Tag Archives: fitness

Just A Normal And Good Workout Week (or Using My Workouts To Get Out My Stress)

When gyms were shut down for over a year, I could tell that stress and other negative emotions were getting to me more than normal. There is no question in my mind that going to my workouts helps my mental health, and even when I have a good week I can use the workouts to get some stress out of my system. And that’s exactly what happened this past week. I had an overall good week, but I did need to work out some stress and anxiety and I think that led to my workouts being better for me.

Monday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and it was a 2 group class. And even though there was some endurance work in the workout, I had a lot of opportunities to work on my power, especially on the bike.

For cardio, we had the same workout for blocks 1, 3, and 5. Those blocks were a 30-second push pace, 30-second base pace, and 30-second all-out. I really tried to push my speed on the bike for those all-outs since they were short blocks. And for blocks 2 and 4 we had a 2-minute push pace, 1-minute base pace, 2-minute push pace at an incline, 1-minute base pace, 30-second push pace, and 30-second all-out. Those blocks were a bit harder for the all-outs since it was after more intervals, including hills. But I was still able to push myself a bit more than normal for all the intervals.

And on the floor, we also had 5 blocks. This time, for blocks 1, 3, and 5 we had the same exercises. We had burpees, hip hinge low rows, and neutral thrusters. Each exercise was done for 30-seconds (timed out with the treadmills), but we did them in a different order for each block. For block 2 we had pull-ups on the straps (which I did as high rows), plank rotations, and a 150-meter row. And for block 4 we had chest presses on the straps, dead bugs, and a 150-meter row. I finally feel like I can push off on the rower properly with my heel again, so my rowing is almost back to normal. I just have to work on my form which got sloppy while I wasn’t able to row properly.

Wednesday’s workout was a power day. I was having a bit of a bad hip day due to how I slept the night before, but it wasn’t too bad and it was something I could manage pretty well throughout the workout.

For cardio, blocks 1 and 3 were all about 30-second intervals. We had a round of a push pace to an all-out and 2 rounds of a push pace to base pace to an all-out. And after each all-out, we had 30-seconds of a walking recovery which isn’t too long to recover. And in block 2, we had 2 rounds of a 30-second push pace to a 1-minute base pace with a 30-second all-out at the end.

On the rower, blocks 1 and 3 were timed with the treadmills with the 30-second intervals. Even though my rowing is getting better, I don’t have a huge difference between my base and push rows. For my all-out rows, I usually can go harder because I know I will have recovery time after so I can burn out a bit. And for the second block, we had rounds of 150-meter rows with high knees. I tried my best with the high knees, but I pretty much did them as static marching but I think it was a close modification.

And on the floor, blocks 1 and 3 were timed with cardio as well. For block 1 we had 30-seconds of a low row on the left side, 30-seconds of a low row on the right side, and 30-seconds of recovery time. And for block 3 it was the same idea but with single-arm clean to press instead of the low row. And for block 2, we had single-arm squats to upright rows and overhead presses with a rainbow arc (so you moved the weight from side to side).

Friday’s workout was an endurance workout and I was having a bit more hip pain than I did on Wednesday. It was a combination of some residual pain from Wednesday plus some pain due to the weather. But the pain was more about being uncomfortable than it was sharp pain like it can be sometimes. And for all sides of the room, we had a single 14-minute block.

For cardio, it was rounds of a push pace followed by a 90-second base pace. The push paces were 4-minutes, 2-minutes, 90-seconds, 1-minute, and 30-seconds. And we ended with a 30-second all-out. The 4-minute push was really more of a timed challenge so we didn’t have to do what we normally would do for a push pace. So I put the resistance level on the bike at the level between my base and push level. But for the other push paces, I did my normal push level.

The rower was probably the hardest section for me. It was timed with cardio and every time cardio had a push pace or an all-out we had a timed distance row. Rowing for 4-minutes isn’t easy to do no matter how I feel. And it was a bit harder than normal for me due to all my hip issues. I couldn’t do it without a break, but I tried to keep going whenever I could. And when cardio was at a base pace, we had squats and overhead presses with a medicine ball. We were supposed to do 15 of each exercise, but we only had 90-seconds to do it and I couldn’t get them all done so I usually did 10 or 12 reps of each.

And on the floor, we had 3 mini-blocks within the long block and we did each mini-block twice before moving on to the next one. The first mini-block was all about lunges, and I had to modify it to just be regular lunges for the exercises. The second mini-block had lateral lunges to suitcase squats (which I had to do as 2 separate exercises) and cossack squats. And the last mini-block had sit-ups with rotations and reverse crunches. I spent a lot of time on that last block since I usually don’t do sit-ups and do crunches instead, but I wanted to challenge myself and I took my time and did them.

Saturday was another strength day and another 2 group class. And this strength-based workout was based around doing drop sets on the floor, which I always like as a challenge.

We had 3 blocks for both sides of the room. And for cardio, every block had the same pattern. We had a push pace, a 1-minute base pace, hill work, a 30-second push pace, a 1-minute base pace, and a 30-second all out. Each block, the first push pace and the hill work got shorter. We started with a 2-minute push pace and a 90-second hill, decreasing the incline/resistance level every 30-seconds, and each block the push and hill were 30-seconds shorter. The hill work was pretty high for me with the resistance levels, but I could tell that I am getting stronger on the bike because they weren’t as challenging as they were before.

On the floor, every block had a drop set exercise plus one other exercise. And for the first 2 blocks, we also had a row. The first block had a 300-meter row and the second block had a 200-meter row. The drop set exercises were shoulder presses, tricep extensions, and single-arm low rows. And the other exercises were rollouts on the straps, mountain climbers, and plank shoulder taps. I know I didn’t do the heaviest I’ve done with drop sets before, but I also didn’t go as low for the lighter rep sets as I did before. So I think having a smaller difference between the sets of weights I used was a sign of improvement.

This past week honestly was a week I needed. I still don’t love how early I get up in the mornings, but I also feel so much better about things after I’m done with my workout. I need this mood boost in the mornings and I’m glad some of the negative things in my life were used for good with being able to push me more.

A Better Workout Week Than Expected (or I Like When Things Aren’t As Bad As I Thought)

I was really worried that this past week of workouts was going to be really bad for me. It wasn’t a great week, but I’m surprised that it went much better than expected. I’m always prepared for the worst when I know I will be dealing with pain and nausea but it’s nice when it’s not close to what I was prepared for.

And I’m especially glad it wasn’t as bad as expected on Monday because my dad was with me for that workout! Pretty much whenever my parents are in LA, my dad tries to make it to a workout with me and I love that! And for this workout, it was a signature workout that I knew would be a challenge. This was the Catch Me If You Can workout, and while I’ve done it before, it’s something that is very tough and I have a lot of room for improvement in what I can do.

