Tag Archives: hell week

I only had a little bit of Hell Week left this past week and then I was back to normal workouts. But it was also a week that I was feeling a bit better so I was able to push a bit more and try to have a good workout week. I’ve been having too many weeks where I’m struggling due to various issues, so feeling ok for most of the week and going harder was something I really needed to do.

Monday’s workout was the final day of Hell Week. I had already earned my shirt the week before, and I normally don’t get to do more workouts than required to earn the shirt. But with the way the schedule worked this time, I was able to do 5 Hell Week workouts by just doing my regular schedule.

This workout was called Untitled and it was a partner workout. We hadn’t really done a real partner workout since the pandemic (the workout that was similar to a partner workout at the beginning of Hell Week still had blocks determined by the coach and not by our partners), so it was exciting to have something different. But it also put pressure on the workout to make sure I didn’t slack off and let my partners down.

Before we started the partner section of the workout, we had really short blocks in each section of the room. For cardio and rowing, we had a 30-second base, a 30-second base to push pace, a 30-second push pace, a 30-second push to all-out, and 30-second all-out. And on the floor, we did 30-seconds each for good mornings, squats, skater lunges, in and out steps, and boat holds. Then we go to the partner workout.

For cardio and rowing, whoever was in that part of the room was just going as long as it took to have a switch. We didn’t reset the rower and the goal was to get as many meters as possible during the entire workout. And the person who was on the floor controlled the switch. We had 6 exercises we might have to do on the floor, but we only had to do 3 at a time. We had bicep curls, squat to press, low rows on the straps, chest presses on the straps, sit-ups, and plank reaches. But the Hell Week twist was that at random points during the workout, the 3 exercises the floor person had to do switched. And if you were on the floor when the switch happened, you had to start over and do all of the new exercises. So there were times when someone was on the last exercise and then they switched so they had to start over and the people on cardio and rower had to do double the time. Whenever the person on the floor was done, everyone switched.

I had good partners for this workout and I feel like we all were doing the floor exercises at the same pace so nobody was making the person doing cardio or rowing take longer than necessary (other than when the exercises switched). I really enjoyed this workout and felt like it was the perfect way to end Hell Week.

Tuesday’s workout was the first regular workout after Hell Week. It seemed like a lot of people took the day off, but I was ready to get back to normal workouts. And this workout was one where we could pick and choose some aspects of it, so it worked out well to be a bit of a recovery day.

For cardio, the first two blocks were 4 minutes each and we could decide how we wanted to do those 4 minutes. You could do a progressive push, some all-outs and recovery, or whatever intervals you wanted to do. I decided to do a 3-minute push pace into a 1-minute all-out for both of those blocks. I wasn’t going as fast as I might have done if I wasn’t tired from Hell Week, but I did better than I had done when I was feeling bad. And for the last block, we had rounds of 30-second all-outs and 30-second recoveries.

On the rower, the first block was rounds of a 250-meter row and squats. For the second block, we had rounds of a 250-meter row and lunges. And for the last block, we were matched with cardio with the 30-second intervals of all-outs and recoveries.

And on the floor, the first two blocks were at our own pace and the last block was timed. In the first block, we had sumo deadlifts and plank steps. In the second block, we had squat to bicep curls and single-leg downward dog to leg drives. And in the last block, we had 2 options for what we wanted to do for 30-second intervals. I chose to do the work using the TRX straps so I had tricep extensions and bicep curls and we just switched every 30-seconds which exercise we did. My arms were so tired at the end of that last block!

On Wednesday, I was finally feeling more normal and no longer tired from Hell Week. And it allowed me to push myself a bit more in the workout, which was a good thing since the cardio work was really tough!

We had 2 blocks and in the first cardio block, we had 3 hills to do. For each hill, we started at the highest incline/resistance level and it went down every minute for 3 minutes. Then we had a minute to recover before doing the hills again. I had the resistance levels set to start higher than my all-out level, so it was very tough to pedal. And in the second block, we started at an even higher incline/resistance level and every minute it went down until we were at a flat incline for the all-out at the end. Again, I was spending most of my time at a resistance level higher than my all-out so it was really tough. But it was a good challenge to do and I didn’t focus too much on how fast I was pedaling since I knew I was getting the challenge in another way.

