In January, I wrote that I was revisiting TRX Force. The gains in strength, especially core strength, was fantastic, and truly helped condition me for yoga practice. By the end of February though, I was getting a little bored. Some of the exercises, like the one-hand together with one-leg movements were difficult, especially since my right knee and right shoulder are slightly injured and suffer occasional pain.
It didn’t help that I had a horrible fall early last week, which banged up my right elbow. So, I decided to move on from TRX Force after finishing the tenth week. No regrets though, I would do it all again.
I moved on to Freeletics, a bodyweight, no-equipment routine available on Android and Apple. Just looking through the workouts, I realised that they were pretty bootcampy/crossfitty, if you know what I mean. Extreme high intensity, loads of reps, all to be done in as short a time as possible. Except for the MAX workout, which is doing the maximum number of reps (burpees, squats, push ups, pull ups etc) in a set period of time (usually one minute forty seconds for the strength exercises and 5 minutes for the cardio exercises). Excited? Yes, I was!
I started with a MAX workout. Okay, since I had an injury, I decided this would be my ‘trial’ week and I kind of jazzed up the MAX workout, doing all four (squats and burpess for 5 min max and pull up and push ups for 100 seconds max) on the first and fifth day. I did the Aphrodite workout on the third day (and Ashtanga Vinyasa on the second and fourth days).
The workouts are tough and it has been awhile since I have experienced such a gasping burn. This is good. In addition, I was sweating still for about an hour and a half after just a 25 minute workout – even better! I look forward to the next few months!
Freeletics can be done anywhere, since it is a body weight routine. Only on certain days you might need to look for a pull up bar, so just go outside to a park or playground and improvise. Another good thing is how the programme encourages you to take a photo week by week so you can see your progress.
On the flipside though, what concerns me is form. This is an app programme so the potential for injury is pretty high, especially considering the intensity level of the programmes. Freeletics though do have demo videos and the manuals do stress on good form but still, reading is one thing and actually performing it is another.
This blog post is pretty good in its analysis of Freeletics. Have you tried Freeletics? What are your thoughts?