Post-program (self-scheduled training): week #34-42

Here is the usual update on my training schedule. Don't be surprised if this time the training-load seems irregular from one week to the next.

About a month ago, I hurt my wrist and my hip while boxing. These were not serious injuries (i.e. no hospital), but the resulting back pains were incapacitating enough that I had to reduce my training significantly. While I try to keep a minimum of physical activity when I'm sick (unless I have fever), I'm much more conservative when it comes to injuries. It would be stupid to make the injury worse by returning to training before the body had time to recover. 


Week 34:

• Monday: Pushup MAX (60*) + Situp MAX (151*) + Lunge MAX (178*) + Pushup MAX (55*) + Pullup MAX (25*) + Leg Lever MAX (183*) +Poseidon (05:48*)
• Tuesday: Aphrodite (19:01*)
• Wednesday: Iris (28:05* -PB) + Pushup MAX (50*)
• Thursday: boxing training
• Friday: Dione (24:38*)

Normal sessions.

 
Week 35:

• Monday: Uranos (28:16* -First time) + Ares (07:46*) + Situp MAX (135*)
• Tuesday: Gaia (34:20* -First time) +Poseidon (05:22*)
• Wednesday: Apollon (27:46*)
• Thursday: boxing training
• Friday: Artemis (21:34*)
• Saturday: Burpee MAX (81* -PB) +  Pullup MAX (31*) + Situp MAX (145*) + Pushup MAX (36*)

Normal sessions. Feeling great, tried 2 new workouts (see review below).


Week 36:

• Tuesday: Venus (19:50*) + Dione (30:29*)
• Wednesday: Kentauros (25:22* -PB)
• Thursday: boxing training
• Sunday: Pullup MAX (23*) 

Finally pushed myself to re-do Kentauros. Week 36 was when I hurt myself. Went to the chiropractor on Friday followed by 48 hours of full rest. Sunday was not a training session. Just a quick exercise that I did to test if wrist pains were due to bruises or a mechanical issue.


Week 37:

• Thursday: boxing training

Forced rest. No Freeletics the entire week. 


Week 38:

• Monday: Apollon (25:55*) + Pushup MAX (55*) + Leg Lever MAX (163*)
• Wednesda:y Iris (29:26*) + Pushup MAX (50*)
• Thursday: boxing training
• Friday: 3km run + Venus (19:23*)

Resumed regular training. Back pains returned at the end of the week. Might have been too eager to start training again...


Week 39:

• Tuesday: Pushup MAX (50*) + Pullup MAX (33*) + Pushup MAX (50*) + Pullup MAX (25*)  + Pushup MAX (50*) + Pullup MAX (25*) + Pushup MAX (50*) + Pushup MAX (44*)
• Thursday: boxing training
• Saturday: Pushup MAX (50*) + Situp MAX (150*) + Pushup MAX (50*) + Squat MAX (219* -PB)  + Pushup MAX (50*)

Switched to light training. Only a couple sessions. No burpees, squats, jumps, running, or anything that would cause stress to the hips. Hence mostly push-ups.


Week 40:

• Thursday: boxing training
• Friday: boxing training

Again a visit to the chiropractor, followed by 48 hours of full rest and no Freeletics the entire week.


Week 41:

• Monday: Pushup MAX (52*) +  Leg Lever MAX (183*) + Pullup MAX (29*)  + Pushup MAX (49*) + Situp MAX (139*) + Pullup MAX (27*)
• Tuesday: Pushup MAX (53*) + Jackknife MAX (45* -PB) + Pushup MAX (49*) + Pushup MAX (50*) + Situp MAX (127*) + Pullup MAX (30*)
• Thursday: boxing training
• Saturday: Hades (17:14*) + Poseidon (05:13*)

Progressive return to training. Almost only push-ups/pull-ups/abs. Adding short running distance on Saturday.


Week 42:

• Monday: Dione (26:51*)
• Tuesday: Hades (18:07*) +Poseidon (05:05*)
• Wednesday: Ares (08:01*) + Metis (05:09*) + Ares (08:01*) + Pushup MAX (48*)
• Thursday: boxing training

Progressively adding back burpees (max 25 reps in a row), climbers and jumps in my routine.

Before running into these annoying issues, I had been quite pleased in week #35 to try Uranos for the first time. On paper I really liked this routine, but the location near work where I usually perform long-distance running workouts has nothing to do pull-ups. Finally, on day-off, I managed to go to a park where I could do both running & pull-ups. It was a before-breakfast training, nice weather but early enough to be cool. I had the park for myself. Perfect conditions.
To complete Uranos I had to go through the following routine:

• 2 km run
• 50 burpees
• 50 pullups
• 50 climbers
• 50 pushups
• 100 jumps
• 1 round only (thankfully!)

At first sight this is an extremely balanced workout. A lot of different exercises, but moderate repetitions. Nothing crazy the like the 100 push-ups/pull-ups in Khronos or the 2x100 burpees in Helios.

While I liked this workout, as often with Freeletics it proved more challenging than I expected. Starting with running is a great warm-up, but be careful not to finish too fast or you risk being out of breath before starting the burpees. The first real challenge is the set of 50 pull-ups. For beginners this will be a huge obstacle. After a few months of training, I was quite confident. This is less than Khronos and my MAX are usually ~25 reps in 1:40. But for some reason, I found the last 20 reps difficult to perform. Were my arms tired from the burpees? The lack of energy from an empty stomach? Was just simply not my best day? I don't know, and I would need to re-do this workout to see if I get the same impression again.
Climbers & push-ups were fine. However the last 100 jumps also proved to be very demanding. This is not an exercise trhat I do very often, but by grouping them by sets of 10-20, it normally doesn't take too long to complete. But in Uranos, these need to be done after 2Km run + burpees + climbers. Needless to say that at this point your legs aren't "fresh" anymore and the heart is already racing! I really had to force myself to stay focused during these jumps and keep going. After the workout I was wiped-out!

I had to sit for a while to recover my breath before attempting the next workout. Interestingly, after when I performed Ares, I had no issue at all to complete the pull-ups. So maybe the 50 burpees had an impact afterall.



I was so fired-up from finally doing Uranos, that the follwing day I tackled another new workout: Gaia. Here is how "mother Earth" looks like:

• 40 jumpings jacks
• 30 jumps
• 20 froggers
• 10 standups
• 10 rounds

This baby is supposed to be a pure Cardio workout. If you purchase the Cardio-only program, I believe that you'll end-up doing this one very regularly.
I expected a good sweat but without much physical difficult. For me, the only question mark for me was how difficult the froggers would be (esp. toward round #10!).

The workout went very well, but I was close to turn into a pool of sweat at the end!

The shorter sets made the jumps much easier than in Uranos (even with sore legs from the previous day). Froggers also felt very balanced (just enough to get a good workout). The real surprise came from the stand-ups!
It turns out that if getting back to one's feet without the hand is not that hard from a muscular stands-point it does requires a bit a technique. It took me 4 rounds to get the movement right (I even had to pause to re-watch the tutorial video to check that I was doing it right!)
The difficulty is to maintain a proper balance during the whole movement and avoid shifting too much body weight on one foot only. In the first rounds I lost much time trying to regain my balance at each repetition. Once I had caught the right movement, repeating the exercise became more fluid and right way I could feel that my pace had improved.



That's all for the moment. I'm not sure when my next post will be. Probably not before the end of August or early September, unless something worth mentioning pops-up.