maybe it is because I escaped to the caribbean, but I think that also my body and immune system got stronger. It is such a great experience to see all this positive effects Freeletics has on me, it astonishes me almost every day!
Third training-day was right after halloween and I was completely hungover – so no chance to break another PB. But finally, on the last day I broke my Venus PB as well! After all, this was a very successful week.  I unlocked a new kind of warmup routine that replaces some of the former exercises with more advanced ones – maybe I will create an extra post to show some of them. So far – Keep going and give it your best 😉
Freeletics coach – Week 7 – Helldays!
Week no. 7, first week after my vacation and – as in every 15 Weeks Freeletics program – the 7th week had only Helldays.
Week 7 – Helldays
A Hellday is a day with at least two workouts. The purpose is to go to your limit and beyond. You are allowed to spread the workouts over the day if you can not do them in a row. This week had three Helldays.
Wednesday: Hellday 1 Artemis & Kentauros
I completed Artemis in the evening and decided to do Kentauros in the morning of the following day. I was really tired and could not even do it with a star, I had to replace the Burpee Frogs with Burpees.
Friday: Hellday 2 Artemis and Poseidon
I did the two workouts in a row. I was very slow with the Artemis, don’t know whats up – but I am far from my PBs the last time.
Sunday: Hellday 3 Venus and Hades
I decided to bite my teeth and try to work harder on my PBs. I did not reach them but got closer than ever in the last 3 weeks.
The week was not that hard – but I have to admit that I did not gave my best. This is something that developed over the past weeks during my vacation; I could not break or even reach close to my PBs. So I am setting a goal for the next week: break at least one PB! I know, normally I should try to break my PB every time – but I am this far away from archiving that. Most of my PBs were set during my last 15 weeks coach (cardio & strength). I remember that the last time, the coach varied not that much in the workouts as this coach does. Most of the time, the first and the last workout of the week were the same, with workouts in between that trained other body parts. Â So it seemed to be easier to improve.
Anyhow, the target is set – let the hunt for PBs begin!
No Excuses!
Freeletics coach – Week 5
Trying the HS-Pushups at a palm-tree
This week I was on the beautiful island of Guadeloupe in the caribbean sea with 3 of my friends. I decided to continue with my workout plan, although it might be challenging to to integrate the exercises in our travel plans. But I have to say, it was easier than I thought. I tried to do the workouts in the morning or in the evening when the sun was not that aggressive and my friends where still sleeping. One of them is quite sportive too and he joined me for some of the exercises – but as everybody who is new to freeletics he could barely complete a workout.
Pull-ups at the beach
One of the best things about freeletics is, that you can do it almost everywhere. The only thing that was sometimes hard to find, was a place to do the pull-ups. There are many possibilities like trees, bars on buildings or walls. Keep your eyes open and be creative.
Apart from this exercises I did a lot of other activities like hiking, swimming, running and other exercises with my friends on the beach. So from that point of view it was no problem to continue my workout routine. The only bigger problem I experienced was with nutrition. As Guadeloupe is a small tropical island with not much industry much of the food has to be imported and is accordingly expensive. I ate a lot of chicken to get the amount of protein I usually take, but being with 3 other people all the time made it hard to always get my “special treatment” regarding the nutrition. If everybody wants to eat hamburgers for dinner and there is no alternative around, you have to defer to the majority. Also rum is cheap in the caribbean and on your vacation you always want some fun too. But fortunately fresh fruits are cheap here, so the recovering from hangovers and the vitamin input is no problem. Â I was far away from beating my PBs this week but at least I completed all the workouts.
I could not make a screenshot of my workout plan this week, as WiFi spots were also rare during the past days, so I write it down this way:
- Day 1: Artemis
- Day 2: Poseidon 2X
- Day 3: Kentauros
- Day4: Artemis
Now we are continuing our trip to Dominica. Other than Guadeloupe it does not belong to the european union (Guadeloupe was a french colony and is under french administration) but is a independent nation. It is much more native and less developed than Guadeloupe so it might be harder to find safe places for the workouts or get the nutrition I want…but I will see, and from what I heard so far, they have chicken there as well 😉
Here are some pictures of the trip so far, enjoy:
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- Pte. des Ch̢teaux РGuadeloupe
Freeletics Coach – Week 4
Freeletics coach week 4
This week I keep it short. I am going on vacation to the caribbean sea and have a lot of things to prepare. Anyhow I will try to keep up with my coach and do all the workouts. Let’s see if I stay motivated to do Burpees on the white sand beach. I will also try to post something here.
The 4th week was kind of hard, after the 15k run on the first day my legs hurt the whole week, but I kept going. I was far away from PBs this week, I remember having that kind of a through in my last 15Weeks challenge as well in the 4th or 5th week. Don’t let this tear you down, keep going, progress will come. Apart from that I found a nice spot to do the workouts not far from my home. It is a playground with a basketball field and there is the possibility to to pull-ups and to go an a run, as it is located in a park. I also found a training group that meets in my town to do the workouts together. After my vacation I will try to join them more often.
So, the train to the airport leaves in 5 hours, time to finish packing and doing the last workout at home for the next 3 weeks.
See you soon!
Freeletics – HIT Techniques
Freeletics is a form of high intensity training (HIT). HIT is not new, there are different forms of HIT techniques and workouts since the 1970’s. High intensity workouts are basically all based on the following principle.
