Tag Archives: hip issues

Pre-Burning Jewish Christmas Calories (or Holiday Workouts)

Posted on December 29, 2014 | 1 comment

This past week of workout were intense! That’s good because I had a nice splurge on Christmas, but it was not easy getting through the week!

Monday and Wednesday both were Christmas themed workouts (since those were in the days leading up to Christmas). They reminded me a lot of Hell Week during Halloween and were pretty much as tough as those workouts were.

Monday’s theme was the 12 Days Of Christmas. We had a list of 12 cardio tasks and a list of 12 strength tasks. This was the cardio list.

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It went 100 meter row, 2 minute push, 3 squat curls, and so on. You worked your way down the list and if you were able to complete it, you worked your way back up.

The first few things on the list weren’t too bad. It was a nice way to ease into the workout. At 7 (or the 700 meter row) I was starting to get exhausted. I slowed my rowing down to try to keep my form nice and it seemed like that row took forever! I did make it to the 1200 meter row, but I only completed about 300 meters of it before it was time to switch to the strength portion.

This was also a list of 12 tasks, but you went through the tasks like the 12 Days of Christmas song. I don’t remember all 12 tasks but the first few were 1 full burpee, 2 squat jumps, 3 push-ups, and 4 pop jacks. But instead of working down the list like we did for cardio you started with 1 burpee; then 2 squat jumps and 1 burpee; then 3 push-ups, 2 squat jumps, and 1 burpee.

Holy moly was that tough! I think I made it to 10 on that list before time was called. The last task of the day was the Monday Challenge. I saw a sneak peek at the challenge on Instagram and new ahead of time that is was going to be a 100 meter row. I didn’t have a previous record saved in my phone for a 100 meter row, but I did have a 1 minute record of 313 meters. So I set it in my head that I wanted to do better than 20 seconds. And I managed to do it in 19.5 seconds, so I was pretty darn happy with myself!

Wednesday’s workout was Christmas Eve so I tried to dress festively.

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Sadly, that little Santa hat that I’m wearing broke right before I took the picture. It was attached to a headband that snapped in half when I tried to wear it. Oh well.

The theme on Wednesday was Naughty or Nice. There were 2 stockings in the room, one for cardio and one for strength. When you did the cardio section, you pulled a card from the stocking and it told you what to do. After completing that task 3 times, you pulled a new card. There were Nice cards that were short exercises and there were Naughty cards (like having to do a 5K on the treadmill or rowing machine). I was lucky and only pulled Nice cards during cardio. It was essentially run/row workouts. The first card was .13 mile run (really a walk for me) and then 400 meters on the rowing machine. My second card was a 1 minute all-out pace on the treadmill followed by a 1 minute row. I just got through those 2 cards when time was called.

For the strength section, we all had the same exercises to do. But the cards would tell us how many reps we had to do of each workout. I pulled 2 Nice cards and 1 Naughty card. In the end, I did about 80 reps of each workout.

On Friday, I was a bit tired and feeling the effects of my Chinese food, but I was ready to burn off all that junk in my system. The cardio portion was all treadmill and the strength portion was a mixture of body weight, strap work, rowing, and abs. I was doing ok until the abs portion. I’m really losing flexibility in my hips (this is actually really worrying me and will be something I discuss when I interview potential new hip surgeons), and the lack of flexibility makes sit-ups and crunches really tough to do. I can’t really have my feet flat on the floor and bring my upper body to my legs. The pain in my hips is too intense. So most of the time, I either do crunches where I don’t bring my upper body up as much or have my legs straight out in front of me.

Doing full body sit-ups with your legs straight ahead of you is not easy to do, and my Friday coach Whitney saw that I was struggling and in a lot of pain. So she came over and held my legs down so I could successfully complete my sit-ups.

It’s the little touches like that where you can really see that the coaches at Orangetheory care about you and want to see you succeed that makes me so happy that I found my workout home.

I only did 3 workouts this week. My body probably could not have taken a 4th workout this time. But with the New Year almost here I’ve got some goals set in my head that will make the 4th workout more of a regular thing.

But it’s not time for me to share my 2015 goals quite yet. That’s coming up in a few days.

