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!