TCO 234 | Peloton Heart Health

234: We Get a Visit From Dan Savage plus our interview with Ronnie Schultz

TCO 234 | Peloton Heart Health

 

Peloton announces a new stock offering.

  • Peloton stock price starts to climb.
  • Wall Street Journal writes about Peloton stock moves.
  • Dr. Jenn – Managing Expectations When Bouncing Back from an Injury.
  • Dan Savage joins us to discuss the “pee controversy.”
  • Cody Rigsby makes it to the finals on Dancing With The Stars.
  • Cody was on The Kelly Clarkson Show.
  • Men’s Health rates the best Peloton instructors.
  • Good Morning America sits down with Robin Arzon.
  • Shape Magazine writes about Jess Sims and her dogs.
  • Kendall Toole partners with Aloha.
  • Adrian Williams has a tricep workout for InStyle.
  • Self Magazine spotlights Tunde.
  • Angelo joins us to discuss letting go of leftovers.
  • Women’s Health spotlights Peloton Guide’s AI movement tracking.
  • The new wearable WILL be sold separately.
  • Is Apple eyeing up Peloton?
  • We spotlight all the Peloton Black Friday deals.
  • Another health insurance company offers a Peloton discount.
  • LG televisions get the Peloton app.
  • Is Peloton banning “Let’s Go Brandon” hastags?
  • New York Times asks if Peloton was a “Zoom stock?”
  • Washington Post compares Peloton Guide and Tempo Move.
  • Does Peloton apparel hold up?
  • Peloton sues Echelon and iFit.
  • New Artist Series with Foo Fighters and Peter Muffay.
  • Turkey Burn classes have been announced.
  • Peloton Apparel has another new drop.
  • There are new meditation instructors and they’re now available in German and Spanish.

All this plus our interview with Ronnie Schultz!

Watch the episode here:

Listen to the podcast here

We Get a Visit From Dan Savage plus our interview with Ronnie Schultz

We should probably start by warning you that this one is explicit. 

It’s explicit. Just know that going in.

At least one specific segment. I’m excited about this episode. As people might or might not be aware, there was some controversy surrounding Jess King’s fiance. She urinated on a fan at one of her band’s concerts with the consent of the person urinated on but not the consent of everyone else watching the show. That created its own kerfluffle. There are all sorts of debates about what is and isn’t appropriate, and is this kink-shaming, and all that sort of stuff. We thought who’s the dream ask for people for someone who understands that world, sexual etiquette, and things of that nature but Dan Savage. Believe it or not, he said yes. We reached out to Dan Savage and he was kind enough to join us. When it comes up to that topic, we will be talking to Dan Savage for some insight as to what is and isn’t appropriate from the world of kink. Be prepared if you have little ones in the car or share an earbud. He was super nice. We’re very excited about that. Other than Dan Savage, what do you have in store for people?

I’m going to talk about myself for a second. You were supposed to bring this up and you didn’t.

I forgot. You have a big announcement.

I do have a big announcement. Finally, after four years of working hard at this, I am going to be changing careers into the world of fitness. We have had a wonderful partnership with MetPro. You and I have both seen amazing results, especially you. I am going to be working for MetPro. I am going to be a part-time coach. If anybody out there has been thinking about MetPro and you’re like, “That might be a good thing,” or some of you might be like, “I would have no interest in that,” I could be your coach. The other half of what we’re going to do is I am going to be putting together a podcast for MetPro and helping them with that. I’m going to have two jobs there and I am so excited about it because I get to quit my day job. I get to do fitness stuff full time. It is a dream come true. I will be working from home. My commute will be to my living room and I get to workout whenever I want and they get it. They are encouraging of that.

We should also say that they didn’t offer you this job because you have a podcast and they are like, “That’s good enough to be a coach.” We should remind people that you are also a NASM certified personal trainer and you’ve received your nutrition certificate.

I got a Behavioral Change Certificate. I am also working on another one that is Exercise Correction Specialist. There’s another one that I’m doing as well.

You also have the knowledge base to do this. They don’t just let anybody be a coach. I also wanted to make that clear on MetPro’s behalf and yours.

It came up organically. I was telling them about how I was going to start doing some personal training, and how I had been experimenting with that, and it all led to this. It’s amazing to think that way back when we started this show, I was like, “Wouldn’t it be amazing if I could figure out a way to be in fitness full-time?” It’s here. I’m so excited. I’m so stoked.

You should be and congratulations. I’m very proud of you. That’s quite the accomplishment. When you started getting the personal training certificate, you were like, “I don’t even know if I’ll use it.” I was like, “Do it. Why not?” If nothing else, it gives you stronger fitness-based knowledge for all the topics we talk about on the podcast. There’s nothing wrong with that, and to make sure that we are saying things that are accurate. We don’t generally give a lot of health advice on the show but when we do veer into those lanes, at least now you actually know what you’re talking about and you have the paper to back it up.

For anybody who might be concerned, we’re not going to change the show. The relationship with MetPro from a show perspective change is zero. There’s nothing about those changes so no concerns there. I don’t want anyone to freak out and think that it’s going to be all MetPro all the time.

There will be a MetPro podcast but this won’t be that.

To those of you who already know and you’ve sent me messages, it means so much to me. Thank you so much. Back to the show. We are going to talk about what is happening with the stock market. We are going to talk about the Jess King stuff. We have a visit from Dr. Jenn and she is going to talk about managing expectations when you’re bouncing back from an injury. We also have a visit from MetPro and. Where did that one go? It totally went away.

Angelo is going to talk about how to let go of leftovers.

Christina Riviera, that one is for you. The instructors have been all over the place again. We’re going to talk about where all they’ve been and what’s going on with that. Also, news of Peloton and there are some competitor issues as well.

Before we get to all that, shameless plugs, don’t forget we’re available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, TuneIn, Google Podcasts. Wherever you find a podcast, you can find us. While you’re there, be sure and follow us so you never miss an episode. If you could leave a review, that would be wonderful. We have a new review from Dominique Marcella. She says, “Crystal and Tom are the funniest and cutest couple. They keep me laughing all the time. I love their segments with John Mills. I’m so impressed with all the information they pack into every episode. I’m a Tread user and geek out over all the topics this show covers. Thank you for all you do.” Her leaderboard name is Dominique427. Thank you very much for that.

You have a beautiful name and leaderboard name. Thank you for such a kind review.

Don’t forget, you can also find us on Facebook at Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page and join the group. Sign up for the newsletter at theclipout.com. You’ll get all the links and things like that sent to you in a weekly easy to use digest. Finally, we have a YouTube channel, YouTube.com/TheClipOut. You can watch these shows in HD, now in color. There’s all of that. Let’s dig in. Shall we?

We shall.

Joining us is John Mills. How is it going?

How is it going? I’m all ready to go.

Let’s dig in. It was an active week for Peloton stock. They decided to sell shares. What was it like, $1 billion worth of new shares?

It ended up being $1.07 billion.

Peloton has remodeled my heart. This has been my cardio rehab. Share on X

They’ve sold them at $46 a share.

The issue here is that we went through the earnings call. In that earnings call, Jill Woodworth said that they didn’t see any need for any additional capital. They had posted that and then they put this out there. There are all kinds of questions as to why they did this. As soon as it happened, I’m thinking that that’s a contradiction. They had said in the earnings call that this will not have a negative effect on the stock. I think it initially did.

It happened so fast because it started going up. If it tanked, it immediately started going the other way. I was like, “Why is it going up? What are you guys doing? The stock market makes no sense to me.”

Everything I’ve read says that normally that’s what happens. In this situation, it did not do that. Do we have any thoughts as to why it didn’t have that impact?

One of the theories is the assumption that Peloton is intending to be acquired. I don’t buy into that theory but that’s the theory as to why investors would then go, “We need to jump in,” but then make it go up.

I’m seeing that particular theory is out there a lot. It’s a lot of places saying that. It’s a popular one including some from our audience.

You see a lot of articles with that conjecture about, “Will Disney? Will Apple?” A lot of people are postulating.

I don’t feel it. It doesn’t feel right to me.

This is not my world. Maybe you will know better than I will, John. How difficult is it for people to do that even if they didn’t want to? If Peloton didn’t want to sell but the stock price had fallen low enough, could Apple just pull out their checkbook?

I don’t think that the stock is diluted enough for that.

Foley still has 51%. He would have to have less than that. It would have to be enough shareholders that wanted to do it. That’s the only way to do a hostile takeover.