On the rower, both blocks started with a 500-meter row. In the first block, after the row we had 2 rounds of tricep extensions and front presses with a medicine ball before getting on the rower again to row for distance until the block was done. For the second block, we only had to do the exercises once before getting on the rower and the challenge was to try to beat the first distance even though the second block was shorter. I was able to get further in the second block, but I think it helped that I didn’t need to rest between reps with the medicine ball before getting back to rowing.

And on the floor, each block had 3 exercises. The first block had clean to front squats, push-ups, and plank side reaches. And the second block had single-arm neutral thrusters, lunges, and woodchoppers. And as a finisher, at the end of the workout, we had frogger squats. I think I might have made the floor a little easier since the bike work was so tough, but I did try to challenge myself a bit with the weights and allow myself to struggle instead of speeding through the exercises.

Thursday was the day I think I pushed myself the most and also the day that I was feeling the most lightheaded. I did get a chance to talk to my coach after class to try to figure out how to make sure my blood sugar doesn’t keep dropping in class, so I’m hoping that this week might be a bit better for me. I only was dealing with lightheadedness at certain points in the workouts, so I’m glad it wasn’t affecting the entire thing.

For cardio, we mainly had 30-second all-outs for the entire block. We started with 30-second intervals with base and push paces, but only did that twice before starting with the 30-second all-outs. We had a mix of 45-second and 1-minute recoveries between each all-out, which didn’t feel like that much time when we were constantly doing all-outs. I’m much more used to having a base or push pace mixed in there too, so even though we had a lot more recovery time than normal, it wasn’t easy. I mixed things up between using my normal all-out resistance level on the bike and using my base level and just pedaling as fast as possible so I could maximize my efforts on the bike. And I think that was a really good plan for me because I think I was tired but at least the variety helped me not feel too exhausted.

On the rower, we started with a 4-minute row. I had a moment of being lightheaded on the rower, but it passed really quickly so I didn’t have to take a long break. And I focused on just being steady with my rowing and not going too crazy. After the row, we had bicep curls and calf raises with a medicine ball before getting back on the rower for a 2-minute row. We repeated this pattern with cutting the row in half each time and the goal was to beat at least half the distance each time. Because the rows kept getting shorter, I was able to not only do better than half the distance, but my wattage on the rower was going up significantly each time. That was unexpected since I usually am in a very small range with the wattage for all my rows.

And on the floor, we had 3 blocks. In the first block, it was supposed to be all Bosu work, but I had to do them without using the Bosu. We had knee tucks, bicycle crunches, and back extensions. The knee tucks were really hard for me to do, but they always are so I just had to go slowly and rest when I needed to. The second block had step-back low rows and skier swings and the last block had chest presses and lunges. For those last two blocks, the lightheadedness really hit me hard. I just have to sit and let it pass when that happens, so that’s what I did. I didn’t love that it took away from my workout, but I also made up for it by trying to push myself even more when I was doing the exercises. And hopefully, some of the tips I got from my coach will help me moving forward.

I think that this was the perfect way to end Hell Week. I had some really great workouts and I still tried to push myself. And this week, I might be pushing myself a bit more (but I’ll have to share about that when I do my recap) and I’ll be doing my first workout that is not in California! I’m very excited to share about that!

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This past week was the start of Hell Week. I do love the different challenges that Orangetheory has throughout the year and Hell Week is one of my favorites. Hell Week has harder than normal workouts, but if you complete a specific number of them, you earn a shirt. I know it seems silly to be excited about a shirt, but it’s about the bragging rights more than anything. This year, you had to do 4 out of the 8 workouts to earn your shirt. And if you do all 8, you earn a gym bag as well. I knew I couldn’t do all 8 workouts, but I was excited to get my workouts in and earn my shirt this year. And since Hell Week started on a Monday, I was able to get in all 4 workouts required for the shirt in the first 4 days! I had the added challenge during the week with dealing with pain and nausea, but I think it was better this past week than it was the week before.

Monday’s workout was called Group Project and it was a bit of a partner workout. It wasn’t a traditional partner workout because the switches were done as a class and you weren’t waiting on your partners to finish something, but the 3 of us in my group still worked together on the workout.

For cardio, you ran or biked for distance until the last 30-seconds of each block when you had an all-out. But you didn’t know how long you’d be in that block, so you had to pace yourself without knowing how long you had to go for. You had a bit of an idea because the timing correlated to the rowing, but it was still something that only the coach knew.

