This workout week didn’t start as the most ideal for me, but this is sadly becoming the norm for me. While I’ve been dealing with the nausea issue for a while now, it’s not necessarily getting easier to manage and I’m really trying to figure out what to do to make things the best possible for me. But fortunately, this past week of workouts ended on a high note and that’s what I’m trying to focus on going into this week.
Monday’s workout was a bit rough for me. I had spent all day Sunday being very nauseous and in a lot of pain. I was hoping that I could sleep that feeling off, but Monday morning when I woke up it wasn’t that much better. But I also know that I need to go do what I can in a workout and that’s what I went into class thinking. It was a 3 group power class, so that did work a bit to my advantage because everything was in short bursts.
I started on cardio and was on the bike. For the entire block, we had the same plan. The runners had a .25 mile run (on the bike it was 1 mile) and then we had 15 power jacks with a medicine ball. I wasn’t able to do the power jacks so I did squats to a shoulder press. I took it easy on the bike and the mile took me a bit longer than it normally does, but that might have been due to me keeping the resistance low. When a wave of nausea hit me, I stopped the bike and let it pass. But I just tried to keep going when I could and while it wasn’t my best cardio workout, it was better than staying in bed and doing nothing.
Next I was on the rower where we had a partner type row. Everything was split into 4 minutes and in the first round one person did a 400 meter push row while the other person did a base row. When the 400 meter partner was done, they told the other person and they did the 400 meter push row. We went back and forth until 4 minutes were up (it was about 2 rounds). Then, after a 1 minute rest we went again for 4 minute but it was a 300 meter push row. My push and base rows were pretty similar because of how I was feeling, but I only had to take 2 breaks to let nausea pass for the entire rowing time so I was very happy with that.
The floor was where I really struggles. The main part of the floor work was doing pull ups on the straps, sit-ups, and burpees with step ups. But between each exercise we had a variety of things we had to do like pop jacks or pop squats. All the in-between exercise moves were ones where we had to be parallel to the floor and I knew I couldn’t do that. I was terrified of getting sick in class and putting my body into that position made me feel awful. So between each exercise I did squats instead. I also wasn’t able to do burpees for the same reason but I didn’t want to do more squats than I was already doing. Since I do lunges instead of step ups, I just did lunges in that section. I felt like I wasn’t able to do anything in the floor block and I felt horrible about it. I also had more waves of nausea while on the floor than I did in any other section. I did my best, but I know that it was far from what I normally could do.
Wednesday was another morning workout at the Culver City location. My nausea hadn’t gotten much better since Monday so I knew it would be another day trying to take it easy. It was an endurance, strength, and power workout and we didn’t switch between blocks. So that means I was on the bike for about 30 minutes at the beginning of the workout.
I kept my bike resistance at a similar level to what power walkers had for their inclines on the treadmill. So for the base pace, I was at 4 resistance since I’m normally at 4% incline. I kept that going for pretty much all the blocks including the strength one where it was supposed to be like hills. There were plenty of times that I had to stop biking to drink some water and wait for the wave of nausea to pass, but it didn’t feel as disappointing to me as it did on Monday. Maybe I’m just getting used to having to deal with this?
Once I was on the floor, I tried my best to do everything I could. The first block on the floor had shoulder presses, tricep presses, plank work, and crunches. I couldn’t do the plank work because of how I was feeling, but I did everything else. And with the weighted work I tried to use the heavier weights that I’m used to using. The crunches were a bit tough because I would feel nauseous when I was laying on the floor, but it seemed to pass quickly and I just took it slow with the crunches. The second block was squat thrusters and pull ups on the straps followed by 200 meter rows. My rower was being a bit weird so I have no idea what time I really finished my 200 meter row, but I think it was under a minute.
And the last block on the floor was one I was a bit worried about. It was going to be a 5 minute row for distance. I know I can row for 5 minutes and I have been getting better on my endurance rows. But considering how I was feeling, I had no clue how I would do. The 200 meter row was tough enough and this was going to be about 5 times as long. So I set a goal of just rowing without stopping and hopefully getting more than 1,000 meters which was the minimum we were supposed to get to. I focused on keeping my stroke rate steady and not letting it get too high. I did have some minor waves of nausea but I didn’t stop rowing. I just closed my eyes and focused on my breathing and fortunately they weren’t as bad as some of them that I had earlier in the workout. And when 5 minutes was up, not only did I row for the entire time without stopping but I also hit my distance goal!
Friday’s workout was a strength day and I spent my cardio time on the bike again. I wasn’t necessarily feeling nauseous when I got to the workout, but I’m glad I was cautious because it ended up being another workout where I had waves of nausea. While on the bike, I did my resistance at the same number that the incline would have been as a power walker on the treadmill. Most of the time I was between 4-8% and that worked for me. But I was much slower than I normally am on the bike because of how I was feeling and I needed to take several breaks to get myself back together. It was a bit frustrating because I’m trying to not go easy on myself on the bike and that’s really what it felt like I was doing. But I also have to just remember that I was dealing with situations that were a bit out of my control and I really did try my best.
On the floor, I did try to focus on using heavier weights. In the first block we had chest presses, reverse flys, and toe reaches and I used heavier weights for all of those exercises. We also had 250 meter rows and while my time was under what we were supposed to be under it wasn’t that great of a time for what I can normally do. The second block was squat twists using the straps, tricep kickbacks using the weights, and straight leg raises. Leg raises are one of the things that I have always struggled with because of my hip, but I was able to take breaks while doing them and managed to get them done with pretty decent form! And the final block was a row block where we had 3 rounds of 1 minute all out rows with recovery in-between. I probably should have reset my rower for each of the 1 minute all out rows, but I just let it keep going so I didn’t really know what I did in a minute. But I tried to keep my wattage up and my stroke rate down the entire time so I think I did pretty well.
Saturday’s workout was one that I was excited for. Since the Culver City studio opened, I knew that some of my friends who live near me would be doing some workouts. But until this past Saturday, we hadn’t had a chance to be at the same workout. I was so excited to have friends with me in class because that’s something that I know makes my workouts better. I was debating about using the bike again, but I took a treadmill and a bike card so I could decide which way I wanted to go.
It was a power day and on the treadmill we had 5 blocks that were all under 5 minutes. I figured I would try to see how the first block went on the treadmill and go over to the bike if I felt like I was feeling sick. But I also had my friends next to me and that was extra motivation. All of the treadmill blocks had a similar pattern of being a push pace, a base pace, and a push to all out pace. I was using my normal speed and inclines and even though I had to take breaks in every single block, I managed to use the treadmill for the entire first half of class! I was pretty proud of myself and it was a nice mental boost for me.
The floor block was one long block that was an add-on type of workout. We were supposed to start every round with burpees, but because I was still feeling a bit off I did squats and push-ups instead of burpees. Then we had a 200 meter row. Each round, between the burpees (or squats and push-ups for me) and the rower we added on another exercise. We had plank low rows, bicep curls, high rows on the straps, and plank jacks. I managed to get through everything and was doing the last 200 meter row when the block was done and I felt amazing! It was a really hard workout, but I think that it was the hardest I had worked in a while. And I do think that it had something to do with my friends being there supporting me and pushing me to keep going.
While this past week of workouts was a bit of a struggle in the beginning, I felt so incredible at the end of the week and I hope that the feeling continues into my workouts this week!
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