This was a 2 group class so our Catch Me If You Can challenge was 22 minutes long. The idea is that every minute or two there is a distance goal you are supposed to get to. If you are at that distance or further, you keep going. If you fall behind, you are caught. And if you are caught, the rest of the 22-minute block you have sprints on the rower and treadmill (or bike). I usually make it around the middle checkpoint and that’s exactly how far I got this time as well. It’s right when the distance from one checkpoint to another gets a lot further. For me, the distance would normally take me about 3-minutes to complete and we had 1-minute to do it. So I knew I would be caught. When I was on the rower doing my sprints, it was still tough with my foot hurting, but at least they were quick rows. And my dad kicked butt and made it really far in the challenge!

On the floor, we had 1 long block. It started with a 500-meter row and I shocked myself by being able to row the entire thing without a break. I regretted that later when my heel was hurting a lot, but in the moment I was really proud of myself. And then we had bicep curls to squats to shoulder presses, hip hinge reverse flies, planks with rotations, Y-raises on the straps, and knee tucks on the straps (which I did as knee tucks on the ab dolly).

And of course, we had to do a post-workout photo with Coach Tyler since that’s the tradition!

Wednesday’s workout was a power day. I was feeling a bit sicker than I had been on Monday, but it was still much less than I had expected. And as usual, when I’m feeling this way, I just try to do my best and do what I can.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks. The first two blocks were the same with a 1-minute push pace, 90-second base pace, and 1-minute all-out. The last block had 3 rounds of a 1-minute all-out followed by a 1-minute recovery. I did get the resistance level on the bike to my normal levels, I just was pedaling slower than I normally would so I think that was still pretty decent.

On the rower, we had 2 blocks. The first block was rounds of 100, 200, and 300-meter rows with medicine ball power jacks between each row. I did squats to shoulder presses instead of power jacks, but they were still tough. And we just repeated those distances with increasing the reps for the medicine ball exercise each round for that block. And the second block was timed with cardio with rounds of a 1-minute all-out row followed by a 1-minute recovery row. It’s hard to always do the recovery row when I would prefer to just take a break. But I tried my best to at least move a bit. And fortunately, by this workout, my foot was doing better so the rowing didn’t bother me as much.

And on the floor, we also had 2 blocks. The first block had bench sit-up to stands, deadlifts, hop overs (which I did as squats), and lateral lunges. And the second block had burpees to bicep curls and step-ups. The second block was really tough for me and I was getting a bit more nauseous. So I didn’t do the burpees and just did squats to bicep curls to count as my exercise that block.

Friday’s workout was an endurance day, and it was one of the toughest endurance days! The cardio work was tough, but the hardest thing was that the entire row block was one long crew row! When you do a crew row, you are supposed to be matching the speed and cadence of everyone else on the rower. And that’s tough for a few reasons.

For cardio, it was 14-minutes straight of push paces and base paces with an all-out at the end. The push paces varied between 30-seconds and 2-minutes, but the base paces were always a minute. And the goal was to never go below your base pace to recover. I wasn’t great at tracking how fast I was pedaling on the bike, but I never went below my base resistance level for the entire block.

For the crew row, because of how the rowers were set up and we were spaced out, we got split into a few different small crews. But we still had to stay in sync with the others in our group. The pace we were going was a bit faster than what I’m comfortable with, so I needed quite a few breaks to reset and get back with my group. Plus, rowing for 14-minutes is hard no matter what! I didn’t get to the distance goal we had, but I was closer than I would have expected.

And for the floor, we had 1 long block that was split into 2 mini-blocks. The first mini-block had rollouts on the straps, chest presses on the straps, and plank reaches. We had 3 rounds of that before moving onto the second mini-block with hip bridges, single-arm chest presses, and reach and rotates on the straps. We had 2 rounds of the second mini-block and then we were supposed to do the entire thing as one long block. I had just finished my second round on the second mini-block and was starting my rollouts again when the workout ended.

And Saturday’s workout was a strength day and I’m glad that I was no longer worried about how I would be feeling. I feel lucky I got through this week without what I normally experience and I really feel like I took advantage of that in each workout.

For cardio, we had 4 blocks that were all the same length. Every block had a push pace, a 1-minute base pace, a base pace at an incline, and a 1-minute all-out. We started with a longer push pace and a shorter base pace at an incline but the incline was the highest one. Each block, the push pace got shorter, the incline base pace got longer, and the incline got lower. It was a good challenge for me to work with the resistance levels a bit more and for the longer incline intervals, I really felt it.

For the floor, we had 2 blocks. For each block, we were supposed to do 2 rounds of the exercises, and then we had a 200-meter row. The first block had bird dog low rows, step-ups (which I did as lunges), and leg raises. And the second block had lateral lunges, shoulder presses, and tricep push-ups. And when I did my 200-meter row in each block, I got it back under a minute which was much better than any other rowing I did during this week.

I’m so happy this past week went as well as it did. I wasn’t expecting it to be this way, but I know I needed it. The past month has been tough for me with my workouts and I needed to feel more hopeful about how I was doing. And I got that this past week and I hope to continue to feel that way this week!

Swapping One Type Of Pain For Another (or I Feel Like This Happens More Often Than I’d Like)

The past few weeks of workouts have been interesting with letting my heel heal. I have new types of pain to deal with and I’ve also learned that with the way the skin is healing, sometimes I don’t feel the pain until a few hours after the workout. So I’ve been testing my boundaries and also trying to not push myself too much. And finally, this past week of workouts, my heel was really doing better. I still had pain to deal with, but it was less than before. But as my heel pain was decreasing, I had to deal with monthly pain and nausea. So in a way, it felt like my pain level stayed the same all week.

Monday’s workout was a strength workout and it was a 2 group class. It wasn’t necessarily themed for Valentine’s Day, but a lot of us in class joked that the class was extra tough to make up for all the chocolate people would be eating later.

For cardio, we had a run/row workout. The first block was a 2 1/2-minute distance challenge on the treadmill/bike and then we had a 2 1/2-minute distance challenge on the rower. After that, we were on our own. First, we matched the distance on the treadmill/bike and then again matched the distance on the rower. Then we had lunges and took the distances from both sides and did half that distance but increased the incline/resistance level. We continued that pattern and did the distance in half with increased incline/resistance for the rest of that half of class.

On the floor, we had two blocks. For the shorter block, we had single-arm neutral thrusters, single-leg sit to stand (which I did as bench tap squats), and single-leg v-ups. In the second block, we had reverse flies, single-arm high rows, chest presses, bicep curls on the straps, and low rows on the straps. It was a lot of work, but fortunately my heel was hurting less than before.

Wednesday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and for both cardio and the rower it felt like we didn’t get a break.

