Freeletics: Basic Package Week 4

Departing from what has become the typical routine of long, monstrous sessions, the fourth week of the Freeletics Basic Package actually gives us an incredibly short workout instead. But while each of the four Metis sessions can be completed in significantly less than 10 minutes time, it is still a formidable workout in its own right.

Metis calls for three rounds of burpees, climbers, and high jumps. With just 10 reps of each exercise in the first and third rounds and 25 reps in the second, this workout involves considerably less work than Aphrodite or Dione, the two other cardio workouts that we've seen thus far. The real difficulty in Metis lies in the fact that all three of the exercises are compound movements that demand a great deal of effort and stamina to be performed quickly. Combined that with the steep requirements on each of the movements to earn a star, and you're looking at one tough, albeit short, workout.

A: Burpees | B: Climbers | C: High Jumps

I was skeptical about whether or not a workout as short as Metis would feel like enough, and I ended up being half right in my initial doubts. While it left me sweating and panting throughout the workout and immediately afterwards, within a few minutes of finishing and catching my breath, I found myself wanting to do more. Freeletics actually promotes going above and beyond what is called for on any given day when you're feeling up to it, but I figured I'd adhere to the guidelines of the Basic Package so that I could get a true sense of the outlined program.

I showed a lot of improvement over the week, knocking off about 20 seconds each time I attempted the Metis workout, and I'm really happy with that. The star, however, remained elusive for me. At this stage in training, the burpees were no problem at all, and even the climbers, which required your feet to come all the way up to the outside of your hands, didn't slow me down too badly; it was the high jumps that got me. Failing to get my knees to my shoulders on each rep meant that I had to resort to the modified version of the exercise, but unlike with the pull ups and leg levers of previous weeks, I'm fairly confident that I'll be able to nail a star on the high jumps in the near future since I'm already pretty close.

With only one week left in the Freeletics Basic Package and school about to start again, I'll have to decide how best to continue with my training. I'm unsure of whether I want to buy the Coach, a 15-Week training program that customizes your sessions based on your goals and the results from your previous weeks, or if I want to just go at it on my own in a less structured manner. I'll definitely have to give the whole thing some thought over the next several days.

Session 1: Metis (6:20) (PB)

Session 2: Metis (5:55) (PB)

Session 3: Metis (5:29) (PB)

Session 4: Metis (5:09) (PB)