Hi everybody this is my first post on the forum. I started with the free 3-weeks freeletics program to give it a try. I did yoga for about 2.5 years before trying freeletics. I do exercise occasionally but never at the intensity of freeletics. The first two weeks were great. By the second week I already saw improvement in my performance. I reduced my aphrodite time by 25%! The first workout of the third week was zeus. Instead of hand-stand push ups I did pikes and instead of pullups I did jumping pullups. Pullups are very hard for me, nevertheless I completed the whole workout. But the next day my arms were swollen and I couldn't straighten them. After a week of little improvement in my condition I went to the doctor. He told me I exceeded myself during the workout and that I should rest for 21 more days and prescribed some anti-swelling medicine. It seems nothing is broken and thankfully it was not a case of rhabdomyolysis. I am better now, the swelling is almost gone and the range of motion of my arms is improving. Still I have two more weeks of rest. He gave me advice to take it very slowly when re-starting my exercises. I will see how things progress, then I can give the coach a try. Maybe introducing the zeus workout so early in the routine is too much? Or there could be a much more soft alternative to pullups? Just a thought! Ricardo
Hi ricardo, Sorry to hear that FL started so bad for you. You can try to use a resistance band / Sling for your Pullups to get less weight on your arms. Another method is to take a chair and place the tips of your feet on the chair while hanging and supporting a fraction of your weight with your legs. Take care and get well soon.
I think one of the biggest problems with freeletics is that the excessive workouts are very challanging for an untrained body. Muscles, tendons and ligaments are not ready for such a load of stress. The new coach is discussed because he doesn´t care about new users fitness level while calculating the plans. Injury is .. of course.. conceivable. I also had problems similar to your description after doing biceps curls or something like that after a longer period of training interruption. I had this problems only for a few days, never for weeks like you describe. I think your doc is right. You will need a few more rest days. After that you can start slowly with freeletics again. I would try out pullups for a few workouts before I think about giving the coach a try.
Thank you kielerkoenig and Polyamid for your answers. For the moment all I have to do is rest and take the medicine. The doctor told me that when starting working out again I should start slowly. He gave me some indications. Regarding pullups he told me to do only 1 pull up the first day. Then do 2 pullups another day, then move to 3 and so on. As the weeks pass the muscles should be gaining strength little by little. After one or two months I should be able to do more reps. He told me that it is imperative to let the muscle recover properly after this injury in order to avoid a second injury which would be worse. @ kielerkoenig: Very good idea about the resistance band. Maybe that way it would be possible for me to include the positive and negative phases of the pullup doing more reps. I am remembering now there is a way of doing pullups using only partial body weight. In a lower bar resting the feet on the ground and the body straight in an angle (I don't know the proper name). Similar to doing pushups reclining onto a wall or some other surface. I wish I had remember that while doing the workout! [edit: I think they are called assisted pullups. For example http://youtu.be/Q0HNe9mSNOI] @ Polyamid: I showed the workouts I did during these past weeks to the doctor and he made the comment that there should be something like a beginner level for people out of shape or no previous training. For example my case in which I do workout occasionally doing pushups, abs and some dips but hardly ever a pullup. When I told him the workout included 4x20 reps of jumping pullups he told me it was excessive for my level! I will try the coach when I feel completely recovered and after training as the doctor advised me. I was left wondering if it is truly beneficial to do negative pullups/dips/etc if the muscles are not strong enough to do the positive phase. Thanks, Ricardo
You are referring to so called Australian Pullups I think. Look them up in YT or Google, those are great for training with moderate load. You can also do ring rows if you have gymnastics rings. Take care and start slowly. Train hard - die old!
The swelling is gone and I can completely straighten my arms now. I still have some more days of rest. Next week I should start working out again but not at the FL intensity. Ricardo
Yesterday, after almost one month's rest, I noticed my arms are not as strong as they were before injury. I think I read about this, that after an injury the muscles become weaker. Following the doctor's advice I wanted to do just 1 pullup but I couldn't, however I was able to do 1 chin up. I think I will start with the Australian pullups, to go slowly and easy. Ricardo
After patiently working out, starting slow and easy and increasing little by little intensity and reps I have managed to strengthen my arms quite a bit. At the moment, I am doing 4 sets of 10 reps of chinups, pushups, pullups and chest dips. That totals 40 reps for each exercise. After the first set I have to break the chinup and pullup series in 2x5 or some other combination to reach 10 reps because my arms get tired. But it is quite an improvement since after the injury I couldn't do even one pullup! Also, I noticed that warming up makes a world of difference when training! A really good warm up that makes you sweat and increases your heart rate helps tremendously in your performance. At least that is what I have noticed! Take care of yourself, it is not worth it to get injured. If you feel something funny while working out, or something hurts more than it should or you have an acute pain it is better to stop! Ricardo
