Tag Archives: Orangetheory

Making It Through The Week (or Going From Feeling Horrible To Feeling Normal)

Posted on July 1, 2019 | Comments Off

This past week of workouts covered the full spectrum of how I feel each month. I had some workouts with horrible pain and nausea, some workouts with other health issues, and some workouts feeling ok. It really did change a lot from day to day this past week and I wasn’t sure what to expect each morning when I woke up. Fortunately, I’ve been dealing with this long enough that I’m prepared for almost anything. But it still messed with me a bit when I wasn’t sure how I’d react to different aspects of the workouts.

Monday’s workout was a strength day. I was feeling pretty horrible but I was determined to make the best out of it. Besides my normal pain and nausea, I was also dealing with a new issue. Because I wasn’t eating much (and things weren’t staying in my stomach), I was extremely hungry while working out. I don’t normally eat before my morning workouts because I find that I work better on an empty stomach, but this was a much emptier stomach feeling than I’m used to.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. Even though one block was 8 minutes and the other was 4 minutes, they had the same idea. We were supposed to decrease the incline/resistance levels at specific intervals. But I was not feeling like I could do those resistance levels based on how I was feeling and the lack of focus I was experiencing. So I just did both blocks at the level between my base and push paces the entire time. It wasn’t the best cardio workout, but it was more than doing nothing which is something I have to remind myself of when I have days like this one.

On the rower, we started with a 4 minute row for distance. After that row we had exercises but I modified them to be regular squats and pulsing half squats. Then we had a 2 minute row with more exercises (I did my squats again) and then a 1 minute row and 30 second row. I wasn’t rowing as hard as I usually do so my distances weren’t that great. And even with doing squats as my modification I was still much slower than I thought I’d be between each row. Again, I had to have the mindset that it was better than nothing.

The floor had 2 blocks and I felt like I did the best with those blocks. The first block was drop sets with low rows with weights and overhead triceps. Drop sets are when you do a heavy weight for a low rep count immediately followed by a lighter weight and higher rep count. I wasn’t going as heavy as I have done in the past with the weights, but they were still heavier than I was using last year. That first block also had v-up sit-ups and I had to modify those a little to keep my balance. And the second block had side hip dips and side to side crunches, both of which I was able to do fine so I ended my workout on a good note.

Wednesday’s workout was another strength day, but I was feeling a little better than I was on Monday. I was still struggling a bit, but it was much more manageable and I felt like I could make the workout a little closer to my normal. We had 2 blocks at each section of the room and we rotated after each block which helped to break things up a bit.

For cardio, we had the same block both times we were there. It was a push pace for distance followed by a base pace for distance. And each time we did the push pace the incline or resistance level was supposed to go up by 1. I started doing my push paces at my normal push pace level and was able to do the increases I was supposed to. Since the block wasn’t super long, I was finishing both blocks with a push pace at the resistance level I usually use for my all out, which seemed very fitting and right.

The rower had similar blocks for both blocks. We started with a 250 meter row and then had medicine ball exercises. Then a 200 meter row and more exercises. Each row went down 50 meters. Both times I was working on my 150 meter row when the block ended. The first block was supposed to be lunges with overhead triceps for the exercise, but I modified it to be squats with triceps. And the second block had squats with side rotations which I was able to do normally.

And on the floor, we had a good mix of upper body and lower body work with a little bit of core work. The first block had lunges while holding a weight goblet style under the chin, plank work, and hollow hold single arm chest presses. I had to modify the plank work due to my nausea since I can’t do normal planks when I feel like I did. We were supposed to do plank pull throughs with a weight, but I did plank shoulder taps using the bench so I wasn’t totally face down. The second block needed a bit more modification for me. We were supposed to have back extensions and half get-ups with weights. I could do the half get-ups, but back extensions are definitely out when I am nauseous. I did low rows on the straps instead since that exercise works the back muscles, but I did feel a bit disappointed that I didn’t feel the same stretch that I get when I do back extensions.

Friday’s workout was a signature workout: the Everest Challenge. I’ve done this challenge a few times in the past so I know what I’m in for. But even though I knew what the workout would be I still never know how well I’ll do with it. I was feeling a bit less nauseous going into the workout, but my cramps and pain had gotten much worse. The pain reminded me of the pain I had before my hip surgery. My vision would go white when I had a cramp sometimes and I just had to stop whatever I was doing to let it pass. I hate that I have dealt with this type of pain enough that I know what to do, but I guess I should also be grateful for that.

For the Everest Challenge for a 3 group class, we have 14 minutes of work. Every minute for the first 7 minutes the incline on the treadmill or the resistance level on the bike goes up by 1. And for the last 7 minutes, every minute we go down by 1 so we end exactly where we started. I know the resistance levels on the bike that I’m comfortable with plus I had to take into account how I was feeling. So I started lower than I normally use as my base pace level. The highest resistance I got to was 2 levels above what I use for my all out, but it’s a level I use for incline work from time to time so it wasn’t horribly hard. I tried my best to not take breaks while doing the challenge, but sometimes the pain required me to. But when it was done, I was happy with what I did. It wasn’t the best attempt I’ve had with the challenge, but it was a good attempt.

On the rower, we started with a 100 meter row and then we were supposed to do squats and lunges with the medicine ball. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to do the lunges so I just did the squats to start. But then the squats started making me nauseous so I had to do the medicine ball work on its own. Each round we had on the rower increased by 100 meters and the reps with the medicine ball went down by 2.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had chest presses, hammer curls, and bicycle crunches. And the second block had bench plank work (which meant I didn’t have to modify it), tricep extensions with weights, and leg raises. I was feeling a bit more normal by the time I was on the floor, but it was still challenging to get through things and it was frustrating how often I had to take breaks.

By some miracle, I was feeling like myself by Saturday’s workout. The only thing I was dealing with was a little soreness from the Everest Challenge, but I was very happy to deal with than and not nausea and cramps. I was a little weak from issues related to nausea, but it was still nothing like how I feel when I’m in the middle of the worst days. This workout was a power day and it was the perfect way to end my week and to feel back to normal.

The cardio workout had 2 blocks. The first block was repeating push pace, base pace, all out, and walking recovery 3 times. Each time we did it, the base pace got a little longer. It was a great block for me on the bike and I felt so strong because I had time to recovery so often. The second block was 3 rounds of 30 second all outs with recovery between them. Again, I felt like I was flying and pedaling so quickly because I had a lot of recovery time. It was the best boost to my confidence.

On the rower, it was all about having powerful strokes. We started with doing 20 power strokes. You were supposed to go slowly with these because you wanted to be able to explode backwards each stroke. Then we were supposed to do lunges with medicine ball tricep work. Since it’s tough for me to get in and out of the rower, I did squats instead. Each round on the rower went down 2 stokes but we were supposed to maintain the power we got each round.

And on the floor, we also had 2 blocks. But these blocks took a bit of modification to make it work for me. The first block was single arm hip swings, lunges with power steps, plank work, and v-ups. I couldn’t do the lunges the way we were supposed to and I didn’t want to just do regular lunges. So I did the movement while standing on the bench and holding on to the straps. It was a good balance challenge for me. And the second block was supposed to be lunges using the bench and squat jacks. I did regular lunges and regular squats instead.

This past week of workouts marked half way through the year and as I mentioned last week I’m over half way to my goal for my workouts this year. It wasn’t the best week of workouts to mark it, but I still did my 4 workouts a week. Next week is a holiday week and I’m still debating if I should change up my workouts a bit. But I know for sure I should be getting in my 4 next week since I don’t want to slack off and miss my goal when December 31st is here!

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Some Highs and Some Lows (or Taking Wins When I Can)

Posted on June 24, 2019 | Comments Off

This past week of workouts had some really amazing moments and some really annoying moments. It really was a week of ups and downs for me. I knew going into the week that I would likely be nauseous for at least a part of it. And that was accurate. But I still had some really great victories that even the worst pain and nausea couldn’t bring down.

Monday’s workout was an interesting day. First, it ended up being a 2 group class. My normal classes are all 3 group ones so it’s been a while since I was in a 2 group class. But it was fun to take one when I’m not used to it. Also, the workout had the 200 meter benchmark row. Rowing benchmarks are very competitive for me, especially the short distance ones. I knew what my best was from before going into class, and while I would have loved to have beaten it I went into class just hoping I was close.

