Posted onJune 28, 2023|Comments Off on Almost The End Of The Musical Season (or A Musical For A Legend)
This current season of musicals has had a lot of variety with the types of shows we’ve been seeing. I don’t think the past seasons have necessarily had themes for the full season, but I also don’t think the variety has been as big as it has been. Maybe that’s because one of the shows wasn’t a musical and it seems like some have been less traditional. But I don’t mind the variety at all since I usually enjoy any show that we see.
One type of show we hadn’t had in this season until now was a biographical jukebox musical. It feels like most seasons have at least one of those. We did have a jukebox musical earlier, but it wasn’t the story of that musical artist so it felt different. But as we come toward the end of this current season, the second to last show was a biographical musical. And this time it was the Tina Turner musical.
When this was announced to be a part of the season, I was curious. I know a few Tina Turner songs, but not that many of them. And I wasn’t sure if this would be a case of me not knowing I didn’t know a lot of her songs or if I just wouldn’t know them. I know some of the jukebox musicals I’ve seen before surprised me when I realized I knew almost all of the songs. I figured that I would find out which it was when we got to see the show.
I knew the musical was written before Tina Turner passed away since she only passed about a month ago, but I also had heard that it was a show that honored her life. And I feel that is an accurate description. I didn’t know her story about how she was raised and I only knew the most basic details about some of her personal life and how her first husband was abusive. But I didn’t know the full extent of the abuse such as him controlling her music and how she struggled to become a solo artist. Since her struggles were before I was born, it makes sense that I didn’t know about a lot of her story. And this show did a good job covering a lot of what happened over the course of her career.
And the actress who played Tina was incredible! She was dancing and running around in heels for the entire show. And almost all the songs were crazy high-energy ones so she had a lot she had to do. At the end of the show, we were saying how the show was like multiple cardio workouts, and then we realized this was their second show of the day which made it even crazier! Everyone in the cast had amazing energy throughout the show, which I know can be tough when you do the same show multiple times a week.
I did enjoy the show even if it might not be my favorite jukebox musical I’ve seen. I think not knowing many of the songs hurt my enjoyment since I was paying a lot of attention to the songs to see if I recognized them. And for other shows, as soon as I recognize the song I seem to relax while watching since it’s something familiar. There were a few songs that I did recognize that surprised me, but a majority of the songs were ones I didn’t know. But it was still very fun to get out and see a show.
We’ve got one more show this season in a few weeks and then the next season doesn’t start until January! Maybe there will be a random show or two I end up seeing in the long break between seasons, but I also know that right now it feels like January is far away but it will be here before we know it!
I had a slightly different workout week this past week, but it was a good thing. Because I had Monday off of work, I could sleep in a little bit and take an earlier class. And that allowed me to take a 2 group class instead of the usual 3 group class I take each week.
When I got to Monday’s workout, I forgot at first that it would be a 2 group class since I’m so used to only taking 3 group classes. Usually, when you have a 2 group class, there isn’t much rowing in the workout and you focus on cardio and the floor. Sometimes you have a bit more rowing if you have a run/row day in those classes, but those are too often. And this workout wasn’t a run/row, but I think it had just as much rowing or more as my normal 3 group workout. For the entire workout, we had 3 cardio blocks, 2 floor blocks, and 5 rowing blocks. And every block was just over 3 minutes.
For cardio, we did the same thing in each block. We had a 1-minute push pace followed by a 15-second surge twice and a 45-second all-out at the end. For the surges, I did the same thing I have been doing and just pedaled faster with my push pace resistance level instead of increasing the resistance on the bike.
On the floor, both blocks had 2 exercises. In one block we had neutral grip thrusters and pull-ups on the straps. And in the other block, we had single-arm snatches and lateral squats. I did have to do some modifications on the floor, but since the blocks were short and we didn’t have much time on the floor, I tried to keep moving and not rest.
And on the rower, 3 of the blocks had one format and 2 of the blocks had another format. For 3 of the blocks, we followed the same pattern as cardio with push rows and surges and all-out rows at the end. And for the other 2 blocks, we had rounds of a 150-meter row and medicine ball presses. The goal for those blocks was to try to beat the distance you got the second time you did it.
It was fun to take a 2 group class (and to sleep in), but it was funny how this class felt so much like a 3 group one instead.
I was back to my normal workout schedule for Tuesday and it was a good and challenging class, especially for cardio.
For the cardio blocks, we started with a push pace for both blocks. Then, we had rounds of an all-out followed by a recovery. In the first block, the all-outs were 1 minute. And in the second block, they were 45 seconds. But the challenging part was that the recovery started at 30 seconds long and increased each time. Having such a short recovery doesn’t really allow you to get back to being ready for another all-out. Toward the end of each block, it was a bit easier since we had more time. But because of how tired I got at the beginning of each block, it didn’t feel that much easier. I was able to keep my all-out at the normal resistance level I use, which I felt was a good accomplishment.