For cardio, we had rounds of a push pace followed by a base pace. We had 1 round of a 90-second push pace followed by a 2-minute base pace, 2 rounds of a 1-minute push pace followed by a 1-minute base pace, and 3 rounds of a 30-second push pace followed by a 1-minute base pace. And after all that, we ended with a 1-minute all-out.

The rower was timed with the cardio side. For all the push paces, we had a push row. And when the cardio side had a base pace, we had high knees and forward and back hops. The exercises between each row were a bit tough for me between my heel and some nausea that I was starting, so I just went slow and took it easy for those. But my rowing was better so that made me happy.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. Both blocks started with high rows on the straps that we only did the first time before doing the rest of the exercises. In the first block, we had Bosu single-arm chest presses, Bosu pullovers, and running men (which I did on the floor and not with the Bosu). In the second block, we had goblet static lunges (which I did as goblet squats), kneeling lateral raises, and plank jacks.

Friday’s workout was another strength day. And while my heel was feeling much better (I think I might not have to bandage it that much longer), that’s when my pain and nausea really kicked in.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first block had a 3-minute push pace at an incline, a base pace, and an all-out. And the second block had 2 rounds of a 2-minute push pace at an incline with a base pace in-between with an all-out at the end. Even though it was a strength day, because of the longer push paces, it felt a bit like an endurance day too.

On the rower, we had 1 long block. We had a 100-meter, 200-meter, and 400-meter row. The first time we did each row, we had squats to overhead presses with the medicine ball between each row. The next time we did those distances, we had a ground to press with the medicine ball. I did have to take some breaks on the rower, but it was more about nausea than my heel so I consider that an improvement.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had suitcase squats, single-arm high rows, and plank shoulder taps. And the second block had sumo squats to upright rows, lunges, uppercuts, and single-arm bicep curls.

Saturday’s workout was a power day, and I was feeling truly miserable. I have never left class in the middle of class, but there were so many times I debated if I should just leave. I was in so much pain and had such severe nausea. The only good thing was that this was the least pain my heel was in all week. But it really didn’t make that much of a difference because I was hurting so much and I really struggled.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks. And in every block, the main focus was doing 45-second push paces. In the first block, we had 1-minute base paces. In the second block we had 75-second base paces. And in the last block we had 90-second base paces. And each of those blocks ended with a 30-second all-out. I really tried to limit my breaks to the base paces, but I can’t help it sometimes when the pain or nausea hits me really hard. But I tried and I know that for this workout, that’s all I could do.

The floor also had 3 blocks. Each block started with a 45-second all-out row that we only had to do once and then we moved to the floor for the rest of the exercises. The first block had push-ups and rollouts on the straps, the second block had pull-ups on the straps and single-arm low rows, and the last block had deadlifts and step-downs. I had to do a lot of modifications for the exercises. For the pull-ups, I did high rows on the straps. The low rows were supposed to be while planking on the bench and I had to do it just bent over. And the step-downs were swapped for lunges. And just like with cardio, I took a lot of breaks during the floor. I hate doing that, but I also knew that if I didn’t things would get worse. And considering how many times during the workout I debated about leaving, I’m just glad I made it through the entire thing.

This week might be another tough week for me. I really don’t know how long the pain and nausea will be bad each month. Usually, when it’s really bad to start it gets a bit easier as the week goes on, so I’m hoping that will be the case this time. But I won’t know until I get through the week and see how I feel. But fingers crossed that I will have a week of even less heel pain and minimal pain and nausea.

Back To A Regular Workout Week (or Still Being Careful, But Trying To Get Back To Normal)

After getting back to my workouts the week before, I was so happy to have a normal workout week this past week. I still am recovering and my foot is still healing, but the healing process is coming along. It’s just tough for me sometimes to be patient when it seems like I’m doing better and then realize after the fact that I might have pushed too much. So finding that balance was my big focus this past week.

Monday’s workout was a power day, but because it was a 2 group class it also felt like a bit of an endurance day for me. My foot was doing better, but there were still lots of moments I was dealing with pain. But the pain has been changing each day. This past week, it was mainly a dull pain (something I’m pretty used to with my hip) with occasional weird pulling sensations in my heel. I think that pulling feeling is just the skin being a bit tight still, so when I feel that I try to stop so I don’t pull at a scab or something like that.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks. The first and second blocks were rounds of push pace to a base pace with an all-out at the end. And the last block was all rounds of 30-second all-outs with recoveries after. The recovery started at 30-seconds and increased every round so in the last round we had 2-minutes of recovery before the last 30-second all-out. My heel was doing ok for most of the cardio work, but there were times I needed to just stretch my foot out a bit so I could feel more comfortable.

On the floor, we also had 3 blocks. The first 2 blocks were both on the floor and had 2 exercises each. The first block had squats to an upright row and tricep extensions on the straps. And the second block had single-arm clean to press and bicep curls on the straps. I didn’t have to make a ton of modifications to the exercises, I just had to try to not put as much weight as normal on my heel. And the last block was timed with cardio. When cardio had an all-out, we had an all-out on the rower. And when cardio had their recovery, we had jump squats and then any leftover time could be recovery. I did regular squats instead of jump squats and my rowing was pretty slow, but I think I did ok with this block.

Wednesday’s workout was an endurance day, and again my heel was doing a bit better but still feeling some pain and odd sensations. But I tried to push myself a bit more in this class.

For cardio, we had one long block. It started with a 3-minute push pace and then a 1-minute base pace. Each push pace went down by 30-seconds and the base pace stayed the same. And we ended with a 1-minute all-out. I tried to limit my breaks to just when we were in base pace, but for the longer push paces I ended up having to take a little break in the middle. But that was still better than what I had been able to do the past few classes.

On the rower, it was also one long block. We started with a 400-meter row and then we had bicep curls with a medicine ball. We repeated that with decreasing the row by 100-meters each time and keeping the same exercise in-between. After doing 100-meters and the bicep curls, we went back to 400-meters and were supposed to do good mornings with the medicine ball between each row. But because of how slow my rowing is and because I needed to take breaks during the longer rows, I only made it through the 4 rounds of rowing with the bicep curls and was starting the next 400-meter row when the block ended.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The longer block was all with the Bosu. We had pullovers, hip bridges, reverse extensions, and mountain climbers. I went lighter than normal for the weights for the pullovers and hip bridges and I had to rest during each set because I could feel that pulling sensation in my heel. And I tried to do the mountain climbers, but it was causing some real pain in my heel so I just had to skip those. And in the second block, we were supposed to do lateral lunges, regular lunges, and hammer curls. I tried the lunges, but again it was causing a lot of pain. I think I probably overdid it for the workout and that’s why things were hurting so much at the end. So instead of the lunges, I did squats. And when the workout was done, I was limping a bit but I knew I could rest the rest of the day.

