Posted onMarch 1, 2021|Comments Off on Sticking With The Same Workout Plan, For Now (or Continuing To Work On Weightlifting)
Last week, I wrote about the most recent change to my workout plan. I decided to stop worrying as much about cardio and just focus on doing strength and weightlifting work. This was a huge change for me. I never have been great about strength work on my own. When I belonged to a regular gym, I rarely did more than cardio unless I was working with a personal trainer. And while I loved doing the strength work at Orangetheory, it always felt like a part of the reason I loved it was having someone coach me. I was always doing strength work in my home workouts, but it didn’t feel the same.
And I wasn’t expecting dropping cardio to focus on strength work to make a huge difference because I knew how I had been feeling before. But somehow, it did! I don’t know if it felt like there was less pressure on me or if I wasn’t feeling as overwhelmed or tired. All my focus was on doing my weightlifting work and I didn’t have to think about much else. It was a change that I clearly needed to feel better about my workouts again.
Since it worked so well for me the first week, I knew I was going to keep doing it again last week. I didn’t feel the need to try anything different or make changes. I just wanted to feel as good as I did the week before with my workouts.
I did do the exact same plan last week, and that might not have been the most ideal thing. I know the exercises might need to be switched up, but for now, I’m not worrying too much about it. The exercises are a full-body strength workout and that’s important. I don’t have to worry that I’m only focusing on upper body or lower body. Maybe in a week or two, I will work more on finding workouts that I can alternate so I have different muscles working on different days. But again, I’m not too concerned about it. I’m still in the mindset that doing something is better than doing nothing. And if I’m not doing the best workouts possible, that’s ok as long as I’m doing something.
I was still dealing with some nausea issues, which did affect my workout. Some of my nausea is still connected to medication, but I’m also getting my monthly nausea again (which will likely hit me full force by the end of this week). Very few of the exercises in the strength routine are ones that make me feel worse, and when I was getting more nauseous it was easy enough for me to either skip that exercise or do a modification to make it easier. Since I wasn’t following along to a video, I didn’t feel the need to stay at any particular pace. My breaks didn’t feel like lost workout time, but I still tried to keep breaks to a minimum. I feel like some of the pressure and stress I had been putting on myself wasn’t as bad in these new workouts, and that’s something I didn’t realize I needed.
So my plan for now is to keep doing what I’m doing. I might do some research on other strength workouts to try, but it depends on how I feel this week. I am prepared to have a tough workout week with pain and nausea, and I’m not going to put any unnecessary pressure on myself when I have something that is working right now. And like I’ve said several times before, who knows how long this workout plan will last. I change things up a lot, and I’m aware that next week I might have something totally different. But I’m enjoying this for now and I’m going to keep doing it!
Posted onFebruary 22, 2021|Comments Off on A Weightlifting Week (or Of Course I’m Still Changing It Up)
After I wrote my post last week about my workouts, I was having a lot of thoughts about how things are going. I’m trying to stay optimistic about my time of working out at home being close to done. I still don’t know for sure when I will be able to be vaccinated, so it’s still a little unknown when I will feel safe to go to the outdoor workouts. But I feel like there is a finish line that I’m coming up to now. So that was making me feel pretty good.
But I have been feeling down about my workouts for a while. I don’t think there is any denying that. I’m sure it can be read in my posts. I’m not happy with what I’m able to do. I don’t have the options that I want to have a tough workout and it’s hard to not compare myself to my past self. I know that this time is not normal and I have to give some flexibility in what is possible. And in the end, I will be grateful that I made it through this time and not worried about how my workouts went. And I know that to be true, but it doesn’t help when I’m not feeling great about my workouts and wondering if I’m just doing the home workouts to feel better about myself but I’m not doing anything to make myself better.
And then a friend and I were talking and they said something that I didn’t consider before. While I know cardio is important to do, it’s not easy to do in my house. I do try to use my jump rope when I can, but I dream of the day I can get back on the rowing machine. I’m still on a waitlist for renting one, but I’m guessing I won’t be getting one until after I’m back at my regular workouts. So cardio to me is just frustrating and feels impossible. And the negative things I mention in my workout recaps are often about my lack of strength. So my friend suggested that I try to just do weightlifting workouts.
I don’t know why I didn’t think of this as an option. But once they said it, it seemed like something I needed to try and see how I did. So I did a little research online and found a good and basic weightlifting plan. It’s a full-body weightlifting plan (so I don’t have things like back or leg days) and just did that for my workouts last week. And it was a different feeling for sure. I still was frustrated when I was thinking about how I used to be able to squat with one weight and now I’m below that. Or how I was getting tired with lower reps than I was used to. But it wasn’t as frustrating as my workouts with cardio have been.
And even though there wasn’t technically a cardio element to the workout, I was getting my heart rate up just by doing the exercises back to back. And another thing that was nice was that it was a bit faster for me to do that workout than the video workouts I had been doing. I wasn’t taking as many breaks to see the next workout moves and could quickly move from one thing to another. And when I have limited time before work, a shorter workout is good. It still took me about 30-35 minutes each time, but it was packed with workout time and almost no break time.
I don’t know if I feel a huge difference in my body, but it was nice to not feel as let down by my workouts. And because it seems like so little in my life is stable these days, I am writing this now and for all I know, I will have a totally new plan this week. But as I have written so many times in the past 11 months, I just have to keep going and keep trying and not give up. And that’s exactly what I’ll keep doing. And if that means just doing weightlifting and strength work, I’ll do that. If it means I keep changing every week, I’ll do that. I guess I’ll just have to see where my fitness inspiration comes each week.
Posted onSeptember 7, 2020|Comments Off on A Double Hard Workout Week (or I Did Want A Challenge)
So many of my workout recap post on here have been about how I know the workouts I’m doing at home are better than nothing, but that they are not close to what I know I was doing at the studio. I have worried about gaining weight, losing muscle, having setbacks for when I finally do get back into the studio, and losing my motivation to do my workouts the way that I was doing them 6 months ago. And while I still think that there will never be a perfect replacement for the in-studio workouts, this past week of workouts was easily the closest I’ve had since I started working out at home. And this was due to 2 things.
