Tag Archives: workout

I’m very grateful that during this past week of workouts, I was dealing with very little back pain. I still have some back pain, but it’s very infrequent now and it’s not affecting too much of my day-to-day life. Unfortunately, as expected this week, I was dealing with quite a bit of cramps and nausea. But since those are regular monthly occurrences for me, at least I know how to manage them and I think it made this past week of workouts a bit easier for me in an odd way.

For Monday’s workout, things were probably the best for me with only a little back pain and minimal nausea. And for each section of the room, we had 3 blocks.

For cardio, the first and third blocks were the same. We had rounds of a 30-second all-out followed by a 45-second recovery. With short intervals like that, it feels like it goes by quickly so I really did like those blocks. For the second block, we had a 5-minute distance challenge which was much harder for me to do. I feel like the longer I bike sometimes, the faster nausea hits me. I don’t know why that happens, but it’s something I’ve noticed in the past few months.

On the rower, we did the same thing that we did for cardio. The first and last blocks were actually much better for me than I expected and I did really well with the rowing in those blocks. But for the 5-minute challenge row, I struggled a lot. But as always, I took breaks when I needed to and got back to work as quickly as I could.

On the floor, the first and third blocks were timed with one exercise being for 30-seconds and the other exercise being for 45-seconds. In the first block, we had skater lunges and push-ups. And in the third block, we had neutral thrusters and lateral lunges. For the second block, we were on our own for timing and it was all core work. We had double crunches, sit-ups with shoulder presses, and seated torso rotations. This block was the only one where my back caused an issue. I discovered I’m still not able to do sit-ups, so I did crunches instead so I didn’t hurt my back more.

For Tuesday, we had an endurance focus for our workout. For cardio, we started with a 4-minute push pace with a 90-second recovery after. We continued that pattern with decreasing the push pace each round and ended with a 30-second all-out. Just like with Monday, the longer intervals were tougher for me to do, but it was manageable and I felt like I did better than Monday even though I felt worse.

On the rower, we focused on 250-meter rows so they were shorter which was nice. And between the rows, we had squats to alternating knee to elbows. That exercise was a bit more challenging for me, but I took it slow so it almost was like a back stretch for me and that was helpful both for the workout and for making my back feel ok.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had tricep extensions and lunges. And the second block had lateral step-ups, hip hinge swings, and push-ups to planks. I did use the bench at the lower setting for the step-ups and also for my hands with the push-ups. And for the hip hinge swings, I had to go a bit lower with the weight than I would have liked to because of my back.

On Wednesday, my nausea was really kicking in and I was feeling pretty rotten. I was smart the night before and made sure to take my anti-nausea medication before going to bed, which can sometimes help me in the morning.

For cardio, we were timed on our own. We started at the highest incline/resistance level for the shortest distance. After completing it, we had a 1-minute recovery. Each time, the incline/resistance level decreased but the distance increased. The resistance levels were pretty high for me, so I did take quite a bit of time to get through some of the distances. I think that combined with how I was feeling made things very slow for me and I only got through about half of the distances we were supposed to try to do.

On the rower, we started with a 500-meter row. After that row, we took a quick recovery break before doing a 100-meter row. After the 100-meter row, we were supposed to do squats and jumping jacks. I only did the squats since I knew I couldn’t do jumping jacks. We were supposed to repeat the 100-meter row and exercises 5 times before moving to the final row, but I only got through 4 rounds.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block was 10 reps for each exercise. We had goblet squats, front raises, lateral raises, and reverse flys. In the second block, we were timed. We had neutral thrusters for 30-seconds each time and plank pop jacks for between 1-minute and 20-seconds. The plank pop jacks were definitely a challenge, but I did my best using the bench for my hands.

Even with how bad I was feeling this past week, I think I’m finally getting used to the new schedule I have set with doing 4 days in a row. On Thursday, I was feeling pretty bad, but I know that was due to nausea and not doing 4 days in a row. And like always, I just tried my best even though this was a very endurance-focused day and that’s extra challenging for me.

For cardio, we had one block and we started with a 3-minute push pace followed by a 90-second base pace. We continued that pattern with the push pace decreasing by 30-seconds and the base pace decreasing by 15-seconds. And we ended our cardio work with a 1-minute all-out.

