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A Full Week Of Christmas Workouts (or Having Some Traditional Workouts)

Posted on December 27, 2021 | Comments Off

With the exception of last year when things were still closed, it’s been a tradition for me to work out Christmas week. I always do a Christmas Eve workout and I would probably do a Christmas Day workout if the studios were open that day (but they are all closed that day). But I still got in my 4 workouts this past week and I have been more used to this type of schedule since I’ve been doing a lot of only weekday workouts lately.

Monday’s workout was an endurance day and it was also a signature workout. This workout was called “Non-Stop” and it was pretty much what it sounds like. The blocks didn’t have breaks built in and we were working pretty much non-stop.

For cardio and rowing, we had the same workout. We had a 3-minute push pace, 90-second base, 2 1/2-minute push, 75-second base, 2-minute push, 1-minute base, 90-second push, 45-second base, and a 1-minute all-out. For cardio on the bike, this was tough but not impossible. I did have to take some breaks during the base paces to drink some water, but those were minimal. But on the rower, this was really hard for me to do. Rowing has been my tough spot for a long time, and rowing for that long isn’t something I’ve done more than once or twice. I took a lot of breaks during the rowing and I didn’t get close to the distance we were supposed to reach. But I tried my best and with doing a 14-minute row, that’s pretty much all I can ask of myself.

On the floor, while it was non-stop work we did have the block broken up into 2 mini-blocks. The first mini-block had lateral lunges, regular lunges, squats, and deadlifts. And the second mini-block had hammer curls, shoulder presses, hip hinge low rows, and push-ups. The idea was to use the same weights for each mini-block without putting them down. But for the first mini-block, I knew I couldn’t do weights for the regular lunges. And after a few rounds I had to stop with the weights for the lateral lunges and squats too. But I did keep the same weights for all of the first mini-block when I used them and I kept the same weights for the second mini-block the entire time.

Wednesday’s workout was a power day. And everything was pretty short intervals for us.

For cardio, the first block was all 30-second all-outs with 1 minute to recover between each one. And the second block was all 30-second all-outs with 45 seconds to recover between each one. And the rowers were timed with cardio. When it was the all-outs for the cardio, we had an exercise on the rower. The first block was neutral half thrusters and the second block was hip hinge low rows. Then when the cardio was recovering, we had a row. The first block had a 100-meter row and the second block had a 50-meter row. Any time that was left after the row was used for recovery, but it usually wasn’t much time.

And on the floor, it was all about using the TRX straps. The first block had pull-ups (which I did as high rows) and tricep extensions and the second block had chest presses and bicep curls.

And this class also marked my 200th workout for 2021! Even though I started out the year working out at home, a majority of my workouts this year were in the studio and I’m so proud that I didn’t struggle too much getting back into things after being away for over a year!

Thursday’s class was a mix of endurance, strength, and power. And it also was a 2 group class, which I rarely have anymore. But it was a nice way to switch things up when I normally have only 3 group classes.

For cardio, the first block was all about 2-minute push paces and 1-minute base paces. We did those back and forth until we ended with a 1-minute all-out. The second block was a mix of 1-minute all-outs and 30-second all-outs. And those all-outs were all done with inclines. Between each all-out we had 1 minute to recover and the inclines went down each round, so that helped to make it be not too impossible. And it was good it wasn’t too hard because this day I was hit really hard with pain and nausea. So having a workout that didn’t seem impossible helped.

For the floor, the first block was broken up into 2 mini-blocks. In the first mini-block we had single-arm low rows and torso rotations. After 2 rounds of that, we had a 200-meter row and then we had the second mini-block with single-arm chest presses and wood choppers. The second block had neutral grip front raises, hip hinge triceps, uppercuts, and running men. This block was more of an endurance block since you weren’t supposed to take breaks until after you finished all the exercises. But I unfortunately couldn’t do that. I just did my best with getting through each exercise and took breaks when I needed to.

And for Friday on Christmas Eve, there is always a tradition to have a workout that is theme Naughty or Nice. Sometimes that means you pick from stockings and that tells you what your workout assignment is or sometimes half the workout is themed Naughty and half is themed Nice. This year, it was the theme for each half of class. Each section of the room had 5 blocks this time.

For cardio, the odd numbered blocks were all 90-second runs for distance at an incline. And each time the incline got higher. For block 2, we had a 45-second push pace, 45-second base pace, and then a 90-second run for distance. And for block 4 we had a 1-minute push pace, 1-minute base pace, and 90-second run for distance.

For rowing, the odd numbered blocks were all 90-second rows for distance. For both even blocks we had intervals of squats and side hops. But in the 2nd block we increased out squats each time we did them and for the 4th block we increased our side hops each time we did them.

And on the floor, the odd numbered blocks were always sumo squats and squat jacks (which I did was regular squats) and the even numbered blocks were always lunges with bicep curls, lunges to uppercuts, and hip hinge reverse low rows. For the lunges, I dd them separately from the exercises since I have to hold onto the wall for balance.

This felt like a pretty traditional Christmas week for me at Orangetheory. And this week will be a pretty traditional NYE week for me! I’ll be finishing out my workouts for 2021 and kicking off my workouts for 2022!

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Back To My Old Workout Schedule (or Always Fitting In My 4 Workouts When I Can)

Posted on December 20, 2021 | Comments Off

I originally thought that I would continue doing only weekday workouts like I have the past few weeks, but that didn’t end up happening for me. It might have been for the best since Thursday’s workout was the 2000-meter row and I wasn’t too sad to miss that. But I did still get in my 4 workouts this past week and it did give me more to think about with my workout schedule moving forward.

Monday’s workout was a strength-based day and it was all incline work for cardio. We did the cardio intervals on our own with a set distance to do each round. And each round we increased the incline/resistance level by 1 for the first half of the cardio section. The second half of the cardio section was half the distance each round and we continued to increase the incline/resistance level each round. But since it wasn’t as much distance, the higher levels weren’t quite as bad. And between each round, we only had 30 seconds to recover, so it didn’t feel like much recovery during the entire thing.

For the rower, we had one long rowing block that was broken up into 3 sections. In each section, we had a 250-meter, 200-meter, 150-meter, and 100-meter row. And between each row, we had an exercise. For the first time going through the rounds, we had high knees. The second time we had lunges. And for the third round, we had shuffles. I did the high knees and lunges, but when I was in the third round I just did rowing for distance because I knew I couldn’t do the shuffles.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had deadlifts, lunges, and chest flies. And the second block had sumo squats, single-leg deadlifts, and pullovers. I tried to use heavy weights for everything when I could. But for single-leg deadlifts, I have to hold on to the wall for support and I also have to use a lighter weight so I don’t fall over. But overall, I was happy with getting some heavier weights into my workouts.

Wednesday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power. It was also a bit of a rough day for me because we had some rain in LA and that meant my hip was really bothering me. It wasn’t as bad as it’s been in the past with the rain, but it was still an annoyance.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks. The first and last blocks were both 2-minute distance challenges. The goal was to beat the distance in the last block. I set my resistance level to be between my base and push levels, which seems to work well for me for distance challenges. And the middle block was almost all base pace work but it alternated between flat road and inclines. We did increasing inclines for the first half of the block and decreasing inclines for the second half. And at the end of that block, we had our only all-out.

On the rower, we also had 2-minute distance challenges for the first and last blocks. And in the middle, we had rowing with lunges between each row. The rows were between 100-300 meters and the lunges were between 12-20 each time. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to do the lunges with my hip hurting so much, but I did them slowly and just didn’t go as far down to the ground as I normally do and I was able to do ok.

