What many don’t realize is that Freeletics takes you on a journey. One that goes way beyond any physical changes. You as a person grow. Your mindset and outlook on life changes. You gain a certain level of mental strength that allows you to rise to any challenge. And nothing proves this more than Yoann’s story. He started Freeletics simply to try a new sport. In the end he gained a new life. Read his story here:
My name is Yoann. I’m 22 years old and a Free Athlete from France. When I started Freeletics it wasn’t because I was unhappy with my appearance. Actually I was already pretty sporty. I had no expectations, just wanted to try something new. But what I found in Freeletics goes far beyond what I could have imagined. This is how Freeletics became way more than just a sport.
My brother first told me about Freeletics during winter. If I’m honest I thought that it was just another one of those marketing tricks. Another fitness app that was all talk and no action. I told myself “You do sports 4 times a week. You don’t need this.” So I didn’t look into it any further and continued with my average sporting routine. But slowly this wasn’t enough anymore. I wanted to go further. To reach new levels and achieve new goals. This is when I remembered Freeletics. I remembered the hard hitting videos. The stories from the community. The workouts with endless burpees, pullups and pushups. Decision made. I started at the beginning of the summer.
The feeling during my first session was one I had never experienced before. My body begged me to stop, to slow down. But my head prevented it. Throughout the workout I thought to myself “Yoann, why are you doing this? What are you gaining? Stop. You can just keep doing your 2 runs a week and your swimming sessions. ” But once I finished I felt in a state of absolute well-being. Emptied of my problems, my anxieties and my daily stress. I felt so good and couldn’t stop smiling. Scientists call it endorphins. Whatever this means, they are totally right. From this moment on I became addicted.
Within no time, all I could think about was Freeletics. I began to eat, sleep and breathe it. I spread the word to all my friends and family. “Come on, train with me, just once, you won’t regret it, you’ll see.” Most of them were reluctant at first because they thought it was too hard. The problem many have is that they are too scared to step out of their comfort zone. And when I think back, so was I.
Finally, a friend joined me. Then 2, then 3 and soon there were 20 of us. It was so good to inspire others and help them see that they were capable of it too. I felt as though I had accomplished my mission. I’m no longer training alone. And I’ve discovered that training together is more effective. It’s more motivating than listening to any kind of music. It’s more of a challenge. Some days it’s me trying to catch up with my friend who is 40 seconds ahead and on other days I realize that another training companion sees me as their source of motivation and so tries to keep up with me. That’s the great thing about training in a group. With the right people to motivate us we progress faster.
I will always remember the heatwave we had in July. It made training very difficult and almost unbearable. But of course…No Excuses. My solution was to get up at 6:40 every morning to train before the thermometer reached above 30 °C. However I’m not sure if this was worse than my first Hell Day where I was greeted by Hades in the middle of a terrible storm. Regardless of the weather, training continued, Hades finished and my PB was beaten! This is when I realised how much my mindset had changed. Me, doing push-ups at 7am in the storm before work…never in my life would this have happened without Freeletics …It was finally paying off, and not only in a physical way.
< Becoming a Free Athlete is one hell of an adventure. It took me on a journey. Helped me to grow as a person. First I learned the real meaning of motivation. And also the real meaning of excuses. Training became a question of will and motivation. Not just physical strength and fitness. I realised that this is my chance, it’s up to me to take control, nobody will do it for me.
But that’s not all: the intensity of the workouts pushed me to become more interested in the functioning of my body: what to eat, when to eat, how and why. Also how my muscles work, my metabolism, why do I feel this type of pain, this type of weakness. Our body is the only element which you can’t be separated from, whether you like it or not. We live with it, all the time. If there’s one thing which we should pay the most attention to, it is our body. Freeletics allowed me to get to know my body better. How to treat it better. Through Freeletics I got to know myself better. Of course the physical transformation is important, but it is not everything. The adventure Freeletics takes you on is more, much more, than a visual transformation.
With Freeletics I expected nothing more than a sport. What I found was so much more than that. A lifestyle that I have chosen to adopt. A much deeper knowledge of my body and mental strength. What I thought was going to be a simple way to change my sports routine, became my way of living and gave me a whole new perspective of life. Every day I wake up stronger than the day before. I am trying to forge the best version of myself. The road is long, but armed with my determination, no summit seems too high.