First, I finally got to work out with my new weights!
These took a bit longer to get to me than I expected, but now that I have them I’m so happy! As you can see, the weights go from 5-25 pounds in 5-pound increments. While I do use 12- and 17.5-pound weights when I’m in the studio, I didn’t think I would need those for now. I know for sure that I have lost some strength and need to work on rebuilding that. So for things that I used 12-pound weights, I’m using 10. Instead of 17.5-pound weights, I’m using either 15 or 10 (depending on the exercise).
The first workout that I got to use the weights was my Monday workout and I immediately noticed a difference in how I felt after I was done. The workout was so much harder than any other home workout and I was even feeling a bit sore. The weights are pretty easy to use and switch out how heavy or light I want them to be. It’s not as easy as having a set for each weight that I use, but I also know that having a pile of dumbbells would not fit in my house. These are perfect for what I need and they fit in very nicely with the rest of my home workout equipment.
I used my new weights for every workout this past week and I really felt a huge difference. It was a little upsetting and sad when I realized that I cannot do what I used to do. As much as I told myself that would happen, it was hard to see it come true. I know that I can rebuild my strength and muscles and I’ll be back to where I was soon enough. And now that I have some good weights at home, hopefully I’ll be closer to that whenever I’m able to get back into the studio.
The other reason why this past week of workouts was so hard was that I did 2 days of Zoom workouts! The group that I do Zoom workouts with normally does them on Tuesdays and Fridays. I cannot join in for the Tuesdays ones, so I only get to do the Friday workouts. But this past week, things switched up. Instead of Tuesday and Friday, we had Zoom workouts on Wednesday and Saturday! This was only a switch for this week (I wish they could move the Tuesday one to Wednesday, but that schedule doesn’t work for the rest of the group). But it allowed me to have double the Zoom workouts that I normally get to do.
Between the new weights and the Zoom workouts, this was the most challenging and most rewarding workout week in a long time. I want to say this was the best week I’ve had in the 6 months that I’ve had to work out at home so far. I really felt like things were going so much better for me in the workout and that I was doing a really challenging workout and not just goofing off a bit. I know that having these weights is going to help me feel like this a bit for all the rest of the workouts because I do have something that can make the exercises harder. And I can see the progress as I’m able to lift heavier. That’s something I haven’t been able to see since the studios had to close.
After this past week of workouts, I’m on such a high. I needed this challenge and this boost. I have been feeling so low about my workouts and my weight for too long and this really made me feel more in control of things. I know that having weights in my house isn’t going to be a magical fix for everything, but it is a big thing that I know I’ve been needing to have. And now that I have them, I can’t wait to continue to challenge myself and see if I’m able to have any big workout wins like I used to have in the studio.
Posted onAugust 10, 2020|Comments Off on How I’m Hoping To Push Myself In My Workouts (or I Can’t Wait For My Birthday Gift To Get Here)
Just like I wrote last week, I’m starting to get into a groove with my new workout plan. I love having a Zoom workout once a week (although I bet I would love it if I had more than that). Even though we are all working hard during those workouts, it still feels more social than what I’m doing on the other days at home alone. We have some time to chat and encourage each other and I didn’t know how much I was craving that until I got it again. And I’m so grateful for it.
There is no question that my Zoom workout is the hardest one of the week. But it’s also the most rewarding and the one that makes me the happiest. So the sweat and pain are totally worth it. I did have some pain issues this past week with all of my workouts, but it was manageable. And I know that I’m doing what I can to make it better. I just have to be patient and allow my body time to heal.
And there’s a chance I might be getting more social workouts into my workout week. There was a class that I couldn’t make it to last week that was a socially distant workout in a park. I would have loved to have been there, but it wasn’t possible with my schedule. But everyone was very far apart and were wearing masks. So I think if I can make it in the future, I will be going to that workout. I know how much any social aspect of a workout pushes me, and I need that as much as I can get it.
And pushing myself has been a recurring goal of mine since I’ve been doing workouts at home. We are coming up on 5 months of this, and finding ways to push myself hasn’t been the easiest. But I’ve slowly figured out things I can do and they have all benefitted me a lot. Adding home workout equipment and having more social workouts have been game-changers for me. I’m doing a lot better than I was when this all started. It’s taken time for me to figure things out, but I didn’t give up and I’m glad.
One of the things that has been hardest for me was figuring out how to get my strength training to be close to what I was doing in the studio. Finding weights has been difficult because so many people are building home gyms right now. I kept looking online for some, but either they were not the weights I was looking for or they were really expensive for what I could afford. But as my birthday got closer, I realized that asking for some of the weights that were a bit out of my budget might work as a gift from my parents. So I asked my dad about it and he agreed that it would be a good gift. I asked him about it several weeks ago and we spent a lot of time doing searching online for what would work for me.
I have limited floor space so originally I was thinking the weights that you can adjust might be a good option. But most of them were very expensive and they had much heavier weights than what I need. I didn’t need something that went up to 50 or 75 pounds. And when we were looking at individual weights so I could make sure I only get the weights I need, those could get really expensive as you get a few sets, and then I run into the issue of storage. So it really was a bit of a challenge for us to figure out what would work best for me.
In the end, my dad and I found a set of adjustable weights that only goes up to 25 pounds. Because the weight range on them is more limited than many other sets (which is perfectly fine with me), they were much more affordable. Still out of my budget for right now, but an acceptable price for a present from my parents. My dad did a bit of research to make sure this was the right option for me before we ordered. And now they should be arriving in the next week or two (there was pretty much nothing that would be able to get to me quicker than a week).
I’m excited and nervous for the weights to arrive. I know I’ve needed to get weights for a while. But I’m scared to see how much strength I really have lost in the past few months. I know that I won’t be able to lift the way that I did the last time I took a class at the studio, but that’s my goal to work up to again. I don’t know if I could get to a point where I am lifting more than I did before, but you never know. That could be a good second goal if I am able to get back to where I was and I’m still working out at home.