And on the floor, we also had 3 blocks. The first block was 2 minutes of burpees. I did these using the bench for my hands and going slowly. It was really tough to not take a ton of breaks, but I tried my best. The middle block had clean to press, hip hinge swings, push-ups, and low rows on the straps. And the last block had 2 minutes of doing static hollow holds and static crunch holds. It didn’t seem like it would be a hard core block, but it was a lot harder than it seemed. I had to stick with mainly doing a static crunch hold since the hollow hold hurt my hip, but I tried to do the hollow hold for very short intervals.

Friday was another strength day. I was still dealing with more hip pain than normal, but it was better than Wednesday.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks. Every block had a base pace at an incline, a 1-minute base pace at a flat road, and a 30-second all-out. The base pace at an incline was different for each block. The first block was 1-minute, the second block was 2-minutes, and the last block was 3-minutes. And the incline/resistance level went down each block too.

On the rower, we also had 3 blocks. Every block had 150-meter rows with a medicine ball exercise between each row. The first block had front presses, the second block had bicep curls, and the last block had power jacks. I did overhead presses instead of power jacks, but for the actual rowing, I felt like I did ok. They weren’t my fastest rows, but they weren’t that slow and I didn’t feel like my form was getting sloppy either.

And on the floor, we also had 3 blocks that had a lot of the same work in each block. Every block had tricep extensions, chest presses, and seated low rows. In the first block, we also had mini-band bear steps. We had the bear steps plus mini-band toe reaches in the second block. And in the last block we had the bear steps, toe reaches, and mini-band scissor crunches. And each block, if we finished all the exercises we were supposed to hold a plank. I only made it to a plank during one of the blocks.

Saturday’s workout was a power day, and I think it might have been the hardest day all week for me! I usually love power days because I love that everything seems to be quick and short, but this one really was tough on me. For each section of the room, we had 4 blocks.

For cardio, the first 3 blocks were the same. We had a 30-second push, 1-minute base, and 90-second distance challenge. The goal was to try to do more each time on the 90-second distance challenge. I wasn’t resetting the bike for each block so I don’t know if I did better each block, but I tried. And the last block was just the 90-second distance challenge.

On the rower, it was very similar to cardio. We had a 30-second push row, then for the 1-minute base we had either lateral hops or pulsing half-squats, and we finished with the 90-second distance challenge. And the last block was just the 90-second distance challenge. This time, I did reset the rower for each block and I was very happy to see that I got further in the row each block! I wasn’t expecting that with how down I’ve been about my rowing, but it was nice to see I was having some improvement in the workout.

And on the floor, for the first 3 blocks, we had 2 exercises that changed each block plus ground to press with weights. In the first block we had squats and bicep curls, in the second block we had skier swing and hip hinge low rows, and in the third block we had pop jacks and upright rows. With the ground to press we had each block, we started with 1 and increased the rep by 1 each time. And that number continued from block to block. So I got through 2 reps in the first block and then in the second block my first round had 3 reps. And the last block we were supposed to alternate between push-up holds and plank holds, but I stuck with a plank hold because the push-up hold was putting extra stress on my hips and it was starting to be a little painful.

I’ve got 2 more weeks of workouts this year, and I’m very happy with how I’ve been doing so far. I’m glad that most of my workouts this year were able to be in the studio because I know it’s much better for me to be there than to be working out at home. And I’ve been starting to think about what workout goals I might want to have next year. It’s tough to plan them out when I’m still not back to where I want to be, but I am excited to try to think of some new goals for me. And one of those goals might be about my workout schedule. For these last 2 weeks, one week will be all weekdays and one week will be with a Saturday. And I really want to see if changing things up would be good for me. Either way, I’m always striving for my 4 workouts each week and I don’t see that changing!

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Finishing The 12 Days Of Fitness (or Debating If I Like This Workout Schedule)

Posted on December 13, 2021 | Comments Off

This past week of workouts was another 4 workout week for me to finish the workouts I needed to do to complete the 12 Days Of Fitness challenge. We had to do 7 out of the 12 days, and I had 3 days the week before so I needed to do 4 more this week. That’s normal for me with my workout schedule. But just like I’ve done recently, I had to pack in my workouts to fit with the holiday schedule so I did 3 workout days in a row.

Monday’s workout was Day 6 of the 12 so we had a few different 6-minute of 6 1/2-minute challenges and it was endurance-focused. For all sections of the room we had 2 blocks. The first block was 6 1/2 minutes and the second block was 6 minutes.

Both cardio blocks had the same format. We had a 3-minute push pace, a base pace, a 1-minute push pace, and a 1-minute all-out. The difference was the length of time for the push pace. I was still feeling a bit nauseous that morning, but I was doing much better so I could do a decent effort for the 3-minute push paces. I did put the resistance level at my normal push pace level to start, but in the second block I had to move it down a bit.

On the rower, the first block had rounds of 1-minute all-out rows with squat jacks and lunges between each row. I did the squats as normal squats and my lunges were not that deep because of feeling some hip pain getting on and off the rower, but I still did the exercises. We didn’t reset the rower for that block and then in the second block we first rowed the same distance we did in that first block and then just had the squats and lunges until the block was done.

And on the floor, the first block had sumo squats to upright rows with weights and lunges to bicep curls. I ended up splitting up each move so I had 4 exercises instead of 2, but I still did all of them. And then the second block was a 6-minute challenge with the Bosu. We had push-ups, pop jacks, and single-leg v-ups all using the Bosu. We started at 8 reps and went down by 2 each round. The goal was to finish the round of 2 reps, but I only started it when the workout was done.

Wednesday was Day 8 and it was a power day. And we had an 8-minute floor challenge.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first block was rounds of a 1-minute push pace to a 30-second base pace with a 1-minute all-out at the end. And the second block was rounds of a 30-second all-out with 1-minute to recover between. It feels like it’s been a while since we had short all-outs with recovery for an entire block, so this was a fun one to do.

On the rower, we had a similar timing pattern with the cardio. The first block was the same intervals with the push pace to base pace with the all-out at the end. And the second block was technically the same timing, but during the recovery time we also had lunges to do before continuing our recovery. So we didn’t have the full minute to rest before the next 30-second all-out row.

And on the floor, the first block was a short block with bicep curls and tricep extensions. And then the second block was the 8-minute challenge where the goal was to get through 5 rounds of hip hinge swings, sumo squats to froggers, plank pull-throughs, and plank dumbbell taps. And if you finished all the rounds, the bonus round was double crunches. I was able to get through almost 4 rounds of the exercises, but I didn’t make it to the 5th one. I wanted to make it to the end, but I also knew if I went faster that my form would have been sloppy and that wouldn’t have been good.

Just like the past few weeks, I worked out on Thursday instead of Saturday. For Day 9 we had another challenge on the floor, but this time it was using the TRX straps.

For cardio, the first block was rounds of 30-second push paces and 30-second all-outs with 30-second recoveries, which felt like not having much of a recovery. And the second block was rounds of 90-second push paces with either 1-minute or 90-second base paces with a 30-second all-out at the end.

The first block on the rower was rounds of 150-meter rows with 12 criss-cross squat jacks between each row. I did regular squats instead. And the second block had 300-meter rows with front press jacks between each row with the goal to double the distance from the first block. For some reason, that day I really struggled with the rowing and I didn’t get that much distance for either block, but I tried.

And on the floor, the first floor block was shorter with gorilla rows with weights and overhead presses. And the second block was the 9-minute challenge with the straps. We were supposed to start with knee tucks in the straps, but I did mountain climbers instead since I can’t do that sort of unstable exercise. Then we had 3 rounds of tricep extensions, bridge rows, and squats using the straps. And if we completed that, we had the knee tucks again. But I was doing my last round of squats when the 9 minutes were done. I felt like this was the toughest of the floor challenges this week, but it might have been because all my workouts that week had floor challenges.

