A New Journey – Explosive Strength

This is absolutely not me, by the way, it’s a photo by samer daboul on Pexels.com

Today I reached the end of my most recent Freeletics journey, HIIT and Run Weight Loss. I was kind of surprised that there was no Hell Week on this journey, so I ended with an interval run on Monday (5km total (although I ended up doing around 6.5km because I during the rests), and Morpheus yesterday.

I’ve enjoyed this journey. The mix of HIIT and running really suits me and I like not getting stuck in too many god workouts.

It’s time for a change though, so I’ve decided to go for Explosive Strength. I’ve been feeling like I’ve lost a bit of muscle mass recently. It was always the plan to focus on cardio in the first part of the year and then switch to strength, but I’m a bit daunted about this next journey. I remember the last time I did a strength-based journey finding it really difficult and a bit frustrating.

But I started today with some interval workouts – lots of assisted pullups and pushups and some kettlebell exercises. It was tough and I’m definitely out of practice. I also have a new resistance band which is too light, so the pullups weren’t really ‘assisted’, and I basically wimped out of them halfway through the workout.

I decided to take it slow and focus on technique. I want to persevere with this journey, and I think if I’m going to do it right I need to not rush.

I’m aching now, but pleased to have got stuck in. And I’ve ordered a stronger resistance band from Decathlon so I can actually properly build my strength rather than giving up halfway through.

Kettlebells and intermittent fasting

Here’s a funny story. My workout mat has basically been disintegrating and my Freeletics resistance band snapped, so I decided to order a new one. I noticed that Freeletics have bundles – mat, jumping rope, resistance band and kettlebell. I thought, why not? The ‘advanced’ bundle had the same resistance band as I’d had before so I ordered that, not really paying attention.

It arrived with a 20kg kettlebell! So heavy. The mat and everything else were great, but I could hardly lift the kettlebell, let alone do most of the exercises on the app.

So back it’s gone to Freeletics – I need to order the, ahem, beginners bundle now.

I was into the idea of the kettlebell because my running journey doesn’t have any strength training in it and I’d been wanting to keep the muscle I’ve built recently.

So while I’m waiting for the new Freeletics order, I’m bringing in some bodyweight exercises alongside my running (and in some cases instead of – I have a longer cycle commute to work now so often feel less like running before or after the work day). I’m enjoying the flexibility actually of choosing my workouts and doing them whenever alongside a coaching journey.

In other news I’ve been experimenting with intermittent fasting. A couple of friends of mine have been doing it and getting great results so I thought I’d give it a go. I’ve signed up to an app (Simple), which is brilliant – a great interface and loads of features and content – and I’m bascially doing 16:8 – usually stopping eating around 7pm and not starting again until mid-morning the following day. I actually quite like it – I feel lighter and more focussed and I’m learning how to work through hunger rather than just give in.