Posted onDecember 4, 2023|Comments Off on Getting Through My Bad Week (or Doing Some Solo Challenges)
Going into this week of workouts, I knew it was very likely to be my bad week. I’ve said this before, but it’s both bad and good that I can predict this. I am glad that I know it’s coming up so I can be as prepared as possible. But I hate that I’m dreading the week and how I might end up feeling. It can be just a little bad or a horrible week. I never know how it will be or how it might change daily. All I can do is manage the various symptoms I have each day and take it easy when I have to.
Unfortunately, this time it was one of the horrible weeks for me. I wasn’t feeling too bad on Monday, so I did try pretty hard that day knowing I needed to take advantage of having a not-so-horrible day because that might be my only chance. I was having a lot of pain that morning, so I was still going easier than I normally would. I was just glad that I wasn’t nauseous that morning because that usually affects me more than the pain does.
On Tuesday morning, I was doing really horribly. I hadn’t slept much the night before due to my nausea and I was exhausted besides being nauseous and in pain. And that workout was a signature workout: Capture The Flag. I do love these challenges and seeing how well I could do, but I knew that it wouldn’t be fair to those I would be paired up with how I was feeling. So I asked my coach if I could work on my own instead of in a 3 person team, and he allowed me to do that. He’s known me long enough to know that when I’m having a really bad day, it’s a struggle to just show up to the workout.
The way that it normally works when you are in a 3-person team is that you have one person in each section of the room. The person on the floor is in charge of the switching and they do one round of the floor exercises before moving to the treadmill. The person on the treadmill and rower just go for distance until the person on the floor switches everyone around. And the overall goal is to see how far you can get on the rower. There are different colored flags based on how far you get, so it can be a really fun team challenge.
What I did doing the challenge alone was to do one round on the floor just like I would in a team, and I went on the bike and rower for about 3 1/2 minutes each, which is the average time it takes someone on the floor. I still got to do pretty much the same workout I would have done if I was on a team, but I didn’t have to worry about taking too long on the floor because I needed to let the nausea pass or that I wouldn’t be getting much distance on the rower. I was grateful to not have that pressure on me and I think that allowed me to do a lot better than I would have expected to do considering how I was feeling.
The worst day for me this past week was on Thursday, but it also had a funny moment in it. I was really nauseous that morning and even after taking my medications, I felt like I was going to be sick. I also didn’t have a lot of sleep the night before because I was getting sick pretty often. I just felt like everything was working against me with being able to work out, but at least I showed up so I was going to do something. But I also felt like I was barely moving while on the bike and the rower.
At one point on the rower, I felt like I was going to be sick. There is a different feeling between nausea and about to be sick, and I rarely feel like I’m going to be sick in a class. I think it’s been fewer than 5 times at this point. I am lucky it doesn’t happen more often considering how often it happens when I’m home. But this time, I knew I had to leave the workout for a minute. And when I rushed out of the room, I had a classic klutzy moment and ran right into the door frame with my shoulder. By the time the workout was done, a huge bruise was already starting to form on my upper arm. And now, as I write this a few days later, I have a really impressive splotchy bruise on my arm that I know will take a while to go away. Maybe not everyone would find this funny, but I do. Because of course, I would have a super klutzy moment while rushing out of the workout, and already having pain and nausea wasn’t enough for me to deal with.
Even with this past week being a bad week, I know it went as well as it could have. It wasn’t ideal when you compare it to my good weeks, but I’ve learned not to compare them since the situation is so different between my good and bad weeks. This week is likely going to be a bit of a mixed week, I might have a few tough days to start but it should be getting better each day. And I’m hoping I make it to all my workouts this week, but I also have jury duty so that might affect things. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn’t but that’s just another thing that is out of my control and I’ll just have to work with it as it comes.
Posted onAugust 24, 2020|Comments Off on The Motivation Struggle Is Real (or Nausea Really Kicked My Butt)
I knew going into this past week of workouts that it was likely to be a tough week. I knew I’d be dealing with pain and nausea, but I never know exactly how it will hit me. Sometimes I have a few really horrendous days and sometimes I spend the entire week with minimal but constant nausea. It’s usually a mystery until the nausea ends and I can reflect back on the week.
As I’ve said every time I’ve dealt with a bad week while working out at home, I really am struggling with my workouts. It’s one thing to go to the studio to work out and to try my best. It’s another to be home when I’m struggling and it’s much easier to slack off. And I’m almost embarrassed how much I slacked off this past week.
Monday and Saturday were the worst days for me. I know I didn’t really do the workouts. I tried and I did little bits and pieces of it, but I wasn’t doing most of it. And I wasn’t being good about figuring out modifications or other exercises I could do. I ended up spending a lot of time laying on my workout mat and waiting to feel better. If I was thinking more about it, I would have paused the workout when I needed to do that and continue when I was feeling better. But I didn’t have that thought at the time.