I think that this theory though isn’t that there is an intent on something like that occurring. The theory is that this is a direction that Peloton wants to go. I think that was the theory. Another is that they are intending to truly use this cash for something like an acquisition, and thus the thought of an acquisition could also cause a similar reaction.

It feels like a bad time to do an acquisition. If Peloton guys are thinking that, I’m worried for you. Unless it’s Tonal, I don’t care. I don’t think it’s a good idea. I’m going to go with a no. That’s my vote. I’m a shareholder so I can vote.

We had that long discussion a few weeks ago about the strength prompt and what our thoughts are based on what they told us about what it is and the feedback we’re seeing come from that. My thought also was maybe this has something to do with a redirection or something around what they are planning to do with strength.

Is there an obvious choice for something that they should acquire that would make sense that would be under $1 billion?

They are at $1 billion. Isn’t that a unicorn? Technically that would be possible and they’re not public.

Are you talking about Tonal? That’s possible. All of this is speculation.

We’ve got no facts.

This is all gut. You’ve mentioned some other things that I find interesting. Maybe your opinion has changed so I’m not trying to put you on the spot. Haven’t you also thought that maybe this means that they are going to do something with the actual internal stuff? Don’t you think it’s possible that they are doing something with that? You’ve also mentioned that Precor maybe wasn’t as good of an idea in retrospect. Do you still think that?

Historically, I think Peloton has innovated as it relates to the software that they push to their devices. We’ve got a lot of neat stuff in software innovation. We have the sessions, the here now, the high-fives, and all the stuff that has come. I see the possibilities of how they use the hardware and this new device, and what they can do with the software. There could be some interesting things coming there potentially.

As it relates to Precor, everybody’s speculating there too. It sounds like such a fascinating mix between what we can do from a connected fitness perspective at home versus what used to appear to be like the opposing position of fitness equipment at the gym. Now, Peloton can live in these two worlds. What creative they can do, they can merge in those things together. You go to the gym and you log in. All the stuff you do there is like your stats are common. I’m making it up but that’s an interesting world. I would want to see what they planned to do and play in. It’s all speculation.

If anything, Precor could position them to where when people say, “They’re a pandemic stock,” that gives them some hedges against that idea. If people go back to the gym, they got stuff over there too. It helps them succeed regardless of where people are doing their workouts.

I would assume that at some point. It’s interesting to me though in listening to the earnings call from Precor’s perspective and from a consumer’s perspective with at-home fitness, they talk to it as if they were struggling in both areas. That’s the way it sounded from Peloton’s perspective during that call. We keep hearing this reopening thought but nothing from a Precor perspective of if they are benefiting from the reopening aspect of our environment. I don’t know what that is but at some point, you would think they have a leg in this or they’ve got a leg over here.

I would also think that it helps if someone is a gym rat and they need to pivot to at-home, whether it’s for the pandemic or a life change of some sort, and then the obvious choice is, “I’ve already been working out on this Peloton equipment at the gym. I might as well buy a Peloton bike at home, and I can pull all my data over with me.”

That’s true. I wonder if the software will be available on Precor.

That’s where I’m at. Those products had their own gym-based facility. It manages the content. There’s the software that comes with those commercial pieces that Precor makes. That’s the piece that’s intriguing. How is Peloton going to bring this all together? What are they planning?

TCO 234 | Peloton Heart Health

 

It is intriguing especially when you throw in the United Airlines piece of it. The reason I say that is because United Airlines was the first time that we saw any workout off the platform. It makes you wonder if in retrospect that was a pilot for doing this over in the Precor world. It’s just the things that go through my head like the little short at the beginning of a Disney movie. They are usually using that to work on something else. At least that’s what Tom has taught me.

The short cartoons that you see are typically them working out a problem of like, “In the next movie we’re going to make, we’re going to need a lot of furs or a lot of water.” The short that plays on the picture before that picture comes out will be solving the problem for the next picture.

It makes me wonder if that’s what they did with United Airlines with the little meditation and stretches. That’s where my brain goes.

That would be interesting. I was always wondering also about the boutique stuff. This was before how they’ve changed and made it their own brand. I knew that the software that was provided for these facilities as it relates to Precor, you could add things in there like advertisements. I was always wondering if there’s going to be some incorporation of their apparel line into these devices in the gym. It would be more interesting to me to hear how they are going to bring in the at-home stuff, and how they are going to promote the selling of more subscriptions when somebody is doing a workout on a Precor device in some gym.

I’m also wondering if somebody at Peloton is saying, “What if we put ads on the screen?”

I think that’s what John was getting at. They’re doing that now on the Peloton equipment. When you go to the Peloton equipment and they have a new apparel thing, it’s right on the top and they have a QR code. You can shop right from your bike.

I meant what if they sold that ad space to a third party and actually use it to generate revenue?

He blew both of our minds, John. Did you see what just happened?

It’s a captive audience. It’s a coveted demo and all of a sudden, you’re running an ad.

You’re going to see ads for ABC like Dancing With The Stars.

You know they’ve got these 2.9 million or whatever it is bikes and tread out here.

You know they’ve got disposable income. I know that initially, people would lose their sh**t. You and I are roughly the same age. Do you remember the first time you saw an ad on cable television? It was like, “What? An ad on cable?” I watched MTV for a year and a half before I saw the first commercial. That sounds like an alien concept now. People are going to say, “I’m paying all this money.” You pay money for cable and you get ads. You pay money for your daily subscription to a newspaper, that’s got ads. You pay money when you go to a movie theater and they make you sit through 30 minutes of ads. To those people, I’d say, “Grow up.”

You just look around and realize that it’s everywhere.

You pay for things all the time that still sell you at.

If they haven’t thought about it, they’re going to be like, “Somebody get on that.”

I would like 1% of that ad revenue since I came up with the idea. Thank you, John Foley.

I’m sure no one there has thought of it. They are all sitting around going like, “How much would we piss them off if we put an ad on the screen? A lot, but if it’s worth the money, probably. Thank you, John, for joining us. Until next time, where can people find you?

They can find on Facebook in my group or page, Run, Lift and Live. They can find me on Instagram, @RunLiftAndLive. They can find me on TikTok @RunLiftAnd Live or they can find me at RunLiftAndLive.com.

Thank you.

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Joining us once again is Dr. Jenn Mann, licensed marriage, family and child therapist, and sports psychology consultant. She was a five-year national team member in Rhythmic Gymnastic. She also has an app called No More Diets. It’s Dr. Jenn and she’s still on her bike because it’s an active recovery day.

I couldn’t get off and I couldn’t clip out. Maybe I’ve decided that I will clip out on The Clip Out.

I love it. We have a question for you. This one is from Jennifer Hansova. She wants to know, how do you not be hard on yourself when you’re coming back from an injury?

It’s a great question. The first thing to do when you’re coming back from an injury is to plan out your workouts very specifically. Do it ideally with a physical trainer, your doctor or whoever sports medicine person you might work with to make sure that you don’t reinjure yourself and set yourself back further. Also, to look at like if you hurt the muscle in the front of your leg, should you be working out the back of your leg to compensate? Should you let it rest? Should you be focusing on arms? Come up with a regimen that is specific to your injury and that actually makes sense, but also there’s a gentle increase.

The worst thing that you can do both psychologically and physically is to come back at full force exactly the way you were before your injury because you’re very likely to injure yourself and also get discouraged. Pre-planning it and changing your self-talk before you get on your bike or your tread, or you start your weights class or whatever you’re doing to be able to say to yourself, “My job right now is to let my body transition back into exercise, to do injury prevention, to keep things gentle and to build on all of the positives. Give yourself the room to not be where you were before and also trust your body to get you back where you actually were in time.

That’s a really good thought. If she’s struggling with what words to say, do you have any advice for what words she could use for changing your talk?

First, I would recommend to her a mantra specifically to her. One of the things I like to do with people in my practice is I will say, “What is the negative thought you’re having? Let’s translate that into a positive,” because the unconscious mind doesn’t know negative words. If you say, “I will not be hard on myself,” what all your unconscious mind hears is, “I will be hard on myself.” You would want to say, “I will be positive. I will encourage myself,” and things like that. Some of the more generic ones are, “I trust my body to heal. I trust my body to build itself up to where it was before. I trust my body to work well and get stronger. I will be gentle with my body to aid my recovery.” Those things that are positives that will help you change your focus from that competitive, “I got to get these numbers. I got to be where I was before,” to recognize that this is about healing. This is about getting stronger.