On the rower, each time someone in the group was on the rower they had a different distance. It started with the first partner doing a 200-meter row and then they held a squat until it was time to switch. Some people finished the row and some people didn’t. The next partner had a 300-meter row and a squat hold, and that pattern of increasing the row by 100-meters continued until one partner had a 700-meter row and a squat hold. After that row, the rows decreased by 100-meters each time.

And on the floor, we had the same exercises every time we were on the floor and you picked up where you left off after the last block. We had pull-ups on the straps, plank shoulder taps, upright rows using weights, and lunges. I felt like the only place I could get a bit of a break was on the floor since we were constantly moving around. But it was a good challenge to always be changing what we were doing and I really enjoyed the opening workout of Hell Week.

Tuesday’s workout was called The Distance Directive and it was all about challenging yourself with the distance you could do for cardio and on the rower.

For cardio, the first block was a 6-minute distance challenge where we started at a high incline/resistance level and the incline/resistance went down every 90-seconds. I started higher than I normally am for my all-out to keep it challenging. And after that challenge, we had a 30-second all-out without incline. We were supposed to remember our distance so we could try to beat it in the second block. The second block had rounds of a 1-minute all-out with a 30-second recovery. And each all-out increased in incline/resistance level to match what we had done in the first block. Doing an all-out at really high resistance levels was so tough and I struggled to get my distance up there. But I managed to do the exact same distance in the first and second blocks so I was very happy with that.

On the rower, we started with 4 rounds of a 1-minute all-out row with a 30-second rest after each row. We ended that block with a 30-second all-out. Again, we were supposed to remember our distance to try to beat it in the second block. The second block started with doing half the distance we did in the first block. Then we had lunges to hops to get done before trying to do the second half of the distance from the first block. I just came short of getting to that distance the second time, but I’m happy with how close I got.

On the floor, each block had a buy-in and buy-out exercise to start and end the block. In the first block, we had hop overs and in the second block, we had lateral lunges. Then for each block, we had 3 exercises to do and we had a range of reps to go for so we could test out different weights. The first block had tricep extensions, chest presses, and knee tucks. And the second block had bicep curls, reverse grip low rows, and high plank knee tucks. I was feeling a lot better this day compared to Monday, so I was able to do a bit better with the workout. But I didn’t change up the weights I used on the floor, which I do regret a little bit. I could have tried harder, but I was worried about pushing myself too much.

Wednesday’s workout was called To Hell Or High Wattage, and I think this was the hardest workout of the entire week. We had a coach in class with us for this workout and that coach as well as the one who was coaching the class agreed that this was very hard and possibly the hardest workout for all of Hell Week.

For cardio, we were self-timed for the entire workout. We started with a .25-mile (or 1-mile for me on the bike) push into a 30-second all-out. Then we had pulsing half squats. We repeated the pattern of the 30-second all-out and pulsing half squats 2 more times before doing another .25-mile/1 mile distance and we repeated the pattern again with doing the distance and then 3 rounds of a 30-second all-out with pulsing half squats. It didn’t sound hard when we were being told what the workout would be, but doing it was another thing. The half squats definitely got to me and I knew I would be sore later.

On the rower, we had a lot of timed work. We started with a 75-second push row into a 30-second all-out row. The second block had 3 rounds of a 30-second all-out row with only 15-seconds to recover between each row. The third block had a 2-minute push row into a 30-second all-out row. The fourth block had 4 rounds of a 30-second all-out row with 15-seconds to recover. And the last block was a 2 1/2-minute push row with a 30-second all-out. That was a lot of rowing and very little rest. And I know that rowing has been a weak point for me lately so that made this even more challenging. I was exhausted after the row blocks, and I still had the floor do to.

On the floor, we had some blocks that were timed with the rowers and some that were at our own pace. For blocks 1, 3, and 5; we paced ourselves with the exercises. We had single-leg squats (which I did as regular squats) and rollouts using the straps. The rollouts were extra tough because I had gotten my flu shot the day before, so I was a bit sore. But I’m glad that I was only sore and didn’t feel worse.  In blocks 2 and 4, we had exercises during the 30-second intervals and rest in the 15-second intervals. All the exercises were single-arm snatches, but sometimes we focused on one side for the entire 30-seconds and then switched sides when it was the next interval, and other times we had alternating sides during the 30-seconds so you had to put the weight down on the ground to switch hands. When we had the alternating ones, I know I did deeper squats to get the weight on the ground, and that added to the soreness I was already feeling.

