A day's meals.

I have been asked a few times now what I have been eating whilst training. It was something I wondered about others doing Freeletics too but not many seem to divulge what they are eating.

I outlined some basic thoughts on food on this page: http://digitalunity.blogspot.com/2014/08/my-diet.html

I mainly aim for higher protein and as low as possible carbs, sometimes towards the target date lowering it under 100grams. So here is a typical day for me (yesterday).

Calories 2021.82

Carbs 183.516

Protein 199.986

Fat 66.284

Liquids:

espresso coffee x 1
Green tea x 3
Litre water x 4

7am Breakfast:

Two poached eggs, 4 mushrooms, half a tin of beans. I switched to this from porridge due to it's higher content of protein.

11am Snack:

Juice made of 4 carrots, 4 apples,  banana, 4 apples.

1pm Lunch:

Tuna (in spring water) salad.
lettuce, peppers, 1/2 avocado, cucumber, tomatoes and a sprinkle of Olive oil.

3pm Snack:

Protein shake (Whey Isolate)
Grapefruit

6pm Dinner:

Hot chicken salad.

salad same as lunch but no avocado and for the chicken  a couple of breasts cut unto good sized chunks or strips. Works just as well with thighs (I prefer thighs). Pop the oven on as if you were going to roast them and with a small dish put the following in: 

• half a bottle of soy sauce
• 2 cloves garlic
• heaped teaspoon harissa paste
• 4 tablespoons of sweet chilli sauce.

Pop it in the oven until cooked, I like to wait until I can see it starting to go nice and brown like it does on a BBQ and then serve hot!

I don't always eat salad but it is quite hot at the moment. One of my favorites is bolognaise, but without the spaghetti.

My Diet

Firstly I'd just like to state that this worked for me but I am no nutritionist nor do I think I have the most optimum diet I could get. So feel free to take what you will from it.

My usual diet pre-freeletics consisted of porridge for breakfast, some form of sandwich for lunch and for tea, anything goes. Usually something partly healthy though and a few pieces of fruit throughout the day. A Typical day is like this: http://digitalunity.blogspot.com/2014/08/a-days-meals.html

However, I am an absolute sod for finding good excuses to eat other things, such as on a Thursday when I go shooting in the evening with a friend. I'll justify buying a packet of three eccles cakes, convincing myself that i will only have one. Yet by the time I am home I have eaten all three. So partly a secret eater too!

During the 15 weeks training it has been, for me, all about gaining muscle whilst loosing fat. I decided the best way to formulate healthy eating was to get the basics right first.

If you want to see a typical day you can skip straight to it here.

The basics

Portion size

It's amazing how big crockery sets have become, my mum has said for years "change the size of your plates" and then I read somewhere that years ago plates used to be far smaller. So we threw the old set out and got a set of china plates, bowls etc new from ebay. Instantly I can see the difference, the old bowl used to hold nearly 5 times as much. Now the new breakfast bowls fill me up just as much but only a 5th of the amount. Same goes for the plates, Sunday is treat breakfast for me, 2 slices of wholemeal bread, 6 slices of bacon and 3 burford brown eggs (try them, they are beautiful). On the old plates they would take half the plate up. This time though, the plate is full to the edges.

So it just goes to show how easy it is to get misled simply by the size of your plates and bowls.

Snacks

Had to get rid of all the stuff which would usually be an instant diet killer, just until I got in the swing of things.
White Bread
Muffins
Nutella and Crumpets
Chocolate
Haribo sour mix

Water / Tea

Your body needs water, a lot more than you might think. I currently drink 3 liters as a minimum per day. Not only will it keep you hydrated but it helps to keep you alert and fends off hunger. The best way to consume water is constantly through the day, do not wait until you feel thirsty as that is a sign of dehydration. Try and keep having some, even if it's a good couple of mouthfuls every half hour or so.

If you are anything like I was then it also means more trips to the toilet at first, but that dies down, or at least did for me!

I also swapped normal tea (I love good strong Yorkshire tea, like you could stand your spoon in it) I swapped that for green tea during the day and chamomile tea in the evening as that seems to do the trick for me getting me to sleep easier.

Apart from the photo shoot weekend I haven't had a drop of alcohol either.

Eating times

There's the age old saying that you shouldn't skip breakfast and that is quite true, it kickstarts your day. I also spaced my meals out making sure that breakfast was first thing after getting ready and letting the dogs out (6:30am for me), lunch is now set in my calendar to remind me at 1pm every day and finally tea which is never later than 7pm. Ideally I would like it earlier but sometimes work does not permit.

Then there's the snacks too, but wait.... I just got rid of them! Not that type of snack, something far more healthy and for good reason. Eating more often boots your metabolism and provides a more constant and even source of nutrients to the body. So I have smaller meals and some snacks in-between  usually brunch at 10am and afternoon tea at 3pm.

So now we have all the basics down, what about what I have been shovelling down me during the 15 weeks training. For me it was all about piling the muscle on and reducing the fat, so I ended up going down the high protein route.

My Diet

Breakfast

Thanks to paul from paulfightscancer.co.uk I looked further into my usual breakfast which was porridge with a big spoon of sugar made with hot water. Which I soon swapped out for eggs, 1/2 tin beans and 4 good sized mushrooms. Packed with protein, less carbs and just as warming. Fair enough it takes me a few mins longer to make but I do love poached eggs!

If I am in a massive rush or really don't feel like eating in a morning then I generally have porridge with a good couple of pinches of nutmeg and a teaspoon of maple syrup and a teaspoon of sugar made really stodgy with water and then a tablespoon of milk to water it down. By which time it is lovely and creamy and tastes great.

Snacks

I could eat snacks all day long which is why I guess I drink so much water! I started to stock up on some nuts and berries for one type of snack and some houmous and celery for another. If I fancy something sweet I reach for an ol favourite of mums and as strange as this sounds it does taste great.
Ryvita with a thin layer of jam (just enough to go into the holes) and a good heaped tablespoon of cottage cheese. Again, it is packed with protein and with the sweetness of the jam it satisfies that sugary craving when I fancy something sweet.
Finally merangues made with sweetner, no surprise, packed with protein and very sweet to taste. This is the only really sugary thing I have during a day and I probably have a couple each week along with a low fat yoghurt.

Lunch / Dinner

Now this isn't an easy one for some as it comes in the middle of a work day. So I like to go simple and easy by either having a mackrel fillet or some tuna in spring water mixed into a salad. A good source of Omega 3 for the ol joints. Either that or if I have time to cook I will get one chicken breast, butterfly it, dry fry it and drizzle some soy sauce on just before it finishes and eat as is. Or if it's a particulary busy day exercise wise I will put it in a slice of seeded batch loaf and a little bit of grated cheese.

Another light dinner I love which is pretty quick is salmon and broccli. Sliced salmon from any good shop and some broccli, pref the long stemmed purple type but standard is good. Boil or steam so they are still a little crunchy and then whip them onto a dry cloth and into a bowl, drizzle with honey while hot and some balsamic glaze and then top with sesame seeds and finally mix in a good handful of sliced salmon straight from the packet.

