When I wrote about how I thought this past week of workouts would go for me, my big concern was how I was going to deal with nausea during my workouts. Even though I’ve been having to deal with monthly nausea for 4 years now (almost exactly 4 years to the day), it never really gets easier for me. I have learned tricks to manage it, but it’s still something I have to push through and that causes me to not be able to do my full workouts.
What I didn’t expect was having to deal with vertigo instead. In one way, I guess it’s nice I didn’t have my usual nausea (although vertigo did cause some). But I know how to deal with nausea. I don’t know how to deal with vertigo. And I especially don’t know how to deal with vertigo that is as severe as it was for me. I’ve never had vertigo that lasted more than maybe a few hours. Dealing with it for a week is unheard of for me. And not only did it last really long, but it was also really severe for a lot of that time. And there was nothing I could do about it.
My workouts weren’t necessarily a priority for me while I was dealing with vertigo, but it was something I was thinking about. I knew on Monday that there was no way I could work out. I was barely able to walk that day. So doing more than walking from my bed to my couch was unimaginable for me. Honestly, that walking felt like a huge workout. I never knew trying to find my balance could be so strenuous. Wednesday was a little better than Monday, but workouts were still not an option for me. I tried to do a little more walking around my house, and that was enough for me. I know it’s not a real workout but it’s all I could do.
Friday was a bit of a better day. I actually thought I might be able to work out. I knew I couldn’t do the Zoom workout I normally do on Fridays, but I was hoping I could do the OTF at Home workout that was posted on their app. So that morning I put on my workout clothes when I got dressed. But after getting dressed I got very dizzy again. The vertigo had been getting better, but it hit me really hard and I was a bit surprised by it. I thought maybe I could rest a bit and it would go away, but it never seemed to do that. It did get a bit better, but not to the point where I felt comfortable trying to work out. It did feel really weird to spend my entire day in workout clothes, but I was trying to be optimistic and think that maybe I could do an evening workout.
Saturday was another day that I felt like a workout would be possible. It’s tough to judge if I’m really doing better or just telling myself that I’m better even if I’m not. But again I tried to be optimistic. I got into my workout clothes and didn’t have a lot of extra vertigo. I did feel a little bit more, but I also think now that it might have to do with just getting dressed. So I sat down for a few hours to try to get things feeling better and this time it worked! So I finally could work out again!
The workout on Saturday was not like a normal workout for me. It wasn’t even like a normal workout when I’m nauseous. I was dealing with being weak from not working out at all for a week plus the vertigo issues. I’m grateful that I wasn’t really nauseous on top of all that, but I did have a little nausea to deal with. I had to do a lot of modifications to the workout. If a block had some floor stuff and some standing stuff, I rearranged it so I did all the floor stuff back to back and all the standing stuff back to back. For one block, I actually skipped the floor stuff so I didn’t have to get on the ground again. I was slow and cautious with all my movements because I didn’t know what might trigger vertigo. And I had to take a lot of breaks. I tried to be good and pause the video when I took a break, but that wasn’t always possible.
I did experience vertigo during the workout. Many times, if I was doing something while standing up, I had to hold onto a wall to stay balanced and upright. On the ground, I had to sit up a lot to let vertigo happen and go away. I never knew that crunches could cause vertigo, but I guess they do. And just like earlier in the week, just being balanced was a workout in itself. I was sweating so much just standing. But I’m glad I tried because I was able to do a little bit of a workout. Most of the sweat was probably related to vertigo and not the workout, but at least I know I did something.
And I added a workout on Sunday. I did this for a few reasons. First, I was continuing to feel better so I wanted to do another workout. Also, I figured if I added a Sunday workout, I only missed 2 workouts and not 3 over the week. And finally, I had a minor freakout after my Saturday workout when I tried to do the math about getting to my goal for workouts this year. I don’t know what math I was doing, but somehow it made it seem like I had to do 5 more workouts than I would normally do to make up what I missed (I’ve since figured out my math was very off and I don’t know exactly what happened).
Sunday’s workout went very similar to Saturday’s. I did a lot of modifications to do some exercises while holding on to a wall. I also limited floor work because there was no way to do those without triggering vertigo. I was able to do a bit more than I had the day before, but I also am being gentle with myself and trying to listen to my body more than normal. I know that if vertigo hits me really hard, I am somewhat safe at my house. There are not a lot of things that I would fall onto or trip over if I started to stumble. But I still don’t want to trigger vertigo if I can help it. It’s going to be a lot of trial and error to see what makes it worse and what doesn’t until I’m back to normal. And that plan might change each day that I work out. But I’m willing to try and I’m glad I did the Sunday workout because it did make me feel better.
It wasn’t easy to not workout when I really wanted to this past week. My body wasn’t up to it but my mind was. And as I’ve said before, my workouts help my mental health so it was really hard on me to miss them. I am glad that it seems like my math was wrong and I am still on track for my workout goal. Of course, I’m still going to keep checking on that because I’m paranoid now that my math is still wrong. But I only missed 2 workouts this past week and over the rest of the year, I haven’t missed that many. And I can miss 8 workouts a year and still hit my goal.
Originally, my plan was to try to maybe get to an outdoor workout at one of the studios this week, but I don’t think that will be possible. I’m still recovering from vertigo so my workouts are still hard on me. And because of vertigo, I’m not ready to try to drive yet. I might be safe to drive, but I want to wait until I feel a bit more sure about it. So I’m hoping that this week I can just do my 4 workouts at home and that will be a victory for me!
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