Pre-Program (Free trial): week #3

Week #3 out of 5


This week has been a complete nightmare to schedule training.

I have been sick in bed from Monday to Wednesday. Thursday I felt better, but as you know by now it's boxing day. Saturday, I was unexpectedly called to work, only getting back home late.

It's difficult to build a proper training schedule with only 2 days available. To make things more complex, week #3 is focused on a new session called Dione. It's a fairly demanding session, so repeating it twice at high-intensity on the same day was not really an option.
Given the circumstances, I extended Week #3 to include the following Monday.

[UPDATE Jan 2014 - Start]
Please note that this week some of the training content is elective.
In the training schedule below I chose to do the Dione workout. However, don't be surprised if you see on the Internet that other people have done Zeus instead. They simply chose to focus on Strength instead of Cardio.
[UPDATE Jan 2014 - End]

Thursday: Boxing training

Surprisingly good training, given that I had barely recovered for my sick days.

Friday: DIONE 37:03*

The Dione training is made of 3 rounds of:

• 75 Jumping Jacks
• 25 Burpees
• 50 Leg Lever
• 75 Jumping Jacks
• 50 Situps
• 25 Burpees

When I first glanced at it I smiled, thinking that it looked like a nice and easy session to be completed under 30 minutes. Jumping Jacks are basically a warm-up exercise, the session is focused on abs which I consider one of my strong points and the burpees repetitions remain reasonable (sets of 25 compared to 50 in Aphrodite).

It's only minutes before starting the training that I realized that the completion time of people that I'm following through the phone app ranged from 26 to 56 minutes.
26 minutes being the time of a guy who is 10 weeks ahead of me in the program, it became clear that completing Dione under 30mn, on the first attempt, would be impossible.

It actually took me 37'03 minutes to complete the exercise. Let's have a look at what makes Dione much harder than what it looks:

• Jumping jacks: as expected they are not physically challenging. It takes me 1 minute to do all 75. The challenge is that they just keep coming back (450 reps in total), so while they don't wear down your muscles they keep your Cardio high all the time. And because they are so quick to complete, they don't offer any opportunity for your body to recover.

• Abs: if you look carefully at the repetition pattern, the 2 exercises which are 100% abs focused (Leg levers & Situps) are only separated by a set of Jumping jacks. To say it differently: you do 50 repetitions of abs, "rest" for 1 minute and do another 50 reps. For a total of 300 abs reps during the 3 rounds. The overall workload is perfectly manageable, the difficulty is to maintain a fast pace all along.

• Burpees: another deceivingly simple exercise. Indeed there are only 25 repetitions, but twice per round. 150 burpees in total just like in Aphrodite. Besides, when you complete a round with 25 burpees, you have to follow-up with another 25 burpees in the next round. Once again, you only have 1 minute of Jumping Jacks to "rest" in-between.

To summarize Dione vs Aphrodite: 

• same number of Burpees
• same number of Situps
• Squats are replaced by Leg Levers (which takes longer to complete and strains the same muscle group as Situps)
• 450 Jumping Jacks in bonus

In conclusion: no matter how much time it takes you to complete Aphrodite, it will always take you longer to complete Dione.


Sunday: DIONE 37:18*

Results very close to my first attempt, but just below. No personal best this time. Every second matters...


Monday: DIONE 35:14* (personal best)

My first two encounters with Dione have taught me to respect this training. I focused on keeping the best pace possible during the abs, and was mentally ready for long, straining, Burpees sessions. It worked, I gained 2 minutes versus the previous day results and setup a new personal best.


 Week #4, here I come!

Pre-program (Free trial): week #2

Week #2 out of 5

In this week's training plan I need to include some Aphrodite sessions and a couple new exercises: Push-up Max and Squat Max.

MAX exercises are the reverse of regular sessions. Instead of striving to do the best possible time for a given number of repetitions, in a "MAX" sessions you try to do as many repetitions as possible within a given time limit. Also each MAX is focused on 1 exercise only. So Push-up Max and Squat Max are tracked as 2 separate sessions.

Monday: "MAX day"

I have just been given a new toy, of course I *had to* try it first! 

The only problem with these MAX sessions, is that I'm not sure when to place them in my calendar. On one hand if you want to do as many push-ups as possible you'd better start with fresh arms. On the other hand, these are very short exercises (100 seconds for pure strength exercises or 300 seconds for others). Doing only a few minutes of training, well, doesn't feel like training... I could follow-up with an Aphrodite' session, but I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy going through 150 burpees just minutes after doing push-ups like a maniac.