Wednesday was slightly better and I was able to feel like I at least tried to do the workout. It still was not the full workout or doing what I feel like I should be able to, but it was better. Again, pushing myself to work out when I feel so awful is such a struggle. But I can’t go easy on myself because it would be too easy to just start skipping workouts or not trying when I am feeling ok.
Friday was my Zoom workout. This is always my toughest workout of the week. And this past week was no different. It was the toughest workout and I tried my best. I had to take several breaks during the workout to let the nausea pass. Fortunately, the coach that does our Zoom workouts knows me and understands what I deal with each month, so she wasn’t freaked out when I started to look off. She knows that sometimes I just need to let the nausea pass and she doesn’t make a big deal out of it (because I have told her I am used to it). It was nice to have my workout with my friends as a nice distraction for when I was feeling so sick.
I’m hoping this week will be a bit better. I’m still not completely over the nausea, but it should be ending within a day or two. Then hopefully I will find my motivation a bit so I can feel strong when I write my recap next week.
Posted onAugust 17, 2020|Comments Off on It’s Not Always Easy To Go Easy (or Doing What I Can)
This past week of workouts was just a struggle for me. I had so many things working against me and I really couldn’t find a way out of it. I was dealing with a lack of motivation, lack of interest, and the pain and nausea that I was expecting. If I was feeling ok, I still didn’t want to work out. When I felt more like working out, I was feeling sick. I felt like I couldn’t win. And each time I had a bad workout, I felt even worse after it was done because I felt like I failed somehow.
I had video workouts on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday this past week. I tried to do what I could, but I wasn’t really doing the videos. I wasn’t feeling encouraged or motivated to do them. I felt like I wasn’t doing each exercise to the fullest and I was just kind of playing around. I know that doing something is better than doing nothing, but I couldn’t convince my brain that was true.
It didn’t help that I’ve been seeing friends in different parts of the country able to go to their gyms again. I’m especially jealous of my friends who can go to Orangetheory where they live. My last class in the studio was 5 months ago. And I miss it more and more every week that I’m not back there. I miss the coaches, everyone in the class, the workouts, the community feeling and encouragement, and feeling like I’m accomplishing something amazing when I finish a workout. I feel like my workouts when I’m dealing with nausea are so much better when I’m in the studio because I can work with so many more modifications. I used to feel more confident about when we would be able to go back, but now I’m less optimistic about it. I’m scared that it won’t be until next year that we can be back. And feeling like I’m missing a huge part of my life isn’t easy. I know that I’m not the only person dealing with this right now, but that doesn’t necessarily make it easier.
So for now, I just have to do what I can on my own. And for right now, that does mean doing the video workouts 3 days a week. I am working on finding alternatives to those because maybe I just need more variety. But it’s also easy to just do those videos since I know how to get everything set up and I don’t have to think too much about it.
What does help is having one workout each week on Zoom. This week, we had to move it to Saturday, so it was my last workout of the week. Having someone coach me feels so good and so familiar. Having my friends on the screen with me makes me feel less alone. Even though I was feeling the worst on Saturday, I know that was my best workout. It also was easily the hardest. If I could do Zoom workouts every time, I think that might be perfect (and I am looking into seeing if that could happen with different coaches).
Our workout on Saturday was a great all-over workout. We worked core, legs, and arms. And some of the exercises were not just strength but cardio too. For most of the workout, we all work together on intervals. For example, we have 6 different exercises that we do for 40 seconds on and 15 seconds off and go through the series 2 or 3 times. We also had one block where we had 3 exercises to do in 1 minute. It didn’t take the full minute, so whatever time we had leftover we got to rest. And we did that 5 times. I still don’t have my weights that I am getting for my birthday, but I was feeling really weak so the weights I use right now (like my water bottles) worked fine for me.
Even though there were a few times where I truly thought I would have to run to my bathroom to throw up, I finished that workout feeling amazing. I know I didn’t work as hard as I could when I feel normal, but I still finished that workout on the high that I am used to. It was the best way I could end my workout week.
I potentially have another week of dealing with pain and nausea this week. And I’m going to try my best to do what I can. My new weights might also be arriving this week, so that could be awesome if it happens. I know that I won’t be able to do the best or hardest workouts if I’m feeling ill, but I know I will try. And for me right now, trying is sometimes all I can ask of myself. If I’m not feeling like I want to work out, I just have to try. I can’t give up and do nothing. Even though there definitely were days this past week where I felt like it.
Posted onJuly 30, 2020|Comments Off on Doing A Health Check-In On Myself (or Seeing Where I’m Slipping)
I think it’s a pretty common thing right not to be struggling. We are going through a pandemic and life is so uncertain. People are scared of getting sick or being a carrier and getting someone they love sick. They are lonely at home or if they live with others unable to take time for themselves. Our routines are completely different and it’s hard to figure out a sense of normalcy. Almost everyone I know (at least in the US where the pandemic is still hitting us hard) is struggling with food or weight. I don’t know anyone who says they are doing just as great as they were before.
