Posted onDecember 7, 2020|Comments Off on Back To The Same Workout Debate (I Don’t Know What To Do)
Ever since Orangetheory closed, I figured I’d want to be back as soon as I could. When they announced that they were going to re-open the studios, I was hesitant but decided to go for it. I didn’t end up going in because they had to cancel the re-opening. Then they announced the outdoor workouts. I couldn’t go when they started those because I was doing a full quarantine. Then I got vertigo. And now, I’m wondering if I should start doing them.
I’m having the same issues that I’ve had for a while with my workouts at home. I’m doing them, but I feel like they aren’t the same and I question if I’m pushing myself enough. This past week was my best week in a month because I was finally feeling better (just in time to start feeling nauseous again this week). But it still wasn’t as tough as I know I could do.
I know that the outdoor workouts won’t be the same as the regular studio ones, but I feel like they would be better than the ones I do at home. But at the same time, I’m scared to take the risk of doing them. I know they are doing everything they can to keep them safe. They are outside. People are being kept apart. They have sanitizing wipes (which they have always had). Masks are required. The classes are probably safer than going to the grocery store. But I’m still scared.
I think this year has given me a lot of new anxiety, and I’m trying to not let that dominate my life. But at the same time, we are so close to being through this and I don’t want to be the person who catches this the week before I could be vaccinated or something like that. I want to say that until I feel fully ready to be back, I shouldn’t go. But at the same time, I know pushing myself is something that I need to do. It’s a debate that I can’t figure out what side I’m actually on.
I’m really hoping that something will change for me soon. Maybe I’ll be able to push myself more during my workouts at home and I won’t be as worried about going to the outdoor workouts. Or maybe things will start getting better and I will be more comfortable going to an outdoor workout. I’ve been watching them to see what happens, and they do seem safe. Nobody has gotten sick from a workout which is good. I haven’t heard of any issues with people following the rules. They are doing everything they can to make it safe and for people to feel comfortable. I just don’t know if I’m there yet.
It would be amazing to be able to be back to a slightly more normal workout by the end of this year. But if it takes until next year for me to be able to do that, I will be ok. This is not me trying to avoid workouts or anything like that. It’s me dealing with a pandemic and circumstances that nobody has experienced before. I just have to figure out what the balance is between wanting to go and being safe and then I know it will be figured out.
Posted onNovember 30, 2020|Comments Off on Not My Usual Thanksgiving Week Workouts (or Trying To Keep The Tradition Going)
This post is mainly going to be about my Thanksgiving workout. But I did have my 4 workouts this past week. I changed up my schedule a bit to work around Thanksgiving, but I still got the 4 in. I’m still dealing with vertigo a bit and have to modify things, but I’m noticing that it is getting easier each workout.
I’m still trying to push myself so that I can start doing outdoor workouts soon, but I’m also starting to wonder if I should do them. I know they are doing everything they can to keep things safe, but cases are increasing and I have to keep that in mind. Also, things are starting to lock down here again, so I’m not sure if that means outdoor workouts will have to close. Right now, it seems like they can stay open. So keeping the idea of going to an outdoor workout as a goal is a good one. Even if I don’t end up doing one for a while, it still will help me push myself.
But my 3 non-Thanksgiving workouts this past week were pretty normal for me. Or at least as normal as things have been lately. So that’s good.
And my workout on Thanksgiving Day was the one that was special.
Ever since I started at Orangetheory, my family has had a new tradition to do an OTF workout on Thanksgiving morning. It’s not always the same members of my family at each workout, but we always have a few of us there. This year, when the pandemic started, I was hoping that we would still be able to continue the tradition. But as time went on, I knew that there was no way that we would be together for Thanksgiving. So we wouldn’t have our workout as a family.
But I wasn’t going to let that stop me. I was still determined to do something connected to our tradition. I knew that I would be doing a workout on Thanksgiving Day on my own. My plan was to do the OTF At Home workout like I normally do. But I tried to see if there was another option that maybe would allow my family to work out together. But because we all had very different schedules, coordinating a workout wasn’t possible. So I asked everyone in my family to send me photos of their workout that day and I would do something with it.
