I was happy when starting this past week of workouts since I knew it was when I should start to feel better. But as I wrote about last week, I ended up doing something to my back and had to deal with that just as I was feeling ok. It wasn’t ideal, but I’ve managed to get through worse things. And because I knew this was going to be a shorter workout week for me, I just wanted to make sure I did what I could.
I was finally starting to feel better by Monday’s workout. I wasn’t completely better, but it was significantly better than how I was feeling the week before. And since I was feeling better, I was able to push myself a little bit more than I had the week before. I had no idea that this would be the best I would be feeling all week.
For cardio, we had 3 blocks and they all had very similar timing. For all the blocks, we had 45-second base paces and the push paces or all-outs were either 1-minute, 45-seconds, or 30-seconds. In the first block, everything was without an incline and the first 2 intervals were push paces and the last one was an all-out. The second block had all the push pace intervals at inclines. And in the last block, we only had all-outs and base paces/recoveries and no push paces. I’ve gotten a bit more used to my new base pace, so that was good and I think I can eventually focus on increasing my push pace and all-out.
On the rower, 2 of the 3 blocks were timed with cardio. The first block was the same as cardio with the push and base paces. The second block had rounds of a 200-meter row with squats between each row. And the last block was timed with cardio, but when they had their base pace or recovery, we had squats.
On the floor, for the first two blocks both had 2 exercises. The first block had bicep curls and uppercuts and the second block had single-arm deadlifts and push-ups to side planks. I struggled a bit with the push-ups and planks so I had to go really slowly with those. And for the last block, we were timed with cardio and the rowers and we did squat to presses during their all-outs and recovered in between.
I worked out on Tuesday because my studio was going to be closed on Thursday and Friday and I wanted to make sure I got at least 3 workouts in for the week. This was the start of my dealing with the back pain I had last week, but I knew that I could exercise as long as I was being mindful of things. I was lucky that the back spasms were very infrequent and I had a good general idea of what would hurt and what wouldn’t so I could work around it.
For cardio, we had 3 blocks and they were all the same. We started with a 2-minute push pace followed by a 1-minute increased push pace and then ended the block with a 1-minute all-out. The increased push pace was supposed to be at an incline, so I used the resistance level between my push and all-out. And even with the back pain, I was able to continue to push myself since being on the bike wasn’t hurting me.
On the rower, we had one long block. We had timed rows and then we had rainbows with a medicine ball which I had to be a bit slow with since they were hurting me a little bit. We had a 90-second, 60-second, and 30-second row and we did each row twice before moving to the next timed row. And we finished with a 1-minute all-out row.
And on the floor, we had another long block. All of the exercises were drop sets and they were all with mini-bands. With the drop sets, we had 8 reps at a heavy weight and as many reps as possible with a lighter weight. We had high rows, deadlifts, low rows, and squats. By the time I was getting to the squats, I was feeling a bit weak so I did those without weights so I could make sure my form wasn’t sloppy. But I was able to use weights for everything else, even if they were a bit lighter than I would have liked to have used. And we ended the workout with weighted seated torso rotations.
Wednesday was my last workout for the week. I was thinking of going on the weekend to get 4 workouts in, but because of my back, I figured a few extra rest days would be good for me. I know exercise is good for stretching my back and staying active, but so is rest. So I just did 3 workouts for the week. I was still hurting a bit but I was even more aware of what would hurt my back and what would be ok to do so I modified the workout to work with that.
For cardio, we had a 15-minute distance challenge. Every few minutes, we were encouraged to increase how fast we were going, but I decided to just try to be steady with what I did with occasional moments where I increased the resistance level before bringing it back. I used my new base resistance level for the majority of the time and then my regular push pace level for a minute or two of increased resistance. But most of the time, I was at my base pace and just pedaling along as much as I could.
On the rower, we had 4 blocks. Blocks 1 and 3 were the same and blocks 2 and 4 were the same. For blocks 1 and 3, we had 30-second rowing sprints and we were supposed to do increasing lateral hops between each row. I tried to do the lateral hops the first time, and I knew immediately that it was going to cause too much back pain. Unfortunately, anything that I could do as a modification wasn’t working for me, so I just did 30-second sprint rows and rested for a moment before repeating them. And for blocks 2 and 4, we had a 90-second row for distance. I did ok for the first attempt of the 90-second row, but for the second one, I did have to take a quick break in the middle of it to do a quick back stretch.
And on the floor, we had one long block. We had rep ranges for each exercise, and I tried to keep it around the middle of that range. And I modified things as I needed to. We had sumo deadlifts, and I did as many as I could with a light weight and then did them without weights to finish my reps. For the kneeling wood choppers, again I used a light weight and I did some kneeling but ended up doing most standing since getting up and down was a little tough for me. For the bicep curls, I didn’t have to modify those so that was nice. And the last exercise was a push-up to a plank superman. For those, I did the push-ups as a single exercise and then I did bird dogs separately. It was a lot of modifications, but I got through it all.
I’m hoping that this week things go a bit better for me. My back has been getting better, but I’m still being cautious. And I’m possibly going to test out a new workout schedule for myself, so that could be an interesting change. I’m still figuring out what I’ll be doing this week with my workouts, but whatever I do I know that I’ll get through them.
You Might Also Like
Another Painful Workout Week (or Swapping One Pain For Another)
A Slightly Different Workout Week (or Continuing To Get My Workouts In)
And Even More Painful Workouts (or My First Week Working Out From My New Place)
Just A Normal And Good Workout Week (or Using My Workouts To Get Out My Stress)
My Short Workout Week (or 6 Years Of Family Workouts)
Another Week Of Weekday Workouts (or A Week Of Painful Workouts)