On the rower, we did the exact same thing as we did for cardio. So that made it a 14-minute row, which is a very long row. I knew that this would be tough on me, but I wanted to see if I could get to at least 2000-meters. That would be a slow row for me since I know I can row 2000-meters faster, but with how I was feeling I thought that would be a good challenge for me. I did try to keep rowing during the base row intervals since that would add distance, but I did still need to take breaks during some of them. But I didn’t unstrap my feet for the entire thing, so that was a small victory. And when the row was done, I got just over 2000-meters, so I was very happy!

And on the floor, we had one long block that was back-to-back work. That meant we were not supposed to stop between exercises and ideally use the same weights for the entire thing. I did use the same weights which meant I was using slightly lighter weights than normal for a few things, but that worked out ok for me. We had regular squats, bicep curls, front squats, uppercuts, deadlifts, low rows, side plank reaches, and single-leg v-ups. I changed the v-ups to crunches, but besides that, I did all the exercises the way we were supposed to do. I didn’t know if I could do the front squats, but because I was using lighter weights than normal, I could do them without making my hips hurt. That was something I wasn’t expecting, and now I know that for that exercise I should probably just go lighter with the weights instead of changing the type of squats that I do.

Considering how I thought this past week would go, I am very happy with what I was able to do. I knew I’d have struggles, but I found ways to work around a few of them. And with this week likely being another week with a lot of pain and nausea, I hope I can continue that trend and push through that time with some new modifications that make the exercises work for me.

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I just tried out a new workout schedule of doing 4 days in a row (and then having 3 days off). I’m still debating if I like this new schedule or if I want to try something like Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday so I can make sure I still see all my favorite coaches. But I decided to keep up the new schedule until I have a better idea if I like it or not, so I did that this past week. But this past week was also the week that I still had back issues along with the side effects from the vaccine, so it was definitely a tough workout week for me.

Monday’s workout was really tough since that was the worst day in the past week for my side effects. I was still dealing with body aches and I knew I was exhausted. I’m glad some of the worst side effects like having a fever were gone, but because I went through those over the weekend I knew my week would be fighting back from getting over those.

Fortunately, the cardio part of the workout went well with me dealing with the fatigue and feeling weak because it was very easy to modify to make it super easy for me. We started with a 3-minute push pace into a 30-second all-out. Then we had 3 minutes to recover and get back to a base pace and we continued with doing a 30-second all-out and 3-minutes to recover. I know that if I was feeling ok, I would have biked at my base pace a lot more in those 3-minutes. But I really went slow and easy and that helped a lot with making this doable.

On the rower, we started with a 3-minute row, and I just did as much rowing as I could each time and then rested when I needed to. I took a lot of breaks because the fatigue was hitting me really hard on the rower. We followed the pattern with cardio with the 3-minutes of recovery and when cardio when in an all-out, we had a crew row where we all tried to row together.

And on the floor, we had one long block with 2 mini-blocks in it. The first mini-block was only done once before we moved on. We had low rows and triceps on the straps and then single-leg deadlifts with no weights. Then we kept doing the second mini-block for the rest of the workout. That block had low rows with weights, tricep extensions with weights, and deadlifts with weights. I did have to use much lighter weights than I’m used to and I also needed to sit down during the floor block to catch my breath because the fatigue was really making me feel weak. But I did my best and I felt really happy I did something to help me feel better after the booster shot.

I was doing a bit better on Tuesday, but the fatigue and feeling weak were still affecting me a lot. So I just tried my best with the workout and accepted it wouldn’t be what I normally could do.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks that were the same. We had 1-minute intervals with a base pace at an incline followed by a base pace without an incline. The incline or resistance level went up by 1% each time. I did try to work on doing better with my resistance levels, but I realized my body wasn’t ready for that. So I was mainly using the levels between my push and all-out, but I did do one of the intervals higher than my all-out level.

On the rower, we started with a 400-meter row. I did much better with this row than I expected. I still needed breaks, but not nearly as many as I would have thought I would have needed. Then we had lateral hops (which I did as lateral steps) and high knees. Next was an 800-meter row, which went much worse than my 400-meter row. Again, I took breaks when I needed them. But this time it felt like I needed a break every 100 meters or so. Because I took so many breaks, I didn’t get that far through the block before the time was done.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had squats, pull-ups on the straps, and push-ups. And the second block had bicep curls and lunges. Both floor blocks were a bit of a struggle for me, but again, I could tell I was doing a bit better than the day before.

Wednesday’s workout was a prep workout for the Dri-Tri. This was mainly to be ready for the cardio portion. I already knew by Wednesday that I wouldn’t be doing the Dri-Tri, but I still liked the prep workout because it was a good workout to help me get back to more of my normal.