Some of us did video workouts, some went skiing, some did chores that doubled as cardio, and some just made sure they got out and moving. I love the photos I got from everyone. And an added bonus to us doing workouts on our own was that 2 dogs got to be in the photos too! Tucker was “helping” my mom shovel snow and Graham decided to be a part of my Aunt Cindy’s video workout.
It’s not what our post-workout photo usually looks like, but I think it’s perfect to represent what our 2020 Thanksgiving workouts were like. We weren’t together, but we were still keeping a tradition alive on our own. And of course, I had to add this photo to the collage with all of our workouts.
If nothing else, we will never forget what this year was like for us. It will be the one oddball photo in the collage for as long as we are able to keep this tradition going. And while I know I would have preferred for us all to be together and to have a photo that fits in with the others, it still makes me happy that we didn’t give up on something that we love to do and we have something to represent this year.
I hope that by next year, it will be safe for us to be together. I missed being with my family this year (more on that later this week). I missed our traditional workout. I’m glad we had something, but it’s not the same as working out as a family. Just like how working out at home isn’t like being at the studio in class. I missed how much fun we have at our family workout. I missed the competitiveness between me and my dad (it seems to mainly be between us). I missed feeling like we did something special together. But as I’ve said several times about things this year, we had to stay apart and stay safe this year so we can be together for so many more years in the future.
Posted onNovember 27, 2020|Comments Off on Being Emotional At OTF (or It’s Weird Seeing The Studio Like This)
I’m going to do a recap of my Thanksgiving next week (as I am writing this post, I haven’t had Thanksgiving yet). But I wanted to share something from a bit earlier in the week. After completing Hell Week, my Orangetheory studio let us know that they would notify us when we could come and get our shirts. There was no question about me going to get my shirt, so I was very excited to find out when I could pick it up. Unfortunately, the first pickup date was during the worst of my vertigo, so there was no way for me to drive over there.
But they had told us there would be more pickup dates and there was one earlier this week. I knew I’d be able to drive over to the Culver City studio (where the pickup was going to be) and I was excited to get to see the studio again. My last workout there was about 8 1/2 months ago, and I’ve missed it so much. I miss the workouts a lot, but even just being at the studio was something I missed too. Being in that space is something that makes me so happy. The same with the Brentwood studio (where I actually have done more workouts than Culver City). There’s something special about the studio and I was happy I’d get to be there, even if it was only to pick up a shirt.
What I didn’t expect was how emotional it would be for me to be in there. As soon as I walked in the door, it hit me so hard how long it had been since I was there and how much I miss things. The studio didn’t look that different, but it was different. It was dark, quiet, and nobody was there except the staff who was there to help give out our shirts. It was sad to see a space that means so much to me not feel the same.
But even though it didn’t feel the same, it still made me happy to be inside the lobby. I only stood in the doorway, but that was enough to remind me that the studio is still there. During a time when it seems like the world isn’t there anymore, it’s reassuring to see that the studio is going to be ready to be back as soon as it is safe. We can’t be there now, but we will be there again. I know it sounds crazy to need a reminder that something still exists, but that’s exactly what it was and what I needed.
Of course, I was also sad about how much I have been missing the workouts. I joked to my friends that I wish I could have found a way to borrow a rower so I could have almost the OTF experience at home. I’m still hoping that I can do the outdoor workouts in Marina del Rey soon, but I need to be feeling a bit better to be able to do that. I want vertigo to not be an issue anymore and I know I need to work on my endurance. But more than going to the outdoor workouts, I just want my regular studio workouts back. It has been a huge part of my life for so long and I miss it. I miss the routine of going there 4 days a week. I miss feeling sore after a good workout. I just miss my old life.
I know that as soon as it is safe to reopen, the studio will do just that. Things might not be exactly the same for a little while, but it will be more like what I’m used to than what I’m experiencing now with my workouts. And there’s no question that I will appreciate those workouts more than ever. I never thought about how much I would miss it if I couldn’t be there for a long time. Even when I thought I needed my liver surgery, I was assuming I would only be out for maybe a month. And with that, I was mentally preparing myself for it. I wasn’t prepared for this. I never thought it would be so long with me doing the home workouts.