Tea

Tea comes in a multitude of forms, my favorite at the moment has to be bolognaise but without the pasta. 500g of lean beef and a couple of ground cloves of garlic in one pan and another pan sweating down some peppers, onions and mushrooms. When both have cooked, slap them into the one pan, add in 1/4 pint of beef stock, 100g passata, 1 tin diced tomatoes and then do what you will with the sauce. Personally I season it with salt and pepper, tobasco sauce, worcester sauce, mushroom sauce and some thyme from the garden. Let it reduce down until it is like a thick stew and serve that up for a tasty tea.

So to sum up, eat often, eat little and eat healthy. It all adds up to a great way of living.

Nutrition is a vast subject which I mearly scrape at the surface, for those wanting to look further into the right amounts of nutrients and how each of my meals are made up, I use a protein/carb/fat macro of 50/45/5 at the moment and if pushed will settle on 100 grams of carbs per day. Yes I know you need carbs to build muscle but I only do this for a short period of time before going back to the usual macros when exercising.

My last point on the matter.... do I cheat? Hell yes! For me it has to be enjoyable so a cheat day here and there is a must, even if it is to shock my system. Next weekend will be beer and a madras with the neighbours.

Freeletics - the results.

15 weeks has passed and I'm really glad to be sharing the results. I am kinda hoping that someone somewhere might read this and it be a catalyst for change in them, if so i'd love to hear about it!

It seems like only yesterday when I stood in the front room and took the first set of pictures. At the time I remember noting down how I felt, lethargic, and fat with little motivation to do many things. Just pretty blurghhh.

Fast forward to now and I finally feel great about myself. I didn't manage to do such an awesome montage as most so here are some pics of me before and after. I also did a quick video on you tube of my journey too.

You can see them all on my Google Plus album here: Click Here

It hasn't been an easy ride at all. At the start I felt so unfit that I tried to justify not carrying the sessions all the way through, time after time. Things started to get easier around week 8, it finally seemed to click and I found myself doing the previously unthinkable. When I was really bored I would drop down onto the floor and do some push up Max sets or I would finish a session off and then just run around the house and garden. I started to believe and push.

I made a video which I will attempt to upload to show how much of struggle it was at the start. I only managed 20 of the burpees before I was trying to catch my breath in my first session and it took me nearly an hour to do the first Aphrodite but as you will be able to see towards the end, things do get easier. Aphrodite used to fill me with dread, now I think of it as one of the easier ones.

If you want to read more about each day of the freeletics journey I have made a page with a list of all the posts here : Freeletics Journey

Thankyou....
To everyone out there, reading my blog.
To all the people who said my beard made me look older, unknowingly you pushed me harder.
To mum for my birthday money which I spent on the freeletics coach!
To Zoe for telling me I look 20 years older!! ( I trained harder than ever the next day )
To Paul for the nutrition advice (http://paulfightscancer.co.uk)
To Colin for the kind words of advice and support (http://freeleticscommunity.com)

Finally for the guys and gals at Freeletics (http://freeletics.com) for developing such a simple yet massively effective and enjoyable way of getting fit.

Here's to the next 15 weeks!

Freeletics Week 15 HELL WEEK!

This week proved to be another false start, in a way though I am quite glad. Hell week started on a Friday for me and the following day was the photo shoot. I had intentions to do the sessions while I was away but had such a good and relaxing time that I ended up having a few days off which then rolled into a week and so have started again today (Mon 14th)

Session 1

Venus 29:45 PB
Nice start to the week thankfully as I had to go get the axle fixed on the mower today so by the time I had got in it was already 7pm. Venus is one of my favourites, I love burpees because I feel like I have had a good all over workout and pressups because my arms really burn. 

Session 2

Poseidon 

Squat Max 220 * PB

Situp Max 116 * PB

Metis 5:51 * PB
Looks like a week off has done me good, PB's across the board and feeling great to be back at it.

Session 3

Metis 05:48 * PB

Hades 27:39

Artemis 28:47
I'm not sure why it's not marked me as a PB as that's the fastest I have done so far! 8:37am and quite a hot sunny day today (23C) Fortunately apart from the pullup bar everything else I did in the shade of the garage.

It took some willpower to get up this morning early enough to have breakfast at 6am so I could do the first set before work, I did Artemis first, plan being to use the one that my arms fail on first then packing in plenty of protein. Then a small session for lunch and another large one before tea. It's worked so far.

Just done Metis in my lunch break and another PB, I wasn't aiming for a time this time around, just going as steady as I could and it has paid off. Quick snack, shower and back to work!

Session 4

Hades 21:50 PB
Happy with this one at over a minute faster. I really had to push myself as the day was slipping by, busy at work and didn't get started until 6pm. I could murder a big tea but it's too late now. 

Session 5

Hades 22:23

Session 6 

Pushup Max 56 * PB

Pushup Max 45 *

Leg Lever Max 120 * PB

Jacknife 31 * PB

Pushup Max 46 *

I managed to split this down through the day by doing a set of pushups and the Leg lever in the morning, then some pushups at lunch and the Jacknifes and pushups at tea time.Maintaining a PB across the entire day was pretty hard, my arms never seemed to recover after the first set.

Session 7

Hyperion 16:28 PB

Aphrodite 23:16 * PB

Split Lunge Max 120 * PB

Last day, and so glad to have got this far. I did the split lunge first thing in the morning, the thought being that I could get the easy one out of the way before breakfast. Lunchtime was Aphrodite which I managed to be over a minute faster for my PB, It took me 5 minutes or so to recover as I sat outside int he pouring rain cooling off.
Finally Hyperion which I am happy to say I managed to do all the handstand pressups as they should be done and the first 24 pullups as they should be done too.

Looking back at the first few sessions and the video I made of my first day I am so glad that I took the decision to start, it's not been easy and there are so many times when I have felt like giving up. 

Freeletics week 14

One week rolls straight into the next at the moment. Due to being ill I have to do the following two weeks back to back to ensure I finish within the subscription. Fortunately the weather is good and I have the time available to do it all with, so time to push on!

This weekend I had been out collecting more logs for the fires and had needed to split some down. I figured it would be a good idea to try to do it after Hyperion but after only two wheelbarrows of logs I had to call it a day. However with help at hand I manged to get a snap of where I currently am and I have dug out where I was when I started. Bit of a difference so far!

BTW the strap around my ankle is a magnetic one for the pain, not a tag that you get instead of jail haha.

Session 1:
Hyperion 22:07 PB
Not a bad start to the week, I was quite a bit faster this time around simply because I didn't take the entire 60 second rest breaks between each set. Some of them I had ten seconds or so and started the next set as I was itching for more!

Session 2:
Ares 07:56 PB
Split Lunge 127*PB
I'm not so sure looking at the numbers here that I was counting right last time but the difference is massive on the Split Lunge. Really enjoyed this session, quick and love the pullups these days. I can remember at the start struggling to get even one pullup, today I managed the first set in Ares, seven pullups and then had to resort to the modified ones after the 11th pullup. A huge improvement from the start.

Session 3:
Hyperion 21:19
Love this one too, I still can't do HS Pushups and the strict pullups are mainly modified ones but the entire session is great. My legs really burn after this one.