Friday’s workout was a power day and it was also a 2 group workout. And because it was a 2 group workout, we had a run/row type workout. Those are pretty rare for me since most of my workouts are 3 group classes, so this was different. But rowing was still tough for me with trying to have some power in my rows while being careful with my heel.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks. The first and last blocks were on the rower and the middle block was on the treadmill (or bike for me). In blocks 1 and 3, we had the same workout. We had 5 rounds of a 30-second push row with 15 seconds of recovery rowing after. 30 seconds of rowing isn’t a long time, so that was helpful for me to not go too hard with pushing down on my heel, but I still had to take breaks in some of the last rounds because I was starting to hurt. And when we were on the treadmills and bike, we had 3 rounds of a 3-minute distance challenge with 2 minutes to walk and recovery in-between. Those were a bit harder than the rowing for me because I could feel weird pain again in my heel. But I think this is just the tight skin feeling when things are healing and it might feel strange because of how my foot flexes during the workout.

And on the floor, we also had 3 blocks. Blocks 1 and 3 were timed exercises and block 2 was on our own timing. For blocks 1 and 3, we were timed with the rowers and we had an exercise for 30 seconds and then rest for 15 seconds. In the first block, the exercises were squats to shoulder presses and skater lunges. I did curtsy lunges instead of skater lunges because I couldn’t do the jumping with the skater ones. And in the third block, the exercises were neutral full thrusters and high knees. I did slow high knees without the jumping, but I was happy to see I could still do them. And in the second block, we had pull-ups on the straps (I did high rows), rollouts on the straps, push-ups, bench tap squats, sit-ups, and bear planks.

And on Saturday, the workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and it was another 2 group class. I was also trying a new way to bandage my heel since I need it less as a bandage and more as padding as my heel continues to heal and I’m having some odd soreness. Hopefully, it’s fully healed soon so I can stop worrying about this.

For cardio, we had 1 long block. We had a push pace to an all-out and then had a walking recovery. The all-outs were always 1-minute and the recovery was always 2-minutes. And the push pace started at 3-minutes and went down by 30-seconds each time. But the first push pace was at no incline and each one after went up by 1% as they went down in time. Because I didn’t want too much resistance on the bike as it’s still tough to put that much weight on my heel, I didn’t always increase the resistance by 1% each time. I did end up going up to 1% higher than my normal all-out, but nothing above that.

For the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block started with a 2-minute row and I surprised myself by being able to row for the first minute without needing to take a break. I think it was because I was definitely not going that hard on the rower, so I wasn’t feeling the same soreness in my heel. After the row, we had lateral hops (which I did as lateral lunges), sumo deadlifts, sumo squats, and toe reaches. In the second block, we had pop squats (which I did as regular squats), weighted squats, skier swings, and crunches with over unders. And at the end of that block, we had another 2-minute row. This row was a bit harder for me, my heel was starting to really hurt after all the lower body work. But I still tried to go as long as I could before taking a break.

Considering I’m still healing, I think I did a pretty great job this past week. I know I might still have to take it easy for another week or two, but I’m almost done recovering and then I can focus more on finding ways to improve in my workouts. But for now, I’m just glad to be back again because taking that one week off really didn’t make me happy. t

Getting Back To My Workouts (or Having To Go Really Easy)

I really wanted to be back to my workouts as soon as I could, but I knew over the weekend that there was no way I would be able to make it to a workout on Monday. And because of some scheduling things, my original plan for this past week of workouts was to not go on Saturday but to add in Thursday. And I knew doing more than one day in a row would probably be risking it. So I had to continue to be patient and allow my foot to heal and be ok with only having 2 workouts this past week.

My first workout back was on Wednesday. On Tuesday night, I was worried about if I could do it, but I was able to see what the workout would be from some online forums so I could plan out what I could do and what I would need to modify. And I figured doing even a fraction of my normal workout was better than nothing. It was a strength day, but I really didn’t do a lot of strength work for cardio.

On the bike, we were supposed to have push paces and base paces at incline. I just used the same resistance level for those and then had my regular base pace level. I was pedaling very slowly and I had to take a lot of breaks to relax my foot a bit. Even though I wasn’t putting pressure on my heel, the way pedaling stretches my foot was making things a bit painful for me. But I managed to do it and that’s all I cared about.

For the rower, I continued to modify things. We had 2 blocks and both blocks started with a 400-meter row. I did it, but it was very slow and with a lot of breaks. I knew rowing would be tough because you are supposed to push off with your heels. After the row, we were supposed to do ground to presses with a medicine ball. Because I was trying to keep as much weight off my heel as possible, I did just overhead presses because I could balance on my toes for that. And then we had stroke drills on the rower with medicine ball work in-between for the rest of the block. My stroke drills were not normal for me since I didn’t have my power behind them, but I tried.

And on the floor, we also had 2 blocks. In the first block, we had mini-band work. We were supposed to do suitcase squats, overhead tricep presses, front and back walks, and hip hinge reverse flies. I knew I couldn’t do the front and back walks, so I just skipped that. And for the suitcase squats, I just went really light with the weight and took my time. In the second block, we were supposed to do lateral lunges, pullovers, and leg raises. I knew lateral lunges wouldn’t be an option for me, so I just skipped those. I wish I could have thought of options for the exercises I skipped, but everything that worked the right muscles would have been too hard on my foot. But I just kept reminding myself that I was back after a week off and I was still healing. So it was ok if it wasn’t close to my best workout.

Friday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and I had to continue to go easy on things. My foot was looking much better than it had on Wednesday, but I was dealing with some new soreness as it continued to heal. I know this soreness might last a little while longer because this last part of healing can take the longest, but I’m hoping it is less and less each day.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks. Blocks 1 and 3 were both 4-minute distance challenges. I had the bike at my push pace level and just tried to keep going as long as I could without taking a break. I did better than Wednesday, but I still had to take plenty of breaks to stretch my foot and let the pain subside. Block 2 was rounds of 30-second all-outs and 45-seconds of recovery. I think I did better with this block. I did the all-outs at my normal resistance level, I just was pedaling much slower. And during the recoveries I tried to keep pedaling but I also allowed myself to rest then if I needed it.

On the rower, we also had 3 blocks. Each block had rows that were 250-meters each time. And between each row, we had a medicine ball exercise. In block 1, it was supposed to be a power jack with an overhead press but I just did overhead presses. In block 2 it was supposed to be a squat with a front press, and I just did front presses. And in block 3 it was supposed to be a power jack with a front press, and I did half overhead presses and half front presses. I might have been able to do the squats, but I was just being really cautious and didn’t want to push myself too much yet.

