Tag Archives: Orangetheory

Getting Through A Tough Week (or Rain And Pain)

Posted on January 16, 2023 | Comments Off

I knew this past week of workouts would be tough on me since it would likely be a week of bad pain and nausea. I didn’t expect the extra pain because of all the rain, so that just added to the difficulty of the week. And as much as I wanted to challenge myself in my workouts, I knew I just had to do what I could and hope for the best.

On Monday, I wasn’t feeling too nauseous but I was having quite a bit of hip pain. So I had to work around that and make sure that I didn’t do anything that was too painful for me.

For cardio, we had a long block that had pretty short intervals. We did a push pace to base pace and the each push/base interval was the same amount of time. So it was a 30-second push pace and 30-second base pace for the first interval. And they went up by 15 seconds each time. At the end of the block, we had a 30-second all-out.

On the rower, we also had a long block. We started with squats to front presses with a medicine ball and then we had a 200-meter row. Then we had the medicine ball exercise plus lunges before a 400-meter row. Then those exercises plus shoulder presses and then a 600-meter row. I actually didn’t get beyond that because my rowing was so slow, but it was a decent amount of work for what I could do.

And on the floor, we had neutral grip rows, sumo squats to upright rows, squats, and high rows on the straps. None of the floor exercises were too hard for me with the hip pain, but I did have to take some time with the squats because those were starting to bother me a bit. I wasn’t in pain, but I can tell when an exercise just isn’t feeling right and I need to make sure I’m not having sloppy form or something else that could cause pain later.

Tuesday I was definitely feeling nauseous plus still had some hip pain, so again I had to go easy and listen to my body. I knew that both of these feelings were temporary and that soon I would feel better, but it doesn’t always make it easier.

We had 2 blocks for cardio and both blocks had some incline work in them. We alternated between a regular push pace and a push pace with an incline with a base pace in between. I did go higher on my resistance levels to do the incline work, but I know I wasn’t pedaling that fast for either of the cardio blocks.

On the rower, we did stroke drills for both blocks. In the first block, we did a 12 stroke drill, rested, and then repeated the drill with the goal to beat our distance from the first one. And after that second row we had squats before repeating the pattern again. In the second block, we did 15 stroke drills and had lunges instead of squats.

And on the floor, we had one long block that had cluster sets. We had 3 exercises to do as cluster sets and we did each one 3 times. We had chest presses, tap squats, and overhead tricep extensions. For the sets, the first time was supposed to be 6-10 reps and then the second time was just to do as many as possible.

Wednesday’s workout was a benchmark and I knew it wasn’t going to be a great one for me. My nausea was pretty bad and I just wasn’t in a good mood because of how I had been feeling all week. This time, the benchmark was the 1 mile challenge, and I knew I had done really well on it the last time. This time, I just wanted to get through it and see what happened.

Our entire cardio block was focused on the benchmark. I knew I would finish in under 10 minutes, but I wanted to see if I could maybe do it in under 9. I didn’t put the resistance level that high since this benchmark is all about speed. I also knew that it would make things a bit easier on me since it wouldn’t take as much effort to pedal. And somehow, I made it just under 9 minutes so I was very happy. It was far from my PR, but I hit the goal I had set for myself.

On the rower, we had different row distances and we were supposed to do jumping jacks between them, but I knew I couldn’t do that. So for the entire row block, I just rowed as long as I could and then rested when I needed to. I wasn’t worried about distances or anything like that, I just kept going to maximize my time on the rower.

And on the floor, we had circuit work. We had 2 rounds of each circuit and then we did them as one long block after that. We had single arm rows and chest flys for the first circuit and step-ups and deadlifts for the second circuit. I was able to lower the bench so I could do the step-ups, but they did take me a while since I had to make sure I stayed balanced.

My hip pain was finally starting to be done by Thursday, but my nausea really kicked in hard. Plus I was dealing with very intense cramps so I don’t think my lack of hip pain helped me too much. But I knew this would be my last workout of the week so I wanted to just try the best I could.

Every section of the room had 3 blocks for this workout. For cardio, the blocks were always a push pace, an all-out, a 1-minute recovery, a push pace, and an all-out. In the first block, the push and all-outs were 1-minute, in the second block they were 45-seconds, and in the last block they were 30-seconds.

On the rower, we were timed the same way as cardio so we had the push and all-out rows. But instead of a recovery, we had the minute to do 10 overhead presses with a medicine ball and then we could rest for any time that was left over. I usually didn’t have much time to rest, so I just got my feet back into the rower and had a few seconds to breathe before doing the next set of push and all-out rows.

And on the floor, we had 2 exercises for each block. In the first block we had goblet squats and then we were supposed to do jumps to shuffles. I did squats to calf raises instead of the jumps. The second block had lateral lunges and skater lunges. And the last block was all core work and I really struggled with it with all my pain so I just did crunches for that last block to make sure I did something close to what we were supposed to do.

Considering how bad this past week could have been, it wasn’t too bad. I’m hoping that this week isn’t bad either and at least the end of the week should hopefully be ok for me. And even though I won’t have another benchmark to do this week, I can still try to keep pushing myself and making sure that I work extra hard when I feel ok to make up for weeks like this past one.

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Posted in Fitness, Health, Tough Stuff

Tagged fitness, Orangetheory, pain, workout

An Unexpected Workout Week (or Starting Off The New Year With Workouts)

Posted on January 9, 2023 | Comments Off

I knew this past week of workouts would be a bit different because of my schedule, but it ended up being even more unique than that. I still got in my workouts, but it was also a bit of an adventure.

On Sunday, I went to a late morning workout since I wasn’t sure how tired I’d be after New Year’s Eve. I probably could have done an earlier class, but I’m glad I didn’t have to rush around that morning.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. In the first block, we started at a base and increased the speed/resistance level every 30 seconds, ending at an all-out. And then we had a 3-minute distance challenge. For the second block, we started with the distance challenge and then did the progressive one after

On the rower, we started with a 250-meter row. Then we rested as much as needed and did another 250-meter row, with the goal to beat the time from the first time. Then we had chest presses with a medicine ball. We repeated that pattern, but the row was decreased by 50 meters every time we did it.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had lunges, reverse flys, and leg raises. And the second block had squats, rows on the straps, and plank dips. It wasn’t as intense of a workout as a lot of the past ones, but I was glad to have something easy for once since I knew I’d be working hard in a lot of other workouts.

Monday’s workout was a tornado class, so we switched between sections about every 4 minutes. And this workout was definitely a new one for me.

I started on cardio where we had a 1-minute push pace, a 1-minute base pace, and then we had rounds of a short distance challenge with recoveries between each one. Then we switched to the rower. We had just started with a 2-minute row when I noticed that someone two rowers away was on the ground. I thought at first that they fell off the rower, which is something I’ve done before, but everyone in the class realized it was something more serious. They had fainted on the rower and we were lucky that there was an ER nurse in the class who was able to help them out. But because it seemed like they had hit their head, the paramedics were called.

Everyone else in the class went into the lobby to wait and see what would happen, and because the paramedics were called, the class was canceled. Almost everyone left because the workout ended, but I decided to put myself on the waitlist for the next class to try to take that one. And while I was waiting for the next class, the person who fainted came out to the lobby. They were ok, and I’m glad nothing more serious happened. I think they might have just been embarrassed at that point, but I know everyone who was in that class was just happy to know they were ok.

