I’m about to finish my first journey and am wondering which one to to next. Some background.
44 years old, 1.86m, 76 kg. Main sport is windsurfing but it’s to irregular to keep me in shape. Broke 3 bones in my left foot 3 years ago during a windsurf crash which took 1-1.5 years to recover during which my fitness level dropped significantly and gained weight to around 80kg. In summer i do mountainbiking which got me back to normal weight but also it’s not regular enough to get the fitness level back.
Started balanced burn 3 months ago. Goal was too get the fitness level back up, get rid of the pot belly and possibly gain some muscle. I really liked the journey and results. PB for aphrodite went from ~40 to 25 minutes and the belly fat is definately reduced. I maintained my normal weight so must have gained some muscle.
So whats next. I could do another balanced burn, there still is some fat left to remove. But to be honest i’m getting a bit fed up with the large reps. Things like 3xorpheus with just 360 sprawls. I would prefer harder exercises and more pullsup/ dumbell work.
Some options:
Dumbell gain:
Pro: focus on strength, muscle growth. Neg: no gods/cardio. I would miss that
Explosive strength. Sounds a bit similar to balanced burn? No pull up bars
Hybrid strength would fit well but i dont have access to a barbell and rack
Weight free gain: maybe this is the one? Lower reps and harder exercises? But is also no pullups here?
It‘s no problem to add dumbbells and Pull-up bar as equipment at the weights free journey and the explosive strength journey. You can also disable runs/sprints at the explosive strength journey.
Nice work on your first Journey and your Aphrodite PB!
I keep going back to the Hybrid Journey myself and I would highly recommend it, however without barbells that might be tricky (although you could substitute). I am doing a 5 days split and it looks like this: 2 days heavy barbell training (one upper, one lower), 2 days of mix training: dumbbell+kettlebell+bodyweight training (one upper, one lower) and one day of cardio with a god workout.
If you have access to dumbells, I would suggest doing the dumbbell journey as this would enable you to maximise your strength gains with progressive overload. From my understanding, the Dumbbell journey works by superseting 2 movements and sometimes superseting a weight movement with a bodyweight movement. You will definitely feel the burn when the Coach assigns you goblet squats followed by jumping squat for time! Also, there is much more exercise diversification compared to the barbells exercises.
If you want to add more cardio, do a God Workout and have this “Hybrid Journey” feels, I would recommend doing the “Workout of the Week” available at the top of the explore tab.
For example, you could do 4 days on the Journey on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and the Workout of the week on Wednesday. Or whatever suis you best
The nly downfall would be that there is no pull up bar in this journey, You might however use it during the workout of the week.
Another option would be to do the Weight free gains and add as equipment the ones you have available, e.g. dumbbells, pull up bars, resistance bands, etc and the variety would feel really good! I think the split is the same with days dedicated to upper/lower body and a God day (mostly strength focus God). You can add in a “Workout of the Week” to add more cardio or even a Jumping ropes workout from the explore tab.
Just to clarify from your question, the pull-up bar is almost in every journey as it is a staple of Freeletics you can add it in the equipment section of your current journey (except the pure Kettlebell/dumbbell/barbell journey)
Hope that helps and let us know if you have more questions
To be clear: i have the pullup bar enabled in my current journey but in balanced burn i hardly get to use it. I guess that makes sense since this journey is based on many rep light resistance and most pull up exercises do not fit there.
What i kind of missed also in the balanced burn is having the days split up in body parts what you mentioned above, it was mostly leg/core. When i tried doing 5 days a week i felt i didnt have enough recovery time (mainly in the legs).
I think i’ll opt for weight free gain then, and if that doesnt suit me try dumbell gain with manual cario gods on one day.
(although you could substitute). I am doing a 5 days split and it looks like this: 2 days heavy barbell training (one upper, one lower), 2 days of mix training: dumbbell+kettlebell+bodyweight training (one upper, one lower) and one day of cardio with a god workout.