I started with cardio but since everyone was going to do the benchmark toward the beginning of class we started with an extended warmup. Then it was time to head to the rower to try my best with 200 meters. I know that for the sprint rows like that it doesn’t matter to have nice long pulls on the rower. So I tried to keep my strokes short and fast. I think I got the wattage higher than it ever has been which is a great accomplishment. I didn’t get a personal best, but I was close and was very happy with that.

After everyone in class finished the benchmark, then we were back to regular blocks. For cardio, we had a lot of all outs with walking recoveries and push paces with base paces after. I stuck to my normal resistance levels on the bike and just focused on not letting the higher resistance levels make my pedaling slower. It’s not easy to go at the same speed when it’s harder to pedal, but I was close to keeping everything within the same range.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block was longer and had shoulder presses, lunges, plank low rows, and sit-ups. After completing those exercises we had a 100 meter row. I was more determined to see what I could do with a sprint row so I asked my coach for a little bit more advice on what to do. He gave me some pointers on keeping my strokes short and he made sure that my hard rowing didn’t make the rower bounce too much (which does happen from time to time). Even though I already did over 40 minutes of my workout, I was able to get my 100 meter row within a fraction of a second of my personal best. My coach said if I had done it toward the beginning of class that I probably would have gotten a personal best. The second floor block was shorter and had toe-tap lunges, bench hop overs, and crunches. By the time class was done, I was exhausted from the work I did on the rower but felt super accomplished.

Wednesday’s workout was the first day that I was experiencing nausea. It wasn’t as horrible as it could get, but it still slowed me down and made me a little extra cautious during the workout. So I just worked on modifying where I needed to and just worked what I could.

For cardio, it was pretty simple. We had 3 rounds of 3 minute distance challenges. I put the resistance level between my base and push pace and that was comfortable yet still a bit of a challenge for me. I know if I was feeling my best I would have done better with the distance each time, but I was just happy doing what I could and feeling like I didn’t have to modify the cardio work too much.

On the rower, we had 3 rounds of 400 meter rows with ground to press using a medicine ball after the row. But my station ended up having a broken rower so I used the bike again. I did the bike for 2 minutes (approximately the time I do a 400 meter row in) and then got off the bike for the ground to press. It wasn’t that bad having to do more bike work and I’m ok with missing the rower.

And on the floor, we had 3 blocks. The first block was the longest and had single leg deadlifts (I used the wall for balance), squats, bicycle crunchs, and hip raises. The second block was a bit shorter and it was mini-band work with hip bridges and scissor crunches. And the last block was a 1 minute plank and I used the bench to help keep the nausea from getting worse. Overall, it wasn’t my best workout but it wasn’t my worst either.

Friday’s workout was much worse for me in terms of my pain and nausea. I was having what I hope will be the worst day this cycle and I just had to tolerate it and hope for the best in my workout. I am so grateful that my coaches know me well enough to know that when I’m having a bad day that they don’t have to worry about me. This was a day I wanted to be left alone for a lot of it.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. One was a 4 minute block and the other was an 8 minute block. For the 4 minute block, we were supposed to have increases every 30 seconds and for the 8 minute block we were supposed to have increases every minute. For both blocks, I just kept the bike as my base pace resistance level. I couldn’t really do any more than that and I had to take a lot of breaks during each block.

For the rower, both blocks were similar. The first block was rounds of 100 meter rows with medicine ball squats between each row. And the second block was rounds of 200 meter rows with medicine ball squats between each row. I was fine with the squats for the first block, but by the second block, I discovered that squats were making me feel super nauseous. I had to skip the squats but I did do overhead presses with the medicine ball.

And on the floor, we started with walkouts to pushups. I was able to do 1 of them just fine, but then I realized that being facedown like that wasn’t going to be ok for me. So I just did pushups using the bench instead. Then we had a lot of weight work. We had sumo squats with upright rows, shoulder presses, hip bridges to chest fly, bicycle presses, sit-ups with rotation, and hip raises. I was able to do most of the weighted floor work without modifications, but I was working very slowly.

Saturday’s workout was a strength day and I was feeling a little better than how I was on Friday. I was still struggling, but I was able to do a bit more than the day before. I’m glad I was since with strength days there is a lot of incline/resistance work and I wanted to do a little.

For cardio, we had two blocks that were almost the same. They had a mix of push paces, base paces with incline, high incline power walks (or high resistance slow biking for me) and an all out at the end. I did add resistance on the bike for the hill work, but I stayed within my normal push and all out range. I didn’t do anything too extreme but at least it was something.

For the rower, we had 1 long block. We started with a 700 meter row and then we had arm raises using the mini-bands. Each row went down 200 meters with more mini-band work between. I was surprised that I was able to do the rowing without taking any breaks, even for the long ones.

And on the floor, we had another 1 long block. We had weighted lunges, bench situp to stands (I split these to crunches and squats), lunges with torso rotations, plank work, and hip bridges. I had to make modifications to not me totally face down, but that was it for changing things up. So it was another workout that made me feel not too horrible about how I was feeling since I was close to the actual workout.

And I had another accomplishment in my Saturday workout. I have a goal of doing 200 workouts this year. This year isn’t quite half over, but I made it to the halfway mark of my goal!

I wasn’t worried about getting to half my goal by halfway through the year, but it’s nice to know I did it and with a week to spare! That doesn’t mean I’m going to go easy on myself, but it does make me feel extra confident about hitting my goal.

I’m prepared to have another tough week this week. Besides the usual issues I knew I’d be dealing with, I hurt my ankle over the weekend. I’m doing better than I was when I hurt it, but it may still restrict things for me. I guess I’ll just have to see what happens.

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Working Hard (or Some Normal But Tough Workouts)

Posted on June 17, 2019 | Comments Off

This past week of workouts was a really good week for me. They were good workouts, I was not dealing with any nausea, and I had lots of opportunities to work hard. These weeks are the weeks that really help me feel amazing about the hard work I’ve been doing and I love them!

Monday’s workout was a strength day and it was a pretty standard strength workout. Lots of incline/high resistance work and lots of opportunities to work on weight work. Even though I loved all the themed workouts the week before, I was equally as happy to see one of the more standard workouts that I also love.

On cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first one was base work with no hill work and base work with hill work with an all out at the end. Even the all out had hill work which is not too common. I was playing around with the resistance levels on the bike to see which ones felt like the right levels for me. It was a bit tough to figure it out because the hill work was so quick, but it gave me a bit of an idea of what I want to use next time. And the second block was a 5 minute hill with the incline/resistance level going down every minute. I was able to plan it out so that the last minute was going to be at the resistance level between my push and all out levels. I needed to make that last minute a bit easier because my legs were so tired by the end of the 5 minutes.

On the rower, we had 2 blocks but they were very similar. The first block started with a 1 minute row and then we had lunges with medicine ball rotations. After that, we repeated the distance we did with the first row and had more lunges between each round. And the second block was the same idea but we started with a 30 second row. And on the floor, we had one long block. We had deadlifts, side lunges, regular lunges, crunches on the Bosu and Spiderman planks on the Bosu. I wasn’t using my heaviest weights for the deadlifts, but they were only one weight down from my heaviest. And I did go heavier for the weight on my side lunges.

Wednesday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power. I feel like each section of the room was a good mix of those 3 things and it made for a really tough class!

For cardio, we started with a 90 second push pace to a 60 second base pace. Then we repeated that and the goal was to maintain what we were able to do the first time. Then we had our hill work. We had all outs with hills (again, not something we normally do) and each round the hill went down. I was trying to keep my resistance levels on the bike above my normal all out level for all the inclines, but by the last one, I had to drop down to the level between my push and all out. The high resistance levels are really tough, but I’m getting more motivated to work on them.

On the rower, we started with an 800 meter row and then we had squats to shoulder presses with a medicine ball. Each row went down 200 meters and we had the same squats to shoulder presses each time between the rows. I was struggling more than I expected with the rowing. I don’t know what I didn’t have the same endurance that I’m used to, but I had to take a lot of breaks with each row. It was really weird and I just had to be ok with it and keep going.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block was shorter and was using the bench. We started with being in a plank position on the bench and then we had single arm reverse fly using weights. And then we had sit-ups on the bench to squats. I really can’t do the sit-ups to squats in a single movement because when I’m on the bench my feet don’t really touch the ground. So I split up the movements and did all my sit-ups and then stood up and did all my squats. And the second block was all mini-band work but the mini-bands were around our arms so that was much better for me. We kept the mini-bands in the same spot the entire block and we had hammer curls using weights, scissor kick crunches with our arms up, and plank in and outs. My arms were really sore in the best way at the end of the workout because of all the mini-band work.