I was very sore on Thursday. I knew that I would probably feel that way since I was doing 4 Hell Week classes in a row. But I was excited to earn my shirt in that workout. This workout was called Switch The Core Concept, and I’m glad that it was a bit easier on my legs so I didn’t hurt more.

For cardio, we started with a 1-minute push pace into a 30-second all-out. Then for the rest of the workout, we had 30-second all-outs and recoveries. I believe it was a total of 12 all-outs, but I honestly lost count. We started with having a 1-minute recovery and after a few rounds, it decreased to 45-second recoveries. And I believe the last 6 all-outs only had 30-second recoveries. It was a lot to do and not a lot of time to recover during the entire block. I kept my resistance levels the way I normally have them, but I know I didn’t pedal as fast as I normally would.

On the rower, we had an interesting challenge. We set our rowers for a 2000-meter row and the goal was to get as much of it done as possible. We started timed with cardio with a 1-minute push row to a 30-second all-out row. Then we had overhead presses and front presses with the medicine ball. When we were on the rower, we started with rounds of 30-second all-out rows with the medicine ball exercises between each row. After a few minutes, we had 45-second all-out rows with a decreased number of reps for the exercises. And for the last few minutes, we had 1-minute all-out rows with even fewer reps of the medicine ball exercises. I knew I wouldn’t get 2000-meters done, but I was hoping to get at least 1500-meters completed at the end of the block, and I did just over that. I was so happy that I saw I only had 500-meters left of the 2000-meters when there were about 5 seconds left in the block.

And on the floor, it was all core work, as you could guess from the name of the workout. It was one long block and it was a lot. We had plank low rows, weighted crunches, bicycle presses, weighted v-ups, plank pull-throughs, and weighted hip bridges. I had to go a bit lighter for some of the weights because of how sore my legs were. But I’m glad that I didn’t have to do more squats after Wednesday’s workout. I rested when I had to on the floor, but I tried to limit it since I knew that this would be my last workout for the week.

After doing 4 Hell Week workouts in a row, I totally earned my shirt. Unfortunately, the shirts I’ve earned don’t fit me but I still collect them because maybe one day I will fit in them. I lost my first Hell Week shirt, so I only have 8 or the 9 that I have earned. But I still think it’s a very impressive collection.

Even though I have completed the Hell Week challenge, I will still have one more Hell Week workout since Halloween is today. And I’m hoping that I do just as well with that workout as I did this past week to finish out a fun but tough OTF challenge!

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I knew this past week would be tough for me because I would likely be dealing with pain and nausea. Fortunately, that’s all I had to deal with this past week because the side effects from the new medication weren’t affecting me the same way as they did the week before. I have gotten into a good routine in the morning to make sure that I’m feeling ok and I’m glad it was working. Even though I would have loved to feel great during my workouts, at least it was only issues that I’m used to. And it also got me ready for Hell Week, which is starting this week.

Monday’s workout felt like more of an endurance day even though I know there were also strength and power elements in it. Maybe the way I get through workouts when I’m nauseous makes them seem more like endurance days.

For cardio, we had one long block but we had a lot of recovery time in it. We started with a 2-minute base pace and then had a 1-minute push pace and a 30-second all-out. After the all-out, we had 3 minutes to recover and get back to our base pace when we were ready. We repeated that pattern again and then we ended with a 1-minute all-out. Because my recovery and base pace resistance levels are the same on the bike, I did the recovery by pedaling very slowly and then increasing my cadence until I was at what I do for a base pace.

On the rower, we had one block with 3 mini-blocks in it. We were supposed to do each mini-block 3 times. The first mini-block had a 200-meter row and jump squats, which I did as squats with calf raises. The second mini-block had a 150-meter row and lunges. And the last mini-block had a 100-meter row and squat jacks, which I did as regular squats. I didn’t get through all of the rounds of the 100-meter row, but I got through most of it which is better than a lot of my recent classes.

And on the floor, we also had a long block with mini-blocks. The first mini-block had goblet squats and reciprocating rows with weights. And the second mini-block had deadlifts and leg raises. We were supposed to do the first mini-block twice before moving on to the second, and I was on my second round of the second mini-block when we were stopped to do a 1-minute finisher of hop overs, which I did as lunges.