I like the “I trust my body” because if you’re already negative in your head, it removes you from the equation. It almost treats your body like a third person. It’s like, “My body is going to do what it needs to do,” because that’s what bodies do. I know there are exceptions but you don’t have to say, “I’m going to be great.” It’s like, “My body will fix this in time because that’s how humans are.” Somebody is going to be like, “I’m not trying to be me.” Thank you so much for all of that. Until next time, where can people find you?

You can find me on all social media, @DrJennMann. I post all of my workouts on my Insta Story so you can catch what I’m doing. Also, you can find me at InStyle Magazine. I have a weekly column called Hump Day with Dr. Jenn that is all about sex and relationship.

Everybody or at least pretty much everybody has been talking about this. Maybe you’re blissfully unaware but there was an incident.

This is the part where you want to make sure you have no little ones in the room for the following segment.

Jess King’s fiance who fronts a band called Brass Against had an incident on stage that involved public urination. People reacted vociferously to that. Some people were shocked and appalled that we would report on this thing that wasn’t offensive at all according to them.

They were also saying that it had nothing to do with Peloton, but they play her music on the Peloton platform. Jess king pushes her music on the Peloton platform and they have a cooking show together. They spend a lot of time together on all of Jess’s social. I think it’s fair to include this.

It’s a public performance. You’re allowed to critique public performances. That’s not a hot take. We reached out to Dan Savage from Savage Love and much to our amazement he said yes. We will jump into our brief interview with Dan Savage.

Everybody’s been talking about what happened with Jess King’s fiance, and there have been lots of debate about what is and isn’t appropriate. We thought who makes more sense to weigh in on what is and isn’t appropriate in matters such as this than Dan Savage. For people who aren’t familiar with Dan Savage, he’s been writing Savage Love, a weekly vice column, for many years. He’s a bestselling author and has a huge hit podcast. He’s an all-around nice guy and clearly raised Catholic because he has the patience of a saint to join us. Ladies and gentlemen, and all points in between and beyond, it’s Dan Savage.

How are you guys?

We’re doing great. I guess we should do a quick rundown for people that might not be familiar with this story. Jess King’s fiance is in a band called Brass Against which does brass-inspired covers of Rage Against The Machine and Tool. They had a show and she had to pee. She said, “I have to pee,” and then asked if there were any volunteers. She pulled the said volunteer from a crowd and she peed on his face.

The said volunteer had a can on his head. It becomes relevant. When she was done, he got up and took that can in his mouth and spit all over the crowd in the front end. He took the can and shook it all over to everybody in the front that was right there. She then told him to get off the stage as well. She kicked him off the stage, I think physically. I didn’t actually see that part. I read it so I might be adding details there, but I know she told him to get off the stage.

Do you want to help us unpack that?

We’ll turn it over to you, expert.

TCO 234 | Peloton Heart Health

 

I don’t know what to say. I watched the video and that isn’t a woman who hasn’t peed in somebody’s face before. That wasn’t her first time to the piss rodeo. Piss play is one of those things that when you want to look at what’s different about men’s sexuality and women’s sexuality, it’s often very instructive to look at gay men and lesbians and compare. Piss play is not considered that crazy or out there or kinky in gay male communities. It’s not ubiquitous. It doesn’t come standard with a gay man. For a lot of young boys, pee is a toy. We’re familiar with it. We pee in the snow. We play with it and we make arcs.

It’s also very deeply symbolic of the penis. A lot of gay men are comfortable peeing on each other in the shower like playing. Conversely, an interesting comparison in lesbian communities is how much comfort there tends to be with sometimes blood play like in lesbian BDSM communities. Lesbians are more comfortable with period sex than straight guys or opposite-sex couples might be. Women are more intimately familiar with blood. You don’t see blood play in gay male communities.

I never thought about it but that makes perfect sense.

That’s also in part because of the HIV AIDS epidemic.

That would put a damper on it.

It’s terrifying. For me, I watched that video and I was like, “The straight people are going to freak out.” Gay men are going to go, “I’ve been there, done that.” Somebody asked me and I said, “No, but I didn’t freak out.” A lot of lesbians are going to be like, “What?” It’s because lesbians don’t play with piss to that extent. There was a column that I wrote many years ago offering advice to a straight woman who was freaked out because her husband wanted her to pee on him. She compared it to pooping on him. It’s not the same at all. If you had a pitcher of beer, it is so much hot water. It’s not like morning piss when your kidneys are failing and it’s orange. It’s clear and hot.

I watched that video and I’m like, “People are going to freak out.” Clearly, the lead singer was in a relationship with someone into piss or she’s into piss. She’s one of the rare women who are into pissing themselves as opposed to getting into it because a male partner wanted to get into it. She had a comfort level with it. The assumption that her audience would have a comfort level with it didn’t turn out to be true.

Here’s where I get flummoxed. If two people want to do that, it’s in the privacy of their own home or whatever. That wasn’t in the privacy of their own home. This is a festival show. It’s not even exclusively their fans and an all-ages show. I feel like, at that point, they are pulling people into their thing.

One of the things that keep coming up is they were consenting adults, why is anybody getting upset over this? Not everybody there consented to be part of that. On the other hand, she warned them that she’s going to do it. I don’t even know what the rest of the question is there. I don’t know what’s the appropriateness.

Nobody says when they see a wedding party piling out of a church, “Those straight people are involving all of us in their private consensual sexual conduct.” Even though we can infer from the groom and the bride that there has been some f**king going on there.

He’s also not going to bend her over the altar, presumably.

Yeah but pee on your face isn’t necessarily sexual contact. People freak out when somebody takes somebody takes somebody else out on a dog collar and a leash. There’s no sexual contact there but it’s like, “They’re telling us that they’re kinky.” We freak out about that. When a bride and a groom come tumbling out of a church, they are telling us they are religious. They are telling us they are probably vanilla. They are telling us they have heterosexual intercourse. They are telling us a lot. Because it’s normative, nobody has a problem being involved in their sex life because you saw them tumbling out of the church after their wedding.

We still didn’t watch the act versus we watched this act. Isn’t that a little different?

That’s the difference. It’s not like she announced, “I’m into this.” She’s like, “Here I am doing this.”

You’re right. In an all-ages festival show, not even fans, and there was no one on stage who could tap her on the shoulder and say, “Why don’t you just run off to the porta john? What are you doing?”

I keep landing on if I go to a Gallagher concert and I walk out with watermelon on me, that’s on me. That’s not a secret. If I go to a Jim Gaffigan concert and I walk out with watermelon on me, that’s different.

I have another question too. Is this considered cheating? Does it bring into the concept of cheating? I know it’s their rules, for sure. Does her fiance who works at Peloton have a right to be upset at this on how it looks to the rest of the world?

She has the right to feel her feelings, whatever they might be. Even if it was okay with her or her girlfriend or her fiance to pee on strangers, maybe that’s not something she wanted to be known generally. There are a lot of people who are in open relationships who are what we call socially monogamous but not sexually monogamous. They want to be perceived as monogamous even if they aren’t. Maybe that’s who they are. We can only speculate. They are upset but you can’t tell someone that they don’t have a right to be upset if they are upset. The person who did the thing that pissed them off is going to have to make amends. The more you tell me about it, I’m more shocked that there were minors present if it was an all-ages show, then she sprayed the crowd with it.

The guy she brought did it, in fairness. That’s the situation you start to create. When people say, “You don’t have a right to critique this,” I land on the idea of like, “You did it on a stage.” If she came out and hit a bad note, I have a right to critique that.

It’s not kink-shaming at all to critique those. That said, who knows? This is also one of those things where, was it sexual? We don’t know.

It’s weird because she announced it by saying she had a fantasy to do it, but then followed that sentence up by saying, “Not because I’m into weird sh**t.” I don’t know what that means.

There’s a mountain you can climb near where I live in Seattle. They are a series of lakes. Very famously, there are up there what they call the piss goats because they are starved for whatever it is in piss, ammonia or iron or whatever. If you go up there and you’re a hiker and you take a leak, the goats will come and drink your piss. They’ll come and lick up the little puddle. If you pee a strong stream, the goat will open its mouth and you’ll be peeing in a goat’s mouth. The philosophical question then becomes, is this beastiality? Only if you’re into it. Only if you went up there because it turned you on topee into a goat’s mouth, then I guess it’s beastiality.