And Friday was Day 10 of the challenge but day 7 for me so I was able to complete the challenge and earn my hat! This workout was an endurance day and it was a really good endurance challenge.

For cardio, we had rounds with different distance challenges with 45-seconds to recover between each round. Because some of the distances were a bit longer than what I would normally do in a push pace, I set my resistance level to be between my base and push paces and that seemed to work really well for me. And even though the recovery time was short, I tried to pedal really slow on the bike to get some recovery instead of doing something closer to what my base pace is like, which is what I tend to do at times.

On the rower, we had our 10-minute challenge. We started with a short block with a 2-minute warm-up row with some push paces and an all-out. Then we had 5 rounds of a 2-minute block on the rower. We started each block with high knees and then we went to the rower to row the rest of the time in that block. I usually had about 90-seconds to row each time. And we had some distance goals to hit, but because my hips were hurting from getting on and off the rower I really didn’t get close to the goal time. But considering how much time I had on the rower, I didn’t do too bad.

And on the floor, we had 1 long block that all had exercises with weights. We had neutral thrusters, reverse flys, sumo squats to upright rows, tricep kickbacks, bicycle presses, and plank low rows. I might have gone a bit too heavy with my weights for the floor because I needed to take more breaks than I normally would. But it was a good floor block and a great way for me to finish this week of workouts.

Even though I have done weeks in the past with 3 workout days in a row, I think this is the first time where I had multiple weeks doing this. And I’m debating if I want to change up my regular workout schedule to be Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday from now on. It does make it tough, but it also makes my Saturdays a bit more open since the earliest I can go on Saturdays is at noon after work. I’m still deciding what I will do this week, but I know the week after I have to do this again because of the holiday schedule. So I think I’m going to keep testing this out and I know I can decide to change whenever I want. But maybe change will be good for me. I’ll just have to wait and see.

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Kicking Off The 12 Days Of Fitness (or A Different Type Of Hell Week)

Posted on December 6, 2021 | Comments Off

This past week of workouts was a tough one for me for a few different reasons. First, I knew this would be a tough week because I was expecting to have to deal with pain and nausea, and I was right that it would be happening. Also, I had another week where I had 3 workout days in a row. And finally, this week was starting the 12 Days Of Fitness! I’ve done the 12 Days Of Fitness before and it’s a great challenge. The goal is to do 7 out of the 12 days and then you earn a winter beanie! Just like with Hell Week, I knew I’d be doing this and making sure I earned my hat!

Monday’s workout wasn’t a part of the 12 Days challenge since it was before the start of the month. It was an endurance day and it was also a day I wasn’t feeling too great. I was mainly dealing with pain that day, which can sometimes be easier for me to push through. And I think I needed the ability to push through in order to do the endurance plan.

For cardio, it was all about long push paces. We had 2 rounds of a 3-minute push pace and 2 rounds of a 2-minute push pace. Between each push pace, we had a 1-minute base pace and after the last 2-minute push we went right into a 30-second all-out. It was a lot of work and didn’t feel like it had a lot of rest. I did have to take my own breaks during the workout in order to get through some of the pain, but I think I did better than I expected to do considering how I was feeling.

On the rower, I really struggled and had to do a bit of my own plan. We were supposed to do long rows with hops between each round of rowing. But for me, the hops were making me feel really sick, so I decided just to work on rowing for the entire block and take breaks when I needed to. But I did try to be aware of the plan for the rowing and make sure I took breaks after each round. The rowing was supposed to be 800-meters, 400-meters, 200-meters, 400-meters, 200-meters, and 100-meters. I only got through about half of the rowing even without doing the hops between each round. That just shows how slowly I was rowing and how often I needed to rest.

The floor was a bit better for me. We had 1 long block with 2 mini-blocks in it. We were supposed to do each mini-block for 3 rounds before switching. The first mini-block had bench squats, goblet squats, and static crunches with scissor kicks. And the second mini-block had sumo squats, squats with rotations, and single-leg v-ups. I felt much better about my workout after the floor work since I think that was the best section for me.

And Wednesday’s workout kicked off the 12 Days challenge. And each day is themed around the day number that it is. So for Monday, since it was the first day we had a lot of things that were for 1 minute. Unfortunately, I was also feeling really horrible this day. I was really struggling to do anything, but I knew I just had to try my best.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first block had a 1-minute push pace, 1-minute base pace, 2-minute push pace, 90-second base pace, and 1-minute all-out. The second block flipped the push paces so we started with the 2-minute push pace and had the 1-minute one toward the middle of the block. I still took a lot of breaks to rest or let the nausea pass, but I think I did a pretty decent job considering how worried I was about being able to do anything.

For the rower, again I struggled as I did on Monday. The first block started with a 100-meter row and then we had high knees. I knew I couldn’t do high knees, so I did marching in place instead. Each round on the rower, we increased the row by 100-meters. And for the last minute of the block, we had a 1-minute all-out timed with the treadmills. Then we reset the rowers for the second block and we started with a 300-meter row and high knees. And each round on the rower we went down 100-meters. And again, we ended with a 1-minute all-out row. The goal was to do better in the second block, and I think my nausea medication was kicking in around the second block because it went a lot better for me than the first block did.

And on the floor, we had 4 blocks. The first and third blocks were longer blocks. The first block had goblet squats and hip hinge low rows. And the third block had deadlifts and shoulder presses. For the second and fourth blocks, it was a 1-minute block that went with the all-out on the treadmills and rowers. We got to pick one exercise to do for the entire minute. I picked squats and I was able to get a lot of reps done within the minute both times.

As I mentioned before, I did a Thursday workout instead of one on Saturday due to my schedule (I think this week will be the same way again). So I was at the workout for Day 2, which had a lot of 2-minute things and it was also a strength-based day and a 2 group class so I had longer on cardio than I usually do.

We had 3 blocks for cardio. The first block was rounds of a base pace at an incline and a base pace without incline. We started with the highest incline and went down each round. But the incline base paces got longer as the incline got lower. And the block ended with a 2-minute distance challenge. I did work with the resistance levels on the bike, but I was pedaling really slowly because it was another day I was feeling rotten. The second block was the same idea as the first block, but we went up the inclines instead of down. It also ended with another 2-minute distance challenge. And the last block was one more 2-minute distance challenge.

On the floor, we also had 3 blocks. The first block had single-arm high rows and chest flys. And the second block had single-arm chest presses and hip hinge reverse flys. For both of those blocks, when the treadmills were doing their 2-minute distance challenges, we had a 2-minute row. For the last block, it was 2 minutes long and the coach got to pick what exercise we had to hold for the entire time. Our coach picked squats so we had a 2-minute squat hold. We were told to take breaks when we needed them, and I also did wall squats for maybe 10 seconds at a time to make it a bit easier for me.

By Friday’s workout, my pain and nausea were a bit better (but still not great) but I was dealing with a little soreness from having 3 workout days in a row. But I still think it was one of the better days of the week for me. It was a power day, and because it was Day 3, we had a lot of things that lasted 30 seconds to fit with the theme.

We had 3 blocks for cardio and blocks 1 and 3 were the same. For those blocks, we had 2 rounds of a 30-second push pace and 30-second base pace and then ended with a 30-second push pace to a 30-second all-out. I tried to limit the breaks I needed to take to just the base pace time and I was still working with the resistance levels to make my push and all-outs harder. And for the second block, we had 4 rounds of a 30-second all-out with a 1-minute recovery after.