All I can do is to continue to work out at home and keep myself safe and healthy. So when the studio is open again and full of life like I’m used to, I’ll be here to experience that and I’ll be ready to get back to my normal workout routine.
Posted onNovember 23, 2020|Comments Off on Slowly Working My Way Back (or Continuing To Have Dizzy Workouts)
It’s been over 2 weeks since I started having vertigo, and it’s slowly getting better. I’ve had minimal setbacks, but the progress also isn’t as fast as I hoped it would be. I am still noticing that things are getting better for me each day, but I still have a ways to go before I’m 100% back to normal.
For the most part, I’m not doing much and just trying to rest. The one big exception to that is doing my workouts. My workouts are still not near what they normally are, but I am trying to do the best that I can and to continue my routine. That’s what I was able to do the last time I wrote a recap and that’s what I did this past week as well.
I’m still modifying my workouts a lot. I’m limiting things that are face down since I notice those are making me a bit more dizzy. It might have to do with getting up and down so much, but it’s easy to just try to skip those when there are a lot of those exercises. I also rearrange the exercises if I need to so all the standing exercises are bunched together and all the floor exercises are bunched together. It’s not a perfect system, but it’s helping and I keep finding new things that I can do or ways to work around being dizzy.
I’m also still sitting down for some exercises when I can and I hold onto the wall for several standing ones. But I’m noticing that I can test not holding onto the wall or that I’m not feeling as bad after each block. Just like my overall progress, my workout progress is a slow journey and I just have to be patient and only try to push myself a little bit each time.
I know I’ve dealt with this situation before. I’ve had to come back from different injuries and from when I’ve been sick before. I know I can do it again. It’s always just tough for me to remember how slow the progress might be. I’m frustrated when I can’t do what I want to do or what I feel like I should be able to do. And it’s harder now because I’m not working out in the studio with my coach and my friends encouraging me. Working out alone is something that I’m used to, but it’s still not something I love. And I think seeing how it feels trying to get back to my old self is another thing to put on the list of what I don’t like about working out at home.
I’m still considering doing the Orangetheory outdoor workouts in the future. It’s something that I think will help with the motivation and to get me back to feeling like I have my normal workouts again in my life. I can’t do them just yet because I am not driving just yet (hopefully tomorrow I’ll feel up to driving) and I want to get my endurance and strength up a bit more. I know that the outdoor workouts will be harder than what I’ve been doing for the last 8 months, so I want to be more to my normal self before I push myself like that. But it also depends on how bad the cases get around here. I have to still decide if it’s worth the small risk. I know that it’s much safer than many workout places are because it’s outside, everyone has to wear a mask, and people are kept apart. But it’s still a risk that I have to be totally on board with taking. Since I’m not ready to try those workouts, I still have time to decide what I want to do.
I hope that this week, I will continue to make progress and get better. I’m ready to feel a bit more like me and to feel like my workouts are really good and tough. I want to feel strong again. And I want to not have to worry about feeling dizzy in the middle of a workout. I know I’m getting there and I’ll get there eventually. I just would really love for that to happen this week.
Posted onNovember 16, 2020|Comments Off on Almost Missing An Entire Week Of Workouts (or Another Issue With Vertigo)
When I wrote about how I thought this past week of workouts would go for me, my big concern was how I was going to deal with nausea during my workouts. Even though I’ve been having to deal with monthly nausea for 4 years now (almost exactly 4 years to the day), it never really gets easier for me. I have learned tricks to manage it, but it’s still something I have to push through and that causes me to not be able to do my full workouts.
What I didn’t expect was having to deal with vertigo instead. In one way, I guess it’s nice I didn’t have my usual nausea (although vertigo did cause some). But I know how to deal with nausea. I don’t know how to deal with vertigo. And I especially don’t know how to deal with vertigo that is as severe as it was for me. I’ve never had vertigo that lasted more than maybe a few hours. Dealing with it for a week is unheard of for me. And not only did it last really long, but it was also really severe for a lot of that time. And there was nothing I could do about it.
