Burpee breathing technique

Burpees is one of the most complete exercise you can do: it puts the entire body to work. Even if it doesn't require pure strength like pushups or pullups, many people (including me during my first session), are exhausted after a few repetitions.

In my case the main challenge was that at first, I couldn't figure out the proper breathing pattern for this exercise. By the time I was done with all the repetitions I was gasping for air.
After a while I realized that the standard exercising pattern only works with short exercises:

• Start exercise = contract muscles = breath-out
• End exercise = relax muscles = breath-in

If you look at Burpee Max completion times, you'll see that it takes ~6 seconds per repetition for beginners to complete a burpee. Even top athletes barely do it under 3 seconds. Try holding your nose for a few seconds while doing physical activity. This is a long time. You'll be quickly out of breath. And that's basically what I was doing by only breathing once per burpee.

Let's have a look at the exercise (disclaimer: I'm not the ripped guy on the pictures below. In case you haven't recognized them, these are screenshots from the Freeletics tutorial video):




I have found that breathing twice per burpee works the best for me:

• Start: you are relaxed and happy. You're misery has not started yet.
• Position 1: breath-in before reaching for the ground
• Position 2: breath-out while landing on the ground
• Position 3: breath-in just before pushing on your arms
• Position 4: hold your breath
• Position 5: breath-out just before or during the small jump
• End: congratulations you made it! Too bad there are more repetitions to follow...

Now, at first when you're just starting training, or at times when you are exhausted, the transition from 3 to 4 may be not be a smooth cat-like jump. It may be more like crawling back up. In which case the burpee will take longer to complete and you may want consider breathing 3 times per repetitions:

• Start.
• Position 1: breath-in before reaching for the ground
• Position 2: breath-out while landing on the ground
• Position 3: breath-in just before pushing on your arms
• Position 3 (bis): breath-out once you are have pushed on your arms 
• Position 4: breath-in while getting back on your feet
• Position 5: breath-out just before or during the small jump
• End: breath-out

Keeping in mind that:

• breathing-in = 1 deep breath through the nose
• breathing-out =  ideally through nose 1 short exhalation, some prefer through mouth or 2 exhalations.
• It may take a while for the pattern to become natural, so you may have to actively think about your breathing when doing the burpee. You may lose focus and take a bit longer to complete the exercise. It's not a big deal to miss a few personal best, as long as it helps you improve on the long-run.

Above is the way that I see breathing for one individual burpee. Try to manage your breath for the entire repetition cycle as well. If you finish repetition 1 just a tiny little bit out of breath, it won't impact your training. You can even do 15 in a row, without much problem. But if you need to do 40 or 50 repetitions, then make sure that your breathing is under control for the entire time. Once out of breath your endurance is over.

Calories counting & burning

A nice thing about following the program is that you are not in the driver's seat. It's pretty much like being in the army: you just need to be disciplined enough to follow the orders and only worry about the executing them (and trying to survive).

As the end of my program was getting nearer, I started to wonder how I would manage my training schedule once left alone by myself. And more specifically, how frequently should I exercise per week?

My goal is not to look like a body builder or lose as much weight as possible. Rather, it is to find the right training routine. One that would become an integral part of my life and help me maintain a good physical condition. I was guessing that 3 sessions per week, plus my boxing training should be enough. But that was just a guess. So I decided to have a closer look at my lifestyle, to see how I could balance my physical activity and my diet.

By now, you have probably realized that I'm a bit of a data freak. I wondered if it was possible to gather actual data to fill the following equation:

Weight variation = Calories input (Food intake) - Calories output (Basal metabolic rate & physical activity)

• The basal metabolic rate is a black box. I have no way of knowing in details how much calories my body burns simply to ensure my basic life functions. It's not something that I can measure. But it doesn't really matter. As I'm not planning significant weight gain/loss, it's safe to assume that there is no reason for my metabolic rate to change dramatically.

• Physical activity: I have a very sedentary job and drive to work. As a result my overall level of physical activity is mostly driven by how much sport I do. 

• Food intake: I'm not intending to change my diet. I think that one of the main reason why people gain back the weight that they lost is because it's impossible on the long-run to stick to a diet that is too strict. You need to enjoy what's in your plate, otherwise you'll get depressed (I'm French, I have been brainwashed with that stuff!)

