After 2.5 years of doing Freeletics, I’ve finally mastered the pullup.

This is not me. But you could imagine it’s me feeling on top of the world. Photo by photo-nic.co.uk nic on Unsplash

Today was a MAJOR MILESTONE day. After a few weeks off doing Coach’s workouts, today I got back on it.

And, I might add, that I almost went out for drinks after work. Had my friend not cancelled on me I’d have been in the pub. Instead, I came home, forbade myself to sit on the sofa and got straight into my training gear. As soon as I got going, I knew I’d made a good decision.

Here’s what Coach had in store:

4 x Archer Pullups

12 x Crunches

Interval (Upper Body, Abs)
4 rounds of…
4 x Strict Pullups
8 x Pikes
8 x Plank Switches
60 sec rest

2/4 Venus (Standard)

First up, Archer Pullups. My pullup bar is in a fairly narrow doorway and so I can’t really do Archer Pullups effectively. Also I find doing these in correct form very difficult, so I used my resistance band to help.

Crunches, no problem.

And then, interval. I decided to see if I could do strict pullups, not expecting to be able to. But I COULD. And fairly easily. I couldn’t believe it. The third and fourth sets were a bit more difficult, but I managed to do all 16 pullups with correct form and with no assistance. So after two and half years of doing Freeletics and struggling with pullups, I’ve finally mastered them.

I seriously think this is down to me doing 10 x Assisted Pullups pretty much every day for the past few months (even when I wasn’t doing coach workouts).

I’m so pleased. And it’s given me a real boost to rebuild my Freeletics habit.

Oh hello again… I’m back

Pushing on through…

I’m back. After my longest time away from Freeletics yet. A five week break, but it feels like longer.

My job involves a pretty massive project that happens every two years. It’s an eleven-day event that means I’m working 14 hour days for about two weeks, plus long days and nights in the lead-up. I wrote in my last post about how it’s hard to keep up momentum when life or work takes over, and after writing that I decided to cut myself some slack.

On the plus side of not working out, I massively increased my step count every day and I often eat less (adrenaline, time etc). On the downside, I tend to drink more at social events in the evening, and when I do eat, I tend to choose quick-fix food like pasta, pizza etc rather than wholesome meals. Mmmm, hot cheese and carbs.

But the event is over now, so I’ve been reclaiming my routine. Pretty much everything else went out of the window too – I stopped reading, keeping a journal, drinking enough water, swimming, getting my five a day etc etc. So this week has been about pushing myself back into these habits.

I was also daunted by where I stopped in my coach week. I left a workout hanging – Dione plus some other stuff (can’t remember what now), and every time I opened the app there it was looking scary and difficult.

So this morning, after a long night’s sleep (I still have quite the sleep debt to repay), I decided to redo the fitness assessment and start again. A five week break seemed like as good enough reason as anything, and I figured that doing something quick and undemanding like the test might help me break the psychological deadlock I’ve found myself in.

It’s pretty easy – a dynamic warm up which is pretty standard, then 10 pushups, 25 sit ups and 25 mountain climbers. Didn’t really break a sweat. But it felt good to be back on the mat, and now doing it again tomorrow doesn’t seem so scary.

On a related note, I’ve really noticed that I feel more stiff and more achey after a long time away from Freeletics. My back hurts again and I don’t feel as flexible. I can’t touch my toes, when before it was really easy. I’m going for a massage on Tuesday to try and ease up some of those muscles.

It feels like the perfect time to get back into Freeletics now that the sun’s out (kind of – it’s raining here today), and the weather is nicer.

#noexcuses