I’ve been with Freeletics for 11 years. Very consistent for the last 4.
Unfortunately it doesn’t provide me with what I need and what I’m looking for anymore.
Skills are barely utilised. I can’t progress in a skill if coach is assigning it 2 or 3 times a month.
Feedback at the end of the workout is hit or miss, sometimes works, sometimes not. Usually not.
Chasing trends instead working on improving users experience and coach quality.
Too many pop-ups and ads inside the app.
Also I have noticed a lack of communication on this forum. No acknowledgments on users feedback and so on.
One day I will return to see if anything improved at all. Until then I am moving on.
Couldn’t agree more! Usually I cycle between Freeletics Journey and another app.
Seeing how silent this forum is and no communication by the devs at all this will be my last time using Freeletics for now ending in October.
I have known Freeletics since the early PDF Plans and despite a lot of things that have improved since then I feel like the app has become worse again.
Hi there. I agree with you in some aspects, but not so much in others.
The skill progression and adaptation is pointless, and I think they’ve given up on that concept. In my opinion, they should either rebuild the whole thing or remove it completely.
The feedback is hit and miss, but it’s not that bad. I’ve tried many other apps, and I’ve seen much worse. None of those apps is perfect in that regard.
This is a community forum, so the fact that there’s not much activity is mainly our fault. Of course, it would be great to see more engagement from the developers, but we don’t seem to be that eager to reply either.
I feel like they keep adding stuff, and in general I’m happy with the updates. I’m 44 and I’ve stopped chasing huge muscle growth or crazy calisthenic skills. Instead, I’m more focused on my general fitness, and Freeletics is a really good tool for that.
I can’t speak to the point about skill progression as it’s not something I focused on.
Regarding the lack of communication. I agree that this is a community forum first but if there are specific questions or suggestions about the training in the app it would be nice to get an official response.
The app definitely works for many people, otherwise the user base wouldn’t be there and I think for general fitness purposes it does a great job. On the other hand the issue with the lack of coach adjustment in the Dumbbell Journey has been there for years now.
Everyone has their own needs and no app will ever meet all of them. But I think leaving valid criticism here gives the FL team a chance to adjust and see why people might be leaving.
Don’t get me wrong, Freeletics is a great fitness tool. And if it suits your goals that’s perfect.
I just don’t feel like this app has evolved in the right direction. As the time went on, my experience hasn’t improve. My progression has staled, sense of structure wasn’t there. Almost like coach has given up on me in a way
And look, if I have the time and will to program my own trainings and create them to have a structure, to track my progress, to adapt and so on, I wouldn’t use the app. I would just do it myself.
I sometimes wonder what type of goals people have when applying Freeletics?
There really is one way to get really fit with Freeletics and that’s the utilisation of the God workouts and applying proper technique without shortcuts. Not the watered down Gods, but the hard(er) ones. The watered out Gods can be applied as part of transitions between 2 or 3 harder Gods or as warming down end sessions. Everything else is just fluff, even the weight-lifting journeys. I’d argue that Freeletics Gym app that was discontinued was way better than today’s app.
Even though the old Freeletics Hardcore journey no longer exists, proper sessions can still be done without selecting any journeys and simply using the app as was intended when it was created - meaning just doing old-school God workouts. It’s hard, but also rewarding in that sense that you’ll get stronger and automatically progress without paying attention to skill-progression.
I get that not everyone wants or needs to get in super top shape, but the good thing about Freeletics is that God workouts are really all one needs.
I’ve been with Freeletics for over 12 years now, since May 2014. I’ve been consistent with the app and have never really stopped. Purchased the lifetime subscription in 2022. Even though the app has kept adapting and expanding, for me personally, Gods are still the GOATs.
On the sidenote, I do understand why all this was done; Customer retention.
I mean, it wasn’t a bashing on Freeletics. I was there in the discussions back in the day arguing that the app had to accommodate to beginners if they wanted retention numbers that produced revenue. Otherwise the app would only cater to the 1% of the userbase who would bother with Hardcore journey.
My argument is that old Gods are to this day everything one needs to get in proper good shape.
Absolutely. But I can not Unterstand why you wouldnt Just give the Community a proper way to get absolutely wasted wvery Workout. Freeletics includes everyone but Not those who started. It is Not about to Cut Out Intervals but to include the old way to Not be able to move for weeks for those who want it
Lol, I actually remember not being able to fall asleep because of how sore my muscles were. Then, next day, get up and do it all over.
The Strength versions of Gods was a bit too much. I do understand why they decided to abandon that approach. I mean, turning pull-ups into Muscle ups, pushups into one-handed pushups, burpees into burpee squat jumps or whatever they were called, squats into pistols etc. Nothing wrong with this type of progression, but it was overkill. I did several of the Strength version Gods, but I felt intensity got sacrificed for nothing but overload.
It could have worked if Strength versions were capped at say 1/3rd of reps of the standard Gods. That way intensity could have been maintained. But with the same rep load it was just too much.