For cardio, we had decreasing push paces with 1-minute base paces between each one. We started with a 4-minute push pace and it decreased by 1-minute each round. And we ended with a 1-minute all-out. I know I did better in this workout than I had earlier in the week, but I was still taking more breaks than I would have liked to. But I kept reminding myself that it’s still an improvement!

For the rower, the first block was rounds of 500-meter rows and lateral hops/steps. And the second block was rounds of 300-meter rows with front and back hops/steps. And on the floor, we had lunges, single-arm shoulder presses, deadlifts, and step-ups. I again had to use lighter weights than I would have liked to, but I at least tried with normal weights first before realizing I wasn’t ready for them.

Thursday was definitely my best workout of the week. I was pretty much over all my side effects from the booster and my back was feeling significantly better than it had all week. So I was able to push myself a bit more even if I wasn’t quite fully back to normal.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. Both blocks started with a 1-minute push pace to an all-out. But in the first block, all the all-outs were 1-minute and the recovery time ranged from 30-seconds to 1-minute. And in the second block, the all-outs were all 30-seconds instead of 1-minute. I did try to go hard with the all-outs at the end of each block since those had the longest recovery time leading into them, but I had to be careful since after the first block I was really feeling weak from pushing myself so much.

On the rower, both blocks were focused on making sure we weren’t rowing too fast. In the first block, we had 300-meter rows and rainbows with the medicine ball between each row. And in the second block, we had 200-meter rows with front presses with the medicine ball. I was able to keep my strokes in the goal range in each block. And I was very happy to see that each time I tried the rows, I got faster so I did have improvement.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks that were focused on back-to-back work. So the goal was to not take breaks between each exercise. In the first block we had halos with weights, scaption raises, and good mornings. And the second block had uppercuts, tricep kickbacks, and goblet squats. I continued to play with the weights that I used to see if I could get closer to my normal ones, and I was able to do a few reps with my regular weight before I had to go down to a lighter one. Again, it’s an improvement and I’m happy that it’s better than nothing.

This really wasn’t one of my best workout weeks, but it also wasn’t one of my worst. I still got 4 workouts in and I tried my best, which is all I can hope for sometimes. And with this week coming up, it may be a bad week and I’m prepared for it. But I’m really ready for a normal week to finally happen again because I miss that!

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I was happy when starting this past week of workouts since I knew it was when I should start to feel better. But as I wrote about last week, I ended up doing something to my back and had to deal with that just as I was feeling ok. It wasn’t ideal, but I’ve managed to get through worse things. And because I knew this was going to be a shorter workout week for me, I just wanted to make sure I did what I could.

I was finally starting to feel better by Monday’s workout. I wasn’t completely better, but it was significantly better than how I was feeling the week before. And since I was feeling better, I was able to push myself a little bit more than I had the week before. I had no idea that this would be the best I would be feeling all week.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks and they all had very similar timing. For all the blocks, we had 45-second base paces and the push paces or all-outs were either 1-minute, 45-seconds, or 30-seconds. In the first block, everything was without an incline and the first 2 intervals were push paces and the last one was an all-out. The second block had all the push pace intervals at inclines. And in the last block, we only had all-outs and base paces/recoveries and no push paces. I’ve gotten a bit more used to my new base pace, so that was good and I think I can eventually focus on increasing my push pace and all-out.

On the rower, 2 of the 3 blocks were timed with cardio. The first block was the same as cardio with the push and base paces. The second block had rounds of a 200-meter row with squats between each row. And the last block was timed with cardio, but when they had their base pace or recovery, we had squats.

On the floor, for the first two blocks both had 2 exercises. The first block had bicep curls and uppercuts and the second block had single-arm deadlifts and push-ups to side planks. I struggled a bit with the push-ups and planks so I had to go really slowly with those. And for the last block, we were timed with cardio and the rowers and we did squat to presses during their all-outs and recovered in between.

I worked out on Tuesday because my studio was going to be closed on Thursday and Friday and I wanted to make sure I got at least 3 workouts in for the week. This was the start of my dealing with the back pain I had last week, but I knew that I could exercise as long as I was being mindful of things. I was lucky that the back spasms were very infrequent and I had a good general idea of what would hurt and what wouldn’t so I could work around it.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks and they were all the same. We started with a 2-minute push pace followed by a 1-minute increased push pace and then ended the block with a 1-minute all-out. The increased push pace was supposed to be at an incline, so I used the resistance level between my push and all-out. And even with the back pain, I was able to continue to push myself since being on the bike wasn’t hurting me.