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Default ThumbnailBack To 4 Workouts (or More Rowing!) Default ThumbnailDoing Some Challenges (or Mondays Are Going To Be Tough) Default ThumbnailGetting My Rowing In (or Burning Lots Of Calories) Default ThumbnailPre-Burning Thanksgiving Calories (or Working Out In LA and San Diego) Default ThumbnailSome Holiday Workouts (or Back On The Treadmill This Week) Default Thumbnail12 Days Of Christmas Workouts (or This Feels A Lot Like Hell Week)

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Posted in Celebrations, Fitness, Food, Fun Stuff, Health, Weight Loss

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I Really Am Doing Everything Right (or It’s Frustrating Not Losing Weight)

Posted on December 25, 2014 | Comments Off on I Really Am Doing Everything Right (or It’s Frustrating Not Losing Weight)

First of all, Merry Christmas everyone! I hope that you are all having an amazing day doing exactly what you want to do today! My recap of Christmas will come soon.

I’ve been on a very good path lately. My exercise routine is getting to be in a very good place. I’m going to Orangetheory 3 times a week every day and I’m even adding a 4th day every so often. I’m thinking that for 2015 I will do 1 week of 3 workouts and then 1 week of 4 workouts just to push myself.

I’m getting so much stronger and I know that I’m getting much healthier. While I haven’t necessarily tested my cardiovascular abilities, I know that I don’t feel as tired as I did my first few weeks of workouts after the cardio section. And I can row much farther than before without having to take a break.

There are some things that aren’t on the right track. My hips are hurting more and more each day. They aren’t nearly as bad as I know that they can get, but I do sometimes miss my pain-free days as now they are much less frequent than they used to be. I’m also starting to lose a bit of flexibility that I had worked very hard to get back after my hip surgery. I’m not sure what exactly is causing this, but I think it’s a combination of the pain and maybe my muscles being stronger and bigger. I’m going to be interviewing new orthopedic surgeons soon and this is a concern that I’m going to bring up with them.

And finally, I’m starting to get my food in control. I’m getting very comfortable with cooking and in fact am planning on spending some time today reorganizing my kitchen to help make things more efficient when I am doing my bulk cooking.

I still have some food setbacks, but they aren’t as often or as crazy as they used to be. Having my food ready for me the moment I’m hungry really does help stop me from needing to run to the store to buy something in desperation.

So why am I frustrated?

I’m really not losing weight at the pace I feel like I should be. I know the saying that muscle weighs more than fat and I could just be gaining muscle, I should be seeing the scale go down in more significant increments that they are doing right now.

I know that sometimes it takes some time for the weight loss to show up on the scale so I’m trying to be patient. But having that instant gratification of knowing that I’m doing the right things really does help with motivation. And I have some clothes in 1 size smaller that I’d really like to start wearing.

I really don’t think I can do more than I’m doing right now. I guess I can work on adding more workout days, but I do need those recovery days for my hips to stop hurting. And I don’t want to decrease or increase my daily calories. The number of calories that I’m eating right now is something that my old therapist/nutritionist set up for me and I know that it’s a good number for me.

So for now, I just have to keep doing what I’m doing and hope that my scale pays attention one day.

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Working Out Injured (or No Excuses)

Posted on November 17, 2014 | Comments Off on Working Out Injured (or No Excuses)

This past week was a week of injured workouts. I had hip pain due to the 5K and the weather and what I am considered one of the worst blisters I’ve ever had in my life.

But I didn’t let that stop me from working out at Orangetheory 3 times this week!

Monday was definitely a struggle. I had my foot bandaged up, but that almost seemed to make the problem worse. Because of the bandage, my shoe didn’t fit properly. It was a run/row day, which I thought would make things easier. I assumed that the treadmill would be the toughest part for me. Turns out, the rower was extremely painful. I went very slowly with the rowing section and probably didn’t get as good of a workout as I could have, but something is better than nothing.

The Monday Challenge was holding a medicine ball over your head while you were in a deep squat. My arms were doing fine, but after about 30 seconds the bandage on my foot felt like it ripped in half. To make sure I didn’t hurt myself further, I quit after that. I didn’t make the top 5 for the challenge, but I’m ok with that.

