Tag Archives: strength training

4 Workout Week (or Heavy Weights And Speedy Treadmills)

Posted on March 30, 2015 | 1 comment

It was another 4 workout week at Orangetheory. I’ve pretty much decided that on Mondays, I’m going to do morning workouts (unless I already have something scheduled in the morning). It’s just easier for me not to have to drive home in rush hour traffic and there’s no reason why I should have to save my afternoon on my day off. Plus, morning workouts allow me to do fun things like Disneyland on my day off!

I’m still struggling with getting my heart rate to get up in the mornings, but that makes me feel like these morning workouts are needed. I need to be good with working out anytime during the day.

My biggest focuses right now in my workouts are to keep increasing my weights and treadmill speed. I haven’t been in a plateau, but I know that I can’t restrict pushing myself due to the fear of hurting my hips.

I’m having an ok time with using at least 15 pound weights for everything. For chest and shoulder work, it’s still tough. Especially when we have longer sets (like 10-15 reps each round). I’m getting really fatigued but I’m trying to not go down to lower weights right away. I’ve been doing alright with that. I’m pretty much not reducing the weight I’m lifting until the 3rd or 4th round each time.

Where I’m having trouble is pushing myself beyond the 15 pound weights. I know that for some things like squats that I can probably start using the 20 pound weights. But I don’t always grab for those. They just seem so extreme somehow to me. But I’m aware that I’m not reaching for the heavier weights now so hopefully the next time I have the opportunity to use them, I will.

As far as speeding up on the treadmill, I was able to keep my pace at 3.4 miles an hour during all 4 workouts. On my Saturday workout, it was definitely a struggle because my legs were tired (plus it was a hill day which doesn’t make things easier). I have no plan to move to 3.5 miles an hour anytime soon. 3.4 miles an hour still seems really fast to me.

But the other change I’ve been working on making on the treadmill is my walking speed between blocks. For the joggers and runners, when they get to walk they are told to put the treadmill at 3.0 miles an hour. Since that has always been so close to my walking speed, I would lower my treadmill speed to 2.0 or 2.5 miles an hour when I walk between the blocks. But I’m trying to go to 3.0 miles an hour between blocks sometimes. When we’ve just done a crazy hill or all-out (where I’m at 15% incline) I still need the super slow speed to cool-down. But if I’m not beyond exhausted at the end of a block, I’m really trying to only go down to 3.0 miles an hour.

These are all good progress steps in my mind. I’m much happier with the progress I’ve made with the weights than the progress I’ve made on the treadmill. I’m not sure why that is, but I just feel like my treadmill work is still such a struggle (the hip pain doesn’t help). Maybe I’ll feel better about it in a few weeks when I have my next 5K. I have no idea if I’ll PR again, but I feel like it’s a possibility because I’m doing faster treadmill workouts at Orangetheory now than I was doing before my last 5K.

I’ll just have to wait and see what happens at the 5K.

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Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health, Tough Stuff

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Can 4 Workout A Week Be My New Normal? (or Pushing Myself Beyond)

Posted on February 2, 2015 | 2 comments

I did another 4 workout week this week. Part of the reason is because I want to maximize my results on the cleanse, but the other reason is because the 4th workout in a week isn’t feeling like it used to.

When I did my first 4th workout in a week, I was beyond exhausted. I didn’t know if that was because it was a 4th workout of if it was because I did workouts 2 days in a row. I know now that it was probably because doing a 4th workout was pushing myself. But as I’ve been adding a 4th workout more and more, it’s not feeling so bad anymore.

This is going to help me reach my goal of 175 workouts this year, but it’s more than that now. I know that if I want to accelerate and continue having results, I need to push myself more and more. And there’s only so much more I can push myself within the class. I have to add in more workouts.

Monday’s workout was a morning one. I’m going to have to do morning workouts the next few Mondays due to scheduling issues. It’s definitely a different feeling working out in the morning compared to in the afternoon. I don’t know which one is easier, but I do prefer my afternoon ones. Probably because that’s what I’m used to.

On both Monday and Wednesday, I had the same problem during my workout. My vision started to get dark and I had to break for a moment to feel normal again. I don’t believe that that is entirely the fault of the cleanse since I’ve had this issue before working out. It just hasn’t happened recently. It does scare me a little, but I know that all the coaches just want me to work out at my own pace and if I need to take a breather, it’s ok.

Friday was a tornado class, which means that we rotate from treadmill to weights to rower a lot. This time, there were 15 rotations (5 at each section). While it’s tiring to keep switching up so much, these are becoming my favorite workouts. By the time that I’m tired of being on the treadmill, it’s time to switch. I also seem to burn the most calories in those classes because there really aren’t any breaks.

