Tag Archives: Orangetheory

I just changed up my workout routine. I had to get used to waking up earlier so I could work out before work, and that’s still something new for me. Even though it’s not a huge change, it’s still a change. And I thought I’d have some time to get used to that before I would have another change. I was wrong.

Since the pandemic started about 10 months ago, the Orangetheory at Home workouts has been the same style. It’s a video with the full workout that is posted once a day. The videos are different every day and the length can vary, but they were all about 40-50 minutes long. I loved having a single video to watch and workout with and it’s been a very easy thing to do. When I’ve tried other workout videos online, one of my biggest issues has been having to combine videos to get a full workout in. Either the videos are too short or they only have half of what I want to do. And that’s one of the reasons why I loved the OTF at Home workouts and have stuck with them for so long.

But this past week, OTF changed it up and now they are posting 5 videos at the beginning of the week to mix and match. And they are designed to be combined. The videos were cardio, upper body, lower body, core, and stretching. And all the videos were about 20-25 minutes long. So I had to start combining workouts in order to get the full workout in.

I spent this past week trying things and testing them out. I did a day with the cardio and upper body videos and that was good. Another day was with the lower body video and a jump rope workout (which I need to get back into doing more because I noticed a decrease in my endurance). I still wish the videos were a full workout each day because that’s easier for me to do, but these were still good. And because I’m being forced into doing a mix and match workout, I also added in some workouts from other videos too. If I have to find different components, then I might as well give myself as much variety as possible.

I’m still experimenting with all this and I know that it will change over the next few weeks, but I know I’ll figure out something eventually. And I know, because this is how life goes, as soon as I figure it out things will change again. Hopefully they don’t change before that, but it’s very possible to happen that way again. I hope that the next big change for me will be switching from home workouts to the outdoor classes. But for me, I think I won’t be switching to those classes until I am fully vaccinated. And the way that vaccinations are doing, that probably won’t be until late spring.

There’s also a chance that in-studios workouts will open by the time I’m fully vaccinated, but I don’t think that will happen until more of the population is vaccinated in the summer. I know there is no real way to know this information. I mean, I thought that when the studios had to close that it would only be for maybe a month. Now, I’m pretty sure that they will be closed past the 1-year mark.

The only other possible change in my workouts that could happen is if I get some new workout equipment. I put myself on the waitlist for renting a rowing machine, but there is no guarantee that I will get one to rent. I looked at buying one, but they aren’t the cheapest things if I get the one I want (about $800) and while I did find a way to make space for it in my house, I know that once I’m back to the studio workouts that I won’t be using it as much. So renting one would be ideal for me, I just have to hope that I get one.

I’m going to spend this week continuing to experiment with mixing and matching my workouts and maybe figuring out some sort of routine (like having set days for upper and lower body). But even if I don’t figure it out, at least I’m doing some workout for those 4 days a week and as I have said so many times, something is better than nothing.

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I know I’ve already covered that I completed my goal for my 2020 workouts, but I think hitting that goal was a bigger deal than it normally is. In 2020, I had to find a way to motivate myself to do workouts at home. I know I don’t like working out at home. I know that it’s easy to slack off and not do what I know I should be doing. But somehow, I found a way to make it work and I got through 2020 and completed 204 workouts!

Originally, my plan for this past week was to test out doing my workouts early to see what I can do when I have work in the mornings. Unfortunately, that didn’t end up happening. I didn’t really sleep in, but I wasn’t up and ready to go early enough to test that out. I know that this week, that means I will have to either get up super early to test things out or I’ll have to do my workouts after work. But I’m ok with that plan for now since I’m doing the workouts on my own. When I will have to work around a workout schedule, then I’ll have to think about things more.

Last week’s workouts were a slightly different schedule than normal. Because it’s a tradition for me to work out on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, I wanted to keep that up. So I worked out on Monday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Doing 3 days in a row is tough, even when they are workouts at home and I know they aren’t as hard as workouts in the studio. But it was worth having something be tough for me to keep up a tradition that I’ve had for so long.

I tried to do my best with every workout that I had, but as it’s been for a while now, it’s also hard to motivate myself as much as I wish I could. I did try to go a bit heavier with my weights, but I couldn’t do it. And I know the weights that I’m using are lower than I normally do. I want to get back to where I was in March, but it’s hard when it feels so far away. That’s something I want to work on for this year.