On the rower, the first block was about strength and getting the furthest distance we could with 15 strokes each time. Between each attempt, we had tricep extensions with a medicine ball. And in the second block, it was more about speed and doing a 200-meter row as quickly as possible. And between each row, we had good mornings (which are similar to deadlifts) with a medicine ball.
And on the floor, the first block was focused more on lower body, and the second block was focused more on upper body. In the first block, we were supposed to do step-ups with knee raises, step-ups with knee raises with a weight, and step-ups with power. I am able to do simple step-ups by lowering the bench, but I am still limited in what I can do. So I modified things by doing my version of step-ups for the first two exercises and didn’t use weights and then I did lunges instead of the step-ups with power. It’s not a perfect alternative, but it was a good option for me. In the second block, we had bicep curls using the straps, hammer curls, and cleans with weights. And for that block, I was able to do all the exercises so I was happy with that.
On Wednesday, I was starting to deal with some pain and nausea. I knew it might kick in during this past week, but I never know exactly when it will happen. It wasn’t too unbearable so I was able to do most things, I just had to take a bit of extra time to rest when the pain was really sharp.
For cardio, we were on our own for the block with push paces and base paces. We started with the longest push pace and base pace and they went down a bit each time. I felt like the distances were a bit long for what we were told to do in the amount of time we had, so I didn’t get that far down the workout when it was time to switch. But it seemed like a lot of people in the workout had the same issue so I didn’t feel too bad.
On the rower, we were also on our own but I thought the workout was pretty interesting. We started by setting the rower for 1000 meters and we rowed for 250 meters. Then we got off the rower and did speed squats before rowing again for another 250 meters. We broke the long distance down into those 4 segments and when we completed it, we had halos using a medicine ball. Next was doing an 800-meter row and it was broken into 4 segments of 200-meters each with the same exercises. The entire block had those longer rows broken up, so they never felt too long and I enjoyed the challenge of seeing how I could do with each segment.
And on the floor, we were timed by our coach with 30 seconds of work and 15 seconds of rest. In the first block, we had rounds of a single-arm shoulder press and a split squat. And at the end of that block, we had 45 seconds to do plank shoulder taps. I used the bench for those to make sure I didn’t get too nauseous. And in the second block, we had high rows to low rows and lateral lunges. The only modification I did to those was not to use a weight for the lateral lunges. And again, we ended the block with plank shoulder taps.
On Thursday, I was still feeling a bit of pain and nausea, but it wasn’t that much worse than Wednesday so I felt grateful for that. And we had a workout that wasn’t too bad for how I was feeling so that was something else I was grateful for.
For cardio, we had 2 blocks with the same pattern. We had some incline work mixed with base paces without an incline. The first block had higher inclines than the second block. I wasn’t doing anything too crazy in the cardio blocks, but I did use the right resistance levels to represent the hills that those on the treadmills were using.
We had a mix of crew rows and medicine ball work on the rower. Crew rows are when everyone in your section of the rowers rows together and is synchronized. Each crew row was only a minute long, so it wasn’t too bad. I struggled a little getting in sync with everyone, but I felt like it was easier than it’s been in the past to sync up because the leaders were told to keep the stroke rate a bit lower. Between each of the crew rows that we had, we did exercises with a medicine ball. It was a mix of doing presses or bicep curls, and I tried to not take breaks to add a little extra challenge for myself.
And on the floor, we had cluster sets. Each block focused on one exercise. In the first block, it was chest presses. And in the second block, it was hip bridges. For the cluster sets, we did 3 rounds of the exercise with only 10 seconds to rest between sets. I used my normal weight for chest presses since I know that doing cluster sets can make the weights feel heavier than normal. And that was the case this time and the last round of each cluster set was a struggle to do more than 2 or 3 reps. In the second block, I did one of the heavier weights I sometimes use for hip bridges. It surprised me that this wasn’t as much of a struggle as the chest presses were, but I think that I probably underestimate my strength with hip bridges. I was still tired and did fewer reps toward the end of each set, but I could do a bit more in that second block.
This week, I’m expecting it to be a tough one for me. Of course, as always I am hoping that things won’t be as bad as they could be. But I also have to be prepared for it to be pretty bad. I know I’ll do the same thing as I always do with my bad weeks and just try my best. But I’m hoping that I’ll be able to end the first half of this year with a pretty decent workout week.
Posted onJune 21, 2023|Comments Off on Fitting In Social Time (or Taking Advantage Of My Weekends)
Since the start of the pandemic, I feel like my social life has taken a big hit. At first, it was due to trying to be safe during the worst of the pandemic and staying isolated at home. I slowly started to see friends again, but so much had changed just a few months into the pandemic. Many of my friends moved away so they weren’t around to hang out with. Once I started my social media job, I worked a lot more hours than I used to and didn’t feel like going out after work. I was used to being done with work at 3pm, and now I was done at 5 or 6pm. That’s a big difference with free time after work. And since I get up so early in the morning to work out, I don’t like to go out after work because I know I need my sleep.
