Some New Workout Milestones (or I’m Doing Better Than I Thought)

My workouts have been pretty brutal for me lately. I hated that it was so bad and that I wasn’t able to do a lot of what I wanted or felt like I could. And I was thinking that this past week of workouts was finally going to be the time that things turned around for me. They didn’t totally turn around for me and I was still dealing with some issues (which hopefully won’t be the case much longer), but I did have some awesome workout milestones to make up for the challenges I had.

Monday was an endurance, strength, and power workout. And again this class which is usually 3 groups was a 2 group workout. It ended up feeling similar to 3 groups and that ended up being a good thing for me. While my nausea was finally ending, I was dealing with some horrendous cramps. I literally could feel my uterus contracting and that pain was some of the worst pain I’ve experienced. I took a painkiller before my workout, but I knew that it wasn’t going to be the best workout for me.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks and one was on the treadmill (bike for me) and the other was on the rower. Both blocks had a similar format. We started with a 30 second all out and then we had an exercise. Then we did that again before moving on to 2 rounds of 45 second all outs with exercises between. And I made it to the first 1 minute all out each time before the block ended. On the bike, the exercise was a squat to a low row using weights and on the rower it was lunges. On both block I had to take significant breaks to let the pain go away and I was just grateful that I didn’t hurt myself by falling off the bike or the rower.

On the floor we also had 2 blocks. The first block was frogger squats, sit-ups, leg lifts, and squat reach arounds on the straps. The second block was chest flys, bicep curls, plank reaches, and high rows on the straps. Just like with cardio, I had to take a lot of breaks on the floor. I needed to breathe through the cramps (I figured since they are a similar type of pain that you have when you give birth that breathing through them was a good idea) and they really didn’t seem to be getting better or worse through the workout. So I figured I would just do what I could and not worry too much about it.

Wednesday’s workout was another signature workout. This one is called Orange X and the goal is to do certain weightlifting exercises using the highest weight you can. I was looking forward to doing this workout for a few reasons. One is I knew that I had been doing better with weights so I was excited to see what I could do. Another reason was this was my 100th workout of 2018 which actually puts me a little bit ahead of my goal for the year!

The workout had a switch format and I stuck with the bike since I was still feeling a little off. The first block was 2.5 minutes which was a push pace, base pace, and all out pace and then we switched and did the same thing on the rower. Then the next block was a longer one that had a run/row in it. On the treadmill it was .2 miles (the bike is 4 times that) and then a 200 meter row. And each round the treadmills were supposed to increase the incline by 1%. So each round I increased the gears by 1. The final cardio block was more of a standard format with push pace to base pace with an all out at the end.

On the floor, the first block was split in half with half of us starting with the Orange X workout and the other half doing some body weight work. This was to allow people to test as many different weights as they could. I was on the side that started with body weight work and we had sit-ups, lunges, and mountain climbers. Halfway through the block we switched and it was my turn to try the heavy weights. We had a single arm low row, a goblet squat, and a chest press. With low rows, I’m usually using 15lb weights (sometimes 20lb), with goblet squats it’s usually 25lb, and with chest press I’m usually around 20lb or 25lb. But of course I had to push myself. So I started with the low row and used 35lb and while it was tough and probably didn’t look pretty I did it! I would have loved to try the same weight for the chest press, but I knew that laying on my back I was in a riskier position if the weights were too heavy so I tried 30lb. That ended up being the perfect tough weight for me. And because of my coach I tried using a 45lb weight for the first time for my squats! I actually might have been able to go a bit heavier, but my grip wasn’t strong enough.

I was so surprised by what I was able to do and I’m so glad that I tried to do weights that seemed impossible to me! I will still have to ease into using these weights for regular workouts since we usually have more reps to do, but it was a nice confidence boost to realize how strong I am! We had one more floor block in the end where we got to do the Orange X work again and I stuck with my new heavier weights then too.

Friday’s workout was the first one where I seriously thought I’d finally be back on the treadmill. But I need my first treadmill workout back to be one where we have a bit more recovery time or we switch between blocks. And Friday’s workout was an endurance workout with a 23 minute block on the treadmill so I was back on the bike.

We had longer push paces with base paces after. Each round for 3 rounds the push pace got shorter and the base pace got longer and we repeated that for a total of 6 rounds. I was only taking breaks when I needed water which ended up being about every other base pace. But I was also pedaling faster than normal so I think I was sweating more and feeling thirsty more often. I never felt like I was taking a break to catch my breath which was a nice feeling. I know that if this workout was one with shorter blocks I probably could have been fine on the treadmill. But I knew that I’d be back on the treadmill back soon enough.

On the floor, it was one longer block that was bookended by rowing. At the beginning and end of the block was had a 2 minute row for distance. I did beat my first row by about 20 meters when I did the second row, so I was pretty excited about that. And on the floor, we had a lot of mini-band work. We had half of it as lower body work and half of it as upper body work. For lower body work we had bench tap squats using weights, squat front walks, and knee tucks. For all of those the bands were around my calf. And the upper body work were plank side reaches and front raises. Both of those had the bands around my wrist. I was definitely feeling it in my shoulders and quads by the time I was back on the rower to end the workout, but it wasn’t too bad. I was worried I might have overdone it during Wednesday’s workout and I was pleasantly surprised I wasn’t super sore during Friday’s workout.

On Saturday, I was thinking I’d be using the treadmill but I still didn’t. There were 2 reasons why I stuck with the bike. First, this was going to be my last workout of the month and I figured it would be kind of interesting to have a full month of just the bike in my calendar. But the bigger reason was that I was a bit scared. It’s been a very long time since I was on the treadmill and it’s worrying me how I will do. I need to get over this fear and I’m setting a goal to use the treadmill at least once this week, but it wasn’t the case last week.

The workout had a mix of everything. We had a block on cardio that was a normal endurance block with longer push paces with base paces after. We had a block that was run/floor work with 45 second all out paces with frogger squats. And we had a block that was a run/row with 45 second all out paces with 200 meter rows. And the 45 second all out paces were at inclines (or higher resistances for me on the bike). It was a bit tough jumping on and off the bike, but not too bad and I was able to get moving again pretty quickly after the frogger squats and rowing.

On the floor I wanted to try a bit with heavier weights. We had lunges which I used 25lb weights for and upright rows which I used 20lb weights for (both of those are 1 set heavier than I would usually grab). Then we had a 500 meter row and then it was single arm low row and bicep curls with weights. I really wanted to use 15lb weights for my biceps because I knew my arms were getting tired, but they were all being used by other people so I had to use 20lb weights instead. It was good to be forced to use the heavier weights. Then we had a 250 meter row and then more weight work with pullovers and toe reaches. For the toe reaches I had to go low on the weight, but I moved up to a weight heavier with the 30lb weight for my pullovers!

While I didn’t get all the improvements and victories in my workouts that I wanted to have, I still had a lot to be proud of. I did heavier weights than I ever knew I could use and used the heavier weights as a guide for other workouts. And I hit the 100 workout milestone for the year! Those are both things to be very happy with and I just hope the positive momentum keeps going into this week!

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