Starting My Coach (version 2.0) - Fitness Test

As I was saying in my previous posts, I'm trying myself to make 2015 the year of no excuses. In that line, I've re-activated my coach and I'm starting to do Freeletics on a regular basis again. I started off by doing half Aphrodite on a Sunday a couple weeks ago and I was really sore until Thursday that week! Since I'm in the final rounds of my summer soccer league, I didn't want to see my performance on the field be affected by sore quads and wiggly legs, so I kept off of Freeletics. On Monday, however, I will play the semi-finals, and if we win, the final will be on Wednesday. That means soccer will be over, no matter what, this week. Therefore I thought now was the perfect time to keep momentum and "replace" soccer (which will most likely not start over until April) with Freeletics.

One of the things I like the most about the "new" Coach is how personalized it is. When I started doing Freeletics back in August 2013 we used to get e-mails with PDF instructions of the workouts with a few pointers and a couple of photos. Today, however, the Coach had me taking a fitness test to assess my current fitness level and plan my next week  of training accordingly.

The first step is to fill your profile; basically it asks your age, height and weight.

Then the coach asks about your previous sports experience, which of course is very relevant to asses the athleticism and fitness of any individual. It also asks about the frequency of weekly training.

Then you have to actually take the test; PushUp Max (100 sec), Squat Max (300 sec) and SitUp Max (300 sec). All exercises must be done in the star version. I did them all in a row, with two minute breaks in between exercises. The Squats made me sweat quite a bit! Overall I think I did decently (considering the months of inactivity) although I still have little to no upper-body strength as you can tell by my lazy 17 PushUps... Well, this is what I'm training for!

Finally I had to tell the coach what my focus is: Cardio for losing fat, Strength for gaining muscle or Both. I've always considered that the more balanced a workout is, the better. I don't want to become super lean and loose my strength on the soccer field, but I also don't want to just build muscle and loose speed or overall cardio fitness, so I still think a balanced approach suits me best for now. Maybe in the future I may change to strength mode, just to get a bit bigger and tighter. Also, since this week I will still have one or two soccer matches, I asked to only train twice -another feature I love about the new coach because it matches up better with the reality of how much time I can spend training, how tired I am after soccer, and it eliminates the mental burden that before was constantly saying "You had to train 4 times this week. It is Friday and you've only trained once. You'll have to train today, tomorrow and the day after to reach your weekly goal, otherwise you will have failed".

So after I cliked the "Start your Coach" blue button, the Coach told me what my two workouts for next week will be. I will be posting about them when they are done, but for now I'm just going to say that one of them is a well known old friend and the other one terrified me... until I realized it is a slightly simpler version of the WOD I knew from before the Coach, so I'm thinking now it's within my possibilities. I'm excited!!! Wish me luck and keep tuned for updates and more descriptions on the features of the coach!

Cardio&Strength - W3D2

 Hades: 00:48:23 

I'm back in the game (yes, again and again and again...). I did well in resting last week and not over doing it; my hand pain is completely gone now and my knee feels much better. So, I picked up where I left off; doing Hades. Next training is supposed to be Hyperion... One step at the time I tell myself.

I'm still far far away from my Hades PB (33+ mins), but I'm doing the exercises better now. I think that PB shouldn't really count because I was doing the modified Pull Ups "wrong" (actually the best I could, with my 0 strength at the time). I'm proud because I'm taking my time to perform the exercise correctly and not rushing to beat my PB, and that's important. I see a clear improvement in my Pull Up technique. Where before I couldn't do a singe repetition lowering my body in a truly controlled manner, now I can do 5 excellent, 5 good and the next 5 so-so... I'm not there yet, but I'm getting closer.

Even if the realization of that progress makes me happy, I had mentally a hard time during Hades. I don't know what's going on with my head, but I'm super weak, much weaker than other times. I've been thinking about quitting, about doing less workouts per week, about just doing some type of workouts and not all the coach says... I tell myself I don't really need to train this hard, that I'll start with soccer again next week and that two matches per week is enough exercise in my life...

Doing Freeletics requires a lot of commitment and dedication. It gets hard with a full time job. It gets really hard when you have to train at 10 or 11 PM, outside, in the cold and dark night, because you need a freakin' Pull Up bar and 40 meters, or 400 meters, or 2 km... It gets impossibly hard when you have to hide your training from a loved one.

I started this for myself. I want to finish it for myself. My original idea was to get fitter, yes, but now I see that, even more important than getting fitter is that finishing the 15 weeks will mean I'll be mentally much stronger. 

I doubt myself these days, but I'll keep fighting my own head. Maybe I'll have to take baby steps... But I'll do my best to get there in time.

Cardio&Strength - W3D1

 Burpee Max: *50 (in 300 sec) PB!

A new week has started! Luckily it has begun with a rather easy workout: the Burpee Max. Its comforting to have to do a well known workout, and knowing in advance a) I'll be able to finish it AND doing it with a star, b) It will all be over in only 5 minutes, and c) I have a good chance of beating my previous record. Taking advantage of my last few days of rest, I managed to beat my PB ☺. It's not a ginormous difference (only 2 more repetitions than the previous time), but its is a PB, and every repetition counts!!!