Struggling sucks. Even when you know that you aren’t alone in the struggle, it doesn’t necessarily make you feel better. And I know that I’m struggling right now. There’s no question about it. I’ve written about different struggles I’ve been having and I think that having an outlet to write about it has helped. But it hasn’t made it go away.
I want to say that I am ok and nobody should worry about me. I’m safe, I’m healthy, and I’m going to be ok. I am not worried about myself or if I’ll be ok because I know I will be. I just sometimes struggle randomly or my brain doesn’t want to remember that this time is temporary and eventually it will be done.
But even though I’m ok, that doesn’t mean I’m ok every day. I don’t believe that I have depression, but I know I have symptoms of being depressed. I am not enjoying some of the things that I know make me happy. There have been days that I wished I could just sleep away the day and thought maybe somehow the next day would be more interesting (even though my days don’t have much variety). I deal with loneliness a lot. The lack of physical contact or touch with others is a big struggle. I crave some of my normal life back and that’s just not possible.
I am working on being more social with friends and family in ways that I can be safely social. But even when I’ve had weeks where I was talking to someone on the phone or had a Zoom hang out almost every day, I still feel lonely. Being alone in my house isn’t easy. If I lived somewhere bigger, I might have asked a friend if they wanted to stay with me during this time so we didn’t have to be alone. But that’s not exactly an option for me right now. And I don’t know if seeing a friend from a distance is going to be enough for me. I know it helps because it has given me a boost when I have done it. But I also wonder if I won’t get the same boost now as I did before because I’m struggling more.
And I know my physical health is struggling too. This time is exceptionally hard for anyone with an eating disorder. I know I’ve gained weight in the past few months. Some of it is possibly stress-related, but I also know that I haven’t been eating the way that I should and my workouts aren’t as hard as they normally are. So it would make sense that I would gain weight. But I hate it. I feel really uncomfortable in my body right now. I want to get my weight back to where it was. I would prefer to work on losing weight again, but just to get back to where I was in March would be so nice. I’m trying to do the right things to get myself back on track, but then I slip up. This feels so much harder than any other time with my eating disorder and I wish I could figure out what I need to do to start getting back to the old me.
I remember seeing something on social media about how we shouldn’t be comparing ourselves now to ourselves before the pandemic started. We aren’t the same people that we were before. We are dealing with things that we never have had to go through. We are trying to live our lives through a pandemic and it’s a mix of normal life and everything being crazy. Struggling right now is normal. And it’s also normal to reach out for help. I have reached out to my therapist to make sure that I shouldn’t be worried about how I’m struggling. And I’ve been told that I’m doing ok, but if I feel like I need some help then we can discuss medication. I don’t want to go that route yet (just because of how often I deal with side effects), but I’m glad it is an option I can explore if I feel like I need it.
Hopefully writing this all down is going to help me feel a bit better about things. I can tell that it does feel like a bit of the weight holding me down has been lifted. I don’t know if this post will help me find a way back to the old me or a way to get back on track, but right now all I want to get to is to feel like I’m not struggling as much. It’s a small goal, but it would make me feel so much better.
Posted onJune 29, 2020|Comments Off on Not The Workout Week I Planned On (or Starting To Prepare To Go Back)
This past week of workouts was not what I expected. I thought it would be a pretty decent week for me, as far as my health goes. I wasn’t expecting to feel any nausea until the end of the week if I felt any. I was excited to see what I’d be able to do.
But my body had other plans.
I wrote about how I got my period very early, so the entire week ended up being pretty rotten. I will say that it was better than it usually is, but this was not what I thought the week would be like. The pain and nausea were there, but I was able to manage it with medication and other remedies I have. The fatigue hit me really hard and that wasn’t easy to get over. I had some serious struggles with the workouts each day, but because I knew what was causing the struggles I wasn’t too frustrated with myself. I wished I could have done better, but I also accept the reality of it.
And I did try to celebrate the workouts that I did do because this past week I completed my 100th Orangetheory class for the year! I’m on track for my goal for the year. Of course, I didn’t expect that I would spend several months doing classes at home. But those still count to me, so I’m excited that I’ve been making steady progress toward my goal for the year.
But soon, I might not be working out at home. As I’ve shared before, the studios are getting ready to reopen. The reopening date is a week away. And while I’ve been hesitant about if I’d go back right away, I spoke to my family who is in medicine and they think it should be fine with the precautions that the studios are taking. Classes were posted in the app at the end of the week last week so we could start booking classes, and I got myself into a few of them.
The class times aren’t the times that I usually go. They are doing a different schedule because they are allowing 30 minutes between classes to disinfect everything. And I have the flexibility with my schedule right now since I’m not working much. So I’m not doing classes as early as I normally go. But I probably will also need the extra time to get ready since I’m so used to only having to walk into my living room to work out.