Friday’s workout was another strength day. I think being on the bike has made strength days a bit easier for me since I struggled with the inclines on the treadmill so much. I do struggle with the higher resistance levels on the bike, but not as much as I did with inclines. We had 3 blocks for all 3 sections of the room. The blocks were 2 1/2 minutes, 3 1/2 minutes, and 5 minutes. And each block within a section of the room was pretty similar.

For cardio, we started with a 1 minute hill, 1 minute base pace, and 30 second all out. We had the same pattern for the second and third blocks but the second block had a 2 minute hill and the third block had a 3 minute hill. My 1 minute and 2 minute hills were above my normal resistance levels and I did the 3 minute hill at my normal all out level. It was very tough to do 3 minutes with that high of a resistance level, but I felt so amazing when it was done and I realized I was able to do it!

On the rower, we had the same assignment for each block. We had rounds of 150 meter rows and then we were supposed to do lunges with tricep work using a medicine ball. I don’t mine doing lunges between rows if I don’t have to do that too often. But when we have to do lunges more often I really can’t do them because it’s hard for me to step in and out of the rower. So instead of the lunges, I did squats which worked out fine for me.

And on the floor we sit-ups, toe reach crunches, low rows using weights, shoulder presses with weights, and sumo squats. For the second block, we added torso rotations and all the weighted work was 2 rounds instead of 1. And for the last block, we added double crunches and had 3 rounds of the weighted work. I was able to go heavy with my sumo squat weight but not as heavy as I would have liked to for the other work. But I also know my arms were tired by the time I was on the floor because of all the tricep work on the rower.

Saturday’s workout was an endurance day. It was nice to have a break from all the strength work I had earlier in the week, but that didn’t mean the workout was any easy. It was still really hard and challenging and I got to test myself.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks. The first and last block were both 4 minute distance challenges. The second block was to do half the distance from the 4 minute challenge and then do squats until time was callled. For the second block, I cheated a bit and just did another challenge for time because I didn’t want to get off the bike. But for all of the blocks, I did the entire thing at my push pace resistance level. It was so hard to do that for 4 minutes at a time, but it was a great boost to my self-esteem when I found out I could do it.

The rower also had 3 blocks. The first and last block had a 90 second row, squats, a 45 second row, squats, and then to row until time was called. The middle block was a 3 minute row for distance. I was worried that I would struggle with the 3 minute row, but I did it without needing to take a break which was another boost to how I feel like I’ve been doing.

And on the floor, we had one long block. We had weighted chest presses, push-ups, triceps on the straps, plank work, single leg bicep curls with weights, and hip bridges with weights. It was a lot of work and my muscles were getting so sore after completing each round. I did take breaks when I needed to and I was still able to get almost 3 rounds done before the workout was done.

I really felt so accomplished after this past week of workouts. It’s so nice to just have a great week with lots of awesome work. I need these to make me feel better when I’m having a bad week. And I’m so glad I have this one in my recent memory since this week may be when my nausea kicks back in.

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Doing Some Theme Workouts (or Unique Challenges At Orangetheory)

Posted on June 10, 2019 | Comments Off

This past week of workouts at Orangetheory were really fun for me. First of all, I was having a week where I was feeling good. I wasn’t feeling as great as I know I can, but it was a significant difference from the week before. And also, most of my workouts this past week were fun themed workouts! It wasn’t like Hell Week or Mayhem Week where they are all super hard. These were different themes and they all were really enjoyable while being tough.

Monday’s workout was an endurance day, but it was also a switch day so I was able to push myself a bit harder than I normally could for endurance workouts. This was the one workout that wasn’t really a theme, but it was still a great class. We had a bit of a run/row element which helped to split things up even more. Even though I was finally doing better and not feeling nauseous, I always feel like it takes me a workout or two before I feel like myself again. And this class seemed to be a great way to ease back in.

I started on the bike and cardio had a 1 minute all out pace. I did my new all out resistance level since I knew we’d be going to the rower when we were done. Once we switched to the rower, we had distance rows with pulsing half squats between. That was the end of that block and then my group stayed on the rower so we started there. We had a 1 minute all out row before going back up to cardio. And on cardio we had a push pace, base pace, and push to all out pace to end the block. Because we were on cardio a bit longer, I used my lower push and all out resistance level. After that then my group was on the floor but we did the cardio and rowing rotations one more time just after the halfway mark of the workout.

On the floor the first block had chest presses with weights, tricep extensions with weights, and knee tucks. I was able to use my normal weights for the chest presses, but when I got to the tricep extensions I struggled. I think I slept funny because my neck was just feeling off. So I had to switch to lower weights. And the second block had shoulder presses with weights, lateral raises with weights, and scissor kick static crunches. Again, I went a bit lower with the weights than I would have liked to have been. But I also knew it was a random reason why and not something I should have to struggle with the rest of the week.

Wednesday’s workout was Catch Me If You Can. I didn’t do this workout the first time they had it so I was excited to try it out. The idea was that we had distance goals for cardio. If you didn’t make it to that goal when you were supposed to, you were caught. People on treadmills had to walk at a high incline for the rest of the block if they were caught.

But it was a bit different for me on the bike because there wasn’t really a punishment if we didn’t make it to the distance and were caught. And when I saw the list of the distance goals we were supposed to hit, I knew I would only make it for the first half of them. But what I did was while I was still chasing the goals I had my resistance level between my base and push paces. And when I was caught, I put it between my push and all out so it made it very tough on me. While I knew before we started when I would probably be caught, that didn’t lessen the fun I had with the challenge.

On the rower, we had rowing and squats. We started with a 600 meter row and 20 squats. The rows and squats decreased each round. I didn’t make it as far down the plan as I would have liked to, but I was very happy about the rowing I did and how consistent I was able to keep my pace. And on the floor, we had one long block. We had skier swings with weights, rollouts on the ab dolly, bicep curls with weights, side planks, and hip bridges with weights. I went very heavy for my hip bridge weights, but I didn’t go too heavy for the rest because they were all high rep exercises. But it was still a strong way to end my workout.

Friday’s workout was a new and interesting one for me. We had a very unique rowing challenge where we were supposed to work together as a group and try to row at the same pace and pattern. It was supposed to be like we were a real rowing crew. That was totally a challenge to stay with the others, but it was fun to try! I found out later it was supposed to be a themed class for the Dragon Boat Festival which explained the team rowing.

For cardio, we had our own distance challenge for the entire block. The treadmills had rounds of .25 miles (the bike had rounds of 1 mile) followed by a minute of walking recovery. The goal was to do as many rounds as possible and to keep your speed either the same or increasing each round. I started with doing the distance challenge at my push pace resistance level, but after 3 rounds I had to decrease it to be at the level between my base and push for the rest of the workout. I was feeling a bit off due to lack of sleep the night before, but I just tried to focus on pushing myself when I could. I was actually very glad to have a repeating challenge for cardio because it helped me take my mind off of it.

For rowing, we alternated between the group challenge of rowing together and having rowing on our own. The group challenges were 2 minutes, 90 seconds, and 1 minute. While I’m not the slowest rower, I do row slower than most. I struggled a bit to keep up with everyone else, but I discovered if I did short rowing strokes that it was much easier. When we had the rowing on our own, we had a distance challenge within a certain time. The time was always long enough to allow for some rest time and I did take advantage of that break. I needed it to be ready for the next group row.

And on the floor we had 1 long block. We had step up with weights, hip swings with weights, tricep extensions with weights, plank jacks, and sit-ups. I have been modifying the step ups so I could do them, but I can’t do them with weight because I have to hold onto the straps. So I decided to do lunges with weights instead so I could still have weight work. We started with lower reps but they increased by a lot each round so I did have to switch up my weights in order to still have good form when we had a lot of reps.

And Saturday’s class was themed for Best Friend’s Day. The entire workout was a partner workout, but we were always at the same section of the room as our partner. We did tag each other to switch things up, but we weren’t moving around the room within a block. Instead, we were constantly switching as a class. We had 4 blocks at each section of the room. 3 of the blocks were 3 minutes and 1 block was 1 minute, but the 1 minute block was done solo and without workout with our partner.