My workouts weren’t necessarily a priority for me while I was dealing with vertigo, but it was something I was thinking about. I knew on Monday that there was no way I could work out. I was barely able to walk that day. So doing more than walking from my bed to my couch was unimaginable for me. Honestly, that walking felt like a huge workout. I never knew trying to find my balance could be so strenuous. Wednesday was a little better than Monday, but workouts were still not an option for me. I tried to do a little more walking around my house, and that was enough for me. I know it’s not a real workout but it’s all I could do.
Friday was a bit of a better day. I actually thought I might be able to work out. I knew I couldn’t do the Zoom workout I normally do on Fridays, but I was hoping I could do the OTF at Home workout that was posted on their app. So that morning I put on my workout clothes when I got dressed. But after getting dressed I got very dizzy again. The vertigo had been getting better, but it hit me really hard and I was a bit surprised by it. I thought maybe I could rest a bit and it would go away, but it never seemed to do that. It did get a bit better, but not to the point where I felt comfortable trying to work out. It did feel really weird to spend my entire day in workout clothes, but I was trying to be optimistic and think that maybe I could do an evening workout.
Saturday was another day that I felt like a workout would be possible. It’s tough to judge if I’m really doing better or just telling myself that I’m better even if I’m not. But again I tried to be optimistic. I got into my workout clothes and didn’t have a lot of extra vertigo. I did feel a little bit more, but I also think now that it might have to do with just getting dressed. So I sat down for a few hours to try to get things feeling better and this time it worked! So I finally could work out again!
The workout on Saturday was not like a normal workout for me. It wasn’t even like a normal workout when I’m nauseous. I was dealing with being weak from not working out at all for a week plus the vertigo issues. I’m grateful that I wasn’t really nauseous on top of all that, but I did have a little nausea to deal with. I had to do a lot of modifications to the workout. If a block had some floor stuff and some standing stuff, I rearranged it so I did all the floor stuff back to back and all the standing stuff back to back. For one block, I actually skipped the floor stuff so I didn’t have to get on the ground again. I was slow and cautious with all my movements because I didn’t know what might trigger vertigo. And I had to take a lot of breaks. I tried to be good and pause the video when I took a break, but that wasn’t always possible.
I did experience vertigo during the workout. Many times, if I was doing something while standing up, I had to hold onto a wall to stay balanced and upright. On the ground, I had to sit up a lot to let vertigo happen and go away. I never knew that crunches could cause vertigo, but I guess they do. And just like earlier in the week, just being balanced was a workout in itself. I was sweating so much just standing. But I’m glad I tried because I was able to do a little bit of a workout. Most of the sweat was probably related to vertigo and not the workout, but at least I know I did something.
And I added a workout on Sunday. I did this for a few reasons. First, I was continuing to feel better so I wanted to do another workout. Also, I figured if I added a Sunday workout, I only missed 2 workouts and not 3 over the week. And finally, I had a minor freakout after my Saturday workout when I tried to do the math about getting to my goal for workouts this year. I don’t know what math I was doing, but somehow it made it seem like I had to do 5 more workouts than I would normally do to make up what I missed (I’ve since figured out my math was very off and I don’t know exactly what happened).
Sunday’s workout went very similar to Saturday’s. I did a lot of modifications to do some exercises while holding on to a wall. I also limited floor work because there was no way to do those without triggering vertigo. I was able to do a bit more than I had the day before, but I also am being gentle with myself and trying to listen to my body more than normal. I know that if vertigo hits me really hard, I am somewhat safe at my house. There are not a lot of things that I would fall onto or trip over if I started to stumble. But I still don’t want to trigger vertigo if I can help it. It’s going to be a lot of trial and error to see what makes it worse and what doesn’t until I’m back to normal. And that plan might change each day that I work out. But I’m willing to try and I’m glad I did the Sunday workout because it did make me feel better.
It wasn’t easy to not workout when I really wanted to this past week. My body wasn’t up to it but my mind was. And as I’ve said before, my workouts help my mental health so it was really hard on me to miss them. I am glad that it seems like my math was wrong and I am still on track for my workout goal. Of course, I’m still going to keep checking on that because I’m paranoid now that my math is still wrong. But I only missed 2 workouts this past week and over the rest of the year, I haven’t missed that many. And I can miss 8 workouts a year and still hit my goal.
