This past week of workouts was what felt like a normal workout schedule to me. I was working my normal hours again, I did the workout times and dates I have been doing for a long time, and things felt like a bit of a reset to normal in a time that isn’t really normal because of the pandemic. It was nice to have this type of reset week at the beginning of the new year and I’m glad that this new year had workouts in the studio (unlike the first week of 2021). And overall, it seemed like a normal workout week to me. The only thing a little unusual was that some of my workouts were 2 group classes instead of the 3 group ones I was thinking they would be.
Monday’s workout was a 2 group class and it was a power day. I was still a bit nauseous that morning, but I was doing significantly better than the week before so I was able to do a bit more in class than I thought I would. Because it was a power day and a lot of the intervals were short, we had 4 blocks on each side of the room.
For cardio, blocks 1 and 3 were the same and blocks 2 and 4 were the same. For blocks 1 and 3, we had a 1-minute push, 90-second base, 45-second push, 45-second base, and a 1-minute all-out. And for blocks 2 and 4, we started with a 30-second push and then and 30-second all-out and 30-second recovery intervals. I was trying to not only increase the resistance on the bike but also pedal a bit faster for the all-outs, especially in blocks 2 and 4 since that’s all the work we really had. I know I didn’t do my best, but I was doing more than the week before and I consider that a win.
On the floor, we had 3 regular floor blocks and 1 rowing block. For each of the floor blocks, we had 3 exercises. The first exercise we only did once and then we just went back and forth between the other two exercises for the rest of the block. For the first block we had 1 round of dead bugs and then did skier swings and pop jacks (I did the pop jacks as regular squats). For the second block we had 1 round of side plank crunches and then had single-arm neutral thrusters with rotations and lateral hops. And for the third block we had 1 round of hip bridges and then had single-arm snatches and frogger squats. And for the last block on the rower, we did the same 30-second intervals that cardio had. I was struggling a lot on the rower, as I often do when I’m nauseous, but fortunately we had a lot of recovery time so I never felt too bad.
Wednesday was another day that ended up being a 2 group class. It was an endurance day and I’m so glad I was finally feeling better since this class would have been extremely tough to do when I’m nauseous and in pain.
For cardio, we had 1 long block. We had a 3-minute push pace, 1-minute base pace, 90-second push pace, and 90-second base pace. And we repeated this for a total of 3 rounds before ending with a 2-minute distance challenge at the end. We were encouraged to try to do a bit of an all-out at the end of the distance challenge, but I didn’t have it in me to increase the resistance on the bike at the end. But I did try to pedal a bit faster. But it was a lot of work with no recovery time, so I was exhausted. I did have to take little breaks so I could sip water, but I tried to keep those to when we had base paces.
On the floor, we had 7 little blocks. 4 of those blocks were on the floor and 3 were on the rower. We had 2 exercises for each of the floor blocks. We had shoulder presses and hip hinge low rows, bicep curls and rollouts on the straps, hip hinge tricep kickbacks and upright rows, and plank and squat holds. And every time we were on the rower, we had a 90-second all-out row. I really enjoyed this workout on the floor because it felt a bit more like a power day than an endurance day because we were switching things up so often. So while I was exhausted and I know I worked hard, I wasn’t feeling as sore as I sometimes do in an endurance workout.
Friday was a power day and it was also a 3 group class so I knew I’d have more rowing. I still have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the rower. I know how good it is for me and I know how I can do some really great work. But I also have struggled the most with getting my rowing back after being away from the studios. I know I need to be patient and I have made good improvements this past year, but it’s tough when I still feel like I’m not back to where I was before.
For cardio, we had 1 long block. We started with a 1-minute push pace, 1-minute all-out, and 30-seconds to recover. The push and all-out stayed at 1-minute but for the rest of the rounds we added in a base pace (starting at 30-seconds and increasing by 30-seconds each round) and the recovery increased by 30-seconds each round. The first round might have been the hardest, even though it was the shortest, because we only had the 30-second recovery.
On the rower, we also had 1 long block. We started with a 300-meter row and then we had squats with rotations using the medicine ball. Then we did another 300-meter row and had squats with front raises using the medicine ball. After those 2 rounds, the row decreased by 50 meters and we did 2 more rounds with one medicine ball exercise in-between each row. Getting on and off the rower is always a bit hard for my hips, so I was moving slower than I would have liked. So I didn’t get that far down the row before the rowing block was done.
And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had single-leg deadlifts (which I did as regular deadlifts), hip hinge swings, lateral lunges, and skater lunges. And the second block had hip bridges, toe reaches, and pop jacks. The floor work after the row block was really hard because my hips were hurting a lot. So I had to do more modifications than I would have liked. Besides switching the deadlifts, I had to do the skater lunges with steps instead of jumps. I also did the upper body/core part of toe reaches but I kept my feet on the ground instead of in the air. And I didn’t do the pop jacks at all and just went back and forth between the two other exercises in the last block.
Saturday’s workout was a 2 group class, but I expected this one to be a 2 group one (I’m not sure if my weekday classes will stay 2 groups or will go back to 3). And this workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power. We had 3 blocks on each side of the room to represent each type of workout focus.
The first block for cardio was the power block. We started with a 1-minute push pace into a 30-second all-out with a 45-second recovery. Then we just had intervals of a 30-second all-out and 45-second recovery for the rest of that block. The second block was the strength block. We had rounds of 45-second push paces with base paces in-between. But each time we had a push pace, the incline/resistance level went up by 1 and the base pace got 15-seconds longer. And that block ended with an all-out at an incline. And the last block was the endurance block and we had a 3-minute push pace, 1-minute base pace, and 2 1/2-minute distance challenge. It was a great mix of all the types of workouts, and I was able to focus on different goals or ideas for each of the blocks. I really enjoyed this one!
For the floor, each block again represented each type of workout. The power floor block had single-arm low rows and overhead tricep extensions. After 2 rounds, we had one 200-meter row before going back to the exercises. For the strength block, we had single-arm clean to presses, high rows on the straps, and chest presses on the straps. And again, after 2 rounds of those exercises we had a 200-meter row. But this time, the row was supposed to be between 20-24 strokes per minute which is slower than most people naturally do so we had to focus more about pushing with our legs. And for the power block, we had front raises and hip hinge reverse flies. And after each round of the exercises, we had a 200-meter row.
I really did enjoy this past week of workouts. Even with the struggles and challenges I had, it was a great week for me. And I felt like I was back into the groove of things after having a lot of variety during the holidays. I needed this past week and I’m glad it went as well as it did. I’m still playing around with the idea of only doing weekday workouts, and I likely will have that type of week this week. But I also don’t feel pressure to decide one way or another because I can always switch it up based on how I feel or what my week looks like. And I guess I’ll see how this week goes before I make any other decisions about it.
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