As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I was going to save my Saturday workout for another post. And that’s because my Saturday workout was my very first 90-minute Orangetheory class! 90-minute classes aren’t usually on the regular schedule, but they do them throughout the year. And for the most part, these classes are also special donation classes that are to help raise money for different charities. The 90-minute classes have never been in my usual class time before, so I never really thought too much about taking one. But the one on Saturday was during when I usually am there on Saturdays, so it felt like it was meant to be and I signed up!
Because this month is Pride Month, the charity we raised money for was The Trevor Project. The Trevor Project is an amazing organization that helps young people in crisis. They also have other support programs for LBGTQ youth and I think that’s amazing. While I’ve never needed this type of support, I have friends who have and I want to be a good ally to others. So I was happy to donate to The Trevor Project and got ready to take the 90-minute class.
I have done some classes that lasted longer than 60-minutes (like the Dri–Tris), but they usually haven’t been much longer than maybe 70-minutes. And while I knew that I would be ok working out longer than I’m used to, I was a bit nervous. I wanted to make sure I didn’t go too hard at the beginning because the class was going to be 50% longer than I’m used to. But what helped me was thinking that the length of time I’d be at each section of the room was similar to what it’s like in a 2G class, but I was going to have it in all 3 sections of the room. Having that mindset made me feel a bit more at ease even with my nerves.
This class also was 80s themed, but I don’t really have any good 80s workout gear. I just wore my regular workout clothes and hoped I wouldn’t be the only one not in a cute outfit (fortunately, it was a mix of people in regular workout clothes and themed clothes). And it was being coached by Coach Benzo, who I currently have as my Wednesday and Friday coach. I knew he’d do an amazing playlist and that would help keep me motivated too.
The workout was similar to what I’m used to, just with extra work. But the way it was split up was nice because we were in each section of the room twice. The first time around was similar to what we do in a regular 3G class, so that felt fine. Then the second time around the room was the extra time and I was feeling more prepared for it. We had 4 blocks in each section of the room, 2 blocks in the first round through and 2 blocks in the second round through.
For cardio, the first block was a 6-minute distance challenge. This was a good way to ease into the class and I was able to do the entire thing at the new resistance level I’ve been using. I did stay alert to not going too hard at first, but it felt good and I was able to be pretty consistent through the entire time. And the second block was 4 rounds of 1-minute push paces and 30-second base paces with a 30-second all-out at the end. The goal was to match or beat your first distance and I was able to do that! Once we were back to cardio again after rotating through the entire room, the next block was a 3-minute distance challenge followed by a 90-second distance challenge. And the goal was to get at least half the distance in the 90-second one as you did in the 3-minute one. And we ended with a 1-minute all-out and a 30-second all-out.
The first rowing block was timed out with the floor block. But it was 6 rounds of 30-second base rows, 20-second push rows, and 10-second all-out rows. It was hard to try to row for 6-minutes without a break and I did have to take a few moments to recover. But I did try to do them during the base row time when I could. The second row block went with the second cardio block with the rounds of push to base paces and ending with the all-outs. It was a lot of rowing where we didn’t have set breaks and I think it might have been some of the hardest rowing I’ve done in a while. The third row block (after rotating around the room) was similar to the first, but it was only 3 rounds of the 30-second base, 20-second push, and 10-second all-out. And to finish out the rowing, we had a 90-second distance row, 1-minute all-out, and 30-second all-out. I was so glad to make it through all the rowing, but I am glad I have been making so much progress in my rowing lately because I know that helped me a lot.
And on the floor, it was a lot of lower body work. The first block was similar timing as the first row block. But we had 1 minute of lunges and then the 30, 20, 10 second intervals with squats and repeated that 3 times. We were supposed to do front lunges, side lunges, and reverse lunges. But I did static lunges for the front and reverse lunges since it’s hard for me to keep my balance otherwise. And the squats we had after each type of lunge were regular squats, squats with calf raises, and in and out squats. The second block was on our own timing and just had the number of reps to do. We had another round of lunges, bicep curl to shoulder press, and plank low rows. The third block was back on timing it with the rower with 30 seconds of sit-ups, 20 seconds of hip raises, and 10 seconds of toe reaches. I did have to modify these a bit because my hips were starting to hurt, but I tried my best to keep moving. And the final block on the floor (and the final block of the workout for me) had side plank leg raises, seated torso rotations, and we ended with a 30-second plank.
When we were done, I was exhausted. This was possibly the hardest workout I’ve ever done. The Dri-Tri is tough too, but that’s a different type of difficulty. I don’t know exactly how to explain it, but this workout was really intense. But I’m so glad that I did it and I’m really proud of myself!
And of course, we had to do some post-workout group photos to celebrate completing the class (a lot of us hadn’t done a 90-minute workout before).
And I needed to take a photo with Coach Benzo. He’s only been my coach since things have reopened, but I am so grateful he’s been coaching at Culver because he is so amazing at encouraging us and pushing us all to improve in our workouts!
After the class was done, I was a bit sore, but not too bad. But on Sunday, the soreness really hit me. But that’s not going to discourage me. I will still be doing my regular workouts this week and just taking it a little easy. And I would totally do another 90-minute workout again, I just might not do a workout on the Friday before. But it was a great way to challenge myself and see what I could do. And I know now that I can do a great job in a 90-minute class and it will be interesting to see how I do when I do another one in the future!
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