And on the floor, we had one long block split into 2 mini-blocks. The first mini-block had chest presses, push-ups, and hip bridge marches. And in the second mini-block we had lateral step-ups, step-ups with powers, and plank to pikes. For the hip bridge marches, I did regular hip bridges without a weight. It was tough, but I was able to put a little more weight on my toes. For the step ups, I did lunges and squats instead. And again, I tried to keep more weight to the front of my foot and because of that, I had to decrease how much I did each movement. I know that my form isn’t ideal because of these modifications, but I’m trying to do the best I can considering the circumstances.

I’m glad I was able to get back to my workouts this past week. I really did miss them a lot the week before and I do crave this routine in my life. And while I think I will still be making a lot of modifications this week because I will still be healing, I’m hoping I will see more progress and I will be able to put more weight on my heel each day.

Not The Workout Week I Expected (or I’m Craving My Workouts)

From the time I started at Orangetheory, I was always doing at least 3 workouts a week. But more often than not, I have done 4 workouts a week. This has been my regular schedule and I rarely have things happen in my life that prevent me from achieving this. Even when I was working out at home, I was still getting in my workouts on my own. I have been sick in the past and needed a day off, but that’s pretty much the extent to my absences from my workouts.

Until this past week.

Because of the procedure done on my foot, the only workout I was able to make it to was on Monday. I was planning on going to all my workouts last week and I even asked the podiatrist how many days would I need to rest. I knew while he was cutting into my foot that I would have to take the next day off, but I really thought I’d be able to make it back at some point in the week. But when he told me it would be probably a week or two before I could fully put weight on my foot, I felt defeated.

I said when writing my goals for the year how my workout goal was going to be the easy one for me. But taking a week or two off would possibly prevent me from getting there. But I know if I don’t allow myself to heal, I could cause some issues that would last longer than taking the recovery time. So I had to accept that I would only make it to one workout last week and be ok with that.

But every morning I woke up last week and knew it was supposed to be a workout day, I was sad I was missing out. I wasn’t expecting to need this time off (like I was planning for my liver surgery that was canceled). I hadn’t mentally prepared for it. I wasn’t depressed, but I was in a funk when I was thinking about how I should be at my workouts at that time.

For this week, I’m honestly not sure what will be happening. I took today (Monday) off because I know I can’t really put my weight on my heel. But I have made progress. I am using the cane I got for my hip and not my crutches. And over the weekend, I slowly have been trying to put a little more weight on my heel instead of walking on my toes. And as I change the bandage, I can see that it’s starting to heal and close up. I wasn’t told an exact point where I could start putting weight on my heel or working out again. I was told I would know when my body is ready. And I know today I’m not ready yet. I’m still not in a normal shoe and I still am very hesitant to put my heel down. But I’m hoping that I will make it back at some point this week. I just don’t know if I’ll make it for 1 workout or maybe 2 workouts. I really doubt I will make it for 3 workouts.

I just have to wait and see what happens. I know I’m still upset about missing workouts and I feel like my body needs them. But I also know my foot isn’t ready to do what I need to do in a workout. So I’m going to keep working on recovering, testing how much I can do, and as soon as I can go back I will be back!

Another Painful Workout Week (or Swapping One Pain For Another)

2 weeks ago, I had a tough workout week for a majority of my week because my heel was in a lot of pain after another freezing treatment. By the time this past week of workouts started, I was in less pain than the week before, but I was still hurting. But at least the pain wasn’t affecting my workouts as much. But then for the second half of my workout week, I had pain due to cramps. So I ended up trading one pain for another and it made a really tough week for me.

Monday’s workout was a 2 group class and it was a signature workout called The Chipper. The idea is that you chip away at the workout as the block goes on. For both cardio and the floor we had 1 long block.

For cardio, we started with a 3-minute push pace followed by a 1-minute base pace. Then we kept the pattern up and the push pace decreased by 30 seconds each time. At the end of the block, we had a 30-second push pace with a 30-second all-out after. I did have to take some breaks to take some pressure off of my heel, but it wasn’t as bad as the week before and the pain I was feeling was much less. I hate that I’m so used to pain that reduced pain is a nice change, but that’s how things go for me.

On the floor, we had 1 exercise and then a row and then another exercise and a row, and the pattern continued. The rowing started at 400-meters and went down by 50-meters each time. For the exercises, the first exercise was 40 reps, the second exercise was 35 reps, and so on. So the reps we did were 10% of the row we had to do. For the exercises we had bench hop overs, toe reaches, bicycle crunches, plank jacks, lunges with bicep curls, Y raises on the straps, and burpees. I got through the Y raises and was going to the rower for the 150-meter row when the block ended.

By Wednesday, my heel was almost normal (I still have some pain and it can be a quick sharp pain if I step in a specific way) but that’s when my cramps started. So it was a different type of pain challenge for me to work through. It was a power day and a 3 group class, so at least things seemed to move quickly for me.

We had 4 blocks for cardio. Each block had a push pace, base pace, and an all-out. The push pace and all-out were always the same length with a shorter push pace. We started with 75-seconds for the push and all-out and 90-seconds for the base and those decreased each block. Fortunately, the shorter intervals made things a little easier for me to deal with.

On the rower, we also had 4 blocks. Each block involved a 150-meter row and squats. The first block was 4 rounds of the row and we had 4 sets of squats between each row (5, 10, 15, and 20 reps). Each block, we had 1 fewer round of rowing and we didn’t have the highest rep count for the squats. And if we finished all the rounds, we had rowing until the block was done. Even though my heel was doing better, my rowing was still not as powerful as it normally is, so I never made it through every round. But I usually got to the last round and then the block ended before I could finish.

And on the floor, we had 1 long block with 2 mini-blocks in it. For each mini-block, we were supposed to do 3 rounds before moving on to the next one. The first mini-block had goblet squats, jump squats (which I did as regular squats), and plank reaches. And the second mini-block had lunges, lateral hops (which I did as skater lunges), and leg raises. I’m glad my heel wasn’t hurting as much for all the squats so I didn’t have to worry too much about those.

Friday was an endurance day, and it was a pretty tough pain day for me. I was glad it was mainly cramps and not nausea because pain tends to be shorter duration for me. But it’s still something I have to push through.

For cardio, we had 1 block and it focused on 2-minute push paces. We had pretty much only 2-minute push paces with base paces in-between. The first base pace was also 2-minutes and it decreased by 30-seconds each time. And at the end, after a 30-second base pace, we had a 1-minute all-out.

The rower was timed with cardio. We had rounds of 2-minute push rows and then when the cardio was doing their base pace we had squat to front presses and overhead tricep extensions with a medicine ball. We were given a warning before we were about to row again, but I was always still working on my medicine ball exercises when we were supposed to sit back on the rower so I didn’t get much of a break for that entire block.