Kronos-, Helios-, Artemis-, Hades-, Zeus-, Aphrodite-, Venus Strength…that was just pure madness. If 1% of users were completing standard Gods Hardcore Journey, I reckon something like 1%, or less, of those again bothered doing Strength Gods.
I tried the new Hardcore version and didn’t bother finishing it. It got too convoluted with additional workouts and intervals, which just made the actual God sessions less intense and effective.
The original Hardcore journey worked because it had pretty hard sessions every day (or 5 days a week), ending with the Hell Week of 3 God session per day for an entire week, or full 7 days. But they could be finished with max. intensity.
It was full focus on giving it your all each session, and after finishing that session, if I felt up for it I could do more, but with the new Hardcore journey, the additional programs every day got too much. 1-2 interval sessions on top of a full God session was too much. There was no way I’d do 15-30 mins interval training, which were pretty demanding by themselves, then jump into old school God program and do that at max. pace. I simply couldn’t do it and efficiency was sacrificed for simply completing.
This is why Strength Gods didn’t work. Yes, it could be done, but not with intensity. You had to split the session up in so many chunks just to finish.
I’ve finished many 3 x Gods over the years (not the hardest ones like Helios, Kronos and such) and I feel that the updated Hardcore Journey, that replaced the original one, was aiming more towards doing more for the sake of more, instead of focusing on what worked; intense, focused and effective sessions where the body and the nervous system were pushing maximum limit for a limited duration.
I don’t know if this makes sense, but that’s basically my take on why the current Hardcore Journey doesn’t work the same way as it was initially intended, and why I don’t believe one can expect the same results as in the old days. They’ve basically turned a 100-200m sprint into a 3000m run. You simply can’t build explosiveness into your muscles this way. Which in turn can’t produce the muscular tone and shape that Joshua and Mehmet initially targeted when they created Freeletics.
The Hardcore Journey never changed, so I don’t understand what arguments you are bringing into here.
What have changed is your Level.
What is very confusing to me, you are not getting challenged, but at the same time interval and gods same day is too much?
It’s up to you to choose your pace within the workout. If you can’t go fast, because you had an interval before, than this is not about effectiveness
You can change order of the workouts, no one is forcing you into interval before gods and not vice versa.
There is a difference between gods and intervals same like Venus is different than Aphrodite.
Maybe I didn’t test it enough as it has been a long while since I tried it, but I remember there usually being 1-2 interval sessions where each interval session would last 10-15 minutes, followed by a God session.
It all comes down to preference I guess, but I personally felt that I’d rather do 1-2-3 full Gods, depending on their difficulty, than waste my energy doing AI-made interval session with lots of core-focused exercises, followed by a God session.
It just didn’t work for me. For me, what I refer to as old-school Hardcore Journey is what the journey was back in 2014/2015/2016.
Back than, there was no journey, no period of time with a defined target. That got me confused. Journeys has been introduced way later.
Back than just gods depending on the selected focus. As I wrote before, I had 3 to 4 gods in endless repeat.
It all comes down to preference and you can’t be everybody’s darling. Got your point tho and said that already. I would gladly take a gods only journey. If that’s what drives your motivation, I get that.
The only point I disagree with is that a gods only journey would be more efficient than a mixture.
One point we haven’t touched yet. You can select one of those ultimate journeys and switch coach day to god only. It’s not convenient but at least something.
I have completed the hardcore journey. It is not easy but it is as you already said. Most of the times the intervals are there for stabilisation and so on. I totally get that approach here which makes sense to me too. But the Gods just get my ass up and get me going.
Maybe I am being childish here but there are many more like me out there who just love the gods setting. It just motivated my ass to lose 25kg and get into the best shape of my life. Did the old PDFs and then balanced burn. with according feedback. Hit me with 2x Aphrodite in one session as well after some time, so that is not the problem perse.
The greatest training program does not get you any further if you dont do it. For me it always have been the gods. The “Dont every dare to quit, even if you vomit” approach as you can find online in the old PDFs. Even it is repeating and boring. Getting into good shape and being physically fit is nothing which has to be changing everyday. If you wanna get any fitter, just do burpees over an over or pushups, …
If you look at Artemis or Helios: Is it boring? Sometimes yeah. Is it the best possible workout you could do? Certainly not. Do I love it? Hell yeah and I am not alone with that. But for me its just the instance that it is a god workout. As silly as it may sound like.
I dont get why Freeletics does not just add this type or Program like it was back then. Simple, Overload, Gods and it just hits you like a hammer.
And i gotta say: Lately I have been seeing way less HARDCORE Body transformations as I did in the early beginnings. Maybe this is just my stand here but it is something that i noticed. Please correct me if I’m wrong here.
In the end it needs to be sustainable, rather than just quick.
I was part of the 2 community transformation programs Freeletics, led by ambassadors. Even tho the program look different now than back than, the results where pretty good.
Overall it’s physical activity + a good diet. You can stress the body with more/harder training and might get faster to the result.
The PDF was something completely different and many wouldn’t finish that one or would never do a second round.
But as I said, I do understand where you coming from, I simple disagree that’s the only/quickest way.