I’ve tried to be more social in the past year or two, but it’s still not easy. It’s never easy to make new friends as an adult, but it seems even harder now. I’ve been working on making the most of the friendships that I already have or seeing people that I felt were acquaintances more so they become friends, but my social circle does feel pretty small. It is still better than what it was like at the beginning of the pandemic because at least I have my workouts in the morning and that gets me out and around people. And because I usually see the same people every week, I have gotten to know them. It’s better than nothing, but still, I know I need to be with friends more.
Since I don’t really like to go out after work (although I have been trying to do so when something has to occur then), I’ve been trying to do more over the weekends. I know I need to take some time over the weekend to relax and reset to be ready for the next week, but I don’t have to do that for the entire weekend every weekend. And one of the easier ways I’ve been able to make time for my friends over the weekend is to go to brunch on Sundays. I’ve been able to do this a few times over the past month and it’s been really great for my mental health.
Brunch is so casual and easy, so I don’t have to stress too much about planning it or making it a big event. And most of my friends feel the same way about brunch so we don’t dress up to impress each other. It’s nice to be able to fit that social time in between other errands that I have to do on the weekend, but I’ve also been trying to make an effort to do as many errands as possible on Saturdays to keep my Sundays free for more fun things.
Not only have these brunches been a great chance for me to catch up with friends that I don’t see that often, but it’s been fun exploring new places around LA. I didn’t set out to do this, but all the brunches I’ve had recently have been at restaurants I haven’t been to before. When I do go out for meals, I tend to go to the same places over and over again. So finding new places has been something I probably needed to do and these brunches have been a great excuse to do just that.
I know that I can’t just expect to have brunches with friends planned and I have to make an effort to make them happen as well. But I do feel a bit more motivated to do these since they fit into my schedule a lot better than other things I have been trying to fit in. I’ve been trying to make myself be better about going out in the evenings when I knew I didn’t want to. And I finally feel like I found a good option for friend hangouts that fit into my schedule and my life. And maybe this will push me to be more social in other aspects of my life, but I’m just happy with finding something that gets me out in the world more and feel a bit more like the old me.
Posted onJune 19, 2023|Comments Off on Happy And Normal Workout Week (or Sometimes A Boring Week Can Be Nice)
Because I can fluctuate a lot between having good and bad workouts weeks, it seems like I never have just a boring and normal workout week. It’s usually really good or really bad and I don’t have a lot of the in-between. But this past week seemed really normal to me and I think that’s what I needed after the last few weeks of my workouts and some other craziness going on in my life.
Monday’s workout was a good start for my boring week. It was a typical Orangetheory class and that’s exactly what I needed to kick off my week.
For cardio, the first block was all about 1-minute intervals. We worked with push, push to all-out, and all-out paces. In the second block, we did the same but the active intervals changed to 45 seconds and the walking recoveries stayed at 1 minute.
On the rower, we split each block into 2 segments. The first segment was medicine ball exercises and then the second segment was rowing along with cardio. The medicine ball exercises were front presses and halos, but because we were doing them for several minutes, it was really hard! I was glad I used a lighter medicine ball than I normally do because it was getting very heavy toward the end. Both blocks were the same idea, but the reps for each exercise were lower in the second block so we switched exercises a bit faster.
And on the floor, we had one long block with supersets. Supersets are back-to-back exercises that are similar but not exactly the same. We did each set of superset exercises twice before moving to the next set. We had chest presses and chest flys using a Bosu, squats to reach and lunges using the straps, and plank leg lifts and pop squats. For the leg lifts and pop squats, we were supposed to use the Bosu, but I just used the floor since I knew I didn’t have enough balance to do them with the Bosu.
Tuesday’s workout was all about repeating patterns with the goal of improving what you can do from block to block. The blocks weren’t the same, but they did allow us to challenge and push ourselves to try to find ways to improve because we repeated things within the block.
For cardio, each block was themed to a different focus we have at OTF. The first block was endurance, the second block was strength, and the last block was power. The first block had rounds of a 1-minute push pace to a 30-second all-out. It wasn’t as long as a lot of endurance blocks we have, but it was still more endurance-focused than the other blocks. In the second block, we had 30-second intervals with increasing inclines that we did twice. And in the last block, we had 30-second intervals of push, push to all-out, and all-out paces. I don’t know if I really improved within each block, but I think I did at least the same which feels like an improvement when you are getting tired.
On the rower, we did the same things that cardio did. The only difference was in the second block we focused on stroke rates since there are no inclines. We increased our stroke rate every 30 seconds. For all the blocks, I’m really happy with how I did with my rowing. I felt very stable and consistent in my efforts, which is not something I always feel.