My regular workout schedule is Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday. And that’s the schedule I’ve kept while working out at home. But because I know things will be harder in the studio, I have decided to start with 3 days in the studio and 1 day at home. Hopefully, this helps me ease back into my workouts and I don’t get too overwhelmed or too sore.
I will have some new struggles when getting back to the studio besides being weaker than normal. Some of it will be the stress and anxiety about being back and being worried if I’m making the right choice. But I feel pretty comfortable that I am and I know that if anything changes that I can cancel the classes I booked and just do the workouts at home. But the thing I think will be the hardest will be working out in a mask. I did order some fitness-specific masks (I don’t want to use a cotton one as it will be gross when I sweat). And I have heard from people that it isn’t too hard working out in a mask, but you never know. Hopefully, the masks I ordered get here soon so I can do a workout at home with them first.
Since I plan on being back in the studio in a week, this week I’m really hoping to push myself. I want to be in the best place possible when I get back to the studio. I want to be proud of what I was able to do at home, even when I struggled. But no matter what, I am seriously proud of myself for not giving up when it would have been very easy to do so.
Posted onMay 18, 2020|Comments Off on Why Can’t I Just Have A Normal Week? (or Another Bad Week Of Workouts)
I was really looking forward to being able to say I had a good week of workouts. I knew that it should be one of my good weeks. My finger was finally healed to the point where I could finally start bending it. I was excited to do my workouts because I finally had some motivation and was really to work hard. And then I got cellulitis.
Monday was the day I went to urgent care, but I tried to work out that morning. It was a pretty pathetic workout attempt. I had to sit down for almost everything. I did a lot of core work and stuff with my arms. I had to modify all the exercises because the swelling in my leg was so bad that I couldn’t do a lot of things. And I broke down crying because the pain was so intense. I think that workout was the push for me to go to the hospital because I realized how bad things had gotten.
Wednesday was similar to Monday because the swelling hadn’t really gone down much. I had the same amount of pain, but I had a bit more flexibility in my leg and was able to do a few exercises standing up. But still, nothing like what I normally could do. And what was so frustrating was that my mind wanted to do more. But my body just couldn’t.
Friday and Saturday were better because my leg was almost normal. Still, I had to do a lot of modifications because there were things that caused me pain that normally wouldn’t. But it was nice to be able to do a bit more and to feel like I had some proof that my leg was getting better. I was worried that it wasn’t getting better because I was still dealing with so many issues, but my workouts did prove that I wasn’t struggling as much as I had earlier in the week.
Even though by the end of the week I was doing ok, it was still such a frustrating workout week. I am tired of having a bad week after a bad week. I really need a good week, and I don’t know if that will happen soon. This week, there is a chance my nausea will kick in. And my leg still isn’t totally better. So I might be struggling again. And the struggle physically combined with dealing with quarantine/isolation is really taking a toll on me. I know that there are some OTF studios starting to open up, but the ones here might not be open for a few months. It’s been over 2 months since my last in-studio workout. That’s such a long time. And even though before I was trying to stay positive and thinking how I just have to do the same amount of time again, the longer I’m away from my workouts the harder it is. But at the same time, if the studios in LA opened, I don’t know if I’d go right away. There are still so many things unknown about reopening and I want to see what happens before I take the risk.
Even though this past week of workouts was pretty bad, I do just keep reminding myself that I at least tried the workouts the best that I could. It’s better than doing nothing. And there were times when I was wondering if I should just skip it. I’m glad I did something because I probably would have felt worse if I didn’t do it. But I just want to have a good workout week again. I feel like I’m owed one by now.
Posted onMay 11, 2020|Comments Off on My Workouts Are Never Simple (or I Need To Keep Working On Modifications)
I knew going into this past week that my workouts weren’t going to be my best. I was going to be dealing with nausea and I was still struggling with losing some motivation. I’m not going to lie and say working out when feeling like this is easy. It’s not even as easy as it is when I’m in the studio (when it’s really not that easy). Pushing myself when I’d rather be lying in bed is tough when there’s nobody expecting to see me at a workout. I could easily lie and say I worked out when I did, but I know that would just make me feel worse.
What I wasn’t expecting going into this past week of workouts was dealing with the injury to my finger. That caused an entirely new set of issues for me. Of course, I knew I didn’t want to stress my finger as it was starting to heal because I didn’t want to delay the healing process. I always bandaged up my finger when working out because I wanted to protect it. And part of that protection involved not allowing myself to bend it that much. Bending my finger stresses the injury and can damage any scars or scabs on it. So I had to be as careful as possible.
