Week #5 - HELL WEEK - Day 1 / Dione

 Dione:00:40:50 

New week, new workout plan! This is my last week of the free Freeletics program, and it's HELL WEEK. That means training everyday for 7 days straight with different workouts. Day 1 is Dione or Zeus so, of course I'm picking Dione (cardio).

Today I had Yoga in the afternoon (my sister couldn't make it on Wednesday as we usually do) and a soccer match afterwards. On top of that, tomorrow night I have another soccer match, so I wouldn't normally train under these circumstances... However, since it's hell week, well, let's unleash hell!!!.

I had just started the first round and I wanted to quit. I actually stopped the timer at 1 min 32 secs. After about 10 seconds of fighting my mind I realized that, with all my soccer, I would never have 7 straight days where I could do hell week without having anything else, so this week is just as good as any other.

Since WE NEVER QUIT, I re-started the timer and never looked back until I was done. I was, of course, tired and sore all the way, and it took me 40 mins 50 secs to finish Dione, that is 5 minutes more than my PB. I know I always say this, but today just finishing the workout feels like a success for me because I didn't even wanted to do it in the first place. So even if I would love to beat my PBs every time I train, I am contempt today with my 40 minutes.

Hell week will be certainly hell, but the triumph will definitely be glorious!

Week 4, Day 4 / Metis

 Metis: *00:09:37 

Damn, this workout is intense! Today I trained after a soccer match and I could barely breathe. I finished, though, but I was far from my PB. It's a little disappointing but I'm trying not to focus on that so much, but more on the great achievement that is doing the whole workout without any modified repetition. Baby steps to reach my goal... baby steps.

Week 4, Day 3 / Metis

 Metis: *00:09:23 

No PB today. I am very tired and I had a hard time lifting my knees up to my chest. I thought I started well but as you can see, it took me more than 30 seconds extra (compared to yesterday) to finish the workout. Today the star was way harder to get.

As they say, one cannot always have great days!

I realized today I wasn't lowering enough my hips during the climbers. In the speed of trying to beat my PBs I think I do not always pay too much attention to the way I'm doing the exercises. To keep inmind for next time!

Week 4, Day 2 / Metis

 Metis: *00:08:50 

I DID IT! I GOT MY METIS STAR ★ !!!

I realized my  problem was I wasn't visualizing the movements right... Of course, with practice, and a little more thinking about Metis before jumping head first to doing it, the movements became clearer in my mind and easier for my body. I'm sure they'll continue to get easier during this week.

Today I managed to jump forward enough on the climbers so my feet got to my hand level rather easily. It was, I think, a matter of believing that just with a bit more impulse I could get it done. 

Also I realized that during the high jumps I was jumping with my legs too separated and that it was physically impossible for my knees to touch my shoulders that way. As soon as I pulled my knees together, and jumped a little harder than I was,  the high jumps became way easier and I got to touch my shoulders (or chest, not quite sure which it was).

And so, I got my star... Of course I didn't beat my previous starless time, but It only took me a few seconds more to do the workout properly so I'm super happy and damn proud. I feel this week I'll beat my PBs rather often (hopefully) Yay! Metis is quite intense, I was out of breath rather fast, and I ended up sweating a lot for having worked out only nine minutes. Go Freeletics!

Week 4, Day 1 / Metis

 Metis: 00:08:31 

New week, new workout!

This week is the turn of the Titaness of wisdom Metis, the first great spouse of Zeus and -very confusingly to me- the mother of Athenea (last week I red it was Dione...). Anyhow, this workout is very short, full on cardio, consisting of burpees and two new exercises: climbers and high jumps. 

WORKOUT STRUCTURE

3 Rounds	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3
Burpees	10	25	10
Climbers	10	25	10
High Jumps	10	25	10

Climbers should look like this:

basically starting in a push up position and alternating the feet and getting them right up to the hand level.

High Jumps should look like this:

in words; jumping so high that the knees touch the shoulders.