On the floor, we had one long block that was a mix of upper and lower body work. We had kneeling around the worlds with a weight, push-ups, single-arm deadlifts, reverse grip low rows with weights, and neutral thrusters. I did modify the push-ups because we were supposed to also do side-to-side reaches and I didn’t have the balance to do that. I did try to do them, but I could feel my hips tilting too much and knew it would be better for me to skip them. But I felt good about the rest of the exercises that I did.
Wednesday’s workout was a signature workout. This time it was Capture The Flag. This signature workout is focused a lot on the rower, but it’s pretty balanced with what you do all over the room.
Before we started Capture the Flag, we had short blocks at all the stations first. Everything was pretty simple with push paces being more of the focus so we could get warmed up. And on the floor, we had bicep curls, mountain climbers, and squats.
For Capture the Flag, you are partnered with other people. In a 3 group class, you are a group of 3 working together. Because I use the bike for cardio and how things got divided up, I ended up being alone for this challenge. I was ok with this and had volunteered to be the odd man out if necessary. I do like doing the challenge, but I know how hard it can be to be alone and I didn’t want anyone else to have to do that. So my challenge was a bit different from what everyone else did.
Normally, the person who is on the floor sets the pace of when everyone switches. The person on cardio and the rower just go until they are tagged. And on the floor, you have squat to press, lunges, double crunches, and torso rotations with a medicine ball. The goal is to get as far on the rower as possible and you can earn different flags based on how far you go.
Because I was working alone, things were only set at my own pace. I did the same thing on the floor since it was just one round of the exercises. For the bike, my coach told me to go a specific distance. And however long it took me to do that distance, I was on the rower for the same amount of time. I felt like it was very similar to what the normal workout is like, so I know I got a good workout in. Of course, since there was nobody on the rower when I was on the bike or the floor, I didn’t earn any flags for my rowing distance. But I’m ok with that.
Thursday felt like a good bookend with Monday because it was another typical workout. I was a bit tired after Wednesday’s class, but I think it wasn’t as bad as it would have been if I was partnered with other people since I wasn’t as stressed about pushing myself really hard on the rower.
For cardio, the first and last blocks were the same with intervals of a 45-second push pace and a 45-second base pace with a 45-second all-out at the end. The middle block was rounds of a 30-second all-out with a 30-second recovery. I think I did better on the first and last blocks than I did with the middle one. The middle one was so hard with such short recovery intervals when we were doing back-to-back all-outs.
On the rower, the first and last blocks were focused on 200-meter rows. In the first block, we had curtsy lunges between each row. And in the last block, we had regular lunges between each row. And in the middle block, we were timed with cardio with 30-second intervals. Again, the middle block was the hardest because of the short recovery intervals. We were told to try to get the same distance for each row if possible, and I was able to keep all my rows within 10 meters of each other which is really good for me!
And on the floor, we had one long block. We had sumo squats to upright rows, plank to pikes, clean to front squats, wood choppers, hip hinge swings, and bird dogs with toe taps. it was a lot of lower body work and I did need to take a few breaks on the floor because of my hips. The breaks weren’t that unexpected for me with the exercises we had to do, but I tried to get back to the exercises as quickly as I could.
As much as I love having wins during my workout weeks, I don’t mind that this past week was relatively uneventful. I still got in some good workouts and I know I worked hard. And before I know it, I know I’ll be having another tough week and I’ll really appreciate how this past week went.
Posted onJune 14, 2023|Comments Off on Another Easy Phone Appointment (or Sticking With The Same Plan For Now)
I’ve been lucky that a lot of the doctor appointments I have can be handled either over the phone or through a video call. It’s so much easier not to go to the hospital for an appointment and work things around my work schedule. I know that not all appointments can be this way, but I’m always grateful when they can be since they end up being a much smaller part of my day.
My most recent doctor appointment on the phone was with my doctor in bariatric medicine. It has been a while since I’ve had an appointment, but there also hasn’t been much to say about the medication that I’m on. I have noticed a difference in how food relates to my life. I’m not struggling to eat as much as I did when I started the injections, but I also still have to be careful with food since it can make me sick. It’s a balance I have worked on figuring out and I think I’m in a good spot with that. I do still have side effects and those can be annoying, but compared to what others report, I know that I’m not having as difficult of a time as many people do.
The best thing about this medication has been something I wasn’t expecting. I don’t know how else to explain it, but the noise in my brain about food has quieted down a lot. I know I’ve shared this before, but this has been a change that has helped me mentally more than I thought it would. It’s not perfect or a miracle, but it has been a huge positive change in my life. As far as weight loss goes, things have stalled a bit. I am grateful that I haven’t started to gain weight and I have lost a little bit more, but it’s not what it was the first few months.