Originally, my plan was to try to maybe get to an outdoor workout at one of the studios this week, but I don’t think that will be possible. I’m still recovering from vertigo so my workouts are still hard on me. And because of vertigo, I’m not ready to try to drive yet. I might be safe to drive, but I want to wait until I feel a bit more sure about it. So I’m hoping that this week I can just do my 4 workouts at home and that will be a victory for me!
Posted onNovember 9, 2020|Comments Off on A Weird Workout Week (or Election Week Workouts)
I think everyone can agree that the past week was a weird one. There were so many moments of heightened emotions and many of us didn’t get a lot of sleep. I know at least I didn’t sleep much. And the week and the events going on definitely affected my workouts. Sometimes in a positive way and sometimes in a negative way.
The most normal workout this past week for me was on Monday. While I was already nervous about the election, there wasn’t much I could do about it. I had been making sure all my friends were going to vote and that was that. So my workout was pretty much what I expected. I still have struggled with trying to push myself a lot, but I’m getting better at it. I am starting to modify the workouts a bit more than normal and replacing exercises that I’m more excited to do. I still try to have lots of variety, but sometimes I need to switch it up so I’m not dreading an exercise. It’s not ideal, but it’s how I’m managing.
Wednesday’s workout was a bit of a sluggish one. I didn’t sleep much at all the night before. I was exhausted and emotional. I was also stressed and a little obsessed with checking the news. I tried to look at the workout as a break from the news because I needed it, but taking a break also was stressful because I wanted to see what was happening. I didn’t know if something would be actual breaking news (not just how cable news was calling races too close to call breaking news) and I didn’t want to not know. But I was able to keep my phone face down while working out and I didn’t check social media once during the workout. I know that I was still a bit distracted, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.
Friday was my Zoom workout. I think all of us were really tired that morning. So much had happened overnight and I didn’t get a lot of sleep because of being excited about what was going on. But when I have a Zoom workout, there’s no way I can be distracted. I know my coach would call me out if she saw me on my phone or if I disappeared and wasn’t working out anymore. It was a good break for me and the first real forced break I had from the news since Tuesday. And I know I needed the break and the hard workout. I could tell how much better I was feeling as soon as I was done. Also, as soon as the workout was done and we were stretching I did check social media and updated everyone on how the election was going. I think we all were feeling better knowing that things continued to look good for us and more likely that Joe Biden would be announced President-Elect.
And on Saturday, my workout happened after the announcement had been made. I actually worked out a little later than I planned to because of the news. I was just so excited that the election was finally called. We had been prepared for an Election Week instead of just an Election Day, but I was ready for it to be done. I was getting frustrated with the news not calling it because it seemed like they had called lots of other states that didn’t have as large of a margin. But I guess it was worth the wait because it was such amazing news!
But I didn’t want to miss watching the news and seeing all the celebrations around the country, so I decided to keep my tv on while I did the workout. I always have my workout going on my iPad, so it was easy enough to keep the news on my tv. And I just lowered the volume of the workout during the blocks (after the instructions) so the news ended up being my soundtrack.
It was a good choice for me to keep the news on because it was motivating me. But I know that normally I won’t do that because it also was a bit distracting. But I was ok being a little bit distracted that day because of how incredible it was to see history being made. And while I was trying to work hard, I also was just dealing with a lot of emotions because of the election. I was tired from not sleeping, happy that the results were the way I was hoping (at least with the President and Vice President), and relief that I think we are going to have amazing leaders running our country and hopefully getting things back under control.
This week, my workouts are going to be a bit different because of my schedule, but I’m still planning on getting my 4 workouts in. And hopefully now that the election is done, I can focus a bit more on them than I did this past week. I do know that this week is when I am expecting my nausea to come back, but I’m prepared to push through. I pushed through Election Week, so I can push through Nausea Week.