Over the past 4 months, I lost ~7kg without changing my calories input. Therefore the results were entirely driven by the "output" factor. My metabolism probably reacted to the training load impacting (positively or negatively) my results (positive or negative), but ultimately the biggest driver should have been the Freeletics training. So in theory, to stabilize my weight, I just need to find the right balance of training. At this point, I decided to quantify my calorie intake to compare it to my physical activity.

During the entire week #14 of my program, I wrote down everything that I ate. When eating at home, I weighted my food. When eating outside (lunch), I had to estimate quantities. Doing the exercise for a full week was intended to smooth out daily variations. Yet, the idea was not to get the most precise number, but a ball-park estimate to understand my diet better. Am I eating 3'000 Kcal per day or only 1'500 Kcal?

I counted 12'340 Kcal during that week (if you are interested the detailed log & calculation are at the bottom of this post). That's 1'763 Kcal/day. I was surprised to see such a low number (I read that sedentary adult men need 2'000-2'200 Kcal /day). This may be due to the experimenter bias: weighing every bite of food before eating it, I may have unconsciously reduced the size of my servings. Therefore I will assume that this measure is the low end of the range. My average intake is probably somewhere between 1'800 Kcal and 2'000 Kcal per day.

Then over the past few weeks, I trained while wearing a heart rate monitor and chest strap, to record my cardio during various workouts:

• Aphrodite in 19:43* = ~425 Kcal (500 Freeletics points)
• Apollon in 22:35* = ~475 Kcal (525 Freeletics points)
• Hades in 16:04* = ~350 Kcal (255 Freeletics points)
• Venus in 24:43* = ~375 Kcal (325 Freeletics points)
• Pushup Max 38* reps in 1:40 = ~60Kcal (28.5 Freeletics points)

(note: Pushup MAX measured just after Apollon, probably distorted as heart rate was already high)


Surprisingly I didn't find much clear-cut differences between Cardio versus Strength. Strength focused workouts have a slightly lower Kcal/minute ratio, but nothing major. During most workouts I burnt approximately 200 Kcal for every 10 minutes of training. I usually train for at least 25 to 30 minutes (I'm speaking actual exercise time; breaks are excluded), so each Freeletics session I easily burn 400 to 500 Kcal.

By the way, I added the value in Freeletics points for each workout. Notice the correlation between my measured calorie consumption (based on HRM) and the points. Of course, not everybody will consume the same amount of energy while doing Aphrodite. I probably burn less now that I do it in 20 mn instead of 30 mn. But looking at the point value seems a pretty good way to compare the caloric consumption of various workouts (i.e. regardless of your current physical condition, you'll probably burn double the caIories by doing Aphrodite instead of Hades).
Just keep in mind that your total Freeletics points is probably not representative of total calories burnt. For example, at the moment I have a total of 69'180 points, but once I exclude all the bonus points received for scoring 103 Personal  Bests & 147 Stars, this total drops to ~45'000 points. For the record, so far I have totaled 1'915 minutes of workouts (excluding MAX) and performed 6'181 MAX repetitions. Assuming 20 Kcal / minute (based on my HRM measures) and 0.75 per rep (ratio used to calculate Freeletics points), I estimate that I burnt ~43'000 Kcal while training. This is not including the time when the heart is still racing during cooldown periods or any afterburn effect.
See how close my bottom-up calorie count is from the points?


Anyway, this post is becoming my longest so far, so I'll try to wrap-up quickly.


I am perfectly aware that it's impossible to measure output & input with perfect accuracy. But it doesn't matter! The amount of calorie output generated by the program (4-5 sessions per week) results in 1'600-2'000 Kcal consumed each week. That's approximately the input you get in 1 full day! Even if you assumed a 10% or 25% margin of error, the balance remains largely in favor or output versus input.


So what does it means for me?


Well, it tells me that even if I reduce my training from 4-5 sessions to 3-4 sessions, or focus on strength only for a while, my level of activity should largely be enough to maintain/improve my physical condition. I just need to ensure that as I improve my completion times, I add short workouts or a few MAX so that each sessions includes at least 25-30 minutes of effective workout time.

As promised, below is my calorie input log of week #14.