Even though I knew I was bandaging my finger to prevent it from bending, I guess I didn’t think through how much that would affect my workouts in terms of being able to hold or lift anything. Monday’s workout was the worst for that. I tried to lift even the lightest things, and I couldn’t get a grip on it. Even though I was using the rest of my fingers, it was like I lost my grip strength because I was not able to use my middle finger. It might have been how I wrapped my finger or it might have been how new the injury was. Lifting things was a struggle through the rest of the week, but it did get easier as the week went on. I think it’s still going to take a few weeks before I’m completely healed and able to use it. The healing process is going much faster than I expected, but the lack of movement in my finger is almost the same as it was when it happened. I have no clue how long it will take to get that back.
And the pain and nausea were also worse toward the beginning of the week, so at least all the tough things were easing up through the week. I continued to struggle with figuring out modifications for the plank work, which was made harder by the limits I could do with my finger injury. I’ve tried so many types of chairs and ladders to be similar to a weight bench, but they don’t work. And the things I have found online that could be good are either out of stock or cost too much. I know that people are hoping the studios can open up again in about 2 months, but that’s still 2 months of home workouts that I want to have as much success as possible. So I need to figure this out.
Even though I would say that this past week of workouts was probably the hardest one I’ve had since starting the home workouts (possibly the hardest workouts I’ve had in years), I still got my 4 workouts in for the week and I still tried my best. I took a lot of breaks and rests for various reasons, but I did remember to pause the workout video sometimes so I didn’t use workout time as break time. And I just keep telling myself the same thing over and over again. I am doing something. I am trying. I am not giving up and saying I’ll just get back into my workouts when the studios open up again. I have prioritized my workouts and that is a win to me. I just look forward to when things are a bit easier for me so I can feel like I’m making progress or getting some wins in my workouts each week.
Posted onMay 13, 2019|Comments Off on Still Working Through The Pain (or I’m Going To Stay Positive About This)
This past week of workouts ended up being another struggle. As I mentioned last week, I did something to my back and that really threw things off for me. But at least the nausea was gone and I was ready to feel like myself again. That’s not how this past week went, but I think I did end up finding the best in the situation.
Monday’s workout was a strength day and I was ready to be back to normal with my bike work. I was feeling good (this workout was right before my back pain started) and I was excited to see what I was going to be able to do.
The cardio work did include hills, but they weren’t super high inclines. So I was keeping my bike resistance levels close to what I’m used to. We had rounds of hill work and flat road work and each round the incline/resistance level went down by 1. I started 1 level higher than my new all out level and didn’t worry about pedaling too fast. And it felt great when the resistance level was getting back down toward where I’m used to being after having such a high level earlier. When we had our all outs, since I had so much work using resistance levels I decided to have the level at my base level but I pedaled much faster. It was an interesting difference from what I’m used to doing. I don’t know if I’ll do that all the time for my all outs, but it could be something good to have as an option when I have strength days in the future.
On the rower, we had rounds of stroke count work. We started with doing 20 strokes on the rower slowly to get as many meters as possible. Then we had lunges using the medicine ball. Each time we got to the rower we went down 2 stokes. Because I was going so slow, I didn’t get that low with the stroke count. I tried to keep the stroke rate below 16 strokes a minute when with normal rowing I’m usually between 25-30. It is so hard to go that slowly, but I know that was the purpose of that workout and I’m glad I really tried to do it that way.
And on the floor we had 2 blocks and it was a lot of upper body work. The first block had bicep curls but we were balancing on one leg while doing them. That was definitely an added challenge, but I took my time and put my foot down to regain my balance when necessary. We also had tricep extensions on the straps and goblet lunges. And the second block had regular bicep curls, regular lunge, and tricep extensions using the weights. It was interesting to see how I felt between the two blocks since they were essentially the same exercises but different ways of doing them.
Wednesday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and because of my back I had to be careful with what I did. I knew that working out wasn’t going to make things worse unless I was careless in what I did in class. Every time I worked on stretching things felt better so I was hoping a workout would do the same. There wasn’t too much I had to modify which was nice, I just had to take things a bit slower.
For cardio, we had 2 blocks with a similar pattern. We started with hill work, then we had a flat road push pace, and we ended with rounds of 30 second all outs with recoveries between. For the hill work, I kept it where my push pace resistance level usually is. I didn’t want to strain too much because I was worried I would put that strain into my back. I did work hard, just not as hard as I would have done if I was feeling ok.
On the rower, we had sprint rows and we were supposed to do power jacks with a medicine ball between each row. I knew that I shouldn’t lift a weight over my head and I didn’t want to have to bend over to grab the medicine ball each time I was going to use it. So I did regular squats instead and that worked just fine for me. We also had all out rows to match with the cardio side when they had them. I was able to do a bit better with those rows because they were so short.