There are 4 levels of intensity:
Pullups – do easier versions (like jumping-pullups) or take slight breaks (5-10 seconds) if your muscles are to tired to complete the whole exercise.
- Level one is when you work with a submaximal number of repetitions. Lets say you could do 10 repetitions but only do 8.
- Second level is, when you go to your maximum – you do the 10 repetitions.
- Third level means you go over the point of muscle fatigue – you do the 10 repetitions and try to do one more, it might not be a complete exercise and there will be the point when the movement has to be interrupted.
- Level 4 is where high intensity training begins. You go until you reach your maximum and then use the following HIT techniques to do even more.
To bring your muscles behind the point of failure, there are several techniques that can be used for different kind of exercises and depending on your personal favor. At the beginning it might be hard enough to finish a freeletics workout in acceptable time but later, when you get stronger an more experienced you can use HIT techniques to make even faster progresses.
Interval training
This technique is particularly suitable for bodyweight training like Freeletics. If you reach the point of muscle failure, take a short break (5 to 10 seconds) and then try to do some more repetitions. You can repeat this multiple times. As some of the Freeletics workouts contain exercises with a lot of repetitions (like 100 pushups in Artemis) that you can not do in one go at first, you might even do this without knowing that it is a HIT technique.
Particular repetitionsÂ
This is also good for Freeletics and even included in the regular workout routines. When you reach the point of muscle failure, and you can not do an extra repetition, do a slightly modified, easier version. In Freeletics for almost every exercise there is a easier version that you can do, when the actual exercise is to hard. You won’t get a star for your workout, but you will get better at it.
An other possibility is to do the additional repetitions with swing (for example when doing pull-ups) but be careful as the risk of injury is increased. Also the strain on the muscles is lower that when doing easier versions of the exercise. This should only be used by experienced athletes.
The “Afterburner”
This is a technique that you only should use if you are on an advanced fitness level. You combine two exercises that target the same muscles and do them right one after another without a break. The first exercise (basis) will put the weight on your smaller muscles while the second exercise will stress the bigger muscle. You will find these pattern in some Freeletics workouts and in the coach, but you can also use it to combine your own exercises and workouts if you don’t work with the coach.
Most of these techniques are already implemented in the Freeletics workouts and you might be doing them already without knowing it. But I think it is interesting to understand why the workouts are built the way they are and that it is normal and desired that you don’t do the 100 pushups in one rush. This is not a sign of weakness – this is HIT training.
I hope you found this helpful 🙂
Never Quit!
Freeletics Coach – Second Week
Week number two is over…and I have to say – don’t mess with the new coach! On the feedback of the first week I responded that the training program was “way to easy”…so the coach generated a much tougher workout for this week. You can see the result in the image below.
Freeletics strength coach – week 2
At first I thought, yeah this is much better. But after the first day, my whole body hurt. I also had to work a lot and was really tired in the evenings. And I made the mistake to do the workouts on the first training day outside in the rain with inappropriate clothing. I felt like getting sick afterwards. I knew that I had to take a break – so I paused for three days and started from the beginning.
With the old coach you had 20 weeks to complete your 15 weeks workout. What I understood from the FAQ of the new coach, this is now longer the case. Â After 15 weeks your subscription will continue, but you have to pay again…no matter how many weeks you completed.
Anyhow, it is important to take your time to regenerate. I always tell myself, that freeletics is still cheaper than a gym – so what. And I also think that it makes no sense to stop after the 15 weeks, maintaining a healthy lifestyle is about integrating sports and good nutrition in your everyday life and not about doing short periods of diet or sports.
So after my three days break I returned and this time I managed to complete the week in time (6 days). The focus of this week was clearly on legs. I had to do a lot of jumping-jacks, froggers, different versions of squats and climbers. For details check the workouts of my plan on the left side.
When I completed my last 15 weeks coach (cardio & strength) I was able to complete each workout with a star in the end. In the first week of the new coach, this was no problem too. But now I had to go back the the easier version of some exercises (pistols, froggers and Hand-Stand Pushups) as it was simply to hard. But I think this is good – there has to be potential to improve. At the beginning of the 15 weeks it is normal that you can not complete all workouts of even not one workout with a star – don’t worry this will happen soon enough. Set your goals and keep trying.
What helps me a lot is to make a strategy for every exercise. That means that you do the given repetitions in variable blocks. Like
Protein after workout – 536g T-Bone Steak – njam 🙂
for example if you have to do 100 Burpees – in the beginning when you start you try to make them in a whole, but after 30 or 40 you have no power left. And then all the following will be much harder. For me it worked better to do like 6 x 15 and 1 x 10. Later you can increase the repetitions to do 5 x 20, then 4 x 25 and so on. At the moment I would do 2 x 35 and 1 x 30. When I started with this strategies my PBs got much better and I started to make quick efforts in increasing the repetitions.  It gives you a even better control over your workouts and your progress.
So, thats it. Week 2 done! It was hard, but thats how it is supposed to be. It reminded me of my first weeks of freeletics, when I was not sure if I could complete the 15 weeks, but I did and now I know that I can complete this 15 weeks to and the next, and then the next…and so on. I rewarded myself with a big T-Bone Steak this evening – I needed protein and so I think I will sleep very well this night. Let’s see what next week brings.
Have fun, keep going and never quit 🙂
undevined 