Hello, I am new to Freeletics though not training. I chose to us the app as I find myself better motivated when following a plan. I enjoyed the first week and although some of the weights required altering and i had to learn the functionality of the app i was positively impressed.
However i wasn’t impressed that the second week was amost a carbon copy of the last. I really don’t want to repeat sessions over and over again. This sort of programming is dull and i will quickly bore and stop subscribing.
Has anyone experienced the same? And if so is there a way to alter this?
Secondly i was supprised that additional biometrics or pr’s weren’t requested iot track a fitness journey. Did i miss something?
When you say “a carbon copy” what do you mean by this? Can you share some screenshots?
Our Weights Training Journeys are very similar in design to a traditional gym hypertrophy program in that they are usually quite similar from week to week, depending on the muscle group being worked on. There is for sure less exercise variety when compared to one of the Bodyweight Training Journeys, but the design of a hypertrophy programme is there to help you reach your aim of building mucsle. The goal here is to repeat over and over the same exercises, and to use the weights used in the former week as a benchmark to track progress. When developing athletic qualities such as power and strength, variety is not necessarily a good thing. The more the motor pattern becomes efficient (with lots and lots of constant practice) the more one will also be able to load up the bar. The more one can load the bar the more strength they can develop and more of it can be then transferred into speed, with contrast training like that performed in the Hybrid Strength Journey.
Also, it is worth knowing that when you train with barbells, your Coach mostly assigns big lifts – squats, bench presses, deadlifts, and push presses. These are called compound lifts, and there’s a reason you do them so often as Compound lifts are the most efficient way to gain muscle and mass.
Compound lifts let you train multiple muscle groups with just one movement. For example, when you do bench presses, you don’t just work your chest. You also work muscles like your triceps and the muscles in your shoulders. When you tighten your core throughout the lift, you even strengthen your abs. Just one lift activates your entire body. Doing compound lifts means you’ll see muscle gain not just in one spot, but all over.
I’m not entirely sure what you mean by the below though, can you give some more detail as to what you were expecting?
Hi, i appreciate the response. By carbon copy I’m kind of stating that the sessions are exact replications from the previous week . Same WU, Exercises, Reps, Rest intervals and cool down.
Surely there are variations that acheive the goal, which incidentally hasn’t been determined. Its just assumed everyone trains for hypertrophy.
I subscribed to add variation to my training and to challenge myself. If I have to repeat same 2 sessions constantly I will quickly become disinterested. I’ve already added additional squats and DL’s as these aren’t in my 2 sessions.
As per metrics. Is there a function to track weightloss, muscle mass, lift PRs. Surely these are important for somone on a fitness journey.
Hi @B3n , Freeletics is usually highly diversify, although it could depend on the journey and number of sessions you are doing.
What journey are you on and how many sessions are you doing? I’m guessing 2?
Hi @TomG. I’m enrolled in the barbell weight training initially for 3 sessions a week. I have previously trained more frequently but as I’ve had a period off due to relocating i chose to start back at 3 to allow suitable recovery and adaptation time. The 3rd session, a HiiT, has changed each week.
Hi @B3n , thanks for the answer. Then what Ben said makes total sense, this Journey is specifically designed for muscle gain and this means repetitions with progressive overload: increasing the weight over time.
It is normal to have the same exercises in order to see progression and to challenge the same muscle every week to have a proper stimulus and thus creating bigger muscles.
The more days you choose to train the more diversified your training will be as the coach will have more dedicated time to assign new exercises.
New exercises will also be assigned later down the journey.
If you feel like this is not a journey that would suits your training style, but still want to train with a barbell, I would recommend trying out the Hybrid Strength Journey, you will have dedicated barbell days, HIIT days and body weight days, a good mix of everything to never get bored.
Hi @TomG, so it transpires that I was incorrect. I am indeed on the hybrid strength plan. Thank you for all your input and agree with many of your comments. I shall continue with the plan and just hope that next week and the remaining 10 more inspiring and less dull. At the moment I’m glad i only signed up for 3 months. I had been thinking of opting for the more cost effective 12 months.
Hi @B3n, that’s great, the Hybrid Strenght is one of my personal favourites! The Barbell days are usually always the same but the hybrid and cardio days will change overtime, if not every week.
@Ben@TomG This cannot be right. Back to the same workouts. Everyone cannot be experiencing this, its so bloddy dull. Ever heard of pinky and the brain? What are we going to do this week? Same thing as we do every week.
@Ben. I am unable to get a useful screenshot as each interval needs to be expanded separately to see the details and I don’t know how to recall old sessions.
Every week I get the same 2 weight sessions. Ex “a.” has alternated every 2wks for lunges to squats but Ex “b,c&d” are always the same exercises.
Hi @B3n , I have been doing the Hybrid Journey for the 4th time in a row now, and the weight/barbell days are always the same. This is absolutely normal as the goal here is progressive overload and strength cycle.
You will see the weight go up, and the reps go down throughout the weeks. This is to train for hypertrophy at the beginning and strength toward the middle and end of the journey.
Progressive overload is the basic of all power lifting program where weight will increase on the same exercises in order for your muscle to adapt, and grow. The same movements need to be repeated week after week for that to happen and to have a better tracking in place. If you always changes exercises, then the muscle is never quite adapting to the same movement and thus progressive overload is hard to achieve.
You will see the hybrid days change though, they usually are intervals of body weight and core exercises, depending on the equipments you checked as available.
If you want more diversity and still train with weight, I would suggest the dumbbell journey, as more exercises are available and there are supersets with body weight exercise.
I found that, usually, having 4 days per week of training also provide more diversity in the exercises.
Hi all, I agree with B3n, it gets dull very.
I went down from 5 to 4 days per week in order to do something different on the fifth day. The journey includes just the barbell and some pull ups. I find it mentally tiring.
For example, the coumpund movement of a bench press is great, but mixing it up with dumbell A-Flys or inclined bench press will also go a long way and activates different parts of the chest. This in return produces a more leveled out muscle growth.
Additionally, I do not understand how the coach determines the weight load. It just does not go for hypertrophy. Most of the time I have to adjust the weight, sometime even double it.
Like for today:
Coach gives me 8x reps of 27,5kg bench press for rounds 3-5. (Round 1 is set to 12,5kg - the barbell weighs 20kg by its own)
Although my 1x rep max is 100kg and I have been adjusting my last bench press sessions to 10x reps 65-70kg. And still it drops that hard.
I’ve done 17 sessions so far and feel the same way as B3n, good thing I only booked 3 months. At first I was super excited but now it’s boring and I cannot see the bigger picture.
Just as B3n I was hoping to keep track of PRs, weight loss or gains or any other metrics for that matter. All I can see is a list of intervall sessions.
“Coach gives me 8x reps of 27,5kg bench press for rounds 3-5. (Round 1 is set to 12,5kg - the barbell weighs 20kg by its own)
Although my 1x rep max is 100kg and I have been adjusting my last bench press sessions to 10x reps 65-70kg. And still it drops that hard.”
This is definitely a bug as the Coach should base all your training on your 1RM.
Could you please report it?
I 100% agree on the barbell exercise diversification! I think Freeletics is currently working on improving the training experience in the background. Hopefully more exercises will be included in the Coach pool after that major update.
I also saw that exercises like Snatch, Clean and many other exercises had been added to the single exercise section, it would be great tp have them included as well!
