Well...That Was Different

I had the weirdest thing happen when I worked out last night.

My trainer decided to change up what we're doing a bit.  He wants to take my sessions up a notch.  So he decided we would do circuit work.  Now, I'm used to doing circuits where you do 20 jumping jacks and then 20 sit-ups, etc.--basically changing the exercise you're doing after a few minutes.  Only this was about 100 times more intense.

We did 20 squats holding on to the TRX strap for balance

10 side steps in each direction with a band under my toes (so you're fighting against the band each time you take a step)

20 cowbell swings

20 dumb bell dead lifts (25 lb weight)

20 press ups (like push-ups in space) on the TRX

20 medicine ball slams (holding a 7lb. ball over your head and slamming it into the floor as hard as you can)

30 seconds on the treadmill--without it being on, so you have to push against the resistance of walking surface (I don't know what you call that!) to make it move for you.  It kills!

We did five rounds of this.  Mark very calmly told me we would be doing one more.

My heart rate was up over 170/min. (the treadmill measures this) and I was sweating buckets.  It's the hardest physical thing I've ever done.  But what was really odd was I began to cry.  It wasn't because of pain (though my body was under a lot of stress).  The crying came from nowhere and I couldn't control it.  I had to excuse myself and go in the bathroom.  I told Mark it was because I was feeling nauseous, but that wasn't true.

Has anyone ever had anything like this happen to them?

Perhaps the intense working caused a hormonal shift? I had a weird crying breakdown one time while getting my hair cut  while I was going through a difficult divorce. I am raising a child with significant health problems and was doing this as a single mom and in a bitter court battle and I think the human contact and attention me just overwhelmed me. I think as overweight people we experience a lot of mistreatment and people looking past us like we are invisible that when we are being good to ourselves or having someone help us in a way that is really taking care of us we can get emotional. With a workout, I'd guess hormones played a role as well. Good for you for the fantastic workout! Congrats on that. :)

You may be on to something.  It kind of freaked me out.  I didn't want my trainer to think he'd hurt me or anything because what happened didn't feel physical.  It came so unexpectedly I didn't know what to do.

Thanks for the kind words.

What you did was more of a Cross Fit work out. Toss in some burpees for a killer.

As far as the crying, I have wanted to that a few times during a work out, not because i was in pain, but because my body was tired and I wanted to be done. Sometimes its because I think about how before I would of been taken out of the gym by EMS if i had done all of that at one time.

What it felt like to me was having reaction to someone "punishing" me without due cause.  I love Mark (my trainer), and I don't believe he'd do anything that would endanger me or would be punitive.  But the thoughts whirling in my head as we worked were, 'Why has the level of intensity jumped so dramatically?  I'm not ready for this.  I don't like this.  I don't feel good.'  Logically, I knew he wanted to push me.  We'd even spoken about it, how he felt I was ready to increase my efforts.  But I guess I was surprised the increase was as much as it was.

Thanks for responding.  :-)

I'll be interested to see how today's session goes.