Saturday was a run/row day which is also one of my favorite workouts. The only thing I didn’t love with this particular workout was all the treadmill sections were at an “all-out” pace. For power walkers like me, this means 15% incline. I don’t like not having breaks on the treadmill from such a high incline. My only breaks were when I walked over to the rower (and I guess technically on the rower as well).

But all things considered, I did some serious butt-kicking this week. As my dad put it on the phone to me the other night, it’s incredible how far I’ve come in a year. Even compared to my first Orangetheory workout, where I couldn’t really walk for a few days after. Now, just over 100 workouts later (yes, I tracked them), I’m thinking that 4 workouts in a week could really become my new every week plan.

I love that I’m finally feeling like my transformation is happening. It’s not stagnant anymore. I’m really moving forward and not only do I feel a difference, I think I can see a difference now.

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Getting Through It Because Of My Workout Friends (or 3 Days In A Row)

Posted on December 15, 2014 | 1 comment

This past week of workouts were intense! First of all, I was putting a lot of focus into my nutrition and I learned how my body reacts with different foods during different times of the day. I never worried too much about what I ate for lunch, but this past week I discovered that my workouts are much better when I pretty much eat only protein for lunch with a banana as a pre-workout snack (this might shift a little, but for now this is working for me).

The second reason this week was crazy was it was not only a 4 workout week, I had 3 days of workouts in a row! I’ve never done more than 2 in a row, but in order for me to have enough workouts for the Nike ID Challenge I had to do 4 workouts this week. And there was not a chance for me to go on the weekend. So I did Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Monday was an unusual day. First, I had another guest come with me to class (now I have all 3 I need for the challenge!). She is a new friend of mine through Tone It Up. It was awesome getting to meet someone new, but as we were chatting before class, our coach Bruce told us that it was going to be an interesting workout.

It ended up being a partner workout. This was the first time I had experienced this at Orangetheory. Basically, you partner up with another person and one of you does the cardio portion while the other does the strength portion. The person on cardio keeps going until the strength person is done and tags you. Then you switch.

This was pretty awesome. It motivated me to keep doing my reps because the longer I took on my strength workout the longer my partner had to do the cardio. I think my friend enjoyed it too, but she was a bit overwhelmed with it all (a common feeling for first-timers).

Also on Monday, I did my last photo for the Nike ID Challenge. I’ve been having fun with my photos, but the last one had stumped me as to what I should do. I had to take a photo with a Orangetheory pen or water bottle. That didn’t seem too exciting, so I kept putting it off until I thought of the perfect idea.

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I did my best to spell out OTFLA with them! My friend Sarah stood on a bench to take this photo while I laid on the ground with the pens and water bottles. I think all the staff at Orangetheory enjoyed watching me attempt this photo.

Wednesday’s workout was a normal one (as in not a partner workout), but I was starting to get hip pain from the weather. And since that was the start of my 3 days in a row, I was being careful with medicating myself.

Thursday was another partner workout and I think it was even tougher than the one we did on Monday! I had to do so much rowing that day (which I do enjoy more than the treadmill but is much tougher to do) and I was using some pretty heavy weights. After that class, I questioned how well I could do on Friday.

Friday morning I was actually pretty scared about how I would feel in the workout. My 4th workout in the week is always a tough one and my body never feels rested enough. But even if I couldn’t give what I can give every other day, I knew I was going to give as much as I possibly could.

It was a class with short blocks for the workout. Every block was only 5 minutes long and there were 8 blocks total. So we weren’t doing anything for more than 5 minutes (with the exception of the treadmill where we had 2 blocks back to back). I was definitely sore, but I wasn’t feeling that much worse than a typical 4th workout.

My calorie burn was much lower than usual, but some calorie burn is better than none. And the proof that the entire class worked hard was on the window.

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We fogged it up so much that it was easy for us to all sign our names as people who spent their Friday kicking butt!

This week brings the end of the Nike ID Challenge. I will have done everything asked of me (the last required workout for me will be today). I’m sure you all can guess that just because the challenge is ending doesn’t mean that I’ll be stopping at Orangetheory. I’m going to go back to 3 days a week for this week, but I’m toying with the idea of doing 4 days a week every other week until it’s not hurting me too much to have the 4th day.

But for now, I’m happy to focus on pushing myself a bit more each and every week.

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

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Second Week Of My Orangetheory Challenge (or I Guess I’m Tougher Than I Thought I Was)

Posted on July 14, 2014 | 2 comments

Last week was week 2 of my Orangetheory challenge and I feel like I rocked the week!

I went to my usual Monday, Wednesday, and Friday class. Which if any of you want to join me for a workout, I’d love to have some blog readers there with me! Anyone who comes with me to a workout gets to go for free! Let me know in the comments if you want to come!