When the next class started, technically there wasn’t enough room for the 2 of us on the waitlist, but since we both came from the last class we agreed to share a station so we could at least do some of the workout. So I didn’t do more rowing because I used the bike for both cardio and rowing. But I was just grateful I got to finish my workout. And we shared the floor space which was ok since the exercises didn’t take up that much room. We had the same exercises every time we were on the floor which were lunges, plank pops, squats, bicep curls, and uppercuts. Since I had done some of the first workout as well, I figured it was like I had done 1.25 workouts that day.

Tuesday was a bit harder since I was back to my early workout and it was my 4th day in a row (although not my 4th workout for the week). But fortunately, I wasn’t feeling super nauseous, which I was worried about. I still had some nausea, but it was much more manageable.

We had 2 cardio blocks that had the same pattern. We had a 2-minute push pace, 1-minute base pace, 1-minute push pace at an incline, 1-minute base pace, and 90-second push pace at an incline. The inclines/resistance levels were higher for the first block than the second block, but they weren’t too high for either block.

On the rower, we also had 2 blocks with the same pattern. We started with a 2-minute push row before having a series of 1-minute intervals. In each interval, we had to do 10 reps of an exercise, and then whatever time was left over was spent rowing. In the first block, we had front and back steps and in the second block, we had butt kicks. Getting on and off the rower so frequently was tough for me and I usually only had about 10 seconds left to row each time, so I didn’t get a ton of rowing in outside of the first part of each block.

And on the floor, we had one long block. It was a bit complicated. We had 3 different anchor exercises and 3 normal exercises. We started with doing the first anchor before each of the normal exercises. The next round had the second anchor before each of the normal exercises. And so on. The anchor exercises were shoulder presses, reverse grip low rows, and chest presses. And the regular exercises were walkouts to plank shoulder taps, back extensions, and bicycle crunches. I only got through some of the exercises with the third anchor exercise, but it was still a lot of work.

Thursday’s workout was my last workout of the week, and it was a benchmark class. This time, we had the 200-meter benchmark. I knew I had made a lot of improvements with my rowing recently, but my PR was from before the pandemic when I know I was really strong. So I went into this workout just wanting to do really well on the benchmark but with no expectations.

I started with cardio and for the first two blocks, we had a 4-minute distance challenge. And in the third block, we had rounds of a push pace and base pace with an all-out at the end. But because the benchmark would be after cardio, we were told to go a little easier than normal.

On the rower, the first block was to get us warmed up. So we had rounds of a 200-meter row at a push pace with squats to calf raises after. But those 200-meter rows weren’t supposed to be too crazy because the second block was the benchmark. We had the full 4 minutes to do the benchmark, and it usually is between 30-60 seconds. So I took a few extra breaths before starting just to get calm and ready. I tried to use all the new techniques I’ve been picking up recently and also had to make sure I wouldn’t gas out halfway through. I didn’t look at the time on the screen, only at how many meters I had left. And when I was done, I was shocked.

I took about .4 seconds off of my last PR. I really didn’t think I would PR, but I guess this is proof of all my hard work! For the last block, we had the chance to redo the benchmark if we wanted to, but if we didn’t want to (and I didn’t), we had squats to calf raises and lunges before rowing until the end of the block.

And on the floor, we also had 3 blocks. In the first block, we had high to low rows on the straps and hip hinge swings. In the second block, we had pike to planks and superman planks. I did the pike to planks modified to be like blastoff push-ups. And in the last block, we had single-leg deadlifts, plank pull-throughs, and lateral lunges. I tried to go hard on the floor since I was already done with the benchmark, but I also was a bit tired from pushing myself so much.

For the first week of the year, I had a lot happening in my workouts. I don’t know if this is a sign of things to come, but I have also learned that I can never expect what will happen over the year in my workouts and I guess this really represented that well.

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Tagged fitness, Orangetheory, rowing, workout

Finishing Up My 2022 Workouts (or I Think I Really Ended The Year On A Great Note!)

Posted on January 2, 2023 | Comments Off

I think I finished my 2022 workouts pretty well! I had my usual 4 workouts this past week even if they were on a slightly different schedule. But I was able to finish the year making sure I hit my goal number of workouts! I also was testing out doing my injection in a different location which is supposed to help with nausea. I’m not sure if that worked or I just didn’t have really bad side effects this week, but I didn’t have to worry about nausea in any of my workouts!

Monday’s workout happened to be my 200th workout of the year, so that was pretty special. Since Monday was a holiday, I did go to a later class than I normally go to but it was also nice to sleep in. This workout was a 2 group class so we had more time for cardio and the floor than I normally have in a workout.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first block started with a 2-minute base pace with an incline followed by a 1-minute base pace without an incline. Then we had a 2-minute push and a 1-minute push without inclines with a 1-minute base between them. And the block ended with rounds of an all-out at an incline with recovery between each one. The second block was a bit more incline work. We started with a push pace at an incline and then had rounds of push paces to all-out with inclines. I never had to go too crazy with the resistance level on the bike, but it was still a challenge using them and trying to pedal faster.

On the floor, the first block started with a 1-minute all-out row. Then we were on the floor with sumo deadlifts, upright rows, good mornings, and single-arm presses. And the block ended with another 1-minute all-out row. The second block started with a 30-second all-out row before moving onto the floor. We had front raises, lateral lunges, around-the-world raises, and regular lunges before ending the workout with another 30-second all-out row.

Tuesday’s workout was a small group, but we still kept the workout as a 3 group class so we had equal time for cardio, rowing, and the floor.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks. The first block had a 45-second push pace, a 90-second base pace, a 45-second all-out, a recovery, a 45-second push pace, and a 45-second all-out. The second block was the same except the intervals were 30 seconds and not 45 seconds. And the last block was just 3 rounds of a 30-second all-out.

On the rower, we started with a 3-minute row followed by squats to knee drives. Then we had 2 rounds of a 90-second row with lunges between each row. And the last part of the rowing was 3 rounds of a 1-minute row with squats to calf raises between each row. I didn’t get through all of the 1-minute rows, but I at least got to that second.

For the floor, the first block was supposed to be lunges, jump lunges, and a bridge row. Since I can’t do jump lunges, I just doubled the number of regular lunges we were supposed to do. And I did low rows on the straps instead of bridge rows. And the second block had bicycle presses, push-ups, and hip bridges. It wasn’t a ton of floor work, but it was hard.

I didn’t work out on Wednesday since I was going to work out for New Year’s Eve, so my next workout this past week was on Thursday. Again, this was a small class but we still had the class as a 3 group class so we worked in all 3 sections of the room.

Cardio started with a 3-minute push pace followed by a 30-second base pace. We continued a pattern of a push pace followed by a base pace and the push paces were between 1 minute and 3 minutes. But the base paces were always only 30 seconds long which isn’t a lot of time. In the end, we had a 1-minute base pace followed by a 30-second all-out, but I was really exhausted by that point so I know my all-out wasn’t that great.

On the rower, we started with a 200-meter row. Then we had lunges, single-arm clean to presses, and marching in place with a weight. Then we did the 200-meter row and the exercises again. Then we repeated the pattern with a 150-meter row. The exercises were harder than what I feel we normally have when we do exercises with the rower, so I didn’t get that far into the rows.