I’m so happy that even though I’ve been working out at home for a while now, I’m still finding ways to make it better for me in multiple ways. And as soon as I get my new weights, I can’t wait to see how that will push myself in the video and Zoom workouts!
After having a tough week of workouts with weird injuries, I was so grateful to be back to normal (or at least my normal) this past week. I still had struggles with the usual things in my workout, but I had some amazing moments as well. I was able to find some ways to focus on what I could do on the floor instead of what I did on the bike and I feel like that really made me feel amazing.
Monday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and while it felt like a typical workout is was also a tough one. I was feeling a little off for a few different reasons when I got to class, but when I saw the workout I was pretty excited about it. There have been so many unique workouts lately but it’s always nice to have a classic class.
For cardio, the first block was 3 rounds of a 90 second push pace and a 45 second base pace ending with a 30 second all out. The second block switched things so it was 45 second push paces and 90 second base paces ending with an all out. I struggled a bit with my normal resistance levels on the bike, but I did use them. And the last block was with inclines so we had 4 different all out paces with different hill/resistance levels. I was getting a bit higher than my typical all out level, but it wasn’t quite as high as some of the other hill work I have done in the past.
On the floor, we had Bosu work and rowing. The first block was tricep extensions with weights while kneeling on the Bosu and push-ups with one hand on the Bosu and one hand on the ground. And after 3 rounds of those we had a 100 meter row. The second block was chest fly with weights while laying on the Bosu and low rows using the straps for 2 rounds and then a 200 meter row. And the last block was pullovers with weights and back extensions which were both done while laying on the Bosu and then a 400 meter row after 1 round. I had a little bit of a struggle with the back extensions while laying on my stomach so I had to take those slow. But I also know that going slow also can mean that I’m working harder and have better form so I think it worked to my advantage.
Wednesday’s workout was the Orange X workout, where we try to go as heavy as possible with weights. It was a 3 group class so I had a block on the bike and rower before I got to do the Orange X challenge. We were advised to go a bit easy to save our strength for the floor work, but I was already going easy on myself because I was nauseous.
The first block on the bike was rounds of push paces to base paces with the time going down each time. The second block on the bike was the same except every segment was half of the time we had in the first block. The first block on the rower was rounds of 400 meter rows with chest presses and shoulder presses with a medicine ball between each round. And the second block on the rower was rounds of 200 meter rows and we were supposed to do lunges between each round. But I was not feeling so great so I just stayed on the rower for that entire block.
The Orange X challenge is all about doing single arm low rows, goblet squats, and chest presses with the heaviest weight you can use. I’ve always surprised myself with the weights I could use during these challenges and I was determined to try to improve again. The only one that I knew it couldn’t really improve on just yet is the chest press because I already struggle a lot with the heavy weight I use for that and I don’t want to hurt myself. I actually probably should have gone down to a lower weight because it was harder than I was ok with. I don’t like having the weights above my body when I am scared that I might drop them.
But I knew that I could improve with the low rows and goblet squats. In the past, I’ve used 35lbs for that (I may have used 40lb weight once but I don’t believe so). This time, I decided to go big and go for 45lbs. It was much heavier than I’m used to and I couldn’t do 10 reps in a row without a break, but I did get them done. And with the goblet squats I know we are always pushed to do so much more than we already do. I’ve used 45lbs before and it seemed amazing but I know I can do more. I did one round with 60lbs but when I was on the floor for the second block all the 60lb weights were gone so I went up one higher and managed to do the squats with 65lbs! The most difficult part is holding the weight in my hands and not the squat, but I still felt it in my legs and butt. It was hard and I was exhausted when I was done, but I did it!
After the heavy weightlifting on Wednesday, I was just on such a workout high. I knew I could push myself more on the floor and I needed to find moments to do that. I didn’t have as many opportunities to do that as I would have liked, but it also gave me an extra boost of motivation to work on tracking my floor work more because I need to find a way to know if I’m making progress or stuck using the same weights for months.
Friday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and we spend 15 minutes on each section of the room without switching. For the cardio portion, we started with endurance work with a 6 minute distance challenge. I don’t reset the bike too often because it’s not as quick as resetting the treadmill, so I didn’t focus too much on the distance. Instead, I worked on increasing how fast I pedaled while keeping the bike resistance at my push pace level. The second block was power based and we had 2 rounds of 45 second all out paces. And the last block was a 3 minute distance challenge with extra resistance. The goal was to do half the distance we did in the 6 minute challenge, but I focused more on not slowing down the bike.
The rower focus followed the same pattern as the cardio. For the endurance part, we started with a 400 meter row and we went down 100 meters each round. And between each row, we had 12 frogger squats. The power row was the same as the treadmill with 2 rounds of 45 second all out paces. And the last block was do to half the row distance and half the frogger squats each round (starting with a 200 meter row and going down 50 meters each time with 6 squats).
The floor was one long block. We had deadlifts, dumbbell swings, weighted lunges, regular lunges, and sit-ups. I usually use 25lb weights for my deadlifts and 20lb or 25lb for my swings. But I couldn’t get a 25lb weight since other people were using them. I didn’t want to go to a lower weight since I just proved to myself I could do better, so I went with a set of 30lb weights. The deadlifts and swings weren’t easy with the heavier weight and my hands need to get use to holding them, but I did it. I used lighter weights for my weighted lunges since I have balance issues doing those, but that didn’t feel like a letdown after doing the heavier ones. I was just so happy to prove to myself again that I can do more than I had been trying.
Saturday’s workout was a power day, and it was a very intense power day! We had 3 groups, but the treadmills (or me on the bike) and the rowers worked together in a run/row type format. The plan was the same for 3 rounds each time, it just changed which part of it you started with.
They were all 4 minute blocks. The first 2 minutes had the cardio side doing a 30 second push pace, 30 second base pace, and 1 minute all out. The first 2 minutes on the rowers was a 200 meter row, 20 squats, and the rowing for distance if there was time. Then the cardio side went to the rowers and the rowers went to the cardio side and both had a 1 minute all out. I did that 4 minute block 6 different times (3 when I started on the bike and 3 when I started on the rower), and it was hard! Because of how the class rotated, I did all 6 blocks back to back instead of having 3 and then the floor block before the next 3. But I was glad to get it all done and I tried to catch my breath as much as possible when switching from the bike to the rower or the other way around.