On Wednesday before my workout, the new challenge was announced. It was a slower day at work, so between calls and chats from customers, I made myself a checklist to make sure I would win the free shoes!

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My OCD and hyper-organizational skills do come in handy from time to time.

For that workout, I decided to not wear a bandage on my foot but instead cover the blister in Bacitracin and blister block. While my foot did feel tender, it was much less painful that Monday’s workout. I still had to do modifications (like doing my squats on my toes instead of my heels), but since I’m used to doing modifications for my hip issues, this wasn’t a big deal.

Friday was another run/row day. The rowing is still tough, but it’s significantly better than it was on Monday. My blister is healing very nicely. I’ve been coating it in Bacitracin when I go to sleep and that does seem to be making a difference. I thought it would take 6 weeks for it to fully heal, but I think in a few more weeks it should be back to normal. But while the rowing was tough for me on Friday, since it was a strength day I decided to push myself. For the weights, I used 15 pound weight for everything except the Ultimate Burpees. I started working out at Orangetheory using the 10 pound weights. And lately I’ve been using 12 pounds and occasionally doing 15. But this time, I wanted to see what I could do. My arms are a little sore, but nothing drastic.

While this might not have been my best workout week and my highest calorie burns. This week was a major victory for me. There was a time where I felt like I had to take a week off from everything after a 5K. My feet would hurt so much and I would be exhausted. Even last year I would take a few days off after a race to recover. But now, I’m back to my usual workouts within 2 days. And not only that, I didn’t let being injured stop me either! I just found a way to work around it and keep going.

This is definitely a new me when it comes to working out. I can’t believe how much I’ve changed in the past few months. Just a year ago, I thought doing 3 tough workouts in a week would be too much for me. But now, that’s my regular routine. And I go out of my way to make sure I get my 3 workouts in a week. And soon, in order to win my free shoes, I’ll be doing 4 workouts in a week.

That should be interesting.

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Doubling Up On Pain (or Physical and Mental Pain Together)

Posted on November 12, 2014 | Comments Off on Doubling Up On Pain (or Physical and Mental Pain Together)

Yesterday was definitely not a good day for me. I’m still dealing with the blister issue from my 5K. It’s gotten worse and it’s starting to get painful to put my foot all the way down. I can’t really do too much for it right now because it just needs time to heal. But I’m not wearing shoes with backs on them unless I have to (like for my workouts). I’m putting as little pressure and stress on my skin as possible.

Then, if that wasn’t enough, I’m having some serious hip issues. Part of it is from the race because I pushed myself and then spent time being inactive after that (I had to babysit that evening and spent my time on the couch listening to the baby sleep). But it’s also due to weather issues and the change in pressure in the air. I’m back to regulating my pain killers like I do at times and making sure that I’m always medicated (3 of my painkillers a day equals 24 hours of being medicated).

That’s annoying to deal with, but yesterday brought on a panic attack as well.

This was one of the panic attacks that I can’t explain (I’m not going to the dentist or flying anytime soon). This wasn’t the worst one I’ve had lately, so that was good. And the timing was not bad since the attack started right after I was done with my work shift.

But it was still annoying.

I went and tried to lay down on my bed to make the dizziness stop but that seemed to make it worse. So I sat on my bed with my eyes closed and tried to focus on anything besides the feeling of impending doom and like I was about to die.

The attack ended up only lasting about 45 minutes and afterwards I was able to get back to my day (I usually am extremely exhausted after attacks so this was a nice change).

While it may sound like I’m ranting (and I am a little bit), all of this was just a reminder that most of these issues (not the blister one) are pretty much going to be with me for life. I need to be able to function while having these problems and not let them affect my day. I’m getting better doing that with my hip. But when I’m in the middle of a panic attack, I can’t do anything else yet. I just have to let it pass.

And maybe allowing myself to not do anything and let it pass is doing the exact right thing at the time. It may throw off my day a bit, but I don’t have to let it ruin it.

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Tough Workouts (or Having Challenges Every Day)

Posted on October 27, 2014 | Comments Off on Tough Workouts (or Having Challenges Every Day)

This past week was not my best week of workouts. I still went 3 times during the week, but I was not able to really put out a full effort each time.