Monday: 1'789 Kca

• Breakfast: 359Kca
• Tea, no milk, no sugar (300ml): 4Kca
• Orange juice (20 cl): 10Kca
• 2 toasts (~10g of salted butter and +~20g of jam each): (22+73+40)x2=270Kca
• Cereal bar: 75Kca

• Lunch: 605Kca
• Pork cutlet: ~370Kca
• Steamed carrots: ~30Kca 
• White rice: ~150Kca
• Apple: 55Kca

• Dinner: 825Kca
• Rice (170g) + shrimps (50g): (170+45)=215Kca
• White wine (15cl): 108Kca
• White bread (80g): 220Kca
• Cheese (various kinds 54g in total): ~162Kca
• Chocolate yogurt: 120Kca

 Tuesday: 1'479Kca

• Usual breakfast + plain yogurt (125g): (95+359)= 454Kca

• Lunch: 
• Beef noodles (~350g): 305 Kca

• Dinner: 720Kca
• Toasted ham & cheese: ~600Kca
• Chocolate yogurt: 120Kca

 Wednesday: 1'838Kca

• Breakfast: 359Kca

• Lunch: 752Kca
• Rump steak: 260Kca 
• Broccoli: 45Kca 
• Potato gratin: 125Kca
• Kiwi: 34Kca
• Strawberry pie: 288Kca

• Dinner: 727Kca
• Asparagus (40g) +French dressing: (8+59)= 67Kca
• Roast pork (55g): 135Kca
• White beans (150g): 180Kca
• White wine (5cl): 36Kca
• White bread (45g): 124Kca
• Cheese (various kinds 30g in total): ~90Kca
• Plain yogurt (125g): 95Kca

Thursday: 2'417Kca

• Breakfast: 359Kca

• Lunch: 509Kca
• Tartiflette (cheese and potato gratin): 275Kca 
• Letucce +French dressing: (15+59)= 74Kca 
• Hot chocolate: 160Kca

• Snack (~1 hour before sport): cereal bar (98Kca)

• Dinner: 1'549Kca
• Burger (280 pepper): 799Kca
• Cheeseburger: 305Kca
• Beer (25cl): 100Kca
• Chocolate Sundae: 345Kca

Friday: 1'413Kca

• Usual breakfast + plain yogurt (125g): (95+359)= 454Kca

• Lunch: 459Kca
• Veal flank: 275Kca 
• Zucchini: 50Kca
• Banana: 134Kca

• Dinner: 500Kca
• Creamed cucumber (~100g): 135Kca
• Mashed potatoes (~250g): 264 Kca
• Mashed pumpkins (~150g): 66Kca
• Grape (50g): 35Kca

Saturday: 1'724 Kca

• Breakfast: 359Kca

• Lunch: 686Kca
• Mashed potatoes (~200g): 176 Kca
• Mashed pumpkins (~100g): 44Kca
• Sausage (~55g): 147Kca 
• White bread (45g): 124Kca
• Cheese (various kinds 40g in total): ~120Kca
• Stewed apple (100g): 75Kca

• Dinner: 679 Kca
• Spaghetti (~300g) +Feta (~30g) +Tomato sauce: (474+80+30)= 584Kca
• Plain yogurt (125g): 95Kca

Sunday: 1'680 Kca

• Breakfast: 359Kca

• Lunch: 686Kca
• asperges
• filet mignon+carottes
• pain+fromage
• clementine

• Dinner: 605Kca
• Pasta soup: ~450Kca
• Chocolate dessert: 155Kca 

This week is fairly representative of my eating habits: no snacks (except before going to sport training). A decent amount of vegetables & fruits. A useful learning for me is that I tend to pack too many calories at dinner. I had a feeling that I probably should try to re-balance a bit (more at breakfast/lunch and less in the evening), but I had never actually quantify it. This clearly showed me that dinner really is my biggest meal of day.
Despite some rich foods (I love cheese!), my overall intake is reasonable. A diet would not really make much sense. It seems that increasing my physical activity instead, was the right to do.

Body stats: after 20 weeks

Lately a number of commentators on this blogs eagerly asked me to post my before/after pictures. There are 2 possible explanations:

• People just love watching photos of me in my underwear (in which case I should seriously consider a career change)
• or, many readers want to see if Freeletics really works.

While I'm sure that becoming a swimsuit model doing photo shoots all over the world's most beautiful beaches would be fun, my guess is that you guys are not here for me!
Let's face it, all of us at some point watched one of the  Freeletics sponsored transformation videos on Youtube wondering if it wasn't too good to be true. I have been asking myself the same question. After all this entire blog is an attempt at answering this question.