On the floor, we had 1 long block. We had single arm snatches, low rows on the straps, squats, sit-up rotations with weights, and running men. I used my normal weights for the weighted work because I was so tired from all the cardio work. I knew my form was probably going to be sloppy and I didn’t want to risk hurting myself with trying a new and heavier weight. I stuck with focusing on my form and taking the breaks where I needed them. And I really did need them a lot on the floor!
One of my workout goals this year was to track my floor work better. We are already through 1/12 of the year and I’ll be honest that I haven’t been good at trying to figure this out. I’m still struggling with how to do it, but I’m just trying to write it down somewhere for now. I don’t want this year to fly by and I realize I am using the same weights that I’ve been using all year. I have shown myself that I need to work harder because I can do it. And I can only work harder if I know what I have done before.
Posted onOctober 8, 2018|Comments Off on Working On Some New Challenges (or It’s A Partner Month)
This past week of workouts was a really good week for me. October has a lot of fun things happening at Orangetheory and I’m excited about them. Of course, there is HellWeek coming up at the end of the month. But there is also a triple buddy challenge happening for the entire month. I’m a part of a team of 3 and we need to complete 45 workouts this month as a group. I’m pretty sure this will happen no matter what with my group since we all go so often, but I also know not to slack off on things.
Monday’s workout was an endurance day with a benchmark challenge. It was the 12 minute run for distance and I knew that I couldn’t focus on the distance part of the challenge. In the past, I’ve been able to run the entire 12 minutes and that wasn’t going to be how this attempt went. But I tried to just focus on seeing what I could do and not what my distance was going to end up as.
For the 12 minute challenge, my original idea was to do 1 minute running/2 minutes walking intervals. I was able to do that for the first 4 minutes, but then I realized that running for a minute was just a bit too long for me. I was feeling a bit defeated because I did think that I was taking it easy, but my body was telling me that I was still going too hard. So I switched to 30 seconds running/90 seconds walking until the final minute. And for the last minute I ran and I knew that it was probably not the right choice but I still did it. Even though I told myself I wasn’t worried about the distance, I did have a goal in my head to try to be at least at .75 miles, and I was so happy and relieved that I was able to beat that.
Next I was on the floor where we had increasing rep counts. Our exercises were chest presses, tricep extensions, hip bridges with weight, crunches, and plank work. Since the rep counts were higher than what we had during the Orange X workout, I did go a bit lighter on my weights and used 25lb dumbbells.
Then it was back to cardio where technically it was a row challenge with running for distance when we were done. The idea was to take the distance we got on the treadmill and used that as our meters for the rower. And power walkers had to double theirs or they could do 1500 meters. Since 1500 meters was less than double my distance, that was what I was supposed to do. But we only had 7 minutes in that block so I was just on the rower the entire time. Very few people made it to the treadmill, but I think everyone was happy rowing after a tough treadmill challenge.
I ended my workout on the floor where we had decreasing rep count work. We had chest presses using the straps, plank alternating reaches, and more crunches. The 7 minutes for the floor work seemed to go by really quickly and I made it through 2 rounds before the workout was done.
Wednesday morning was a weird morning for me. I woke up to some texts from someone I didn’t care to hear from that really put me in a bad mood. I also slept funny and my shoulder was bugging me. I really wasn’t in the best mindset when walking into Orangetheory but I also knew a workout would help to improve my mood.
But because I was in a bad mood and a bit punchy, I didn’t want to use the treadmill. When I am in those moods, I know that sometimes I push myself too much to try to make something better in my day. So I did a bike day instead. It was a power based workout but it almost felt more like an endurance day. All of the blocks were either 4.5 or 5 minutes long. For cardio we did the same thing for the first and third block and then had the same thing for the second and fourth block. All the blocks had a push pace, base pace, all out pace, walking recovery, and all out pace; but the timing of the pushes and all outs changed between the 2 different formats. I stuck to my normal resistance levels on the bike but tried to increase how fast I was pedaling. I definitely felt like I was working hard and like I expected it did help to improve my mood.
The floor was also 4 blocks and they had an interesting format. Every block had 5 exercises. The second exercise in every block was always an ultimate burpee and the fourth exercise in every block was also a pop jack to squat. But the first, third, and fifth exercise (which was the same thing within a block) changed. In the first block that was a sumo squat, in the second block it was a pop jack, in the third block it was a plank jack, and in the last block it was a sprinter sit-up. I did have to do some modifications for several of these things. For the ultimate burpees, I started doing them the normal way but I never do the push-ups while holding the weights (I put my hands on the ground). By the third block, I switch to splitting up the moves so I did the burpees and then the bicep curl to shoulder press after. For the pop jack to squats, I started with them normally but switched to frogger squats after the first block. And instead of doing sprinter sit-ups, I did regular ones since the rotation is tough for me to do.
The floor work was tough and felt like we had endless burpees and squats, but I was glad to not have to worry about my should hurting too much. I did have to be careful with the shoulder presses, but the soreness and pressure I had in my shoulder wasn’t happening while working out. And I was right that being at the workout put me in a better mood for the rest of the day.
Friday’s workout was 3 partner workout. I got to work with one of the people from my triple buddy challenge and it was a really interesting workout. Even though there were 3 people in each group (one on the floor, one on the treadmill, and one on the rower), the pacer was always either the treadmill or rower. There was a distance to do on each and whoever finished first initiated the switch.
The treadmill distances were between .2 miles and .1 miles (each block got shorter) and the rower distances were between 650 meters and 350 meters (again, each block got shorter). When I was the person on the treadmill, I always finished before the rower person so I started the switch. And when I was on the rower, the treadmill person finished first so I never did the full row that we were supposed to do. But that’s ok because I was working so hard and didn’t mind missing a little bit of the distance on the rower.
