This past week of workouts was an interesting one for me. First, it was the beginning of my nausea and I had to deal with that the entire week. I thought I might not have nausea until midway through the week, but I wasn’t lucky this time. Also, I had a weird workout schedule. I am pretty set in my routine with the days and times I work out, but when something happens that prevents me from maintaining that schedule, I have to be flexible. I could have just missed the class I knew I couldn’t go to, but my desire to get in 4 workouts a week is higher than my desire to keep my normal schedule.
Monday’s workout was a strength based class and I was dealing with a mix of being overly tired and a little bit of nausea during class. I was already prepared for this week to not be one of my super amazing weeks, so I knew that I had to be careful during cardio to not overdo things and get burned out before the end of the workout.
The treadmill work was a single block that was 14 minutes of work. We only had 2 hill/incline/high resistance levels sections and I was going to some of the highest resistance levels on the bike that I’ve used. For my regular base, push, and all out paces I was using my old resistance levels. I used those honesty because I forgot about the new ones so that was my fault and not me needing to go easy on myself. The nausea wasn’t too bad during the bike so I didn’t need to take a ton of breaks and that made me happy.
On the rower, we had sprint rows with exercises between each row. The rows were all between 100-400 meters and I was going pretty close to my normal speed on the rower. After the first row we were supposed to do medicine ball jacks, but since I can’t do bouncy stuff like that when I’m nauseous I did squats to overhead presses with the medicine ball. After the second row we added on squat front presses with the medicine ball. And after the third round we were supposed to add squat overhead presses with the medicine ball, but since I was already doing those I just did regular squats while holding the medicine ball.
On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block was lateral lunges, pop squats, and regular lunges. I was able to do the pop squats while using the bench for my hands so my nausea wasn’t too bad. The second block was lunges to single arm presses with weights, sit-ups, and bear steps. The bear steps are done face down similar to a plank and I was worried about doing them with the nausea. I tried them and found that as long as I went slowly I wasn’t having the usual nausea issues. I also had to keep taking breaks during them to sit and let the nausea pass, but that’s still better than I’m used to.
Wednesday’s workout was also a strength workout. We had 2 blocks at each section of the room but they were back to back so we had about 15 minutes at each section.
For cardio the first block was a 2 minute push pace, 1 minute base pace, 2 minute hill, 90 second base base, and a 1 minute all out. I was at my old resistance level for most things but used my old all out level for the hill work. The second block cut most things in half so since it was shorter I used my new resistance levels on the bike. I hadn’t been using them much lately and I was glad I did it in this workout so I could remember that I could do it.
The rower was a similar idea to cardio with one block being longer and the second block cutting them in half. We started with a 2 minute row and then we had lunges to overhead tricep work using the medicine ball. Then we were supposed to do that distance from the 2 minute row again with more lunges and tricep work before rowing for distance. But the tricep work was making me feel nauseous for some random reason so I did the first row. the lunges and tricep work, and then rowed until time was called on the block. I did the same thing with the second block. I know I didn’t get all the work done that I should have done, but I figured rowing longer wasn’t the worst option for me.
The floor was mainly upper body work. We had sit-ups to shoulder presses (which I split into sit-ups and squats to shoulder presses), seated low rows using weights, ab dumbbell twists, chest presses, and lunge low rows. I wasn’t going too heavy on the weights which I regretted after the workout. I was trying to go easy on myself and I realized after it was done that I probably went too easy. It’s a tough balance to find with going easy to not be nauseous and pushing myself too much and not being able to do a lot of the workout. And the balance changes every time I work out and am nauseous.
Even though when I set my 2019 goals I allowed for a few 3 workout weeks, if I can find a way to have 4 workouts even if it’s not with my normal schedule I’ll try my best. And for last week and this week I knew I’d be missing one of my normal workout times. Last week, I knew I’d miss my Saturday workout. So I added in a Thursday workout to make up for it.
Working out on a Thursday meant I went after work in the afternoon. This is the time I used to go when I went to Brentwood for all my classes, but it was so weird for me to do it now. And because I take class at very popular times, I’m used to 3 group classes and didn’t even consider that I’d be going to a 2 group class. It was an endurance based class, but we switched every 5 minutes so that helped.
Every time we had cardio, we had a 4 minute progressive push pace and a 30 second all out pace. I started at my normal base pace resistance level each time and increased it by 1 every minute. That worked out perfectly for me because 1 level above the progressive push levels ended up being my new all out resistance level. It was nice to take the time to work up each block from my base to my all out and it helped to make it feel easier than I thought it would be.
Every time we were on the floor, we had the same thing. We had one long floor block and we picked things up where we left them off. We had static over under crunches, heel toe taps, toe touches, hop overs, squats with weights, side plank work, and burpees. I had to make some modifications for a few things due to my nausea but I was able to do most things the way they were supposed to be done. And the last floor block was a row block where we had the same pattern as cardio with a progressive 4 minute push to a 30 second all out. I knew that I couldn’t push myself on the rower the way I wanted to, so I had a goal just to row the entire time without stopping. I wasn’t able to do that and I had to take breaks for the nausea to pass about every 45 seconds. It wasn’t my best row, but it was at the end of workout so I was tired besides being nauseous.
Friday was my last workout last week. It was also my worst nausea day of the week and my third workout day in a row. There were enough factors working against me that I went into class just feeling like I had the goal of surviving and doing what I could and not really pushing myself. It was a strength based class and my usual 3 group class so I was at each section for about 15 minutes.
For cardio, we were on our own with timing things. We had plan with how far we were supposed to go with push, all out, and recovery paces and our push paces were supposed to increase inclines each time. I used my normal base pace resistance level as my recovery (I don’t really go lower than that if I can help it even when we have recovery time) and my new all out resistance level each round. For the push paces, I knew I’d be working my way up the resistance levels so I started it at my old push pace level. Then I went up 1 level each time I got back there. When the block was ending, I was using my all out level for my push at an incline. It wasn’t easy to keep going and I took a lot of breaks to let the nausea pass or the pain from the cramps to lessen. But the goal was to just keep going and that’s what I did.
On the rower we started with a 400 meter row. Then we had squats and squat front presses with a medicine ball and a 200 meter row. We repeated the squat work and back to a 400 meter row. That’s as far as I got for the first row block. The second row block was the same idea but everything was cut in half. So we had 200 and 100 meter rows and half the squats we had the first time. Just like on the bike, I had to take a lot of time to rest and let things get a bit better for me. I struggled a lot with the squats too because the motion of squatting down and standing up was affecting me. It sucks to feel this bad, but I knew it was just temporary and I’d be done with it soon.
And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had lunges with front raises or lateral raises using weights, bicycle chest presses, and double crunches. The lunges went fine for me and it was nice to have something feel normal to me. The bicycle chest presses and double crunches weren’t as easy, but I was able to use my normal weights for those so I felt awesome about that. And the second block was goblet squat lateral steps and plank shoulder taps. Those went as well as I expected they would and I just focused on getting through it and taking breaks when I needed them.
My last workout last week was on Friday and my next workout won’t be until tomorrow which is a pretty long break for me. And this week will also be a bit weird with the schedule since I am missing my Monday workout. I’m also aware that it will likely be another bad nausea week. But if I made it through last week, I know I can make it through this week!
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