If it’s incidental like you’re up there peeing, then the goat runs over and certainly drinking your piss and it doesn’t turn you on, it’s not beastiality. The same thing applies here. Was this piss play? Was this sexual and a kink? It depends on what he was feeling and what she was feeling. In my experience, somebody who opens their mouth to let somebody else pee into their mouth who is a human and not a goat, it does that because it turns them on. It does that because it’s sexual. It being public can be a whole another layer to the kink. Ultimately, unless we can sit these people down and depose them, and search their browser histories, we can’t know if it was sexual for them or not.

First off, we would pee-pose them. Second, I would argue that it can’t be a turn on to pee into a goat’s mouth because if you were turned on, you’d be peeing straight in the air and not into a goat’s mouth.

What comes up must come down. You can pee straight up into the air and form a nice long arc then into the goat’s mouth.

Start out as a beginner to really be in that beginner mode. Some people go in a little too hard and then they get tired and unmotivated. Share on X

It’s not a sex thing but I want to see that.

I have to disabuse you of that notion. Even with an erection, you can be in an erection and point it. You can bend your legs and shift your hips to point to what you’re peeing with. Also, a lot of people who are into piss play are turned on by it, but can will themselves to be soft while they’re peeing and it’s still arousing for them.

I would also like to say that the people who are upset that feel like she’s being kink-shamed because of this, I snorted and rolled my eyes.

First of all, the problem with that is a huge part of what makes piss play a turn on for people is it’s transgressive, it’s naughty, it’s bad, and it’s going to freak most people out. If you get that reaction, “Naughty, wrong, bad. That’s freaky, “ that’s not kink-shaming. That’s buttressing your kink. That’s making what you did for you hotter.

It’s exactly where I was going. Dan, thank you so much. I’m a huge fan of your show. It’s one of the only ones that I make a point to listen to the day it comes out. Thank you again. Before we let you go, let everybody know where they can find you and all of your things.

My column is Savage Love and my podcast is Savage Lovecast. You can find both at Savage.love. Also, my column runs in a bunch of publications all over North America. Thank you guys for bringing this story to my attention. I wanted to open my show with it because you guys are the ones who told me about it. I waited to talk with you about it first. I might talk about it on my show.

Thank you so much. We appreciate that. That’s very touching and people don’t realize that with you in another country and my Gmail kept sending everything to spam, it has been an absolute nightmare communicating with you through no fault of either of ours, but you’ve been super patient. We are super appreciative and cannot thank you enough.

Thank you very much for having me. It was a blast.

That was a lot of fun. I was stunned that I actually got a yes. Sometimes you ask the questions and who knows what will happen. In fairness, we should also tell the rest of the story because I’m Paul Harvey all of a sudden. Sophia did issue a statement finally because there had been radio silence from both her camp, and Jess King’s Instagram pages were eerily quiet for a while. She did issue a statement, which we feel that we should share with people.

It says, “Hey, everyone. I want to speak about my performance at Rockville Metal Festival in Daytona. I’ve always pushed limits in music and onstage. That night I pushed the limits too far. I love my family, the band and the fans more than anything. I know that some were hurt or offended by what I did. I apologized to them and want them to know that I didn’t mean to hurt them. I am not a shock artist. I always want to put the music first. I’m grateful for all of your continued love and support.”

On a personal note, I would like to say that when I posted about it, I posted about it in a way that said, “Beware, there is graphic content ahead.” I did use the word that I was horrified because I was horrified to watch it. That does not mean that I feel like everybody should be or that everybody should have the same feelings that I do. There are a lot of very strong opinions around this. I’m glad that’s over.

With that being said, we should probably move on to the next topic which is Dancing With The Stars. Cody made it to the finals.

He did make it to the finals. I know you didn’t get to watch but there was a double elimination night. It was the semi-finals. He and Cheryl danced. They had a redemption round and they got a 35. They then danced the second time and they got a 38. They were in the very bottom like they were the last place that night of the six remaining couples. Let’s just say that we have to remember that part of what happens comes from the judges’ scores, but then they mix that in with the people voting at home, which is why it’s so important that we vote at home. We did and we saved Cody. He was one of the safe couples. He did not make it to the bottom two. Sadly, some other people went home. Also sadly, Dancing With The Stars fans were not happy. There were some people that were not happy that the Peloton cult is voting in force.

They are losing their minds that they can have that sort of impact on the outcome because they vote in droves.

Did you scroll down to some of these? The tweets in here are hilarious. “Me trying to figure out why Suni got eliminated and not Cody.” This is funny, “What? Cody went to the finals and Malora didn’t?” There’s like major side-eye from a dog. It’s so funny. I want to see the Scrooge one, the little Scroogey guy. I can’t find him. There’s a lot to scroll through. They were very angry. This one is funny, “Me, next week, trying to vote for everyone but Cody to combat the Peloton cult votes.” This is my favorite one, “Peloton community reading all the comments and questioning how Cody got through to the finals,” and then you play his little smile.

It’s the Grinch giving you an evil grin. I think they are going to have a hard time pulling that one off.

I don’t know. It’ll be interesting. I still think JoJo is going to win. That’s been my take on it the whole time. I don’t know if Cody will make it to the bottom two or not.

Also, Cody is making the rounds. He was on the Kelly Clarkson Show.

He talked about his journey from growing up homeless. He talked about the entire Dancing With The Stars experience and what that’s been like. It was a very good interview and he seemed to enjoy it. Good for him. That’s cool.

Men’s Health has an article about their picks for the best Peloton instructors to guide your sweat sessions.

I see Cody is right there. I haven’t read this article. It was Men’s Health.

Are you not allowed?

I’m joking. I didn’t have time to read this one. They have Robin as spin, and then they have Cody as spin. Who else do they have in here? Ben Alldis is spin. Ally Love is spin. They name all the instructors, Matt Wilpers. They’ve got Adrian Williams for strength training and Becs Gentry for running.

You also get little blurbs on why they think that person fit this.

TCO 234 | Peloton Heart Health

 

There’s a little bit of why. You get a little bit about that.

There’s Dr. Chelsea Jackson Roberts for yoga and meditation. It goes through all sorts of different disciplines and gives you some suggestions.

This is a good article for people who are like, “Who should I try?”

Michelle K from Shape Magazine has an article about how Peloton’s Jess Sims and her dog stay active throughout the colder months. I’m going to call Michelle K out right here. She’s burying a story right here. I don’t even know how to say this but Jess Sims’s dog peed on a fire hydrant and I was outraged. Michelle K, you got to report these things. You can’t bury them. You got to tell the whole story.

Poor Sienna. Sienna was horribly embarrassed when we brought it up. That’s what I’ve heard.

Who do you think is better house broker Sienna or Sophia?

Tom, I don’t want to hear it, but I know a lot of people also appreciated that.

Some of these I just do for me. Whole Foods Magazine is reporting that Kendall Toole has signed a partnership to rep Aloha, which is a plant-based protein product.

Good for Kendall. She’s been everywhere lately too. She’s getting a lot of stuff in. That’s awesome.

Robin Arzon was on Good Morning America.

She’s talking all about her book, Strong Mama. She is starting to make the rounds. That’s pretty cool.

Adrian Williams sat down with InStyle and gave them a tricep workout for toned arms.

It’s the best tricep workout. It says, “The only exercise you’ll need to get that coveted tricep divot,” which he does have.

Speaking of tricep divots, Tunde was featured in Self Magazine.

She’s sharing her wind down wisdom and I love the tagline, “I take baths. Don’t judge me.” Why would we judge you, Tunde?

That’s the least offensive liquid-based thing we’ve seen. It’s like baths are okay.

She’s not taking a bath while she’s giving the interview.

It’s the shower that people had a problem with.

Returning once again is Angelo for MetPro here to answer your nutrition questions. How is it going?

It’s great to be back.

It’s great to have you back. We appreciate you helping out with The Clip Out community. We have another question from one of our members, Christina Riviera. She is looking for some advice specifically on how to break bad eating habits. Hers is she doesn’t like to throw food away. She eats everything on her kids’ plates that they don’t eat. She said the worst ones are the lunch boxes that come home in the afternoon. She says that she’s not even hungry.

I’ll step in. I have an answer for this. Stop eating meals of your own and just eat their leftovers.

I’m going to be such a hypocrite, Christina, because I have the exact same problem. I think a lot of people know is I’m so value-oriented. I’m such a good Jewish kid. If there’s something that’s like, “That was a perfectly good sandwich.” Even though the bread is stale, it’s perfectly good. There are kids in third-world countries starving to death. How can I possibly not eat that? My mind goes there, but that’s not my circumstance now. If I eat everything that is leftover and I get squeeze that value out of it, I’ll end up hurting myself. You know that Christina. It’s tongue in cheek that we’re talking about. It’s funny. We can’t pass up the opportunity for the jokes but here is the actual big picture answer. This is often the answer to a lot of checklists. People say, “I have a sweet tooth,” or “I have cravings for this,” or “I’m eating leftovers, my own, my husband’s, my family’s or my kids.”

