I was really prepared to have a bad workout week this past week. I was expecting my pain and nausea to kick in, which always makes it a bad week. And I knew I’d be going out to the picket lines every day and I wasn’t sure how that would affect my hips. But I was pleasantly surprised with how the week went. I was shocked that my pain and nausea really didn’t happen throughout the week. I had little moments of nausea, but that could have been anything and it wasn’t that extreme. And I did have some sore hips from the extra walking (I did over 11 miles on the picket lines), but it was manageable and didn’t affect me too much. I did have to take some moments to rest and stretch out my hips, but I was prepared for so much worse. So it ended up being an unexpectedly good week for me!
I was a bit worried going into Monday’s workout about how I would feel, but I also knew that there was a chance that would be the best day I would have that week. I’m glad I was wrong, but I didn’t know that at the time so the nerves were hitting me.
For cardio, we had 2 blocks. Both blocks did 90 seconds of work and 45 seconds of a base pace to recover. In the first block, we did a push pace for the 90 seconds and in the second block, we did a push to all-out for the 90 seconds. I used my normal resistance levels for all of the work and it went pretty well for me. Both blocks ended with an all-out, and that went well for me too.
On the rower, we started with a 100-meter row and then we had foot switches off of the rower. I did back-and-forth steps instead of foot switches as my modification. Then we increased the row by 100 meters each time until we got to 500 meters. After 500 meters, we then worked our way back down but did butt kicks after the rowing instead. I only got to the first round of doing butt kicks before the rowing was done, so I guess my rowing was a bit slow but I didn’t notice that in the moment.
On the floor, we had cluster sets for all of our exercises. This time, the cluster sets had 2 rounds of the exercise with a heavy weight and then 1 round with a lighter weight before moving on to the next exercise. The goal was to do 6-10 reps with the heavy weight and then as many as possible with the lighter weight. The exercises we had were chest presses, tap squats, and hip bridges. I didn’t use weights for my tap squats because I knew that could make my hips hurt and I wanted to be cautious. But I was using a really heavy weight for my hip bridges and I was proud of that.
Tuesday’s workout was focused a lot on doing surges, which are short bursts of higher effort for cardio or the rower. We’ve been doing these more often and they are good challenges, but they aren’t easy.
For cardio, we had 3 blocks. 2 of the blocks were focused more on speed with us going faster when we had our surges. And the other block was focused more on strength with incline and the surges were increasing the incline/resistance level. Because I knew we’d be doing incline work, I did make sure that the speed surges for cardio were just pedaling faster and not adding any extra resistance level on the bike.
On the rower, we had 2 rowing blocks that match 2 of the cardio blocks. For the surges, we were supposed to increase our stroke rate. I still struggle a bit with getting my stroke rate up high, so my surges weren’t quite as big of a difference as they should have been. And between the 2 rowing blocks, we had a block off of the rower doing medicine ball work.
And on the floor, we had some mini-band work and some weight work. For the mini-bands, we were supposed to do lunges with torso rotations and walkouts. I did the lunges on their own add the torso rotations while standing so I didn’t have balance issues. And for the weighted work, we had step-ups (which I did as more lunges), Arnold presses, and deadlifts.
I was feeling a bit of hip soreness on Wednesday, but it was still manageable and I just had to be a bit careful with the work I was doing. But I still felt like the modifications I did were nothing compared to what I was afraid I would need to do.
For cardio, we had 4 blocks and in each block, we had a specific distance we were supposed to get to. Once we got to that distance, we could recover or go to a base pace before the next block started. I was just finishing up the distance each time, so I didn’t get a lot of recovery time. But I did take advantage of any time I had to make sure my hips didn’t get too sore.
On the rower, we had a similar format as we did for cardio. We started each block with lunges and then got on our rowers to get to a specific distance. I was a bit slower with this block since I’m never that fast getting on and off the rower. But again, I was happy with what I was able to do because I was prepared for much worse.
And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. In each block, we had 2 exercises that we did twice and then 2 other exercises that we did for the rest of the block. In the first block, we started with single-leg deadlifts to knee raises and y-raises on the straps. I did the deadlifts to knee raises by holding on to the wall for balance, that’s a normal modification for me. For the rest of the first block, we had deadlifts and single-arm chest flys. In the second block, we started with low rows and rollouts on the straps. And for the rest of the block, we had plank low rows and plank pull-throughs. I was a bit lighter with the weights than I know I can sometimes do, but I was starting to get tired at the end of the floor work and I didn’t want to risk getting sloppy with my form by using a heavier weight.
I was so happy on Thursday that I was still feeling ok. I was starting to have a little bit of nausea, but it was minimal and I didn’t have any moments that felt like I might need to leave class. And my hips were hurting a little more, but I was still happy that it wasn’t as bad as I feared it would be.
For cardio, we had 3 blocks that were similar. In the first block, we had a 90-second base pace, 75-second base to push pace, 1-minute push pace, 45-second push to all-out, and 30-second all-out. The second block had the same timing but we started at a push to all-out pace and worked our way down and still ended with a 30-second all-out. And in the last block, we did the same thing that we did in the first block. I did need to take a few breaks during cardio to stretch my hips, but it was only a few times so it didn’t cut into my workout too much.
On the rower, we had one long block. We started with a 150-meter row followed by speed squats, knee raises, and good mornings. We did that pattern a total of 4 times. Then we had a 300-meter row with speed squats and knee raises after the row. We were supposed to do that twice before doing a 600-meter row with just speed squats. I knew I wasn’t going to get through to the 600-meter row, so I didn’t get off the rower between the 2 300-meter rows and just kept rowing until the block was done to maximize the rowing I could get done.
And on the floor, we also had one block. We had 4 exercises and started at 4 reps and added 2 reps each round. We had step-ups, single-arm snatches, chest flys, and single-arm hip hinge swings. I did the step-ups as lunges as I normally do. But the rest of the exercises were done without modifications. Because I knew the reps would be increasing as I did the work, I didn’t go too heavy with my weights so I could make sure I was staying safe with my form. And even though we didn’t have that many exercises and we repeated them quickly, the block went by really quickly for me.
I’m so happy the past week went as well for me as it did. I want to hope that this week will be the same, but I also know that there is a good chance that I won’t be lucky 2 weeks in a row with my pain and nausea and it could kick in at any time. But I am trying to stay hopeful that the picketing won’t affect my workout or my hips too much, so I’m a little less worried about this week than I was about the past week. But I’ll just have to wait and see.
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