And on the floor, we had one long block. We had step-down toe taps (which I was able to do by lowering the bench), lunges with wood choppers, plank single-arm rows, and hollow hold single-arm chest presses. I don’t know if it was from all the work in the other sections of the room or if the floor block was harder than it seemed, but this was a tough day for me and others in the class agreed!

And I had to finish out my workouts by going on New Year’s Eve. It’s been a while since I’ve had a Saturday workout, but I knew that I would be there for the holiday no matter what. This workout was an interesting one because everything was timed together so all sections of the room had 3 blocks that were the same time. The first block was 3 minutes long, the second block was 6 minutes long, and the last block was just under 3 minutes long.

For cardio, in the first block we had 1-minute intervals with a base, push, and all-out. The second block was 3 rounds of a 30-second push, 30-second base, 45-second push, and 30-second base. But in the end, we had an all-out instead of the last push. And the last block had 3 rounds of a 30-second all-out and a 30-second recovery.

On the rower, the 3-minute block was just a 3-minute row for distance. The second block was split into 75-second segments with a 30-second recovery after. For each of the 3 75-second segments, we started with doing 10 squats before getting onto the rower and rowing until the 30-second recovery. The goal was to try to match the distance you got in the first block, and I was able to exceed that. And in the last block, we had the same thing as cardio with the 30-second all-out.

And on the floor, the first block was 1 minute of squats, 1 minute of walkout push-ups, and 1 minute of scissor kicks to crunches. In the second block, we had the same timing as cardio. We had 30 seconds of a single-arm low row on one side, 30 seconds of a single-arm low row on the other side, and 45 seconds of a hammer curl to a bicep curl. Then we had 30 seconds to have a quick break before repeating that again. And in the last block, we had 30-second intervals of doing burpees, which I did using the bench. And for whatever reason, I think my burpees went smoother this time than any other workout that I could remember.

And when Saturday’s workout was done, I was so proud of my total workouts for the year.

I know I say that this is an easy goal for me to accomplish each year, but I still have to work for it. And this year, I had more struggles than normal to deal with in my workouts. But I didn’t let that stop me and I just continued going and trying to do my best. I might not have all the results I was hoping to get in my workouts in 2022, but I still put in work and I know that will pay off in the long run! And now, I’m already working toward my workout goal for 2023 and making sure I hit that goal too!

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Posted in Celebrations, Fitness, Fun Stuff

Tagged 2022, fitness, goals, Orangetheory, workout

Last Regular Workout Week Of The Year (or I’m Almost To My Workout Goal)

Posted on December 26, 2022 | Comments Off

This past week of workouts was the last week before I have 2 weeks of weird workout schedules. It was also the second to last week of the year and I’m so grateful that I’m almost to my workout goal for 2022. I was worried I might miss it since I had to take a week off at the beginning of the year, but I guess I made up for that time throughout the year!

I was feeling a bit off on Monday due to some pain issues, but it was much better than the week before. And I didn’t have to worry about how my injection would make me feel since I do that after my workout. So I tried to maximize this workout the best I could since I wasn’t sure how I’d feel the rest of the week.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks and they each had a different focus. The first block was all about endurance and had a 2-minute push pace, 1-minute base pace, 2-minute push pace, and 30-second all-out. The second block was about strength and we had 30-second intervals of a base pace at different inclines/resistance levels. And the last block was for power and we had rounds of 30-second all-outs and 30-second recoveries.

On the rower, we had one long block. We had a 400-meter, 200-meter, and 100-meter row with a medicine ball exercise between each row. And each time we went through those rows, we had a different exercise. The first time we had tricep extensions, the second time we had overhead presses, and the third time we had halos. I didn’t make it to the round with halos because I had to take some breaks during my row.

And on the floor, we had 3 blocks. The first block was all about doing work with the TRX straps. We had bicep curls, curtsy lunges, and rollouts. The second block was with weights and we had single-arm low rows and goblet squats. And the last block was also with weights and we only had single-arm snatches which was hard to do for the 2 minutes we had to do them.

Tuesday was a small class so our coach decided to make it a 2 group class instead of a 3 group one. So we had a lot less rowing than we normally would have, which was ok with me since I was really nauseous from my shot. But I did what I always do and just tried my best.

We had two blocks for cardio and they were very similar. The first block started with a 75-second push pace followed by a 1-minute base pace. Then we had a 1-minute push pace and 1-minute base pace before doing a 45-second all-out. We had a 90-second recovery and then did rounds of 45-second all-outs and 45-second recoveries. The second block was almost the same except instead of 45-second all-outs and recoveries we had 30-second ones. The first part of each block was harder for me than the second part of each block, but it was manageable.

And on the floor, we also had 2 blocks. Each block started with a 400-meter row, which was the only rowing we had. Then each block had 2 exercises focused on strength and 2 exercises focused on stability. The first block had front squats and chest presses for strength and lunges and bridge hold chest presses for stability. And the second block had scaptions and bicep curls for strength and kneeling scaptions and kneeling single-arm bicep curls for stability. I think I did better with the stability work since I wasn’t feeling ok using my regular heavy weights, but overall I was much happier with the floor work than I expected it to be.

Wednesday was a bit better of a day for me, so I was hoping I would be able to push myself a bit more in the workout than I have for other Wednesdays when I’ve been dealing with medication side effects.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks and they were both distance challenges that we did on our own. For the first block, we had decreasing distances we were supposed to do and between each distance, we had a minute to recover. And the second block had the same distances but in reverse order so we started with the shortest distance. The goal was to try to beat the distance in the second block, which I was able to do.

On the rower, we also had 2 blocks and it was similar to what we had for cardio. In the first block, we started with a 250-meter row and decreased the row by 50 meters each time. Between each row, we had back-and-forth hops. And in the second block, we did the same thing but started with a 100-meter row and went up by 50 meters each time. And again, I was able to beat my distance in the second block. I think I’m usually able to beat my distance when doing these sorts of challenges because I’m stubborn and need to prove to myself that I can do it. But whatever it takes to make myself work hard!

And on the floor, we also had 2 blocks and they were all timed for us. Everything was at a 30-second interval and there was not really any rest during the blocks. The first block had tricep extensions, chest flys, and shoulder presses. Then we had 30 seconds to do 4 reverse grip low rows and we could rest for any extra time in those 30 seconds. We repeated that pattern another time before doing the first 3 exercises again and ending the block with 30 seconds of high knees to mountain climbers. The second block was the same idea with lunges, deadlifts, and squats as the main exercises. Then we had 30 seconds to do 4 plank taps. And the last 30 seconds was doing high knees to mountain climbers again.

I was feeling almost completely normal by Thursday, which made me very happy. And I was extra happy because this was my 199th workout of 2022 and it made me really think about how I was able to reach my workout goals this year even with the issues I encountered. And this was a really tough workout to end this week with, but I also enjoyed the challenge.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks with similar patterns. The first block started with a 90-second push pace followed by a 1-minute base pace. Then we had a 1-minute push pace at a slightly higher incline followed by another 1-minute base pace. Then it was a 30-second push pace at an incline with another 1-minute base pace. And the block ended with a 45-second all-out at an incline. The second block was the same idea but we started with a 1-minute push pace instead of a 90-second one and the all-out was 30 seconds instead of 45 seconds.