The answer is actually to not be hungry because you’ve eaten your healthy, good food. Nine out of ten times, why are you grabbing those leftovers? I guarantee I know the answer. It’s because you’re busy. You’re a mom. I know just by that fact. I know you’re swamped. You have deadlines. You’ve got to drop off Johnny and pick up Julie, and you still have this and that to do. There are household chores and everything that you’re juggling. You haven’t had a bite to eat since 9:30 in the morning. Now it’s 2:30 PM and here are Judy’s leftovers. What do you do?

For anyone who’s experiencing any form of arrhythmia, check with your physician but also consider Peloton. Share on X

Even if you’re not hungry, the food is still not going to its intended target. It’s also not like you can do anything. Nobody wants to waste food but there’s not a system where you can pack that up and ship it to the homeless.

Especially when it’s not pre-packaged like you’ve made a sandwich. You can’t just hand that sandwich to somebody. It’s not the way the world works.

We’ll pull on a Dr. Jen. Think of it as intuitive eating. If you’re not hungry, you don’t need to graze on your kid’s leftovers. Don’t eat it if you’re not hungry. It’s okay.

I had a client who always needed the value proposition. We would joke about it but it worked for him. In this case, we’re talking about mostly desserts. He’s like, “Angelo, I can’t have a piece of pie then throw the rest of the pie. It’s a perfectly good pie.” I had the same challenge. I said, “Add up the cents in dollars at the end of the week. Tell me how much money you threw out. Write it on one sheet of paper. Now, on another sheet of paper, write down the amount of money you would pay to reach your health and fitness goals. See which one is higher.” He goes, “Okay, I’m in.”

That’s a good one. I like that.

We all have our metrics. I like to know why. I’m all about that with everything. When I was a checker at a grocery store and they were like, “Write this information on a check,” I’m like, “Why?” Once you told me why I was writing this seemingly random number. I’m like, “Now I’ll do it.”

You can make your own desserts because those are so much cheaper to throw away. I did a box version of my daughter’s birthday cake because I knew I wasn’t going to be eating it. I didn’t want to throw away a bakery cake because those are so expensive, but a box is much easier. It’s a few dollars. It’s a lot easier to wrap my head around.

Thank you so much for answering that question. Until next time, if people want a MetPro type of information tailored for their own fitness needs, where can they find you?

MetPro.co/tco. Thanks, guys.

Women’s Health is talking about Peloton’s new AI movement tracker and how it’s revolutionizing strength.

They were talking about the Guide. For anybody who doesn’t know or didn’t read the previous episode, Peloton dropped the Guide. That’s what this is all about. It’s saying that training smarter is how you’re going to level up your fitness routine, which is where the Guide comes in. They’re excited about it. We will see what happens.

While we’re talking about the Guide. There was some question about the wearable that comes along with the Guide, and can you get the wearable without purchasing the Guide?

I heard from a little birdie that the wearable will be sold separately for $89. I’m not sure when it’s going to be available but it will, and it will be sold separately. That’s what I had talked about in the previous episode that was light years away from the previous wearable. People should be excited about this. This will be great.

More news from Australia because of the Women’s Health article was from Australia. This is from SMH.com. They had an article. I referenced this briefly earlier. Could the pandemic craze be on Apple’s radar? Pandemic craze, meaning Peloton.

This is yet another outlet theorizing that Apple might be looking to buy Peloton. I got to say, as a long-time Peloton user, this has been out in the ether for a very long time. People have been talking about this. It has not happened. I personally don’t think it will happen.

There are a lot of Apple fans that would love to see those two lines merge. There’s also a lot of fan fiction right now about if the price drops low enough on the stock, it’s almost like, “How could they not buy it?” We shall see. CNet.com is spotlighting all the different Black Friday Peloton deals there are, and there are plenty.

I’ve seen a lot of information about this. One thing I want to note is we had several people mention to us that the article had listed incorrectly that the app price was on sale from $39.99 to $12.99. That’s only if you’re an app user. It doesn’t count but you can get $150 off when you buy the bike off of accessories. You have to scroll, and then they had the bike essentials package for $1,495. That’s like getting the bike essentials package for the equipment for free when you buy the bike. The bike works package is $1,595. That’s like getting all the extra equipment for free. That’s amazing.

They have the bike family package for $1,795. You’re basically getting all this stuff at a very reduced price, and then $350 off the Bike+. That’s a fantastic deal. We wondered if we would see a sale on the Bike+ this 2021. Obviously, we are, and then a $250 off accessories with the Tread, then of course, all the packages. They have those at reduced prices as well.

If you’ve been waiting to pull the trigger on a tread, this might be your time to shine.

Also the Bike or the Bike+. You never know. There are people out there that have the Bike. There are also people that only have a different bike and they just use the app. This is a good time to move over if you’ve been thinking about it. Also, if you’ve been thinking about it, for those of you who are fully insured United healthcare members, Peloton is offering the option to purchase the Bike, the Bike+, or the Tread for a discounted price. The Peloton Bike is going to be $1,295. Peloton Bike+ is going to be $2,295 and the Peloton Tread is $2,345. Between now and cyber Monday, you can stack that with the holiday promos. The promos that we gave you, you can stack this as well. You can get both discounts. You can only do that through inside sales. You can not do that through a store. That’s quite a deal for United Healthcare members only.

We’ve got another smart TV that’s going to be incorporating the Peloton app.

This time they’re going with the LG smart TVs. They are going to have the Peloton app on all of those televisions past a certain point. That’s pretty cool.

Just seeing that creep out into more and more smart TVs to where it’s kind of, “Of course, it’s there.” The Washington Post is writing about the new wave of home fitness gear and the usage of cameras that are starting to be incorporated.

They are talking about how this is going to be something that we’re seeing a lot more of. They talked about that the new Peloton Guide has it. The Tempo has it. Tonal has one but they haven’t started using it yet. The Peloton Bike and Tread have a camera but they don’t use it in that way on the Bike. It will be interesting. The Tempo Move doesn’t have a camera, but what it does do is incorporate your iPhone. Your iPhone uses the image that it picks up to be able to do form correction and feedback.

TCO 234 | Peloton Heart Health

It would be hard for the camera on the Bike to judge your form because it probably can’t see the parts of your body it would need to.

That would be difficult to do for the Bike and for the Tread. One of our followers, Mike Weber, had suggested that it would have been cool on the Bke+ in particular if they had added the Guide thing that they are doing. That has a swivel on it so you could have used equipment that you already have to be able to do your strength workouts and have it do the form feedback. I thought that would have been great. I don’t know how easy that would have been to go back and retrofit things you’ve already sold but the idea itself is amazing.

There was a post in the OPP about some problems with some Peloton apparel holding up for people.

This happened pretty quickly. I’ve heard a few things about this so I wanted to bring it up. The Ivy Park Peloton leggings that have the Adidas triple stripe on them, the triple stripe is peeling off really bad after one workout. This is not something like she washed it and dried it and didn’t treat it well. It’s not good. Hopefully, this was like she’s just got a bad one for whatever reason. I’m hoping that’s the case.

It’s not often that we get to report a Peloton lawsuit where they are the ones suing and not being sued. This is a refreshing change of pace. Peloton is suing its rivals over its on-demand classes.

They went after Echelon and iFit. It says, “The issue at hand is that Peloton says Echelon and iFit are gaining free rides from its technology.” This cracked me up because we’ve been seeing this for years and there are already existing lawsuits, but I guess they had to refresh the lawsuits because some of it’s died off so they had to start over.

It says, “For Echelon, they called out the company’s connected bikes, rowers and treadmills, all of which offer similar features but for significantly less. During the pandemic, Echelon wares were often referred to as Peloton alternatives. Echelon claimed to have developed a $500 Prime Bike for Amazon, but Amazon later denied that partnership.” They did the same thing for iFit. What Peloton is asking for is a court order that would prevent iFit and Echelon from infringing on its patents, as well as compensation. If granted that would have or could have a massive impact on the connected fitness space.