For cardio, it was the only time we weren’t really working with our partners. For the 3 minute blocks we had a 3 minute distance challenge and the 1 minute block was a 1 minute all out. I wanted to keep my resistance level either between my base and push level or at my push pace level, but I could only do that for the first 2 blocks. For the last 2 I had it at my base pace level but I made an extra effort to try to pedal faster to make up for the lower resistance.

On the rower, we were rowing next to our partner. We worked as a team and one of us was doing a 100 meter row and the other was doing a recovery row. As soon as the person doing the 100 meter row was done, the other switched from the recovery row to doing the 100 meter. We switched back and forth the entire time for the 3 minute blocks. This seemed easy when I heard that’s what we were doing, but it was so much harder than expected. The recovery rows were so quick so I never felt like I was catching my breath. And for the 1 minute block, we had a 1 minute all out row.

And on the floor, we worked with our partners again. We switched back and forth doing either an exercise or a static move for the 3 minute blocks. We had shoulder presses with weights (the static move was a static hold of the weights), front squats with weights (the static move was holding a squat), high rows on the straps (the static move was holding the high row position on the straps), and superman (the static move was holding a plank). We alternated between the moves quickly so the static moves didn’t feel like a rest. The reps started low and increased and it was tough to keep going with the higher reps. But I knew my partner was counting on me so that was extra motivation. And for the 1 minute block, we had 1 minute of burpees. I used the bench to modify them, but I tried to go quickly and was able to do 10 in a minute.

I really loved this past week of workouts. I don’t always need themed workouts, but it’s so fun when we have them and I find that they seem to be challenging but in unexpected ways. I know we have some other great workouts coming up and I’m really feeling motivated to find how I can push myself before I have to worry about feeling awful again.

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Normal But Still Hard (or Having My Own Workout Challenge This Time)

Posted on June 3, 2019 | Comments Off

We just had Mayhem Week at Orangetheory and that was a week of challenging workouts. And this past week of workouts, the workouts were technically normal but they were still a challenge for me. It was my week of nausea and that makes things feel so much harder than they should be. But the past few times I’ve had to deal with the nausea I have been finding new ways to work through things. And that’s what I continued to do this time.

Monday’s workout was a themed workout and it was supposed to be a 3 partner class. I usually love partner workouts because it pushes me to work harder and do more. But in this class I was so nauseous and I didn’t want to slow a team down or have my partners wait on me so we can switch. So I told my coach that I volunteered to be on my own, and it happened to work out that way. I was glad that I could be alone because I did need to take a lot of breaks in the workout.

The way the partner workout was supposed to go was to have the rower as the pacer. The floor and treadmill switched back and forth until the rower was done and they all switched. For me, I just did 1 round of whatever we were supposed to do at each section of the room and switch when I was done. The cardio work was the easiest for me. All the bike distances were very short and I was always done in under 3 minutes. I kept the resistance level at my base pace level which helped me not have too much nausea on the bike.

For the floor, it was always the same exercises and the reps decreased each time. We had low rows on the straps, burpees, pushups, and sit-ups. I used the bench for the burpees and pushups which did help the nausea a bit, but it was still slow for me on the floor with the breaks I needed to rest.

The rower was the toughest part of the workout and what made me most grateful for being on my own. They were all long distance rows and I took significantly longer than I usually do. It started with a 1600 meter row, then 1200 meters, and I was doing the 800 meter row when class was done. If I had partners for this workout, I would have been so stressed out on the rower. For example, 1600 meters should be 8 minutes or under and I usually can do that. But because of needing the breaks to let the nausea pass, it took me almost 14 minutes. I would have hated knowing my partners had to wait almost twice as long to switch. I was happy knowing I was on my own and just doing what I could.

Wednesday’s workout was an interesting day with a mix of endurance and power. It was also another bad nausea day so I went into the workout just planning on doing the best that I could. We had 4 blocks at each section of the room and 2 of the blocks were about 5 minutes and 2 of the blocks were only 1 minute. Sometimes we had time to work through different exercises and sometimes it was just a quick change around the room.

For cardio, for the longer blocks they were pretty standard endurance blocks. We had push paces and base paces with an all out at the end. I did manage to change up the resistance levels a bit, but they weren’t what I usually use. And for the 1 minute blocks, we had 1 minute all outs. Again, I did go up a bit with the resistance level but it wasn’t what I normally do.

On the rower, the longer blocks were rounds of 100 meter rows and lunges. And the shorter blocks were 1 minute all out rows. The first time we had a longer block I was fine with the lunges. But the second time I was just not feeling ok and it was taking me so much time to get on and off the rower. So I just rowed that block without the lunges.

And the floor had side lunges, skater lunges, upper cuts, and leg lifts for the longer blocks. And the 1 minute blocks were 1 minute of burpees. I was glad the longer block didn’t require modifications but I did use the bench for the burpees. Considering how I was feeling going into this class and how much movement there was, I was happy with what I did even though it didn’t feel like much.

Friday’s workout was a benchmark challenge day. It was the 12 minute run (or bike) for distance. I’m still newish to doing benchmarks on the bike, so I didn’t feel the same sort of competitive spirit as I did on the treadmill. I’m grateful for that because I didn’t feel like I had to push extra hard to beat myself when I wasn’t feeling so great.

I did set a goal for myself on the bike and I was very happy to see that I did pass that goal. I kept the resistance level between my base and push level so I wasn’t going as hard as I probably normally would for a challenge like this. But it worked for how I was feeling and I still felt like I was doing more than I normally would.

On the rower we started with a 3 minute row. Then we had single leg bicep curls and hip hinge rows using weights. We continued that pattern but decreased the row each time. It was a tough row block and I did take a lot of breaks. And doing any single leg work is difficult for me so the bicep curls were hard. But I was grateful that the work we had on the rower were things that I didn’t have to modify too much because of how I was feeling.

And on the floor we had a mix of strap work and ab dolly work. On the straps we had Y raises, high rows, and low rows. On the ab dolly we were supposed to do rollouts and pikes, but I couldn’t do either of those. I did the rollouts on the straps instead of the ab dolly because of my nausea and I did knee tucks instead of pikes because of my hips.

Saturday’s workout had a heads or tails theme. Each section of the room had a heads option and tails option. We had 2 blocks at each section so we did do both, but the coin flip was to see what we started with.

For cardio, one block was doing a specific distance and then squats after you completed the distance. You repeated the pattern until that block was done. The other block was rounds of 30 second all outs with 30 second recoveries. I was doing much better by Saturday and was able to use my new resistance levels for everything.

On the rower we had a similar pattern to cardio. One block was rounds of all out rows with recovery rows and the other block was distance rows with squats between each row. The floor had different blocks but the heads or tails determined if you had to start the block doing burpees to squats. The first block had lunges, sit-ups, and triceps on the straps. And the second block had pushups to plank jacks, sit-ups, and sumo squats using weights. I used the bench to modify all the exercises that involved plank work, but other than that I was doing everything normally.

Obviously this wasn’t the same type of challenge as Mayhem (or Hell Week), but it was still a challenging week for me. I’m just glad that I made it through and I’m hopefully back to normal now. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see how this week goes!

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A Week Of Mayhem (or 2 Perspectives On A Crazy Week)

Posted on May 27, 2019 | 2 comments

This post is going to be a little different from my usual workout recap, but it’s for an awesome reason. First, this past week of workouts was Mayhem Week, which is similar to Hell Week. All of the workouts were extra hard and if you completed 4 out of the 6 workouts you got a hat. I was totally excited to get the hat, but even more excited when my friend Andrew asked me if I wanted to collaborate again. He and I worked together in the beginning of the year when we discussed our Orangetheory goals for the year. This time, he was planning on doing all 6 days of Mayhem and a vlog for each day. He asked me to be a guest on one vlog, and since he was going to do all 6 workouts I asked if he could do some recaps for me!

So this post is all quick recaps of the workouts from both of us. Andrew (which will be the italics text) has something to say every day. I had a lot of rest days (which I will discuss at the end of this post) so I don’t have as much to say. But before I get into our recaps, Andrew wanted to share a little bit about his plan:

This year was my second All Out Mayhem at Orangetheory (kind of strange to write that) and, unlike last year, I decided to go beyond the minimum amount of classes to ‘complete’ the challenge and aim for all SIX days…

Those six days came and went and since I’m still alive, I thought I would give a quick review of each class (written RevRun-style, soaking in a tub of Epsom salt).

