I was one of those kids at school that loathed P.E. I couldn’t really see the point of sport, wasn’t competitive, wasn’t a LAD. I was in Senior Choir and the school orchestra. Football – nah. Rugby – the girls actually used to come and watch me play because it was so funny. A scrawny little gay-boy shivering on the sidelines, desperate not to get hit in the face with a rugby ball.
I did like athletics though. I loved 100 metres sprint. I did relay for the county. And then as soon as I left school, I stopped.
I’m an active person, I cycle everywhere, but until recently I didn’t do any proper exercise. It was only when work began to get more serious and I needed an escape, and when I hit the big three-oh and all the pints of lager began to give me a little beer belly that I started to want to do something about it.
I started swimming, which I loved. Built up my lengths, started to go more regularly. It was a great mind-clearer. Then I started to go to a pool next to a gym. I thought maybe I should do some cardio or weights too. But I HATE GYMS. Preening, sweaty and soul-less. So. What to do?
Freeletics came up on one of those frankly terrifying Facebook algorithms. I liked the branding. The guys in the videos were hot. Especially Joshua XII. I mean, jeez. So I downloaded the app and signed up. The app was pleasing too. Slightly bombastic. A bit cool. Easy to use. I liked it.
So I started doing some of the free workouts. They were hard. I didn’t really have anywhere to do them apart from in the living room of my first floor flat. When I did high jumps the windows rattled and I was worried that my landlord downstairs might wonder what the cocking hell I was up to.
I gave up pretty quickly because I didn’t really want to do it. I was swimming. I wasn’t that unfit. The beer belly wasn’t really showing yet.
But then over the next couple of months I both began to enjoy working out and began noticing some changes in my chest, arms and back, but I still didn’t come back to Freeletics.
Until this week. I re-downloaded the app – out of curiosity more than anything – joined a different gym that was cheaper (with the intention of doing some of the workouts there) and took the plunge. Signed up for coaching.
This blog is about my progress. I’m writing it because I’m hoping that someone will read it and that it will spur me on to keep going. I’m hoping it doesn’t peter out after about two weeks.
So far, I’ve done the fitness test, which was pretty straightforward and my first day’s workout, which was:
Day 1
10 x burpees
10 x burpees
10 x burpees
So far, so good. I was out of breath, for sure, but could probably have done more. I’m still doing them in my living room (sorry landlord!), but I’ve got a yoga-mat arriving tomorrow and I’m headed to the basketball court at the back of my house for my next work out (1/5 Morpheus).
Oh, and here’s my Day 0 photo…
A Freeletics Journey 