I knew this past week of workouts was going to be a weird one. I knew that 3 of the workouts would be while I had the stitches and I had no idea how it would affect me. But I was prepared for it to be bad and I think that preparation did help. It wasn’t an easy week to work out and it was hard in ways that I wasn’t expecting it to be, but the preparation to make it an easier week helped me not feel too bad about what I could and couldn’t do.
Monday’s workout was a strength based class, and I will be honest that I wasn’t in it 100%. I was still dealing with the end of my nausea, but that was only a little part of my distraction. Even though I have said I was excited to have the surgery with my dermatologist, I was nervous the day of. I knew it would be fine, but I just wasn’t looking forward to needles and potential pain and I know that it made me not focus completely on my workout.
The workout was a switch format so I was at each section of the room for 6 minutes before switching (we did 2 full rounds around the room). For cardio, we started with a 90 second push pace and then we had rounds of 30 second push or all out paces but with added incline/resistance levels. I was able to use my new push and all out resistance levels and even went above that for the hill work. It wasn’t my highest resistance levels I’ve used, but it was up there. Even though my focus wasn’t totally in the workout, I usually do zone out a bit on the bike since I don’t have to focus on it as much as the treadmill. So I wasn’t affected too much for cardio, even though I still know I could have done better.
For the rower, the first block we started with a 250 meter row and then we had lunges with tricep extensions using a medicine ball. Each time we returned to the rower we went down 50 meters but the lunges stayed the same. And for the second block on the rower, we had the same format but the exercise between the rows was a squat twist with the medicine ball. I feel like I struggled the most with my lack of focus on the rower. I wasn’t able to get my wattage up to where it usually is when I’m having an off day and things were just taking me so long to do.
On the floor, the first block was lower body focused with mini-band work. We had forward walks, lateral walks, and toe reaches all with the mini-band on our legs. My hips were starting to get a bit sore with the lateral walks, but I also know that my feet weren’t totally straight (my natural stance is with my feet pointed out) and I think that might have made my hip hurt more than it should have. And the second block was all upper body focuses with shoulder presses, bicep curls, shoulder raises, and upper cuts. I went with medium heavy weights for the weighted work, but they felt like they were heavier than I’ve ever used before. I don’t know what was causing it to be so hard, but I really think the focus issue was the main culprit.
The rest of my workouts this past week were affected by having the skin surgery Monday afternoon. I figured I would be sore after and that would make me need to go a bit easier with the workouts. But there were a few other factors that ended up affecting me too. First, because of where the incisions and stitches are, I can’t really move my face too much. I figured this wouldn’t be an issue in a workout but then I realized when I lift heavy weights I have tension in my face. So I had to go light with the weights. Also, because of the pain in my jaw, I wasn’t eating regular food for the first few days. I was doing all liquids and I know my calorie count was way too low. I didn’t have the same energy I normally do and I had to take breaks when I was feeling lightheaded. I really tried my best, but I also know that everything I did the rest of the week was affected by this.
Wednesday’s workout was endurance, strength, and power and it was the first workout after getting the stitches. I was so paranoid that I was going to do damage to my face somehow and I really was cautious. For the cardio, I did my old resistance levels on the bike but didn’t do any additional resistance levels when we had hill work. I just kept using my old push pace level and not worrying about anything else.
On the rower, the first block we had started with a 150 meter row and squats with front presses with a medicine ball. We repeated that until the block was done and I didn’t do too horribly with it. The second block was 30 second all out rows with the same squats with recovery between. Again, I wasn’t doing too horribly with the rowing and that was probably the part of the workout I was able to work the hardest during.
On the floor, we had one long block. We had lunges with weights, lunges without weights, tricep extensions, plank jacks, and squats. It was during the triceps that I discovered that I had to go easy on the weights to not hurt my face (that is the weirdest thing, but it’s exactly what the situation was). I still feel like I was using decent weights, but I wasn’t working as hard as I am used to.
