If you don’t know me, I’ve been using Freeletics since 2020 and I’m very much a self-learner – so I feel I should speak up here
I’ll focus on two skill groups: pull-ups and handstands – because I have a personal story with both, and I also see them as fundamental calisthenics skills.
Why I see Skill Progression as a key feature
(these are science-backed, not buzzwords)
Learning new skills builds new movement capacity and raises your long-term strength ceiling.
Many plateaus are nervous-system plateaus, not muscle ones – harder progressions re-unlock progress when reps and volume stop working.
Changing progressions activates muscle fibers that weren’t fully used before and can restart growth in “stuck” muscles.
New skills make your existing strength usable through more angles and positions, improving control and holds even without adding muscle.
Why I think the current feature is not performing
About 3 years ago the Coach gave me a wall handstand. I couldn’t do it, the app didn’t help, I excluded it – and all handstand work was blocked.
I didn’t own a pull-up bar and didn’t know how to do pull-ups – the app didn’t guide me into learning, so those were blocked too.
Progression logic often feels weird and rigid, with unrealistic jumps and questionable transitions.
It’s non-transparent: it’s unclear how to “complete” a step.
I suspect many users don’t even realize they are missing out on skill learning because it feels out of reach.
My story
I ended up learning both skills outside the app.
Progressing them has been one of the most rewarding parts of my fitness journey.
I could have started this 2–3 years earlier – but the app didn’t help me get there.
Proposal
I think this feature needs to be reimagined, not patched.
Some initial ideas:
Skill paths that start before the skill exists.
Multiple progression routes instead of a single rigid ladder.
Clear visibility of what you’re training, why, and what unlocks what.
A way to invite users into skills instead of hiding them behind exclusions.
Enough volume and frequency for real learning to happen.
This is meant as a conversation starter.
I’d love to hear:
Does this feature help you learn skills – or does it block you?
Have you progressed mainly inside or outside Freeletics?
What would you want this to look like if it truly helped you grow?
If anyone from the Freeletics product team is around, I’d be very open to discussing this further and contributing ideas together with the community to help this feature reach its full potential.
Love this post. Skill progression is a great idea, and I love that it’s a part of the training. I feel, however, that in its current form, it is not very helpful. It helped me a bit with leg raises and pistol squats, but I’ve been struggling to make any progress with push-ups and pull-ups. The latter, especially, are difficult for me with the current milestones. I also can’t do kipping pull-ups with my setup at home, and it’s a requirement in the progression.
Most of my progress with push-ups and pull-ups was made through the “grease the groove” method done outside of the app.
One other area for improvement I see is that the Coach often assigns push-ups as part of my workout immediately after doing push-ups in my skill progression, which I’m pretty sure affects how many reps I can do. Maybe the skill progression could be included on non-workout days, similarly to mobility sessions in Ultimate Strength?
Thank you for starting this post; it’s a great idea, and service user feedback should definitely be taken into account. I’ve only recently started using the app, but I already find the skill progression feature frustrating.
Just some thoughts below;
Coach Questioning & Skill Assessment
The coach should ask more detailed, skill-focused questions (what users can already do, how well, how often and confidence in movement). For example, being able to perform one push-up shouldn’t automatically mean it’s programmed as full sets and reps; there should be opportunities to practice skills separately using scaled versions within workouts
Personalisation & Movement Focus
If the app is truly personalised, users should be able to select specific skills or movements they want prioritised. For instance, I enjoy pull-ups and strict calisthenics movements, but they don’t appear frequently enough in my current workout plans.
It’s interesting that the three of us, while we probably have different training background and time we’ve been using the app, equally find that the skills progression feature in its current form is not very helpful. At the same time we all find the concept of skill progression useful in theory. And it was great to read the additional suggestions you have.
To recap some of the themes:
actual skill learning happens outside of the app (or doesn’t happen at all)
the current structure is restrictive and inflexible and may block users from progressing (e.g. no space for kipping pullups at home)
the app doesn’t expose users enough to skills they might want to progress
Overall, I see that the app is great at conditioning but lacks skill building, which would be so useful for long-term progression and retention.
If anyone from the Freeletics team is following this, I’d love it if this was picked up.
Iam using an outside AI to complement this app and I have learned I should do some reps of the exercise I am currently in the akill progression frecuently in the days off if the nuscle is not very tired rebuilding.
For instance I was doing 5 negative pullups in the app and during the days off I would do 2 reps with a long rest in between.
It is just to say the nervious system that I want to keep on doing this.. just to remember it. A small acrivation without creating lactid acid. You should not feel tired at the end but feel the strenght and the explosion during the exercise.
It would be great for the app to take that into account. Sometimes I would be a lot of days without doing any of my most difficult exercises I was in at the moment to progress.
And if I choose 4 skills I should do 3 or 4 every day I guess. At the begining, and then the rest of the workouts.
Also the ulstimate strength programme doesn’t gome with the skills progression… I will have to do that outside also. Maybe just the small numbers of reps of the most difficult exercise, just to maintain the skill. Like a periorization. Then I will choose again calistenics to go to the park.
That also could be included. Small reps at the beginning to KEEP the skills. Not to progress. Maybe.
Cheers!!
Update: the ultimate strength journey comes with the skills progression. Maybe not in the first week but I saw them afterwards.
Great post!
As with many features in the current state of the FL app, I think the skills are a great addition that did not get thougt through and included properly.
What I am missing:
Multiple progression options for one skill.
For example Negative PullUps and Band assisted PullUps in my opinion could be at the same level. If I do not have bands, I can do negatives, so missing equipment does not block progress.
Ability to manually enable skill progression.
Show me the full path from the beginning on an let me manually select what progression I can savely do currently and advance from there.
Use skills in EVERY journey.
No idea why the feature is not available througout all journeys.
Use skill progressions to adapt coach session.
When the coach demands e.g. 40 assisted pistol squats, let me choose a higher or lower skill progression instead. Coach then should adapt reps accordingly, say 20 unassisted pistol squats instead. Or 60 regular squats.