The rower was also 2 blocks. The first block started with a 300-meter row followed by high knees. Then the row went down by 50 meters and we continued that pattern for the rest of the block. The second block started with a 100-meter all-out row then we could rest. I was able to get one of the highest wattages I’ve gotten on the rower during that row and that was a nice surprise. Then we had a 100-meter row at a base followed by a 150-meter push row. We continued the pattern of a base to a push row and increased the push row by 50 meters each time. I didn’t get that far in the second block because I was a bit gassed out from my crazy 100-meter row at the beginning of the block, but I still did pretty well with everything.

And the floor was also 2 blocks. The first block had single-arm squats to upright rows, speed skater lunges, and wide step knee drives which I had to do as wide step mountain climbers. And the second block had single-arm cleans, jumps to shuffle steps, and knee tucks which I did as regular mountain climbers. I know it doesn’t sound like a lot of work, but I really pushed myself through the entire workout and I think that’s what lead to it feeling like one of the harder workouts I’ve had lately.

For the next two weeks, I’m changing up my workout schedule a bit since I want to get in my traditional New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day workouts, but I also don’t want to have 6 workout days in a row. Right now, my plan is to still do 4 workouts each week and I don’t think that will change. But maybe I’ll feel extra motivated and will get in an extra workout either next week or the week after so I can either end a year or start a year with a little bonus.

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Tagged 2022, fitness, Orangetheory, workout

I’m So Glad I Pushed Hard This Past Week (or Having A Good Day In A Bad Week)

Posted on December 19, 2022 | Comments Off

I knew this past week of workouts was going to be a struggle for me with pain and nausea. But as I had written last week, I just had a lot of different issues that made my week extra difficult. I was getting really frustrated with how I was feeling and what that meant for my workouts. But as always, I pushed through and I was able to end this past week on a really good note.

Monday’s workout was the last workout for the 12 Days Of Fitness, and it was the day that I earned my swag. I was feeling pretty bad that day, but I was hoping that I could do some good work because I knew there was a good chance this would be my best day of the week. But it was a tough day as each section of the room felt like one long block.

For cardio, everything was 90-second intervals. Every 90 seconds, we were supposed to increase either the speed or incline/resistance level. I really tried my best to pedal faster when we were supposed to increase our speed, but that’s something that is hard for me normally and extra hard for me when I was having a bad hip day. But I did my best with it.

On the rower, we did have challenge distance goals but I didn’t focus on those since I knew I’d be struggling on the rower. We also had 90-second intervals just like we did for cardio. But this time we started every 90 seconds off of the rower and did either overhead or front presses with a medicine ball for 15 reps. And then whatever time was left we had for rowing. I usually had about 30 seconds on the rower each time after I was done with the exercise and getting strapped back in, so I didn’t get a lot of rowing done toward the distance.

And on the floor, again everything was in 90-second intervals. We alternated between two groups of exercises. The first group was lateral lunges, single-arm high rows with weights, and then jumping jacks. And the second group was regular lunges, single-arm shoulder presses with weights, and butt kicks. It felt like there was no time to catch your breath and it was a really tough workout. But I wouldn’t expect anything different for the last day of a challenge.

Tuesday was a particularly rough day for me. When things are this bad, sometimes I just have to do my own thing a bit for the workout because that’s all I can manage. And that’s how some of Tuesday went.

For cardio, we focused on a lot of incline work, but I was just doing my regular base, push, and all-out resistance levels and trying to follow along with the intervals with everyone else. I know I wasn’t doing exactly what the workout was supposed to be, but it was better than doing nothing. And I knew that the combination of all the issues I was going through made things a lot harder than I’m used to overcoming.

On the rower, both blocks were focused on 150-meter rows. We rowed that distance and then had an exercise and went back and forth for the entire block. In the first block, we had squats as our exercise and I did do those between each row. In the second block, we were supposed to do front and back steps between each row, but I was more focused on just breathing through my nausea so I just did my rows without the exercise. I didn’t always do the full row without a break, so it was more like I did short bursts of rowing with rest when necessary for that entire block.

I feel like I did a bit better on the floor for this workout, but that’s probably only because the rest was so bad. In the first block, we had deadlifts, upright rows, good mornings, and single-arm shoulder presses. And in the second block, we had front raises, lateral lunges, and regular lunges. I felt so defeated after this workout because of what I couldn’t do, and I know that didn’t help how I was feeling overall and probably made my physical pain worse with mental stress. As much as I tried to remind myself that at least I tried, it’s hard to believe that at times.

Wednesday was still bad, but I felt like I had a bit less nausea that day and my hip pain was significantly better so that helped to make my mood better too. So I knew I could do a bit more and pushed myself to do just that.

For cardio, the first two blocks had the same pattern. We had a push pace, a 90-second base, an all-out, a 1-minute recovery, a push pace, and an all-out. In the first block, the pushes and all-outs were 45 seconds long. And in the second block, the pushes and all-outs were 30 seconds long. And for the last block, we had rounds of 30-second all-outs and 30-second recoveries. This went so much better than earlier in the week went. I think the short intervals and all the recovery time helped me so much.

On the rower, we started with a 3-minute row followed by squats. Then we had 2 rounds of a 90-second row with lunges between each row. The goal for each 90-second row was to do at least half of what we did in the 3-minute row. And the rowing work ended with 3 rounds of a 1-minute row with squats to calf raises between each row. I only made it to one of the 1-minute rows, but I’m glad that I did pretty well with each row and was able to beat the goal distance each time.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block was a bit tough for me because it was supposed to be regular lunges and then jump lunges, but I can’t do jump lunges. So I just combined the number of reps and did regular lunges for both. And we were supposed to do bridge rows on the straps, but I had to do just regular low rows on the straps. In the second block, we had bicycle presses, push-ups, and hip bridges. I didn’t go quite as heavy as I would have liked for the hip bridges, but that’s something that I know I need to work back up to because I’ve lost a bit of my strength.

Thursday was a day I was nervous about. It was the 2000-meter row benchmark, which is one of the hardest benchmarks for me. Not only is it one of the hardest ones for me, but I was also dealing with the pain and nausea so I knew that would be an additional challenge. I knew I would just try and see what would happen.

Because we had a small class, we all started on the rower to do the benchmark first. I knew that I wouldn’t get a PR since my PR was from when I was a lot better at rowing. So I set other goals for myself. I wanted to see if I could get a faster time than my last benchmark, which was very slow. And I wanted to try to take as few breaks in the row as possible. In the past, I’ve tried to only take a break after every 500 meters, which was a good goal, and I decided to try to do it again this time.

We are always told to start the benchmark with about 10 hard pulls on the rower before settling into a pace and intensity that we could ideally continue at for the entire time. I did that and then watched the 500-meter split time to see if I could keep that consistent. I was able to keep it within about 10 seconds for the entire row and I knew that split time would get me to my goal. And by some miracle, I didn’t really have to take any breaks. I did have to stop a few times to tighten my foot straps, but that is different from a break. And at the end for the last 200 meters, I just went as hard as I could knowing I was almost done. I knew it wasn’t a PR, but it was a huge improvement over last time and closer to my PR than I’ve been in a while!

I was shocked that I was under 11 minutes and that I didn’t really take breaks. Neither of those were things I thought would be possible. Maybe I found the perfect pace to row so I didn’t need breaks like I normally do. Or maybe I was just being stubborn and that pushed me through the row. Whatever it was, I was so proud of myself. But I know I overdid it quite a bit on the rower and that affected the rest of my workout.

