I knew going into this week of workouts that I was going to have days of nausea. I was very lucky it didn’t affect me too much the week prior, but since coming off the pill and having regular periods again I have not had a period without nausea. I always hope for the best, but the realistic side of me makes me worried and I try to not let that affect my workout too much.
Monday wasn’t that bad of a day for me. I knew I’d be going to Disneyland after the workout so I wasn’t pushing myself too hard and the nausea was pretty minor. It was a 3 group class and we spent 15 minutes at each section before moving on.
For cardio on the bike, we had 3 short blocks. The first block was a 3 minute push pace with a 1 minute all out pace. The second block was a 2 minute push pace, 1 minute base pace, and a 1 minute all out. And the last block was a 1 minute push pace, 1 minute base pace, 1 minute push pace, and 1 minute all out pace. I stuck with my usual resistance levels but I wasn’t pedaling as fast as I normally could. The nausea waves were coming during my time on the bike, but they were over quickly and not as severe as I know they could be so I felt good about that.
On the floor we had some work that was timed and some work that was by the number of reps. We had skater lunges, seated knee tucks, push ups, chest flies, and bear step plank work. I knew I couldn’t do things where I was horizontal with my face toward the ground because that makes me feel worse. So for the push ups and the bear steps I did modified push ups using the bench for both. It was still tough doing that, but I wasn’t feeling as sick as I would have if I was completely horizontal with my face toward the ground.
And on the rower we started with a 100 meter row with 10 squat presses using a medicine ball. Each round we went up 100 meters on the rower keeping the medicine ball work the same. The goal in 15 minutes was to get to 2,000 meters which didn’t seem that tough since usually I can do 2,000 meters in under 10 minutes. The first few rounds weren’t too bad and I was able to row without stopping and quickly get to the medicine ball work. But as each round went on the rowing was more and more difficult and I needed to take breaks. I got to about 1,900 meters when class was done which was a bit frustrating that I was so close to the goal (I would have rather been at 1,500 meters and been really far from hitting it).
Wednesday was a pretty brutal day for me. I’ve had bad nausea days before, but this was a totally new level of bad. I debated skipping the workout, but I knew that I would be mad at myself if I did that. So I showed up and figured that even if I could barely do anything it would be better than doing nothing.
The cardio portion was similar with rounds of push to all out paces ranging from 1 minute to 30 seconds. I tried to stick with my usual resistance levels on the bike, but my legs were moving very slowly. It reminded me of the week before doing Everest on the bike where it felt like my legs were in jello or syrup on the high resistance levels. But I just kept trying to keep moving and not caring how little I was able to do. I had to take so many breaks to let the nausea pass and I just let my body control what I could do. I had taken 2 medications which are supposed to help with the worst nausea but they didn’t seem to touch how I was feeling this day. Fortunately I have an appointment with my doctor soon so I’m going to ask if there are other options so I don’t have too many days like this.
When we got to the floor, I realized this workout was not designed for the issues I was dealing with. We had 3 blocks and each block started with a rolling burpee. This means we start on our backs on the weight bench and do a sit-up. Then we are supposed to stand, put our feet on the weight bench (so our head is lower than our feet), do a push up, and then put our feet back on the ground to start over with the sit-up. I knew this was not possible for me to do. So I did the sit-up, stood up and turned around so I was facing the bench. I used it to help with my push up so I didn’t have to be horizontal and then turned around to do the sit-up again. It added time to my work, but I needed to do this. The other work we had included some plank work so again I used the bench to put my hands on so I didn’t have to be face down on the ground. When class was done, I was ready to be home and just try to get the feeling of nausea over with. While it did get better after class, it didn’t go away.
Friday was an interesting day. Since starting to go to the Culver City studio I haven’t done many afternoon workouts. My Saturday ones are at 11:20am which could still be considered the morning. But I hadn’t done a 4pm workout in a while. But some of my workout friends were going to take the 4pm class and I wanted to join them for a workout reunion! It was another bad nausea day and I honestly have no idea if working out in the morning would have been easier or harder, but it was going to be an afternoon workout no matter what.
It was an endurance based workout but we did switch between blocks so that helped. But I know that the nausea was awful because my friends kept checking in on me. I guess I looked really green sometimes and really pale other times. They don’t usually see me when I’m this sick so I think it freaked them out a bit. But I just kept reassuring them that I was fine and I pushed through the best I could.
For the cardio, there were 3 blocks that all had a similar pattern. It was 3 rounds of push paces to base paces and ending with a push pace to an all out pace. The first block had the push and base paces for 1 minute, the second block for 45 seconds, and the last block for 30 seconds. I tried my best to just keep pedaling on the bike and I surprised myself a bit by how well I did. I did take lots of breaks to let the nausea pass, but considering how horrible I was feeling earlier it was significantly better than what I was expecting.
On the floor, even though we had 3 blocks it was really 1 long block that we kept working on during each block. We started with a 600 meter row and then had add on exercises. We started with lateral lunges and regular lunges and then each round we added on another thing. We also had hip hinge reverse flys, weighted hip bridges, and sit-ups (which I did as crunches). Then we had a 300 meter row and started with all the exercises and each round we were supposed to take away something. I did the 300 meter row and started doing all the exercises again, but that’s as far as I got.
Even though this was another pretty brutal workout, it was made so much better by having my friends there. It was a rare treat and we talked about trying to make this happen once a month or every other month and I hope we are able to do it!
Saturday was a little better, but still a pretty nauseous day. It was a strength based workout and there were no switches so I was on the bike for about 25 minutes before moving to the floor. There were 3 blocks on cardio and each block started with a longer push, then had 2 rounds of base to push paces, and ended with a 30 second all out. Overall it was easier for me to bike than it was earlier in the week, but when a wave of nausea hit me it was much more severe and literally stopped me in my tracks. Usually I can slow down the bike before letting it pass, but this time I had to stop completely immediately because it just took over. I know this probably sounds so horrible and it’s probably bad that I’m getting used to this, but it’s the reality of my life now.
The floor had 2 blocks. The first block was supposed to be all ab dolly work, but I couldn’t do any of it on the ab dolly. First were roll outs which I couldn’t do because being horizontal with my face toward the ground makes things worse. So I did roll outs with the straps instead. Then we were supposed to do pikes (which I usually do as knee tucks) and that was the same issue with the roll outs. So I did leg lifts instead (which my coach said was basically pikes on my back). And the last thing were hamstring curls which I just can’t do on the ab dolly so I did hip bridges with a weight on my hips.
The second block went better. We had hip hinge reverse grip low rows, sumo squats, and shoulder work. Normally for the low rows and shoulder work I would use 15 lb weights and the squats would be either 20 lb or 25 lb. But I decided to challenge myself to make up for my issues with cardio and did 20 lb weights for the row and shoulders and a 30 lb weight for my squats. It was tough, but not as tough as I thought it would be. We also had 200 meter rows in this block and I did manage to do it in under 40 seconds which is pretty decent for me.
It was unfortunate that I was accurate in this past week of workouts being lots of nausea days. But I think I’m dealing with them better now than I have before and I’m more familiar with the modifications I’ll need to do and what I can do instead. There is a chance that some of this week will still be not so great, but I know that by the end of the week I should be better. And not only will the nausea go away, but I’m finally over this cold I had! So there is a chance I might be trying the treadmill for the first time in about 7 weeks!
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