On the floor, each block had its own exercises and we just worked through them whenever we were on the floor. The first block had lots of ab dolly work with push ups to knee tucks, rollouts, pikes, and hamstring work. The second block was mainly exercises on the straps with full body pull ups, tricep extensions, lunges into Y raises, jump squats. And the last block was mainly core work with double crunches, toe reaches, torso rotations, and plank pull throughs.
Even though the treadmill and rower distances were different each block, we seemed to pretty much do 2 rotations through all the stations for each block. These types of partner workouts are tough, but they are also so motivating because I don’t want to let my partners down. The only time I was taking breaks was on the floor, but I didn’t do that too often because I wanted to make sure I was doing as much of the floor work as possible to not slack off. Sometimes it’s annoying to do my workout and then be stuck sitting at my desk for several hours to work, but this time I was grateful for the break.
Saturday’s workout was a strength based class and I was feeling a little bit nauseous. I’m not sure if this was due to hormonal nausea or because I splurged a bit too much with food the day before, but whatever the cause was I knew that being on the bike was the better option. I think I’m starting to like doing strength based classes on the bike because I can do more work with the resistance levels than I can with inclines on the treadmill.
There were 3 blocks that all had similar patterns. We had some push and base paces at inclines (or higher resistance level for me) and some moments where everyone was a power walker with a really high incline. The first time everyone had that power walking moment, I decided to really go for it with the resistance on the bike. Normally I don’t go that much higher than level 10, but this time I went to 15. My legs felt like they were moving through jello, but I managed to do the work at that resistance. Each block the incline (or resistance) went down so I didn’t have to do anything that hard again. But I did still keep some of the minutes at higher resistance levels than I usually would use.
On the floor, we had the chance to do an interesting challenge. For the first 3 blocks, we had 2 exercises. The second exercise was always some type of core work. But for the first exercise we did it twice in a row. The first time, we only had 5 reps so we were encouraged to go really heavy with the weight. The second time, we had 15 reps and used a weight that we normally would use.
The first block was a hip hinge low row and I know that my challenge weight is usually 35lb. But when I do that, we have 10 reps so I went up to 40lb. It was really hard and I couldn’t do 5 in a row without taking a break, but I did it. And for the 15 reps I did 20lb. The next block was an overhead shoulder press, but because I’m dealing with some shoulder pain I just stuck with 20lb for 20 reps because I couldn’t go heavier without causing pain. And the third block was hammer curls and I went with 30lb for the 5 reps and 20lb for the 15 reps. The last block was just doing the 5 rep exercises over again and I kept the same weights I had used before.
I feel like this week of workouts gave me some fun opportunities to push and challenge myself and I really went for it! I also figured out when I might have been going a bit too hard, but understanding my limitations is a good thing too. I didn’t necessarily improve on all the challenges I had, but I did on many of them which is always nice. And I also know that I’ll have a chance to do these again and hopefully I’ll have improvement by that point.
Posted onJuly 30, 2018|Comments Off on Another Week Of Progress And Practicing Patience (or Having Some Good Challenges)
This past week of workouts was actually a pretty great one for me. It’s been interesting getting back into running and figuring out how much to do and when it’s too much and I need to take a step back. But this past week of workouts gave me so many opportunities to work on running and figure things out, which is exactly what I needed.
Monday’s workout was a benchmark class and I was a bit hesitant about it. It was the 12 minute run for distance benchmark and I knew I wouldn’t be anywhere close to what my best distance was for that challenge since my best distance was when I ran the entire thing. Of course, I had the thought that maybe I should see if I could run the entire thing, but I knew better than to even try that and went with doing intervals.
For the first 10 minutes I did 45 seconds of running/1 minute of walking like I had done on Saturday the week before. It was the longest I had done run/walk intervals since I started running again and it was getting very tough for the second half of the challenge. I did need to take some breaks to catch my breath and I thought about stopping, but I also knew that a lot of the issues I was having was in my head. Because of the timing of the intervals, the last minute was a bit different so I would end on a run. I did my last interval and then ended on a 1 minute run. That last minute was difficult and I’m so glad I didn’t push my speed at all because I don’t know if I could have done it. My goal was to do at least .75 miles and I’m glad that I was able to do a little bit better than that.
For the second block on the treadmill, we had timed push to base paces. It was all 90 second push paces and I started the first one thinking I’d do 30 second intervals. But after those first 30 seconds of running, I realized that I maxed out on running for the day. So for all the push paces I did my walking at an incline. I would have loved to keep working on running, but considering I did the entire 12 minute distance challenge with run/walk intervals I couldn’t be too upset with myself.
On the floor we had 2 blocks. The first block had triceps with weights, chest presses with weights, Y raises on the straps, and plank kick throughs. I used heavier weights for my triceps and chest presses but my body was just not having it with the plank kick throughs. My hips were locking up and it was impossible for me to get my leg to kick through without losing my balance. It was frustrating that I couldn’t even do a real modification for these moves so I ended up doing plank shoulder taps so at least I was doing something that was plank related. The second block had a 200 meter row at the beginning of each round and then it was 2 different arm moves with weights and the mini-bands. We had front raises and hammer curls. I was doing my normal weights for those but with the mini-band it was harder than normal.
Wednesday’s workout was a run/row but it was done in blocks instead of us doing the run/row on our own. So we had 5 blocks for cardio, 3 of which were on the treadmill and 2 were on the rower. On the first and last block on the treadmill, we had a 2 minute push pace to a 1 minute all out pace. I did the 2 minute push pace as a 1 minute run/1 minute walk and then ran the 1 minute all out so it was all 1 minute intervals. And the middle block had a walking recovery after the all out pace followed by another 1 minute all out so I could do it as 1 minute intervals as well. I have said that I was slowly getting back to running, but I have also been moving pretty quickly to increase my running and I realized that I might not be ready for 1 minute intervals yet. I can do them occasionally, but these blocks proved to me that I wasn’t ready to do them over and over.