Today I had a soccer match that SUCKED. My new team (Monday's league) is very bad -we barely know eachother, have never played together + many of the girls are out of shape-; we were so overpowered by the other team that I barely had to run or do anything (just because I couldn't do anything!). On top of everything I had to play midfield when I'm a forward so, everything was out of place. I came home and decided to do my workout to shake it off. Of course I thought I would have no problems in doing the climbers and high jumps without modifications, and of course, I was wrong... 

The climbers were a lot harder than I imagined to do... getting the feet that forward isn't evident, but I managed to do them quite decently. The high jumps were another story. I looked my reflection in the mirror as I did them, and I barely dare to call them "high" jumps. Of course my knees never touched my shoulders and even if I felt I was pushing up with all my strength I could not get my knees higher than they wanted to go. The whole thing was quite intense and I was fast out of breath quickly... good cardio! It took me 8 min. 31 sec. to finish Metis today. This week I think I'll focus more on trying to get to do the high jumps really high rather than obsessing over improving the workout time.

Week 3 (still), Day 5 / Dione

 Dione: 00:39:35 

Today was a hard workout. It all started good, and I finished round one in about 11 minutes so I was confident I could finish the whole thing in under 35 minutes and improve my PB. However I wasn't feeling to good and my stomach started to hurt during the sit ups. I felt like puking a couple of times, I don't really know why. Then I felt quite dizzy during the first burpee series of the third round, so I had to do it slower and catch my breath quite a few times. This led to me finishing Dione in 39 min., 35 sec, that is over 3 minutes more than the previous time.

I may not have a new PB but I powered through the nausea and finished the whole workout in under 40 minutes (and without throwing up). I was constantly thinking "we NEVER quit" as I was feeling like puking, and also I was thinking about this image:

I finished the workout in a reasonable time and I feel damn proud of it. I think one cannot expect to be super fine in every single workout. There are days that you just feel worse, and I think it's OK to take a little longer to get the workout done as long as you do it.

In spite of the nausea I felt the overall workout felt "easier", the exercises flowing much better. Burpees are almost a walk in the park and even leg ups are beginning to be less traumatic. I still can't do them fast enough without my hands under my butt, I feel I am close enough though, soon I'll be able to get my Dione star. Tomorrow is the beginning of week #4. I also have soccer matches tomorrow (Monday) and the day after that (Tuesday) so we'll see what this week has in store for me and my workouts...

Week 3 (still), Day 4 / Dione

 Dione: 00:36:22 

WooHooOoW! New PB today, and I've got reasons to be happy.

I finished Dione in 36 min., 22 sec., that is another 3 minutes faster than last time, 6 minutes faster than the time before that and more than 10 minutes faster than the first time I did this workout! I think having a day to rest in between workouts is the key to having such great new PBs. The delicate balance between working out as much as possible but yet resting enough... I think I have to play it a bit by ear in terms of figuring out when it's OK to keep on going and when it's best to take a break.

Today I did the jumping jacks like a maniac, and it payed off. The thing is, even if I sped up quite a bit compared to the previous times, I didn't feel as tired as I did before. It's awesome to see how you improve little by little, even from one workout to the next. I feel great and stronger. Burpees are becoming *almost too easy*. Leg ups are still quite hard, but hey, so were burpees a couple of weeks ago! I'm sure I'll be getting my PB with a star in no time.

 I'm not sure but I think my body hasn't changed much. I want to finish the 5 weeks free training course before I take another picture set and hopefully see some differences... We'll see in two weeks then!

Week 3 (still), Day 3 / Dione

 Dione: 00:39:24 

Well, last week was crazy and I just couldn't do my 4 days of training. I feel a bit bad about that, specially because Freeletics has got me brainwashed into the "I should have no excuses if I want results" thing, but at the same time I think: "I'm human, things happen and I can't help it!" so here I am, trying to make lemonade.

As I didn't quite fulfill my Week #3 schedule, I decided I shouldn't move on to Week #4, so I'll keep on doing Dione this week. In a way that makes me feel like I'm paying the price for not training last week, even if I know it is not the same thing to do 4 HIWODs in a 7 day period or in a 14 day period... I'll, of course, try to do more than 2 workouts this week but I'm already sensing it will be just as hard as last week... Still, I'll give it my best.