On the rower, we had one long block. We had timed rows and then we had rainbows with a medicine ball which I had to be a bit slow with since they were hurting me a little bit. We had a 90-second, 60-second, and 30-second row and we did each row twice before moving to the next timed row. And we finished with a 1-minute all-out row.

And on the floor, we had another long block. All of the exercises were drop sets and they were all with mini-bands. With the drop sets, we had 8 reps at a heavy weight and as many reps as possible with a lighter weight. We had high rows, deadlifts, low rows, and squats. By the time I was getting to the squats, I was feeling a bit weak so I did those without weights so I could make sure my form wasn’t sloppy. But I was able to use weights for everything else, even if they were a bit lighter than I would have liked to have used. And we ended the workout with weighted seated torso rotations.

Wednesday was my last workout for the week. I was thinking of going on the weekend to get 4 workouts in, but because of my back, I figured a few extra rest days would be good for me. I know exercise is good for stretching my back and staying active, but so is rest. So I just did 3 workouts for the week. I was still hurting a bit but I was even more aware of what would hurt my back and what would be ok to do so I modified the workout to work with that.

For cardio, we had a 15-minute distance challenge. Every few minutes, we were encouraged to increase how fast we were going, but I decided to just try to be steady with what I did with occasional moments where I increased the resistance level before bringing it back. I used my new base resistance level for the majority of the time and then my regular push pace level for a minute or two of increased resistance. But most of the time, I was at my base pace and just pedaling along as much as I could.

On the rower, we had 4 blocks. Blocks 1 and 3 were the same and blocks 2 and 4 were the same. For blocks 1 and 3, we had 30-second rowing sprints and we were supposed to do increasing lateral hops between each row. I tried to do the lateral hops the first time, and I knew immediately that it was going to cause too much back pain. Unfortunately, anything that I could do as a modification wasn’t working for me, so I just did 30-second sprint rows and rested for a moment before repeating them. And for blocks 2 and 4, we had a 90-second row for distance. I did ok for the first attempt of the 90-second row, but for the second one, I did have to take a quick break in the middle of it to do a quick back stretch.

And on the floor, we had one long block. We had rep ranges for each exercise, and I tried to keep it around the middle of that range. And I modified things as I needed to. We had sumo deadlifts, and I did as many as I could with a light weight and then did them without weights to finish my reps. For the kneeling wood choppers, again I used a light weight and I did some kneeling but ended up doing most standing since getting up and down was a little tough for me. For the bicep curls, I didn’t have to modify those so that was nice. And the last exercise was a push-up to a plank superman. For those, I did the push-ups as a single exercise and then I did bird dogs separately. It was a lot of modifications, but I got through it all.

I’m hoping that this week things go a bit better for me. My back has been getting better, but I’m still being cautious. And I’m possibly going to test out a new workout schedule for myself, so that could be an interesting change. I’m still figuring out what I’ll be doing this week with my workouts, but whatever I do I know that I’ll get through them.

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I knew going into this past week of workouts that it would be a tough week. I never know how bad it might be, and it was pretty bad. It wasn’t the worst I’ve felt, but there were moments when it was getting close to that.

Monday’s workout had some parts that were easier on me and how I was feeling and some parts felt like they were extra challenging. So I just tried to push when I could and go easy when I needed to.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. For the first block, we had 2-minute push pace intervals and 1-minute base pace intervals. For the push paces, we went up by 1% for the incline each time. And the second block we had 1-minute all-outs and 1-minute recoveries. And for the all-outs, we did the same as the first block with increasing the incline (or resistance level) each time. I did use my new base pace and I did do the increases we were supposed to do even though it felt a lot harder than what it normally feels like.

For the rower, we were timed with the treadmills for both blocks. When the treadmills were in a push pace or an all-out, we had a row for the same amount of time. Then when they were in a base pace or a recovery, we had exercises off of the rower. In the first block, it was supposed to be forward and back shuffles and in the second block, it was supposed to be side hops. I tried the shuffles in the first block for the first time, and I knew that I couldn’t do it. It was making me even more nauseous and by the time I could start rowing again the rowing time was over halfway over. So I did squats instead in both blocks. It’s not the best modification, but it was one that worked.

The floor was a bit better for me. In both blocks, we only had 2 exercises. In the first block, we had lunges and low rows with weights. The low rows were supposed to be in a modified plank, but I did them standing to not add to my nausea. And in the second block, we had single-arm chest presses and hip bridges. Fortunately, I didn’t have to make any modifications in the second block so I felt better about my workout at the end.

