I knew going into this past week of workouts that it was going to be a hard week for me. I sometimes am grateful that I know when pain and nausea are going to affect me, but it doesn’t make it easier to deal with. And sometimes when I take all the medications I have, it doesn’t help so it’s just frustrating. I had some mornings when my medications helped a bit and some when there was no difference in how I felt. And for the entire week, I just had to push myself to keep going and not give up.
Monday was probably the worst morning of the week for me. We had a sub coaching our class and I think I worried him a bit because he asked me how I was doing and then he sent in the front desk staff to see if I needed help. I probably should have explained that I’m used to feeling this horrible in class and it’s unfortunately normal for me. But I did appreciate the concern.
We had 3 blocks for cardio. The first block had 2 rounds of a 1-minute push pace and a 30-second base pace with a 1-minute all-out at the end. The second block had 1-minute intervals with increasing speed for a total of 4 minutes. And the last block had a 3-minute push pace with a 1-minute all-out at the end. Even with how bad I was feeling, I was happy with what I did on the bike, especially in the last block. I did my normal push pace resistance level for the 3 minutes and didn’t feel that much worse than normal.
On the rower, we also had 3 blocks. Each block had a specific distance to row and an exercise to do between each row. The first block was a 200-meter row and back-and-forth hops, which I did as quick steps. The second block was a 150-meter row and side-to-side steps. And the last block was a 100-meter row and twisting hops, which I did as squats. The nausea was really hitting me hard on the rower so I had to take a lot of breaks during each block and a few times in the middle of a row.
And on the floor, each of the 3 blocks had 2 exercises. We had lunges, plank jacks, single-arm clean-to-press, plank shoulder taps, single-arm snatches, and hip bridges. It wasn’t the worst set of floor blocks for me, but it wasn’t that great either. I did a lot of modifications, mainly for the plank work. And fortunately, there wasn’t a lot of work that needed to use weights so I didn’t have to worry too much about trying to go heavy.
I wasn’t feeling that much better on Tuesday, but it wasn’t as bad as Monday was. The medication I took did take the edge off of things for me, but I still struggled. But I was glad that at least things were a little easier for me.
We had 4 cardio blocks. The first and last blocks were the same with 30-second push paces and 45-second base paces with a 30-second all-out at the end. The second block had rounds of a 30-second all-out and a 45-second recovery. And the third block had rounds of a 30-second all-out and a 1-minute recovery. The shorter intervals helped me not feel as horrible on the bike and I was able to take fewer breaks.
On the rower, we had 3 blocks. The first and third blocks were timed with cardio so we had push rows and base rows. And for the second block, we had stroke drills for 15 strokes on the rower with halos using a medicine ball between each row. I felt a lot better about the second block than the other blocks since the rowing was a lot shorter, but I tried my best with the longer blocks knowing that I do have more rowing endurance than I think I do.
And on the floor, we had one long block. We had 4 exercises on the straps and 2 using weights. On the straps, we had chest presses, high rows, tricep extensions, and y-raises. And with weights, we had lateral lunges and regular lunges. I did skip using weights for the lunges since it’s always a balance issue for me, but I was very happy that I didn’t have to modify anything else for the floor.
Wednesday’s workout was a new themed workout. This one was a playlist designed by a woman who posts treadmill playlists on TikTok. The idea of her playlists is that you want to match the beat of the music to your steps for each song. I had seen her playlists before on TikTok, so I was curious to see how it worked for class.
For cardio, we had one long block with 45-second intervals. There were 20 intervals total and every 45 seconds you were supposed to increase the incline on the treadmill for the first half and decrease the incline for the second half. And everyone on the treadmill was a power walker instead of having some people running. For the bike, it was the same idea but with changing the resistance level. I tried to match my pedaling cadence to the beat of the music, but there were times when we were at the top of the hill when I was using resistance levels I almost never use that had me pedaling very slowly.
On the rower, it was also one block. We started with a 100-meter row with high knees after the row. We went up 100 meters each time until we got to a 500-meter row and then we went down by 100 meters each time. I did the high knees as marching steps as I normally do, but between those taking longer than normal high knees and the breaks I had to take in the rowing, I didn’t get past the 500-meter row to start working down again. I wasn’t expecting to do much better than that, so I was ok with only getting half the row distances completed.
And we also had one block on the floor. Almost everything was with weights, and I used the normal weights I use instead of trying to go heavier. But considering how I was feeling, that was ok with me. We had reverse grip low rows, squats, arnold presses, deadlifts, and bicycle crunches. Only the bicycle crunches were without weights. And for the last minute of class, we had squats to arnold presses, which was not an easy combination for me.
Thursday was the day I felt the best and mainly just felt a bit off instead of feeling super sick. The nausea wasn’t too bad, but I did have some pretty extreme cramps that hit me throughout the workout. But I just took a break when I had cramps and waited them out before continuing on with the workout.
For cardio, we had 3 blocks that were identical. We did a 3-minute push pace and a 1-minute all-out. I did my new normal resistance levels for the bike for every block. It was a bit hard in the last block to keep going and I debated lowering the resistance level a bit, but I’m glad that I didn’t do that and pushed through.
On the rower, we also had 3 identical blocks. And the goal was to get further in each block. We had a 200-meter row followed by foot exchanges and squats before getting back on the rower and rowing until the end of the block. I was surprised to see that I did get further every block and I had a pretty significant increase between the first and third blocks. I think it was more about getting the exercises done quickly and less about my rowing, but I was happy no matter what the reason.
And on the floor, we had one block with 2 mini-blocks in it. We were supposed to do each mini-block twice before moving on to the other one. The first mini-block had close-grip chest presses, leg raises on the bench, and hip hinge swings. And the second mini-block had sumo squats to upright rows, rollouts on the straps, and step-ups (which I did as lunges). I had to modify the leg raises to be single-leg because they were hurting my hips too much. And when I was starting with the second mini-block, I didn’t have a lot of time so I didn’t do the sumo squats to upright rows to get through the other exercises first. The floor might not have been as great as the other sections of the room, but it was still pretty good considering how the rest of the week had gone for me.
I am glad that I probably am done with the worst of the pain and nausea for this month. I might have a little bit more for the first few days of this week, but it shouldn’t be as bad as what I dealt with last week. And before I know it, I should be feeling normal again so I can try to push myself without having issues stopping me from really going for it.
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