Anyway, back to my week. Monday was interesting. I was a little tired from the week before. My body is getting adjusted to working out so much in a week (but I know that this is good for me to go through). I’m still not loving the treadmill, but that’s why I know I need to do it.

I was able to increase my incline on the push and all out sections of the treadmill time this week. So during those times, I was at 10% or 15% incline instead of 6% and 10%. I consider that a major improvement. I’m also getting more comfortable with the TRX straps, which as I mentioned before, I had never done before going to Orangetheory. And of course, I had to take an awesome photo after my Monday workout.

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Wednesday was a crazy tough workout, but I loved it! The class was small so instead of having us workout in 2 different groups, we all worked out together. I actually liked that a bit more, but I know that that won’t be the norm.

The cardio section of the workout that day was so tough. We went from treadmill to rower and back again several times. My heart rate was so high and I was dripping sweat the entire time. But I did it and even though I felt that I might pass out from trying so hard, I didn’t.

I wish I could remember the strength section that day, but the cardio section wore me out so much that I don’t remember too much after that. I also got a picture with the cardio workout of the day so that helped me remember a little too.

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What that board means is we ran (I technically walked) .1 miles and then did a 100 meter row. Then we went .15 miles on the treadmill and rowed 100 meters and so on. Then after that we did a 200 meter row and 30 seconds on the treadmill (with me walking at 15% incline). Rowing is so hard, but I’m really starting to like it. I remember at my first class how difficult rowing was for me and how my body just didn’t want to go the right way. Now, while I’m still not perfect (my weight does affect that a little), my form on the rower has gotten so much better!

Friday was a big incline day on the treadmill. We did so many hills that I thought I would pass out. I would say a majority of my 30 minutes on the treadmill were spent at at least 6% incline. I was only down to 3% for brief breaks from the crazy incline. I’m working on getting my speed up as well, but that’s going a little slower than I’d like. I’m able to do a lot of the workout at 3mph and occasionally I kick it up to 3.1 or 3.2, but toward the end of the 30 minute treadmill section, I have to go down to 2.7 or 2.8. My goal is to do the entire 30 minutes at 3.0 or faster. Ultimately, I’d like to get it to 4.0, but I know that that is going to take a long time.

For my workout picture on Friday, I decided to put it out on social media to see what shirt people think I should get when I lose enough weight.

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Everyone except one person voted for the orange shirt. Anyone else want to vote on it? I don’t know when I’ll be able to fit into one of their shirts, but I hope it’s before my 8 week challenge is over!

Overall, I think I had a pretty amazing week at Orangetheory. The best part about it for me is I’m starting to realize how tough and strong I really am. At SoulCycle, while there is a weights portion of the workout, I never felt like I was really strong. Now when I’m lifting 16 pounds while doing squats or when I’m doing pull-ups on the TRX straps, I can really see what my body is capable of. And I know that with time I’ll continue to get stronger and stronger.

I’m a quarter of the way done with my challenge and to be honest, time is flying by! I can’t wait to see how I’m able to push myself this week!

 

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Spending The Next 2 Months Going Orange! (or A Bombshell Partnership!)

Posted on June 27, 2014 | 4 comments

I have some exciting news to share with  you all! Orangetheory Fitness was so inspired by my story and how I want to lose my extra weight (and not gain it back again) that they have offered to help me.

Orangetheory will be sponsoring my workouts for July and August! For the next 8 weeks, I have committed myself to working out there 3 times a week (right now I’m scheduled for Mondays, Wednesday, and Fridays). This is both super exciting and scary.

I haven’t worked out 3 times a week regularly for a while. I know that this is something that I should do, but it hasn’t happened. 2 times a week seems doable, but the whole idea of this partnership is to push myself and to see what I’m really capable of.

And I’m so excited because this is a commitment. I can’t back out if I’m tired or just not feeling up to it. I’ve given Orangetheory my word (and I take that very seriously).

I start my 8 week challenge/partnership with them next week. And I’ll be posting on here at least once a week with updates on my workouts. I’ll be sharing my challenges and my goals as well as updating you all on my progress.

And I’d love to have some of you come with me to a class over the next 8 weeks! If you go to the Orangetheory website, you can get signed up for a free class! Just let me know that you want to workout with me and I’ll let you know what times I’ll be going that week.

This is a major positive step in my weight loss plan. I know that I need to get better about working out, and this is exactly the push that I need. I know that it will be tough and I’m sure that I will wonder what I got myself into at least once or twice, but I know that after 8 weeks I’ll be stronger and hopefully weigh much less than I do right now. And they say that it takes 21 days to create a habit, and I’ll have 60 days of this ahead of me!

I can’t wait until Monday for my first class of this new journey!

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Posted in Celebrations, Fitness, Fun Stuff, Weight Loss

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