Monthly Archives: December 2019

As I wrote last week, the 12 Days Of Fitness were almost like having another Hell Week. Except there were more days for this than there were for Hell Week. And these workouts were just as hard, if not harder, than those. And of course, I ended up making things a bit harder on myself than they probably needed to be. But that’s just how I do things.

Monday’s workout was called Nine Reps Increasing and that was a very accurate description for what it was. Every part of the workout had increasing reps for us to do.

For cardio, we had a run/exercise workout. We had 4 blocks but they were very similar. Our first block was rounds of .25 miles (1 mile for the bike) and then we had ground to presses with the medicine ball each round. We started with 1 ground to press and increased by 1 every time. The distance for cardio decreased each block a bit and we continued working on our ground to presses and increasing them by 1 every time. We didn’t reset those each block, so by the time we finished the last block I was doing 8 of them after my bike work.

On the floor, we had 3 blocks. The first block had shoulder presses, hip hinge chest flys, and bicep curls on the straps. We started with 9 reps for each exercise and each round we added 1 more rep. The next block had side plank hip dips and sit-ups and the reps were based on where we were on the first block. For me, I did 9 and 10 reps in the first block so I started with 11 reps in the second block. The last block had chest presses, pullovers, and knee tucks and again we continued increasing the reps based on what we were able to do in the other blocks.

Wednesday’s workout was Eleven Pikers Piking and it was a power switch day so we had a lot of movement between the different areas of the room. We had 2 blocks that were 4 minutes each and 2 blocks that were 45-second tornados. It was a lot of switching for us to be at each section of the room 4 times.

For cardio, the 4-minute blocks had 30-second intervals with a push pace, a base pace, an all out, a recovery, and then repeating it. I kept my resistance level at my base level and just focused on pedaling quickly. For the 45-second tornado blocks, it was a 45 second all out and again I focused on pedaling quickly.

On the rower, the 4-minute blocks had 300, 200, and 100-meter rows with frogger squats in between each row. One block started at 300-meters and decreased and the other block started at 100-meters and increased. And just like with cardio, the 45-second tornado blocks were a 45-second all out row.

On the floor, both of the 4-minute blocks were the same. We had sumo squats with upright rows, hamstring curls (I did hip bridges with a weight on my hips), rollouts with the ab dolly, and lateral lunges. And the 45-second tornado blocks had 45 seconds of doing pikes on the ab dolly. I can’t do pikes due to my hip issues, so I did knee tucks. I was also struggling a bit with nausea in this workout, but it didn’t prevent me from doing anything. I just had to take a few more breaks than I normally would need to.

My goal was to do 7 of the 12 Days of Fitness, and the only way for me to do that would be to work out on Thursday. I wanted to see if I could get the socks they were giving away to the first 100 people who completed it, but I also knew that there was a good chance that at least 100 people would get it done before the last day (I was right about that, but I still got my 7 days in).

Thursday’s workout was called 12 Runners Running and I had a 2 group class instead of a 3 group one. It was also a strength-based day and I was dealing with the start of nausea. So I struggled a bit to complete it.

The cardio work started with a 4-minute distance challenge. Then we had a 5-minute hill challenge with the incline (or resistance level) increasing every minute. Even with the issues I was having with nausea, I was able to work on increasing my resistance level each minute. I was just pedaling really slowly. After completing those, we repeated it except we had the hill challenge first and finished with the distance challenge.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block started with a 2-minute row for distance. Then we moved to the floor where we had deadlifts, hip hinge low rows, squats to bicep curls, half thrusters, and running man. I modified a few things with each exercise and took a lot of breaks, but I was able to go heavy with the weights. The second block started with a 90-second row and then we moved to the floor. We had lateral step-ups (which I modified to be lunges), sit-ups, and plank work. I modified the plank work to be on the bench instead of the floor, but that’s something I do almost no matter what since I’ve noticed it helps with my hips too.

