Cardio-Strength Program: week #10

Week #10 out of 15


This week I was introduced to a new workout: Zeus. And just to make sure that we get to know each other properly, My Coach asked me to do it three times. We'll get to a review of this workout later, but to summarize it's completely strength oriented. With Artemis as my last session, this week was all about muscle building.


There an aspect of the training that I have not discussed so far: "instructions".
When you purchase the program and log on the Freeletics website you can see what sessions have been assigned to you for the week and there is a short paragraph titled "instructions". Each time you click on the "next week" button, you get your sessions for the following weeks and the instructions change as well.

In the first weeks, the instructions are mostly motivational and basic health advises. I don't have the exact quotes, but it's stuff like "Training will be harder than anything you've experience before. Take as long as you need but always try to complete each workout". Sometimes instructions include a special challenge for the week. To be honest, these challenges were so far from my training experience, that up to know I didn't think that they were worth mentioning. May be because of the 5 weeks of pre-training, I was a bit ahead of the game (compared to someone who starts Freeletics on week 1), but they seemed to easy.
For example, a challenge may say: "This week try to complete 2 workouts in their star version". I haven't compiled detailed stats of my results, but my guess is that 80%-90% of my completed workouts have stars. So there was no real "challenge".

So why this long discussion all of a sudden about instructions?

This week, I actually got a challenge that I wasn't 100% sure to complete: "This week’s workouts are well suited to train your capacity to withstand fatigue. Therefore, the goal of the week is to break your PB in two different workouts.".
With 3 Zeus sessions, it was sure that I'd get at least 1 PB (when starting a new workout time improves simply from getting used to the routine and not always looking for what should be done next). However, if I didn't score a good time on my Artemis session, the challenge couldn't be achieved.

So finally I paid more attention to these instructions, and I realized that even the early challenges that I had disregarded so far could be worthwhile for beginners. If you have been out of shape for a few years and follow the program, being asked to get a star, may give you that extra motivation to from "easy" burpees to "normal" burpees.


Monday: ZEUS (25:46)

Tuesday: ZEUS (25:21 -personal best)

Wednesday: ZEUS (24:31 -personal best)

So here is what Zeus looks like:

• 5 HS pushups
• 15 pullups
• 25 pushups
• 35 situps
• 45 squats
• 120 seconds rest
• 4 rounds (no rest at the end of the 4th round, the training is over after the run)

Now I'm gonna say something very paradoxical coming from someone who hasn't got a single star in 3 attempts: it's actually a nice training. I didn't even sweat (which is exceptional enough with Freeletics to be mentioned!).

I don't get the star because of the Hand-stand pushups. Let's face it, I *really* suck at it. I'm so annoyed at wasting time on the normal version, that I prefer doing the easy version to at keep the cardio intensity high. At some point I'll have to take time aside from regular training to learn how to do this exercise properly...
Aside from HS pushups, there is no major difficulty. Of course if you are assigned this training in your first weeks, pullups will be an issue but you'll get over it rapidly.

Here what makes me say that it's a no sweat workout:

• Pure strength exercises only have a few reps (5 to 25 max)
• The routine starts by focusing on arms, but after that the rest of the round is a complete recovery time for your arm muscles.
• There is not a single cardio exercise that will drive you out of breath. The only exercise that made my heart race a bit was when doing squats quickly...
• 120 seconds rest! Three times! Seriously people, how often have you seen Freeletics workouts that allow you to go check your emails during training? Even if your cardio is a bit high after squats, it will be long gone by the time you start the next round.

Not surprisingly after my first attempt, I score 2 personal best as I was learning how to perform the routine more efficiently. I was surprised at how easy the squats seemed to me. I usually hate them, but I didn't have any difficulty in any of the three sessions. I guess that it's partly due to the fact that no other exercise in the routine strains the legs.
I also hope that it means that the heavy leg work that I completed in the past weeks is starting to pay off and that my tights muscles are getting stronger.


Thursday: Boxing training

Sunday: ARTEMIS (26:31* -personal best)

History repeated itself all however again. My kids came back from school sick, and after managing a few days to dodge viruses and germs, I finally got sick as well. The last session had to be postpone to Sunday. There will be no break between Week #10 and #11.

I still wasn't in my best shape, but I was lucky to have only a strength workout to complete. I'm not sure that I would have attempted it if it had been an outdoor cardio workout.
From my personal experience, I think that Cardio is the worse when not feeling well. No matter what condition(s) you have.  It's not recommended to get hot & sweat when feverish; you can't breath properly with a running nose or sore throat; and you don't want to be jumping/running all over the place with stomach ache or when nauseous.

Anyway, in the end I decreased my personal best by about 3 minutes. This may seems like a big improvement but keep in mind that my last Artemis was 8 weeks ago. Given all the pushups & pullups that I have completed over this period, it's normal that my body is now better prepared to handle the long repetitions (50 pullups and 100 pushups).


That's all folks. Let's hope that week #11 will be virus free!