Posted onNovember 2, 2020|Comments Off on Hell Week/Month Completed! (or I Need To Find Some Motivation For Me)
I’m officially a HellWeekSurvivor! I’ve accomplished this every year I’ve been going to Orangetheory, but it always means a lot to me that I can do this. This year, Hell Week was anything but routine for me. Not only was it spread out over the entire month, but I had to do all the workouts at home. Even though I have almost been doing this for 8 months now (I still can’t believe how long I’ve been doing this), it doesn’t feel normal to me yet. And I think Hell Week made me miss my studio even more than normal.
But even though it felt weird, I am glad that I earned my Hell Week shirt! I don’t have it yet, but I did get a message that we should be getting instructions on how to pick them up soon. I can’t wait to have the new shirt to add to my collection!
All the workouts this past week for Orangetheory at Home were Hell Week ones. Technically, my Friday workout wasn’t an official Hell Week one since I did it over Zoom with my coach. But still, all 4 workouts were tough and I worked hard to get through them all. I was sweating like crazy and sore most days. But it did feel good to push myself and I can only hope that I did something close to what I would have done in the studios.
But even with working hard and wanting to complete my Hell Week workouts, it’s becoming more and more of a struggle for me to get my workouts in. I know I’m not as motivated as I normally am. I notice myself doing my workouts a bit later in the day, which I don’t like too much. I want to be able to do them in the morning so they are done. I don’t want to put them off. But the motivation just isn’t there for me like I know it can be. And this is a struggle I’ve been dealing with since we started having to work out at home. It comes in waves with how much or little motivation I have, but I know that overall my motivation is down much lower than it is when I go to the studio.
I’m hoping that if I’m able to do the outdoor workouts in another week or two that it will help fix this problem a bit. I think the isolation, in general, is tough, but the isolation with workouts when it’s always been a social thing for me is even harder. It was hard for me to find a workout that I loved. I tried so many different things. And with the workouts I enjoyed, it’s always been because of the people around me and coaching me. Even the workouts I didn’t stick with that I enjoyed were about the people. And Orangetheory was the first place that combined the social aspect with a workout that I loved. And I crave getting that back.
I’m not going to give up doing my workouts at home, but I need to find new ways to feel better about doing them. Even if I start going to the outdoor classes, I don’t know if I’d be doing that for all my workouts. So I need to be good at doing the workouts at home.
Having challenges like Hell Week do help with the motivation a bit because I am super competitive and I wouldn’t let something get in the way of me accomplishing it. But I can’t rely on just those challenges to keep me going. I don’t know how long it will be before I can go to my workouts in person for all my classes (either outdoors or in the studio). I’m trying to mentally prepare myself for several more months of this. And it’s not easy. But I know I have to do it. My mental health depends on it. I can’t imagine how much worse I would feel if I didn’t have my workouts as a part of my weekly routine.
But while I do want to focus on improving myself and making things better, I need to remember to celebrate any victories that I can. And for now, I need to celebrate being a Hell Week Survivor during the most hellish year I’ve ever experienced!
Posted onOctober 26, 2020|Comments Off on Another Week Of My Own Hell Week (or Hell Month Is No Joke For Me)
When Hell Week was announced this year, I thought it wouldn’t be as bad as it seemed. It was spread out over the entire month, and even though the last week of the month would be what I’m used to, it seemed like I would almost be easing myself into it. But then I have been dealing with other things that made my workouts harder. For example, I didn’t have any Hell Week workouts the week I was feeling nauseous, but it was just as bad. And that’s kind of what I ended up going through this past week.
I didn’t have any Zoom workouts this past week, so they were all video ones. And I only did the official Orangetheory ones because I wasn’t feeling up to planning out more than that. But for the first two workouts last week, I was still feeling awful. I was struggling so much with the workouts and I actually ended up pausing the video several times to let the nausea pass because I knew I would be missing a majority of the workout otherwise.
I know that I can do more than what I did this past week. I do that when I’m in the studio working out. I don’t know if it’s a lack of motivation or lack of encouragement. But whatever it is, I’m not working as hard as I can even when I do struggle.