I knew that I wanted to bring up some of my concerns in my appointment, but I also knew that this could just be what things will be like. And I’m so glad that my doctor was very cool with just hearing me out and hearing my positive and negative thoughts. She agreed that I’m doing all the right things and that I am seeing success, and I agree with her. It might not be success the way I wanted to see it, but it is working. But she also understood my frustration, especially since what I’m experiencing now is similar to what I felt before I started the medication with my struggle to lose weight. We did discuss what some number goals should be in my head, but they are very broad so I’m not focused on a goal that may not be possible for me. And we did discuss if I should increase my dosage to see if that will kickstart things for me again.
But there are things to consider about increasing the dosage. First, there is only one dose higher than what I’m on. So if I increase it and then it stops working, there’s no higher dose that I can take. And since I’m still seeing success, it might not be the right time for me to go to the highest dose. Also, because the higher dose would be doubling what I’m taking now, I might get some significant side effects. My doctor does believe that they would level off, especially with how I’m doing with the side effects now. But I do remember how difficult the first few weeks were for me and the side effects I had then that I finally got over.
I was on the phone with my doctor a lot longer than I expected. Usually, phone appointments seem to be maybe 10 minutes long. This time, we talked for almost 25 minutes. And in the end, we agreed that right now is not the right time for me to increase the dosage. I may not see a lot of results right now, but they should be happening in time. Even just losing a little bit of weight over a few months is better than nothing. I haven’t been on this medication for a year yet, so increasing it to the highest dosage might be a bit premature. If I was insisting that I felt like I needed to increase it, I think my doctor would have supported it. But I’m not in a rush to get the results that I know will come eventually. And this could just be a simple plateau and I might break out of it without having to change the dosage. So I’m ok with giving things a bit more time and reevaluating the situation when I have my next appointment in a few months.
I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect out of this appointment since I had a few concerns I wanted to address, but I feel good about how the call ended and what the plan is for now. And the most important thing to me is that I felt heard by my doctor. My concerns weren’t dismissed. I wasn’t told I wasn’t trying hard enough. She listened to me and made me feel like we were a team with a plan moving forward. And I think because of that feeling, I think I feel more positive about what the plan is moving ahead and what the next steps might be. And I guess I’ll have to see when I have my next appointment if things will change or if I’m seeing more success with my efforts.
Posted onJune 12, 2023|Comments Off on A Much Better Workout Week (or Feeling More Normal)
After the week before, I was so glad I was doing better during last week’s workouts. I knew that would likely be the case, but I’m always worried that my nausea would last extra long or something else would come up that would make the week harder. I had a few random moments that hit me funny, but overall it was a much better week of workouts and I was able to do a lot more in each of the workouts.
Monday’s workout was probably the day I had the most moments of weakness, but I think that was because I was coming back from the hard week before. I sometimes have a day or two when I need to ramp things back up or regain some energy or strength. And I think that’s what happened this time.
For cardio, we had 2 blocks with the same pattern. We had some incline work mixed with base paces without an incline. The first block had higher inclines than the second block. I didn’t want to overdo things, so I did the first block at my all-out resistance level and the second block between my push and all-out levels. That felt like enough of a challenge and I could do everything I was supposed to.
We had a mix of crew rows and medicine ball work on the rower. Crew rows are when everyone in your section of the rowers rows together and is synchronized. One person was the leader each time, and the crew rows were only 1 minute long so it wasn’t too bad. Usually, for crew rows, I struggle because I row slower than others in the class. But since they were short, I was able to keep up with almost all of them. Between the crew rows, we had either presses or bicep curls with a medicine ball.
And on the floor, we had cluster sets. Each block focused on one exercise. In the first block, it was chest presses. And in the second block, it was hip bridges. For the cluster sets, we did 3 rounds of the exercise with only 10 seconds to rest between sets. In the first block, we also had sit-ups and in the second block, we also had lunges. Because cluster sets are harder than just doing one set of an exercise, I didn’t go that heavy with the weights. But when I was doing the third set, it felt like I was using weights much heavier than they actually are.
Tuesday’s workout focused a lot on surges, which is something we’ve been doing often in recent workouts. They are different from challenges we’ve had before and I am starting to like them more. They are great for pushing myself without feeling like I’m burnt out.
For cardio and rowing, we were timed together. We started with rounds of a 45-second push and a 15-second surge. We had a few 30-second recoveries mixed in, but because they were so short they didn’t feel like much of a recovery. Then we had 30-second all-outs and 30-second recoveries. And we ended both cardio and the rower with the 45-second pushes with 15-second surges again. On the bike, I kept my push pace resistance level to what I normally set it to and focused on pedaling faster during the surges. And on the rower, I really tried to get 20 watts higher during the surges, but I wasn’t always able to get to that. But at least I tried.