For the rower, we had the same 3 blocks as we did for cardio with the push paces to base paces and the all-outs with recovery. This was a lot harder for me than the cardio was and I took a lot of breaking during the rowing blocks. But it was also a lot of rowing even if I was feeling ok.

For the floor, the first and third blocks were timed out with cardio and the rowers. In the first block, we had alternating heel touches and static crunch in and outs with mini-bands and we switched every 30 seconds. And in the third block, we had front walks and side walks with the mini-bands and again we switched every 30 seconds. For the second block, it was supposed to be lunges and step-ups, but I usually replace step-ups with lunges. So I ended up having a block of lunges, which wasn’t easy but at least it gave me a challenge during a week I had to go easy on myself.

This week, I’ll be finishing up the 12 Days Of Fitness and I hope that I feel better for most of it. It’s an unknown how I’ll feel this week, but I’m trying to think positively so I can finish out the challenge on a good note!

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A Thanksgiving Week Of Workouts (or Still Keeping Up A Tradition)

Posted on November 29, 2021 | Comments Off

For this past week of workouts, I knew I would likely start dealing with some pain and nausea, but I tried to not let that stress me out before it happened. Instead, I tried to focus on the good things coming up during the workout week. I had a slightly different workout schedule, but having that allowed for something pretty cool.

Monday’s workout was a strength day, and it was a pretty normal strength-based workout. For cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first block was rounds of short distances where we added to our incline/resistance level each time. We were on our own for this block since everyone would have different timing with completing the distances. But we were supposed to remember our distance from that first block and use it as a goal for the second block. In the second block, we had rounds of a 90-second push pace at an incline with 30-seconds of a base pace between each one. Because the timing was different from when we were going on our own, we had to try to make sure we could beat our distance from the first block. With the bike, you don’t see as specific of a distance as you would on the treadmill (the bike goes one decimal point and the treadmill has three decimal points), but just as the block ended I beat my first block’s distance!

The rower had a lot of medicine ball work with a little bit of rowing. This was because the next day was a rowing benchmark (I wasn’t going to do that workout, but I knew it was happening) so we weren’t supposed to burn out too much. In the first block, we had ground to press, front press, and squat to press with the medicine ball first and then a 100-meter row. Each time we had the row, we increased the distance by 50 meters. And in the second block, we started with a 100-meter all-out row and then had more medicine ball exercises. We had bicep curls, overhead tricep extensions, and calf raises. And again, each time on the rower we increased the row by 50 meters.

And we also had 2 blocks on the floor. In the first block, we had single-arm chest presses, concentration curls, and shoulder presses to stand. I was really struggling with the shoulder presses and then standing, so I split that exercise into shoulder presses alone and then squats. And in the second block, we had single arm low rows, push-ups, and hip hinge reverse flys. I think I did a lot better on the second block than I did with the first.

Wednesday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and it was themed around cluster exercises. The idea with cluster exercises is that you do one thing for 3 different rounds and you work until fatigue for the rounds so you don’t necessarily have a specific number of reps or time for cardio to complete.

For cardio, the plan was to have a 30-second all-out followed by a 30-second recovery. Then we did an all-out as long as we could followed by a 30-second recovery. And finally one more all-out as long as we could followed by a 1-minute recovery. And each round, the incline/resistance level for the all-outs increased by 1. The idea was that you should never be able to do an all-out longer than a minute or your all-out isn’t hard enough. For me, I usually managed to stick it out for about 45-seconds before I needed the recovery.

For the rower, we had rounds of an all-out row and a recovery row with a medicine ball exercise in the middle. We had 3 rounds of 10 strokes of an all-out followed by 5 strokes of a recovery row. Then we either had an overhead press or a front press with the medicine ball before going back to the 3 rounds on the rower. I know 10 strokes of an all-out row doesn’t sound that hard, but when you only have 5 strokes to recover is gets really tough!

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. In the first block, we had seated low rows and chest presses on the straps. For the seated low rows, we did 5 reps for the first round, had 10 seconds to recover, and then did 2 more rounds until failure with recovery between those rounds. And for the second block, we had weighted chest presses and high rows on the straps. For the weighted chest presses, it was the same as the low rows with the 3 rounds with recovery.

Even though I had my family Thanksgiving workout 2 weeks early when I worked out with my dad and brother, I still wanted to do a Thanksgiving workout. And since I had the day off of work for the holiday, I had a lot of flexibility with what time I would work out. So when I was looking at the schedule, I noticed that there was a Lift 45 class as the last class of the day (which was still in the morning). Lift 45 is a really unique class. Instead of working with cardio and the rower, it’s a 45-minute class that is only on the floor. My studio does Lift 45 classes each week, but the times they are scheduled are always times that I’m working. So I decided to take this opportunity to try something new that I’ve been wanting to check out!

We had 4 blocks for the entire workout, but we started with a group warm-up on the floor since nobody was warming up on cardio (which is what I’m used to). The first block had goblet squats and jump squats (which I did as squats with calf raises). The second block had hip hinge swings, step-ups (which I did as lunges), and sit-ups to squats using the benches. The third block had sumo squats, single-arm deadlifts, and mountain climbers. And the last block was all lunges, which had different types of lunges but I had to modify them to just be regular lunges for the entire thing.

Obviously, this workout was a lower-body class. The Lift 45 classes are split into upper or lower body workouts. And while lower body is usually harder for me, I didn’t know how hard this workout would be without cardio. I was pleasantly surprised to see that this may have actually been harder than a regular workout for me! Maybe I pushed myself more because I knew I wouldn’t have cardio. Or maybe I’ve been going too easy on the floor in most of my workouts. No matter the reason, this was the first workout that made me seriously sore after it and I loved that! I wish this class was offered times I could go, but maybe in the future, I’ll have more opportunities to take them. The only real downside for me in this workout was this was the first workout that my nausea really hit me, so I had to go easy when I wanted to push myself. But at least the nausea wasn’t that bad so I didn’t have to limit myself too much.

And even though this was my actual Thanksgiving workout, I still used my workout from 2 weeks ago in my photo collage of all my family Thanksgiving workouts that I shared online.

Being sore from Lift 45 made my Friday workout a bit harder. I also had a bit more nausea in that class, but it still wasn’t as bad as I know it can be. This workout was a power day, and I’m glad it wasn’t another strength day. But we had a lot of similar exercises to what I did on Thursday, so that was a bit tough.

We had 3 blocks for cardio. The first block was all about 30-second intervals. We had rounds of a push pace to a base pace and ended with an all-out. The second block was a 3-minute distance challenge. And the last block was all 45-second intervals with a push pace, all-out, recovery, and one last all-out.

On the rower, we also had 3 blocks. The first block had rounds of a 1-minute all-out row followed by lunges. The second block was rounds of a 30-second all-out row with squats and the goal was to try to beat the distance from the first row (which I didn’t quite get to). And the last block was timed out with cardio with the 45-second intervals. I really struggled on the rower overall because of how I was sore, so I rowed slower than normal to make sure my form wasn’t too bad.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had deadlifts, hip hinge swings, skater lunges, leg raises, and sit-ups. The deadlifts and hip hinge swings were especially tough since I had done them the day before, so I went a bit lighter with the weights than I normally do. And the second block was timed with the rest of the room with 45-second intervals and we alternated between hip bridges and v-ups (which I did as crunches).