Friday’s workout was the first one that I was feeling pretty decent for. I was able to push myself a bit more and I eased into doing some of the harder things that I usually do in my workouts. And on Saturday, I finally had another official Hell Week workout. Thankfully, I was feeling much more like myself for that one.
I still had to do some modifications to that workout because of a few things. Some of the exercises were things I couldn’t do because of my hips. Some of them were things I wasn’t strong enough to do after having so many workouts where I had to take it easy. But I tried really hard to push myself because I know that’s the point of Hell Week. It was only the second Hell Week workout I had done, even though there were already 5 that had happened. But this coming week I’ll be making up for it.
Every day this week is a Hell Week workout. I only need 2 more to earn my shirt, and I’ll get at least 3. It depends on if I have a Zoom workout this week or not. So I’ll either be doing 3 Hell Week workouts and 1 Zoom one or 4 Hell Week workouts. Either way, it’s going to be a hard week to end out the month.
And soon, there’s a chance I might be able to push myself even more. The downtown LA studio has been doing outside classes for a while now. I haven’t gone because they aren’t that close to me. But starting next week, the studio in Marina Del Rey will be doing outside classes. They will be smaller than the normal class size and things will have spacing (plus masks will be required), so they are trying to make it as safe as possible.
Even if I wanted to go, I wouldn’t be able to go for the first few weeks since I’m doing a quarantine right now before seeing my family. But that does allow for time to make sure that everything is running smoothly and I can see if any of my friends are going to do the classes too. I know that the safest workouts will be the workouts I do at home alone, but I also know that I’m craving something more. Even when I feel awful, I want to be doing something more. And these outside workouts might be the safest option for me to find something more than what I’m doing.
But that would still be a few weeks away if I start adding those to my weekly workout. For now, I’m ready for the last week of Hell Week, finishing out this challenge, and earning my shirt!
Posted onOctober 19, 2020|Comments Off on My Own Type Of Hell Week (or Working Through Some Tough Workouts)
Even though it is currently the month-long Hell Week right now, I technically didn’t have any Hell Week workouts this past week. I will get my 4 workouts in to earn my shirt, but I still have a little more time before the next official workout happens when I do my workouts. But that didn’t make this past week any easier for me because it was when I was dealing with really bad pain and nausea.
The week didn’t start off too bad with pain and nausea, but I was dealing with extreme fatigue. Even just getting dressed was exhausting me. I think this was related to all my other hormonal issues and not that I’m sick, but I wasn’t expecting it. But starting on Wednesday, the pain and nausea really kicked in. And it hit me so hard. I got to the point where I was crying a lot because of how awful I felt. But I really tried to push through and do the best that I could.
I went a lot easier on myself because of how I was feeling. I didn’t make my weights as heavy as I normally would. And sometimes I didn’t use weights for some exercises. I just did the movements and tried. And I got into the same feeling of wondering if I was doing enough and having to remind myself that doing something is better than doing nothing.
Fortunately, the workouts this past week didn’t have a ton of exercises that would make nausea worse. I pretty much can’t do face down exercises like planks or I honestly feel like I would throw up. And I rarely am lucky enough to not have to deal with those exercises when I feel sick. But this past week didn’t really have much of those. And the few that were in the exercises were very easy for me to modify. So I do have to focus on that being a positive thing because that was a nice treat for me.
And even with how hard the Zoom workout was, I managed to make it through it. My coach knew I was having a tough time and she let me know there wouldn’t be any face down exercises. The main modifications I had to make were with the mini-bands. Some exercises had mini-bands on our legs while we did squats and I tried to always start those exercises with the bands. And if it was getting too hard on my hips, then I’d take it off to finish the exercise.
I have been doing more jump rope work recently, but I didn’t do any this past week. Jumping rope would make my nausea so much worse and it’s not worth me trying to do it. Maybe I could do a little bit of it, but I also know that’s a really risky thing to do because it could also make me feel awful very quickly. But honestly, I didn’t feel like I was up for it either. I wasn’t upset that I couldn’t do it. I just felt off and I let myself feel that way and not try to force myself to do anything I can’t handle.