And on the floor, we had one long block. We had front squats with dumbbells, upright rows with dumbbells, double crunches, goblet squats, lateral raises, and swimmers. I had to modify the front squats because I couldn’t hold the weights up that high so I did them as regular squats with weights. I also had to go much lower with the weights for all the exercises. Some of the exercises did use my back so obviously I needed lighter weight for those. But even the goblet squats had to be done with a lighter weight because I just couldn’t pick up the heavier one. Considering what the workout could have been and the modifications I could have needed, I was very happy with the limited modifications I had to do.
Friday’s workout was a mix of strength and endurance work. My back was doing much better than it was on Wednesday, but I still had twinges of pain when I moved certain ways so I had to be careful with what I did and how I moved. Unfortunately, one of the ways I felt pain was when I hunched over to adjust the resistance levels on the bike so I had to be very careful with that.
The cardio work was a mix of push paces at a flat incline and push paces with hills. But because I struggled to adjust the resistance level, I just used my new base pace for the base pace moments and my old push pace for the push paces no matter if there was incline work or not as well as the all out. Limiting it to those 2 levels helped a lot because I didn’t have to adjust things that often. I know that it didn’t make the workout as hard as it should have been, but it did allow me to have very little pain while on the bike.
The rower had 2 blocks with similar patterns. We had 2 rounds of a 200 meter row, 2 rounds of a 150 meter row, and rounds of a 100 meter row. Between each row we had medicine ball exercises. For the first block we had medicine ball ground to presses and for the second block we had medicine ball front raises. But I couldn’t lift a medicine ball that way without having pain. So for both blocks I did squats with the medicine ball. It wasn’t working the same muscles we were supposed to, but the muscles we were supposed to be using were the ones that hurt. And for the rowing, I tried to keep my rows as close to my normal times as possible. I had to be very cautious doing them because I discovered doing the proper form hurt more than doing a sloppy form. So I had to be aware of my body position so I didn’t injure myself a different way by having bad form.
And the floor had a lot of upper body and core work which was a bit tough for me. We also had drop sets which ended up giving me a good chance to test out different weights to see what my body could do while hurting. The first block had drop sets with chest presses and regular sets with bear steps and arm raises. The second block had drop sets with tricep extensions with weights and then regular sets with shoulder presses and sit-ups. I did have to go lighter with my weights for the weighted work, but I was doing better than I had done on Wednesday. And the core work wasn’t as tough as I thought it would be, it was just getting into position that was hard. Getting up and down from the ground was harder than the actual exercises.
Saturday’s workout was an endurance day and fortunately my back was almost totally normal. I’m lucky that I only had to deal with the bad pain for a couple of days, but I’m also aware that if I go too hard that I could injure myself again or the little pains I have could last much longer. So I took that knowledge into my workout to make sure I didn’t do anything too crazy.
For cardio we had lots of push paces to base paces. The base pace always matched the time of the push pace before it, but the block had a lot of variety. We had 2 minute, 90 second, 1 minute, and 30 second intervals throughout the time we were doing the cardio block. We ended with a 1 minute push pace followed by a 1 minute all out. And just like on Friday, the only time I had a bit of pain on the bike was when I had to lean over to change the resistance levels. So I kept it simple like I did the day before. So all the base paces were my new base pace and all the push paces were the old push pace even if they were the shorter ones. Usually I would do the old push pace for the longer ones and the new push pace for the short ones, but it wasn’t worth it for me to worry about the adjustments as much. I did use my new all out pace at the end which helped to end on a good note.
The rowing work was 1 long block. We started with a 2 minute row and then we had medicine ball work. Then we were supposed to reduce the row by 100 meters from what we did in 2 minutes and repeat the pattern. Usually I would use an even number no matter how far I went in 2 minutes, but I decided to do the math in my head each time and do what I actually did. The medicine ball work were squats to overhead raises and calf raises. I didn’t do the overhead raise with the squats and I kept the medicine ball at my chest for the calf raises to protect my back. But I felt like I was doing work much closer to what we were supposed to do.
And the floor block ended up being one of the highlights of the workout for me. The first block was almost all work that involved stepping on the bench. Until last week, I wasn’t able to do any exercises like that and would have to do squats or lunges instead. I still had to modify the actual exercises because I can’t do stepping up and down, but I was still able to use the bench. We were supposed to do step overs with crossing the back leg, step down toe taps, and power step ups. What I did was balancing on one leg while holding the straps for all the exercises. Instead of the step overs I basically did single leg squats with crossing the back leg behind me. For the toe taps and step ups I did single leg squats with keeping the leg I wasn’t using to the side. It’s much closer to the work than what I used to do even with all the modifications. The second block was lunges with bicep curls or uppercuts and side planks, all exercises I could do. I had to be careful with the side planks while I was going from standing to the floor and back, but the actual exercise was not painful or difficult.
There was no way for me to know that this past week was going to be thrown off by my back issues. But I am so grateful that it really didn’t hurt my workouts too much. I did have new modifications to do, but I also was getting a lot of stuff done that I hadn’t been able to do until recently. I think there were more positive things about this workout than negative and that’s awesome! My back is still a little tender and I have a few moments of little pains, but I’m doing so much better and I’m optimistic the trend will continue that way.