On the floor, I was exhausted from the row and was a little lightheaded, so I had to go slowly and rest a lot more than I thought I would. The floor had hip hinge swings, woodchoppers, chest presses with straps, plank taps, and superheroes on the floor. I was going a bit lighter with the weights because of how I was feeling, but I still think even with the breaks I had to take and the lighter weights, it was worth it because I knew how well I did on the row.

And we ended with cardio where we did things at our own pace. We had distance challenges and then 1 minute to recover after each distance. For the distance, it was .25-miles for the treadmills which was 1 mile for me. And just like on the floor, I had to take more breaks than I would have liked because I was still recovering from the row. But again like on the floor, I was ok with that because I was still proud of my row time.

I wasn’t expecting to end last week with a workout highlight between how I was feeling and knowing how little I was looking forward to the benchmark. But I’m so happy that I surprised myself so much with how my last workout of the week went. It was nice to end a bad week with a good workout so I could go into my weekend feeling strong. And hopefully, the pain and nausea continue to get better through the beginning of this week so I can have a better workout week and end my year of workouts on some more positive notes!

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A Week Of New Workout Challenges (or Almost Earning My Swag)

Posted on December 12, 2022 | Comments Off

This past week, all the workouts were a part of the 12 Days Of Fitness. Like I said before, these typically are harder than normal workouts but they aren’t quite as bad as Hell Week is. I had the added challenge of not always feeling so great, so I think that made it feel a bit more like Hell Week to me. But as always, I tried to find a good balance between pushing myself in a challenge and going easy on myself when I needed to.

Monday’s workout was one of my better ones since I work out before doing my injection. So I’m not feeling really any side effects going into class, which I like as a way to kick off my week when I know that I might be struggling later in the week.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks. The first and third blocks were the same with 1-minute intervals between a base pace with an incline and a base pace without an incline. And in the second block, we had a 2-minute decreasing hill where the incline/resistance level went down every 30 seconds and we ended with an all-out. The resistance levels weren’t too high, so it was a good challenge but nothing that I struggled with too much.

On the rower, we started with 3 rounds of a 100-meter row. After each of those 3 rows, we could rest as long as we needed to in order to feel like we could match or beat our time the next time. After doing 3 rounds, we got off of the rowers and did lunges. Then we repeated that pattern with rounds of a 150-meter row and 200-meter row before working our way back down. The goal was to get back to the rounds of the 100-meter row, but I didn’t quite make it to that.

And on the floor, we had 3 blocks. The first and third blocks were the same and started with kneeling squats to jumps, which I had to do as regular squats with calf raises. We also had pull-ups on the straps and tricep push-ups. The push-ups decreased in reps each time and the goal in the block was to get as far down as possible. I did get further through it in the third block than I did in the first since I was used to what we had to do. And the second block had close-grip chest presses and pullovers.

On Tuesday, I was really feeling the side effects so I just had to do what I could. It was weird with the side effects this time because the nausea was different from what I had experienced before. But I just took breaks when I needed to so I didn’t make myself feel worse.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks that both had 6-minute distance challenges. But in the first block, we were supposed to increase our speed every 75 seconds for 15 seconds. And in the second block, we were supposed to increase our speed every 45 seconds for 15 seconds. For those increases, I took it between my push and all-out resistance levels and kept it around my push level for the rest of it. Since I needed to take breaks, it wasn’t like I spent all 6 minutes at my push pace which helped.

On the rower, the first block matched cardio. I did need to take more breaks than I would have liked during that, but rowing for 6 minutes is tough even when I’m feeling ok. In the second block, we had stroke drills for 15 strokes each time. I did much better with those since I was able to get through them quickly and take a break between each one.

The floor was one long block that had 2 mini-blocks in it. In the first mini-block, we started with hammer curls for 6 reps and then repeated it for as many reps as possible. We also had seated torso rotations. In the second mini-block, we repeated that pattern with doing deadlifts twice and then upright rows.

I was feeling a little better on Wednesday, but I was still dealing with nausea. But I was glad I could at least do a little bit more than I did on Tuesday.

The first cardio block had rounds of a 90-second push pace and a 30-second base pace. And the second block had rounds of a 2-minute push pace with a 30-second recovery. We didn’t have an all-out at the end of either block which was unusual for our cardio blocks, but I didn’t mind it. I was able to do something closer to my normal push pace because of the recovery and the lack of the all-out which was nice.

For the rower, the first block was all about 90-second crew rows where we were partnered with one or two people and we had to stay together while rowing. I was in a group of 3 and we each took a turn being the leader. The second block started with crew rows again but they were for 30 seconds each which was much easier to match the other people in my group.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had step-ups and plank steps. I lowered the bench so I was able to do the step-ups, but I did have a few balance issues so I had to go very slowly. But I’m always happy when I try to do the step-ups since they weren’t something I could do for a long tie. In the second block, we were timed for the entire thing with 30 seconds of work and 15 seconds of rest. We had cleans with weights, alligators on the straps, and plank toe taps. 30 seconds doesn’t seem like it’s that long, but after a few rounds, it feels so much longer.

I was almost done dealing with side effects on Thursday, which gives me hope that maybe I’ll be doing better each week and won’t be affected as long going forward. I still had some moments when I had nausea hit me hard, but since I’m starting to deal with nausea anyway I wasn’t sure which thing was causing it. But it doesn’t matter since I manage it the same either way.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first block was 5 minutes long and everyone on the treadmills was power walkers. Every 30 seconds, they had to increase the incline by 1% so they got very high up in the incline. For the bike, every minute I was supposed to increase the resistance level. But I didn’t hear that instruction at first so I did it every 30 seconds a few times and then I did it every minute. But I got very high up in the resistance levels so I was barely moving by the end of the block. In the second block, we had rounds of a 30-second all-out and then a walking recovery. The recoveries started at 30 seconds and increased by 15 seconds each time so at the end, we had a 90-second recovery before the last all-out. I tried to pedal harder and faster each time since we had more recovery time, but there is a limit to how fast my legs will move.

On the rower, the first block was just rounds of 150-meter rows and we rested as long as we needed to each time. In the second block, we had 100-meter rows and after each row, we had tricep extensions with a medicine ball. I was really pushing myself hard on the rower and I finally got below 20 seconds for my 100-meter row! It wasn’t a PR, but I can’t remember the last time I had been below 20 seconds.

On the floor, the first block was interesting. We had a few different exercises but between each one, we were supposed to have bench hop overs. I did these as lateral lunges instead. Between the rounds of the hop overs, we had lunges, bicep curls, front squats, and shoulder presses. And in the second block, we were supposed to put these exercises into a single movement. We started with plank knee drives and we were supposed to do a lunge to a bicep curl to a squat to a shoulder press. I can’t hold weights while doing lunges, so I did the lunges separately and then the rest as a single movement. And we had a 30-second finisher doing any of the exercises we wanted to do and I picked bicep curls.

Even though these workouts were more challenging than normal, I really enjoyed the challenge we had each day. I didn’t always do what I wanted to be able to do, but I had to work around my other issues and I think I did the best I could do. And this week, this challenge ends and I will be getting my swag for it! And I think knowing I will earn awesome swag will help me get through whatever side effects and other nausea I have to get through this week.