On the floor, the first and last blocks were timed with the rest of the room with 45-second and 15-second intervals. In the first block, we did froggers for 15 seconds and sumo squats for 45 seconds. In the last block, we did rows on the straps for 45 seconds and rows with weights for 15 seconds. For the second block, we had dead bugs and plank low rows. The second block was a lot of core work and I felt it even though it was a pretty short block.
Wednesday’s workout was a new signature class. This one was called “Tread Trail”, and the idea of the workout was to be like a trail run. When you are running outside, you don’t always know what the incline might be ahead and your speed can vary a lot. So we weren’t told what was coming up for cardio and were just surprised by the incline and how long each interval was.
For cardio, we worked with a base, base to push, push, and push to all-out paces. The length of time we did each one changed up, so we never knew if it would be as short as 15 seconds or as long as a minute. Each block used a different incline, but you mixed up when you had an incline or not. The inclines got higher each block, and I realized that with how the workout would go, it would be really hard for me to do both the incline and the variation of what type of pace we were supposed to do. So I decided to focus on the type of pace and just used my normal resistance levels for each block. But it was still a challenge since I never knew if I should push myself more because it would be a shorter interval or save some strength because it would be a long one. I really liked how this cardio workout went and I hope we will do similar things again soon!
On the rower, we started with a 600-meter row followed by lunges, shoulder presses, and calf raises using a medicine ball. We repeated that pattern but decreased the row by 100 meters each time. I was taking a bit longer than normal to get on and off the rower, so I didn’t get that far down the rows. But I was happy with how I did with my rowing and I was pretty consistent with how fast and powerful I was with each row.
And on the floor, we had one long block. A few of the exercises were two exercises combined, and I split them up into individual parts to make sure I was able to keep my balance. We had shoulder presses to stands, lunges to bicep curls, y-raises on the straps, rollouts, and plank kick-throughs. Besides splitting up some of the exercises into individual parts, I also modified the plank work. I tried doing the kick-throughs, but my hips weren’t really letting me do them. So I did mountain climbers instead and made sure I brought my knees to the opposite elbow instead of just straight forward.
I think my best workout this past week was on Thursday. I was feeling rested, I felt strong, and I was ready to push myself. Sometimes I just have mornings where things are working better than others and this happened to be a pretty good day. It wasn’t an easy class, but it was a good one. And we had 2 blocks for each section of the room.
For cardio, the first block was focused on 2-minute push paces and 45-second base paces. Each time we had a push pace, the incline went up. And I did increase my resistance level for each of them so I was working with a higher resistance than normal for my push pace. The second block was the same pattern and inclines, but the push paces were 1 minute instead of 2. Even though the push paces were shorter, because I was tired from the first block, it seemed just as hard as the first one.
On the rower, we were timed with cardio. We had the same push pace intervals as cardio did. But when cardio had a base pace, we had those 45 seconds to get 12 squats done and then sit back on the rower. I usually had about 10 seconds after completing my squats to be back on the rower before we had our next push row. Both blocks were tough since there wasn’t a lot of time to catch my breath, but I just focused on staying consistent with my rowing and not pushing myself too much.
And on the floor, the first block was a circuit focus so you could take breaks when you needed to. We had lunges, kneeling halos, and incline bench bicep curls. I was shocked at how hard the incline bicep curls were and I struggled to use even lighter weights than I normally use. But I did my best to get each one done. The second block was focused more on using heavy weights. We had single-arm chest presses, hammer curls to stands, and seated low rows. I did have to split up the hammer curls to stands to be separate, but I know that’s usually how things will be for me with my hips. I did need to rest more in the second block, but I know that block was designed for that and it meant I wasn’t going too light with the weights.
I was really happy with what I did this past week and how I felt after each workout. I know I was feeling down after the week before and felt like I really couldn’t do much, but I got my motivation back after this week and I hope that will continue through this week when hopefully, I have another really good workout week ahead!
Posted onJune 7, 2023|Comments Off on Giving Myself Some Breathing Room (or Just Getting Ready For Other Things This Summer)
I feel like I’m picking the right monthly challenges at the right time. I seem to know that I will need to do something in the coming month and focusing on it really allows me to make sure I do what I need to do. Sometimes I don’t know why I need to do something until the month is over, but it’s always a great lesson for me. And this past month was no exception.
The overall challenge I set for myself was to be ok with not being perfect. I wanted to let myself use that idea for different things throughout the month, but it mainly concentrated on one part of my life. And that was how I plan out my blog posts. I’m almost 11 years into writing and until May I wrote a post every weekday. Coming up with 5 posts a week is not easy. Sometimes I have ideas for each day and I can be excited about what I want to write about. But more often, I struggle to come up with ideas and I know that my posts can become repetitive. So my challenge with not being perfect was about being ok with not writing every single day.