On Tuesday, we had an interesting workout. We had 4 blocks at each section of the room and they got shorter each time. And the workouts within each block were either the same or very similar so we had a lot of chances to do each thing.

For cardio, the first block had a 2-minute push pace, 1-minute base pace, and 30-second all-out. For each block after that, the push pace got 30-seconds shorter so for the last block we only had a 30-second push pace.

On the rower, we were timed with cardio so we had the same intervals. We did push rows and all-out rows. But instead of having a 1-minute base pace, we had a minute to do forward and back hops, and then we could rest if there was any time left. I couldn’t do the hops, but I did do shuffle steps instead and I usually had about 15-seconds left to get back on the rower and ready for the all-out row.

And on the floor, almost everything was timed to be 30-second intervals. For the first block, we had squats to bicep curls, lunges, plank rows, bicycle presses, plank jacks, and squat jumps. The plank jacks were the only thing not done as a 30-second interval. For those, we had 1-minute to do 12 of them and then could rest for any extra time. And each block, we lost one of the 30-second exercises. There wasn’t any time between exercises like we sometimes have, so we were rushing to get from one exercise to another to make sure we didn’t lose too much time in the transition.

On Wednesday, my nausea was really kicking in and it was pretty hard for me to get through a lot in this workout. I was trying to manage it with medication, but it didn’t help me much this day. For each section of the room, we had 2 blocks.

For cardio, we started with a 2-minute push pace followed by a 1-minute base pace. Then we had a 30-second push pace to a 30-second all-out. Then we had a quick recovery before doing another 30-second all-out. For the second block, we started with a 1-minute push pace instead of a 2-minute push pace. We repeated the same pattern but we had 4 all-outs in this block instead of the 2 we had in the first block.

On the rower, the first block had distance rows with an exercise between each row. We were told to make sure we weren’t going too fast with the row because if you finished all 3 you were supposed to be in a squat hold. But I knew with how I was feeling, there wasn’t any worry that I would get through all 3. We had a 400, 300, and 200-meter row. And between each row, we had good mornings which are similar to deadlifts without a weight. In the second block, we started with small crew rows. We were paired with the person next to us and we were supposed to row together. I had the person I was paired with be the leader since I knew I would have to take a break at some point. But I only needed one break during a 2 1/2-minute crew row which is much better than I thought I would do. After the crew row, we did the same all-outs we had for cardio. I did better with those since they were short.

On the floor, both blocks had 2 mini-blocks and the first mini-block each time used the mini-bands. In the first block, we started with hip bridges and torso rotations using the mini-band. And then we had lateral step-ups and low rows. The second block started with toe reaches and single-leg bridges (which I did as regular hip bridges). And then we had shoulder presses and step-ups with bicep curls. I lowered the bench so I could do the step-ups. I didn’t go too heavy with any of the weights I used, but I’m glad I did try all the exercises as much as I could.

I was feeling almost the same on Thursday as I did on Wednesday, so it was pretty rough. But I still pushed through and did everything that I could.

For cardio, the first block was rounds of a 2-minute push pace and a 1-minute base pace. And the push pace had increasing inclines/resistance levels so each time it got harder. The second block had rounds of a 1-minute all-out and a 1-minute recovery and the all-outs had increasing inclines/resistance levels. I did get to use resistance levels higher than I normally would, but I was already struggling on the bike so I couldn’t really tell how much harder it was than normal.

On the rower, we were timed along with cardio. We did 2-minute rows in the first block and then had a minute to do forward and back hops (which I did as shuffle steps). I was happy to see that I was able to do the row without stopping each time and I actually got further with my distance each time. And in the second block, we had 1-minute all-out rows and then we were supposed to do jumping jacks. But I was getting really nauseous after the rows and I ended up using that minute to rest and let the nausea pass.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks and each block had 2 exercises so we were supposed to go slowly and use heavy weights. In the first block, we had step-downs to toe taps and single-arm high rows. For the step-downs, I lowered the bench and did the first round without weights to make sure I had enough balance for it. But I did use light weights after that and it was a good challenge for me. And the second block had single-arm chest presses and crunches. Fortunately, those exercises weren’t too bad for me.

This week is the start of Hell Week and I should be earning my shirt during my workouts this week. But I also know I might have worse pain and nausea this week as well. So there’s a chance it will be a double Hell Week for me. I’ll just have to see how it goes.

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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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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!

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Ever since I started at Orangetheory, I have participated in Hell Week. 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.

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