While I have done weeks before where I do 3 workout days in a row, I wonder if having the Lift 45 class made things a bit harder for me. But I still am so glad I took that class since I don’t know when I’ll have another chance. And I might have a chance to try out doing 3 workouts in a row again because there is a chance that this week and next week I won’t be able to work out on Saturday. I have toyed with the idea of not doing Saturday workouts since I have to do them so late in the morning because of my work schedule. So this might be a good test to see if I want to switch to only doing weekday workouts. I guess I’ll have to wait and see how it goes!

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Tagged fitness, Orangetheory, Thanksgiving, workout

Another Full Workout Week (or More Family OTF Time)

Posted on November 22, 2021 | Comments Off

This past week of workouts was another good one. I had my usual schedule, but there were a few things that changed. But I think the variation in my workouts was for the best.

Monday’s class was a 3 group class. I think most of my classes will be 3 group ones right now (that can change, but I think it will be like this for a while). And that means I get to do more rowing, which is both good and bad. I think rowing is the toughest thing for me, but that’s why I need to do it more. And this workout was a power day so it was a good day to kick off having more 3 group classes.

We had 4 blocks for cardio, 2 that were longer and 2 that were super short. The longer blocks had push pace to base pace intervals ending with an all-out and the short blocks were just an all-out. I was doing better than I had over the weekend, but I was still dealing with the end of the side effects from my booster shot so I didn’t go too crazy.

On the rower, our blocks matched cardio with 2 long and 2 short blocks. For the first long block, we had either a 1-minute or 30-second row with squats between each row. And for the second long block it was either a 300-meter or 150-meter row with squats between each row. And the short blocks were just an all-out row.

And on the floor, we also had 4 blocks. In the first long block we had lunges to a neutral thruster with weights, lunges to hops, and plank punches. In the second long block we had goblet squats, squat jumps (which I did as squats with calf raises), and plank rotations. The first short block had bench sit-ups to squats and the second short block had froggers. It was a lot of work, but I took my time and rested when I needed to.

Wednesday’s workout was a special one for several reasons. First, it was a benchmark workout which is always special. Also, my dad worked out with me. He’s done a bunch of Orangetheory classes, but this was the first time that he’s done 2 classes within a week! And finally, this was Coach Benzo’s last class with us. He got a promotion and can’t keep the regular Wednesday classes, but he’s hoping to come back as a sub from time to time. I’m happy he got a promotion, but I’m sad he won’t be my regular coach anymore. He was my first coach back after the studio reopened and I’ve loved having him motivate me in the morning. But the class was more celebratory than sad, so that was good.

For cardio, we just had the benchmark to do. The benchmark was the 12-minute distance challenge. I hadn’t done this challenge since before the shutdown, so I wasn’t too stressed about trying to get a PR. And for my dad, this was his first time doing a benchmark so he knew he’d PR. And since he’s a runner at his gym, this wasn’t too hard of a challenge for him. For me, I set the bike resistance at the level between my base and push paces and just tried to keep my pace steady until we were almost done and then I went crazy to go as fast as I could for the last minute. I didn’t do my best, but I was close to my distance from before the shutdown.

On the rower, we had decreasing rows with lunges between each round. We started with a 400-meter row and went down 50 meters each round. I was doing better on the rower than I had on Monday. And even though normally my dad and I challenge each other when we row next to each other, we didn’t really do that this time and just tried to get in our best workouts.

And on the floor, we had one long block that had both upper and lower body exercises. We had balance bicep curls, seated torso rotations, knee tucks on the ab dolly (a piece of workout equipment my dad never used before), single-arm low rows on the straps, and triceps on the straps.

And of course, after the workout we had to get a photo! Both to celebrate Benzo’s last class and because I always get a photo after my dad comes to class with me!

Friday was another power day and I really did try to push myself more. I was finally feeling normal again and I know it’s only a bit of time before I start having nausea again so I wanted to take advantage of this workout.

We had 3 blocks for cardio and they were similar. The first block was a 2-minute push pace, 30-second all-out, 1-minute recovery, and 30-second all-out. The second block was 2 rounds of a 1-minute push pace and 30-second all-out with a minute to recover between. And the last block was 2 rounds of a 30-second push pace and 30-second all-out with a minute to recover between. I tried to not only increase the resistance level on the bike but also pedal faster, especially with the all-outs.

On the rower, all 3 blocks were similar with 3 different types of rowing. We started with a stroke drill, then a 100-meter all-out row, and then a recovery row. In the first block, the stroke drill and recovery each had 15 strokes. In the second block, they were 12 strokes. And in the last block they were 10 strokes.

And on the floor, we had 3 blocks and each block had 2 exercises. We had chest presses and power push-ups, hip hinge low rows and pull-ups on the straps, and seated torso rotations and sit-ups. My upper body was tired after all the floor work, but I knew I needed to push myself this way.

Saturday’s workout was a 2 group class (I think this one will be staying as a 2 group class for now). The workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and it gave me a lot of opportunities to work on a bunch of different things.

For cardio, we had 4 blocks that were basically the same. Every block has a 1-minute push, 1-minute base, 1-minute all-out, 1-minute of recovery, and a 1-minute all-out. The difference in each block was the incline/resistance level for the base pace. It started at the highest level and went down each block. I didn’t go too high for the resistance level on the bike, but I tried to keep it at either the level I use for my push pace or the level between my push and base paces. That wasn’t exactly what we were supposed to do, but it worked for me so I could do the all-outs faster.

And on the floor, we also had 4 blocks but there was one set of exercises for all of the blocks. For each block, the first 3 minutes was doing the exercises, then we had a minute to get to the rower, and then we had a 1-minute all-out row. Wherever we left off on the exercises, we picked back up there each block when we were back on the floor. The exercises were skater lunges, lateral lunges, deadlifts, and plank low rows. I didn’t go too heavy on the weights because I needed to be able to row and there wasn’t a lot of rest time. But because there weren’t breaks, the weights I used felt heavier.

I really enjoyed the workouts this past week, even when I had moments I was struggling. And this week, I’m excited because I will be doing my traditional Thanksgiving day workout even if it’s just me and not with my family. But I’m glad I’ll be keeping up with the tradition and I think it’s going to be a fun one!

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Posted in Family, Fitness, Fun Stuff

Tagged family, fitness, Orangetheory, workout

Some Interesting Workout Days (or 3 Regular Workouts And 1 Traditional One)

Posted on November 15, 2021 | Comments Off

This past week of workouts was interesting for me. I had some odd struggles that I wasn’t expecting and I had some really great things too. I didn’t love having as much of an off week as I did, but I think I made the most of it.

Monday’s workout was a strength day and it was a prep day for the Everest workout happening later this month. I was also having a bit of an off morning. I think having the clocks change affected me more than I thought it would because I struggled to sleep the night before. And while I was tossing and turning, I made my hip hurt a lot. It wasn’t ideal going into a strength workout, but I was prepared to try my best.

The cardio work was similar to what the regular Everest workout is like, but we had a break in the middle. For the treadmills, they increased the incline by 1% every minute. For me on the bike, I increased the resistance level by 1 every other minute (I have done every minute before, but it gets really difficult and I didn’t want to risk it with my hip). We did that for about 11 minutes and then we had about 2 minutes to have some recovery. Then we did the same 11 minutes as we did before but we started at the top and decreased the incline/resistance level until we had a flat road all-out at the end. Because I was only doing the increases every other minute, I never had the resistance level too high. It was still higher than I normally use, but not as bad as it has been for hill work.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks. We started with 2 rounds of high rows on the straps, alternating chest presses, side plank rotations, and sit-ups. Then we had a 200-meter row before going back to the exercises again. And the second block had a similar format. We had 2 rounds of chest presses on the straps, bird dog single-arm low rows, and palms to elbows (which I did as shoulder taps) before another 200-meter row. My row wasn’t fast, but it was better than it was last week. And I tried to go heavy with the weights, but I wasn’t able to go as heavy as I would have liked to.