Session 4:
Ares 09:43
Split Lunge 132*PB
The Ares set does look like a huge drop, nearly two minutes slower, however in session 2 I didn't rest for the full 60 seconds each time and this time I took time to rest and felt better for it at the end.

Onto the final week, which I have gotta do straight away as I only have 7 days left on my subscription and it is hell week this next week which means a full 7 days training.

I did manage to take some progress pictures which I will upload during this week and share some awesome sites I found in regards of Freeletics.

Freeletics Week 13

Feeeeeling Great! I can't wait to start back this week. It feels like forever since I last did a session.

Session 1
Hades 25:58
The failed week 13 I remember that my time was nearly 10 minutes more than my PB. My stamina had been kicked so hard that I remember feeling so defeated and thought that it would be a long climb back to the 23 minutes of my PB.

Needless to say I feel pretty awesome that I managed to do 25 minutes, only 2 minutes off my PB. Considering my lack of carbs in my diet now as I only have two weeks until the photo shoot I think that's not a bad time.

Although I have re-done session 1 the coach has not overwrote my time so anyone looking at the coach will see it's a bit out of whack as this shows on session 4.

Session 2
Kentauros 41:02 *
Not a PB but still not bad considering it was in the rain on slippery grass. Not the most enjoyable session this week!

Session 3
Metis 06:32*PB
Metis 06:29*PB
Metis 06:28*PB
That is a surprise! I did one set just before lunch and set off like a whippet, by the time I had done ten burpees in a matter of seconds I was out of breath and having to take a breather later on in the set. Certainly the 25 Burpees in the middle I had to break down into 10/10/5 and have a few seconds rest inbetween. Still managed to get a PB out of it though which was impressive.

This afternoon (5pm) I did my second set, this time more structured, every repetition of every exercise was the same. No rushing at the start and then dying half way through. I guess the old story of the turtle and the hare really shows here as I managed to get yet another PB.

Third set I did at 5:40 as I was curious as to how my stamina would be after only a short rest period.

Freeletics Week 13... False start

Last week was pretty much a false start. I Completed the first session Hades in 31:05, nearly ten minutes slower than previously. The majority of my week consisted of falling asleep at work and spending most nights being ill. Being a big believer in the fact that I still have to arms and legs, I thought I should push through. Even during sessions in week 12 and the session named here, Hades, I had moments when I was literally sick.

For me, my stubborn side got in the way and I never gave myself chance to recover, resulting later in the week in a very touch-and-go night where I was running a high temperature, vomiting and waking up drenched in sweat. At that point I had enough, not only was it affecting my progress with Freeletics but my home life and work too. Time to look after myself I thought and I decided to take a week off, drink plenty of water and get some good rest.

It's over a week now and I have felt great these past couple of days, my appetite is back and I have been itching to get back to Freeletics. Time to start again this afternoon and push through to week 15, which I am really looking forward to now.

Freeletics Week 12

This week has been a major struggle. After a week of being sick and eating hardly anything (approx 500 cals or less a day) I finally gave in and spoke to the Doctor. Turns out I have had food poisoning and I still have something, of which I forget the name of it which I need to take some medicine for to settle my stomache and stop the nausea.

I started the week on Thursday because I only finished last week on Tuesday evening and I was back to feeling like death warmed up on Wednesday which is when I spoke to the Doc.

I figured that I would go weigh myself, only to find that I weigh more now than when I started! I guess it's the amount of muscle mass because I am visually different, bigger muscles, dropped three inches from my waist and a drastic reduction in the ol' love handles. I even got out of the bath the other day and was surprised to see my abs poking through when I bent forward to sit up.

So the week went like this.....

Session 1 (Thursday)
Artemis ... Fail
This session started well, 50 burpees were not a problem and then onto 50 pullups which although hard work I did manage to push through. 100 pushups were hard but splitting them down to sets of ten and having a small break meant I could get through them in good time. Then onto 150 squats, at which point I was really struggling for energy. Finally the last 50 burpees were too much, I managed 15 by doing 5 at a time, at which point I felt sick, really sick, cold and clammy and dizzy. I had some water and laid on the floor for a few minutes and tried again but my body wasn't having it. So I called it a day and hoped that it was the lack of fuel in my body and not the sickness that was stopping me going the distance.

The following morning (Friday) I made myself eat a proper breakfast, eggs, beans, mushrooms and then for lunch a mackerel salad along with 5 litres of water. One of the litres exactly 90 mins before my exercise.

Session 2 (Friday)
Venus 37:07
Started to feel better in waves so gave it my all today, although my heart feels like it's about to burst through my chest.

Session 3 (Sunday)
Situp MAX 115*PB
Leg Lever MAX 48
Lesson learnt today, always best to split these up, I had only left ten minutes between exercises so there was no way I could have gotten a decent number of Leg Levers done. That and still feeling mighty sorry for myself.

Session 4 (Tuesday)
Artemis 32:33
I feel much better now all the pills have kicked in, no more sickness and my appetite is back. Fingers crossed I haven't lost too much strength for the last few weeks. Apart from the pullups I do like this one and with the sun shining and a breeze in the air it was a great workout and a fantastic feeling being back to my usual self even if my stamina is down. Two minutes more than last time.

Freeletics Week 11 (sickness strikes)

I can't believe how quick it has gone! 11th week and a pretty easy one at that. Which can't be said for the weather, it's now session 2 and it's absolutely pounding it down with rain outside. Unfortunately my pullup bar is out side and it's the 2 x 40m runs today!

Not much to report other than the usual getting better with times each session, although I have found my enthusiasm has grown now to the point where I look forward to the sessions somewhat and have started slotting in some other exercises from time to time. Not a lot but just something to quench my thirst for that feelgood factor.

Session 1 (Monday)
Hades 24:27 PB
Not a bad time and very sweaty though. Managed to do 25 burpees without a break each time which is a huge improvement! The only exercise in this set that i had to modify was the pullups.

Session 2 (Tuesday)
Hades 23:17 PB
Really looking forward to this one, so much so that it's pouring down outside so it will be a wet session!

Unfortunately the following day (Wednesday) I was struck down with some strange sickness bug which drained the life out of me so I never managed to do any more exercises this week and completed the two following sessions on Monday evening and Tuesday morning. The whole time willing hell week not to be the following week!

Session 3 (Monday)
Aphrodite 29:10 *
That was hell! I started off with all the gusto in the world, smashing out 50 burpees and only starting to flag on the last 5. After that it was an uphill struggle. I feel like I had the strength but the stamina had completely gone. I really had to will myself through the last couple of sets. I shall definitely do the next session tomorrow rather than later this evening.

Session 4 (Tuesday)
Situp MAX 114 * PB
Metis 07:44 * PB
Really didn't feel like starting this session. My stomach is so sore from the sickness, not that I have been vomiting the past few days but just so tender. Still managed to do 114 situps though in the first exercise and managed to get a PB in Metis which was a surprise!

Just clicked through to this week's sessions and I have never been so happy to see 4 sessions! Artemis, Venus, SitupMAX LegLeverMAX and finally another Artemis.