As you can tell from the posts I posted last month, I did go down to 2 posts a week. My Monday post was my workout recap and then my Wednesday post was about something else. I debated if I wanted to also do a Friday post because I did have things that I wanted to write about, but I knew that it would be a better challenge if I did limit myself to just 2 posts a week. Sometimes I didn’t write about things as quickly as I normally would. For example, this post would have been on Thursday or Friday last week if I had my old writing schedule. I had to be more selective about what I was going to share, but that also allowed me to not focus on turning things I do into posts. I liked not having that stress and I know that this was the exact thing I needed to do for myself.
Giving myself permission to not feel perfect really did release something from me that I didn’t know I seriously needed. And my plan is to continue to not worry about posting every day. Right now, I think keeping it to twice a week is a good option. Later, I might want to add in a third day, but I want to do another few weeks with just 2 posts a week to see how I feel about it. And maybe it’s something I keep flexible and I write 3 posts if I have things I want to share but only do 2 posts if I don’t feel like I need that third post.
Releasing the stress of having to always think of posts has been great for my mental health. And I think I will need as little stress as possible as I get prepared for a potentially stressful summer. This summer is election season for my union, and that’s what inspired my challenge for June. This month, I challenge myself to stay involved in union things as much as I can and try to help others be involved as well.
I’ve already been working on this with the strike authorization vote. I worked on making sure all the people I knew voted and understood what the vote meant. Most people understood that the authorization vote didn’t mean we were going to strike, but we were giving the negotiating committee the ability to call a strike if necessary. And I’m so proud of the union because we had a really good voter turnout (at least for us) and almost 98% of the members who voted approved the strike authorization!
Union elections are always stressful, but adding in contract negotiations adds to that. We will have our regular elections plus we could be voting on a new contract if one is presented to the members. And if we don’t get a contract, there is a chance that we will strike. This is a lot of information for members to take in, especially if they haven’t been involved in the past. Even for me, things can get overwhelming with staying on top of all the things we should know to be informed voters.
But with all the craziness and potential stress, there are so many ways for me to stay involved and connected with my acting career. I know that I will be stressed (and not having to write as many blog posts will help to not add more stress), but it will be worth it. I know I feel better when I’m involved and active with the union. I look forward to the different opportunities that will be coming during this election season and contract negotiations. I might feel like it’s too much in the moment, but once I get through this summer I know I will be grateful that I did whatever I have the ability to do.
I knew this past week of workouts might be a tough one for me with pain and nausea, and I was just grateful that it didn’t happen during Mayhem. But even with how prepared I normally am for my bad weeks, I really wasn’t ready for this one. I rarely think about skipping my workouts unless I’m really sick, but there were several times this past week I debated if it was even worth it to try to work out. I know that doing something is better than doing nothing, but I felt like I was close to doing nothing in several of my workouts.
Monday was the best workout for me this past week. I still struggled with pain and nausea, but it wasn’t as bad as it would get later in the week. I also got to sleep in a bit and do a later morning workout since I had the day off work. I think that helped make things a bit better for me. Because I did a different workout time, I was in a 2 group class instead of my usual 3 group class. And I got to have a run/row workout that was themed around choosing your own adventure.
For the first half of class, we had 4 distances for cardio and 4 distances for the rower. We got to pick which distance we wanted to do, but we couldn’t repeat a distance after completing it. I decided to start with the shortest distance for both and work my way up. That seemed to be the best way for me to do it, plus, the longest rowing distance was 1000 meters, and I didn’t want to do that one. I made it through 3 of the 4 cardio distances and was working on my 3rd rowing distance when it was time to switch to the floor.
On the floor, we had 6 blocks. The odd blocks were all the same and the even blocks were all timed blocks with each exercise being 1-minute long. In the odd blocks, we started with 1 rep of a plank jack, a plank pop, and a squat jump. Then we did 2 reps of each exercise and continued working with 1 additional rep each time. I usually got to the 3rd or 4th rep before the block was done. And I did use the bench for my hands which allowed me to do the exercises without getting too nauseous. For the other 3 blocks, they were 4 minutes long and we had 1 minute to do a specific number of reps for each exercise. And there were 2 exercises in each block so we did each one twice. In the 2nd block, we had bridge rows on the straps and side planks. In the 4th block, we had push-ups and lunges and I did chest presses on the straps instead of push-ups which helped me not feel as bad. And in the 6th block, we got to pick which of the previous blocks we wanted to do again and I the chest presses and lunges. It was a lot of work with very little rest, but I was glad I had the day off to rest and recover.
Tuesday’s workout was another signature workout: Everest. The last time I had done Everest was on my birthday and I had gotten a new PR for that workout! But this time, I was feeling really horrible. I almost skipped class that morning because my cramps were so bad I was struggling to sit upright at times. But I wanted to work out with the hopes that it would maybe help me feel a bit better since I know that can sometimes work. But I knew going into the class that I wasn’t going to PR and I wasn’t planning on tracking my distance either.