Most, if not all modern fitness hardware involves some sort of on-demand classes and leaderboards, similar gadgets like Mirror, Tonal, the SoulCycle bike, Hydro and dozens of other lesser-known brands that have popped up in the Peloton’s wakes. I have to say though, Tonal, you’re going to have to leave out of this because Tonal came up with their own leaderboard that’s completely different. It looks nothing like Peloton. They came about it from a totally different way. They don’t do competition the way Peloton does. They have a whole different outlook on it. It will be very interesting to see what happens with this.

I also can’t help but wonder like I know it takes a while to get a lawsuit up and ready to file, but it’s hard not to see it through the prism of the stock price drop if they’re like, “We’ve got to get more aggressive about going after our competitors.”

Maybe. It wouldn’t shock me. On the other hand, that’s probably been in the works for a while. It looks reactionary though, regardless.

We have two new artists collaborations. One is with Peter Muffay.

That’s a German artist for anybody who doesn’t know.

I’m always so happy when I find out that they are big artists from like Germany. I’m like, “I’m not that old that I’ve never even heard of this guy.”

There are plenty of them we don’t know right here in the US, but this one isn’t.

I don’t have to feel bad about not knowing this guy because I’m not German.

We should have Gail come on and talk to us about it because I bet she knows all about this artist. She’s on top of all of these artists because of what she does for a living. There’s going to be a run with Tobias on Wednesday. There was a ride with Eric on Friday. If you haven’t had a chance to take them, go check them out if you like to take the German classes.

One that will probably have a little more mass appeal, Foo Fighters are getting on the Peloton Artists Series and people are super stoked about that.

Because we’re old and we recognize this one and we’re excited about it. There are tons of classes for the Foo Fighters. Make sure you check those out as well. They are all on-demand at this point.

There’s going to be a Turkey Burn run, ride or whatever so calm down.

Everybody’s like, “Why aren’t we seeing them?” They get very nervous when we don’t have this out on the schedule. Thursday, there are tons of classes for you to take. There’s the Turkey Trot with Matty. It’s going to hit drop on-demand at 6:00 AM Eastern. There is the 30-minute Turkey Trot with Matt Wilpers, Marcel Dinkins and Kirsten on-demand at 6:00 AM Eastern. There’s the Turkey Burn Ride with Alex at 8:00 AM Eastern, and a 30-minute Turkey Burn Run with Marcel at 9:00, 30-minute Fit Family Live with Jess Sims, a 45-minute Turkey Burn Yoga flow with Ross, and a 45-minute Turkey Burn Ride with Robin at 11:00.

There are tons of other classes that are happening all week. It’s gratitude week. For Friday, there’s the Heat Up Ride with Hannah Frankson at 8:00 AM, Eastern. Heated Up Tread Bootcamp with Adrian, 9:00 AM Eastern, 75-minute Heated Up Power Yoga with Kristin, Heated Up Strength with Rebecca, Heated Up Bike Bootcamp with Cody at 11:00, 30-minute Heated Up Ride with Mayla, and then the 45-minute Heated Up Run with Susie on Friday. There are tons of opportunities and lots of classes all week long. It’s gratitude week but we are just focusing on Thursday and Friday, so we’re not reading all of the classes to you.

That would be boring. There’s yet another new Peloton apparel drop.

TCO 234 | Peloton Heart Health

 

This was the holiday drop. Honestly, I haven’t been tempted to buy anything in months and I was tempted. I not only was tempted. I gave into that temptation and I bought a lot. These are my colors. These jewel tones are what’s hard for me to say no to.

They’ve also been pushing a Black Friday sale. I got an email about it.

Also, all those coupons. I’ve got a 20% coupon so I might as well use them.

We have instructors that are stepping into the world of meditation.

This is very exciting. We have Kirra Michel, Nico Sarani, and Tia Mariana. All three have now added meditations to their workouts and we now have meditations in German and Spanish. Dr. Jenn has been dying for these Spanish meditations. She’s been very excited about this. She’s talked to me about this for a long time. She’s very excited. It is finally here.

Joining us in this episode is Ronnie Schultz. How’s it going?

I’m very well. Thank you. I’m happy to see you guys.

I enjoy our chats. This is a real pleasure to be able to do this. I know that you have been a Pelotonian for a very long time, but how did you originally find Peloton? I feel you’ve been on Peloton forever. When did you first get into the Peloton world?

In February 2021 was three years. This coming February 2022 will be four years. How did I get into it? I was a little resistant to it because I had never done any cycling in my life. I have a treadmill that became a bra hanger. We live a few blocks from the 23rd Street former studio. Laney knows I exercise and I do a lot of yoga.

She knows how much I like all that stuff and she said, “Why don’t we go look at the Peloton?” I said, “I’m not going to do that. I’ve never taken a cycling class and with my heart, I don’t even think I could do it.” She worked on me for a few months. One Sunday afternoon, we walked in and I met Jenn Sherman. I did watch some Peloton classes prior to that. Once I got on the Peloton, I said, “I’m in.”

It was love at first sight.

Like 30 seconds.

Jenn Sherman probably helped that along too. She’s a light. She’s wonderful.

Judging by the accent, I feel you have similar sensibilities. You’re like, “What accent? You’re the weirdo that talks funny.”

When I make an order on L.L.Bean and I give my address, they fill in the city and the state.

Were you doing much of anything at all? Was that your first commitment to exercise or have you been doing other things?

I had an elliptical that I used and I stopped using it. I wasn’t a big fan of cardio. I’ve always liked strength training and I’ve always loved yoga.

You were talking about your heart whenever you’re talking about going to the studio or doing the bike. You didn’t think you could do it. Tell us about all of that and how you came to have your issues with your heart.

I’ve had palpitations since I was about thirteen years old. When I was 39, the very first time Laney and I played hooky from work in our lives, we went to the Regis and Kathie Lee show.

That’s a story in and of itself. You played hooky to go to Regis and Kathie Lee. I love that.

At the end of the taping, I said to Laney, “We need to go to Mark.” Mark was our internist at the time. We go, and Mark says to me, “I have to put you in the hospital. You have atrial fibrillation.” I was 39 years old, number one, and I never heard of atrial fibrillation. I didn’t know what it was. He says, “You’re not going to die from it, but we need to put you on a blood thinner so you don’t have a stroke.” They rushed me to the hospital.

I stayed in the hospital for six days on a blood thinner because they didn’t know how long you were in atrial fibrillation and a blood clot can develop within 72 hours. They have to make sure. That’s the concern of being in AFib, nothing terrible is going to happen to you, but because the blood is not pumping out of the chambers the proper way, you can develop a clot.

Nothing terrible will happen to you unless something terrible happens to you.

More or less, that is correct. It has happened to many people, by the way.

TCO 234 | Peloton Heart Health

 

That’s why they do what they do.

That’s my first encounter. Atrial fibrillation happened many times thereafter. At the time when it happened, I was very familiar with when it would happen. I would know in a snap and it’s not the case with most patients.

Why is it that you know? What happens?

Your heart rate feels it’s going at about 200 beats per minute. It feels very irregular. It feels how our heart goes through a couple of bumps. You hear more fast bumps. It’s a totally different rhythm. I am the type of person that’s very in tune with my body in general. I would know right away. I’ve been cardioverted with the paddles about 39 times, but not once since I’m on the Peloton. Everything changed when I got on the Peloton. I’ve had a long history of atrial fibrillation and I’ve had four procedures known as a pulmonary vein ablation, which now is very common. It wasn’t common when I had it done years ago.

What is ablation? What do they do?

They go through your groin and they burn off the part of the heart that’s causing the extra conduction. When I first started having these procedures, it was 6 to 7 hours on the table and they try to make you go into atrial fibrillation so they can see where the extra beats are coming from and then kill that part of the tissue so that it’s not alive to cause that rhythm disturbance.

You said it wasn’t very common when you first had to do this. Were you terrified?

Ablations have been around for a long time, but not for atrial fibrillation. They tend to do it for supraventricular tachycardia. That’s not what they’re doing it for. I was on antiarrhythmic drugs and you’d have to go into the hospital to go on those drugs. Tom will get a kick out of this. It says on the box, in black, “Can cause death.”

You take a medicine that can cause death to save your life.

My doctor, who’s an electrophysiologist, which means a cardiologist who specializes in rhythm issues, would say to me, his motto all the time was, “There’s no free lunch.” He too has a Peloton.

Was it terrifying the first time they tell you they’re going to do this since you’d never heard of it?

It was terrifying for me. I think I was more scared the very first time they rushed me to the hospital though, not knowing anything. I had some knowledge and I understood what the consequences were and I wanted the ablation hoping that it would stop the atrial fibrillation, which is very uncomfortable.

Does it hurt?