Posted onMay 6, 2019|Comments Off on Trying New Things When I’m Having A Bad Week (or Having An OTF First)
I was really prepared for the worst this past week at Orangetheory. I knew it would be my week of nausea and I really don’t expect much from myself that week. I usually go into my workouts just hoping I can keep moving while I was in class and if I can do more than that it’s a bonus. What I never expect is to have a small breakthrough in my workouts. But this past week surprised me with just that.
Monday’s workout was endurance based and was having moderate nausea. I haven’t decided if I prefer having one horrible nausea day and the rest of the time being only a little nauseous or having moderate nausea for an extended period of time. This past week was moderate nausea for the entire week which made Monday a bit better (but the rest of the week a bit harder). But it helped for making the endurance workout a bit easier.
For cardio we started with a long 3 minute push pace and then we had rounds of 1 minute push paces and 30 second base paces with an all out pace at the end. The 3 minute push was tough to keep going the entire time, but I put my resistance level a bit lower than I normally would. The rounds of 1 minute pushes were a bit better and I felt like I could actually push myself a bit more. I ended up using the base pace time to stop and get some water (and let my nausea pass) so I didn’t really have a base pace during the workout. But considering what I was expecting to be able to do I had a much better time and did a lot more work.
On the rower we started with a 3 minute row for distance. The plan was to go down 100 meters on the rower each time we rowed and have squats with the medicine ball between each row. I usually try to use round numbers when I have this type of rowing workout so I just did the 3 minute distance row and then went down to 500 meters after (I did around 600 meters in those 3 minutes). The long rows weren’t easy, but it was nice to have the ability to zone out a bit while I rowed. I still had to rest in the middle of the rowing a lot, but I wasn’t too worried about that and didn’t stress too much about how far down the row distance I could do.
And on the floor, the first block had side lunges, regular lunges, and crunches. Those all went well and as expected and weren’t anything too crazy. But in the second block, I had a pretty great breakthrough. Whenever we have exercises on the floor that involve stepping on and off the bench I do something on the floor instead like lunges. But the first block already had lunges so I asked my coach what else I could use as a replacement. We worked on figuring out how I could use the bench a bit but I held onto the straps for balance and I wasn’t exactly stepping on and off. I was balancing on one foot while moving the other foot behind me. I’ve done something similar on the floor, but because I’m on the floor I’m limited in how far I can drop the back foot. By doing it on the bench, I had more room to squat down and balance. I still wasn’t doing exactly what we were supposed to do, but it was a big change from what I normally do and I felt how hard I worked after that workout! It was so awesome to know I could do something that I really didn’t think I could do!
Wednesday’s workout was a power day, but I ended up treating it a bit like another endurance day. My nausea was close to what it was like on Monday and I really was expecting it to be better than that. Because of that feeling, I didn’t want to overdo things on the bike and I really wanted to be able to zone out while I was on it.
The cardio was supposed to be different distance challenges with base paces between them, but I really didn’t want to have to focus on the distance on the bike and to do the math needed to plan it out. Both blocks for cardio were 6 minutes so I just kept my resistance level between my base and push paces and just went for the entire block. I had to take lots of breaks during the block, but I was grateful to have a steady resistance level so I could skip focusing on that. I know I didn’t get as hard of a workout as I normally do, but it was better than many nauseous days. And I feel like not having the pressure of focusing on the distance allowed me to do more work than I could have done if I was trying to keep up the pattern.
On the rower, we had only sprint rows. Both blocks had 200, 150, and 100 meter rows. The first block had overhead medicine ball presses between the rows and the second block had medicine ball front presses between the rows. The sprint rows were nice because they were done quickly. I know I was slow and not able to push back as hard as I would have liked on the rower which made them take longer, but they were still done faster than the rows I had on Monday.
And on the floor I had another chance to work on my new bench standing skill. The first block had high rows on the straps, double crunches, and what was supposed to be toe tap hop overs on the bench. I can’t do the hop overs, but I did a similar exercise as I did on Monday with holding onto the straps. This time, I balanced on one leg while putting the back foot back and to the side. I couldn’t do all the reps without standing on the bench again to get my balance, but I’m sure I’ll get there eventually. The second block had pullovers with weights, lunges, and skier swings. It was nice to have a floor workout that only required minimal modifications for my hip issues and no modifications due to my nausea.
Friday’s workout was the hardest day for me by far. My nausea was the same it had been all week, but I had not slept the night before. Going into a workout with only about 20 minutes of sleep is not ideal but I didn’t want to skip the class either. This was the time I feel like I really went in with the mindset that I’m used to having when I’m nauseous. I just wanted to get through it and doing something is better than doing nothing.