I think powering through these I shall have Saturday off, which will set me back on track!

Freeletics, diet and progress

I'm sure it's a riveting read (NOT) about the Freeletics sessions, certainly for me it seems each session is now just a case of getting to that sweet spot of doing all exercises without stopping to catch a breath and all in good form.

Progress wise I can tell a huge difference since day 1 where I struggled to do ten burpees without being massively out of breath and yet yesterday the first exercise was to do 25 burpees out of a total of 150 and I did one after the other with no rest or breaking a sweat. Same goes for pressups, at first struggling to get into double figures in the MAX exercises which gives you 100 seconds and now I can reach over 50 in the same time.

I have craved that body which you see Levent and Arne etc on the 15 transformations and it has been a slow burner. My weight has dropped by 5  pounds since the start but the difference is in my clothes. I have lost two inches from my waist and most impressive of all is that my chest is pretty damn firm and my shoulders have rounded out. It's only when you look back at the photo on day one and look at the times that you did first off that you think, WOW how far have I come?! That coupled with the fact that I have another 5 weeks to go makes me even more determined.

Diet

So what about diet? It's OK doing all this exercise but if you aren't putting the correct fuel in then you aren't going to get the most out of it. Before I start I best point out that I am in no way whatsoever a nutritionist and the points here are just what have worked for me.

At the start I pretty much ate normally which for me would be 2500 - 3000 calories a day with little thought put into the makeup of it and maybe a litre of water a day. During that time I did see some improvement, however the real gains came over the past few weeks. My neighbour is getting fit too, except that he is going to the gym and loves biking. However it's nice to have someone to talk to in regards to what you eat and what you are doing, even if it's just to see what food each of us have cheated with.

Stay hydrated

My first change was the amount of water, I went from 1 to 1.5 litres per day to 5 to 6 per day which may sound a lot even to me, especially when I was only drinking a few cups of tea each day. However it's not that hard to drink 5 litres, firstly the water does act as a hunger suppressant and stops me snacking, or at least wanting to snack! Also dehydration causes you to feel tired, another good reason to stay hydrated. Finally your muscles need water during high intensity exercises and after reading an email from Freeletics.com it points out that you should drink a litre of water approx 90 mins before exercising. That is good in two ways for me, firstly I have a good reason to drink a litre and secondly it commits me to exercise, it's as if by drinking that bottle I am committing to doing a session. (Just drinking a litre now)

Eat right

I felt the need for a low carb, high protein diet for the last few weeks of the session in an effort to really burn off the stubborn fat and build muscle and it's surprising how much you can eat yet still be in a calorie deficit.  I currently have 1350 calories per day with 155grams of protein and 67grams of carbs which by the end of the week I do feel a little tired on but with a cheat day consisting of a slab of black chocolate and plenty of fruit for that sugar boost I am back to feeling awesome again the following day.

However as you can imagine, I don't feel hungry in my day to day food.

Breakfast

Beans, mushrooms and two poached eggs. Two pans and ten minutes. Dead easy.

Higher in protein than carbs and very filling. I switched when a friend of mine Paul (paulfightscancer.co.uk) gave me some very welcome pointers. Huge thanks and kudos Paul, it's working! What an awesome guy, his site is a goldmine of information and inspiration.

Lunch
brown rice cooked in veg stock with one chicken breast and 100grams of broccoli and 100grams of cauliflower.
I really should split this up across a couple of meals because it is so filling. The veg stock is to give it plenty of flavor  otherwise it would be a bit lacking.

Tea
Tuna salad consisting of some slices of pepper, tomatoes and spring onions along with lettuce.
Mix of nuts and berries to munch on afterwards.

Nice and light for the evening meal, quick to prepare. The nuts and berries are surprisingly filling too!


So there you have it, that was yesterday's food, pretty much the same today. I'm happy having similar food day to day at the moment because I go into autopilot when making meals. This low carb high protein plan is only for while I am doing Freeletics coach sessions. Once these are over I shall swap it up to have more of a balance on the carbs and protein. For now though it is working great.

Oh yes, nearly forgot, I also have two protein shakes, one before working out and one after to ensure there is excess protein hanging around for my muscles.

Don't forget to sleep well too. I have been known to work well into the night and also do marathon 30+ hour coding sessions at work but it's no good for your body and you do need to rest. So during this 15 weeks I have tried to maintain a good 7 to 8 hours a night.

Not always done especially last night when the two dogs woke me up at 4am to go to the toilet and I couldn't get back to sleep, so only 5 hours last night.

Stay healthy people, much love.
x

Freeletics Week 10

Feeling the burn this week! Just looking at what I had to do filled me with a sense of dread and I managed to find a weak excuse not to train yesterday but not today!

Session 1
Uranos 39:25 PB
Happy about the PB again and still no star as there are pullups in there which I still can only do 8 before I have to start doing the modified easier ones. Although I've just bought a pullup bar so i'll see how I do with that next time. For the moment I have been doing towel pullups from the top of a door.

Always a killer is Uranos for me due to the run at the start but feeling great and a great start to the week.

I decided to weigh in this week and monitor my food, it seems I weigh two pounds lighter than when I started but I have lost two inches off my waist and have much more muscle definition than before. Mind you, muscle weighs heavier than fat so no guesses where the weight is going.

Happy happy happy!

Session 2
Hyperion 30:10  PB

How hard?!! Surprisingly the one handed push ups I could actually manage, although they are not easy and towards the last set I really struggled and had to do the last set as the simpler version. Although by the end of the week I found out the effects of not having good form!

Pullups are still as hard as ever, although my pullup bar came today so at last I have managed to do them on the proper equipment. I do manage to do the first 3 to 5 pullups in proper form though which is a major improvement over week 1 where I struggled for ages to just about do one!

HS pushups are still a no no for me, the strict ones anyhow but I did the modified versions with no problem.

Finally the Pistols, sadly my right ankle will not flex enough to do them so I have done 6 on the left in proper form and on my right I have just gone down as far as I can and held it for a second or two.

All in all a great session and looking forward to getting in the bath as I'm pouring with sweat.

Session 3
Ares 10:00 PB
Love this one, short and sweet but really makes me sweat!

Session 4
Hyperion 25:24 PB
Absolute killer, a better time but after watching the video on how to do one handed pushups I realise that I had bad form last time and subsequently have pulled something in my groin area on my left leg as it hurts like hell. You are supposed to keep your shoulders horizontal and not let your chest leave the ground before anything else. Needless to say in session 2 y chest left the ground first and my shoulders were not horizontal which put a lot of strain on my groin and thigh area. So this time around I did the modified version and made sure that my core was nice and tight and done in good form. Still hurts quite a bit but managed to push through it.

Now for some r&r as it's the bank holiday this weekend, looking forward to the next Freeletics session!

Freeletics Week 9

As promised, it's Monday and I have just finished the first set. This week it is 4 sessions, two of which are 6 max exercises! I'll update the page as the week goes on.

But before I break it all down, here's the lowdown on the new motivation. For those of you who have been with me from the start will know that the beard is a reminder to exercise, because when I have completed the 15 weeks it's coming off.