It’s probably a good thing that I had a bad week. It proved to me that even when I can’t do my best, I can still do something. And I did burn at least 450 calories in each class (that’s a lot in 60 minutes!).

Monday wasn’t that bad of a day. The workout went really great and I was pushing myself like crazy. I’m trying to move up in what weights I use during the strength portion. I used to always start at 10 pounds and go from there, but now I’m starting at 12 pounds. And I’m finding that for most things (except lateral arm moves) that is a good weight for me. I’d like to eventually move up to the 15 pounds weights, but I don’t have a timeline for that yet.

The Monday Challenge was a running challenge. I hate those. There isn’t always a modification for the challenge for walkers so I’m not able to fully participate in them. This challenge was running at 10.5 MPH for as long as you can. I didn’t attempt it because I was terrified that I would fall off the treadmill. So instead, I did 4 MPH at 15% incline (the highest incline the treadmill can do). I managed a little over 30 seconds at that. I wasn’t timed because it wouldn’t count, but even if I was timed, everyone was over the 1 minute mark so I wouldn’t have made it on the wall. But I tried. And when this challenge comes around again, maybe I can do 45 seconds.

Wednesday was tough because it was the day after my bad food day. Eating like that really affected my workout. I felt sluggish and had trouble focusing. I was having dizzy spells similar to what I had when I had my ear issues. I was totally thrown off and the trainer, JZ, noticed. But the important thing is that I showed up and tried.

And Friday, my hip decided that it had enough of me. My bones kept grinding against each other all day. And while I was carefully timing my 2 types of painkillers and making sure to take them every 8 hours (for one pill) and every 4 hours (for the other pill), my hip kept catching and walking was extremely difficult for me. It didn’t help either that my heart rate monitor is class was glitchy. I usually look at it to see if I’m hitting the heart rate zones I need to. And if I’m too low or too high I adjust things. But my heart rate was going from 60% to 105% and all over the place. So I have no idea if my effort was what was needed. And I didn’t want to leave class to get a new one so I just sucked it up.

After my Friday workout, my hip started to get much worse. Every time this happens I freak out a little bit. Now it’s a bigger freak out. I’ve now realized that when I have my next surgery (no matter which hip surgery ends up being my next one), I’ll be out of commission as far as workouts go for at least a month or so. If my next surgery is making my left hip like my right one (not getting a hip replacement), there is a chance that I could at least do the strength section (I just wouldn’t be able to stand without crutches and therefore couldn’t go on the treadmill).

I can’t think like that right now, but I can’t help it. Now that I’m getting in a groove, anything that alters that makes me worry that I will have trouble returning to it. I’m debating making an appointment with my surgeon again, but I don’t think that anything he says will be different from last time (I have the option to do the surgery whenever I want).

In the meanwhile, I’m looking forward to another week of workouts this week and hopefully I’ll have some more positive days!

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Another Week In Workouts (or Finally Able To Do Some Jumping Jacks)

Posted on September 15, 2014 | 1 comment

First of all, if this post is a little crazy, I apologize. I’m writing this after having been up for 38 hours straight. I’ll write about that soon, but for now, I’m doing another weekly recap of workouts!

In my sleep deprived state, I really can’t remember a ton of specifics about each workout this week. But there is one thing that totally sticks out in my mind.

Pretty much since 2005, I haven’t been able to do jumping jacks. 2005 is when my hip issues started. And honestly I don’t know the time prior to 2005 that I ever did any.

Before my hip surgery, everything was just too painful to try any higher impact activities. And right after my surgery, I had to avoid them as the bone healed from where the bone spur was removed.

I had been warned for several years in follow-up visits that high impact activities can cause my other hip to go bad quicker or to need a hip replacement quicker. So I did modifications for most high impact things (or avoided them all together).

When I used to workout with Richard Simmons, modifications were easy to find. He would always do several types of modifications (including some for the people who worked out while in chairs). So I was fine doing them there.

At SoulCycle, it wasn’t as much modification, but more avoiding specific motions that aggravated my hips. Since I didn’t have to find a new way to do something, that was easy too.

But at Orangetheory, modifications aren’t always given (they are given a lot though). And sometimes I have had to remind the trainer that I’m not able to do that specific motion that they have asked us to do.