My nausea was a little less extreme on Wednesday, but the pain from cramps was a lot worse so I think the workout was equally as tough. I still had to push when I could but also take a lot of rest when I needed to let the pain subside.

For each section of the room, we had one long block and one short block. For cardio, the long block had 3 parts to it. For each part, we had a base pace, base-to-push pace, push pace, and all-out. I did use my new base pace, but because of the increases we used, my base-to-push pace was the same as my push pace. First, we did each of those sections for 1-minute each. Then we did them for 45-seconds each. And finally, we did them for 30-seconds each. And between each of those sections, we only had 30-seconds to recover. And in the shorter block, we had 30-second intervals of a base pace, base-to-push pace, push pace, push to all-out, and all-out.

On the rower, for the longer block, we started with a 200-meter row. After the row, we had rainbows with a medicine ball. We repeated this pattern with a 150-meter and 100-meter row. Then we repeated the 3 rows again but we had overhead tricep presses with the medicine ball. For the shorter block, we worked along with the treadmills with 30-second intervals. I was proud of myself for getting through all the rows in the first block without needing to stop due to pain. But in the second block with the long row, I did need some rest.

On the floor, for the first block, we had 2 mini-blocks. The first mini-block had regular lunges and lunges using the straps. And the second mini-block had single-arm high rows with weights and low rows on the straps. And in the second block, because it was such a short block we only had one exercise. We had kneeling single-arm shoulder presses. I didn’t go too heavy with the weights on the floor, but I tried. But the pain was getting really bad while I was on the floor and I didn’t get through too many rounds because of the breaks I needed to take.

Thursday’s workout was one that I had done earlier in the month. And this might have been the worst I felt all week, but again I just did what I could and tried my best.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first block had a 1-minute push pace, 30-second all-out, and 1-minute recovery and we repeated that pattern 3 times. And the second block was the same idea except the push pace was 30-seconds instead of 1-minute. I used my new base pace but was pedaling pretty slowly throughout both blocks.

On the rower, we had one long block. We started with an 800-meter row and then we had squats and lunges. The row went down by 200-meters each time and we repeated the pattern. I had to take a lot of breaks during the rowing, so I only got through the 800 and 600-meter rows. I hated how little I was able to do, but I just reminded myself that I tried.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had chest presses with weights, push-ups, and side plank hip dips. And the second block had lunges, squats, and back extensions. I switched out the back extensions for bird dogs because of my nausea. And most of the exercises were supposed to be done with the Bosu, but I did them on the floor without it. It wasn’t my best workout, but it was better than doing nothing.

I wasn’t really doing better on Friday, but I think I tolerated things a bit better so that helped to make the workout better than Thursday’s. We had 2 blocks at each section of the room, but we switched between blocks so we did 1 block at each section first before doing another lap around the room, which helped to split things up nicely.

The first block for cardio had push pace and base pace intervals. All the base paces were 1-minute and the push pace started at 30-seconds and increased by 30-seconds each time. And we ended with a 30-second all-out. The second block was similar, but the push paces started at 90-seconds and went down by 30-seconds each time. Again, I was using my new base pace (I don’t know if I’ll go back down to the old one now) and just pedaled slower than normal to make things easier for me.

On the rower, both blocks were all about stroke drills where we had to do 15 strokes on the rower and try to keep the wattage the same the entire time. Between each row in the first block, we had squat front presses and between each row in the second block, we had lunges.

And on the floor, things were a bit more challenging for me. The first block had chest presses with weights and plank jacks to push-ups. The plank jacks to push-ups were so difficult because it’s always hard for me to be face down for exercises when I’m nauseous. I split the exercises up and just did as many reps as I could at a time. And the second block was challenging for my hips and balance. We had weighted step-downs on the bench and step-ups to knee raises on the bench. I wouldn’t have been able to do either of these with the old type of benches, but because the new ones get lower to the ground, I’ve been trying to do them more and more. They are still difficult for me, but I have noticed improvements in my balance each time we do them.

I’m happy I did what I could, but I’m ready to have a good week again. But this week, my workout schedule is going to be a bit different because the studio will be closed part of the week when Orangetheory films a commercial there! I’m still figuring out which days I’ll be going, and I’m looking at possibly changing up my workout schedule again because some of my coaches are changing which days they are there. But for this coming week, I know it might still be a bit of a bad week, so I’m hoping I will still just do my best and maybe I’ll be able to surprise myself.

