A new year and a new training journey

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My training kind of went out of the window in the latter part of last year. We moved to a new office and I had a longer commute – by bike – that meant I was usually a bit tired after work. I falsely decided that my cycling could partly take the place of training. And so I wasn’t running as much, I wasn’t swimming at all, and as my Freeletics journey was running only, I’d stopped bodyweight exercises altogether.

This blog has become a series of false starts for a while. I seem to return to it when I want to be accountable but then quickly slip out of the routine again. So 2022 is another attempt at consistency.

Do New Year’s resolutions work?

I’ve put on weight. I’m 6ft 0in, and I now weigh 88kg – which according to the NHS website is overweight. When I’ve put on weight in the past, It’s mostly been muscle mass. I used to be skinny and starting Freeletics meant that I quickly gained muscle. But this time it’s just excess fat. My body is less toned, my muscles have waned and I’m feeling achey and ungainly.

Some people don’t like New Year’s Resolutions. I’ve always found them really useful. I like to have that moment of reset – a chance to start again and build better habits and 1 January feels like as good a time as any, especially as I’ve often over-indulged over Christmas.

So I abandoned my previous journey on Freeletics and I’m starting a new one HIIT & Run Weight Loss.

How Freeletics Coach works

If you’re new to this blog, or have stumbled across this post because you’re thinking of starting Freeletics, here’s a quick run down of how it works.

I pay an annual subscription to Freeletics, which means I get access to tailored programmes that coach me through a series of workouts over around 12 weeks. You can set the number of days you want to train per week, and as you move through the journey you can give feedback on how difficult or easy you’re finding the work-outs.

I’ve always liked the ‘impersonal accountability’ of Freeletics. I’ve never fancied the idea of an actual personal trainer (or being willing to spend the money), but I’m not disciplined enough to lead my own workouts regularly, so I like that there is structure and that the app gently encourages you to be consistent and complete every workout.

My new journey – HIIT and Run Weight Loss

HIIT and Run Weight Loss feels like the right journey for me at the moment. It combines bodyweight exercises and runs/sprints, so I mix it up through the week and combine it with other exercises like swimming and cycling to work.

I’ve also decided to structure my week so I train in the morning (I think I’m more likely to train if I can get it out of the way first thing), and that I’m doing Freeletics three times a week. This leaves me with a fourth day at the weekend that I can use for swimming or a free run or something else. I think I was putting too much pressure on myself to exercise five times a week and that’s unsustainable.

So I’m starting tomorrow with a pretty easy 3km run, split into two 1.5kg runs.

A 2021 reset – more cardio, less crap food

Photo: Danil Aksenov on Unsplash

A new year, then. Here I am, trying to get some semblance of routine and progress amidst a world that feels like it’s, um, struggling a bit.

But I’m back. And I had a break from Freeletics and running over the Christmas break. Did a few walks here and there and managed to do a run on New Year’s Day with a hangover, albeit a shortish slow one.

I’m starting a new Freeletics Journey today. I ditched my previous journey because it was strength focused and I actually need to do something about this slight podge I’ve developed over the festive period, so cardio it is. I’ve chosen Cardio Burn. I’m hoping that doing this journey, combined with running and swimming (if and when the pools are open over the next few months) will help make a difference.

Over Christmas I also reflected on my diet – I had a habit-tracker last year and was aiming for calorie deficits and the correct macro-nutrient intake on most days of the week. I did manage to do calorie deficits mostly (although my calculations weren’t super-scientific), but I failed at eating the right ratio of carbs/protein/fats. So that’s something I want to change this year. I don’t think I’m going to lose weight and get in shape if I’m not eating right, regardless of how much cardio I do.

So this is me putting a marker in the sand about that. Also I did the NHS BMI calculator thing and I’m now just slightly in the overweight category. Even though it doesn’t take into account muscle mass (and my legs are certainly bigger than they used to be).

I have decided not to do Dry January though – I’m just going to drink much less. I’ve been drinking lower calorie drinks anyway (fewer pints now the pubs are closed!)

To really keep me on track – here’s a before picture… I’ll post an after picture at the end of the Freeletics journey.

This is probably going to be my last entry of 2018.

I’ve been really slack on Freeletics these past few weeks. This time I really don’t have any excuses. I’ve been lazy or hungover for most of December and also unwilling to get cold, blah blah… Been feeling guilty. I did do one Coach work out last week that was kind of okay, but I think I’ve been kind of waiting for the end of the year to restart everything.

And so yesterday I redid the assessment to end the current coach week I was stuck in. And low and behold, it presented Hell Week as my next Coach week.

The thing is, it’s Boxing Day today and I’m on holiday until the 3 January when I fly to New York for a 10 days for work (which will mean working into the evening/social events etc). All of which isn’t very inclusive to doing Hell Week properly. I won’t have a pullup bar etc. So I’ve decided to do some low intensity workouts over the next week to get myself back into it before tackling Hell Week on my return from NYC. Today I did Rhea, which was quick and easy.