I chose to start with the 2 required MAX:

• PUSH-UPS MAX (100s = 1'40) ): 42* repetitions

As many push-ups as possible in 1'40. The only thing worth mentioning is that in the Freeletics' version of the push-up, once your chest touches the ground you have to lift both palms of your hands above the ground. Adding this small movement creates a bit more tension in the shoulders and prevents that you push yourself back-up before your chest is *really* resting on the ground.

Note that you lose about a second each time you lift your palms up. There is no point in comparing your own results to mine if your not doing exactly the same exercise. The "regular" push-ups (without palms up) just take less time to complete.

• SQUAT MAX (300s = 5'00) ): 163 repetitions

Honestly I was surprised to do as many of them. I don't think that I cut corners, I really tried to sit as low as possible. I don't know if Freeletics will transform my body, but I can tell you that my thighs will be in great shape when ski season starts!

Well, as expected 6 minutes and 40 seconds of training felt too short. So I went freestyle with the program and just started to try-out all the MAX exercises that I could do, one after the other. Here are the results:

• SITUPS MAX (300s = 5'00) ): 101 repetitions (Fine. Situps are training as usual)
• PULL-UPS MAX (100s = 1'40) ): 14 repetitions (Lame, but expected. Time was no issue, I just couldn't find the strength to lift myself once more...)
• LEG LEVERS MAX (300s = 5'00) ): 94 repetitions (Fine. Standard boxing training)
• BURPEES MAX (300s = 5'00) ): 57 repetitions (Thank you, Aphrodite!)

Tuesday: APHRODITE 29:03 * (Personal Best)

Good old Aphrodite. Finally broke that PB that I had been chasing last week!

Thursday: Boxing training

More tired than usual. Didn't get the energy surge as I did last week.

Friday: APHRODITE 28:57 * (Personal Best)

Got a second PB in the same week. I got a bit carried away and decided to follow-up with the 2 required MAX sessions. Not expecting great results with tired muscles, but that way I could rest 2 full days on Saturday and Sunday.

• PUSH-UPS MAX (100s = 1'40) ): 30* repetitions (Aphrodite killed my arms. Results clearly below previous attempt)
• SQUAT MAX (300s = 5'00) ): 137 repetitions (Surprisingly OK. Looks like Squats are not as tough on muscles as they feels)

All in all, a good week. I had some fun trying out all the MAX, and the new PB prove that I'm improving. Looking forward to next week!

Body stats: before starting of the training

To be complete, this experiment needs to show where I'm starting from. I'm not completely out of shape, but I definitely carry a few extra kilos.

Here are my stats before starting my freeletics training:

Height: 178 cm (5.84ft)

Weight: 82.5 kg (181.8 lbs)

Waist size: 90 cm (35.4 in)


And because pictures are worth a thousand words:

 

 

These photos were taken at the end of week#1, not that it matters much. I don't expect any change during the first few weeks.I probably won't need to post new pictures until week #5.

Pre-program (Free trial): week #1

Week #1 out of 5

Monday: APHRODITE 30:49 *

The Aphrodite work-out is the following:

• 50 Burpees
• 50 Squats
• 50 Situps
• 40 Burpees
• 40 Squats
• 40 Situps
• 30 Burpees
• 30 Squats
• 30 Situps
• 20 Burpees
• 20 Squats
• 20 Situps
• 10 Burpees
• 10 Squats
• 10 Situps

High-intensity workout is the basis of boxing training. I have to confess that I was a bit cocky when I attacked this first training. I started all guns blazing, thinking it wouldn't be that bad. Once I completed the session there were some useful learning:

• My physical condition is not so bad (many first-timers take over 1 hour to do Aphrodite)
• But I'm not familiar with some  for these exercises, so I can expect some seriously sore muscles in the weaker areas of my body
• After only 10mn I was sweating proficiently. This is indeed a high-intensity training.

Burpees were the most challenging for me, particularly because I couldn't figure out how to breath properly. A lot of standard exercises require a simple breathing pattern: contract muscles/breath-out, relax muscles/breath-in, contract muscles/breath-out, etc.
But a Burpee is a succession of short actions which requires shorter, more frequent breathing.
I found myself out of breath almost from the start. I kept going, using the Squats (tough on leg muscles, but easy on Cardio) & Situps (easy breathing pattern) to catch my breath.
That allowed me to have an decent overall time, but clearly getting Burpees under control is the key to lower Aphrodite time.