And on the floor, it was also a single block. We started with half kneeling to stands (which I did as lunges), bird dog low rows, alternating tricep extensions, and mountain climbers. I was starting to feel a little nauseous during the mountain climbers, but as soon as I was upright again I felt fine so it might have been random nausea and not hormonal.

And on Saturday, I think we had one of the toughest workouts I’ve done in a while. And I would have felt that way even if I was feeling totally normal. Every block was 4-minutes and we had 3 blocks on each side of the room. And also, every block within a section of the room was the same, so we repeated the same thing 3 times. I think that’s what made it extra tough.

For cardio, we had a 3-minute progressive push pace (so increasing the resistance on the bike by 1 every minute) and ending with a 1-minute all-out. On the rower, it was the same idea with a 3-minute progressive push row and a 1-minute all-out row. But for me on the rower, I just tried to row for as long as I could without a break and didn’t worry too much about increasing my speed each minute. And on the floor, we had 4 exercises we did for 1-minute each. We had alternating shoulder presses, lunges, plank low rows, and skater lunges (which I did as lateral lunges). I was exhausted at the end of this class!

So for 2 weeks I’ve mainly had to focus on one type of pain. And this week, I might have multiple types of pain. I’m expecting my pain and nausea to be pretty bad this week (although I always hope I will be lucky and it won’t be bad). But I’m also seeing a specialist for my foot on Tuesday and I have no clue if I’ll have another type of treatment done that could make my heel hurt really bad again. I’m hoping it’s mainly just an exam to make sure things are ok and not a treatment appointment, but I guess I’ll find out on Tuesday and then see how my workout week goes this week!

Another Week Of Weekday Workouts (or A Week Of Painful Workouts)

This past week of workouts was another week where I didn’t do my workout on Saturday but added a Thursday class instead. I did this because of something that was supposed to be a scheduling conflict for Saturday that ended up being canceled. But by the time my Saturday opened up again, I had already completed all my workouts for the week. So even though I didn’t have to get all my workouts in before work, I’m still glad I did them all. But I had an added challenge for most of my workouts this week with some extra pain.

Monday’s workout was a strength day. It was also a bit of prep work for a benchmark row that I knew I wouldn’t be doing, but it was still a lot of incline work for cardio.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks that were similar. We started with a base pace hill climb (or decreasing incline for the second block) before having a base pace without incline. Then we had 3 rounds of all-outs at inclines with walking recoveries between each all-out. The inclines weren’t the highest we do, but because we had a lot of time at incline and not much time without, I think they felt higher than they actually were.

For the rower, we also had 2 blocks that were similar. The first block had rounds of a 200-meter row. Between each row, we had overhead presses with the medicine ball. For the second block, instead of a distance to do on the rower, we had stroke drills with 15 strokes each round. And the medicine ball exercise was bicep curls to overhead presses to tricep extensions. Doing a distance goal and doing a stroke drill on the rower are very different types of rowing, and we were supposed to make sure they each were focused on that particular type of rowing. Even though the rower is still a challenge for me, I think focusing on the different types of rowing is something I’m good at.

On the floor, we also had 2 blocks but we had not as much weight work as we normally do for a strength day. For the first block, we had deadlifts, pop jacks, and bird dogs. For the deadlifts, we had 2 sets of them each round. We had heavy deadlifts for 4 reps and regular deadlifts for 12 reps. I did increase the weight I used for the 4 rep set since I knew we were supposed to challenge ourselves. And the second block had pike sit-ups (which I did as regular sit-ups) and mountain climbers.

For the rest of the week, my workouts had the extra challenge with my foot hurting after my dermatologist appointment. I’ve done this several times since my appointments are always on Tuesdays, but I know the pain was worse this time compared to before. I really struggled every day for the rest of my workouts in each section of the room, but my rowing was the hardest.

Wednesday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power. And for cardio and rowing we had one long block for each.

For cardio, we had 30-seconds of an all-out at an incline, 30-seconds of walking recovery, an all-out at that incline as long as we can go, another 30-seconds of recovery, and another all-out at the incline as long as we can go. Then after that, we had 1-minute of recovery before doing the entire thing again but with the incline one level lower. I’m glad this was the cardio workout because I needed a lot of breaks on the bike. Even though it was only my heel that was hurting, the way my foot moves while on the bike was putting pressure on my heel a bit and making it very painful. I didn’t get that far into this workout because of the breaks I took, but I was ok with that.

For the rower, we started with 3 rounds of a 10 stroke drill with 5 strokes of recovery rowing in-between. After 3 rounds, we had overhead presses with a medicine ball. Then we repeated the same 3 rounds of rowing with a front press with a medicine ball. Because of my foot, I’m glad we had stroke drills and not a distance to get done because it would have taken me so long to get any sort of distance on the rower. The medicine ball exercises were supposed to be single-leg ones, and I didn’t do that since I knew I couldn’t stand on just my left leg.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. Each block had 1 cluster set and then 1 regular exercise. A cluster set is similar to what we did with cardio. We had 3 rounds of the exercise. For the first round we had 5 reps and then for the next 2 rounds we did as many reps as we could do. The first floor block had a cluster set of seated low rows and also scaptions. And the second floor block had a cluster set of chest presses and also hip hinge reverse flys. Fortunately, these exercises weren’t too horrible with my foot being in pain.

Thursday was an endurance day, and while I was still in a lot of pain it was a little better than how I felt on Wednesday. I think Thursday felt more like how Wednesdays feel when I’ve had the freezing treatment done in the past. So while I could put my heel down a bit more, it was still difficult for me to do that and I had to make accommodations to not be in too much pain.

For cardio, we started with a 3-minute push pace and then a 1-minute base pace. We then decreased the push pace by 30-seconds each time and ended with a 1-minute all-out. Just like with Wednesday, I had to take a lot of breaks on the bike because of my heel. It wasn’t as frequent as Wednesday, but still a lot. And while I did want to keep them to when we had a base pace, that wasn’t possible with the longer push paces. But I tried my best and I was ok with that.

On the rower, we also had 1 long block. We started with an 800-meter row and then we had squats to bicep curls and tricep extensions with a medicine ball. Then the row decreased by 200-meters and we repeated the same medicine ball exercises. I was just starting on the 400-meter row when the block was done, which really showed me how slow I was on the rower.

And on the floor, another long block but it was split into 2 mini-blocks. The first mini-block had single-arm high rows, Y raises on the straps, and bicep curls on the straps. We had 2 rounds of that and then moved to the next mini-block with shoulder presses, chest flys, and good mornings to tricep kickbacks. A lot of these exercises needed me to stay balanced on both feet, which was tough. I tried to see if I could put more pressure on my toes than my heel, but I was losing my balance. So I just had to go slowly and take my time.