I’m hoping this week will be a bit better for me. I’m not sure if it will, because I’m still feeling off. This might last through this entire week, but I’m hoping it might only last a few days. I won’t know until I feel better, which is a little frustrating. I wish I knew that I would feel better on a certain day so I could plan accordingly. But I just have to take it day by day and hope that I am really doing the best that I can.
Posted onOctober 12, 2020|Comments Off on A Month-Long Hell Week (or I’m Still Making Sure I Earn My Shirt)
Ever since I started at Orangetheory, I have participated in HellWeek. I’m pretty sure I’ve completely Hell Week each time and have always earned the shirt too. Hell Week is typically the last week or two of October and you have to complete a majority of the days in order to earn the shirt (like if there are 8 days, you have to do 5). But this year, things are happening a little differently.
Hell Week is actually lasting the entire month. But not every day is a Hell Week workout. There are 12 days throughout the month and we have to complete only 4 of them in order to earn the shirt. And those workouts can be completed in the studio, doing a home workout, or doing one of the official outdoor workouts (we have those in Downtown LA, but I haven’t taken them because of the drive). Fortunately, the studios in LA made a tracker so we can make sure we do all the workouts we need to do.
I think we are going to go to our studio to pick up our shirts when the month is over, but I’m not sure. I have submitted my shirt information to my studio and they said they will update me on how and when I can get my shirt.
But before I did a Hell Week workout this past week, I had 3 other workouts. On Monday, I did the OTF at Home workout using the Orangetheory app. I’m still trying to switch things up between my workouts to give me as much variety as possible, but I still want to make sure I do the workout from the app at least once or twice a week (especially with Hell Week). And I’m learning more and more about how to push myself to make them seem harder so I can try to get back some of my strength.
On Wednesday, I did some of the workouts on the FitOn App. I’ve looked more into the app and I will always have to do more than one video when doing those workouts because of how short they are. I wish they had longer ones, but maybe those will be coming. I still only did workouts that were coached by Brendon, but I did some that were OTF-themed and some that were just his regular ones. I haven’t explored what the other coaches do yet because Brendon is someone I’m familiar with. But I bet I’ll eventually look into it a bit more. Besides the workouts in the app, I also did some jump roping. I am still easing myself back into it and have been looking at some interval workouts to try. But for now, I’m doing 8 rounds with 15 seconds of jumping and 45 seconds of rest. I probably could shorten the rest a bit and maybe I’ll do that this week, but starting around the 5th round I do really need all that rest time to recover. But challenging myself is what I need to do, so maybe that’s what I’ll have to do.
Friday was my Zoom workout with Coach Jenna. We had a slightly shortened workout this time (50 minutes instead of 60), but I think we actually worked more. We didn’t have as much time between exercises and rounds. All of the breaks were super short and I felt like I collapsed into a puddle of sweat when we were done. It was a good challenging workout for me and I do love getting to work out with friends. I keep my screen on the gallery view so I can see everyone working out. It’s not to really look at the others, but it’s nice to glance at the screen and see that I’m not alone in the workout. If I only had Coach Jenna on the screen, it would feel a bit like the other video workouts. I like having our small group together, and I guess it’s good that it’s a small group because it makes it easy to still see Coach Jenna and the video isn’t too tiny.
And Saturday was my first Hell Week workout.
I like how they changed up the video a bit so it felt like it wasn’t the same as all the other workouts. I do wish they had the coach coaching us through the entire thing like they did with the Dri-Tri, but maybe videos like that will happen toward the end of the month. I know those workouts are harder to make than the regular ones. But they did change this up nicely. The workout was a lot because it was mainly the same exercises each round with one variation each time. So I was exhausted. And because it’s Hell Week, they added in times when you would be in a block and then it would be time to do 1 minute of burpees. Burpees are never my favorite, but I tried to do as many as I could with as few modifications during those minutes.
Because of the days that have been selected for Hell Week, I might not be doing another Hell Week workout until almost the end of the month. But I’ll be getting in at least 4 more so I will know I will earn my shirt. Having proof I survived Hell Week is always important, but it almost feels more important this year than any other.
I Hate Not Having As Much Motivation (or A Week Of Workout Struggles)