However this weekend I was talking to a photographer whilst out training the dogs and told her all about the whole transformation thing and how I was looking forward to it and I was asked to do a naked photo shoot for a calendar for fieldsports! At first I was a bit dubious, "What if i'm not quite there", "What if my top looks great but I can't loose my belly" and the thoughts just kept on coming. Then I thought to myself, you know what, it's about time you stopped worrying about it and just did it. It's a charity event for a start and I owe it to myself and to others to be awesome and push myself as hard as I can.

That following night I came back and did my Kentauros session, then ran around the house a few times and finished off with a set of Push-ups MAX. I am more determined than ever to get to the end of the 15 weeks in the best condition I can. Especially as the photo shoot is the weekend I finish the coach sessions!

So day one, Monday, done, BOOM..

Session 1:
Leg Lever Max 90 *PB
Squat Max 182 *PB
Pushup Max 4 *PB

Leg Lever Max 65*
Squat Max 108* (injury)
Pushup Max 36*

Pushed as much as I could on all and by the time I had finished the first set of pushup max's my arms were burning, really burning.

Second set of each hurt, the Levers just because my muscles were tired but the squats mainly because of the breaks in my right ankle. As I started the second set I felt a searing pain in my ankle and had to prop myself up on a desk. It was too painful to put any weight on it so I tried to roll my foot around in it's socket and put a plank of wood under my heel and then began very slowly to do squats. Eventually the pain reduced to a bearable level. Pretty glad when that finished lemme tell you!

Session 2:
Aphrodite 24:34 *PB
Phew! really sweating this time and no surprise either. That's two minutes shaved off the last PB. I still had to stop and take a breather during the sets of 50's. I get to 30 and I need to stop for ten seconds and then do them in sets of tens with a 5 to 10 second break between each.

Really pleased with today. It's a pretty muggy day, sunny but pouring with rain which will make me sweat more. May take tomorrow (Wednesday) as a break day. We shall see.

.. Ended up being a break day Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday! Did both the following on Sunday.

Session 3:
Kentauros 40:30 * PB
More than happy with the time seems as I beat the first time which is when I was doing a shorter distance by mistake. Quite hard this morning as it's quite warm today (22C as I write this). Then had a couple of hours break before doing the following session. Simply because it's such a nice day that I feel a BBQ coming on and maybe a few beers, the last thing I want to be doing is finding an excuse later that I can't finish today's sessions off because I'm half asleep.

Session 4:

Leg Lever Max 95 * PB
Squat Max 184 * PB
Pushup Max 45 *

Leg Lever Max * 64
Squat Max * PB 201
Pushup Max 38

So far so good, another week done and feeling great. Leg Levers still have a way to go as I am still needing to rest during the set, same goes for pushups. As for the squats, they are just a matter of getting faster because I don't take a break now and they are all in strict form so the only way is to get faster with them.

Surprisingly I managed to apply that thought to the second set doing one breath in as I sunk down and one inhale as i reached the top but just slightly faster and hey presto, pushed the 200 mark even after doing 184 only ten mins earlier!

Now to slap some chicken breasts on the BBQ and prep some tasty salad.

Freeletics Week 8

Back to normal this week thankfully! The trainer's tip is to get as many * workouts as possible. A star being completing all the exercises in correct non-modified form. The only exercises that I currently do which I have to modify now are HS pressups and pullups.

Leg Lever MAX 61* PB
Ares 10:26

The leg lever exercise works your abs and by adding weight to your feet you can in turn increase the difficulty of this one as I found out when I left my walking boots on. Little did I realise at the time that they weigh 1Kilo per boot! Still managed to get a PB and push through the burning sensation in my abs.

Hades 26:36 PB
This was a hard one, felt quite de-motivated this morning. I can see the changes but I still suck completely at organising my week, it's currently Friday and I still have two more sessions to go which means I will have to do one each day of the weekend. It's not the fact I have to do them, it's the being lazy and not starting each weeks sessions until I absolutely have to. Unfortunately this means that because of my laziness I will have to do Kentauros (the outdoor one) in what looks like will be a heavy rain storm.

Still don't understand why I leave it until the last minute, because I feel great when I have worked out.

Anyhow, enough of the moaning, managed to smash another PB out on this one thankfully and in a sadistic way am looking forward to doing tomorrow's session even though it will be in the rain.

Kentauros 45:10 PB
What a relief to get this one done in time and not surprised I didn't get a PB. I got the tape measure out to see how far 20meters was, as previously I had gone with one large stride is one meter. Nope, one large stride is nothing like a meter and I was 2 meters short last time. So have altered the length of the strip I've been doing this on which in turn meant that I was 4m short on each exercise last time. So that's 10% more. Considering that the time isn't 10% more I don't think I've done too bad.

Although the incoming rain storm did push me harder! Plus I had extra motivation which I will explain next week which led me to run a few times around the house and then do a push-up MAX at the end of this session!

Poseidon 5:49 PB
Metis 08:51 * PB

Poseidon went well, still having to do the modified versions of the pull-ups but doing better each time.
Metis.... tiring as usual but got through it and managed to pull off another PB.

Feeling absolutely awesome this week and glad it's over again. I also have good motivator for finishing the 15 weeks with as much gains as I can, other than my beard which I found out this weekend, I'll fill you in over the coming week!

Closing thought... This week I have prob been the worst for procrastinating both at work and with freeletics so I will make sure that this coming week I will have my first exercise done on Monday. Just to make me feel accountable i'll also post that day's exercise to the blog.

Just a side note, I have had a couple of people say "must be nice to work for yourself so you can train during the day if you need to" To put this into context, it's not as straight forward as that. Today for instance it's 10am, by the time I have had a shower and started work it will be 11am. I'll either have to forfeit 2 hours of time paid or work another 2 hours into the evening. So, yes, it is good in one way but don't forget, I'll still have to either be short on money or work into the evening to catch up. No excuses for not doing exercises people :-)

Freeletics Week 7 : Hell Day?!!!

I've heard of hell week but not hell day! I just clicked next week and was presented with the following set of sessions. I had to re-read the trainers advice part because I read it like I was supposed to do the first group in a morning, second group later and third group at the end of the day and figured I'd need an ambulance on call!

After reading it again Hell Day, not hell week, is three days long but has three sessions per day. When I think about it I plan on doing one in a morning, one mid-day and one at the end of the day. The Max one's would fit nicely into a lunch break and the morning session I figured would just be a case of getting up half an hour earlier and skip my "cuppa tea and ponder about life" 15 mins before I start work. Which should give me enough time to fit in a 30 min session and a quick shower afterwards.

One of my all time favorite sayings is "If you want to be successful at work just get up a little earlier and work a little harder, it all adds up" I'll be living testament to that this week!

Session 1 (Tuesday)
Hades 33:50
HS Max 11 PB
Zeus 35:20 PB

Decided to start this weeks on a Tuesday, mainly because my chest hurt quite a bit after the correct pull-ups in Sunday's session. That and a bad night sleep on Sunday night. Mind you, I planned on getting up an hour earlier and doing this mornings session before breakfast but that never happened. It's now ten past nine so I had better get a wriggle on so i'm not too late starting work today!

