Cardio&Strength - W3D2

 Split Lunge Max: *123 (PB!) 

 Squat Max: *93 

 Sit Up Max: *115

 Squat Max: *82 

 Split Lunge Max: *89 

Today was MAX MADNESS day.

I was feeling good after yesterday's workout, with no pain and not tired at all. As usual, I ended up working out way passed my bed time. I really need to try and find a better moment to work out, because I'm loosing precious sleep hours for the sake of training in peace, with no interruptions or whatsoever... 

Today's training session focus was all about the legs. With the lunges I also felt I was exercising my butt, so we'll see tomorrow (or the day after) if that hurts too, and how bad.The second round of squats and lunges were quite hard to do and finish because I had already drained my legs, but I pushed through the best I could. I even managed to top my Split Lunge PB during the firs series!

My quads are becoming more and more toned. I can see a muscle contour appear just above my knee I could not see before, and it's so weird! I guess hard work does pay off, even if it's slowly. I've always had rather large muscular legs, but never toned, always a big muscly mass. In fact, I always have to buy pants that are a little big and wear a belt so that my legs are not squeeeeeezed all the time... I'm not really sure if getting my legs bigger is something I want but hey, can't do anything about that. On the bright side, bigger, stronger legs means more power to run faster, jump higher, and overall improving in soccer, so yay!!!

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!