Most of the times I cannot do workouts precisely as prescribed in the app. For example if it says “30 burpees, 30 situps, 30 squats, 30s rest > rinse and repeat 4 sets” I cannot do these 90 reps, rest 30s and do another go until I’m done. Which means I have to pace myself to be able to finish. What is the expected way to pace yourself (excluding skill progression which should be done as slow as needed) ? I have used these depending on my mood:
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Do as many repetitions in a fast pace. As an example, this means that after 15 burpees I need to take 5 seconds break, then after 10 more I need another 5s break, and after I’m done with them I need 10s to recover before I can start situps because I’m gassed and feel more and more miserable with each exercise. On a last set I just want to die. I feel that with each session I get less motivated because I feel these workouts few days after. With time I just started to dread freeletics and choose other ways of working out and tend to do freeletics only when I’m 100% fresh.
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Pace yourself during the workout. Which means that you do 1 burpee, take a breath, do another, take a breath, etc until you are done with all 30. In this case most of the time you can go straight to next exercise. But from experience, in this case workout takes noticeably longer and always spans longer than predicted by the coach. It is more manageable, though, you feel uncomfortable but don’t want to die on last sets. On the other hand I feel that you loose HIIT part of the training because you are moving more towards sustainable / aerobic exercise than anaerobic bursts of all out.
Another example could be when workout is just on the edge of your abilities, ie 15 burpees, 15 situps, 15 squats, 20s rest. Should I do 15 burpees even if it means I need to take a few seconds break before I can move on to situps? Should I break them to 3x5, but spread that rest in between? Or should I go all out to do set in one go and hope that I will recover in those 20s for the next one which is never the case, but hey, at least one set has been done according to the instructions, so maybe it is the way ?
And to complicate things even more, how should I give feedback? #1 almost always ends up with “It was too hard”, #2 would be “It was ok”. But it is kind of misleading, because if for #1 coach would make it easier by reducing amount to 20 / 20 / 20 reps you can still do them all out and feel that it was too hard.