On the rower we had the same plan for both blocks. We started with a 100 meter row and then had 10 medicine ball squat presses. Then we did 150 meters and more squats and were supposed to keep increasing the row by 50 meters each time. I only made it to the second round of squats each time and those squats were tough because the only medicine ball that was left was the heaviest one when I’m used to either the lightest or medium one. I probably would have gotten more rowing done if I had the lighter medicine ball, but I’ve learned that it’s always good for me to challenge myself with what weights I use from time to time.
On the floor we had 2 regular floor blocks and 1 rowing block. The first floor block had half get-ups and single leg squats using the straps. Single leg stuff is tough to do with my hip issues, but I’ve been picking up tricks to use so I can try them more often. And I was able to do the single leg squats this time with taking some breaks while working on them. The second block had single arm presses, goblet squats, and lunges. And for my squats I used one of the new heavy weights I started using recently and they were hard! I might have overdone it a bit based on what I had done earlier in the workout, but I was only feeling sore after the workout and not pain (soreness is ok). And the rowing block was the same as the rowing block we had during the run/row, but this time I had a lighter medicine ball at my rower so I was able to get to the rower for the 3rd row.
Friday’s workout was an endurance day, but it was also a 3 group class and a class where we switched between blocks so it didn’t feel like a normal endurance day. Every block was 6 minutes and we were at each station twice during the workout.
The first time we were on the treadmill we had 2 rounds of 90 second push paces with 1 minute base paces and ended with a 1 minute all out. I knew I couldn’t run for 90 seconds and wasn’t sure I wanted to try running for a minute again for more than just the all out at the end, so I did the 90 second push paces as 30 seconds of running and 1 minute of walking on my usual push incline as a power walker. And then I ran the all out at the end of the block. The second time we were on the treadmill we had a 6 minute run for distance to do on our own. I decided to do my 45 second run/1 minute walk intervals like I had done before. The only difference this time was for the last 45 seconds of the block I increased my running speed. It was hard to run faster, but it was easier to do that than it was to run longer. I was happy to see that I did slightly better than half of what I did in my 12 minute run on Monday which is proof of my progress even if it’s not much.
The rower was the same for both blocks. We started with a 90 second row for distance and then had 12 squats. Then it was back to the rower for a 30 second row and more squats. We repeated the 30 second row and squats until the block was done. And on the floor the first block was lunges, upright rows, and running men and the second block was single arm shoulder presses and plank work. For the weighted work I wasn’t using my heavy weights because I was starting to feel a bit light headed. I’m not sure what caused it (it might have been that I had an early dinner on Thursday so it had been longer between my last meal and my workout than normal), but I just took breaks when I was feeling weird and didn’t push myself too much with the weights.
Saturday’s workout was a signature OTF workout called Orange Trinity. All classes were 3 group classes even if they normally are 2 group classes and we were at each section of the room for 14 minutes.
First I was on the treadmill where we had a run/weighted exercise block. Each time on the treadmill we ran .15 miles and after that we had squat presses using a medicine ball with decreasing reps each round. With the run, I knew I’d be doing them as run/walk intervals, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted them to be when I started. I figured I’d run for 45 seconds and then plan from there. I thought maybe I’d be doing a 45 second run, a 1 minute walk, and finish with another 45 second run and that would get me to the right distance, but I discovered that with the distance it was perfect to do it as just 45 second intervals. So I ran twice each time for 45 seconds with a 45 second walk in the middle. As much as I would have liked to see if I could run the entire distance, I knew that there was so much more coming up and I didn’t want to exhaust myself.
Next was the rower which is what I had heard was the toughest part of the workout. Essentially, it was a 14 minute row. But there were push and base rows to do within those 14 minutes so it wasn’t just a row for distance. We started with a 1 minute push row followed by 90 seconds and 2 minutes and then went back down before we ended with an all out row. Ideally, I wanted to get at least 2800 meters since that averages 200 meters a minute (which is pretty much the standard we are supposed to do). But this was a big endurance row and I had to take super quick breaks during the 14 minutes to wipe away sweat or tighten the foot straps. I would have loved to have done the entire thing without stopping, but I was pretty close. All of my breaks together were probably under 30 seconds so that’s not bad. I was just over 2700 meters when time was up but now I have a goal to work on the next time we have this workout.
The final block for me was on the floor and it was the same work we had during the Orange X workout. Even though I was so tired from the running and rowing, I was determined to use the same weights I used during the Orange X workout. So I did my squats with a 45lb weight, my row with a 35lb weight, and my chest press with a set of 30lb weights. I had to go a bit slower than I would have liked, but I was much more focused on using those weights and keeping my form than I was on doing as many rounds as I could have done.
Overall, I really am proud of myself with these workouts. I had a lot of opportunities where I could have pushed myself too much and done more than my body was ready for, and I didn’t do that. But at the same time, I found little ways to push myself and keep making progress so that was awesome too. I’m still just so happy that I’m getting back into running and I’m really hoping that I’ll have some more chances to make progress again this week.
My workouts have been pretty brutal for me lately. I hated that it was so bad and that I wasn’t able to do a lot of what I wanted or felt like I could. And I was thinking that this past week of workouts was finally going to be the time that things turned around for me. They didn’t totally turn around for me and I was still dealing with some issues (which hopefully won’t be the case much longer), but I did have some awesome workout milestones to make up for the challenges I had.
Monday was an endurance, strength, and power workout. And again this class which is usually 3 groups was a 2 group workout. It ended up feeling similar to 3 groups and that ended up being a good thing for me. While my nausea was finally ending, I was dealing with some horrendous cramps. I literally could feel my uterus contracting and that pain was some of the worst pain I’ve experienced. I took a painkiller before my workout, but I knew that it wasn’t going to be the best workout for me.
For cardio, we had 2 blocks and one was on the treadmill (bike for me) and the other was on the rower. Both blocks had a similar format. We started with a 30 second all out and then we had an exercise. Then we did that again before moving on to 2 rounds of 45 second all outs with exercises between. And I made it to the first 1 minute all out each time before the block ended. On the bike, the exercise was a squat to a low row using weights and on the rower it was lunges. On both block I had to take significant breaks to let the pain go away and I was just grateful that I didn’t hurt myself by falling off the bike or the rower.