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This past week, I wasn’t doing too great with my workouts. I thought the beginning of the week would start off well, but I had other medical issues come up that made those workouts harder. And then, I started to have to deal with nausea. So while I was hoping at least the beginning of the week would start off well, it really didn’t.

I was feeling a bit weak going into Monday’s workout. My gallbladder attack was on Sunday, and even though it wasn’t the worst attack I’ve had, I was still recovering from the pain and a few other symptoms. I probably should have taken some pain medication before my workout because my body was sore from being tensed up during the attack, but I didn’t think of that until I was already in class.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks and did the same pattern each time. We had a 2-minute base pace at an incline, a 1-minute push pace at the same incline, and a 1-minute all-out. Because of the incline we were at, the base pace was at the resistance level I would normally use for my push pace, so I kept it there for those first 3 minutes and just pedaled faster for the push pace. And for the all-out, I did go up to my normal resistance level. We had that same block 3 times and we were supposed to try to get better each time. But I think I probably did about the same effort each time because as I tried to push myself I was also getting tired so they canceled each other out.

On the rower, we had 1 long block. We had 2 rounds of a 300-meter row, 2 rounds of a 200-meter row, and 2 rounds of a 100-meter row. The idea was to get to each distance with the fewest number of strokes each time. To do that, you have to pause at the front and back of the rower and really explode from your legs. I’m not great at explosive power, but I have built up core strength so I can do better with the pauses. And between each row, we had lunges that were supposed to be with a medicine ball, but I did regular lunges.

And on the floor, we also had 1 block. We had 4 exercises and we were supposed to do each one twice before moving on to the next one. For all the exercises, we had the mini-bands around our legs and they were drop sets so we did 8 reps with a very heavy weight and then immediately go into as many reps as we can with a lighter weight. We had upright high rows, deadlifts, low rows, and front squats. I went heavier than I can remember with my deadlifts, and that was a real challenge for me. And for the front squats, I really needed to keep my hands free for balance because I was having a tough time with the mini-band on my legs so I did those without weights. But considering how I was feeling going into class, I was very happy with the work that I was able to do.

On Wednesday, I was feeling a bit better but it was also the start of having nausea. I tried to not let it affect me too much, but there were a few moments when it got a bit more severe and I just had to let it pass. But fortunately, this was right when the nausea was starting, so it wasn’t as bad as it can get.

For cardio, we had one long block. We started with a 90-second push pace followed by a 3-minute base pace. Since the base pace was so long, the idea was to work on increasing your base pace speed. Since my speed can be a big variable on the bike, I decided to increase the resistance level by one. So my base pace was between what my normal base and push paces are set at. That did add a challenge, but it wasn’t too different so it was manageable. We repeated the pattern with the 90-second push pace and 3-minute base pace a total of 3 times before we ended with a 1-minute all-out.

On the rower, it was all about doing 300-meter rows. I was surprised at how well I did with the rowing since I usually struggle a lot on the rower when I’m nauseous. I only had to take a break during the row once. Between each row, we had either front presses or calf raises with a medicine ball.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had single-arm shoulder presses, squats to shrugs, and lunges. And the second block had chest presses, sumo squats, and lunges. I did go heavier with my sumo squats since I know I could probably go heavier than I think I can. Sometimes the bigger struggle is picking up the weight, and not using it in the exercise. But I tried and I’m glad I pushed myself a bit more on the floor to prove that I could do it.

Thursday’s workout was a 2 group class, so we had 23 minutes for cardio and 23 minutes for the rower and floor. I was still dealing with nausea, so having such a long time on the bike was a challenge, but the entire workout was set up to be a good challenge.

For cardio, we had a single 23-minute distance challenge. You could keep your speed the same for the entire thing, but there were 3 times throughout the challenge where we were encouraged to go a bit faster for about 90-seconds. Because it was such a long challenge, we were told to be at our base pace or a little above our base pace. Since I had just done a challenge with using one resistance level higher on the bike for my base pace the day before, I did that again. I also increased my push pace for the 3 short intervals where we were supposed to push ourselves. It wasn’t an easy challenge, and it was harder being nauseous while doing it. But I was really proud of myself for what I did and how I did push myself to do a bit more than what I thought I could do.

And for the second half of class, we alternated between floor and row blocks. We had 3 of each of them. For all of the blocks on the floor, we had the same exercises. We had sumo deadlifts, wood choppers, bicep curls, and bird dogs to push-ups. Every time we got back to the floor, we picked up where we left off. And on the rower, we were rowing while cardio was in their push intervals and we just rowed for those 90-seconds each time. I struggled a bit on the floor with the push-ups, but again I was proud of myself for what I was able to do considering how I felt.