The workout was endurance based and I really took it easy on the bike. We had one block with rounds of decreasing push paces with 30 second bases between and one block with rounds of decreasing push paces with 1 minute bases between. I was using my old push and base paces and it was really a struggle. Exhaustion was hitting me really hard in class (although I think having my workout is what helped to keep me awake during work later that day) and all I could think about was trying to keep going. I didn’t do what I know I can do, even when I feel nauseous, and I had to be ok with that.
The rower was also 2 blocks. The first block started with a 300 meter row with squat front presses. Then it was a 600 meter row and we were supposed to hold a squat the rest of the block, but I didn’t finish the 600 meter row before the block ended. The second block followed the same pattern as the treadmill and we had push rows and ground to press with medicine balls as our recovery when the treadmills were in their base pace. After the ground to presses I had about 15 seconds each time to get ready for the next row so it felt like we didn’t have much rest that entire block.
And on the floor, we had 1 long block that was split into 2 mini-blocks. The first mini-block was lateral raises to front raises with weights, alternating shoulder presses with weights, and Y raises with the straps. The second block was goblet squats with weights, regular lunges with weights, and side lunges with weights. The regular lunges were actually supposed to be step ups on the step and I could have tried to figure out a way to modify that on the step with the strap, but I didn’t feel comfortable trying that when I was so tired. I need to be focused when I try things on the step and that day I know I wasn’t.
Saturday’s class was a themed class. It was May The 4th Be With You and everything was pretty much related to 4. We had 4 minutes runs and rows and 4 or 8 reps of things on the floor. It was a bit of a crazy class with a lot of switches, but it ended up being my best class of the week. I was dealing with some anger in my life and I was taking it out in class. Turns out working angry means you get to work hard and you feel better when it’s done!
The cardio and rower blocks worked together and had a run/row type format. If you were doing cardio you did cardio, rowing, cardio and if you were doing rowing you did rowing, cardio, rowing. When we were doing the cardio work, it was a 4 minute distance challenge. I set my resistance level to be at my old push pace for that and it worked really well. It was a bit tough, but considering it was 4 minutes without a break it should be tough! And when we were doing rowing it was 4 rounds of 100 meter rows with 4 frogger squats between. If we finished those 4 rounds we rowed for distance until we switched. Every time I made it to the rowing for distance.
The floor was one long block and it was focused a lot on upper body. We had chest presses, push-ups, high rows on the straps, chest flys, sit-ups, squats, and rollouts on the straps. My arms were still a bit sore from Friday’s workout so I had to take my time with these exercises, but I was able to get a lot of rounds done. I definitely feel the hard work I did still, so I might have gone a little too heavy with the weights, but it was totally worth it to me.
I still can’t believe that I had such great work during a week that I was prepared for the worst. I know that having these not-so-bad nausea weeks are a surprise and I wish they would be more often. But if I get them every few months that would be nice too. I got so much done this past week that I never thought I could do and it was a great boost to my self-esteem during a week that I had some struggles. Hopefully I can keep that going through this week too!
I don’t like when I have short posts on here, but I’m sorry this is going to be one. I’m struggling right now with some really bad nausea and pain that has really made yesterday (when I’m writing this) drag on. I did too much and I should have taken it easy, but I didn’t. I did things that I know made my nausea worse and I didn’t take care of myself the way I know I need to.
I’ve also been dealing with a severe lack of sleep lately. This isn’t due to my pain and nausea, it’s a bad habit that I’ve been struggling to break. I’ll write more about this tomorrow but I’ve been having a lot of nights with only 4 or 5 hours of sleep. Having those nights occasionally isn’t great, but it’s tolerable. Having them for an entire week or two really makes it tough and makes me feel like I need to nap. On Sunday, I ended up taking 2 different naps that were each over 2 hours long. I needed that time to get other stuff done, but clearly I needed the sleep more. But I should have gotten that sleep overnight and not during the day.
Pushing myself to my limit when I’m not feeling great is a recurring issue for me, but it never seems to go away either. I knew that I was doing too much, but that didn’t stop me. I just wanted to push through and see if I could get it all done (I did) and see if it might not wear me down like it normally does (unfortunately, I had the same reaction as always). So I’ve had to find where I could cut back on responsibilities so I could take care of myself. And writing this blog post was something I felt like I could cut back on.
I know some people would say this is a sign to not blog every day, but if I planned things out better I would have gotten this post written sooner and what happened during the day wouldn’t have mattered. But I didn’t do that and I’m sticking with my commitment to myself. Plus, writing posts like this shows that even if all my posts around this one were exciting and happy that my life isn’t always like that. I struggle just like anyone else and that’s exactly what happened to me yesterday.
Hopefully tomorrow’s post will be better and I will be feeling more like myself and more rested.
Working Through Physical Challenges (or Not Letting Feeling Bad Ruin My Workouts)