Tuesday: APHRODITE 36:04 *

My goal for the day was to understand how to control my breath during burpees, so I expected to take a bit longer to complete this second training. May be a couple minutes more. 

I was shocked to lose almost 5:30 to my personal best.

Ok, I had a few sore muscles from day 1 but that's no excuse. I dropped the ball on 2 points:

• While focusing on my breathing, I allowed my body to go much slower than needed
• I trained while my wife watched TV in the same room. In the corner of my eye, I could follow what was going-on. This was a mistake. To maintain high-intensity and improve timing, one needs undivided attention to the exercise.

Mea Cupla. The lesson is learnt, this will not happen again.



Thursday: Boxing training

I'm not intending to comment on this regularly, as most people out there are not concerned.
But I'd like to point out that I still had some seriously sore muscles from the day 2 training. In the morning when I woke-up I seriously considered skipping this training.
I hate missing training, so I went anyway expecting Hell. To my surprise, I didn't encounter any issues for the muscle-building part (situps, push-ups, leg levers, etc.). Once the training started, I actually felt great! At the end I even had some energy left to beat the bag for a while.
My motivation is skyrocketing!



Friday: APHRODITE 31:01 *

Last training of the week, I'm back to a decent completion time range. Burpee breathing starts to come more naturally. I could have beaten my personal best, but when I realized that I was running ahead of my PB, I slowed down in the last 2 repetitions.
Bottom-line: I missed my PB by 12 seconds!

Personal challenge: next Aphrodite has to be a PB. This completion time has to go down!

The rules of the game (How I plan to follow this program)

The guys at Freeltics say that the only way to really appreciate the changes that will happen to my body over the course of 15 weeks, is to regularly take pictures of myself. They claim that there will be no visible results the first 5 weeks, but that afterward I will notice changes.

I have decided to put Freeletics up to the test. But instead of just doing the program and posting BEFORE / AFTER pictures, I have opened this blog to comment on my training every week. As I write these lines I have already completed my first week of training. But before diving into the details in my next posts, let me explain

MY RULES:

• I intend to complete the entire program. Only injuries can stop me.

• I will always try to complete the exercises in their most difficult form, as fast as possible.

• My boxing training (every Thursday) is my priority. I will try to respect the order of the Freeletics program, but if I need to re-arrange it around boxing, I will.

• I will not change my diet during the next 15 weeks. I'll be eating as usual.

• I have never been taking proteins supplements, or any kind of muscle-building powders. I am not going to start now. Therefore any weight loss or muscle gain that I may get during this experiment will only be linked to my training.

Introduction: reviewing the Freeletics method

I'm 35 and I have been an amateur boxer for the past 6 years. But due to a busy schedule, I can't train at the Sweet Science more than once per week. It's an extremely demanding sport. No matter how much intensity I pack into that 1 session, I can feel that I'm hitting my limits too fast. I need more training on the side, but what?

Enters Freeletics.

2 weeks ago, I was half-paying attention to night news when they ran a segment about a new German fitness program that was gaining in popularity. All exercises are body-weight based and therefore don't require any special training equipment or machines. It sounded like something I could do at home or on the road, whenever it was convenient for me.

After further research, it turned out that the content of the training sessions is fixed, the goal is to improve how fast you complete them. To put it differently: you don't start with 10 push-ups to finish with 200 push-ups 15 weeks later. You do 200 push-ups all along, but if it took you 2 hours week #1, hopefully it will only take you 10 minutes by week #15.
A program that will require less and less time to complete as I progress? Just what I need.


How does it work?

The company developed three 15 weeks training programs, based on different training objectives (Cardio, Strength, or both). Different exercises are grouped into separate sessions code-named after Greek & Roman gods: Aphrodite, Hades, Zeus, etc.
Basically each program is a combination of all these individual God-sessions, and will tell you what exercise to do each week, and in which order. For example - week#1: complete Aphrodite 4 times.

There is 5 weeks free program. To get a 15 weeks program, you have to purchase the corresponding guide (40 euros).
There is also an app (5 euros - Android & iPhone), that shows you all the training sessions, records performances. However the app doesn't include the programs.


Personally, I have bought the app, however I have decided not to purchase the guide. I'll start with the 5 free weeks for free. After that I'll follow with a training program found on the Internet (a number of people share their training schedule week after week, so it's relatively easy to find).