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A Tough Week And A New Challenge (or Starting Off The Last Month Of Workouts For 2022)

Posted on December 5, 2022 | Comments Off

This past week of workouts was another mixed bag. I was feeling much better at the start of the week, but then I dealt with the side effects of my medication for the rest of the week which really affected me more than I expected. But I ended the week starting a new workout challenge and I think that really motivated me to keep going.

Monday was the day I was feeling my best. I don’t take my medication until after my workout, so I wasn’t dealing with any side effects at that point. I was a bit off because I was nervous about doing my shot again, but that’s not that bad compared to how I can feel from other issues.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. Both blocks had the same things, but the second block reversed the order. In the first block, we started with a 4-minute distance challenge followed by a 1-minute recovery. Then we had 30-second intervals of a base, push, and all-out. The second block started with the 30-second intervals and ended with the 4-minute challenge.

On the rower, we had similar blocks to cardio. The first block started with a 4-minute crew row where we had to match the speed and cadence of everyone else on the rower and then ended that block with the 30-second intervals. And in the second block, we reversed the order so we ended with the crew row. I don’t love crew rows, but I tried my best to keep up with everyone.

And on the floor, we had one block. We had shoulder presses, single-leg deadlifts, bicep curls, and bird dogs. Nothing was too crazy on the floor, so I was able to go a bit heavier than normal and also focus on my form which was nice compared to trying to get everything in.

Tuesday was probably the worst day for me with side effects, so I just tried to manage it the same way I manage nausea. However, I also had to deal with some lightheadedness, so that was a bit more of a challenge. But just like I’ve been doing before, I just took breaks when I needed to.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. Both blocks had push paces with inclines followed by recoveries. In the first block, we had 45-second push paces and 1-minute recoveries and in the second block we had 1-minute push paces and 45-second recoveries. And the incline/resistance levels were higher in the first block than in the second. This wasn’t too bad for me since there was always recovery coming up, but I did have some moments when I was really feeling off.

The rower matched up with cardio. So in the first block we had 45-second of work and 1-minute of recovery and in the second block we had 1-minute of work and 45-seconds of recovery. And the goal was to try to get at least the same distance each time within a block and not start off strong and then get too tired. I’m glad that I was pretty consistent with my distances each time.

On the floor, we focused on cluster sets so we did 12-16 reps of an exercise, took 10 seconds to rest, and then did the exercise again as many times as possible. In the first block the cluster sets were with chest presses and in the second block they were with squats. And after doing 2 rounds of the cluster sets, we had sit-ups and plank reaches for the rest of the block. It was a little tough to do the chest presses because I was feeling weak, but I just did what I could each time.

I was feeling a bit more like myself by Wednesday, but I still had to take it a bit easy from time to time.

For cardio, we had the same block each time with the goal to try to go a bit faster each block. We had 1-minute intervals with a base to push pace, a push pace, a push pace to all-out, and an all-out. I used the same resistance levels each time, but I did try my best to pedal faster each block. I wasn’t always successful, but at least I tried.

On the rower, we did the same block each time and it was a real challenge for me. For each 1-minute interval, we had an exercise with a medicine ball first and then finished the minute with rowing until we had to get up again. But because getting on and off the rower takes time for me, I really didn’t have much rowing time. I did modify the exercises and did them over the rower so I didn’t have to do much more than just unstrap and stand up. In the first block, we had front presses before each row. In the second block, we had squat to presses before each row. And in the last block, we had front presses to overhead presses before each block.

On the floor, the first two blocks had 2 exercises for each block for the first 3 minutes and then a variation on a burpee for the last minute. I did regular burpees using the bench for each block since I couldn’t do the different variations. And the exercises we had were upper cuts and deadlifts for the first block and chest presses and goblet squats for the second block. And in the last block, we had all 4 exercises.

And on Thursday, it was the first day of the 12 Days of Fitness. This is a challenge that requires attending a specific number of classes in order to win swag. It’s similar to Hell Week, but the workouts aren’t quite as hard. This year, we have to make it to 6 classes in the first 12 days of the month to win socks and shoelaces. And since I will do that just having my regular schedule, I knew I needed to sign up.

For cardio, we started with a 2-minute push pace followed by a 1-minute recovery. Then we had a 90-second push pace to all-out followed by a 1-minute recovery. And then we had a 1-minute all-out to end that block. And we repeated that again for the second block.

On the rower, we started with 3 rounds of a 200-meter row. Between each row, we could recovery as long as we needed. After completing all 3 rows, we had squats to shoulder presses with a medicine ball before doing 3 rounds of a 150-meter row. We did the exercises again and then had 3 rounds of a 100-meter row. I was feeling better on the rower so I challenged myself to try to improve each round and I was able to do that!

And on the floor, we had 1 block with 3 mini-blocks. And we did each mini-block twice before moving on. We had low rows with weights and tricep extensions on the straps, lunges and rollouts on the straps, and shoulder presses and lateral leg lifts with the straps. I don’t know why I ended up going so slowly, but I never made it to the last exercise in the last mini-block. But I do know I was doing heavy weights so that might have been it.

I’m glad I ended my week on a good note. This pattern might repeat this week with taking my next injection after my workout on Monday. But maybe my body will be more used to it so it won’t be as bad. I’ll just have to wait and see. But at least I’ll get more of my workouts done for 12 Days of Fitness so I can make sure I earn my swag!

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Another Round Of Thanksgiving Workouts (or Still Keeping Up With My Regular Schedule)

Posted on November 28, 2022 | Comments Off

I had a very mixed week of workouts this past week. I’m still dealing with the cold that I caught and I started the week also dealing with the end of having nausea. I’m glad that I know I’m getting better with the cold, but I think getting over it will probably be a longer process than I would like. I seem to take 2 steps forward and 1 step back. So my mornings were hit or miss with how I would feel. But that never stopped me before so I wasn’t going to let it stop me this past week.

Monday’s workout was a good mix of endurance, strength, and power. It was the workout I felt most nauseous, but it was much better than it had been the week before.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks and each block was focused on one type of workout. The first block was more endurance and we had longer push paces and base paces with an all-out at the end. The second block was more strength and we had a mix of base paces with or without inclines. And the last block was power and we had 30-second all-outs with 45-second recoveries.

On the rower, each block focused on one distance on the rower and we had lunges between each row. The first block had 600-meter rows, the second block had 400-meter rows, and the last block had 200-meter rows. Even though I wasn’t feeling my best, I did pretty well with the rows. I was worried about how I would do with the 600-meter rows with my nausea, but I was able to keep doing all my rowing without taking breaks, which is the goal I always have for myself.

And on the floor, each block had 2 exercises. The first block had high rows and curtsy lunges on the straps. The second block had shoulder presses and sumo squats. And the last block had push-ups and bench tap squats. Even though each block only had those 2 exercises, since the blocks were short it went by quickly and I didn’t get to do too many rounds of each exercise.

Tuesday’s workout was an unexpected 2 group class. I rarely have a 2 group class, so I’m much more used to having equal time in each section of the room. But it’s always good to have a bit of a change, so I knew this would be a good class.

For cardio, we had the same thing for all 3 blocks but each block had a different goal. In each block, we had 3 rounds of a 30-second base pace, a 30-second push pace, a 30-second all-out, and a 1-minute recovery. In the first block, the goal was to increase the base pace each round. In the second block, the goal was to increase the push pace each round. And in the last block, the goal was to increase the all-out each round. I stuck with my normal resistance levels on the bike, but I tried to increase how fast I was pedaling as we were supposed to increase each round.