On the floor we also had 2 blocks. The first block was frogger squats, sit-ups, leg lifts, and squat reach arounds on the straps. The second block was chest flys, bicep curls, plank reaches, and high rows on the straps. Just like with cardio, I had to take a lot of breaks on the floor. I needed to breathe through the cramps (I figured since they are a similar type of pain that you have when you give birth that breathing through them was a good idea) and they really didn’t seem to be getting better or worse through the workout. So I figured I would just do what I could and not worry too much about it.
Wednesday’s workout was another signature workout. This one is called Orange X and the goal is to do certain weightlifting exercises using the highest weight you can. I was looking forward to doing this workout for a few reasons. One is I knew that I had been doing better with weights so I was excited to see what I could do. Another reason was this was my 100th workout of 2018 which actually puts me a little bit ahead of my goal for the year!
The workout had a switch format and I stuck with the bike since I was still feeling a little off. The first block was 2.5 minutes which was a push pace, base pace, and all out pace and then we switched and did the same thing on the rower. Then the next block was a longer one that had a run/row in it. On the treadmill it was .2 miles (the bike is 4 times that) and then a 200 meter row. And each round the treadmills were supposed to increase the incline by 1%. So each round I increased the gears by 1. The final cardio block was more of a standard format with push pace to base pace with an all out at the end.
On the floor, the first block was split in half with half of us starting with the Orange X workout and the other half doing some body weight work. This was to allow people to test as many different weights as they could. I was on the side that started with body weight work and we had sit-ups, lunges, and mountain climbers. Halfway through the block we switched and it was my turn to try the heavy weights. We had a single arm low row, a goblet squat, and a chest press. With low rows, I’m usually using 15lb weights (sometimes 20lb), with goblet squats it’s usually 25lb, and with chest press I’m usually around 20lb or 25lb. But of course I had to push myself. So I started with the low row and used 35lb and while it was tough and probably didn’t look pretty I did it! I would have loved to try the same weight for the chest press, but I knew that laying on my back I was in a riskier position if the weights were too heavy so I tried 30lb. That ended up being the perfect tough weight for me. And because of my coach I tried using a 45lb weight for the first time for my squats! I actually might have been able to go a bit heavier, but my grip wasn’t strong enough.
I was so surprised by what I was able to do and I’m so glad that I tried to do weights that seemed impossible to me! I will still have to ease into using these weights for regular workouts since we usually have more reps to do, but it was a nice confidence boost to realize how strong I am! We had one more floor block in the end where we got to do the Orange X work again and I stuck with my new heavier weights then too.
Friday’s workout was the first one where I seriously thought I’d finally be back on the treadmill. But I need my first treadmill workout back to be one where we have a bit more recovery time or we switch between blocks. And Friday’s workout was an endurance workout with a 23 minute block on the treadmill so I was back on the bike.
We had longer push paces with base paces after. Each round for 3 rounds the push pace got shorter and the base pace got longer and we repeated that for a total of 6 rounds. I was only taking breaks when I needed water which ended up being about every other base pace. But I was also pedaling faster than normal so I think I was sweating more and feeling thirsty more often. I never felt like I was taking a break to catch my breath which was a nice feeling. I know that if this workout was one with shorter blocks I probably could have been fine on the treadmill. But I knew that I’d be back on the treadmill back soon enough.
On the floor, it was one longer block that was bookended by rowing. At the beginning and end of the block was had a 2 minute row for distance. I did beat my first row by about 20 meters when I did the second row, so I was pretty excited about that. And on the floor, we had a lot of mini-band work. We had half of it as lower body work and half of it as upper body work. For lower body work we had bench tap squats using weights, squat front walks, and knee tucks. For all of those the bands were around my calf. And the upper body work were plank side reaches and front raises. Both of those had the bands around my wrist. I was definitely feeling it in my shoulders and quads by the time I was back on the rower to end the workout, but it wasn’t too bad. I was worried I might have overdone it during Wednesday’s workout and I was pleasantly surprised I wasn’t super sore during Friday’s workout.
On Saturday, I was thinking I’d be using the treadmill but I still didn’t. There were 2 reasons why I stuck with the bike. First, this was going to be my last workout of the month and I figured it would be kind of interesting to have a full month of just the bike in my calendar. But the bigger reason was that I was a bit scared. It’s been a very long time since I was on the treadmill and it’s worrying me how I will do. I need to get over this fear and I’m setting a goal to use the treadmill at least once this week, but it wasn’t the case last week.
The workout had a mix of everything. We had a block on cardio that was a normal endurance block with longer push paces with base paces after. We had a block that was run/floor work with 45 second all out paces with frogger squats. And we had a block that was a run/row with 45 second all out paces with 200 meter rows. And the 45 second all out paces were at inclines (or higher resistances for me on the bike). It was a bit tough jumping on and off the bike, but not too bad and I was able to get moving again pretty quickly after the frogger squats and rowing.
On the floor I wanted to try a bit with heavier weights. We had lunges which I used 25lb weights for and upright rows which I used 20lb weights for (both of those are 1 set heavier than I would usually grab). Then we had a 500 meter row and then it was single arm low row and bicep curls with weights. I really wanted to use 15lb weights for my biceps because I knew my arms were getting tired, but they were all being used by other people so I had to use 20lb weights instead. It was good to be forced to use the heavier weights. Then we had a 250 meter row and then more weight work with pullovers and toe reaches. For the toe reaches I had to go low on the weight, but I moved up to a weight heavier with the 30lb weight for my pullovers!
While I didn’t get all the improvements and victories in my workouts that I wanted to have, I still had a lot to be proud of. I did heavier weights than I ever knew I could use and used the heavier weights as a guide for other workouts. And I hit the 100 workout milestone for the year! Those are both things to be very happy with and I just hope the positive momentum keeps going into this week!
Posted onJuly 20, 2015|Comments Off on Being A Bit Of A Show-Off (or More Baby Steps)
I had a pretty great week of workouts this week. I might have only gotten 3 workouts in, but I really maximized them.