Evolution of my body my stats after 20 weeks of training (5 weeks of pre-program + 15 weeks of the Cardio-Strength program):

Height: 178 cm (5.84ft) 

Weight: 75.7 kg (166.9 lbs) - starting point: 82.5 kg (181.8 lbs)

Waist size: 84 cm (33.1 in) - starting point: 90 cm (35.4 in)



Since starting the training my weight dropped by nearly 7 kg (~8% of my starting weight). This is a huge variation of my regular weight.
Recently I was searching in my papers for the results of a VO2 max endurance test that I did many years ago (to prepare an upcoming post on calories burning). When I found it I saw that back in early 2007 I was already weighting 81 kg. Basically, I'm currently weighting about the same that when I was 18 years old.

My waist size also decreased in similar proportions (~6.5%), the difference is clearly visible on the pics below. Practically, it has gotten to a point where I have started replacing all the pants in my wardrobe. Old ones were getting ridiculously too loose.



Before/After pictures:

Note that I took for the first time a picture from the side in week #14. That's why I couldn't do a week 1-20 comparison, like for front and back pictures.

As you can see, the body changes were not as dramatic as in some of the videos, but they are clearly visible. I didn't take enough muscle volume to pretend (yet) to a role in the next 300 movie or to become Mister Universe. However, I have been burning a lot of fat tissue (visible on hips, abs, back and arms). 


Conclusion:

The results are not as spectacular as on some videos (Levent or Arne), but I am pleased with the change. Aside for the appearance, when boxing I can feel that my physical condition has improved. That was one of my key objectives when starting the program.


If you intend to do Freeletics mainly to improve your physical appearance, I believe that the younger you are, the faster you will get results. Remember that most of guys on the videos are 10 years younger than me. It takes longer for my metabolism to burn fat and build muscle. Unless you have some weight to lose first, for more volume you may want to take the Strength program.

Regarding weight-loss, you can see that in my case the Cardio-Strength program was already quite effective. I imagine that the results will be even more drastic if focusing on Cardio only. 
Additionally, from the start one of my rules was that I would not change my diet. My goal was to measure the impact of the training alone. By combining exercise with improved eating habits, you should get an even greater impact.

As far as I'm concerned, the program worked for me, but my journey is not over. Thinking of the program as a one-time fix is a mistake. I needs to become a routine. Over the next few weeks I will try to find the right training balance, so that it becomes an integral part of my life. If further changes appear, I will post a new body stats update (probably not before a month or so).

Cardio-Strength Program: week #15 (Hell week)

Week #15 out of 15


Week #14 was relatively quiet, so I took it as a sign that the last week of the program would be harder than usual. Probably Hell.

At the end of week #7, I wrote that wasn't fully convinced about the Hell Days. I was feeling a bit nostalgic of the Hell Week. I preferred training every day rather than having a few long sessions. Well you know the saying: be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it.

That's exactly what happened to me, I got what I wished for: Hell Week. 7 days, 7 sessions.

The work load was heavier than usual. Not only because of the more numerous sessions, but also several sessions were made of several workouts. Add to the mix some sport that I have been doing aside from Freeletics, and that gives you a pretty exhausting week!


Monday: DIONE (26:45*)

The beginning of the week was as ordinary as it gets. Dione is one the workout that I repeated the most (15 times over the past 20 weeks).
I had a hard time finding my pace, and was rapidly out of breath. So in the end no PB, and a subpar performance.


Tuesday: APOLLON (24:37*) +ARES (08:09*)

My fear this week was to see a tendinitis at the leg come back to haunt me. The pain was gone for only a few days, and yet I have 3 Apollon scheduled this week. Running is not as bad as jumps, but it still generates enough stress on the legs to wake-up an inflammation.

While running, I did feel that my tendons didn't like it very much, but the overall distance was short so the impact was limited. After the workout, I decided to take advantage of being outdoor to practice hand-stands without any risk to destroy my living room walls. I didn't try to do pushups while hand-standing, this was just to get used to the position and train to land on the wall softly. I did 12-15 attempts, and stopped as the shock from landing back on the ground hurt more than the run had. Thankfully the (small) pain didn't last and I wasn't bothered again for the rest of the week.

The workouts were not performed back to back. I performed Apollon during my lunch break, but had to wait to be back home in the evening to be able to do the Ares' pull-ups.


Wednesday: HYPERION (18:48 -personal best) +APHRODITE (21:38* -personal best)

A fairly big day today, with 2 workouts that are usually scheduled as stand-alone.
Hyperion went well, still no star due to HS Pushups & Pistols, but at least I got a new PB. For Aphrodite, my last PB being 2 months old, I was sure that I could improve my time, despite being tired from the previous workout. It improved by only a minute, not bad but I expect to do even better if I attempt it with fresh arms.


