By Jessica Wilson, LMT
This was my first week going to Orange Theory four times as recommended by Collette in order to meet my goals. It was hard, but I survived! The difficulty was in finding the time to go, but being that this is something that I need to make a priority, I was able to make the time. I had to sacrifice a little sleep, but the feeling of accomplishment is far greater than that extra hour of sleep. They offer early morning classes during the week and on weekends, so as hard as it was to drag myself out of bed, I did it. Even on Easter morning. As I've mentioned in the first blog, they have private shower rooms, so it makes it really convenient to workout and then get ready there. Since I live in Old Town Arvada and work in Washington Park, having those shower rooms available makes it harder to come up with an excuse not to go. I love that the shower rooms are private, too. Being that I am a modest person, I love the privacy as opposed to other gyms that I have gone to where everyone is getting ready in the same space.
Since I increased how often I go, I was a little concerned that I would get bored with the workouts, but they keep it interesting by switching up the style of workout each day. They have three types of workouts that they rotate throughout the week: strength, conditioning, and endurance. Even though you are going through the same circuits (treadmill, rowing, and weights), each day the trainers create new workouts for each circuit, so it is never the same; I haven't repeated a workout since I started. I haven't plateaued by any means, but I have found that I have not been able to consistently stay in the Orange Zone.
As I have mentioned before, there are five zones that you can be in during the workout, with the goal to be in green (fat-burning) and orange (after-burn). After each class, you receive an e-mail with your breakdown of the workout with how many minutes you stayed in each zone. I have been working out there for three weeks, and of those three weeks, the most I have stayed in the orange zone is two minutes. Now, I might not be the fittest among us, but I most certainly push myself pretty hard and feel like I should be in the orange a lot more. So, being concerned about this, I called after my last workout this week and inquired about it. One of the employees explained to me that he has the same problem because he has a low resting heart rate, and that it can also depend on a multitude of factors (how good of shape you are in, gender, weight, height, etc.). When you fill out your intake form with all of this information, they generate what they think your resting heart rate should be, so it is more of an average and not an exact science. He also said that they do have a way of monitoring that, and that if I feel like I am maxing out and still not reaching that orange zone, they can adjust my heart rate monitor by a couple of points. The next time I go in, I am going to have them adjust it and see what kind of difference it makes.
Overall, I am still loving it and feel myself getting stronger and my endurance is building with each workout. I have lost 7lbs to date and couldn't be happier with my progress! I'll fill you in next week on how adjusting my base heart rate affects my performance, and on some diet changes that I have made to maximize my workouts.
Washington Park Chiropractic is the only practice in Denver, Colorado specializing in Sports Chiropractic, Prenatal Chiropractic and Pediatric Chiropractic. Our Wash Park Doctors are expert certified and trained in Sports, Pediatrics and Prenatal Care including massage, acupuncture, Webster Technique, Graston Technique, Laser, K-Laser, Kinesiology Tape, RockTape and Normatec.