It doesn’t hurt. You feel you’ve had seven cups of caffeine. I’m hyper on a good day. I remember once my cardiologist wanted to give me a tranquilizer because the tranquilizer could also possibly help calm me down, which maybe would make the palpitations go away. He prescribed a not very strong tranquilizer and I would take it. I went to see him a month later. I walked in and I go, “How are you doing?” He’s like, “I’m good. Everything’s fine. Are you taking the tranquilizer?” I said, “I am.” He says, “It’s not working.” I’m hyper on a good day.

Every time you have one of those episodes, do you have to go to the hospital?

You do. You can stay in atrial fibrillation if you want it to, but then you have to be on blood thinners for the rest of your life. I didn’t like the feeling of atrial fibrillation. I felt like it was a discotheque in my chest. I would go and they would cardiovert me back into normal sinus rhythm, which is how our hearts are beating. Three days later, I’d be back in the hospital getting zapped again because I went into atrial fibrillation again.

When you say you’re getting zapped again, this is what you see on the TV, like the paddles, clear?

Correct.

Do they put you out?

They sedate you with some Valiums, some Versed.

Hopefully, it was better than the other tranquilizers they gave you because that didn’t work. That guy is like, “I’m going to give you a tranquilizer for this.” I’d be like, “The hell you are. You don’t have the good ****.”

I don’t trust you.

I want to be all the way out.

This guy’s stuff is no good.

They knock you out. They don’t give you a lot of sedation because they only need four minutes. You come in about 30 minutes to 45 minutes and you walk out about three hours later.

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It’s like a colonoscopy but for your heart.

I’ll make you laugh. They put the paddle in front and a paddle in the back. When you see it on TV, they’re doing both on the front. I would come home with these round burns 24 hours later. I would have an electric burn on me. I asked the cardiologist, I said, “Why do I have a burn?” There are these little sticky things. There’s a word for it.

Is it an electrode? Is that a thing?

Maybe, yes but in many events, he tells me, “We buy what’s on sale.”

You’re like, “Can I bring my own?”

I did. I said, “Can I buy a box of my own and bring my own?” He says, “We don’t work like that.” The true story is I should get a burn and have to get something called Silvadene, which is what they use for burn victims. That was the worst part of it. It was the skin burn.

If they’re doing one on front and one on the back, do you got to stand up?

You’re flat.

Are you on your side?

Is it like you lay on it? It’s not a paddle.

Your body does rise like on TV.

My knowledge base, I’m like Chauncey Gardiner from Being There. I only know things if I’ve seen them on TV. That’s the entirety of my knowledge base.

They started off with 300 joules of this juice, so to speak. If you don’t convert into normal sinus rhythm on the first one, they ramp it up and they go to 400.

It’s like the Pit of Despair in The Princess Bride.

I never converted on one time. I was always 200 or 300.

They should have turned it up the first time, then.

You should be like, “Can we start?

It should be, “Ronnie’s a frequent flyer. Turn it up. We know it’s not going to work.”

Have you got a punch card like the fifth one’s free? She’s like, “This isn’t Canada. There’s no free medicine.”

I bet there are readers that have been cardioverted on with atrial fibrillation.

It would not surprise me. We have a lot of people with fascinating stories.

It’s the most common arrhythmia in the world.

You don’t hear people say it that often. I know my Apple Watch takes your EKG and that’s one of the things that they look for. Not that they can technically diagnose you and all that stuff, but they’re looking for a sinus rhythm versus the AFib. That shows how common it must be that they included.

It is very common but I have not had one episode since I am on the Peloton.

Before that, how frequently were they occurring?

I was cardioverted 39 times. I would say probably 60 or 70 times because sometimes I went back into normal sinus rhythm on my own.

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Is this every couple of months? Are we talking every couple of weeks?

Yes. Sometimes it would happen twice in one week. I’d be at the hospital getting cardioverted.

You said you hadn’t had one since you got the Peloton. Does your doctor know why that is? Tell us, what’s that about?

Larry believes that the Peloton has remodeled my heart. By saying that and I’m quoting him, what he means is that this has been my cardio rehab and that he wishes every patient that has atrial fibrillation would do cycling on a Peloton. Because of the way I have trained my heart, ride and bring the heart rate up, it has remodeled itself to stay in normal sinus rhythm.

In fact, when I would call him pre-Peloton, when I would go into atrial fibrillation, he used to tell me to run up the steps to try to stop it because it would restart the heart, which is what they’re doing with the paddles. They’re stopping the heart and restarting it. He would tell me to do something where you can race your heart. Sometimes that worked. Unfortunately, it never worked for me. I did try to run the steps, but I also would get winded because my heart rate was way high and it was erratic.

Your doctor is like the lazy IT guy. You’re like, “My heart’s not working.” He’s like, “Have you tried turning it off and turning it back on?”

Restart it, Ron.

You’re like, “That’s not an answer. That’s tier one support.”

That’s so true. I’m on tier three.

Do you have any special cycling because there’s heart rate training?

I have a heart monitor, which all of my doctors told me, “Do not put on a heart monitor because it’s going to make you crazy.” I have post-traumatic stress syndrome, so to speak, with my heart. I did use a monitor, but I would hide it. You can hide it on screen, as you might know, but he says, “I do not want you getting involved with monitors, especially since everything is going so great. You don’t need a monitor. Whatever you’re doing is working for you.”

It’ll make your heart worse because you’ll freak yourself out.

Correct. “You are not the kind of patient I want to have a heart monitor.”

You say that you go into it sometimes and then you come out of it on your own?

That was at the very beginning and did not happen often.

Is that like you’re in the car on the way over there? You’re like, “No. I’m good again.” How do you know that you’ve gotten over it?

I have a stethoscope in the house and I can read an EKG. I could put the stethoscope on or even take my pulse and I can tell if I’m in AFib by taking my pulse. I could listen to my pulse for 60 seconds and tell you my heart rate. It’s a true story. I’m usually either spot-on or off by one number.

I’m like that with tickets. If you show me a stack of tickets, I can be like, “I’ll tell you how many tickets you’re holding.” Ticketmaster tickets, I’m like, “You got 37 tickets.” When I worked at a club level, it was all GA because it was a club. We printed out 200 tickets at the bar the night of the show. Then if the show was doing well, whenever I’d walk by, they’d hold up the stack to let me see if I needed to go print out more tickets for them and they’d hold the stack and I’d be like, “37.” They’d be like, “No.” The guy is like, “You’re full of it.” I’m like, “Count them.” He’s like, “Son of a gun.” I’m just like, “I’ve been doing it for a while.” We’ll talk about a useless skill.

The heart rate things way better.

I won’t save anybody’s life, but you might get to see a little faster.

When you’re taking classes on Peloton, are you taking a certain type of class? Are you taking HIIT classes or are you taking whatever you feel?

I take whatever I feel like.

You don’t have to do any special protocol to remodel your heart?

Definitely not. This has happened to me a couple of times and I think this happens to anyone. Maybe it’s happened to you. Sometimes if I push myself really hard at the moment, going hard for 2, 3 or 4 minutes, I get a little rush in my head. Has that ever happened to you?

I’ve never pushed myself hard, so I wouldn’t know.

I don’t recall ever feeling that. It’s almost as if my muscles wear out before my heart does.

She’s like, “Thanks for rubbing it in, Crystal.”

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I’m not very fast at things. I don’t know if that’s great. If I’m running, my heart rate always goes up pretty quickly. It doesn’t take much for my heart rate to go up. If I’m running, I feel it comes into my throat. I have to catch my breath, but the heart rate itself doesn’t bother me. It’s the, “I can’t catch my breath,” that bothers me if that makes sense.

I get to a plateau because I’m also still on heart medicine. I do take beta-blockers. It’s possible that I won’t need them, but because I have not been at atrial fibrillation for so long, nobody wants to take them away because they don’t know if that’s helping me or not.

It’s working, so just do nothing.

The job of the beta-blocker is to keep your heart rate down and one of the jobs of the Peloton is to get your heart rate up. I have a little bit of the yin and yang going on when I ride.

It’s almost like when they talked about resetting your heart. It’s when you exercise, are you almost preemptively resetting it?

It’s like manually resetting it every day.

Absolutely and he said, “Do not stop.”

You work out a lot. Are you on the bike every day?

I’m on the bike every day and I changed my Peloton life. Laney will say to me, “Are you on a real ride?” I’m not even here. I’m a ghost. What I do is Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and on Friday, I do a warm-up. I do a real ride and a cool down. On Saturday and Sunday, I do a fifteen-minute fake ride where I cruise. I do that to basically keep my streak because I’m a little OCD and I have not missed one day since I owned the bike.