With Everest, when you have a 3 group class, you increase or decrease the incline on the treadmill by 2% each time. I usually don’t do that on the bike, because the resistance level gets really high even just increasing it by 1 each time. But I normally start the resistance close to my base level to make sure I get it really high for the peak. This time, I started it much lower than my base and the highest the resistance level got was only 2 higher than my normal all-out. Even though the resistance level on the bike was always pretty low compared to what I normally do for Everet, I didn’t get close to even my worst distance in the past. I was pedaling very slowly the entire time and wasn’t trying to do anything too crazy. I knew I wouldn’t have a good attempt, but I was ok with that.
On the rower, we had 2 blocks. In the first block, we started with a 500-meter row and then did lunges before sitting back on the rower and doing a 400-meter row. We continued that pattern by decreasing the rows by 100 meters each time. The second block was similar but we started with a 100-meter row and increased it by 100 meters each time. I did the lunges for the first few times in the first block, but getting on and off the rower was getting painful with my cramps so I spent the rest of the time just rowing and taking breaks when I needed to. It wasn’t exactly what we were supposed to do, but it was something.
And on the floor, we had 1 long block with 2 mini-blocks in it. And as we usually do, we did each mini-block twice before moving on. The first mini-block had plank low rows with weights, tricep extensions, and side plank dips. And the second mini-block had plank single-arm reverse fly, hammer curls, and bicycle crunches. For both of the weighted plank exercises, I did them bent over instead since that wouldn’t make me as nauseous. I was going slowly through the exercises so I didn’t get to the point where you do all the exercises as a single block.
Wednesday was another really horrible day for me with cramps and I debated again about canceling my workout. I spent all day on Tuesday in a lot of pain and it was so much worse than I can remember having in the past. I was staying on top of taking painkillers on a schedule, but that was barely taking the edge off. But I did make it to my workout and just decided that I would do what I could and I told myself I could leave in the middle if things got really horrible. But I know myself and I’m stubborn enough that if I go to class, it’s really unlikely that I will leave.
For cardio, I really tried to do what the workout was supposed to be but I was in a lot of pain when I sat up on the bike. I rarely use the handlebars on the bike and lean over because that makes pedaling much more awkward for me. I like to sit up and bike without holding on. But I couldn’t do that this time and had to lean over and hold on the entire time. The focus of the workout was doing all-outs with recovery after, and I just tried to pedal when I could and took a break when I needed to. I wasn’t exactly following the workout template, but I was trying.
The rowing was timed along with cardio and I did the same thing with just trying to row when I could and resting when I needed to. And on the floor, each block was focused on supersets and doing similar exercises with variations back to back. We had lunges (which I did as the same type of lunges since I couldn’t do the variations), hip bridges, chest presses, and plank taps. I did my best with each exercise and just didn’t go too heavy with my weights which helped me not need as many breaks as I was worried I would need. But for the entire workout, I knew I didn’t do as much as I normally could, even on my bad weeks. I tried to not focus on the negative and just remember that I showed up.
Thursday was still a rough day for me, but it was slightly better than Wednesday so I was happy about that. At least that morning I didn’t debate about canceling my workout so that was nice.
For cardio, we had the same block repeated 3 times. We had a surge cardio challenge, so we were in our push pace for most of the time with a 15-second surge when you were supposed to go just a bit faster twice in each block. I was able to use my normal push pace and was able to pedal a bit faster for those surges. Each block ended with an all-out, and while I didn’t use my normal all-out resistance level, I did use the level between my normal push and all-out.
For rowing and the floor, we had a switch template. When we started the block on the rower, we did rower, floor, rower. And when we started the block on the floor, we did floor, rower, floor. In total, we had 3 segments for each but they were broken up. The rower was the same as cardio with a push row with surges. I tried to make sure my wattage got a bit higher in the surges, but it wasn’t easy with how I was feeling. I did manage to only need very limited breaks in my rowing, so that was something better than earlier in the week. And on the floor, each time we were there we had 2 exercises. We had neutral thrusters and high rows on the straps, single-arm snatches and squats, and hammer curls and skater lunges. The floor went a lot better than expected even though I had to modify a lot of the exercises to make sure I could get them done.
Considering how bad I felt this entire week, I’m honestly just glad I made it to all my workouts and didn’t have to cancel the morning of. It wasn’t an easy week and I know my workouts weren’t that intense or always what we were supposed to do. But showing up is better than nothing and I’m glad that I’m finally starting to feel better. I know this week might still be a bit rough, at least at the beginning of the week. But hopefully, I will be able to challenge myself a bit more and feel like I really am getting in a good workout instead of just showing up and doing something.
Kicking Off Another Season Of Musicals (or A Really Impressive Start To The Season)
