This past week of workouts was a themed week at Orangetheory. It was called Mayhem and the idea was the week would be all really difficult workouts. It seemed similar to what Hell Week is like and I was really excited about it. You needed to complete 4 out of the 6 workouts to get a water bottle and I thought I’d be able to do that. But then I realized the week was Sunday-Friday and not Monday-Saturday. So unless I switched up my days I wouldn’t be able to get the water bottle. As much as I love free swag, I just wanted to keep my normal schedule. So while I wasn’t working toward the 4 workout goal for Mayhem, I still had my 4 workouts and I wanted to work hard and do my best!
Usually my Monday workouts are at the Brentwood studio and they are the one class I go to each week that has a 3 group workout. But because of some scheduling things, I couldn’t do my normal Monday class. I needed to be ready earlier than normal. And in the past when I had things like my improv class, I would go to the class that was an hour earlier. But now, I figured I might as well go to the Culver City studio for the workout. Not only is it closer but it’s actually 5 minutes earlier than the class I would have gone to in Brentwood. So it was a win for me.
The workout was called Commotion and it was a pretty crazy workout. I started on cardio and it was almost all rowing. We had decreasing rows with so many squats in-between each round of rowing. There were 5 rounds (starting at 500 meters and going down to 100 meters) and then we had a 6 minute run for distance. I did it on the bike at my normal base resistance. The goal was to get back to the rower to start working increasing rows, but I only had about 30 seconds after completing my 6 minutes on the bike left so I stayed on the bike instead of wasting the time switching to the rower.
On the floor we had 1 long block that had increasing exercises. The first round we had bicycle crunches and hip bridges. The next round we added on chest presses using the straps. The next round added on triceps on the strap. The next round added on lateral raises with weights. And the last round added on front raises with weights. I managed to get through all of those rounds and made it to the bonus round which was 100 reps of running men. I didn’t get through even 30 reps before time was done, but I was happy that I got to that point in the workout!
Wednesday’s workout was called Epocalypse and it was a partner workout. Not only that, it was a 3 partner workout so it was like I got my 3 group workout in that I missed on Monday! There were 2 long blocks and at all times the rower was the person in control of the switches.
The first block had the rower doing 5 rounds of a 200 meter row and 10 squats (a total of 1000 meters and 50 squats). While they worked on that the person on the treadmill ran with increasing the incline 1% each minute. I was on the bike so I increased the resistance by 1 every minute. And on the floor we had burpees, seated knee tucks, plank work, and pull ups using the straps. I was a bit worried about it being a partner workout because I was feeling a little nauseous during the workout, but it seemed like my group was pretty equal in the time it took us to complete the row and my group didn’t seem to mind that I might have been a little bit slower.
The second block had the rower do a 500 meter row, 50 squats, and another 500 meter row. So it was the same distance and number of squats as the first block just with a bigger emphasis on endurance. The treadmill (or in my case, bike) person went for distance with increasing each minute. And the person on the floor it was high rows on the straps, rollouts on the straps, pullovers using weights, and sit-ups to squats. With both of the blocks, we pretty much were out of time after all of us completed the row. So we all got to use each part of the room twice (once in each block) and that seemed to work out well for me.
Friday was the last Mayhem workout and it was called Disturbance. It was a strength based workout and while I was starting to feel better from the cold I got, I had some pretty bad nausea that morning. But I figured I’d find some sort of balance for myself and would do my best.
On the cardio, as it’s been for a while (and will probably be for a while longer), I was on the bike. And I decided to do my best with doing the resistance changes. I had my resistance level at the same number as the incline would be for power walkers. The highest resistance I got to was 10 (which is sometimes what I use for my all out resistance) but most of the time the resistance was not that much higher than I was used to. The pattern was to do 90 seconds of incline work, a minute at base pace, 90 seconds at a push pace, and 1 minute at a base pace. We repeated this pattern 4 times to get through the 23 minute block. I was having to take my breaks to let the nausea go by, but since this is something I’m used to it wasn’t too bad.
On the floor we had 5 exercises and a row. Each round we dropped one exercise (so the second round had 4 exercises, the third round had 3, and so on). We had power jacks, speed skater lunges, low rows on the straps, plank work, and sit-ups. I was really slow on the floor work because I was feeling pretty awful by that point in the workout. I was taking breaks between exercises and in the middle of working through one exercise. But I figured that just taking my time and getting through what I could was the best I could do. I made it through 2 rounds (and did a 200 and 400 meter row) and was starting on the 3rd round when time was done. I really would have loved to have made it to the 5th round, but it just wasn’t meant for me that day.
Saturday’s workout was back to a non-Mayhem workout, but that doesn’t mean it was an easy one! It was another strength based workout and again I was on the bike. Usually strength workouts mean inclines on the treadmill (and extra resistance for the bike), but this time the treadmill had no inclines so things were much easier for me.
We had 3 blocks on the cardio side which all had rounds of push paces to base paces. I kept my push pace resistance at 6 and my base pace resistance at 4 which is what I normally do. My nausea was still pretty bad so I was taking a lot of breaks during the cardio. I do the bike on my nauseous days because the bouncing caused by walking on the treadmill makes me queasy. But this time, even the movement on the bike was making me feel that way! But I tried to pedal as hard as I could when I was going to make up for the time I was taking breaks and got my distance to be what I usually can get to when we have the first half of class on cardio without switching.
The floor had 3 blocks, but the middle one was more of a row block. The first block was lunges, high rows using weights, and toe touch ab work. I used 15 pound weights for my lunges and rows and a 12 pound weight for my toe touches. I’m really trying to use weight during ab work and I was glad I went for a slightly heavier weight for that. The second block started with a 300 meter row. We then had front raises using both weights and the mini-band. The band went around my wrists and I had to keep my arms apart (pulling against the resistance of the band) while doing front raises. I had my weights a bit lighter than normal but that was because of the extra work from the mini-band. And the last block was uppercuts and squats with weights. I was struggling at the end of the floor work, but it went better than my cardio work did.
I’m so glad I did the Mayhem workouts that I did. I would have loved to have done 4, but considering the circumstances I had there was no way for me to do that. But it did get me back into a good groove with my workouts and pushing me in the limited ways I can be pushed right now. And it got me very excited to see what will happen during Hell Week this year! I really want to get back to more of my normal workout stuff (including running) and I feel some extra motivation to try to see if I can get back there by October now!
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