Sunday (Unrest)

Me: Rest Day

Andrew: To Paraphrase Maya Angelo, “people won’t remember what you said or did, but how you made them feel”. That’s me with this workout. I don’t remember what the format was exactly, but I do remember during it I began to question my plan of doing this 5 more days in a row…

Monday (Bedlam)

Me: This was the day that I appeared on Andrew’s vlog, so you can see a little bit about my experience on there. I was happy to have a 3 group class because we didn’t have nearly as many all outs as the 2 group class. I had to go a bit lower on my resistance level on the bike because all of the all outs were at inclines/high resistance levels, but even going lower than normal made it hard for me. I didn’t get as far on the rower as I would have but I still had a great time with this workout and felt amazing after completing it!

Andrew: This was the day with the 20 (Yes, TWENTY) All Outs on the treadmill. While it did have a “sticker shock” effect upon hearing it presented by your coach, it really wasn’t that bad -Although I might have preferred to start my Monday morning with the 3G version (only 12 All Outs). Spoiler: in hindsight this day ended up being my favorite.

Tuesday (Epocalypse)

Me: Rest Day

Andrew: This is when my body started to get a little mad at me. With this being my 3rd day in a row, my legs and arms really started to hurt. After class, I actually had to foam roll the backs of my arms (you can laugh) to relieve the pain.

Wednesday (Commotion)

Me: This workout was a bit weird for me because the rower at my station wasn’t working. So instead of having 15 minutes at each section of the room, I had 30 minutes on the bike and 15 minutes on the floor. But it turned out that the rowing blocks actually were almost no rowing but instead 30 seconds of rowing and then we finished the block with sumo squats and tricep extensions. The floor was all squats, sit-ups, and push ups. Everything was very repetitive and I was so glad to have work after my workout so I could sit and be lazy.

Andrew: I hated this one. Moving on.

Thursday (Disturbance)

Me: Rest Day

Andrew: At this point in the week, my body was giving up. I powered through however and made modifications to both the floor and the tread blocks to not make matters worse for my lower legs & feet (I threw the burpees away).

Friday (Pandemonium)

Me: This was the first workout of the week that I had my horrible nausea. I am so glad it started toward the end of the week because I honestly was expecting it all week. We had a ton of squats in this workout and they were unfortunately making me nauseous (which I don’t think has ever happened with squats before), but I just took my time and did them at my own pace. The floor was all upper body and went much better than I thought I could do with how I was feeling.

Andrew: I remember telling the staff at the front desk before that I was jealous they got to sit there while I had to go workout (I swear I like Orangetheory y’all, I’m just dramatic lol). By the end of class I decided I had put in way too much hard work & dedication to end the week with a less than average effort. So I spent the last 30 seconds at a 10.2 on the treadmill -super high for me!

Overall, I’m really proud of myself for sticking with my goal of going all 6 days. The point of Mayhem for me was to get myself back on track with my consistency and I think it truly worked.

*drains tub*

As you can see, I only did 3 days of Mayhem. I don’t know what I was thinking but I thought it ended on Saturday so my Saturday workout would have been the 4th day. I only realized my mistake when I was in class on Friday so it was too late to do anything about it. I had a moment of real disappointment and feeling mad at myself, but I got that thought out of my head quickly. I still did 3 days of Mayhem and 4 workouts that week since I did still go on Saturday. That’s not something that everyone can do.

And what Andrew did with doing all 6 workouts is even more incredible! I’m so lucky to have friends like him who inspire me to do more and work harder. Hopefully I will be able to do better with the planning for Hell Week and Mayhem next year.

Make sure you go to Andrew’s channel to subscribe so you can see all of his vlogs about his fitness journey! And you can see my appearance regarding Monday’s workout below!

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Tagged challenge, fitness, friends, Mayhem Week, Orangetheory, workout

Lots Of Lower Body Work (or A Week Of Froggers)

Posted on May 20, 2019 | 1 comment

This past week of workouts was not what I was expecting. Every workout at Orangetheory is different, but we had a lot of similar things throughout the week. I definitely pushed myself and sometimes that is a bit much, but this time the pushing just led to soreness which proved I was working hard.

Monday’s workout was a themed class for National Frog Day (yes, that’s a thing). Every section of the workout had frogger squats as a big part of it. Sometimes it was an exercise in the workout and sometimes it was timed within a block. But there were a ton of frogger squats the entire time.

For cardio, every block was the same. We had a 30 second push pace and 45 second base pace that repeated and then we had a 30 second all out pace. After that we had a minute to recover and get off the treadmill/bike before we had 30 seconds of frogger squats. All 3 blocks were like that and the frogger squats weren’t too bad since for me it was the beginning of the class. I did keep my bike resistance levels a bit lower just to not overwork my quads before all the squats.

For the floor and the rower we switched between blocks. So when it my technically my rowing time I had 2 blocks on the rower and 1 block on the floor. And for my floor time I had 2 blocks on the floor and 1 on the rower. On the rower, we started with 10 frogger squats and 1 single arm snatch with a dumbbell on each side. Then we went down 1 frogger squat and up 1 single arm snatch. We had that for about 4 minutes before heading to the rower for a 30 second all out row. When we got back to the rower, we picked up on the exercises where we left off.

The floor was a similar pattern to the rower. We had exercises and then at the end we had 30 seconds of frogger squats. The exercises were high rows on the straps, knee tucks on the ab dolly with pushups, and ab dolly roll outs. The exercises weren’t too hard and I didn’t need that many modifications, but the frogger squats were getting tough. I have no clue how many I did over the entire workout, but they did make me sore and I really didn’t want to do another frogger squat for a long time after I was done.

Wednesday’s workout was an endurance day and it was designed to help get us ready for the 12 minute run benchmark that we will have coming up soon. I have a different feeling about running themed benchmarks now that I do them on the bike, but it’s not a bad feeling. It’s less pressure since I don’t have a big history of what I can do, but also a little uncertainty because of the same reason.

For cardio, we warmed up with a 1 minute push pace before having a recovery and then a 5.5 minute run for distance. I set the resistance level at my old push pace and it was a bit tough to maintain that the entire time. After the 5.5 minutes, we had another recovery before doing the 5.5 minute distance run again. The goal was to do at least what we did the first time. I was able to use the same resistance level and I got a bit further in the distance so I was very happy with that.

On the rower, we started with a 2.5 minute row for distance. I was able to get a little bit further than what I normally can do. Then we had lunges with tricep extensions using a medicine ball. For each round on the rower we were supposed to decrease our row by 100 meters and we kept the lunges with tricep extensions the same. Normally when we have workout plans like this I just use a round number for my rowing distance. But I decided to use my actual distance and do the math each time I was on the rower. It wasn’t too hard, but it did make the rowing a bit longer than it would have been with round numbers.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block was all work with weights. We had shoulder presses, double crunches, and weighted hip bridges. I didn’t go too heavy with the shoulder presses or double crunches because I was still trying to be careful with my back. But with the hip bridges, I did go heavy. I used to be very worried about putting weight on my hips, but I’ve realized how strong they are and I love that I can use a weight that seemed impossible to me before. The second block had toe taps using the bench which I was able to do with holding on to the straps and doing a single leg squat as well as roll outs using the straps. The modified toe taps were tough and I had some issues balancing. I just tried to do what I could and sometimes that meant taking a break and having both legs on the bench between each one.

Friday’s workout was a power day and it had some really awesome moments and some moments that were a real struggle. But the struggle in the workout was something that I think most of us struggled with so having that support helped.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks that were the same. We had a 30 second push pace, 1 minute base pace, 30 second all out, 1 minute recovery, and then a 30 second push pace to 30 second all out. For the first push and all out, I did my new resistance levels since we had a bit of recovery after them. And for the back to back push and all out, I used my old levels since there wasn’t the recovery. I’m glad I have gotten out of the mindset that I have to stick to one set of bike resistance levels since I have been enjoying going back and forth and playing with it.

The rower was where most people in class struggled. We had 3 blocks and each block had a 200, 150, and 100 meter row. And between each row we had frogger squats. Most of us in class also took class on Monday so when we heard we had to do more frogger squats we were pretty annoyed. We were given the option to do regular squats instead and I took that option. My legs were sore after all the frogger squats and I didn’t want to do more. Some people tried them, but I think all of us were not happy that frogger squats made an appearance again so soon.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had lunges while holding weights, lunges without weights, sit-ups, and full burpees. I did my burpees on the bench like I’ve been doing for a while and even with that modification they were tough. I think it’s been a while since I’ve done them so I was a bit rusty with the movements. The second block had lunges with single arm shoulder presses and pop jacks. I did the pop jacks with the bench like the burpees and had the same issue with not being as fluid as I would have liked. I wish the burpees and pop jacks had gone smoother for me, but at least they weren’t hurting me and I could do them.

