Freeletics Week 3 - pullup central!!

It's Monday evening, late finishing last weeks sessions so the first day of this week starts tomorrow. Pretty harsh week considering how bad I was at pull-ups last week as there are a lot this week, centered around strength mainly.

Session 1
Leg Lever MAX 53*
Ares 15:25

Firstly the leg levers didn't seem an issue but I could see how I you would get into a tangle if you didn't pace yourself correctly as 300 seconds is a pretty long time when you have never done the exercise before. I managed to do them all in the same form that is stated on the site.

As for Ares, that certainly gets your heart pumping! Like most starting out, I am not very good at pull up's. However, I have had some tips on email and they do work well! I used a plant pot to get to the top of the pullup by standing on it and then stepped off and slowly lowered myself down. This gets your arms used to pulling your own body weight. It felt like one of the training scenes from rocky where he is in the wilderness as I have no pullup bar so I use the branch of a cherry blossom tree whilst wearing my chainsaw gloves! At least it works though.

The jackknifes were attempted in good form and I don't know if it's my belly that's stopping it. Bearing in mind I am only two stone overweight. Or it is just that my body decided it preferred to make like a dying seal on the floor. Either way I struggled to look anywhere near as clean as the ones in the tutorial video where the chaps body and legs are both vertical.

As for the 40m sprint, fortunately that measures out to about half the garden, but not taking into account my two dogs, Frank and Wilf it was quite interesting. I set off like a lame whippet from the garage (where I do my exercises) followed by two over-excited spaniels.

Session one over and feeling tired but good.

session 2

posideon 11.09

50 pullups?! 'Not on your nelly' I thought. So I've been looking on some of the military fitness sites for tips to build the strength up as mine are all over the place.  I've been using a tree branch and standing on two plant pots to get high enough.  Not an easy thing to do when the branch settings and one side is higher than the other.  

The way I have done these is to get right to the top of the pull-up and lower myself down whilst trying to maintain form.  Not easy! 

Although the push ups are getting much easier and I felt in control and that I had great form. 

All in all an absolute killer in the top half. 

Session 3

Ares 12.02

posideon 09.07

Personal bests on both these bit still not doing the hardest of the pull up styles. 

Jackknifes felt a bit more controlled and I could tell my sprinting was better.  

The 60 seconds rest was more than needed in ares!

I felt that using the tree was leading to too much swinging around so I found an awesome tip about putting a Broom on the seat of two chairs and laying underneath to do pull ups. So using the back of the landrover,  a ladder and a garden table I finally made a pull-up bar I could use for the moment. It was high enough to have my arms fully extended and although I am not using my full weight it is getting me stronger.  

I think maybe trying a proper pull-up three times a day plus doing the session ones using the ladder,  I should be able to master them a bit quicker. 

Session 4

Aphrodite 29:36
OOOfffttt that was a hard one, towards the end I could see the freeletics timer counting down and was determined to get another Personal Best and get it under 30 minutes this time. 28:00 dead and I had the last set to do, fortunately squats are pretty quick and just powering through the sit-ups got me to my goal!

Not a bad week considering the amount of wood I have had to chop and haul around the yard after work and this weekend. Now to see what the next week has in store.