Friday was probably one of the toughest days for me since it was the worst day of nausea. I knew it wouldn’t be a great workout and I would just do what I could. But it’s always frustrating when I feel like that.

The two cardio blocks were very similar. We alternated between a push pace at an incline and a base pace without an incline. And again, I tried to use my potential new base pace. I haven’t increased what my push or all-out paces should be just yet, so I didn’t challenge myself much harder outside of my base paces. At the end of each block, we had an all-out at an incline, which was 2 resistance levels higher than what my normal all-out is.

We also had 2 blocks on the rower and it was all about 400-meter rows. In the first block, between each row, we had squat presses and tricep extensions with a medicine ball. And in the second block, we had bicep curls and shoulder presses with the medicine ball between each row. My rows were pretty slow and I had to take a lot of breaks during them, so I didn’t get that much done in each of the blocks.

On the floor, I ended up doing a lot of modifications between my hip issues and dealing with nausea. In the first block, we had lunges, chest fly with weights, and push-ups. There were 2 types of lunges, but I can only do one type of lunges so I did squats to replace one of the lunges. And sometimes I modify push-ups to be on the bench, but this time I did chest presses instead since they work the same muscles. In the second block, we had lateral lunges, skater lunges, sit-ups with rotations, and sprinter sit-ups. I did bicycle crunches instead of sprinter sit-ups, but that was the only modification I had to make for that second block. I know I did the best that I could in this workout, but I hate when I finish a workout and feel like I should have done more. But I also know there was nothing else I could have done with how I was feeling.

And I’m mentally preparing myself for this week. It might not be as horrible as some of my bad weeks are, but it can be and I know I need to be ok with that. Hopefully, I’m preparing myself more than I need to so it won’t be as bad and I will feel better about myself and my efforts when I’m writing my workout recap next week!

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I knew this past week of workouts would likely start off with some bad days, but I was hopeful that they wouldn’t last long and things would get better for me. And I’m pretty lucky because I was feeling better at the perfect time for a really great workout moment.

Monday’s workout felt like all endurance work. I’m not sure if the templates are still supposed to always be a mix of endurance, strength, and power or if they are going back to having a singular focus for some workouts. But this one for sure felt like a big endurance day. I was still dealing with a little bit of pain and nausea, but it was tapering off so it was much better than the week before.

For each section of the room, we had 3 blocks. And for cardio and the floor, we repeated the same block each time.

For cardio, we had a 3-minute push pace followed by a 1-minute all-out each time. I did use my normal resistance levels for the push pace and all-out, but since there wasn’t a base pace in each block it felt like I was using a higher resistance level. I had to occasionally take a break during each block because the pain was getting bad, but I tried to not rest beside those moments to push myself as much as I could.

On the rower, the first and last blocks were the same. They were both 4-minute rows and the idea was to increase the wattage on the rower every minute. So ideally, we had a base to push row, a push row, a push to all-out row, and an all-out row. I did try to increase the wattage each minute, but it wasn’t going up as much as I would have liked each minute. But I did try and I did see increases each time. In the second block, we had a mix of lunges and rowing each minute. For the first minute, we had 10 lunges and then rowed for the rest of the minute. In the second minute, we had 12 lunges and then rowed. In the third minute, we had 14 lunges and then rowed. And the last minute was just rowing. And the goal was to try to get to half the distance from the first block. I didn’t quite get to half of my first distance, but I did beat the distance from the first block in the last block.

And for the floor, everything for each block was a 1-minute interval. We had a minute of bicep curls, a minute of arnold presses, a minute of front squats, and a minute of front squats to arnold presses. It was so much shoulder work and I had to go lighter with the weights than I normally would because of that. And for the second and third blocks, I had to rest during the squats because I was starting to have some nausea. And after the last block, my arms were so tired from the shoulder work, but it was a good feeling.

Wednesday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power. We had power for cardio, strength for the rower, and endurance on the floor. And for each section of the room, we had 2 blocks of work.

For cardio, the 2 blocks of work were the same. We started with 2 rounds of 45-second push paces and 1-minute base paces followed by 2 rounds of 45-second all-outs with a 1-minute recovery between them. I did much better than Monday although I did have a few random cramps during the entire workout that I had to rest to breathe through. But it was so much better than last week and I know I’m pretty much almost done with my bad days.