Wednesday’s workout was a mix of strength and power. It wasn’t as bad with inclines as Monday was, but it still had some hill work.

We had 4 blocks for cardio. Blocks 1 and 3 were similar and blocks 2 and 4 were similar. For blocks 1 and 3 we started with a 90-second push pace followed by a 30-second base pace. Then we had 3 rounds of 1-minute hills with 30-second base paces between each one with a 30-second all-out at the end. For the first block, the inclines/resistance levels got higher each time and for the third block, they got lower. And for blocks 2 and 4, we had 2 rounds of a 30-second all-out with a 1-minute recovery after. So between all 4 blocks, we had 6 minutes of hill work and 6 all-outs.

On the floor, we also had 4 blocks. And blocks 2 and 4 were done on the rowers and timed out with the treadmills. So for each of those blocks, we had 2 rounds of a 30-second all-out row followed by a 1-minute recovery row. For the regular floor work, we had sumo goblet squats, squat jacks (which I did as side step squats), lunges, and plank rotations for the first block. And for the third block we had good mornings with weighs, lunge to hops, and plank alternating leg lifts. My hips and legs were definitely feeling it after this workout, but this was a much better type of pain and soreness than what I was dealing with on Monday.

Friday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power. But it was a really bad day for me. I had gotten my booster shot on Thursday and didn’t have that many side effects when I got it. But the next day, I was really feeling it. I usually have reactions to any vaccines I get, so don’t let this dissuade you from getting the booster or vaccine. But I guess I was too hopeful I wouldn’t have side effects this time and I was wrong. So I spent a lot of my workout dealing with a lot of body aches and a bad headache.

This was a run/row workout for cardio. We had 2 blocks that were very similar. We started with a 3-minute push pace and then had a 1-minute base base. Then we had rounds of a .1 mile (.4 for the bike) run and then a 30-second all out row. In the first block, the incline/resistance level increased each round and in the second block, we started at the top and decreased the incline/resistance level each round. Because I was so slow on both the bike and rower, I didn’t make it through that many rounds.

On the floor, we had 4 blocks. Every exercise we had was for 10 reps, so it was easy to remember how much I had to do of each exercise. Block 1 had chest presses and hip hinge low rows. Block 2 had push-ups, back extensions, and mountain climbers. Block 3 had close grip chest presses and squat to Y raises on the straps. And block 4 had tricep extensions, plank pull throughs, and lateral crunches. Just like on cardio, I was pretty slow so I didn’t make it through a lot of rounds. I also had to go a bit lighter with the weights because of how I feel.

Saturday’s workout was a special one. First, it was a signature workout called The Chipper. But also, this was my traditional Thanksgiving workout with my family. I know that it’s not Thanksgiving yet, but my family decided to do it earlier this year because it’s less expensive to travel if we celebrated a bit early. We were spending it in Santa Barbara (more about that day in tomorrow’s post) and there was a brand new Orangetheory studio that was only minutes away from where we were staying! So it was perfect for us to work out that morning. This year, it was just me with my dad and brother, but we still had a great time.

The idea of The Chipper is to chip away at the workout each round. So for cardio, you started with a 3-minute push pace and that decreased each round after a 1-minute base pace. The bike at this studio was different from the bike at my studio, plus I was still having some side effects from my booster shot, so I know I didn’t do as well as I could for the workout. But I tried my best and it was fun to experience class at a different studio.

On the floor, we had intervals of an exercise and then rowing. We did just 1 exercise before the row and the number of reps started at 40 and went down by 5 for each exercise. And the row started at 400-meter and went down by 50 each round. The exercises we had were bench tap squats, leg raises, sumo squats to upright rows with weights, low rows on the straps, palms to elbows, chest flies, and bicep curls. This studio also had the new rowers with the screens, and I loved seeing all my data while rowing easily displayed. I didn’t make it through all of The Chipper, but I did better than I expected.

And of course, we had to take our traditional picture with our coach after class.

I’m still having some side effects from my vaccine, but they get better and better each day. So hopefully this week will bring more wins and less struggles in my workouts.

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Fitness, Fun Stuff

Tagged family, fitness, Orangetheory, Thanksgiving, workout

Almost Having A Second Hell Week (or Just Pushing Through)

Posted on November 8, 2021 | Comments Off

After a crazy Hell Week, I was glad to be back to my normal workouts. But I ended up having my personal Hell Week this past week because this was the week I had to deal with a lot of pain and nausea. But at least this is a type of hell that I’m used to dealing with, so I pushed through the best I could.

On Monday, I wasn’t feeling too horrible. I was a bit off, but there were other factors that could have been causing that too. The workout was an endurance class, and it was a really good one.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first block had two rounds of a 3-minute push pace followed by a 90-second base pace and ended with a 3-minute distance challenge. The second block had two rounds of a 2-minute push pace followed by a 1-minute base pace and also ended with a 3-minute distance challenge. For the distance challenge, I set the resistance to be at my regular push pace level. They did feel like long blocks, but nothing too crazy and I really did try to improve with the distance challenges.

On the floor, we also had 2 blocks. We started with a 500-meter row, which didn’t go that great for me. I was just slow and a bit awkward and couldn’t get my form to feel right. After the row, we had Arnold presses and hammer curls with weights and high rows to I raises on the straps. The second block didn’t have rowing. We had step-ups (which I did as squats), single-arm reverse flies, and bicycle presses with weights.

Wednesday’s workout was a power day, and it was a really miserable day for me. I was so nauseous and in a lot of pain. I really was struggling a lot just to get out of bed, but I knew that doing something in my workout would be better than doing nothing. But I know I didn’t do that much because of how I felt.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks. The first block had three rounds of 1-minute push paces, a base pace, a 30-second all-out, and a recovery. The base pace and recovery increased with each round. For the second block, the base paces were removed so it was three rounds of a 1-minute push pace to a 30-second all-out with recovery between. And the last block was just rounds of the 30-second all-out with the recovery between.

On the floor, we also had 3 blocks. The first block had deadlifts, skater lunges, and hip bridges followed by a 200-meter row. I was able to go heavy with the hip bridges, but I used a lighter weight for the deadlifts and went very slow with the skater lunges. The second block had hip swings with weights, curtsy lunges, and a 150-meter row. And the last block was only sumo squats to upright rows with weights and a 100-meter row. My rowing was very slow for each block and for the first two blocks I only made it to the rower once. I just had to take a lot of breaks to let the nausea pass so I could feel like I could continue.

By Friday, I wasn’t fully better but I had gotten over the hump of being miserable. I still had to go easy on myself because of how I was feeling, but I could push a bit harder. And I’m glad because it was an endurance day to prep us for an upcoming cardio benchmark.

We had 2 cardio blocks and the first block started with a 5 1/2-minute distance challenge. I kept the resistance level on the bike between the level I use for my base and push paces. I did have to take a lot of rest during it, but it wasn’t as bad as Wednesday. We then had a 90-second recovery before doing another 5 1/2-minute distance challenge. The second block started with a 2-minute row and then a 6 1/2 minute distance challenge for cardio again. The row was really tough for me and I didn’t get a lot of distance, but I tried.

On the floor, the first block started off with a mini-band block. We had 3 rounds of static crunches with in and outs, hip bridges, and knee tucks. After that, we had a 1-minute row and then plank work, uppercuts, and bicep curls. For the plank work, I did use the bench so I wasn’t completely facing the ground. The second block had bird dog low rows with weights, single-arm chest presses, and plank pull-throughs. Again, for plank work, I used the bench.