Friday’s workout was a strength class, and while I was in less pain and more used to having to be easy with the weights this was the workout where the lack of food hit me the hardest. I never thought I would pass out or anything, but it was very strange realizing that my stomach was so empty during class.
The cardio had 2 blocks with hill work. The first block had a 30 second hill, 60 second hill, and 90 second hill and the second block had a 90 second hill and 2 minute hill. I went very easy on the resistance levels for the hills and ended up staying between my base and all out resistance levels. It felt hard because of me being tired, but I probably could have done a bit more if I really tried.
The rower started with a 1000 meter row. This terrified me, but somehow I managed to do it without needing a break in the middle. After that we were supposed to do 100 jumping jacks. I made it through 50 and knew I couldn’t do more. Then we had a 500 meter row and more jumping jacks and some squats. I just did the squats and when I finished those the time was called so I didn’t make it through any other rounds.
The floor was 2 block and it was upper body based. The first block was a chest press, single arm low row with weights, and heel touches. And the second block was hollow hold single arm chest press, double crunches, and plank work. I was prepared to use easier weights this time which helped and I got through 2 rounds of all the exercises each block.
Saturday’s workout was the closest to normal I felt the entire week. I was still dealing with being a bit tired due to not eating enough and I knew I would have to be easy with the weights so I didn’t put stress in my face, but it was still so much closer to normal. It was an endurance workout, but because of how some things were done it felt closer to a power day for me.
For cardio, we had multiple rounds of 2.5 minute distance challenges. The first time, we were supposed to be in a push pace the entire time. Then as we did each round, we had a base pace to start the distance challenge. That would require us to go harder during the push to be able to match the distance each time. I was using my normal base resistance and my old push resistance on the bike to take it easy and I didn’t do any all out resistance levels. I was pedaling hard and was able to match my distance each time, but I wasn’t working as hard as normal.
On the rower, we stared with a 2.5 minute row for distance. After that, we had lunges with tricep work using the medicine ball. Then we went back to the rower and were supposed to go 100 meters less than what we did in 2.5 minutes and keep repeating the pattern. Even though I went further than 500 meters in the 2.5 minute challenge, I decided to use that as the distance to measure from so the math was a bit easier for me. I did much better on the rower than I had done before and didn’t need the breaks I thought I would need. I still wasn’t rowing as hard as I could because I could feel the stitches pulling a bit from me tensing my face, but I just tried to find what was the line between going hard and going too hard.
And on the floor, we had 3 blocks. The first block was a core blast with mountain climbers, toe reaches, leg lifts, and sit-ups. This block went well because I got to rest a bit from the rowing and it wasn’t hard for me with any of the issues I had been dealing with. The next block was a mini-band block with squats to leg lifts and forward walks using the bands. And the last block was a weight block with skier swings and lunges. I had to go easy on the weights to not have any strain on my face, but I was not that much lower than I normally use.
Considering how worried I was about how this past week would go, I was pretty proud of myself. I did encounter issues I wasn’t expecting, but I quickly figured out what I needed to do and I worked around what I couldn’t work through. The next few weeks are going to be a bit weird for me. This week I will have the stitches in for one workout and I don’t know yet if I will have any issues or restrictions to deal with when the stitches are out but the incision is still healing. And then the 2 weeks after this I will not be doing my normal workout schedule due to some things I have planned. I do think I found a way to still get in my 4 workouts each week, but there is a chance it might only be 3. I just have to play it by ear and see how things go.
You Might Also Like
A Good, Strong Workout Week (or I Really Love Feeling Like Myself)
Working Through A Rough Week (or Just Keep Moving)
Working Hard (or Some Normal But Tough Workouts)
A Week Of Walking and Biking (or Getting Through Some Low-Key Workouts)
Some Nausea And Benchmarks (or A High And Low Workout Week)
Mixing Up The Workout Week (or Still Working On Being Easy On Myself)