No surprise that I was about 4 minutes over on Hades this morning considering that I have been doing pull-ups properly this time. Still having to jump up to the bar and lower myself down but the first few of a session are proper pull-ups so I am feeling the change.

HS Pushup max and Zeus are all evening ones. I have done the Max session half an hour before the Zeus session because Zeus has HS Push-ups in it and I figured I would not be able to do them if I had already done a full session of them to the point of failure.

Session 2 (Thursday)
Aphrodite 28:52*PB
Pull-up Max 6*PB
Artemis 36:08 PB

Feeling pretty sore from the last session so wasn't expecting what I just managed to push out! It's currently 8:52am, still not quite organised enough in a morning but I couldn't risk leaving it all until later as Artemis I guess would be a total fail later.

I'm now doing everything in Aphrodite in the un-modified form and not stopping to catch my breath between exercises or reps so it's all down to keeping in good form and getting faster on the reps now. I feel like I have come a very long way in a short space of time!

Pull-up MAX I managed to do 6 proper ones, again very surprised, and I did do some modified ones too but didn't count them as I wanted to put a star against at least one Pull-up exercise!

Artemis... now that's a real test right there!
50 Burpees, slow and controlled, no problem. 50 Pullup's, 3 slow and controlled in proper form and the rest were towel pullup's from a door in a very slow motion. By the end of these my forearms were burning! Onto 100 push-ups which I had to do in sets of around 10 a time with a few seconds break because my muscles would just fail. 150 squats, slow and controlled but with another small breather after each 50. However by the time I got to the second set of 50 Burpees I was well and truly shattered, I struggled getting through them. Kinda reminded me of the first time I had tried them.

Looking forward to a bath and a rest tomorrow too!

Session 3 (Monday)
Artemis 31:30 PB
Aphrodite 26:10 * PB
Squat MAX

This morning's Artemis was not a pleasant exercise, really felt out of synch and just not with it at all. Last night I had a doner kebab for tea and a slab of chocolate cake, which considering how good I have eaten all week I didn't think would affect me but I didn't feel as alert and on-the-ball as usual when I started.

I have decided to do Aphrodite and Squat MAX one after the other as I quite like the squats and I think I could smash through those pretty easily (or that's how it feels at the moment).

Aphrodite done in a PB and also beat a client's time, 20 years younger than me so am feeling pretty damn good right now, albeit very very out of breath and sweaty.

Squat done and managed to get a PB too. Glad this week is over, I don't mind doing a workout every day but fitting three into a day in separate intervals was not an easy task.

Freeletics week 6

I do believe I have turned a corner this week and started to enjoy the exercises.  I was running a bath earlier today and rather than sit and watch it fill, check messages on the phone etc. I actually reached for the freeletics app, picked out push ups and did a push up max to kill some time.  That's not the usual me at all.  Plus I smashed the last one and got 40 as opposed to 30 last time.

Still not hell week,  this week I only have for sessions again.  Although if today is anything to judge by then I will probably do some extra.

Session 1
Aphrodite 31:42*PB

Another PB surprisingly, I didn't feel as if I did it faster apart from at the start. Really enjoyed it tonight and am very very sweaty!

Session 2
Aphrodite 30:47 *PB
Getting stronger and faster every time! That's another minute off yesterdays time. I could feel myself pushing harder as the clock reached 30 minutes but just couldn't quite get the burpees done quick enough. They are a real killer in this one. All in all very sweaty, tired and ready for a brew.

It's right what they say on some of the videos, after a while you do start to enjoy it!! Especially when you can see the changes. It's week 6 now and I can already see a change to my upper body.

Session 3
Kentauros 42:44*PB
Good god this one kills your legs! I felt pretty awkward as I always to when I started this one. The frogger jumps were either too short or a bit wonky and as for the walking lunges.... talk about burning thighs!

I did smile half way through it thinking to myself, I'm going to spend 3 hours stood up in the back of a landrover later going down bumpy roads, if i'd of known it was as killer on the legs I would of left it to another day..... Excuses excuses.

Session 4
Posideon 13:39
Last day and kinda regretting the last thing which was to move 100 rather large and heavy fence posts from one place to another just before doing the session, shall see how this one goes! Also made a better pullup bar to use which I'll post a photo of when i'm done.

First thought's are that I wish I had not done such modified pull-ups in previous sessions. I had read up

on all the different suggestions on doing a pull-up without a pull-up bar. One of them was to put a broom handle between two chairs, lay on your back underneath it and pull-up from there.Little did I think that the weight would be a lot less than a normal standing pull up and I definitely felt it today.

As you can see from the photo I put a metal ladder between the roof of the Landrover and one of the outbuildings which worked perfectly well. I nearly got three normal pull-ups before my arms gave way and I had to revert to the suggested simpler one whereby you spring up on your feet first.

Push ups were not an issue but pull ups... killer.

Freeletics Week 5

I can't tell you how relieved I am to see that this isn't hell week! As you will know from week 4 I was pretty weak willed and am starting week 5 on a Wednesday, so the thought of a 5 or more session week was haunting me. So I'm happy to say I have 4 sessions this week.

Session 1
Aphrodite 39:02* PB
Absolutely over the moon today. This is the First Aphrodite that I have done all on the hardest form, previously I have been doing modified burpees. Which in the video shows that you don't go all the way to the floor on your chest. This time however I did and I can feel my shoulders burning.

I forgot to make a mental note of my previous PB so I thought it best just to push as hard as I could because I doubted that I could get one by doing the hardest forms of each exercise but I've just finished and I've not only got a PB but proudly got a star against it finally! Actually, looking back I am ten mins slower, but I guess the PB is because it's the best time whilst doing the hardest version. Either way round I can certainly tell!

Now to walk the dogs, grab some soup and have a soak in the bath :-)

Session 2
Metis 8:52*PB
Metis 10:50*
Not surprisingly the second set was no where near as quick as the first! I feel quite proud I have managed to get a PB on the first set because I have been chopping logs since 1pm this afternoon (now just after 7pm) so I was pretty tired to start with and was trying to justify to myself as I tidied up the remaining wood that I didn't really need to do a session today.

Glad I did now and off inside for a nice hot bath and a brew!

Session 3
Uranos
I did session 3 after session 4, for the simple reason that the day I planned doing session 3 on which was a Saturday, I had spent all day walking and my ankle was giving me quite a bit of pain. That and it was late at night before I got chance to start so I thought I would set myself up for failure trying to run in pain in the dark.

So Uranos 44:06PB ... my Achilles heel, literally. Hate running with a passion, after having my ankle reconstructed years ago I get nothing but pain in it daily and running is pretty damn painful so it's on with the pain killers and I'm ready to go....

That was pre-workout and this is after.... shattered haha.

Really happy with how that went, I am not sure on the length of my run at the moment. I am using Google tracks on the phone to keep a record of how far the run (more like a jog) is. This time I was at the 500m mark on the first run and the phone only showed 36m. Either way I ran more than I walked this time. The distraction of having two spaniels with me helped too, especially after Wilfred decided that he would roll onto his back for a rub every 100m or so!