Friday was another strength day. I was still hurting, but I was glad that each day I was slowly feeling better. I knew this past week of workouts would be tough with the pain I’d be in, but I really wasn’t prepared for how bad it would be.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. Each block had a push pace, base pace, base pace at incline, regular base pace, and an all-out. With only one incline section for each block, I put my focus more on just trying to keep pedaling as long as I could. I was able to decrease how many breaks I needed in the cardio blocks, but I knew I wouldn’t be back to normal just yet.

On the rower, we had 2 blocks. The first block had rounds of 300-meter rows with medicine ball overhead presses between each round. And the second block had stroke drills for 15 strokes with the overhead presses between each round. For the medicine ball work, it increased by 2 reps each round. Just like most days this past week, I struggled with rowing since I couldn’t press down with my heel. That’s especially tough for stroke drills when you are supposed to explode back on the rower each time. But I did better than I expected even if I wasn’t doing great.

The floor had 2 blocks. In the first block, we had goblet squats, lateral lunges, and crunches on the Bosu. And in the second block we had push-ups, deadlifts, and hip dips. The hip dips were supposed to be on the Bosu, but I knew I couldn’t do that. But for the other exercises, I was able to keep the modifications to a minimum which was an improvement!

I’m hoping that this week I will be in less pain, but I think my heel is going to be hurting through at least the beginning of the week. It’s not fun to hurt this much, but I also know that this is a treatment that could be more painful if I put it off so I just have to be ok with it. But just like always, even in pain I fully expect to get my 4 workouts in this week again!

Back To What Feels Like A Normal Schedule (or Sometimes Having A Normal Week Is Exactly What I Need)

This past week of workouts was what felt like a normal workout schedule to me. I was working my normal hours again, I did the workout times and dates I have been doing for a long time, and things felt like a bit of a reset to normal in a time that isn’t really normal because of the pandemic. It was nice to have this type of reset week at the beginning of the new year and I’m glad that this new year had workouts in the studio (unlike the first week of 2021). And overall, it seemed like a normal workout week to me. The only thing a little unusual was that some of my workouts were 2 group classes instead of the 3 group ones I was thinking they would be.

Monday’s workout was a 2 group class and it was a power day. I was still a bit nauseous that morning, but I was doing significantly better than the week before so I was able to do a bit more in class than I thought I would. Because it was a power day and a lot of the intervals were short, we had 4 blocks on each side of the room.

For cardio, blocks 1 and 3 were the same and blocks 2 and 4 were the same. For blocks 1 and 3, we had a 1-minute push, 90-second base, 45-second push, 45-second base, and a 1-minute all-out. And for blocks 2 and 4, we started with a 30-second push and then and 30-second all-out and 30-second recovery intervals. I was trying to not only increase the resistance on the bike but also pedal a bit faster for the all-outs, especially in blocks 2 and 4 since that’s all the work we really had. I know I didn’t do my best, but I was doing more than the week before and I consider that a win.

On the floor, we had 3 regular floor blocks and 1 rowing block. For each of the floor blocks, we had 3 exercises. The first exercise we only did once and then we just went back and forth between the other two exercises for the rest of the block. For the first block we had 1 round of dead bugs and then did skier swings and pop jacks (I did the pop jacks as regular squats). For the second block we had 1 round of side plank crunches and then had single-arm neutral thrusters with rotations and lateral hops. And for the third block we had 1 round of hip bridges and then had single-arm snatches and frogger squats. And for the last block on the rower, we did the same 30-second intervals that cardio had. I was struggling a lot on the rower, as I often do when I’m nauseous, but fortunately we had a lot of recovery time so I never felt too bad.

Wednesday was another day that ended up being a 2 group class. It was an endurance day and I’m so glad I was finally feeling better since this class would have been extremely tough to do when I’m nauseous and in pain.

For cardio, we had 1 long block. We had a 3-minute push pace, 1-minute base pace, 90-second push pace, and 90-second base pace. And we repeated this for a total of 3 rounds before ending with a 2-minute distance challenge at the end. We were encouraged to try to do a bit of an all-out at the end of the distance challenge, but I didn’t have it in me to increase the resistance on the bike at the end. But I did try to pedal a bit faster. But it was a lot of work with no recovery time, so I was exhausted. I did have to take little breaks so I could sip water, but I tried to keep those to when we had base paces.

On the floor, we had 7 little blocks. 4 of those blocks were on the floor and 3 were on the rower. We had 2 exercises for each of the floor blocks. We had shoulder presses and hip hinge low rows, bicep curls and rollouts on the straps, hip hinge tricep kickbacks and upright rows, and plank and squat holds. And every time we were on the rower, we had a 90-second all-out row. I really enjoyed this workout on the floor because it felt a bit more like a power day than an endurance day because we were switching things up so often. So while I was exhausted and I know I worked hard, I wasn’t feeling as sore as I sometimes do in an endurance workout.

Friday was a power day and it was also a 3 group class so I knew I’d have more rowing. I still have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the rower. I know how good it is for me and I know how I can do some really great work. But I also have struggled the most with getting my rowing back after being away from the studios. I know I need to be patient and I have made good improvements this past year, but it’s tough when I still feel like I’m not back to where I was before.

For cardio, we had 1 long block. We started with a 1-minute push pace, 1-minute all-out, and 30-seconds to recover. The push and all-out stayed at 1-minute but for the rest of the rounds we added in a base pace (starting at 30-seconds and increasing by 30-seconds each round) and the recovery increased by 30-seconds each round. The first round might have been the hardest, even though it was the shortest, because we only had the 30-second recovery.

On the rower, we also had 1 long block. We started with a 300-meter row and then we had squats with rotations using the medicine ball. Then we did another 300-meter row and had squats with front raises using the medicine ball. After those 2 rounds, the row decreased by 50 meters and we did 2 more rounds with one medicine ball exercise in-between each row. Getting on and off the rower is always a bit hard for my hips, so I was moving slower than I would have liked. So I didn’t get that far down the row before the rowing block was done.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had single-leg deadlifts (which I did as regular deadlifts), hip hinge swings, lateral lunges, and skater lunges. And the second block had hip bridges, toe reaches, and pop jacks. The floor work after the row block was really hard because my hips were hurting a lot. So I had to do more modifications than I would have liked. Besides switching the deadlifts, I had to do the skater lunges with steps instead of jumps. I also did the upper body/core part of toe reaches but I kept my feet on the ground instead of in the air. And I didn’t do the pop jacks at all and just went back and forth between the two other exercises in the last block.

Saturday’s workout was a 2 group class, but I expected this one to be a 2 group one (I’m not sure if my weekday classes will stay 2 groups or will go back to 3). And this workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power. We had 3 blocks on each side of the room to represent each type of workout focus.