Thursday: boxing training +VENUS (23:11* -personal best)

This was the day that I apprehended the most. Venus is heavily focused on arms. But so is my boxing training. Doing Venus first and its 200 puhups early morning would strain my arms and lead too poor performance in the evening. I did several time Metis after boxing, but I honestly didn't knew if I would be able to complete the entire Venus routine.
Skipped Freeletics training on Thursday (for example to do both session 4 & 5 on Friday), didn't feel right. After all, the goal of Hell Week is not just to train a lot but to train every day. 

I remembered one of the rules that I set: boxing comes first. So I decided to train at full capacity & intensity and do Venus right after. 

My arms were exhausted, my abs were strained from situps, leg levers and jacknives, so the only "comfortable" exercise was Deep Squat. It was very tough, I stopped thinking, my brain went completely on autopilot. Completion time didn't matter. Before starting I had already accepted that it could take up-to an hour,  as long as I could complete the workout.

To my great astonishment, I got a PB, improving my completion time by over 2 minutes!
This was only my second attempt at this workout so of course I had a margin for improvement, but given the context this was completely unexpected.
That night my arms were absolutely destroyed, but I was quite happy that the worse day of the week turned out to be a highlight of the week.


Friday: APOLLON (23:08* -personal best)

Another Apollon. My biggest room for improvement is on the running (that applies to all the workouts that include 400m run or more). The first round was fast, but I started losing my breath and slowed down for the second round. For the last round I was in "damage control" mode. Basically, I pushed to increase my pace. Not as fast as in round 1, but as fast as I could.
It paid off with a new PB, my time having improved by a few seconds.

Again, I practice a bit doing hand stands. I'm getting more comfortable at landing on the wall, hopefully with a bit more work I'll be able to do these damn HS pushups!


Saturday: APOLLON (22:35* -personal best) +PUSHUP MAX (38*) +VENUS (24:43*)

For the first time since starting the program, I changed the order of my training sessions. Session 7, originally scheduled on Sunday was very long and incompatible with my calendar. I would be gone all day skiing, and there is nowhere were way I can do Apollon by night. So I swapped days 6 & 7, in order to do the big session on Saturday.

Apollon went very well. This time I maintained a constant pace during all 3 rounds, and improved again my PB by a few seconds.

The real challenge came from the last 2 workouts. My shoulders & arms were still dead from Thursday's training load. While I didn't have sore muscles or felt any pain while at rest, when attempting the Pushup Max, it was clear that I had no juice left. I went through the motions to finish both the MAX and Venus, but a PB was clearly out of reach today.


Sunday: Skiing +HS PUSHUP MAX (69) +PUSHUP MAX (45*) +SITUP MAX (148* -personal best )

The numerous Squats & Deep Squats this week (800 reps if I counted well), took a toll on my tights. This time the skiing session was physically a bit more challenging than last time, but overall it was a very good experience.

After a full day spent driving & skiing (~5 hours of effective ski time), I was extremely glad to only have a few MAX to complete. Frankly, swapping sessions now really seemed like the wisest decision. Given my level of tiredness I probably would have risked injury by doing a big session tonight.

My arms had started recovering a bit, but HS pushups and Pushups were still more difficult than usual. No PB.
For the Situp Max, my abs were OK and mentally I was fired-up. This was the last workout of the program! Surely not the time to be holding back! I used whatever energy I had left to keep the pace as fast as possible. 
I literally got rug burns from these situps (and I still do as I write these lines 3 days later!), but I made it:148 reps. 6 more than my previous PB.

The program is over.

Free at last, Free at last, Thank Freeletics Gods almighty I am free at last!

Or am I?


Yes, I have completed every single workout in the program. I even tossed in a few extra. But now, the real challenge begins. I the next few weeks I won't be following any specific program. May be I will in the future, but in the meantime I will decide freely how frequently to train, what workouts to do and how to arbitrage between Strength vs. Cardio.

This is a welcomed break, as I will be able to tailor my workouts perfectly around my regular sport training and take into account any possible injury. For example, focus on arms & abs until my tendinitis is fully healed.

By now, I'm familiar with most Gods, so mixing the workouts to come-up with a good schedule will not be too difficult. The real challenge will be maintaining a high level of physical activity. This will require a lot of discipline and engagement. I like the results that I have obtained, and I want to get even more. So hopefully my motivation will remain as high as it is now!


Many of you have asked to see pictures after the program. I can tell you that the stats & photos have been taken, I just need to sit-down and summarize them in a post. It will come soon, so stay tuned!