The burpees I now have down to a tee, all 50 in good form one after the other. Pull ups I am still doing using some ladders hanging out the back of the land rover so i'm pretty sure they aren't as hard as doing it with a pull-up bar, must make a note to see if I can put one somewhere outside.

Climbers I still find have me out of breath every ten or so but again, all in good form. Pushups, I managed to do 30 straight off and had to stop to catch breath every ten after that.

Finally High Jumps. I can tell there is a huge improvement in the way I do these. I seem to remember in the first few weeks I was not getting my knees very high and I was landing on my left foot first which ended up looking more like on the spot skipping than a high jump. Now I can feel my knees coming all the way up and I am landing both feet together. However after about 70 I was starting to feel some serious pain in my right ankle so I adjusted the way that I landed to make it a little easier.

All in all a great session!

Session 4
Aphrodite 31:44 * PB
That was a huge uptake on the the last PB of 39 minutes. I'm surprised again that I managed to get a PB  today as I have been at Harewood Estate on an advanced Gundog day, so I have walked pretty far and my legs were tired. That and I had to take some pain killers before I started as my foot was really hurting.

I did alter a few things along the way and noticed a difference. Firstly breathing correctly in the sit ups, yes it's breathe out when sitting up and in when going back to the laid down position but I did breathe deeper and put my arms right back, therefore filling my lungs more. I was able to do more reps straight up then.

The other thing was the "rests". Now I know that you shouldn't be resting as such between each exercise but I have been finishing the situps and standing for half a minute to catch my breath. However this time I took all of them steadier and rather than resting I took two deep breaths after the situps and went straight into the burpees. My core felt tighter and I did more reps as a result. All in all a great session.

Freeletics Week 4 - Epic FAIL

It's quite true about not giving up and I am determined not to but I seem to be awesome at thinking up excuses for not doing the sessions leading to me being two sessions behind this week. Needless to say I will be two days late starting next weeks so even if it isn't hell week it sure is going to feel like it!

I even started this session (Day 4) with the thought, "I'll skip the run because my foot hurts after spending 11 hours chopping wood on Saturday still" but managed to muster the willpower to start the session and have just finished!

It is so easy to find an excuse not to do something, this week was easier than most, with the OpenSSL (Heartbleed) Vulnerability in the news I spent quite a while patching servers and talking to clients about security. In fact I spent the entire week dealing with that subject and getting no scheduled work done so have had to work today in an attempt to catch up. All those long days led to more excuses as to how tired I was, "I'll do it tomorrow" seemed to be my favorite.

Day 1
Hades 32:55PB
Another PB and glad to have finished this time. The sprints really do take the wind out of your sails so to speak. I am feeling much better about the burpees too, shame I still struggle to do the pullups but they are getting there slowly.

Day 2
Squat MAX 162*PB
Split Lunge MAX 80*PB
The results speak for themselves, I feel much stronger than I did at the start, probably because my technique is better and therefore I am able to do more reps and so they feel easier. Either way I feel great but shattered after this session!

Day 3
Uranos 52:41 PB
Absolutely shattered! The run was an absolute killer as I've not ran for a long time, ten years or more! I spent the first 50 yards at a sprint, slowed to a jog and did the last leg in a cross between a one legged drunken sloth attempting to speedwalk whilst wheezing for breath. I just couldn't seem to get enough oxygen in my lungs, I seem to remember from school that it was in for two paces and out for two paces but that just didn't seem to cut it.

Then came another bout of internal justification as I attempted to talk myself out of any pullups
Too late to be getting the steps out
Landrover needs moving
Table is too heavy to move
I'll do them tomorrow instead
However, I managed to muster up the willpower to push through and finished off 50 burpees in good form, 50 pullups of sorts, 50 climbers in good form, 50 pushups 80% in good form and the other 20% from the knee. Finally 100 jumps.


I'll not be making any excuse over the next two days! I'll be posting the results of these on Tuesday night, you can count on it!

Day 4
Split Lunge MAX 82*PB
Ares 13:52
The split lunges really do work your thighs! A slightly disappointing day, shame I didn't get another PB on the Ares but one of the dogs decided to take itself out of the gates so there was a bit of a chase in the middle of that one.

Day 5
Hades 29:57 PB
Warmest day of the year, not a cloud in the sky and don't I know it. Feeling great today, can't wait to see what is on the following week. I've managed to get a PB this time and it feels even better because all my burpees are not the modified version any more. I am managing to do the harder versions and I feel better for it and more drained which is always a good feeling.

Glad this week is over and I feel back on track!!

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.

Freeletics Week 2

Motivation city this week!

Firstly when I clicked on the coach to move into week two it covered the fact that I had only done a couple of pullups in each session last week and said it was quite normal to do only one or two. Plus I have seen some others on you tube that struggle with a couple so I don't feel as de-motivated as I ended on last week.

I've just started writing this after the first workout which was Aphrodite again and I smashed my last time which was 47mins and got a PB of 34 minutes. Last week was much harder so I am guessing it has kick started my metabolism  that and the banana I had about an hour before I started the workout helped! Day 1 done and feeling great.

Day 2
Situp MAX *83
Metis 09:09

Pretty amazed I could do that many situps considering I was still a little sore from Aphrodite. As for Metis, on paper, as do most, Metis looks pretty easy but it is far from it. Really made me sweat and work for it even though there is less to do than Aphrodite it's just as exhausting and an absolute killer on your legs!

Day 3
Aphrodite again and once again managed to get a PB with 31:15 which was over 3 minutes faster than last time. I can see the next one i'll be watching the clock to get sub 30minutes, can only imagine how good that is going to feel.

Day 4
Situp MAX *94
Metis 09:06

Week 2 over...
I've noticed that I have started to sweat more now that my body has got used to exercise once more. Don't be alarmed if you are like me and sit at a desk all day and the first time you do some strenuous exercise you are absolutely shattered, gasping for breath and not sweating at all. Your body needs to learn to sweat again, there is a scientific explanation for it but I can't for the life of me remember what it is called.

Anyhow, that's me just finished the Metis, sweating profusely and looking forward to chopping some wood up for the fire and messing around with the dogs. Admittedly I feel like I am enjoying the workouts and the additional bonus of seeing the time on screen gives you that extra little push to beat your last time for that exercise.

See you all next week!

Teaching your dog to sit, drop to shot etc.

I decided to put this onto my blog as I am writing it to submit to the club where we train as they asked if anyone would like to write down how they train their dogs to sit. As you can see above, this is my eldest dog Frank while out on a walk being recalled (three pips) and then being sat at distance (one pip).

Training a dog to sit sounds like the most simplest of tasks and probably is, but will become a powerful tool later on in the dogs working life. You may of heard the term “drop to shot” where upon a gun being fired your dog should stop, sit and then mark the bird (watch where it drops). Or you may have seen dogs working out in the field many hundreds of yards from the owner and with one pip of the whistle or on a noisy / windy day just a raised hand, the dog stops, sits and pays attention for it’s next command. These actions and more have a strong link back to the simple act of getting your dog to sit.

