I know that things don’t seem to be getting better as far as the pandemic goes. There are a lot of people who seem to be in denial about that and claim that everything is done and fine even though their area is having more cases than ever over the past year and a half. California and LA aren’t doing great. We aren’t doing worse than ever, but it’s still scary. And I do worry that gyms might have to close again and I really hope that doesn’t happen. We are working out in masks and I would be more than happy to show my vaccination card if necessary to keep working out. I just want to not have to miss my workouts again. And I think that fear is what pushed me a lot this past week.
Monday’s workout was a run/row day. Although I would call it a row/run day because the rower was the focus of the cardio half of class and being on the treadmill or bike was considered a bit of recovery time.
There were different intervals in the row/run, but the rowing always added up to 800-meters. The first was an 800-meter row with 2-minutes on the treadmill or bike. Then it was 2 rounds of a 400-meter row with 90-seconds of cardio after each row. I made it to where we were working on 4 rounds of 200-meter rows with 1-minute of cardio after each row. My longer rows are still a bit of a struggle, but I’m trying to get better. I know it’s partially an endurance issue and partially my form making it harder than it should be. But at least this workout gave me a lot of opportunities to work on that.
On the floor, we had 3 blocks. Each block started with doing 1 set of high rows on the straps before moving on to the rest of the exercises that were focused on upper body and core and we were supposed to use the Bosu for all of them. We had single-arm chest presses, pullovers, running man planks, scaption raises, goblet lunges, plank jacks, hip bridges, chest fly, and Spiderman planks. But for a lot of the exercises, I had to skip using the Bosu because of my stability issues. I usually at least try to use it to start and then make the decision from then. But for some things like the lunges, I knew it wasn’t safe for me to try. But I can still do things on the floor and get the same work done, so that works.
Wednesday’s workout was a strength-based day. And I really pushed myself hard in this one. Ever since my coach pushed me to work with resistance levels more, I have taken that to heart. And strength days are the best days to do that.
We had 3 blocks for cardio and they all had some regular push paces as well as incline work. The inclines got shorter each block but they also got steeper. And we also had some all-outs at inclines, which we rarely have. Just like the past few times I’ve been working with the harder resistance levels, my legs felt like they were moving so slowly and it was really hard. But I know that’s a good thing.
On the floor, we had 2 blocks. And the first block was a mini-band block. We had good mornings, lateral walks, suitcase squats, overhead presses, front walks, and chest fly with weights all with the mini-bands. We also had a few 400-meter rows in that block too. The mini-band work was really hard because it’s tough on my hips. And I had an issue with my hip popping out a lot in that first block that didn’t want to go back in. The second block had step-ups (that I did as lunges), plank low rows, and seated twists. These were hard because of my hip issues, so I had to go a little lighter with the weights than I would have liked. But I still got some good heavy weights in for most of the workout.
Friday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power. And it was a really great mix although I was a little tired during the power moments so I know I didn’t go as hard as I might be able to do on an only power day.
For cardio, we had 1 long block. We started with a 5-minute run for distance and then had a 1-minute walking recovery. Then we had 4 rounds of 30-second all-outs with 1-minute to walk between each all-out. And then we repeated the entire thing again. Doing a 5-minute distance challenge isn’t anything too crazy and doing 30-second all-outs aren’t bad, but somehow doing them back to back was a lot in a good way. I didn’t change the resistance levels on the bike that much during the 5-minute challenges. I did start at my usual push pace level but had to split the difference between my base and push paces to keep going the entire time. But that was the only adjustment.
On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block was longer and started with a 300-meter row. Then we had 2 mini-blocks in the block. The first mini-block had chest presses, bench push-ups, and ab dolly hamstring curls (which I modified to be hip bridges). The second mini-block had hip hinge low rows, bridge rows on the straps, and ab dolly knee tucks. We were supposed to do the first mini-block 3 times, the second mini-block 3 times, and then go back to the rower. But I was finishing my last round on the second mini-block when this block ended so I never did my second row. And the second block on the floor was timed with the all-outs for cardio. We had side planks for 30-seconds and then rollouts on the ab dolly for 1-minute and had 4 rounds of that.
Saturday’s workout was a 2 group class, but it was formatted like a 3 group class. So we had 15 minutes at each section of the room. It was an endurance-based workout and the main feature of it was that we didn’t stop the entire time. Each section of the room had a single 15-minute block. And it wasn’t easy at all! This honestly felt like a Hell Week class!
The cardio block started with a 3-minute push pace and then we had a 90-second base pace. Then it was a 2 1/2-minute push, 75-second base, 2-minute push, 1-minute base, 90-second push, 45-second base, and we ended with a 1-minute all out. It was a lot and I was exhausted. I did have to take breaks during the block to drink water, but I tried to keep those just when we were at a base pace and make them as quick as I could. I wanted to try the challenge as closely as possible with no breaks.
On the rower, it was the same thing as cardio. No breaks and push pace and base pace intervals. This time, I knew I would need breaks. Even when I had the best rowing endurance, rowing for that long was almost impossible. But with my significantly reduced endurance, I just wanted to do as much as I could. I did take a lot of breaks during the rowing. I couldn’t make it through the 3-minute push pace without stopping. But I only had to unstrap my feet once to stretch, so that was an improvement over some of what I’ve done in the recent past.
And on the floor, we had 2 sections to the exercises. The first section was lower body focuses and the second section was upper body focused. The goal was to use the same weights for the first section and then switch to another set of weights and use those for the entire second section. The lower body exercises were lateral lunges, reverse lunges, front squats, and deadlifts. And the upper body exercises were hammer curls, shoulder presses, hip hinge high rows, and push-ups to plank high rows. I did ok with the weights for the first time through the exercises. But then my hips were starting to bother me a lot, so I did all the lower body exercises except the deadlifts without weights. This at least allowed me to have better form and make sure I wasn’t doing something wrong. But for the upper body exercises, I was able to use the weights for the entire block.
This past week of workouts really did feel extra hard to me, but I don’t mind. Maybe it’s harder because I’m not sleeping well or that I’m struggling with working out with my mask. Or maybe the workouts are harder or I’m pushing myself more. Whatever the reason, I’m really proud of what I did last week. I know I will have another tough week soon, so these good weeks really help to balance those out.
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