And on the floor, we had part of the time on the floor and part of the time on the rower for each block. Each floor block had 4 minutes of exercises and then we were on the rower for the last round of base, push, and all-out that cardio had and we did that on the rower. In the first block, the exercises were single-arm marches with overhead weights and rollouts on the straps. The second block had front squats and squat holds with a calf raise. And the last block had clean presses and y-raises on the straps. Since we only had about 90 seconds of rowing in each block, it was a lot less rowing than I’m used to. But I did get more time with cardio than normal so it balanced out.

On Wednesday, I know there was still a mix of endurance, strength, and power but it felt a lot more like an endurance day. I was finally over being nauseous, but I was dealing with the cold that I had so it balanced out a bit to where I was still having some of the same struggles I’m used to.

For cardio, we started with a 90-second push pace and a 90-second base pace. We continued to alternate between a push and base pace, but the push paces increased by 30 seconds each round while the base pace stayed the same. And we ended with a 1-minute all-out at the end of the cardio block.

On the rower, we started with 3 rounds of a 200-meter row. We were supposed to try to maintain the same wattage and speed on the rower each time. After 3 rows, we had standing knees to elbows. Then we repeated the pattern but with a 150-meter row for 3 rounds and ended with a 100-meter row for 3 rounds. For the 200-meter rows, I was pretty steady from round to round. But for the other rows, I actually was able to improve each time which I wasn’t expecting.

And on the floor, we had 1 long block with thrusters, single-arm chest presses, lunges, hip hinge swings, and hop-overs. It wasn’t the best floor block I’ve had recently, but it wasn’t too bad.

And even though I did my family workout for Fake Thanksgiving, I still did a Thanksgiving Day workout. I did take a later class than I normally take since I wanted to try to sleep in a little bit. Last year, I did a Lift 45 class for Thanksgiving Day, but they didn’t offer that this time. But the regular workout was still a tough one and I know I worked hard!

We had 3 blocks for cardio and each block had the same pattern. We had a push pace, base pace, all-0ut, recovery, push pace, and all-out. In the first block, every interval was 30 seconds. In the second block, the base pace and recovery were both still 30 seconds but the push and all-outs were 45 seconds. And in the last block, the base pace and recovery still were 30 seconds and the push pace and all-out were 1 minute.

On the rower, we also had 3 blocks. In each block, we went back and forth between a timed row and an exercise. In the first block, we had 30-second rows and shoulder presses with a medicine ball. In the second block, we had 45-second rows and a front press with a medicine ball. And in the last block, we had 1-minute rows and calf raises.

And on the floor, we had one long block that was focused on super sets. We had 3 mini-blocks and 2 exercises in each mini-block. And we did each mini-block 4 times before moving on to the next one. Each round went down in reps, so we had 8, 6, 4, and 2 reps for each exercise. We had chest presses to reaches and tricep extensions, sumo deadlifts and sumo squats, and high rows and bicep curls. It was a good mix of upper and lower body and I was ready to rest after I was done with class!

Next month, my workouts might be moved around a bit to fit in with different challenges that are going on and to work with the holidays. But I think I got myself off to a great start with my Thanksgiving week workouts!

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Back To My Regular Schedule (I’m Glad My Bad Week Didn’t Start Until This Week)

Posted on November 21, 2022 | Comments Off

Even after doing 5 workouts the week before, I still wanted to keep up with my regular 4 workouts this past week. I like having my routine and I wanted to do what I could to feel like I was back to a typical week in as many ways as possible. I knew I would be a bit tired on Monday after traveling on Sunday and I was prepared to start having my bad week, but I still knew I should try my best.

Monday’s workout was a signature workout. This was Capture The Flag, which I’ve done a few times before. It’s a partner workout where you work with your partner or partners to get as many meters on the rower as possible. My class was a 3 group class, but because of the class size, I was in a 2 partner group. And my partner wasn’t going to use the rower so I knew that we wouldn’t be able to track our rowing meters the way that most teams would do. So we would just do what we could and enjoy the workout.

Since we were a 2 partner group, we did the 2 group workout instead of the 3 partner workout. The person who was on the rower (or elliptical for my partner) just went until the other partner tagged them out. And the other partner did medicine ball exercises and a treadmill (or bike) distance before the switch. The medicine ball exercises were squat to presses, lateral lunges, and double crunches. And all the treadmill/bike distances were pretty short so we were switching every few minutes. The other groups got different flags based on the distance they got on the rower. I was fine not being able to get the flags since I knew I was still working out hard and doing a good job on the rower.

On Tuesday, I was starting to have a bit of nausea but it wasn’t that bad. So I knew it was probably the last workout before I was feeling really bad and I wanted to try to get the most out of it.

For cardio, we had an interesting workout. In the first block, we had rounds of a 1-minute push pace and a 90-second base pace. But in the push paces, we were supposed to increase for the last 15 seconds to make it closer to an all-out. And in the second block, we had 1-minute push paces with an increase for the last 30 seconds and a 2-minute base pace after. Since those last seconds of the push paces weren’t supposed to be an all-out, I didn’t increase my resistance level on the bike and just increased how fast I was pedaling instead.

On the rower, both blocks focused on doing a 200-meter row with as few strokes as possible. In the first block, we had lunges and shoulder presses with a medicine ball between each row. And in the second block, we did forward presses and bicep curls with the medicine ball. I’m usually pretty good about keeping my strokes low when we have a challenge like this one. I averaged about 15 strokes for each row, but I was able to get one down to just 13.

And on the floor, we had 3 exercises in each block. In the first block, we had goblet squats, hip bridges, and sit-ups to rotations. And in the second block, we had low rows, bridge holds with pullovers, and high plank knee taps. I tried to go heavy with my weights when I could, but I couldn’t go as heavy as I would have liked to go with my squats. I know I can normally do better, but at least I did well with my other weights.

By Wednesday, I was feeling pretty bad so I knew it would have to be an easier workout day. And I was able to modify most of the workout to work best for me.

For cardio, the work was all about inclines and recoveries. In the first block, we alternated between a 45-second push pace at a high incline/resistance level and a 1-minute recovery. In the second block, we had a 1-minute push pace at a slightly lower incline/resistance level and a 45-second recovery. The resistance levels for both blocks were much higher than what I normally use so I was pedaling very slowly. But at least I wasn’t too worried about that since I also wasn’t feeling good.

On the rower, we were timed with cardio and had sprints for each block. So in the first block, we had 45-second rowing sprints with a minute to recover. And in the second block, we had 1-minute rowing sprints with 45-seconds to recover. I did a lot better in the first block with the shorter sprints. I think I was going too hard at the beginning of the longer sprints and kept getting burnt out by the end of those rows.

And on the floor, each block had some cluster sets and then regular exercises. For the cluster sets, we did 12-16 reps of the exercises, rested for about 10 seconds, and then did as many reps as we could before resting again. And we did those twice before moving on to the other exercises. The first block had cluster sets of a chest press before doing sit-ups and plank front reaches. And the second block had cluster sets of tap squats before moving on to the same exercises as the first block.

Thursday was my toughest day with how I was feeling, but I was glad it was the end of my workout week. And just like always, I pushed through when I could and went easy when I needed to.