Saturday’s workout was strength based and it was a great class to end the week on. I felt really strong and powerful and even though this was a strength class it felt like it was more than just that.

For cardio we had 2 similar blocks. We had a push pace, base pace, base pace at incline, regular base pace, and an all out. I used my old push pace for the flat push paces and my new push base as the base pace with incline. It was a great mix of using the resistance levels on the bike and I really pushed myself to pedal faster when we didn’t have incline work. I don’t know why I felt so amazing and powerful in that class, but I did and the cardio work match perfectly for me.

On the rower, we started with a 200 meter row and we counted the strokes. Then we took the number of strokes we did and used that for medicine ball squat front raises. Then we went down one stroke and one squat each round. The goal was to do the strokes on the rower slowly to not have the count be so high. A lot of people rushed through the row, but I took my time. I still did a higher stroke count than I would have liked, but it was not too high which helped me not to have to do as many squats.

And on the floor, we had a lot of weighted work and some Bosu work. The first block had single arm hip swings with weights, half get ups with weights, and pullovers with weights on the Bosu. The second block was weighted hip bridges on the Bosu, chest presses with weights, and plank pull throughs. I was glad to get a break from lower body work on the floor and I was using some heavy weights to feel powerful.

This past week of workouts really had a lot of tough work, including a ton of lower body work. But this week might make this past week look easy because it’s Mayhem time! Hopefully I do ok in those workouts and I can’t wait to see what happens because I am really on a high with feeling awesome!

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Still Working Through The Pain (or I’m Going To Stay Positive About This)

Posted on May 13, 2019 | Comments Off

This past week of workouts ended up being another struggle. As I mentioned last week, I did something to my back and that really threw things off for me. But at least the nausea was gone and I was ready to feel like myself again. That’s not how this past week went, but I think I did end up finding the best in the situation.

Monday’s workout was a strength day and I was ready to be back to normal with my bike work. I was feeling good (this workout was right before my back pain started) and I was excited to see what I was going to be able to do.

The cardio work did include hills, but they weren’t super high inclines. So I was keeping my bike resistance levels close to what I’m used to. We had rounds of hill work and flat road work and each round the incline/resistance level went down by 1. I started 1 level higher than my new all out level and didn’t worry about pedaling too fast. And it felt great when the resistance level was getting back down toward where I’m used to being after having such a high level earlier. When we had our all outs, since I had so much work using resistance levels I decided to have the level at my base level but I pedaled much faster. It was an interesting difference from what I’m used to doing. I don’t know if I’ll do that all the time for my all outs, but it could be something good to have as an option when I have strength days in the future.

On the rower, we had rounds of stroke count work. We started with doing 20 strokes on the rower slowly to get as many meters as possible. Then we had lunges using the medicine ball. Each time we got to the rower we went down 2 stokes. Because I was going so slow, I didn’t get that low with the stroke count. I tried to keep the stroke rate below 16 strokes a minute when with normal rowing I’m usually between 25-30. It is so hard to go that slowly, but I know that was the purpose of that workout and I’m glad I really tried to do it that way.

And on the floor we had 2 blocks and it was a lot of upper body work. The first block had bicep curls but we were balancing on one leg while doing them. That was definitely an added challenge, but I took my time and put my foot down to regain my balance when necessary. We also had tricep extensions on the straps and goblet lunges. And the second block had regular bicep curls, regular lunge, and tricep extensions using the weights. It was interesting to see how I felt between the two blocks since they were essentially the same exercises but different ways of doing them.

Wednesday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and because of my back I had to be careful with what I did. I knew that working out wasn’t going to make things worse unless I was careless in what I did in class. Every time I worked on stretching things felt better so I was hoping a workout would do the same. There wasn’t too much I had to modify which was nice, I just had to take things a bit slower.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks with a similar pattern. We started with hill work, then we had a flat road push pace, and we ended with rounds of 30 second all outs with recoveries between. For the hill work, I kept it where my push pace resistance level usually is. I didn’t want to strain too much because I was worried I would put that strain into my back. I did work hard, just not as hard as I would have done if I was feeling ok.

On the rower, we had sprint rows and we were supposed to do power jacks with a medicine ball between each row. I knew that I shouldn’t lift a weight over my head and I didn’t want to have to bend over to grab the medicine ball each time I was going to use it. So I did regular squats instead and that worked just fine for me. We also had all out rows to match with the cardio side when they had them. I was able to do a bit better with those rows because they were so short.

And on the floor, we had one long block. We had front squats with dumbbells, upright rows with dumbbells, double crunches, goblet squats, lateral raises, and swimmers. I had to modify the front squats because I couldn’t hold the weights up that high so I did them as regular squats with weights. I also had to go much lower with the weights for all the exercises. Some of the exercises did use my back so obviously I needed lighter weight for those. But even the goblet squats had to be done with a lighter weight because I just couldn’t pick up the heavier one. Considering what the workout could have been and the modifications I could have needed, I was very happy with the limited modifications I had to do.

Friday’s workout was a mix of strength and endurance work. My back was doing much better than it was on Wednesday, but I still had twinges of pain when I moved certain ways so I had to be careful with what I did and how I moved. Unfortunately, one of the ways I felt pain was when I hunched over to adjust the resistance levels on the bike so I had to be very careful with that.

The cardio work was a mix of push paces at a flat incline and push paces with hills. But because I struggled to adjust the resistance level, I just used my new base pace for the base pace moments and my old push pace for the push paces no matter if there was incline work or not as well as the all out. Limiting it to those 2 levels helped a lot because I didn’t have to adjust things that often. I know that it didn’t make the workout as hard as it should have been, but it did allow me to have very little pain while on the bike.

The rower had 2 blocks with similar patterns. We had 2 rounds of a 200 meter row, 2 rounds of a 150 meter row, and rounds of a 100 meter row. Between each row we had medicine ball exercises. For the first block we had medicine ball ground to presses and for the second block we had medicine ball front raises. But I couldn’t lift a medicine ball that way without having pain. So for both blocks I did squats with the medicine ball. It wasn’t working the same muscles we were supposed to, but the muscles we were supposed to be using were the ones that hurt. And for the rowing, I tried to keep my rows as close to my normal times as possible. I had to be very cautious doing them because I discovered doing the proper form hurt more than doing a sloppy form. So I had to be aware of my body position so I didn’t injure myself a different way by having bad form.

And the floor had a lot of upper body and core work which was a bit tough for me. We also had drop sets which ended up giving me a good chance to test out different weights to see what my body could do while hurting. The first block had drop sets with chest presses and regular sets with bear steps and arm raises. The second block had drop sets with tricep extensions with weights and then regular sets with shoulder presses and sit-ups. I did have to go lighter with my weights for the weighted work, but I was doing better than I had done on Wednesday. And the core work wasn’t as tough as I thought it would be, it was just getting into position that was hard. Getting up and down from the ground was harder than the actual exercises.

Saturday’s workout was an endurance day and fortunately my back was almost totally normal. I’m lucky that I only had to deal with the bad pain for a couple of days, but I’m also aware that if I go too hard that I could injure myself again or the little pains I have could last much longer. So I took that knowledge into my workout to make sure I didn’t do anything too crazy.

For cardio we had lots of push paces to base paces. The base pace always matched the time of the push pace before it, but the block had a lot of variety. We had 2 minute, 90 second, 1 minute, and 30 second intervals throughout the time we were doing the cardio block. We ended with a 1 minute push pace followed by a 1 minute all out. And just like on Friday, the only time I had a bit of pain on the bike was when I had to lean over to change the resistance levels. So I kept it simple like I did the day before. So all the base paces were my new base pace and all the push paces were the old push pace even if they were the shorter ones. Usually I would do the old push pace for the longer ones and the new push pace for the short ones, but it wasn’t worth it for me to worry about the adjustments as much. I did use my new all out pace at the end which helped to end on a good note.