50 burpees in 5 minutes still sounds to me like a low number. It means it takes me on average 6 seconds to do each burpee... Well, I think the first 15 ones I do them in around 4 secs each, and from then on I loose some seconds catching my breath every X repetitions, and every time it takes me longer to do each one. My next goal will be dropping that number down to a burpee every 5 seconds, and hopefully achieving a bit more of a consistent rhythm. That means a total of 60 burpees, only 10 more than now; sounds absolutely feasible in the short term! I guess getting to 100 repetitions would be my long term goal...

Cardio&Strength - W2D4

 Sit Up MAX: *119 (in 300 sec) 

 Sit Up MAX: *110 (in 300 sec) 

So, today I had a nice an easy workout to do. I went out for a light run first and then did two Sit Up Maxes in a row. In general I don't like it when I have to do two times the same kind of exercise, only because I know by the second time I'll be tired and I'll perform less well... And who wants to perform poorly?! Today was no exception,  but I think it's quite decent to only have done 9 repetitions less the second time around! 10 minutes of sit ups... sounds like a lot but it really isn't! I did stretch and "rested" for about two minutes in between Maxes. I'm absolutely convinced that the stretching helped me tremendously because I didn't feel particularly tight, sore or tired when I started the second round. For me, the best way to stretch the abs is the cobra position (taken from Yoga). I do that for about 30 seconds a couple of times and it's amazing how you can feel the muscles loosing up right away.

On another subject, today I woke up feeling a lot of pain and tightness in my hip muscles, specially the Psoas major. It hurts when I walk (lift my legs), but also in some positions lying in bed. I think it's all because of the other day's leg levers...  I can't remember exactly when it was, but one of the first times I did Freeletics, back in August 2013, I spent a whole week in excruciating pain with every step in the same muscles. This only means I still got  a long way to go, and I really really need to strengthen those babies a lot more! Looking at the glass half full, the fact that this time around I'm not dying in pain like the first times proves that I've gotten better, even if it's just a little bit....

Cardio&Strength - W2D2

 Leg Lever MAX: 114 (in 300 secs) 

 Sit up MAX: *106 (in 300 secs) 

Thank god today I didn't have to do a full-on, long training session. I love it when it happens that you "just" have to do a couple of MAXes. After yesterday's struggle with Hades, training only 10 minutes at high intensity was exactly what I needed to keep me motivated.

This is the very first time I have to do the Leg Lever MAX!!! I still cannot do the levers without putting my hands under my butt. I do them with my legs extended (it's sort of a half-star thing), but if I don't have my hands under my butt, my lumbar area automatically bends and detaches from the floor and I tend to raise my torso. I think it's just that I don't have powerful enough lower abs to keep me in position. I suppose a couple more weeks doing leg levers should get me to the point where my abs can really keep me in place... After struggling with the levers, I was well tired getting into the sit ups so I couldn't beat my PB. Still I think a did a decent job, being over 100 reps, don't you agree?

Cardio&Strength Coach - W1D3

 Sit Up Max: *137 (in 300 secs) PB! 

 Pull Up Max: 11 (in 100 secs) 

 Burpee Max: *41 (in 300 secs)

Day 3. I'm definitely back!!! Its a little weird because I feel, at the same time, that I'm starting fresh and like I never left. I guess it's like coming back home. Once you become a Free Athlete, there's no going back. 

In my last post, I said I was fearing yet looking forward to this session. I guess the idea of doing Pull Ups "scares me" because I know I will struggle and that I will do a ridiculously little number of ridiculously shaped Pull Ups. However I'm glad to be already seeing some improvements, maybe not in the number of repetitions (I did one less than the other day), but in the way I do the exercise -with more controlled movements-. That has always fascinated me about Freeletics. Even from one session to the next, you can feel and see subtle differences that add up and add up tho that great big goal of the 15 weeks. 

Today I was a little sore from yesterday's training, but mostly on my legs. The Push Ups helped ease the pain of the Pull Ups from the first training session, so it was great. Its my quads however that hurt quite a bit from all the squats. That, of course, has nothing to do with the abs that allowed me to beat my PB with 137 Sit Ups in 300 seconds...  Yay me! I'm almost getting to my 150 bar, which will mean a sit up every two seconds. Woohoow!!!

When I got to the burpees I was a bit tired, so I was doing them slowly. I'm still not able to jump backwards as fast as I'd like. I think I still have a long way to go to perfect this movement, but I'm making progress and slowly getting there. I guess I'd like to get soon around the 75 burpees in 300 seconds.

Tomorrow night I have a Friend's bachelorette party (I fear for my physical integrity LOL) so I'll be doing Aphrodite, my last session of this first week, probably on saturday. Wish me luck, and remember:

we may take breaks... but we NEVER QUIT!