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And as the year draws to a close, I’m reflecting on how well I’ve been at sticking to my habits/goals.

Here are my goals for the year, and how I did:

Take four weeks’ holiday – FAIL (although I did take three, which is better than usual)
Visit a continent I’ve never been to before – FAIL
Pay off my credit card debt – FAIL
Read 26 books – I read five 😦
Have four days per week when I don’t drink – I managed at least two days every week
Do Freeletics at least three times per week – on average I managed 2 times per week
Inbox zero every week day – there were 21 working days when I didn’t do this, which I think it pretty good!
Swim once per week – I did this 39 times
Eat 5 fruit and veg per day – 188 times over the year
Drink 3 litres of water – usually managed this

There were also a few other work-related ones which won’t mean anything to you.

So, a mixed bag.

Over the next couple of days I’m going to set my goals for the coming year and I’ll let you know what they are.

For any productivity nerds out there, I’ve just switched from the Momentum app to ‘Done’, which is a lot more pleasing and flexible. Looking forward to using it in 2019 to track my habits.

New Year Freeletics Goals, Yoga and an aborted attempt to do an HS Push-Up

Blimey. Haven’t written this blog since November. Where does the time go?

Even though I usually train indoors rather than outdoors, I’ve been finding it really hard to find the motivation to get up and exercise. Something about the cold weather, the desire to hibernate. So I haven’t been training regularly. And then I was ill for a few days just before Christmas, and then there was Christmas. However hard I try, I’m just not one of those people posting pictures of their Christmas Day workouts on Instagram. I’m in soft clothes, drinking red wine and eating chocolate.

I did manage to not completely overdo it over Christmas though. My parents are getting old and their appetite is shrinking, so there just wasn’t the usual level of gluttony of years gone by. So as I enter January, I’m not feeling too unhealthy. Although I did rather overdo it on New Year’s Eve, so yesterday was a complete write-off.

Today’s Training

So this morning, my last day before I go back to work, I made myself get out of bed and train. As much because I find that working out helps curb that too-much-booze anxiety that often comes with a hangover.

Thankfully Coach wasn’t too hard on me for my first workout of 2018. It was:

20 Lunges
2 Split Lunges
Conditioning: Abs and Legs – 20 Squats, 20 Side Lunges, 10 Knee-wipes
1/4 Venus

There’s something hilarious about the algorithm – sorry, Coach – giving you 2 split lunges. It’s over in about 2 seconds. Surely there should be a way that Freeletics could put a lower limit on any one exercise.

Anyway, it felt good to get moving again and I was glad I dragged myself out of bed.

Trying to Unlock Advanced Skills

I also managed to squeeze in a workout on the day before New Year’s Eve – that in between bit between Christmas and New Year where no one really knows what to do with themselves.

After doing the workout – 6/10 Gaia and interval – I decided to try and unlock some of the advanced skills. It didn’t end well.

I did manage to do 5 OH Push-ups, and I’m going to start trying to do them alongside my Coach workouts, in the same way as I do assisted pull-ups. And then I tried to do a Pistol Squat, which was just impossible, and a HS Pushup, which was also laughably hard. I just couldn’t do it. And then when I came out of it, I didn’t let my legs fall as one would normally do when coming out of a handstand. Instead, I kind of slid down the wall, which kind of crunched up my head/neck. It was pretty painful. And a stupid way of trying to come out of the push-up. Felt like I could have done some serious damage if I’d carried on. Thankfully I figured out what I should have done and did that. Was in pain for about two days. Which was lovely. Suffice to say, I didn’t unlock those two. It did make me think that in those training videos, Freeletics should show how to get into and out of those more difficult skills. It would really help.

Yoga

As a result of the neck pain, I ended up doing a YouTube yoga workout to try and relieve it. And it kind of worked. I think I’m going to try and do more yoga in 2018 alongside Freeletics, to try and increase my flexibility and sort out some niggling muscle pain I get every now and then. This is the video I did, in case you want to do it to:

I might do his 30 Day Total Body Yoga Workout Challenge. Looks great and might get me into the habit of doing it regularly.

2018 Goals

So, what’s my plan for 2018? I’ve been doing Freeletics for over two years now. I certainly haven’t do the 15 week transformation that the YouTube videos show. I guess when I started I didn’t want a quick fix, I wanted a way to exercise regularly, and that’s what I use Freeletics for. But I would like to build my strength, particularly in my arms, and I’d like to lose a bit more belly fat – I suspect that will be more down to diet than to exercise, so I’m going to make a real effort to eat well and drink less (pretty standard New Year resolution stuff here). But I think I also want to increase my flexibility, and build consistency – fewer breaks, more regular workouts. I suspect that’s the key to really making progress.

And maybe by this time next year, I’ll be able to do a couple more of those advanced skills.

Happy New Year – let’s do this!