But as I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been pushing myself to do more and more things. Part of it is that I’m getting stronger, and the other part is that I’m no longer living in fear of hurting my hips quicker (but I still am avoiding things like skiing or ice skating that are really dangerous for me to do). I’ve done jump squats (and it turns out I can jump pretty high!), plank jacks, and mountain climbers.

And for the first time this week, I did jumping jacks!

They weren’t pretty but they were done. I think we only had to do 10 at a time so that wasn’t too horrible. And I did take it easy on the second round of them.

But the point is that I did them! I’m sure if my hip surgeon is reading this he wouldn’t be thrilled about it, but like I said, I can’t live in fear of hurting my hips. I’ve pretty much been told that these other surgeries are going to happen eventually, so I can’t put them off forever.

I wish I could tell you more about the workout this week, but honestly my mind is so foggy right now (I’m writing this at 9pm on Sunday night and I’ve been awake since 7am Saturday morning). But I wanted to make sure that I got my Monday Workout Recap out to you all!

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Ice Bucket Challenge (or I Guess My Floors Are Clean Now)

Posted on August 29, 2014 | Comments Off on Ice Bucket Challenge (or I Guess My Floors Are Clean Now)

I’ve been enjoying watching all the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge videos. Some of them are really creative or silly, and I think getting the awareness of any disease is awesome. Plus, the challenge has helped to raise so much money!

Even though I’ve been enjoying watching the videos, I’ve been very happy that I haven’t had to do one myself. It is really hot here in LA, but the idea of dumping a bucket of water over my head isn’t really appealing. And for all of you concerned about the drought (I’m concerned too!), I don’t have a lawn or wash my car so I think I can waste a little bit of water.

I don’t know how I made it so long without getting nominated, but the other night (as some of you might have seen on Instagram) I accidentally took the Ice Bucket Challenge.

I was getting a glass of ice water to drink from my kitchen before going to watch some TV I had recorded on my DVR. I get a glass of water plenty of times throughout the day. Nothing was different this time.

Except that my right hip decided to not work as I was walking. My hip caught and locked up so I pretty much stopped mid-step. And being off-balance like that caused me to fall and land flat on my butt.

And that glass of water that was in my hand went all over my face and down the front of my shirt. And it was a pretty large glass of water too!

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After the initial shock of falling down and getting soaked with ice water, I did a quick evaluation to make sure I was ok. My hip was fine but my butt was killing me. The next morning I would wake up with a nice bruise.

Whenever I fall I’m scared that I did some serious damage to either of my hips. They both have their own issues and my hip surgeon has warned me against doing anything that might cause me to fall on a hard surface (skiing, roller skating, ice skating). So falling down on my floors is not ideal, but not the end of the world.

I’m also grateful that I almost always use a plastic glass for my water. They are bigger glasses than my fancy ones. And if this had happened with one of my fancy glasses, I probably would have had broken glass to worry about (and I was barefoot when this happened). So I’m lucky in that sense.

So all of you who were considering nominating me for the Ice Bucket Challenge don’t have to nominate me now. And since I accidentally took it, I’m not going to nominate anyone else.

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My Hips Ruined Part Of My Weekend (or Maybe I Should Pay Attention To The Weather)

Posted on August 6, 2014 | 1 comment

This past weekend I had a lot of things that I wanted to get done.

On Saturday, I had my friend’s party and right before that I had an audition for a commercial. As I wrote yesterday, the party was awesome. My audition wasn’t great, but I did the best I could.

The entire day I was in a lot of pain. I didn’t realize that it was going to rain over the weekend. I’ve been working a lot of graveyard shifts and I realized this past weekend that by working those hours, I haven’t really seen the news in a while. The evening news is on while I’m at work and the morning news is on while I’m still sleeping (when you get home at 3am, you don’t wake up that early).

I figured that the pain was due to all of my workouts and it was just getting worse because of all the use (and all the rowing I’m doing which really uses my hip flexors).

There’s not much I could have done if I had known it was going to rain except maybe start scheduling my pain meds so that I always have some pain medicine in my system (this is how I had to live prior to my hip surgery).

What frustrates me about this is because of all the pain I was in Saturday evening and then again on Sunday, I didn’t get all the things done on Sunday that I wanted to.

