Cardio-Strength Program: week #4

Week #4 out of 15


As promised, here is the summary of week #4. Again, there were some novelties in my training schedule (Burpees Max, Hyperion & Ares). Except for the good old Aphrodite in the last session, the week was mostly dominated by strength-related exercises.

Monday: HADES 21:33* (personal best)

For my first training of the week,there is only one Hades to do. I scored a new personal best, which honestly, was expected.
On week #1, I performed this training for the first time. 2 out of the 4 training were completed under 22 minutes. Last week I was happy to finally get a star, but with a completion time of 23:45, I clearly had room to improve the time. My execution speed of the star-version of Hades is now back in line-with week #1. The next challenge will be to get down to 20 minutes.

Tuesday: HYPERION 24:40 + Bonus: LEG LEVERS MAX (178* repetitions -personal best) 

On week #2, when I first encountered the Artemis workout, I thought that I had found the ultimate arm-muscles killing machine. I was young and naive back then...

Let me introduce you to Hyperion: 

• 6 HS pushups: because upside-down is much more fun!
• 12 strict pullups: you think that pullups are tough? Think again...
• 6 OH pushups: who needs 2 arms anyway?
• 12 pistols: to shoot your legs & your ego.
• 60 seconds rest
• 5 rounds

For the first time, I looked at a workout schedule and told myself: "Damn! I can't even complete any of these exercises in its regular difficult version!"

• HS pushups: while standing vertically upside-down on your arms, you slowly bring your head to the ground and push yourself back up. Last week's tentative was a disaster. This time I asked my wife to help me with the handstand to avoid hitting the wall to hard. It didn't really make things easier. I had to revert to the simple version.

• Strict pullups: let yourself hang completely from the bar by the arms. Pull yourself up, until you chin goes above the bar. Go back to the original position. Congratulations, you have now lost all momentum. This makes strict pullups much harder than regular ones. I completed a few, but quickly fell back to regulars.

• OH pushups: from the usual pushup position use only one arm to push yourself upward. In boxing I tried several pushups versions: regulars; on-fists; thumbs-touching each others; lifting palms while in the air; pushing with 2 arms, then standing on one while extending the other horizontally. Each variation was intended to make the exercise more painful. Strangely I had never been asked to do one-hand pushups before. To my great surprise, I was able to perform all 5 rounds. It was hard, but that made my day!

• Pistols: pictures are worth a thousand words: look at the video below for an explanation of pistols. There are 2 difficulties in this exercise. First it's an insanely low squat, with only one leg carrying your entire body weight. Second, it requires flawless balance (your heel or arms should never touch the ground). For the easier version. If you can't complete the regular version, Freeletics suggest to have a chair or bench behind you, to sit mid-position. The chair trick didn't work for me: it's too high. I couldn't find anything that was at the right height for me. Then I tried to go all the way down, but using my arms to maintain stability. I was hoping it would help me progress faster, but I quickly realize that it's actually counterproductive. If hands touch the ground, the body weight is dispersed instead of being concentrated on one leg. So muscles work less and you don't improve balance. In the end, what worked the best for me was to do a regular pistol (no bench, no arms) but only going down as far as I could. I don't think that I'm going low enough to get a star, but at least I can feel that my muscles are getting a good workout.

In conclusion, OH pushups are ok. Pistols, should be the next exercise worthy of a star. Strict pullups & HS pushups will require some serious improvements. May be one day I'll get a star for Hyperion, but it's going to take many weeks of training.


Hyperion was a difficult training relatively short but with no abs exercise. So I added a Leg Lever Max. My results had plateaued for a while, so I was determined to break my record. Mission accomplished, with a new PB at 178 repetitions. I now have the 200 reps in sight, and have good hopes to get there soon.

Wednesday: BURPEES MAX (65* repetitions) + ARES 08:45*

The third session started with Burpees Max. This exercise is the base of Freeletics: many workouts include a good share of burpees. Yet I had never tested it in a MAX session. Based on the scores in my networks, 65 burpees is a decent result, and in the range that I expected (60-70). However, I confess that my motivation was a bit low that evening. I'm sure that with full dedication, I should get well over 70.

The MAX was followed by a new workout: Ares. Don't be fooled by it's deadly patronym, it's a pretty easygoing workout:

• 7 pullups
• 7 jackknives
• 2x40m run
• 60 seconds rest
• 5 rounds (no rest at the end of the 5th round, the training is over after the run)

Of course this exercise will be problematic if you just started and can't do pullups yet, but as you can see these are very short repetitions. So this shoudln't be a problem for long.
Jackknives is a simple abs exercise, with few reps. Run requirement is short as well.
The weirdest part in this work out are the 60 seconds rest. This is new for me. Normally I have to keep going, even when out of breath. All of a sudden, I have a workout that requires me to just stand and catch my breath... :-)
Don't get me wrong Ares will get your cardio racing, but you probably won't have sore muscles the following day.


Thursday: Boxing training 

Friday: APHRODITE 22:45* (personal best)

It's been a month since I have trained with Aphrodite. I was really looking forward to meet again. With Dione, it's the workout that I repeated the most during my pre-program. I scored many personal bests, usually in small increments. I was curious to see if I had lost the pace for that specific workout or if on contrary I would blow away my PB.

22:45*. That's 5 minutes better than my previous personal best! (27:51*)

The clock watch doesn't lie: to get to these results, day after day my overall physical condition has been improving.

I find it very rewarding to see that sweat & dedication are paying off!