I’ve been back at Orangetheory for a while now. I’ve said this so often since going back but having something in my life that feels like the before times has been so good for my mental health. Obviously, working out in the studio is also great for my physical health and I work out harder in class than I do at home, but the benefit for my mental health has been amazing. This has been a steady routine for me for so long, and getting it back has helped me when there have been so many uncertain things recently. And for the most part, this past week of workouts was pretty routine and what I have come to expect out of OTF.
Monday’s workout was an endurance day, and it had a lot of tough endurance challenges for us! I think certain elements wouldn’t have been so tough if they were the main challenge of the day, but we had so many of them!
For cardio, we had 2 blocks. Both blocks were rounds of push pace to base pace and ending with an all-out. The base pace was always 1-minute, which didn’t feel too bad at first. But the more we went on, the shorter that minute felt! The push paces were between 2-minutes and 30-seconds and it changed up each time. And the end of both blocks had a 30-second all-out. Because it was an endurance day, I really tried to limit my breaks during cardio. It’s not easy because I need to drink water and sometimes I need to stretch a bit. But I’m getting better about not doing as many breaks when I’m not dealing with nausea.
On the floor, we had one floor block and one rowing block. For the floor block, we had 3 rounds of doing squats to presses, pop jacks, and Spiderman planks. Those were all supposed to be while using the Bosu, but I only used it for the squats to presses. After those 3 rounds, we had pullovers, front raises, and alternating Supermans until the end of the block. For that part, I only had to skip using the Bosu for the front raises. Then, we had a 7 1/2-minute crew row. A crew row is where everyone tries to row together at the same speed and with the same timing. So you are supposed to be very aware of the people on either side of you so you can make sure you are not out of sync. You can take breaks, but you have to be aware when you start back up so you are with the group. The biggest struggle for me with crew rows is that I know I’m a much slower rower than most people. I always find it hard to keep going that fast. But I took breaks when I needed to and then got back with the group as quickly as I could. It was still much faster than I normally would row, but it was a good challenge for me.
Wednesday’s workout was a power day, which was a nice switch from what we did on Monday.
The cardio blocks were all similar with a lot of 1-minute intervals. The first block had a 1-minute push pace, 90-second base pace, 1-minute all-out, and a 1-minute recovery. We did that interval set twice. The second block had a 1-minute push pace, 90-second base pace, and 1-minute all-out. And the last block had 4 rounds of a 1-minute all-out followed by a 1-minute recovery. It was a lot of work and a lot of switching around, but it was really fun to do!
The floor also had 3 blocks. The first block had bench sit-ups to squats, deadlifts, hop overs (which I did as lunges), and lateral lunges. The second block was a mini-band core block with in and out crunches and toe reaches. And the last block had burpees to bicep curls (which I had to split into 2 moves), step-ups (which I did as squats), power sit-ups, and plank low rows. The first and third floor block felt a bit more like endurance work because it felt like we never stopped, but the number of reps we had to do were pretty low so that made it more of a power day.
Friday’s workout was an endurance day, and it was designed to keep the people who worked out on Thursday in mind. Thursday’s workout was the Everest Challenge, so they tried to make it more focused on upper body.
For cardio, we had 3 blocks. In each block, we had 3 rounds of a 90-second push pace. But the base pace between each round decreased with each block. The first block had 75-second base paces, the second block had 1-minute base paces, and the last block had 45-second base paces. The goal was to try to maintain what we did for the push paces each block, even though the base paces were decreasing.
On the floor, we did so much upper body work and my arms felt like noodles! The goal in each block was to do all the exercises before taking a break. In the first block, we had uppercuts, chest flys, and incline chest presses. And we were supposed to use the same weights for the entire thing. The second block was with the straps and we had bicep curls, y raises, and high rows. And the last block was a bit more core-focused with plank jacks and crunches. I really did try to not stop in the middle of the exercises, but for the first and second blocks my arms were getting so tired! I had to lighten the dumbells I was using and step back when using the straps to make it a bit easier on me. But it was crazy to see how even using lighter weights was so tough when you didn’t take a break during the exercises.
Even though most of the workouts this past week reminded me of what things were like before the shutdown, the workout on Saturday was even more like that. Because Saturday’s workout was a special class where you had to bring a friend with you to take class. And the friend I brought with me was one of my workout buddies from before! She and I hadn’t seen each other since things shut down a year and a half ago, so I was thrilled to get to see her and work out together again.
The workout was a strength class and the cardio section had 4 blocks with the same pattern. Every block had a push pace, base pace, base pace on an incline, and an all-out. The base pace and all-out were always 1-minute long. But the push pace and incline work changed. The push pace started at 2-minutes and went down 30-seconds each block and the incline started at 30-seconds and went up 30-seconds each block as well as go down with how high the incline should be. Because of how short each block was, it also felt a bit like a power day, but the hills got tough as they got longer!
On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had bird dog low rows with weights, single-arm lunges to step-ups (I had to do these just as lunges), and double crunches. After 2 rounds of the exercises, we had a 200-meter row and then went back to the exercises. And the second block had lateral goblet lunges, hollow hold chest presses, and plank pull-throughs. And just like in the first floor block, after 2 rounds of the exercises we had a 200-meter row.
Since we were busy working out, I didn’t get to chat with my friend too much during class. But of course, we took some time to catch up after class and we had to get a photo with our coach (who was so excited to see her too)!
This past week of workouts was one of the weeks I wasn’t sure if I’d get my 4 workouts in, but I’m glad I made it work! This week is also like that. As of right now, I am scheduled for 4 workouts, but things are still in the air to see if I can make it to all of them. But if I can’t, I know I’m good for 3 of those workouts. And at least that keeps most of the routine that I love in my week.
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