That’s several years and you’ve never missed a day.

I’ve never missed a day.

Don’t you go on vacation? Don’t you ever leave?

The vacation we take are family vacations and there are Pelotons there. My brother, nephew and niece ride. The family rides. Laney’s nephew and niece ride. There are riders in the family.

A new idea for a family get-together should be you all bring your Pelotons and line them up next to each other.

It’s a heck of an incentive to work out if you’re like, “If I don’t work out, they’re going to run 3,000 volts through me. That would even get me on a Peloton.”

What’s your motivation? My motivation is my heart and my health. I’m almost a little afraid to stop. I don’t think about it. Will I get into physical trouble if I stop? I don’t want to stop.

I would be too.

That makes perfect sense. It’s preventing so much and you don’t know what that number is or how much. You feel you can’t do it because that could put you in the hospital.

It could backfire on me. When my doctor says the Peloton has remodeled your heart, that’s a lot of weighted words. He says, “I wish you could come here and talk to all my patients, Ronnie.”

Since your doctor said that, can you write that off as a medical expense?

You might be able to.

There is a light bulb and she is like, “Holy crap.”

You need to call your tax guy, stat.

You need to get your tax guy and your doctor on the phone. You’re like, “You two talk it out.

For those that have not gotten to meet you online, what is your leaderboard name?

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It’s @PeloRiderNYC.

I love that. I love all your pictures too. You’re so close to where the old studio was. I love whenever you share pictures of going up the street. I always feel that I’m right there.

We all met briefly on a line, remember?

I do remember.

It’s funny that’s such an interesting difference between New York people and Midwest people. You guys stand online. We stand in line. I don’t know why that is, but we do.

If someone lives on Long Island, do they live on Long Island or do they live on Long Island?

It’s got to beyond. They’re on the ground.

On Long Island, because they use those two words interchangeably.

I would think, “In Long Island,” because I think of it like, “I live in Boston,” but it’s an island. It works on both levels. I’m assuming it’s an island. I’ve never looked at a map.

It is really an island, right?

Yes.

I didn’t know if it was one of those trick things. You guys in New York do a lot of things to trick people from the Midwest and then be like, “Crap.”

Do you have a favorite instructor?

My favorite instructors change from time to time. Is that normal, do you think?

I think it is. We all go through different times in our life. You might be going through something. Maybe you’re just on the bike for fun, maybe you’re training and all of those could require a different type of instructor that motivates you in different ways.

I have a special feeling for Jenn Sherman because she was the first teacher I met and she did talk to us. I hadn’t seen her in a very long time, but there was a time she would see me in the street and know me. That is special to me. I’m into Sam and he is very underrated.

I feel he gets a lot of love. I do.

It’s starting to happen.

There are so many new instructors that it’s going to take a while for people to “get to know the newer instructors” and Sam is still new. He will have his moment.

I love Leanne.

Do you? That’s great.

Leanne’s classes are lots of fun.

That’s interesting because that’s two UK instructors. I’m especially fascinated by that because they say that the UK instructors are a little more reserved and a little quieter and they do that on purpose. I am fascinated by the fact that you are a New Yorker and you’re like that.

Leanne is not quiet.

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I don’t take her classes very often.

She’s very out there and animated. She’s got a sense of humor and is loud sometimes.

That’s very interesting. This goes to show why everybody should check out all instructors multiple times because you never know.

Do you know that I tend to ride with the same group of people Monday to Friday?

I have seen your post about it. You have a whole group that you do.

I have a group on Facebook and I post the rides. We discussed it online, on text, and we discussed which rides we’re going to take. A lot of my friends work at home. We do a lunch hour ride because that’s when they can take their break and get away with it.

Do you want people to know the name of your group?

Sure. It’s Peloton Fitness Achievers. When I got my bike in February 2018, I started the group in March.

You were all-in starting the group a month in.

That’s me, Tom. I also loved clubs and I like to join things.

It took her a year to start the show.

It was like eight months.

You spoke with my yoga teacher on texts at some point.

You introduced us on Instagram.

He does a podcast which is extremely fascinating. It’s health and wellness related.

He teaches online. If anybody needs any yoga tips, he’s a good resource and he has a lot of classes out there.

I was doing this with him for years prior to the pandemic. I never met Jake. I never met my fitness coach either. He’s in Boston.

Do you have any advice for people who are entering the world of Peloton?

The thing to do is to try every teacher to see who you connect with. It’s important, in my opinion, to start out as a beginner, to be in that beginner mode. Unless it’s someone who has taken cycling classes and is accustomed to doing all fitness-related activities, some of the beginners go in a little too hard, and then they get tired and unmotivated. According to the friends that I have spoken to, they put her out after 6 or 7 weeks because they went in too hard. It’s great to be a beginner and I still will take beginner rides. I like to be a beginner and be reminded about my form and have those early tips that one can’t forget.

Are those real rides?

For the record, Tom means Ronnie real rides. Tom is not saying that anybody who takes a beginner ride is not taking a real ride.

In comedy, it’s what we refer to as a callback.

I know that, but I also know somebody is going to ask me about it.

Cover your eyes and cover your teeth.

Exactly. Don’t add me and if you do add me, do it on Instagram because I don’t use that.

One of the things I’d like to add, which is also cute. Laney doesn’t go on the Peloton at all, but she does every morning say to me, “What time are you riding,” so that we can plan our day knowing what time on riding. My rides are all planned.

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I don’t think I realized that Laney doesn’t ride at all.

She doesn’t. I wish she’d go on sometimes, but she doesn’t.

I know that feeling.

Then you don’t need to fight over the bike?

No, we would buy another one.

Tom, come on. She goes grab one out of the warehouse. They’re so close.

She would be over there at the studio. “You’re not using them.”

I’m going to borrow it.

When you open the studio, you can have it back.

Tom doesn’t use the Peloton at all, either?

No.

How did he get to look so good?

That’s all Tonal and MetPro.

I’ve been using the Tonal.

What is that?

That’s the nutrition thing that we talk about. They’ve changed how I eat.

I’ve seen some of your food.

It would drive most people crazy. Not because MetPro isn’t good, but because of the way I eat. MetPro has to do different things because I eat so weird.

They had to create a plan around Tom.

It would drive most people crazy but that’s because of who I am not because of what MetPro is.

I would love a Tonal. I just don’t have room in my apartment.

They are amazing machines.

It’s pretty cool. They don’t take up a lot of space, but you know your apartment is better than I do. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to join us. We appreciate it. Before we let you go, remind everybody where they can find you if you like to be found.

On Instagram, I am @PeloRiderNYC. That is my leaderboard name as well. On Facebook, I can be found as Ronnie Joy Parker. Might I say one other thing?

Absolutely.

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I would like to say I’m far from a doctor. I’m a person who has suffered tremendous arrhythmias most of her life. I would love to say for anyone who’s experiencing any form of arrhythmia to check with their physician but to consider a Peloton as well because it has been life-changing for me. I have told John and JV that it has been life-changing for me.

It sure sounds like it.

Your doctor thinks so, that’s strong evidence.

He’s constantly saying it to me. When I leave office, he’ll say, “Keep riding.”

You should send this interview to him so he can send it out to his patients.

I will do that.

If he says, “Keep paddling.” I’m going to sue him.

His name is Dr. Larry Chinitz, and he is from NYU Langone Hospital in New York City. He is very highly regarded and well-known throughout the country and the world.

I’m a fan because he’s taking good care of you and he rides the Peloton. He’s a star in my book.

Thank you for the opportunity of sharing this information with others.

Thank you so much for taking the time to do it. We appreciate it.

I guess that brings this episode to a close. Until next time, where can people find you?

People can find me on Facebook at Facebook.com/crystaldokeefe. They can find me on Instagram, Twitter, the Bike and the Tread @ClipOutCrystal.

You can find me on Twitter at @RogerQBert or on Facebook at Facebook.com/tomokeefe. You can find the show online at Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page and join the group. Don’t forget our YouTube channel at YouTube.com/TheClipOut. That’s it for this one. Thanks for tuning in. Until next time, keep pedaling and running.

 

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About Dan Savage

Daniel Keenan Savage is an American author, media pundit, journalist, and LGBT community activist. He writes Savage Love, an internationally syndicated relationship and sex advice column. In 2010, Savage and his husband, Terry Miller, began the It Gets Better Project to help prevent suicide among LGBT youth.