Saturday I was finally over the nausea and just dealing with a little pain, so that was a lot better. I still struggled, but at least it was a bit of an easier struggle. And this workout was a 5×5 themed class. So we had 5 rounds of a lot of different work.

For cardio, we had 5 blocks and each block had a push pace, base pace, push pace, and an all-out. The base pace was always 1-minute and the all-out was always 30-seconds. But the two push paces changed for both lengths of time and incline. The longer the push pace was, the lower the incline got. But for me on the bike, it can be tough to do a lot of variation with my inclines, so I always used 1 resistance level higher than my all-out for the incline work. I know that’s not exactly how the workout should have been, but it was a good option for me.

On the floor, we had 1 long block. We started with 5 rounds of deadlifts and squats (5 reps for each exercise). Then a 300-meter row. Then 5 rounds of chest presses and seated low rows (5 reps for each exercise). And another 300-meter row. And finally 5 rounds of shoulder presses and squats to high rows on the straps (again, 5 reps for each exercise) before a final 300-meter row. I never made it to the last row, but I did get through all the exercises. And because the number of reps was low, I was able to go pretty heavy with the weights.

Considering I was coming off of the official Hell Week and going through my own type of hell, I’m really happy about how I did in my workouts. And I hope that this week gets a bit easier for me so I can get back to my normal self.

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Tagged fitness, hell week, Orangetheory, workout

A Full Week Of Hell Week (or I’m A Survivor)

Posted on November 1, 2021 | Comments Off

I’m a Hell Week Survivor! I had a feeling I’d be able to get this done since I’ve been able to do it every year, but this is my first Hell Week since having 13 months off from in-person workouts. So I knew it might be harder than it has been in the past. But I had every intention of getting my 5 workouts in so I could earn my shirt. And that’s exactly what I did!

Sunday was my first Hell Week workout. This one was called Fishing For Recovery, and I didn’t have the best start. I don’t normally work out on Sundays, but that wasn’t the problem. The problem was that I didn’t know the main street I had to cross to get from my place to Orangetheory was closed due to a race. I was struggling to find a way to get over there, and I finally had to drive down the freeway a few miles to exit and find another street to take. I thought I wouldn’t make it to class, but I made it after class started but before the cutoff to join in.

For cardio, we had 4 blocks that had similar patterns. We had 3 different 1-minute intervals at a base pace with increasing inclines followed by a 1-minute base at no incline and a 1-minute all-out. The recovery after the all-out for those on the treadmill was at a 15% incline. I just used whatever the highest resistance level was that I had during that block. These resistance levels got really high for me and in the end my legs weren’t moving much at all because it was so hard. But that’s what Hell Week is about!

On the floor, we had 4 blocks as well. Each block started with the same 3 exercises. We had clean to presses, front squats, and half thrusters. All of these exercises were with weights. Then we had 1 exercise on the straps after that. We had low rows, alligators, bridge rows, and high rows. After the 1 strap exercise, we were supposed to row for distance. But I only was on the rower for a brief moment each block. This wasn’t the worst Hell Week workout I’ve had, but it was a good one to kick off a tough week.

Monday’s workout was called The Burpee Breach. I’m not a huge fan of burpees, so I wasn’t looking forward to this one that much. Fortunately, the burpees weren’t as big of a part of the workout as I feared.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first block was all about distance challenges and all-outs. We started with a 2-minute distance challenge followed by 30-seconds to recover. Then it was a 90-second distance challenge, 75-second distance challenge, 1-minute all-out, 45-second all-out, and 30-second all-out. And all of those had 30-seconds to recover between the work. The second block was all about 1-minute intervals and inclines. Every minute the incline or resistance level went up by 1 until the last minute when it was back to a flat road. The goal was to try to beat your distance from the first block, and I just was able to beat my first distance.

On the floor, the first block was the burpee block. And it was timed out with the treadmills. Every time the treadmills had their 30-second recovery, we would have a squat hold. And during their runs, we had burpees in various forms. Because I had to use the bench for my burpees, I didn’t do exactly what we were supposed to do. We started with ultimate burpees which is a burpee with a push-up, low row with weights, and shoulder press. I can’t do the low row with weights when using the bench, so I did shoulder taps instead. And each round with the burpees, we took away one part of the burpee until at the end we were just at regular burpees. But those 30-seconds of regular burpees felt just as hard or harder as the 2-minutes of ultimate burpees because I was so tired. For the second block, we had 3 rounds of hop-overs, step-ups (which I did as lunges), and squat jacks. After that, we were supposed to go to the rower and work with the person next to us to alternate 100-meter rows and recovery rows. But the floor work took me a long time and I never made it to the rower.

Wednesday was Decoding the Drop Set, and yes it was about doing drop sets on the floor. But I had cardio first and it was a run/row.

The run/row started with a .5 mile run (2 miles for the bike) and we increased the incline/resistance level 1% 5 times. Then it was a 100-meter row. The treadmill/bike segment shortened each round and we didn’t increase the incline/resistance level as many times but we started at a higher incline/resistance level. And each row increased by 100-meters. The segments were all pretty short, but with the increased resistance level they weren’t getting that much faster for me.

On the floor, we had 3 blocks. Each block had 1 drop set exercise, 1 exercise we were supposed to do until failure, and 1 exercise that we had regular reps for. With drop sets, you use a heavy weight for a low number of reps and then a lighter weight for a higher number of reps. And after doing the drop set exercise, we were supposed to use that same lighter weight for our exercise until failure. The drop set exercises were seated shoulder presses, seated low rows, and chest presses. For the until failure exercises, we just did as many as we could until we lost our form and couldn’t continue. For me, this varied a lot, but I tried to get at least 6 reps done for each. We had tricep extensions, hammer curls, and chest flies. And for the last exercises, they were all jumping-type exercises like jumping jacks. I really couldn’t do those that day (and rarely can do them), so I did different types of squats instead.

Friday was one of the hardest Hell Week workouts I can remember. I know I’ve had some tough ones, but this one was just that much harder. This workout was called Meltdown, and I feel like it was a good description for it.

For cardio, we had a run/exercise block (like a run/row but floor exercises instead of rowing). Cardio started with a .1 mile run (.4 for the bike) and increased by .05 miles (or .2 for the bike) each round. After the run/bike work, we went to the floor and had the same 4 exercises each time. We had single-arm clean to press, plank single-arm low rows, single-arm snatches, and single-arm hold with lateral step-ups (I did these as lunges). The first time on the floor we had 4 reps and it increased by 2 reps each time. It was a lot of work and I was exhausted. But that was probably the easier part of the workout.

On the rower, we pretty much had a 23-minute row. It was broken up into segments and we had some rest between each segment, but it was still a lot of rowing. And after the floor, my hip was really hurting so I knew I’d be struggling with the row. The first segment on the rower was a 4.5-minute row for distance. I wasn’t able to do this without stopping, but I tried. We looked at our distance after that was done and then reset the rower because the goal was to match the distance for the next 3 blocks. The next block had a 90-second push row, 1-minute base row, 1-minute push row, 30-second base row, and a 30-second all-out row. Again, I needed breaks but I tried to do what I could. The 3rd block was probably the hardest one. We had 10 rounds of 20-seconds of an all-out row and 10-seconds to do a recovery row. Having double the effort than recovery is just really hard, and doing it for 10 rounds is that much harder. And the last round was 10 rounds of 10-seconds of an all-out row and 20-seconds of a recovery row. This was a little better, but I was so tired by this point that it didn’t feel much easier. While I love challenging myself, this might have been a bit much for me and I was glad when it was done so I could rest.