The rowing work was 1 long block. We started with a 2 minute row and then we had medicine ball work. Then we were supposed to reduce the row by 100 meters from what we did in 2 minutes and repeat the pattern. Usually I would use an even number no matter how far I went in 2 minutes, but I decided to do the math in my head each time and do what I actually did. The medicine ball work were squats to overhead raises and calf raises. I didn’t do the overhead raise with the squats and I kept the medicine ball at my chest for the calf raises to protect my back. But I felt like I was doing work much closer to what we were supposed to do.

And the floor block ended up being one of the highlights of the workout for me. The first block was almost all work that involved stepping on the bench. Until last week, I wasn’t able to do any exercises like that and would have to do squats or lunges instead. I still had to modify the actual exercises because I can’t do stepping up and down, but I was still able to use the bench. We were supposed to do step overs with crossing the back leg, step down toe taps, and power step ups. What I did was balancing on one leg while holding the straps for all the exercises. Instead of the step overs I basically did single leg squats with crossing the back leg behind me. For the toe taps and step ups I did single leg squats with keeping the leg I wasn’t using to the side. It’s much closer to the work than what I used to do even with all the modifications. The second block was lunges with bicep curls or uppercuts and side planks, all exercises I could do. I had to be careful with the side planks while I was going from standing to the floor and back, but the actual exercise was not painful or difficult.

There was no way for me to know that this past week was going to be thrown off by my back issues. But I am so grateful that it really didn’t hurt my workouts too much. I did have new modifications to do, but I also was getting a lot of stuff done that I hadn’t been able to do until recently. I think there were more positive things about this workout than negative and that’s awesome! My back is still a little tender and I have a few moments of little pains, but I’m doing so much better and I’m optimistic the trend will continue that way.

Comments Off on Still Working Through The Pain (or I’m Going To Stay Positive About This)

Posted in Fitness, Health, Tough Stuff

Tagged fitness, health issues, Orangetheory, pain, struggle, workout

Trying New Things When I’m Having A Bad Week (or Having An OTF First)

Posted on May 6, 2019 | Comments Off

I was really prepared for the worst this past week at Orangetheory. I knew it would be my week of nausea and I really don’t expect much from myself that week. I usually go into my workouts just hoping I can keep moving while I was in class and if I can do more than that it’s a bonus. What I never expect is to have a small breakthrough in my workouts. But this past week surprised me with just that.

Monday’s workout was endurance based and was having moderate nausea. I haven’t decided if I prefer having one horrible nausea day and the rest of the time being only a little nauseous or having moderate nausea for an extended period of time. This past week was moderate nausea for the entire week which made Monday a bit better (but the rest of the week a bit harder). But it helped for making the endurance workout a bit easier.

For cardio we started with a long 3 minute push pace and then we had rounds of 1 minute push paces and 30 second base paces with an all out pace at the end. The 3 minute push was tough to keep going the entire time, but I put my resistance level a bit lower than I normally would. The rounds of 1 minute pushes were a bit better and I felt like I could actually push myself a bit more. I ended up using the base pace time to stop and get some water (and let my nausea pass) so I didn’t really have a base pace during the workout. But considering what I was expecting to be able to do I had a much better time and did a lot more work.

On the rower we started with a 3 minute row for distance. The plan was to go down 100 meters on the rower each time we rowed and have squats with the medicine ball between each row. I usually try to use round numbers when I have this type of rowing workout so I just did the 3 minute distance row and then went down to 500 meters after (I did around 600 meters in those 3 minutes). The long rows weren’t easy, but it was nice to have the ability to zone out a bit while I rowed. I still had to rest in the middle of the rowing a lot, but I wasn’t too worried about that and didn’t stress too much about how far down the row distance I could do.

And on the floor, the first block had side lunges, regular lunges, and crunches. Those all went well and as expected and weren’t anything too crazy. But in the second block, I had a pretty great breakthrough. Whenever we have exercises on the floor that involve stepping on and off the bench I do something on the floor instead like lunges. But the first block already had lunges so I asked my coach what else I could use as a replacement. We worked on figuring out how I could use the bench a bit but I held onto the straps for balance and I wasn’t exactly stepping on and off. I was balancing on one foot while moving the other foot behind me. I’ve done something similar on the floor, but because I’m on the floor I’m limited in how far I can drop the back foot. By doing it on the bench, I had more room to squat down and balance. I still wasn’t doing exactly what we were supposed to do, but it was a big change from what I normally do and I felt how hard I worked after that workout! It was so awesome to know I could do something that I really didn’t think I could do!

Wednesday’s workout was a power day, but I ended up treating it a bit like another endurance day. My nausea was close to what it was like on Monday and I really was expecting it to be better than that. Because of that feeling, I didn’t want to overdo things on the bike and I really wanted to be able to zone out while I was on it.

The cardio was supposed to be different distance challenges with base paces between them, but I really didn’t want to have to focus on the distance on the bike and to do the math needed to plan it out. Both blocks for cardio were 6 minutes so I just kept my resistance level between my base and push paces and just went for the entire block. I had to take lots of breaks during the block, but I was grateful to have a steady resistance level so I could skip focusing on that. I know I didn’t get as hard of a workout as I normally do, but it was better than many nauseous days. And I feel like not having the pressure of focusing on the distance allowed me to do more work than I could have done if I was trying to keep up the pattern.

On the rower, we had only sprint rows. Both blocks had 200, 150, and 100 meter rows. The first block had overhead medicine ball presses between the rows and the second block had medicine ball front presses between the rows. The sprint rows were nice because they were done quickly. I know I was slow and not able to push back as hard as I would have liked on the rower which made them take longer, but they were still done faster than the rows I had on Monday.

And on the floor I had another chance to work on my new bench standing skill. The first block had high rows on the straps, double crunches, and what was supposed to be toe tap hop overs on the bench. I can’t do the hop overs, but I did a similar exercise as I did on Monday with holding onto the straps. This time, I balanced on one leg while putting the back foot back and to the side. I couldn’t do all the reps without standing on the bench again to get my balance, but I’m sure I’ll get there eventually. The second block had pullovers with weights, lunges, and skier swings. It was nice to have a floor workout that only required minimal modifications for my hip issues and no modifications due to my nausea.

Friday’s workout was the hardest day for me by far. My nausea was the same it had been all week, but I had not slept the night before. Going into a workout with only about 20 minutes of sleep is not ideal but I didn’t want to skip the class either. This was the time I feel like I really went in with the mindset that I’m used to having when I’m nauseous. I just wanted to get through it and doing something is better than doing nothing.

The workout was endurance based and I really took it easy on the bike. We had one block with rounds of decreasing push paces with 30 second bases between and one block with rounds of decreasing push paces with 1 minute bases between. I was using my old push and base paces and it was really a struggle. Exhaustion was hitting me really hard in class (although I think having my workout is what helped to keep me awake during work later that day) and all I could think about was trying to keep going. I didn’t do what I know I can do, even when I feel nauseous, and I had to be ok with that.

The rower was also 2 blocks. The first block started with a 300 meter row with squat front presses. Then it was a 600 meter row and we were supposed to hold a squat the rest of the block, but I didn’t finish the 600 meter row before the block ended. The second block followed the same pattern as the treadmill and we had push rows and ground to press with medicine balls as our recovery when the treadmills were in their base pace. After the ground to presses I had about 15 seconds each time to get ready for the next row so it felt like we didn’t have much rest that entire block.

And on the floor, we had 1 long block that was split into 2 mini-blocks. The first mini-block was lateral raises to front raises with weights, alternating shoulder presses with weights, and Y raises with the straps. The second block was goblet squats with weights, regular lunges with weights, and side lunges with weights. The regular lunges were actually supposed to be step ups on the step and I could have tried to figure out a way to modify that on the step with the strap, but I didn’t feel comfortable trying that when I was so tired. I need to be focused when I try things on the step and that day I know I wasn’t.

Saturday’s class was a themed class. It was May The 4th Be With You and everything was pretty much related to 4. We had 4 minutes runs and rows and 4 or 8 reps of things on the floor. It was a bit of a crazy class with a lot of switches, but it ended up being my best class of the week. I was dealing with some anger in my life and I was taking it out in class. Turns out working angry means you get to work hard and you feel better when it’s done!

The cardio and rower blocks worked together and had a run/row type format. If you were doing cardio you did cardio, rowing, cardio and if you were doing rowing you did rowing, cardio, rowing. When we were doing the cardio work, it was a 4 minute distance challenge. I set my resistance level to be at my old push pace for that and it worked really well. It was a bit tough, but considering it was 4 minutes without a break it should be tough! And when we were doing rowing it was 4 rounds of 100 meter rows with 4 frogger squats between. If we finished those 4 rounds we rowed for distance until we switched. Every time I made it to the rowing for distance.

