OrangeTheory Virgin
I travel a lot for work, sometimes as much as 75% of the time. There are a lot of good and bad things about traveling for work, and I will write about it in the future, but one of the biggest drawbacks to work travel is weight gain. Studies say business travellers drink more and weigh more than their non-traveling peers. Oh do I believe it!
Through both circumstance and, admittedly, a lack of self-discipline, my weight has crept up higher than it has been in several years. Sigh. Most of my pants don’t fit or are uncomfortable (message received, Universe). When you travel as much as I do for work, sometimes in 2-3 cities a week, it is extraordinarily difficult to eat properly and exercise with any consistency. Even when I make healthy choices in a restaurant, the calories add up quick. Most mornings I drink a protein shake and a cup of coffee, which keeps me going until lunch. Lunch and dinner are typically at restaurants. One of my biggest downfalls is booze. I am a social person, so I really do not want to sit alone in my hotel room at night. Where does that take me? The hotel bar. Enter interesting people and lots of delicious liquid calories. Since I don’t like the way the scale is going, I am having an intervention with myself. My travel schedule should be calm-ish through the end of the year, so I am going to use the time to get back on the road to being fit.
I decided I would give Orangetheory a try. I see them everywhere in my travels and their membership will allow me to go to classes pretty much anywhere there is a studio. A couple of my friends really like the classes, so I figured why the hell not? It’s only money. I know I can’t outrun my fork, but I think if I have a class to go to in the evenings when I’m traveling, that may curtail the hotel bar imbibing, in addition to getting me back into shape. Round is not the shape I want to be in. I want to look good in a bathing suit. Before I took this job, I could run a half marathon. Now I struggle to run a couple of miles. It’s amazing what a year and a half can do.
Class was awesome! The tl;dr is it’s high-intensity interval training (HIIT). You are supposed to keep your heartrate in the orange or red zone to earn “Splat Points.” A special heart rate monitor tracks the workout and you can see all the stats at the end. The staff were all friendly and welcoming. I was given a nice orientation of the studio and how things work; I also really appreciated that the studio was clean and smelled good. For the first part of my workout I was on the rowing machine. The instructor made sure to keep checking with me and correcting my form throughout my entire workout. Rowing took a minute to get used to, but with a little concentration on the movement rather than the effort, I got the hang of it. After two intervals on the rower, we moved to the treadmill (dreadmill...) and did an interval there. We repeated this three times, then moved onto weights, where we went through a challenging sequence of six exercises that covered all the major muscle groups. Back to the cardio equipment! This time, I did two intervals on the treadmill, followed by an interval on the rower. We did a quick five minute stretch at the end and thus concludes the calorie-blasting.
Time flew by and it was fun to move from one exercise or effort level to another in rapid succession. I think I’m going to be sore tomorrow. Time for a bath and some Advil. Or a beer. Or all three. I know! I’ll wash my Advil down with beer whilst soaking in the bathtub. Three birds, one stone.
Through both circumstance and, admittedly, a lack of self-discipline, my weight has crept up higher than it has been in several years. Sigh. Most of my pants don’t fit or are uncomfortable (message received, Universe). When you travel as much as I do for work, sometimes in 2-3 cities a week, it is extraordinarily difficult to eat properly and exercise with any consistency. Even when I make healthy choices in a restaurant, the calories add up quick. Most mornings I drink a protein shake and a cup of coffee, which keeps me going until lunch. Lunch and dinner are typically at restaurants. One of my biggest downfalls is booze. I am a social person, so I really do not want to sit alone in my hotel room at night. Where does that take me? The hotel bar. Enter interesting people and lots of delicious liquid calories. Since I don’t like the way the scale is going, I am having an intervention with myself. My travel schedule should be calm-ish through the end of the year, so I am going to use the time to get back on the road to being fit.
I decided I would give Orangetheory a try. I see them everywhere in my travels and their membership will allow me to go to classes pretty much anywhere there is a studio. A couple of my friends really like the classes, so I figured why the hell not? It’s only money. I know I can’t outrun my fork, but I think if I have a class to go to in the evenings when I’m traveling, that may curtail the hotel bar imbibing, in addition to getting me back into shape. Round is not the shape I want to be in. I want to look good in a bathing suit. Before I took this job, I could run a half marathon. Now I struggle to run a couple of miles. It’s amazing what a year and a half can do.
Class was awesome! The tl;dr is it’s high-intensity interval training (HIIT). You are supposed to keep your heartrate in the orange or red zone to earn “Splat Points.” A special heart rate monitor tracks the workout and you can see all the stats at the end. The staff were all friendly and welcoming. I was given a nice orientation of the studio and how things work; I also really appreciated that the studio was clean and smelled good. For the first part of my workout I was on the rowing machine. The instructor made sure to keep checking with me and correcting my form throughout my entire workout. Rowing took a minute to get used to, but with a little concentration on the movement rather than the effort, I got the hang of it. After two intervals on the rower, we moved to the treadmill (dreadmill...) and did an interval there. We repeated this three times, then moved onto weights, where we went through a challenging sequence of six exercises that covered all the major muscle groups. Back to the cardio equipment! This time, I did two intervals on the treadmill, followed by an interval on the rower. We did a quick five minute stretch at the end and thus concludes the calorie-blasting.
My workout summary was emailed to me. Not too shabby.
Time flew by and it was fun to move from one exercise or effort level to another in rapid succession. I think I’m going to be sore tomorrow. Time for a bath and some Advil. Or a beer. Or all three. I know! I’ll wash my Advil down with beer whilst soaking in the bathtub. Three birds, one stone.
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