The sports science behind your Freeletics training

If you’ve trained with the Coach for some time, then you’ve surely experienced that “woah” moment when you realized that the Coach just gets you. A combination of many factors are responsible for this, including your honest feedback, the expertise of sports scientists, human-augmented artificial intelligence, and insights from millions of data points.

To put it simply, a lot is going on behind the scenes of that seemingly simple design you experience when you hit “Start” on your Coach session. We’re about to open the curtains on what philosophy and guiding principles make your Coach uniquely tailored to you. So, let’s dive in!

We’ve said it once, and we’ll say it again – each session in each Training Journey is unique and customized to your level and your goals. No two are alike. But some key scientific principles, as well as training methodologies, form the common foundation upon which Coach sessions are created. Why? Because they’ve been proven to work.

Here are a few of several training philosophies that the Coach employs to build that grueling sweat sesh:

If you’ve completed a Training Journey or two, you may have noticed that the typical length is around 8-12 weeks. That’s because the Coach uses periodized training to create your customized training plan.

The idea of a periodized training program is that each phase of your training is built upon the other by focusing on either intensity (fewer reps, higher weights, faster pace) or volume (i.e., more reps, lighter weights, longer duration, more mileage) so you can build conditioning, athleticism, and strength throughout your body.

A phase refers to the smallest building block of your training structure, and you can get the full lowdown on the different types of phases here.

The Coach is all about pushing you just the right amount to help you progress, but without overdoing it. That’s because Progressive Overload is a key principle that’s leveraged to help you adapt and improve in terms of muscle gain and strength.

The Coach carefully increases one of the four training stimuli (intensity, volume, frequency, and tension) while staying within your body’s limits (based on your feedback and settings). Only one variable is changed at a time, slowly and progressively, with always increasing volume before intensity.

Dreaming of mastering a Pistol Squat? Or want to finally nail one Pullup? That’s where Skill Progressions come in. These progressive, structured pathways are designed to help you build the strength and technique to tackle new exercises that seem just out of reach. It’s an excellent way to build strength and refine your technique in a specific way.

Each Coach Day has a specific focus that includes either interval-type workouts, with rounds of exercises and rest periods in between, or HIIT workouts, which involve intense bursts of activity followed by varying recovery times (Hello, God workouts). These are all done at your own pace, designed to make you faster and stronger while unlocking new exercises and skills.

Each workout in a typical week has a specific focus to help you achieve your goals. Conditioning days push your endurance with intense intervals and high reps, while Strength days emphasize low reps and slow, controlled movements to build muscle. Endurance days work to boost your stamina.

‘Beat your PB’ (personal best) days challenge you to set a new personal record and lastly, Technique days are all about refinement – focusing on movement quality for peak performance.

Every Coach session starts with a Dynamic Warmup and ends with an Active Cooldown. While it might be tempting to skip these parts of your workout, trust us, they serve a key function in your overall performance and recovery.

A Warmup prepares both your body and mind, beginning with a general warmup to prevent injuries and "warm up" the body to get your blood pumping and your heart rate going. It gradually evolves into a more specific phase that develops the muscle-mind connection that allows certain exercises to be done quickly and safely.

The Cooldown portion of your workout gradually calms your cardiovascular system and allows your body to return to its natural state. It also speeds up your recovery, helping you bounce back faster and come into your next workout stronger than ever.

Sure, the Coach leverages advanced algorithms and training principles backed by sports scientists, transforming complex data into a seamlessly integrated, fully personalized training experience.

It’s complex, technical, innovative, – but all of this data and science doesn’t make a difference unless you provide honest feedback on your ability to complete the training sessions.

The Freeletics Coach adapts each training session as you go with a 90% accuracy after week one, and this can only happen if the feedback you provide is also accurate.

Using this input along with other factors like your age, gender, and fitness level, the Coach’s algorithm crafts personalized recommendations for exercises, reps, and sets – in other words, creates your Coach session.

And this process is followed for every single Coach session – including whenever you adjust sessions for time or intensity, add or remove equipment, exclude exercises, or add Skill Progressions.

Yep – you read that right. This dynamic system ensures you progress and push yourself just the right amount throughout your Training Journey. It’s the secret sauce to reaching your goals!

Although AI has gotten a lot of hype lately, the Freeletics AI-powered Coach has been dolling out training sessions since 2017. And while some people might be wary of AI technology, when it comes to the Coach, it’s used to create highly personalized recommendations.

These are based on your feedback and millions of data points collected from 58 million users over the past decade – a true goldmine of insights. Our algorithms continuously learn from this dataset, refining and adapting to provide you with the personalized training plans you know and love.

One key point to note – the Coach’s impressive AI doesn’t work alone. Real sports scientists, user researchers, and a whole team of experts bring their knowledge and a touch of human magic to make your training experience what it is today.

Every detail in your Coach Day has been meticulously researched, tested, launched, and improved upon time and time again. Each exercise is carefully selected based on the key principles mentioned above, helping you achieve your goals through proven, science-backed strategies.

And the process doesn’t stop there. We actively gather your ideas and input, conduct user and market research, and continuously refine the app to deliver the ultimate training experience. Feedback is truly at the heart of the Coach, forming the foundation of its logic and evolution.

Real training, for real people, living real lives – that’s what the Freeletics Coach is all about. And behind it lies an advanced and intricate system, making your personalized training plan as flexible, adaptable, and so incredibly effective as possible.

The best part? You don’t have to worry about principles, modalities, training phases, or anything else. The Coach takes care of it all for you so that you can simply show up and progress towards your goals, one Coach Day at a time. That’s the beauty of the science behind the Coach.

And we’re always improving how it works – from streamlining feedback screens to elevating the custom workout experience. The magic of the Coach just keeps getting better – and there’s plenty more coming your way. So get pumped up and ready to get after it!

Want a sneak peek? Make sure to check out what else is in the works for 2025!