The floor was one long block and it was focused a lot on upper body. We had chest presses, push-ups, high rows on the straps, chest flys, sit-ups, squats, and rollouts on the straps. My arms were still a bit sore from Friday’s workout so I had to take my time with these exercises, but I was able to get a lot of rounds done. I definitely feel the hard work I did still, so I might have gone a little too heavy with the weights, but it was totally worth it to me.

I still can’t believe that I had such great work during a week that I was prepared for the worst. I know that having these not-so-bad nausea weeks are a surprise and I wish they would be more often. But if I get them every few months that would be nice too. I got so much done this past week that I never thought I could do and it was a great boost to my self-esteem during a week that I had some struggles. Hopefully I can keep that going through this week too!

Comments Off on Trying New Things When I’m Having A Bad Week (or Having An OTF First)

Posted in Fitness

Tagged accomplishment, challenge, fitness, Orangetheory, struggle, workout

Another Week Of Pushing Through (or Feeling Strong Before Feeling Sick)

Posted on April 29, 2019 | Comments Off

This past week of workouts was the week that my nausea was starting. I’m sure some people would not be happy to know that they were going to be getting nauseous, but I like knowing what’s going to happen so I can prepare for it. I also think it gives me a little extra motivation to push harder because I know that the next week I probably won’t be able to do so. I had some moments that were tough, but overall I was happy with how I pushed through things.

Monday’s workout was a partner workout, which I was excited about. I know that not everyone loves partner workouts, but they do give me a lot of extra motivation to work hard. And the last time we had a partner workout, I wasn’t really able to participate properly because I was dealing with a lot of pain and nausea. So getting to do one on Monday was awesome.

The workout had 2 blocks and for both blocks the person on the floor controlled the switching. For both blocks the person on the treadmill (or bike in my case) went at a push pace until we were tagged to switch. On the rower the first block was rounds of 100 meter rows and squats and the second block was rounds of 30 second rows and squats. You didn’t reset the rower during the entire block and the goal was to go further on the row in the second block than the first. My group didn’t accomplish that, but that’s ok.

The first block on the floor had squats, plank low rows with weights, and crunches. We started at 12 reps and every time you returned to the floor you increased your reps by 2. And the second block had tricep work with weights, plank reaches, and sit-ups. For the second block we started at 20 reps and went down by 2 every time you got back to the floor.

As far as the timing goes, I think my group was pretty equal. If the person on the treadmill or rower controlled the switching I would have been a bit more concerned that I would be the slow one in the group. But on the floor I feel like I’m pretty average along with the other people in my class. I tried to limit my breaks to when I was on the bike since that was the time that my partners weren’t depending on me and I managed to do that for almost all the water breaks I needed. But I also had a good group and we all understood if someone needed to drink some water or catch their breath while on the floor.

Because of how the partner workouts go, I really don’t know how well I did on the bike or rower. I kept my bike resistance level at my old push pace just to make things easy on me since I didn’t always know how long I would be on there. But I do feel like I worked really hard and that’s the most important thing.

Wednesday’s workout was strength based and it ended up being the start of my nausea. Fortunately, the workout kind of worked well with being nauseous so I didn’t feel like too much was affected.

For cardio, we had base paces at no incline and then each block we had a little more incline work. I was able to just increase my resistance on the bike by 1 each time we had a bit more work so I was never that high on the resistance level. I was still doing a bit of a hill workout, but it was much less intense that it was supposed to be. But that worked well for taking it easy in class.

On the rower, we started with 4 rounds of a 150 meter row and squat front raises. Then we had 2 rounds of 300 meter rows with squat front raises. The block ended with a 600 meter row and I was working on that when the block ended. My rowing wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great. It’s frustrating when I’m in that middle space because I feel like it would only be a little more effort to do my normal rowing. But that little extra effort just isn’t possible when I feel nauseous.

The floor had 3 blocks and all the blocks included drop sets. Drop sets are when you have a small number of reps with a heavy weight immediately followed by a larger number of reps with a lower weight. I like doing them because I feel like I get to lift really heavy but I still get to do a lot of reps. The first block had drop sets for hip hinge low rows and then we had core work. The second block had drop sets for shoulder presses and hip hinge low rows with core work. And the last block had drop sets for goblet squats, shoulder presses, and hip hinge low rows without the core work. All of the floor work was stuff that was fine for me to do when I’m nauseous so it was a high point to end my workout.

Friday’s class was a mix of endurance, strength, and power. My nausea was a little bit worse, but still not too bad so I just tried to manage things the way that I normally do.

There were 2 blocks for cardio and the first block was a mix of hill work and rounds of 30 second all outs. I did the same thing I did on Wednesday and just kept increasing my resistance level by 1 each time. I was never at the resistance level I use for my all out pace, but it was still increasing the levels like I was supposed to. The second block was a 6 minute distance challenge. We could intervals or just maintain the same pace the entire time, it was our choice. I decided to set my resistance level at my new push pace and just keep it there the entire time. It wasn’t easy to do my push pace level for that long, but I did have little breaks when I had to let the nausea pass so that helped a bit.

The rower was also 2 blocks. The first block was a 300 meter row and then squats until we matched up with cardio and did rounds of 30 second all out rows. The second block was supposed to be a partner block, but there was an odd number of people so I was alone. I was happy to be alone so I’m glad it worked out that way. It was supposed to be one partner on the rower doing 200 meters and the other partner doing pulsing half squats. I did 200 meters and then 20 squats and just continued that until the block ended.

And the floor was also 2 blocks. The first block was high rows with the straps, skater lunges, and lunges while holding a weight overhead. The second block was lateral lunges with medicine ball front presses, pushups, and toe reaches with the medicine ball. I did a few different modifications for the exercises to limit my nausea, but it wasn’t too bad. And the modifications I picked allowed me to put some extra focus on my form so I tried to see it as a positive.

Saturday’s workout was a power day and even though it was the day I was most nauseous it always ended up being one of my best workout days. The cardio and rowing were done similar to a run/row pattern and we were only at each section for 4 minutes at a time.

Every time we were on the treadmill we had a 2 minute distance challenge, 1 minute of recovery, and 1 minute all out pace. I did my distance challenge at my push pace and I used my old all out resistance level for the all outs. But overall it was much easier than expected because by the time the nausea started to kick in from pushing myself the block was over and I was on the rower.

The rowing was an interesting pattern. We started with a 500 meter row and tricep extensions with a medicine ball. Every time we went down 100 meters on the rower. But because of the timing of the switches, most of the time I was in the middle of a row when I went back to the bike. So I had to remember where I was in the row and get back to finish it when I was on the rower again. It wasn’t too hard to remember, but it was something extra to focus on.

And the floor was 1 long block. We had shoulder work with weights, triceps on the straps, rollouts, deadlifts with weights, high rows on the straps, and ab work. The rollouts and ab work were both things I couldn’t do while nauseous the way we were supposed to because it involved being face down. So I did the rollouts on the straps and did the ab work on my back to accommodate how I was feeling.

I’m prepared for this week to be a tough week for me. I am hoping that because my nauseous kicked in early that maybe it won’t be as intense as it has been. I’m also trying to be more on top of my various medications and remedies so hopefully things won’t be as severe. But if it is, I know I can make it through and I’ll just have to do what I can.

Comments Off on Another Week Of Pushing Through (or Feeling Strong Before Feeling Sick)

Posted in Fitness

Tagged fitness, Orangetheory, workout

Tag Archives: Orangetheory

Making It Through The Week (or Going From Feeling Horrible To Feeling Normal)

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Some Highs and Some Lows (or Taking Wins When I Can)

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Working Hard (or Some Normal But Tough Workouts)

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Doing Some Theme Workouts (or Unique Challenges At Orangetheory)

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Normal But Still Hard (or Having My Own Workout Challenge This Time)

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A Week Of Mayhem (or 2 Perspectives On A Crazy Week)

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Lots Of Lower Body Work (or A Week Of Froggers)

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Still Working Through The Pain (or I’m Going To Stay Positive About This)

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Trying New Things When I’m Having A Bad Week (or Having An OTF First)

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Another Week Of Pushing Through (or Feeling Strong Before Feeling Sick)

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