We asked users from across the world for things they’ve always wondered about Freeletics. From reps to recovery, the Freeletics Instructors are here with the answers to your questions.
What counts as one repetition?
The repetitions assigned to a specific exercise are the total for the left and right sides combined. For example, 20 Lunges means that you should complete 10 on the left leg and 10 on the right leg.
Is it important to follow the Coach days in the order given by the Coach? Is there a logic behind it?
The Coach days and weeks have been designed in a way that best keeps you on track to your individual goals, taking your capabilities and restrictions into account. The best way to get more from your Freeletics experience is to follow the Coach as closely as you can. Of course, you're free to change the order of your training days if another session from your Coach week better fits your daily routine.
When I finish a Training Journey, the Coach often recommends the same Journey again. Does this mean it’s exactly the same? Or is the progress I made before taken into account?
The Coach learns more about you from every training session you do, regardless of your Training Journey. This means that even if you finish a Training Journey and start the same one again, you won’t go back to square one. The Coach will have learnt what you are capable of and will take this into account when allocating your next sessions. This means that you’re always progressing, even if you do the same Journey - you start exactly where you left off.
What is the difference between Strict Pullups and Pullups?
The main difference between a Pullup and a Strict Pullup is that the latter is, well, strict. In practice, this means that a Strict Pullup begins from a totally dead hang, whereas a Pullup allows for a small amount of kipping or movement. This momentum temporarily reduces the weight you’re lifting and engages more muscles, meaning that you can complete more reps. In contrast, Strict Pullups use fewer muscles, but the ones that are activated are targeted heavily. This means that this version of the exercise is more targeted towards hypertrophy, or muscle growth.
How are we supposed to choose what days we have as rest days?
In short, this is something you have to judge for yourself. Recovery is a very individual process; some people will recover faster from a tough training session than others. To improve recovery, it’s important to consider sleep, nutrition, stress and stretching; optimizing these will reduce the number of rest days you’ll need between difficult training sessions. Generally speaking, the body needs 24 to 48 hours to completely recover from a tough workout, but the way in which you recover can shorten or extend this.
Is it ok if I skip the rests in my Intervals? Sometimes I don’t feel like I need to pause.
Put simply, the rests are there for a reason. You will only experience the benefits of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) if you stick to the breaks. This is because taking pauses means that you can go at maximum pace during the working time and train anaerobically. If you find that you don’t need the breaks, it could be a sign that you need to push harder or that your fitness is improving.
Why do I need to lift my hands off the floor during Pushups?
Lifting your hands off the floor at the bottom of a Pushup is effectively a way of making sure that every repetition is equal and is covering the same range of motion. This means that your form is more likely to be consistent, meaning that you’ll get more from the exercise. It’s also a more difficult movement which means that you’re going through the full range of motion with the targeted muscles, which makes for a better stimulus for muscle strength and growth.
I’ve seen many different variations of Situps, so why does the Freeletics Situp work best?
The Freeletics Situp is effectively a kipping version of the Situp, utilizing the movement of the arms to provide momentum which allows you to perform more reps. What also sets the Freeletics Situp apart is the position of the lower body. Holding the legs in the ‘butterfly’ position rather than in line with the hips enables two things: it creates more space for your body to complete the full range of motion of the movement and it relies less on the hip flexors, helping lower back health.
How can I exclude certain exercises?
When setting up your training every week, you’ll be asked if you have any limitations. This is referring to sore muscles, meaning that you wouldn’t be able to perform exercises on a certain body part to your best. It’s not in reference to more severe soreness or injuries, where you should rest entirely until recovered. When you indicate that you would like to rest your chest, for example, your Coach will try to exclude exercises that put particular pressure on this area. You can’t specify specific exercises to exclude, just the muscle group they target. Every week, you have the option to add or remove limitations, which will affect the exercises the Coach allocates you. The limitations feature should only be used for muscle soreness, not for injuries or strains; in these cases, you should always seek medical advice.
