Ever since I started at Orangetheory, I have participated in Hell Week. I’m pretty sure I’ve completely Hell Week each time and have always earned the shirt too. Hell Week is typically the last week or two of October and you have to complete a majority of the days in order to earn the shirt (like if there are 8 days, you have to do 5). But this year, things are happening a little differently.
Hell Week is actually lasting the entire month. But not every day is a Hell Week workout. There are 12 days throughout the month and we have to complete only 4 of them in order to earn the shirt. And those workouts can be completed in the studio, doing a home workout, or doing one of the official outdoor workouts (we have those in Downtown LA, but I haven’t taken them because of the drive). Fortunately, the studios in LA made a tracker so we can make sure we do all the workouts we need to do.
I think we are going to go to our studio to pick up our shirts when the month is over, but I’m not sure. I have submitted my shirt information to my studio and they said they will update me on how and when I can get my shirt.
But before I did a Hell Week workout this past week, I had 3 other workouts. On Monday, I did the OTF at Home workout using the Orangetheory app. I’m still trying to switch things up between my workouts to give me as much variety as possible, but I still want to make sure I do the workout from the app at least once or twice a week (especially with Hell Week). And I’m learning more and more about how to push myself to make them seem harder so I can try to get back some of my strength.
On Wednesday, I did some of the workouts on the FitOn App. I’ve looked more into the app and I will always have to do more than one video when doing those workouts because of how short they are. I wish they had longer ones, but maybe those will be coming. I still only did workouts that were coached by Brendon, but I did some that were OTF-themed and some that were just his regular ones. I haven’t explored what the other coaches do yet because Brendon is someone I’m familiar with. But I bet I’ll eventually look into it a bit more. Besides the workouts in the app, I also did some jump roping. I am still easing myself back into it and have been looking at some interval workouts to try. But for now, I’m doing 8 rounds with 15 seconds of jumping and 45 seconds of rest. I probably could shorten the rest a bit and maybe I’ll do that this week, but starting around the 5th round I do really need all that rest time to recover. But challenging myself is what I need to do, so maybe that’s what I’ll have to do.
Friday was my Zoom workout with Coach Jenna. We had a slightly shortened workout this time (50 minutes instead of 60), but I think we actually worked more. We didn’t have as much time between exercises and rounds. All of the breaks were super short and I felt like I collapsed into a puddle of sweat when we were done. It was a good challenging workout for me and I do love getting to work out with friends. I keep my screen on the gallery view so I can see everyone working out. It’s not to really look at the others, but it’s nice to glance at the screen and see that I’m not alone in the workout. If I only had Coach Jenna on the screen, it would feel a bit like the other video workouts. I like having our small group together, and I guess it’s good that it’s a small group because it makes it easy to still see Coach Jenna and the video isn’t too tiny.
And Saturday was my first Hell Week workout.
I like how they changed up the video a bit so it felt like it wasn’t the same as all the other workouts. I do wish they had the coach coaching us through the entire thing like they did with the Dri-Tri, but maybe videos like that will happen toward the end of the month. I know those workouts are harder to make than the regular ones. But they did change this up nicely. The workout was a lot because it was mainly the same exercises each round with one variation each time. So I was exhausted. And because it’s Hell Week, they added in times when you would be in a block and then it would be time to do 1 minute of burpees. Burpees are never my favorite, but I tried to do as many as I could with as few modifications during those minutes.
Because of the days that have been selected for Hell Week, I might not be doing another Hell Week workout until almost the end of the month. But I’ll be getting in at least 4 more so I will know I will earn my shirt. Having proof I survived Hell Week is always important, but it almost feels more important this year than any other.
You Might Also Like
Surviving Hell Week (or I’m A Liar)
Getting Back To Normal (or Finishing Hell Week and Race Prep)
This Does Feel Like A Normal Routine (or Another Full Workout Week)
Hell Week Part 1 (or Not Pushing It Too Much)
Feeling More Back To Normal (or A Good Week Of Hell Week Prep)
Hell Week To Orange Voyage (or One Challenge To Another)