Two things to remember throughout all training. Consistency is the key, just because you are late for work doesn’t mean that you can skip the lesson at feeding time in a morning, just because you really need the loo still doesn’t mean you can put the bowl down and leave the dogs to eat. That’s plain lazy. Also commands to carry out a task are always nice command, never feel stressed out because your dog isn’t sitting and start to raise your voice or say sit in a nasty way. If you need to tell them off you should be using something to let them know it’s wrong, I use a short “ah” in a gruff voice.

The basic sit

So first of all let’s look at how to get your dog to sit in the most basic of ways and then move on to each step, evolving the sit so that you can confidently sit your dog at distance.

There are many types of commands to use and first we train the verbal and slightly introduce a visual one. Most dogs don’t have a GCSE in english so you can use whatever word you like, personally I use “sit” however some use “hup”. I find the easiest way to get them to sit is from a young age using feeding time and play time, then it feels natural to them.

Let’s take feeding time as a pup. With the bowl of food in one hand stand up straight and with the palm of your other hand facing them, fingers closed give the command to sit. For an untrained dog this will mean nothing so repeat a couple of times and if your dog is still over excited at the thought of food then put the food on the floor, keeping the dog at arms length, with one hand on it’s chest and one hand on it’s bum push it’s bum to the floor and hold it in the sit position and repeat in a calm voice your command to sit about three or four times. It will take a few weeks to train this into your dog, at which point you should soon be able to get the dog to sit by holding the food in one hand and commanding it to sit.

You could do the same with a toy, hold it in your hand or put it on the ground and repeat until they are sitting correctly. Don’t forget that when they do, praise them. I don’t teach with a clicker or food, just a “good boy” and a pat.

The sit and stay

Now we have a dog that will sit to a verbal command after a few weeks, with and without a temptation in your hand. What you need next it for them to stay on the spot while the bowl or toy is being lowered to the ground and stay that way until the command is given to eat.

This is a simple case of as you are lowering yourself to the ground keep repeating the command word and if needs be a gentle bit of pressure on their chest to hold them back. If they force forward just stand back up. This takes a lot of patience! The first week of doing this with mine resulted in me having to hold them back with a lot of “ah’s”. The length of time they are sat should be different too. This is important so they do not second guess you! The moment you give the command to eat give them praise.

DO NOT say “sit, siiiitttt, stayyy, wait waiiiittt, waiiiiit”. How many commands do you need?! Just a simple single word will do. Sit means sit until you give it another command. Also never get it to sit and then praise it by calling it in, i.e. "come here, good boy", this is teaching it to be unsteady.

Now we should have a dog that when you command it to sit, it sits and should stay there until you tell it to do something albeit in a quiet environment but most importantly if it is a pup it will make the transition into attending gundog class a lot easier as there are more distractions out there.

Finally let’s cover sitting to visual signals and whistles.

The basic structure is the same. Practise it in stages, gradually building up distance and being consistent.

Sit and stay at distance

Firstly we need them to be able to see / hear the command at distance so firstly try walking the dog to heel, as your leading foot hits the ground give the lead a little tug and say sit. Once this has been mastered use the whistle AND the verbal command, give it one short beep on the whistle and by the time your second foot hits the floor as you are standing the dog should be sat.

Along with this while out on a walk also sit your dog, turn to face it, still on the lead, raise your arm high in the air, palm facing away from you, fingers closed and issue the sit command or whistle, even if it is already sat. Reaffirm this and take a step back, if the dog starts to shuffle, put it back on the spot, even if it only a few inches, pip the whistle and step back. Keep repeating this until they are steady and you are at the length of the lead. Now is the time to slip the lead off and get further and further back.

IMPORTANT…. Consistency warning… Always put your dog back on the spot if it moves off, shuffles, crawls and start again.

Praise comes when you get back to the dogs side.

When you are at a distance away, try walking around, don’t just go straight back. Walk behind a tree and out again, bushes are great too but only for short moments. The dog will soon learn that you are coming back. It is also important at this stage that the dog is looking at you. Yes it’s great the dog sit’s 300 yards out and looks like it’s half asleep watching the squirrels in the wood nearby but you really need the dog to pay attention verbally and visually.

To truly get your dog to sit while it is away from you simply let it play around your feet and issue the sit command. If it labours before the sit, tell it off, run over, push its bum to the ground and make it sit. Eventually it will get the message that when you say sit, no matter where you are, you mean it. Increase the distance until you are confident that it will sit at a good distance away. This is where the visual raised hand is powerful as they may not be able to make out what you have said or what the whistle was.

Dropping to shot is then just a matter of introcuding the dog, at a correct age to a starting pistol while carrying out the commands. For mine I train to sit at distance first, then crack a shot off and beep the whistle while holding my hand up. Eventually they realise that a gunshot, raised hand, sit command all mean sit.

Now you can take great pride in your dog that has manners and have a quiet giggle at the 9 year old untrained dogs in the park running around while the owners are screaming commands at them in an attempt at control.

Consistency, consistency, consistency.

Freeletics Week 1

I ache!!!

That about sums up the week.

Day 1. (Wed)

Pushup MAX (27*)

Pullup MAX (2)

Pushup MAX (28*)

As these are all MAX ones it is simply a case of doing as many as possible in 100 seconds of each one. Simple... or so I thought. Pushup's I managed to get to where I thought, Pullups though; absolutely no chance unless I literally jumped up at the bar. So I did two correctly and the rest were me just putting as much strain on my arms as possible. The final pushup's I reached the wall and just couldn't do any more.

After only a few minutes of exercise in total I felt like it wasn't really doing much, although the following day I can feel a little soreness in my chest and while I was doing it I did feel my muscles burning.

Day 2. (Thur)

Burpees MAX (36)

Squats MAX (101*)

The first set had it's own complications, mainly to do with two over excited spaniels which combined with my terrible fitness made it hard to do even 36. Squats not so much of a problem as I managed to maintain good form but slow. Now a few mins after and i'm sweating like a good un and my legs are aching!!! I'm pretty thankful for having the forethought to cut all the logs for tonight and tomorrow morning as the prospect of weilding a 6 pound axe isn't appealing any more. Bath time!.....

Day 3. (Sat)
Basically the same as day one but changed around, two lots of pullups and one set of pushups. Needless to say I did 2 pullups, 30 pushups and 3 pullups. At the end of this one I felt pretty de-motivated as I thought that surely I should be doing more than 2 pullups.

Day 4 (Sun)
Aphrodite Click to view
Now this was bloody hard work and admittedly I got to the middle of the third round and felt like packing it in but I got through it all in 50 minutes! Burpees seem to be a real killer for me which took the longest of all the exercises.

End of week 1....
So I finished week one. I pretty much ache in many places, especially my legs after that last session. Once I had entered my times into the coach section I clicked on "Next Week" and was presented with a few Max's, two Aphrodite's and two Metis's (see here) All in all I have four sessions this week, the first one being Aphrodite!

Considering that the weather for today is clear skies and tomorrow it is raining I've chosen to start tomorrow as I really need to install a new wood burner in the office and spend a few hours chopping wood. The likeliness of be being able to get the most out of a freeletics session when I've been doing that all day is slim.

To sum up, I feel like I have more energy in myself so it was all worth it!