For the rower, both blocks were focused on doing 250-meter rows. In the first block, between each row we had deadlifts to shoulder presses with a medicine ball. And in the second block, between each row we were supposed to do isolated squats with bicep curls but I didn’t do the squats and just did bicep curls. But I did use a heavier medicine ball than normal. I wasn’t planning on going heavier, but the one I normally use wasn’t available and I didn’t want to go lighter.

And on the floor, the first block was timed with cardio so we had 45-second and 1-minute intervals. For the 45-second intervals, we had suitcase squats and we focused on one side each time. And for the 1-minute intervals, we had to do 12 hammer curls to shoulder presses and then could rest for whatever time was leftover. And in the second block, we worked at our own pace. We had all Bosu work for that block. We had crunches, hip bridges, back extensions, and plank toe taps. I didn’t use the Bosu for the plank toe taps, but I did use it for everything else so I got a good core workout in that block!

Thursday’s workout was a benchmark workout. For this class, we had the 1-mile challenge. The last time I did the mile benchmark was about a year ago, and I PRed when I did that. So I wasn’t necessarily expecting to PR again since that time seemed so fast and I knew I was coming off of a bad week.

Our cardio block was all about the benchmark challenge. On the bike, you do 4 miles (or 4 trips, which may not be the same as miles), but that’s what I’m used to doing. And I knew approximately how fast I had to get to each distance segment to be on track to be close to my last PR. And when I got to 1 mile/trip, I was actually only a little behind what would get me to my PR. I wasn’t expecting to go that fast, but I think seeing that motivated me to push myself harder. So I really went for it and knew that I would be completely gassed out by the end of the challenge. I tried to stay steady with how quickly I pedaled, but I did do a few moments of just going as fast as my legs could go to get a little extra boost. There’s no way I could pedal as fast as I did in a normal workout because that’s a lot longer, but somehow I continued to pick up speed and not only did I get to my old PR but I beat it by 16 seconds!

I was really exhausted at the end of those 8 minutes and I needed to rest and catch my breath before I could walk over to the tracking system so I could enter my new time. And for the rest of the block, we had short intervals to do but I just kept it between a recovery and base pace and took breaks as I needed them.

On the rower, we started with a 600-meter row. Since I was so tired from the bike, I was rowing slowly and needed breaks during it. But I tried my best. And after the row, we had crisscross hops. Each round on the rower we went down by 100-meters, but I only made it to the 300-meter row before the block was done.

On the floor, we had 1 block with 2 mini-blocks. The first mini-block had single-arm low rows with weights and chest presses on the straps. And in the second mini-block, we had single-leg lateral step-ups and single-leg deadlifts. I lowered the bench to do the step-ups since I have been trying to do that when I can instead of doing lunges. I did have to go slowly because my balance wasn’t great, but there was no need to rush through them and I took advantage of having the time to push myself and do them.

Because of how hard I pushed myself on Thursday, I knew I would be taking it easier on Friday. I did still want to push myself when I could, but I also knew that I really needed to pay attention to how I was feeling. We had 2 blocks in each section of the room and again it was a mix of endurance, strength, and power.

For cardio, both blocks had intervals with inclines and intervals without inclines. The first block had 2-minute push paces and 1-minute base paces. And the second block had 1-minute all-outs and 1-minute recoveries. For both the push paces and all-outs, the first time we had no incline and went up by 1% each round. I started at my normal resistance level for each and then went up from there instead of trying to just pedal faster.

On the rower, we were timed with cardio. In the first block, we had 2-minute rows and then we had the minute to do forward and back steps and then rest. And in the second block, we had 1-minute all-out rows and then in and out hops during the minute the cardio was in a recovery. I did ok with the rowing. I did take little breaks during the 2-minute rows, but it was more because of my hip feeling off than being tired. And even though I usually do modifications for any hopping activity, I did try the hops first before I switched to something else.

And on the floor, the idea for each block was to try to get heavier with the weights each round. But I didn’t do a great job at that because I didn’t want to start off too light and I knew I couldn’t get much heavier than the heavy ones I was using. In the first block, we had lateral lunges (which I did without weights) and single-arm low rows. And in the second block, we had bridge hold single-arm chest presses and hip bridges. The hip bridges were supposed to be single-leg, but I did regular ones.

Even though not every workout had a huge win, having that PR on Thursday really made my week last week! And it put me in a great mood for this week’s workouts and seeing what I can do during my birthday week workouts!

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