2020 was over 75% home workouts. I don’t know if 2021 will be the same way, but I’m trying to be hopeful that it won’t be. Even if the studios can’t open until the fall, there are outdoor workouts that I could do. I’m just waiting for things to be a bit better here before I do them. I might wait until I’m vaccinated to be extra safe. But I’m hoping that I’ll be vaccinated no later than the summer. So if that’s how it goes, then maybe only 50% of my workouts will have to be at home by myself.

I have tried for so long to figure out what will get me going with my home workouts, but I’ve been more and more accepting of the idea that maybe it just won’t connect with me. If home workouts were easy for me, I would have done them way before the pandemic. There’s a reason I connected with Orangetheory and there’s nothing wrong with me needing that environment to do my best. It’s an unfortunate reality for me right now, but I think it’s just the way it is.

But that doesn’t mean I’m giving up. I’m still planning on doing 4 workouts a week at home for now. I’m still going to try and hope that something clicks with me. I will still try to improve and do better. And I’ve already started off this year with 2 workouts (on Friday and Saturday), so that’s a great start! I’m just going to keep going and be excited that every week of home workouts brings me a week closer to workouts back in the studio.

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As expected with this past week of workouts, I spent part of it dealing with nausea. It was actually split in half for me. I was feeling awful on Monday and Wednesday and felt much better on Friday and Saturday. And fortunately, it seems like my vertigo is almost completely gone so I didn’t have to deal with that as well. I still have moments of vertigo, but it’s not that frequent and it’s not always triggered by the same exercises. So even with having moments of vertigo, it’s not causing that many issues in my workouts.

As I’ve dealt with so many times in recent months, motivation has been hard to find sometimes. I really want to feel strong and like I’m working hard, but then when I’m working out I just can’t push myself. I think it’s not just about the workout, it’s just the state of the world and feeling not like myself. And I will continue to try to figure out what I can do to get over this, but I don’t know if that will change until I’m not doing my workouts at home anymore.

And speaking of workouts at home, this past week marked 9 months since I’ve been doing workouts at home. Every time I hit some sort of milestone with working out at home, I’m shocked. When things shut down, nobody thought we’d still be shut down 9 months later. I remember thinking about how hard it was going to be to miss a month of Orangetheory. Missing 9 months of Orangetheory was just unimaginable to me. And I can only hope that it will not take 9 more months before I can do workouts outside of my house. But that does seem like a safe hope.

I could technically go to the outdoor workouts now, but I’m still just not ready. I want to make sure it will be safe for me. I don’t know if that will mean I need to be vaccinated before I feel safe or if the cases just have to go down for me to feel that way. I am not going to push myself to go until I feel safe because I know if I’m worried about things I won’t be able to get everything out of the workout. I want to feel safe now, but I can’t force myself to get there.

I am also worried about how much weaker or out of shape I might be when I go back. That fear is a little easier to deal with because I know that it’s inevitable and I just will have to get over that. But no matter how far I’ve fallen from where I was before, I know I’m stronger than I was when I first started going. And hopefully, it will be easier to get back where I was once I am back in a class (whether it is an outdoor class or back in the studio).

But I am still just reminding myself every workout that at least I did something. I could have skipped them. It would be very easy to just not work out. Nobody is forcing me to work out. I am motivating myself and that is something to be proud of. And even if I’m not maxing out what I can do in every workout, there were moments this past week where I felt like I worked really hard. They were only moments and not entire workouts, but it still felt amazing.

The next 2 weeks of workouts will be a bit odd. I’m working with both trying to do my typical holiday workouts and a new work schedule. And my work schedule is not what it will normally be because of the holidays. So I will be doing a mix of my normal workouts at normal times and weird workout times or days. But I’m still hoping I will get at least 3 workouts in a week.

And once it is the new year, I will most likely no longer be able to do my workouts at home in the morning. I will be working every day starting at 9am. And I could wake up earlier than normal and try to get a workout in first (which I am still debating). But I will be done with work around 1pm so it shouldn’t be too hard to do an afternoon workout. It’s not what I’m used to and I don’t know if I’ll like doing that, but that’s kind of how this year went with my workouts. I am not used to home workouts and I don’t love them. But I still did them. And I have figured out how to make it work. And I’ll do the same with the new schedule in the new year.

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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.

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