My last soccer match was on Sunday so today (Tuesday) I felt quite rested and ready to improve my time. I felt right away that the burpees were coming down easier than ever. It's super nice to realize than in 3 weeks an exercise that was super hard at first is becoming almost routine. Also I was able to speed up my jumping jacks a lot, mainly because I got the hang of the movement better. Still I couldn't do the leg ups without having my hands under my butt... It's now a personal challenge; I must manage to get my hands off so I can get a star on my PB!!! I finished the workout in 39 minutes, 24 seconds, that is an improvement of 3 minutes compared to the last workout + I managed to get below the 40 minute mile stone, so I'm twice as happy. New PB and all, I know I must keep improving.

Week 3, Day 2 / Dione

 Dione: 00:42:28 

So, today was my second day of Dione. I feel that the workout itself is harder than Aphrodite, specially because it involves a suite of burpees -round (n-1)-, jumping jacks and burpees again -round (n)- that get your heart pumping quite a bit! By the end of those three I really don't feel like doing leg ups, and that is for me the hardest exercise of this HIWOD... The reason I don't have a star are the leg ups. I have no problem with doing them with my legs extended, but I must have my hands under my butt, otherwise I bend my lower back and I can't do all the reps. I think I deserve a half star because it's the only modified exercise but well...

I really feel the cardio on this workout, and I'm sweating accordingly! Since I've been doing Freeletics I've been sweating more than ever and it's the first time in my life that I've had salty sweat drops getting into my eyes and making them burn a little!!!

Today I finished the workout in 42 minutes and 28 seconds. I improved my previous time by 4 minutes. Considering that a) the other day I mixed up squats and sit ups + I was tired because I had done Aphrodite (new PB) the day before, and b) today I am well rested and I did the workout properly, I think the 4 minutes improvement is just "OK". I'm ambitious, I know, but I really would've loved getting it done in under 40 minutes. I guess I'll just have to keep doing Dione until I'm satisfied with my time.

On a general note, I'm having a hard time speeding up. The easiest part of the workout for me are the sit ups, but I just can't do them faster! Also I think I could speed up a bit in the jumping jacks but at the speed I am currently going I start feeling sore by rep. 60-65 so I can manage to get to 75 straight away. I'm afraid that if I speed it up too much I'll be sore earlier and in the end it'll be counter productive. Trying to beat yourself is quite hard!

Week 3, Day 1 / Dione + Zeus

 Dione: 00:46:51 #fail 

The beginning of a new week means I get a new workout! This week there are two workouts, (as usual I leave the link); Dione, which is a cardio workout and Zeus, a strength workout. Depending on your goals, one has to choose to do one or the other during this week. In general terms, the cardio workouts are better to improve cardio fitness (duh!) and to loose weight, whereas the strength workouts are better for gaining muscle mass and strength.

I would like to gain strength, lose a bit of abdominal fat and gain some muscle (specially the core) but I guess my main goal is to be fitter for soccer so I chose Dione. Also Zeus is the first workout that requires equipment because it contains Pull-Ups and I would need a bar for doing that and for now I'm training at home so I can't do them. I intend to give Zeus a try a little further down my Freeletics road ;-). That being said, here's Dione:

Dione: Greek goddess 
(supposedly mother of Aphrodite, Zeus being the father!)
also: natural satellite of Saturn

WORKOUT STRUCTURE :

Dione

3 Rounds	Rounds 1-3
Jumping Jacks	75
Burpees	25
Leg Levers	50
Jumping Jacks	75
Situps	50
Burpees	25

It took me a lot of willpower to get through the workout! Since English is not my first language and as it was my first time doing Dione while reading what exercise I had to do next, I mixed-up sit ups with squats (¬¬'). Only in the first round I did 50 squats instead of 50 sit ups, and it was super hard after the jumping jacks. That took me a lot of time, but luckily I figured I was wrong and by round two I corrected my mistake.. Hence my #FAIL tag today. I ended up finishing (barely!) the whole thing in 46 min. and 51 sec, the highest time I've had so far with any workout.