Some things I had to do because I had appointments, but things that were flexible were flaked on.

I hate that the weather and the pain that I feel still affects my life all the time. If I wasn’t hurting, I probably wouldn’t have flaked on any plans I had. And even though I know that knowing it was going to rain wouldn’t change the fact that it did rain, it still made me realize that I need to make more of an effort to stay on top of the news (or at least the weather).

Even though this week has been dry so far, the pain is still pretty bad. I know that I haven’t gotten to the point where I need my first surgery on my left hip, because when that happens a very specific type of pain occurs (I have what feels like little electric shocks going through my body every single step that I take when it gets to that point). But pain stinks no matter what.

I’m trying my hardest to medicate myself so that it’s not affecting me as much, but right now at Orangetheory, I’m struggling a lot with the treadmill. Probably at least 5 or 6 times in the 30 minutes on the treadmill I have to stop and try to pop my hip back to where it feels normal and comfortable. There is also a bike that you can use at Orangetheory during the cardio section, but I want to keep pushing myself.

I need to push myself for 2 very specific reasons. First of all, I need to push myself because I need to be ok with walking more. It’s something that hurts, but the more I do it the more I can do it. And I want to not have to feel like I have to drive everywhere because walking hurts. And second, I do need to keep damaging my left hip. That surgery is going to happen no matter what, and the sooner the damage happens, the sooner it will have a temporary fix. I don’t want to have a surgery, but I remember how much better I felt after my right hip was operated on.

I technically can have my first surgery on my left hip before it gets too bad, and I might do that. My surgeon might be leaving in about a year, and I think I still want him to operate on me. I’m going to make an appointment with him soon to discuss this and to set up meetings with other surgeons. If I find another surgeon that I feel comfortable with, I won’t have my surgery early.

There are a lot of other factors to think about with the next surgery. I do want to lose weight before it happens. That’s very important. Also, I know that recovery takes about 2 months and I want to make sure that I can take the time to do that.

There’s a lot to think about, but every time the weather affects me this way, I realize that I need to start making decisions sooner rather than later.

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Checking In With My Progress (or Past The Half Way Mark)

Posted on August 4, 2014 | 3 comments

Last week marked the beginning of the second half of my Orangetheory challenge. I’ve talked about my frustration with my weight loss in the past, and it still bugs me that the weight is coming off slowly (although I know that that is much better than how I did things in the past).

Of course, after being half way done, I had to do a new set of photos to compare them to how I looked when I started.

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The top photos are from when I started and the bottom ones were from the beginning of last week.

I don’t really see a difference, but I know that I am my harshest critic. Several of my friends did tell me that they do see a changes, especially in the middle photo.

I’m trying to focus on the non-scale victories right now, because if I just rely on my scale I will be mad at myself.

As much as I would like to say that I’m in less pain now, but that’s actually the opposite. I’m in a lot of pain every day now. But that might actually be a good thing. My hip surgeon told me that the less I use my body/hips, the longer I will be able to go without needing my next surgery. So by being in more pain now, that is showing that I am working out hard and using my body way more than I used to. All 3 surgeries that I still have ahead will happen no matter what and while I do want to put them off as long as possible, I can’t avoid moving just to put off my surgeries a little longer.

Another non-scale victory comes from the people who work and train at Orangetheory. Last week, I was told how I’m looking more nimble, agile, and how all my movements are getting smoother and look easier. This proves that while my scale might not be changing my body is.

I’m still struggling with the run/row segments because the transitions are tough for me (and the step down from the treadmill is a big step), but it’s getting better. I was able to do more run/row transitions this week than last week.

I’m also getting so much better at rowing, which is something I never did before Orangetheory. I was able to row for 600 meters without stopping several times last week. That’s a lot!

My parents will be in town in a few weeks and I can’t wait to share this workout with my dad (and hopefully my mom will decide to join us too). While I know that my dad will be better at most of the workouts than I am, I still am so happy with my progress.

And being happy with my progress is one of the biggest accomplishments so far. I’m so used to feeling like the weakest and slowest in any workout scenario. And while that might still be true, I don’t care anymore. I’ve made a lot of progress and that is awesome. And while people who are new to class might not see it, there are plenty of people who are at every class with me and they see it and they have told me how awesome it is.