Monday was a really fun day. I had a friend come try out class with me! She had never been to Orangetheory before, but she was looking for a new workout class to motivate her. I love having new friends in class because if they get a membership then that means I’ll have more friends in class on a regular basis!
My friend was on the treadmill next to me and it happened to be a run/row day so the treadmill segments were pretty short. Because I want to push myself (and because I’m a major show-off), I decided to up my speed on the treadmill again.
My push and all-out paces have been pretty steady at 3.7 miles an hour (my base pace has been at 3.5). But I started at 3.7 for my pushes and then went to 3.8 and even 3.9 at times. I don’t think I can do those higher speeds for an entire class, but it’s good that I’m trying to add on speed for a minute or two. I’ve had issues with increasing my speed because I feel like it’s an all or nothing sort of thing. But it’s not horrible to have variable speeds throughout the class.
Since I was showing off at Monday’s class, I decided to see if I could push the limits of my push and all-out paces for the rest of the week. I was able to do a minute or so at 3.8 and 3.9 for my other two workouts. I even was able to do 4.0 miles an hour for about 30 seconds for an all-out segment (so it was also at 10% incline). I think I’m almost to the place where I can increase my push pace more often, but I’m still struggling with increasing my base pace. I’m testing the waters of 3.6 miles an hour, but it’s still a struggle for more than a few minutes.
Since Monday was a run/row day, I also had a good opportunity to work on getting better at rowing. Rowing is weird for me. I feel like I’m still struggling with it, but my coaches have been telling me that rowing might be my strongest thing. I’m great when it comes to sprints of about 250 meters or less, but the distance rows still make me struggle. One of the other workouts this past week had a 600 meter row and I had to take my time with that and that frustrated me.
I think this frustration I’m feeling is a real positive thing. It means that I know that I can do better and I’m not questioning myself as much as I have in the past. I’m still physically struggling, but I’m happier with that than I am with a mental struggle. I wish I could discuss this with my hip surgeon, but I know a lot of things I do aren’t really recommended. But since my hips are going to go bad no matter what I do, I figure I might as well work on my strength even if it might make my hips go bad a few months sooner than they would if I was cautious. Also, I’m been pushing the limits with my hips for a couple of years now, and I’m still doing way better than they ever expected I could.
Since I’ve been pushing myself on the treadmill a lot, I think it’s time for me to push myself with the weights. I’ve been using the same weights for a while. And I think the reason I’ve been nervous is because the weights I use look more like regular weights to me and the next set up looks a little scary. I know that’s probably really stupid, but I think that’s the only reason I’ve been holding back. It’s time for me to realize that I’m strong and can do more lifting than I have been doing. And by lifting more, I’m going to build more muscle which will help me in my weight loss.
I love this motivation I’ve found! I know that it can only lead to good things!
Posted onMay 25, 2015|Comments Off on Feeling Special This Workout Week (or Maybe I Influenced My Coaches)
This past week was a really fun workout week for me. It was another 4 workout week which is good. And yes, it was another week filled with lots of rowing.
While all my workouts were really good this week, the highlights for me were on Wednesday and Thursday.
About a month ago, one of the coaches, Lal, promised me that he would take a workout class with me and be on the treadmill next to me. I’ve taken Lal’s class a bunch of times. He is my Saturday coach from time to time. But I’ve never taken a class where he was doing the workout and not as the coach.
Right after he made that promise, he hurt his arm. I completely understand injuries, but at the same time I told him that if I was injured he wouldn’t let me use that excuse. He would tell me that I could just modify what I need to so I can work around the injury (like I do with all my hip issues). He said that once his arm was better, he’d workout with me.
I saw him on Monday after my morning class and reminded him that he had made that promise to me and hadn’t fulfilled it yet. He said that he would take a Wednesday class either this week or next and he let me put his photo on my social media pages and publicly shame him and hold him accountable.
And wouldn’t you know it? It worked! Lal was in this Wednesday’s class. He didn’t let me know ahead of time so I didn’t save him the treadmill next to me (sorry Lal), but he was still there and that is what counts.
Of course after the workout I had to get a photo with him so I could let everyone know on social media that he held up his end of the bargain and nobody needed to bug him about the promise.
The next day I was back at Orangetheory for another workout. I couldn’t work out on Friday due to a screening I was attending, so I did a Thursday afternoon one. And I was so happy because Whitney was my coach! I haven’t seen Whitney in a while since she is the head coach at the Santa Monica location (which is farther for me to get to than the Brentwood one so I don’t go there). She seemed pretty excited to see me as well. In fact, she named the run/row after me.
This was not an easy run/row for me to do. While my rowing skills have improved so much over the past few weeks, I’m definitely a sprinter versus a distance rower. And to me sprints are usually 200 meters or less. So 250 and 500 meters aren’t that easy for me. I’m able to complete them without resting in the middle, but I really do get tired.
Also, the run (or for me walk) segment of the run/row was longer than it usually seems to be. So it really tested my endurance (which was the point) and while I didn’t get through all 4 sections I go to the final run segment and only missed doing the final row. I don’t think a majority of the class got through all the segments so I’m not too disappointed in myself. Plus, Whitney seemed pretty proud of me. I might have to start taking some Thursday classes so I can see her more often!
I also had a nice workout victory in my Saturday class. Lal was the coach then and it was another run/row day. All the row segments were 250 meters and Lal was pushing us all to do them around 50 seconds every time. I can usually get a longer sprint in for the first row but my time increases a lot over the course of the workout because I get tired and burnt out.
But I really wanted to focus on trying to be as close to 50 seconds for all my rows. I stayed between 51 seconds (my fastest) and 56 seconds (my slowest) for every row. So even though I didn’t get to 50 seconds like Lal wanted, I stayed pretty close to my fastest time each time. That’s pretty awesome for me.
I’m toying with the idea of doing 4 workouts this week too. As of right now, I’m signed up for 3 classes. I’m still waiting to see if I have to do something on Saturday afternoon, but if I don’t I might try to go for my 3rd 4 workout week in a row!
A Full Workout Week (or Sticking With My Plan)