Dione is a long and very intense workout. There are two new exercises this week: Jumping Jacks and Leg Levers. Jumping Jacks are a bit harder than they seem because you have to coordinate properly and get into a fast paced rhythm to get it done quickly. 




Then, Leg Levers...

For my weak core, these are killers! I thought I would have no problem in doing them without modifications, but I was wrong. I can totally do all the repetitions with my legs extended (like in the picture). The problem is my lower back bends and I can barely lift anything if I don't have my hands under my butt instead of next to my butt (like in the picture...) Hence my lack of star in Dione. I'll just have to keep working on this!

Week 2, Day 5 / Aphrodite + Push-Up MAX

 Aphrodite: *00:28:39 (PB!) 

 Push-Up MAX: 33  

Yesterday I played soccer so I "rested" from the workouts. Today I had no match so I decided it was a good idea to try and improve my Aphrodite time. Also it is my fifth day of training of week  # 2, which makes me feel quite happy and proud in terms of my commitement to the program. I must confess though, that the MAXs are very tempting compared tot he Aphrodite because they are over so fast!!! So I think this week is also a bit of a mental challenge not to only do MAXs because they are easier. Still, the bigger the challenge (i.e. Aphrodite), the better the reward.

I did the Aphrodite with no modified repetitions in 28 minutes and 39 seconds. I improved my best time in a little less than 2 minutes. Yay me! I think this proves my point; I need to be more "rested" in order to really improve my PBs. I commented about that feeling I had the other day that I could really do thing faster if I weren't that thire. At one point during the series I even thought I could make it in under 27 mins, but the situps held me back this time. As I said yesterday, my quads feel really tired, and today they were better but not great yet. On the brighter side, burpees are each time less of a struggle  =)!

After my new PB, and considering my arms/chest weren't too demanded I thought to myself "there's no need to do BOTH MAXs, you can just do the Push-Up MAX and leave  for another day the Squat MAX" (because I think wouldn't have done even 50 squats in 5 minutes after a full Aphrodite with the way my legs were feeling)... So I did the Push-Up MAX, and I was wrong. I felt really tired and did aroung 10 reps less than the time before. At one point I thought "I already did Aphrodite today, I'll just quit doing this stupid/painfull push-ups"... but then I remembered that 

so I finished my pitifull 33 repetitions and called it a day, exhausted. Even if the workout was lame,  I did it. 

Week 2, Day 4 / MAX

 Push-Up MAX: 41 

 Squat MAX: *105 

I have a soccer match tomorrow so today was a MAX day again. I didn't feel as tired as I have these past few days, but I was sure yesterday's Aphrodite wouldn't be for free. I was hoping to improve my MAX scores, even if it was only by a few reps, and I did. I set two new PBs, only by a couple more reps than the previous ones but hey, baby steps, right?!

Today I did 41 Push-Ups (girly style, knee-on) in 100 sec and 105 Squats in 300 secs. I felt stronger during the push-ups but I'm still far from where I would like to be. I got very tired around rep. 15 and by rep. 25 I had to really push through every single repetition. I hope I'll gain more resistance so I can do more push-ups (and faster) before I drain myself out. Hopefully I'll be able to start doing the proper push-ups soon too. As I said before, I've never been a push-up kind of girl, so it'll be intresting to "achieve" that new excercise, I guess that's a goal by itself.

As for the squats.... what can I say. Between soccer and trainig everyday my quads are quite tired. It's not that they're sore, nor stiff, it's only that I know that I could do more reps if I had had more rest. In spite of this, I feel a difference in the way my muscles contract. I don't know if it's my imagination or what, but I feel bulkier on the outer part of the leg, (the orange muscle on the drawing, Vastus lateralis). During the squats I can see the muscle geting defined, and that's quite a novelty!!! As Freeletics says; be proud every step of the way to achieving your goals.