Friday’s workout wasn’t a part of the 12 Days of Fitness, but it might as well have been. It was Friday the 13th which is always a tough workout. I also was doing my 3rd day in a row and my pain and nausea were really hitting me. I would have struggled no matter what the workout was. Everything in the workout was themed to be with 13.

For cardio, we had 13 rounds of 30-second push paces to 30-second base paces. And then we ended with an all out. I didn’t change my resistance levels at all and I tried to go a bit faster when we were doing a push pace. But my nausea really prevented me from doing that so I just had to pedal when I could and rest when I needed to.

On the rower, all the rows were 130 meters. Between the rowing, we had squats starting with 13 squats and going down each time. Just like with cardio, I rested a lot during my rowing. And on the floor, we added on exercises each round. The exercises we had were squats, low rows on the straps, triceps on the straps, push-ups, plank jacks, and burpees. I modified any plank type work to be on the bench, but besides that, I was able to do the exercises. I still took a lot of moments to rest and let nausea pass over me, but I’m glad it wasn’t too hard for me to do the floor work.

This week I will be back to normal workouts again, but I also have the pain and nausea to deal with so it won’t be easy. But I’m coming up on the end of the year and I love seeing how close I am to my goals for the year. And I’m starting to think about what fitness goals I want to have for next year and these workouts are really giving me a lot to think about.

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Starting Off Hell Week (or 5 Workouts And They Were All Hard) Kicking Off The 12 Days of Fitness (or It’s Like Hell Week Again) Finishing The 12 Days Of Fitness (or Some PRs and Some Setbacks) This Felt Like Hell Week (or An Unexpected But Fun Workout Week) Finishing Hell Week (or I Need To Get Back To Running) Finishing Hell Week (or Fires and Being Tired)

For the first 12 days of December, Orangetheory is doing the 12 Days Of Fitness. These are harder workouts than normal (similar to Hell Week) and they all have different themes. I was excited about the workouts because I love it when we get to do something a bit different. And I don’t mind the harder workouts because I like to prove to myself that I can do them.

Monday’s workout was 2 Crew Rows. And the workout really did have 2 sets of crew rows. It was a 2 group class and the workout was divided into cardio/floor and row (so it was a run/floor instead of a run/row). Every block was 10 1/2 minutes and we switched between the blocks.

Both of the cardio/floor blocks were the same. It started with a .2 mile run (or .8 for the bike) at a flat incline and every time we got back to cardio we increased the incline by 1% (or 1 gear on the bike). After the run, we had lunges with weights, hip hinge swings, and low rows on the straps. We kept doing that rotation for the entire block and when we got back to cardio/floor for the second block we started the cardio at the incline that we ended the first block on.

For rowing, we had lots of crew rows. Crew rows are when one person on the rower is the leader and everyone is supposed to match their cadence and speed. It’s not easy to do this, especially if you aren’t on a rower next to the leader. But it’s a good challenge. The first crew row we had was 4 minutes and we were supposed to be at 24 strokes/minute. The next one was 2 minutes at 26 strokes/minute. Then 1 minute at 28 strokes/minutes. And it ended with 30 seconds at 30 strokes/minute. Between each crew row, we had 1 minute to recover where we could row at our own speed and not have to match anyone. The second block had the same crew rows but we started with the 30 seconds one and ended with 4 minutes. I was never the leader, but I was fine with that. I was just focusing on my stroke rate and trying to match the leader each time and that’s all I needed.

Wednesday’s workout was 4 Falling Hills. And that was a very good explanation of what we had to do. Cardio was one long block but the rower and floor switched back and forth.

I’m not going to write out all that we did for cardio, but it was a lot! We had 14 minutes of hill work. Every minute was a different incline and there was no pattern or reason for the order. We had some high incline work and some medium incline work. But there wasn’t a walking recovery or a flat road recovery until the 14 minutes were done. I was struggling a bit for this workout because my hips were in a lot of pain (it was raining so I had pain from that). I did play around with the resistance levels on the bike, but I wasn’t doing it exactly how I should have done them. But doing some incline/resistance work is better than nothing.