For cardio, the first two blocks were the same. We had a 1-minute base to push pace, 1-minute push pace, 1-minute push to all-out, and 1-minute all-out. And I was using my normal resistance levels and then the levels between the regular ones to work for the pattern. And the last block just had 1-minute intervals with a base, push, and all-out.

On the rower, the first block had rounds of a 200-meter row with single-leg halos using the medicine ball. In the second block, we had 150-meter rows and lunges between each row. My rows were pretty slow, but they were also consistent for each round. So I considered it a victory that my rows weren’t getting worse as the blocks went on. And we finished along with cardio with the 1-minute all-out row.

On the floor, we had 2 exercises for each block. The first block had single-arm shoulder presses and plank dips. The second block had deadlifts and bird dogs. And the last block had double crunches and back extensions. I went slowly with the exercises in each block, but that’s expected with how I was feeling.

Considering I was tired from working out more than normal the week before and dealing with the beginning of my bad week, I’m very happy with how things went this past week. And this week might be another bad week or it might be a bit better. Each day will be a bit of a mystery. And even though I did a family workout for Fake Thanksgiving, I’m still planning on doing a Thanksgiving Day workout on my own!

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Tagged fitness, Orangetheory, workout

Most Of My Workout Week (or Some Improvements and Some New Struggles)

Posted on November 14, 2022 | Comments Off

I had a longer workout week than normal this past week. But for this post, I’m only going to write about the regular 4 workouts that I did and the last one will be in a different post. I had a few things overall that both helped and hurt my workouts. I did try to drink a bit of the protein milk that I normally have for breakfast before my workout instead of drinking juice. That way, I would get a bit of sugar in my system and I also would have some protein instead of working out on an empty stomach. That actually helped a lot and I’m going to keep doing that. But I also spent the week dealing with the congestion that I’ve had for the past week. I don’t feel sick and I’ve been making sure it’s not Covid, but any time that you feel off, it can make your workouts off. But I did my best for this past week.

For Monday’s workout, we had 3 blocks at each section of the room. And for cardio and rowing, we did the same thing for each block.

For cardio, we started with a 30-second base pace followed by a 30-second push pace. We then had a 30-second all-out and a 30-second recovery before repeating that pattern again for that block. Since everything was short intervals, it kept things from feeling too repetitive, even though the workout was the same in each block.

On the rower, everything was also in 30-second intervals. We had 3 intervals with a medicine ball and 3 intervals on the rower. We had good mornings, squats, and squat presses with the medicine ball. Then we had 30-seconds to get onto the rower before we did the same pattern as cardio for the second half of each block.

On the floor, each block had 2 exercises. The first block had single-arm marches with a shoulder press and rollouts on the straps. The second block had front squats with weights and calf raises. And the last block had clean presses with weights and y-raises on the straps.

Tuesday’s workout felt more like an endurance day even though I know it was still a mix of endurance, strength, and power.

For cardio, we had one long block that started with a 90-second push pace followed by a 90-second base pace. We continued to do push paces followed by 90-second base paces, but the push pace got 30-seconds longer each time. And at the end of the cardio block, we had a 1-minute all-out.

On the rower, we were on our own with the timing between rowing and the exercise we had to do. We started with 3 rounds of a 200-meter row where we tried to improve upon our time each round. Then we had knees to elbows, which I do almost like marching in place but I do try to get my knees as high as I can go. Then we had 3 rounds of a 150-meter row with knees to elbows after completing those rounds. I was working on the 3 rounds of a 100-meter row when the block ended. And for the 150-meter and 100-meter rows, I was able to improve upon each row.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had split squat jumps, which I have to do as lunges, and neutral grip thrusters. And in the second block, we had single-arm hip hinge swings, single-arm chest presses, and lateral hop overs. Sometimes I do try to do the hop overs with lowering the bench, but since I was using the bench for other exercises I decided to do skater lunges instead so I didn’t have to take up too much time lowering and raising the bench.

Wednesday’s workout had an interesting cardio challenge. For people on the treadmills, they were doing power walking for most of the block. And because they were using high inclines, that meant I was using high resistance levels on the bike.

We had 3 cardio blocks that all had the same pattern. We had 3-minutes using inclines, and the inclines went down by 1% every minute. And each block ended with a 1-minute all-out within inclines. Since we would have 9 different high inclines/resistance levels to use, I knew I would have to go really high on the bike. For the first block, I felt like I didn’t move that much for those 3-minutes. But each block did get easier and it was nice to have very little resistance when I did the 1-minute all-out each block.

On the rower, we started with a 600-meter base row. After recovering, we did a 300-meter row followed by squats to standing knee tucks. We repeated the 300-meter row and squats to knee tucks 3 times before doing another 600-meter row. I did fine with the first 600-meter row and the 3 300-meter rows. But during the last 600-meter row, I think my congestion was just affecting me a bit more than I thought it would. I had to take quite a few breaks during that row and I wasn’t able to finish before the rowing block was done.

And on the floor, we had 1 long block with 3 mini-blocks. And we were supposed to do each mini-block twice before moving on to the next one. We had lateral lunges and reciprocating rows, bicep curls and rows on the straps, and plank pull-throughs and seated rotations. I was able to get through doing all of the mini-blocks twice and was working on repeating all the exercises again when the workout was done. I don’t always get through all the exercises like that, so I was pretty proud of myself.

And for Thursday’s workout, we had a specialty workout. This was called Shot Clock and it was designed by the NCAA player of the year to be similar to the workouts they do to train for their games. We had 3 blocks for each section of the room.

For cardio, blocks 1 and 3 were the same. For those blocks, we had a 2 1/2-minute distance challenge. And the extra challenge was to go further in block 3 than you did in block 1. And for block 2, we started with 3 rounds of a 30-second push pace and a 15-second all-out. Doing a 15-second all-out is very rare, so we were supposed to try to push ourselves to go faster. And I did try to do that with how fast I was pedaling. And the second block ended with just a 30-second all-out.

On the rower, just like with cardio we did the same thing for blocks 1 and 3. For those blocks, we did 100-meter rows and tried to improve upon our time each time we did it. I was able to do better each time in the first block, but I wasn’t quite able to do that for the last block. And for block 2, we followed the same pattern as cardio with the pushes and all-outs. But when cardio had their recovery after each all-out, we got off our rowers and did quick feet.

And on the floor, the first block was interesting. It was 2 1/2-minutes long and we had 3 exercises in it. We had quick feet, plank jacks, and lateral hops. But our coach told us what to do and when, so we never knew when we’d be switching to a new exercise or how long we’d be doing it. The second block was timed along with cardio and the rower. We had 30-seconds of a goblet squat, 15-seconds of a squat with a calf raise, and during the cardio recovery, we had either side plank reaches or plank hip dips. I did the hip dips since those are a bit easier for my hips. And the last block for cardio was with a partner. We sat back to back and did torso rotations with the medicine ball and passed the ball between us. And we also had push-ups where we passed the medicine ball between us. It was an interesting and different partner challenge and my partner and I were able to get through the exercises pretty quickly so we got in a few rounds of each.

I’m glad that even though I struggled a bit with feeling a bit off, it didn’t affect too much of my workout. I know it wasn’t the best workout week, but it was far from the worst. And like I said, this was just some of my workout week because I had one more workout to go!

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Tagged fitness, Orangetheory, workout

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