The first block for cardio was the power block. We started with a 1-minute push pace into a 30-second all-out with a 45-second recovery. Then we just had intervals of a 30-second all-out and 45-second recovery for the rest of that block. The second block was the strength block. We had rounds of 45-second push paces with base paces in-between. But each time we had a push pace, the incline/resistance level went up by 1 and the base pace got 15-seconds longer. And that block ended with an all-out at an incline. And the last block was the endurance block and we had a 3-minute push pace, 1-minute base pace, and 2 1/2-minute distance challenge. It was a great mix of all the types of workouts, and I was able to focus on different goals or ideas for each of the blocks. I really enjoyed this one!

For the floor, each block again represented each type of workout. The power floor block had single-arm low rows and overhead tricep extensions. After 2 rounds, we had one 200-meter row before going back to the exercises. For the strength block, we had single-arm clean to presses, high rows on the straps, and chest presses on the straps. And again, after 2 rounds of those exercises we had a 200-meter row. But this time, the row was supposed to be between 20-24 strokes per minute which is slower than most people naturally do so we had to focus more about pushing with our legs. And for the power block, we had front raises and hip hinge reverse flies. And after each round of the exercises, we had a 200-meter row.

I really did enjoy this past week of workouts. Even with the struggles and challenges I had, it was a great week for me. And I felt like I was back into the groove of things after having a lot of variety during the holidays. I needed this past week and I’m glad it went as well as it did. I’m still playing around with the idea of only doing weekday workouts, and I likely will have that type of week this week. But I also don’t feel pressure to decide one way or another because I can always switch it up based on how I feel or what my week looks like. And I guess I’ll see how this week goes before I make any other decisions about it.

Wrapping Up My 2021 Workouts (or An End To One Year And A Start To Another)

The week between Christmas and New Year’s is usually weird, as I mentioned in my other post. But the one place things were still normal was with my workouts. I got my usual 4 workouts in for the week, even if they weren’t exactly the usual plan. I had a few classes at different times and the ones in the normal times were not 3 group classes but they were 2 group classes instead. So Monday and Wednesday were my normal times, but 2 group classes. And Friday and Saturday were different from normal times and those also happened to be 2 group classes! So I had a full week without a 3 group class!

Monday’s class was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and it was themed around practice, perfect, and perform. So on the floor, each block had exercises that worked together.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks and we had done this workout before. The first block had all short intervals at a base pace with increasing inclines. The second block was also short intervals at a base pace but we started at the highest incline and went down each time. And for the last block, we got to decide if we wanted to start at the top or the bottom of the hill. For me, I always pick to start at the top so things get a bit easier each time.

The floor was also 3 blocks and each block started with a 150-meter row. Then we went to the floor and each block had exercises that worked together. The first block had single-leg deadlifts, regular deadlifts, hip hinge swings, and bicycle chest presses. The second block had lunges, lunges with dumbbells, jump lunges, and reciprocal low rows. For this block, I just had to do regular lunges for all the lunges but I did take breaks since doing all of them at once would be a bit too much for me. And the last block had hand-release push-ups, chest presses, power push-ups, and toe touches. I was struggling on the floor with being a bit nauseous, but it wasn’t that bad so besides the lunges, I didn’t have to modify much.

Wednesday’s workout was a strength day and I was feeling miserable that day. I hated how bad I was feeling because I really wanted to try. But it ended up being a day where I just did what I could and I know it wasn’t much.

For cardio, the first block was a mix of push paces at no incline and push paces at an incline. And the push paces with inclines got shorter as the inclines got higher. The second block was all about short intervals and we started at the top of the hill with the highest incline and did base paces with incline and then an all-out at an incline. We worked our way down lowering the incline for each base pace or all-out. I did use the resistance levels on the bike and I did use the levels I would use if I had been feeling ok. I just was pedaling really slowly.

On the floor, the first block was floor exercises. We had single-arm high rows, lunges, plank in and outs, chest presses, burpees, and plank abductions. For the plank work, I used the bench for my hands so I didn’t feel as nauseous. And the second block was timed with the treadmills. When the treadmills had their base paces (which was 2 rounds for 30-seconds each at a time), we had single-arm shoulder raises. When the treadmills were in their 30-second all-outs, we had a 30-second row. Even though I did struggle with the row a bit, I think this block ended up being my best block for the entire workout.

And on Friday, since it was New Year’s Eve and I had the day off of work, I went a little later in the morning than I normally do. This workout was a New Year’s Eve theme with everything being a countdown.

For cardio, we had 1-minute push paces followed by 75-seconds to recover for pretty much the entire block. The inclines started at 10% (I did 9 over my base resistance level on the bike) for each push pace and it went down by 1% each round so we ended at 1% (or for me at my base resistance level). And when we were at that base level, we had a 30-second all-out to finish the cardio for the workout. I was feeling a little better compared to Wednesday, but still not totally myself. So I tried my best to only take breaks during the recovery time. I didn’t always do that, but it was a good goal for me to keep in my head.

And the floor was also one long block with a countdown theme, but the block was split into 4 mini-blocks. With each mini-block, we had 2 exercises that we started at 10 reps and went down by 2 reps each time. After doing 5 rounds we had a row. The first row was 700-meters and that went down 200-meters each time. The mini-blocks were push-ups and pop jacks, upright rows and front raises, squats and bridge rows, and leg raises and toe reaches. I got through the exercises for the 3rd mini-block and was about to start my 300-meter row when the class was done. But I was proud of what I did, especially with my 500-meter row. It wasn’t my best time, but I was able to do it without any breaks which felt huge with how I was feeling.

And that workout ended my workouts for 2021. I was able to do 205 workouts this past year and most of them were back at the studio so I know they weren’t easy ones! And of course, I had to start off 2022 with a workout on New Year’s Day to get started on my next workout goal!

And on Saturday, I actually went to an earlier class than I normally do since I had the day off of work. It wasn’t that early since I wanted to be able to sleep in, but it was nice to get my first workout of 2022 done with lots of time left in my day after.

This workout was an endurance day and the cardio was all about doing 90-second push paces. We had 2 blocks, and each block was all 90-second push paces with either a 45-second or 1-minute base pace between each one. And we ended with a 30-second all-out for each block. I was a bit tired that day and still nauseous, so I was glad that things were pretty consistent for cardio and I didn’t have to think too much about switching the gears on the bike.

For the floor, the first block was half rowing and half floor. We had a 600-meter, 400-meter, and 200-meter row with lunges between each row. Once those were done, we had push-ups, squats, and hip dips. And the second block had weighted front squats, burpees (which I tried to do but had to skip because I was getting too nauseous), leg extensions, and plank leg lifts. It was a tough class, but also the perfect way to kick off 2022!

And now, I get to work toward my workout goals for this year and I think I kicked them off with a great end to 2021 and a perfect start to 2022!