The rower and the floor were the same every time we were there. For the block that I started on the rower, I had rower, floor, rower and for the block I started on the floor I had floor, rower, floor. Each of those little blocks was 4 minutes long so we were switching every 4 minutes. On the rower, we had a 1-minute all out row, 10 lunges (which I did as squats), a 1-minute row, and 1 minute of lunges (again, I did them as squats).

And on the floor, we had all timed work. We had 1 minute of bench low rows with our left arm, 1 minute of bench low rows with our right arm, 1 minute of pullovers, and 1 minute of standing triceps with weights. We were all told to go easy with the weights since doing something for a minute isn’t easy. I also had to work through how I could do the low rows because I wasn’t able to do the bench work. I tried just bending over, but that started to hurt me as well so I ended up doing them while sitting on the bench. It was a little frustrating, but my friends reminded me that I still did the exercise and that’s what counts.

Friday’s workout was 6 Legs A Shaking and it was a very accurate workout name! This was a really tough class and I was so grateful to have a 3 group workout so I wasn’t at any section of the room for too long.

The cardio work was rounds of 1-minute all out with 1-minute recoveries. And each time we had an all out the incline was supposed to increase by 1%. I knew that if I started the bike at my normal base resistance level that I wouldn’t be able to increase it by 1 every round, so I started a bit lower than normal. In total, we had 7 all outs and even with starting lower than normal I was so tired by the end.

On the rower, we started with a 1000-meter row. This was a long row to start with and I tried to not take breaks. After that, we had goblet squats before moving on to a 750-meter row. I was able to finish that, do the squats, and get started on the next row when the block ended. While I do enjoy long rows because they give me a lot of time to work on my technique, my legs were already so tired from the bike so rowing wasn’t as great as it could be.

And on the floor, I had to do a lot of modifications because it was a lot of work I couldn’t do. We started with single leg sit to stands (which I can do) and then it was single leg work on the bench (which I can’t do). Instead of the bench work, I did regular lunges as well as high knees using the straps. We also had sit-ups to stands with a dumbbell and toe reaches. By the end of the workout, my legs were definitely shaking!

Saturday’s workout was 7 Bells A Swinging and I was still recovering from Friday’s workout. Fortunately, this workout was a bit more upper body so my lower body could still rest.

For cardio, we had rounds of distance challenges along with regular pushes. The distance challenges got shorter and the push paces got longer. But all the blocks were the same length so it wasn’t too bad. And I ended up having bonus time on the bike because the rower I was supposed to use ended up breaking. I tried to use it after they fixed it, but it was sticking a lot and I knew that I could injure myself trying to make it work. So I did the bike for my rowing work and that had distance challenges along with squats using a medicine ball.

And on the floor, it was an interesting format. Our main exercises were push-ups, chest fly to tricep extensions with weights, tricep extensions on the straps, and plank punches. Between each exercise, we had another exercise to do. The first round we had single-arm hip hinge swings and in the second round we had skier swings. After the second round we could just do the main exercises. I went into that workout with tired legs and I left the workout with tired legs and arms!

We finish out the 12 Days of Fitness this week and I’m excited to see what else is coming up. The year is almost over and I’m so close to many of the goals I set for myself. I can’t wait to see what I can accomplish in these last few weeks!

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Hell Week To Orange Voyage (or One Challenge To Another) Starting Off Hell Week (or 5 Workouts And They Were All Hard) A Very Short Workout Week (or Having Some Sick Days) Some New Year Workouts (or Finishing Out 2019 and Kicking Off 2020) Finishing Up 12 Days of Fitness (or This Felt Like A Long Hell Week) 12 Days Of Christmas Workouts (or This Feels A Lot Like Hell Week)