And my final Hell Week workout was on Saturday. This one was called Pyramid Scheme and not only was it a Hell Week workout, but it was also a 90-minute workout too! This was not something I necessarily planned, but my usual class was a 90-minute one. And since I didn’t know when I could do my final workout, I decided I might as well end on an extra challenging class. So we had the regular Hell Week workout and then did an extra rotation around the room. And it was a 3 group class so we had equal time on cardio, rowing, and the floor.

The pyramid idea was very clear in the cardio work. We started with a 90-second distance challenge followed by 30 seconds to recover. Then we had a 75-second challenge, 1-minute all-out, 45-second all-out, and 30-second all-out. And between each one, we had 30 seconds to recover. Then we went back up and went from 45-seconds back to 90-seconds again. When we had our next rotation around the room for the extra 30 minutes of class, we had another pyramid with 30-seconds, 1-minute, and 2-minutes of all-outs of distance challenges before going back down to 30-seconds.

On the rower, the first half of the main block was timed out with cardio going from the 90-second challenge down to 30-seconds. But after we did the 30-seconds, we didn’t work out way back up but had distance rows with lunges between. And for the bonus block, we started timed out with cardio again for the first half and then had distance rows with high knees between each row.

And on the floor, we started by learning the mystery number of squats we had to do in the middle of the block. For my group, we had 80 squats. But before that, we had other exercises. We had low rows on the straps and chest presses with weights. We had a round of 40 reps, then a round of 20 reps, and finally a round of 10 reps. Then we had our squats before moving on to the next half of the block. We had bicep curls on the straps and overhead tricep extensions. For those, we started with 10 reps and worked up. But I only got started on the 20 reps of the bicep curls on the straps before the block was done. And for the bonus block, we had hip hinge swings, plank jacks, squats, and plank hops (which I did as mountain climbers). For those, we started with 20 reps and then had 10 reps and 5 reps. By the time I was done on the floor, I was so exhausted. I possibly overdid it a bit this past week, but it was worth it because I hit my goal and did all 5 of the workouts I wanted to do!

I’m still a bit sore from all my workouts last week and I know this week might kick off my bad week. So I’m not planning on going too crazy in my workouts. I know I’m recovering still from all the work I did last week and I need to allow my body to get back to normal. But I’m still proud of what I did and that I continued my streak of being a Hell Week survivor!

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Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff

Tagged fitness, hell week, Orangetheory, workout

Hell Week Prep (or The First Part Of My Workout Week)

Posted on October 25, 2021 | Comments Off

I did get my 4 workouts in this past week, but I’m actually only going to write about the first 3. That’s because this week is Hell Week and my 4th workout was on Sunday so I could make it count toward my 5 workouts to earn my shirt. And I’m going to write about all 5 of those workouts in next week’s post. So this post is just about my 3 regular workouts this past week.

Monday was an endurance day and also a run/row day. I know I’ve had run/row workouts in the past, but I always look forward to them because they feel like they don’t happen that often and are a nice change. Plus, since my classes are 2 group classes, there usually isn’t that much rowing. Last week, that was good because of how my foot was doing. This week, my foot is still a bit tender, but I’m not in as much pain as I was. So I wasn’t powerful with my rowing but I could do it.

The run/row had cardio, a body weight exercise, and a row. The first round was .5 miles on the treadmill (2 on the bike), 50 pulsing half squats, and a 500-meter row. The next round was .4 miles, 40 squats, and a 400-meter row. That pattern continued through the block. I played around with the resistance level on the bike for the cardio, but I mainly kept it at the level between my base and push paces since it took a bit of time to get through it. And I did have to take breaks with the squats because of my foot, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be. I didn’t get as far into the pattern as I would have liked to, but it was still over 23 minutes of work.

On the floor, everything was timed. We had 3 blocks and each block had 3 rounds of the exercises. Each exercise was done for 30-seconds and we had a few 15-second transitions within each block. The first block had ab dolly rollouts, alternating superman planks, knee tucks on the ab dolly, and plank rotations. The second block had goblet squats with weights, Cossack squats, sumo squats with weights, and lateral hops. And the last block had lateral lunges on the right side, lateral lunges on the left side, and mountain climbers. We were supposed to use weights for the lunges, but I didn’t use them because I used the wall to balance.

Wednesday’s day was a power day and it was a lot of short intervals of work! I think I needed this workout after getting through all my convention work and it was a great energy boost.

For cardio, we had 4 blocks. Each block started the same way with a 45-second push pace, 1-minute base pace, and 45-second all-out. After the all-out, we had a recovery and then another all-out. Each block the recovery got a bit longer and the all-out got a bit shorter. I don’t know if my legs were tired or what, but those all-outs were extra hard on me with the resistance level I set the bike at. I’m not sure what happened, but I just struggled a lot more than I expected to. I still did it, but I know that they weren’t my best all-outs.

On the floor, we had 2 floor blocks and 2 row blocks. For the row blocks, we had either a clean to press or a single-arm snatch with weights before going to the rower for a 150-meter row. This row should be fast and done with much shorter strokes, but I still was dealing with some pain in my foot so I had to do them a bit slower than a typical power row. Even my coach called me out on this, but he understood when I explained why I couldn’t press as hard on my heel. For the other 2 blocks, we had 2 exercises on the floor. One block had chest presses while laying on the floor and plank rotations and the other block had single-arm split stance high rows with weights and plank reaches. Even without a ton of exercises on the floor, it felt like I wasn’t getting a lot of breaks and working non-stop. But I really enjoyed that!

Because I was going to work out on Sunday, I didn’t work out on Friday. But my last non-Hell Week workout this past week was my Saturday class. I knew that I would be doing 3 workouts in a row starting with Saturday, so I did try to be a bit easier on myself. But this workout was a strength day, so it wasn’t as easy to go light.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. Both blocks started with a 2-minute push pace and then we had intervals of base paces and push paces with inclines. And we ended with a run for distance challenge for 90-seconds at an incline. None of the inclines were too high, but I still went a bit lower with the resistance levels than I might do if I wasn’t about to start Hell Week. I still got a great workout in even with going a bit lower than we were supposed to do.

And on the floor, we also had 2 blocks. Both blocks had 2 exercises and then we did a 300-meter row and repeated it. The first block had single-arm low rows with weights and goblet squats. The second block had single-arm chest presses with weights and lunges. I tried to go pretty heavy with the weights since it was a strength day, but still remembering I was about to do 2 days of Hell Week workouts in a row. I think I found a great balance for pushing myself and not going too hard, so I was pretty happy with how things went.

And for my 4th workout, that was on Sunday and it was day 1 of Hell Week. And that will come in next week’s post when I write about all 5 of the Hell Week classes I attend to earn my shirt!

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Posted in Fitness

Tagged fitness, Orangetheory, workout

Tag Archives: fitness

A Full Week Of Christmas Workouts (or Having Some Traditional Workouts)

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Back To My Old Workout Schedule (or Always Fitting In My 4 Workouts When I Can)

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Finishing The 12 Days Of Fitness (or Debating If I Like This Workout Schedule)

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Kicking Off The 12 Days Of Fitness (or A Different Type Of Hell Week)

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A Thanksgiving Week Of Workouts (or Still Keeping Up A Tradition)

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Another Full Workout Week (or More Family OTF Time)

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Some Interesting Workout Days (or 3 Regular Workouts And 1 Traditional One)

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Almost Having A Second Hell Week (or Just Pushing Through)

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A Full Week Of Hell Week (or I’m A Survivor)

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Hell Week Prep (or The First Part Of My Workout Week)

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