Week 2, Day 3 / Aphrodite

 Aphrodite -  *00:30:32 

Well, today I got yet another answer from the guys at Freeletics (this time by email) to my week #2 question. Just like yesterday's Faceebok answer, the email said it was up to me if I wanted to do both HIWODs the same day, but that it was not at all mandatory and I could just alternate workouts.

Today I decided to take aphrodite for a spin, hoping to get it done below the 30 mins mark. I don't have my hopes up because of how tired I've been lately but hey, I'm not making excuses and I'm still giving it all my best, right?

Well, it's true, I'm "too" tired. Burpees aren't that hard anymore (I still sweat like a pig, but I don't see them as impossible to do). My pecs aren't hurting at all! It's just that my muscles don't respond. Squats are harder because I've been doing the Squat MAX and my quads are drained... My speeding up point is still the sit-ups, but I've never been that fast (I can do many repetitions but a bit slower than the average). Even so, I managed to ALMOST get to my goal, but still establish my new PB at *30 mins, 32 secs. It felt great, and at the same time I'm so exhausted I can't even be that happy about it.

Baby steps. I'm getting there...

Week 2, Day 2 / MAX

 Push-Up MAX: 34 

 Squat MAX: 94 

To my surprise, I got a super fast answer from the guys at Freeletics (through their Facebook page) about yesterday's question : they basically said it is up to me if I want to do Aphrodite + MAX on the same day, or just alternate the workouts. They specifically sait "it depends on my goals" so I'm guessing that if I want to improve faster I should do both everyday.

However, today was yoga day (wednesday), and after all the soccer matches I've had in the last 4 days, I am feeling quite tired, so I decided just do the MAX again. As I expected, I did worse than yesterday; 34 push-ups in 100 sec and 94 squats in 300 sec. I'm having difficulties adjusting to this new training regime mixed with more soccer than I've ever played before... I guess I'm still in that lame first phase, I just hope I reach a better shape soon so I can train and actually improve my PBs instead of getting worse because I'm too tired!!!

Week 2, Day 1 / MAX + Aphrodite

Starting a new week means getting a new email with the workout instructions, which is always fun and exciting. Week #2 is called "MAX". MAX means doing as many repetitions of a certain excercise in a fixed amount of time without taking breaks. This week there's a Push-Up MAX (100 sec) and a Squat Max (300 sec); in total 400 sec, or 6 mins and 40 seconds of exercise. This is what I'd call a super high intensity workout!

The email says:  "we recommend you to train Freeletics at least four times per week. Use both of the MAX as well as Aphrodite." (I've put the links for both workouts instructions). I found this sentence to be ambiguous; do I have to do the Aphrodite HIWOD and the Push-Up and Squat MAXs everyday I train this week or do I alternate a day of Aphrodite and a day of MAXs? 

At first I thought it made more sense to alternate because it sounds redundant to do the burpees (sort-of push-ups) and squats series of the Aphrodite and to follow them by the MAXs (or vice versa). But if you really think about it, doing just the MAXs sounds like a very "light" workout, (ONLY 7 minutes?!) and since it's week #2 it makes a lot of sense to be increasing the dificulty of the workouts... So in the end I'm leaning more towards doing them both. I asked the guys at Freeletics, we'll see what they have to say about it.

For today, I'll only do the MAX and we'll see where do I stand at my starting point. The squats I can do with a * but I'll go on the safe side with the push-ups and do the modified version (with my knees on the ground).

Push-Up MAX: 37 (in 100 sec / 1 min 40 sec)

The number seems so low when I look at it but man did it cost me to do those girly knee-on push-ups!

Squat MAX: *103 (in 300 sec / 5 min)

The bending below your knees gets awful when the exercise is so long! But I'm proud of myself; my goal was to get to the three digits, which I did (barely) PLUS I didn't stop during the repetitions (I only slowed down). I felt like throwing up afterwards :S...

Ok, now after I "only" did the MAXs I'm having doubts again about the whole "Aphrodite +  MAX" thing. I really can't see me doing squats for 5 minutes after an Aphrodite nor the other way around... I think it might just be too much!