I am slowly no longer comparing myself to others. It still happens, but it’s way less often than even 2 weeks ago.

I’ve got 3 more weeks left in my challenge, but I already know that I will be signing up for a membership the day that my challenge is over. This is something that I’m really loving every time I’m there and I can’t image not having my 3 workouts a week at Orangetheory (maybe I can bump that up to 4 soon).

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Default ThumbnailGetting Weighed In (or A New Orangetheory Challenge) Default ThumbnailAlmost Back To Normal (or Making Progress) Default ThumbnailNot Being So Hard On Myself (or Missing A Workout Goal This Month) Default ThumbnailHalf Birthday (or Reflecting On The Past 6 Months) Default ThumbnailChecking Things Off The List (or 4 Workouts In 1 Week) Default ThumbnailProof Of My Progress (or I Am Doing Better)

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Posted in Celebrations, Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health, Weight Loss

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Week 3 Of Orangetheory (or Pushing Myself Even In Extreme Pain)

Posted on July 21, 2014 | 1 comment

I’ve successfully completed week 3 of my Orangetheory challenge. And this week was definitely a challenge for me. My body is starting to realize how tough it is to work out really hard 3 days a week. Hopefully my body will adjust to that soon (I think it was in shock for the first 2 weeks).

This week, I had the same trainer every class, Ashley. I think Ashley is pretty awesome. She does push me hard, but she understands that there are times that my body is just not able to do it. And she’s more than happy to give me modifications for all the strength workouts (sometimes without me having to even ask for them).

Monday’s class went really well. I had a great calorie burn that day and I didn’t hurt too much during the workout or after (which is a victory for me). I post photos on Instagram, twitter, and Facebook after every class and I want all my pictures to be different, but I’m starting to run low on ideas. After Monday’s class, Ashley suggested that we show off how crazy my calorie burn really was in those 60 minutes.

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It’s a little hard to tell from the picture, but I burned almost 500 calories in that class!

Wednesday’s class had a really tough cardio segment. It was another run/row day. In my case, it was a walk/row, but that really didn’t make it much easier. I have a tough time with the transitions between the treadmill and the rower. I have to take a minute to step down from the treadmill (I feel like I’m going to fall off) and when I stand up from the rower my legs are a little shaky. I’m hoping that there will be some more run/row days soon so I can work on feeling more comfortable with that.

But I am feeling much better on the rower now. In the beginning, that was a challenge for me. It was uncomfortable and I had weird leg pains while on it. But with Ashley’s help, my form is getting much better and I’m really starting to enjoy rowing now.

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My Friday class was a big challenge for me. Typically in class, we split into 2 groups and one group does 30 minutes of cardio (typically treadmill) while the other group does strength work (plus rowing) and then half way through we switch. I always do the cardio part first because when I’m tired and walking, I’m much more likely to have hip issues. So that plan has been helping.

But on Friday, things were switched up. I started in the cardio group. We did 15 minutes of treadmill time and then we switched with the strength group. Then after 15 more minutes, we went back to the treadmill. And after 15 minutes on the treadmill, my group finished with 15 more minutes of strength.

I was fine for the first 30 minutes. But as soon as I stepped back onto the treadmill for my second treadmill time, my hip popped out. And what that means is my femur bone is not where it’s supposed to be. So instead of things feeling okay in my hip joint, my bones were grinding against each other (it feels similar to when you grind your teeth but much stronger). I tried to walk the best I could, but it hurt so bad. Every few minutes I stood on the side rails of the treadmill and attempted to pop my hip back (I can do it on my own, but I need to have a good wall to brace myself against). I wasn’t able to pop it back during class, but I was able to finish the workout. It wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t my best day, but I did it.

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Fortunately, as soon as I got home on Friday, I was able to pop my hip back in and took some painkillers right away. It helped, but I was still pretty sore all weekend (which is typical for when this happens to me).

I’m excited to see what the next week brings, Ashley will be my trainer on Monday and Friday and JZ will be my trainer on Wednesday. And after next week is done, I’ll be half way through my challenge! Time really has flown by!

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Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health, Tough Stuff, Weight Loss

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