351. Bowflex Files For Bankruptcy Plus Our Interview With Celestine Rojas!

Last Updated: March 8, 2024By Tags: , , , , ,

The Clip Out | Celestine Rojas | Peloton Language Settings

 

  • Bowflex files for bankruptcy.
  • Peloton rolls out a new leaderboard feature.
  • Peloton announces official NBAxPeloton Ambassadors.
  • Peloton lawsuit reaches settlement phase.
  • We have a special short interview with Mikael Lindnord from Arthur The King.
  • Emma Lovewell is pregnant.
  • Matty Maggiacomo and Evan have an egg donor.
  • Katie Wang will be out for a few weeks as she freezes her eggs.
  • Susie Chan’s book will be out in June.
  • Becs Gentry completed the Tokyo Marathon.
  • Hannah Corbin celebrates 10 years with Peloton.
  • The latest artist series features Olivia Rodrigo.
  • com hit with class action lawsuit.
  • Laura Watts was featured in Women’s Running Magazine.
  • TCO Top 5.
  • This Week at Peloton.
  • Logan Aldridge releases Tabata series.
  • Irene Kaymer’s Strong Core Strong Body 2 drops.
  • Peloton celebrates Women’s History Month.

All this plus our interview with Celestine Rojas!

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Watch the episode here

 

Listen to the podcast here

 

Bowflex Files For Bankruptcy Plus Our Interview With Celestine Rojas!

We are doing something a little different because I am at work because I have an event tonight. We should start by saying a little bit about the fun adventure we had last weekend.

It was amazing amazing. I feel like you should tell me what I should focus on because I feel like I could get into the details of the travel. I could get into the details of the crazy stuff that I did. You could get into the details of how you documented it.

We were invited to participate in this press event for the new Mark Wahlberg movie Arthur the King, which is based on a true story about Michael Lindnord who was an adventure racer. In the middle of one of his races, he started getting followed by a dog. They weren’t supposed to have a dog but the dog kept following them and there wasn’t much they could do about it. It became this viral sensation. I think it was back in 2014. They invited us, and by us I mean you, to Catalina in California and you participated in the Bear Grylls Survival Camp that was put on by the Bear Grylls team. We got to meet and hang out with Mikael Lindnord and we interviewed him up. Instead of Dr. Jenn or Angelo from MetPro, we’re going to talk with Mikael Lindnord about his adventures with Arthur the King.

In theaters on March 15th.

There you go. You did this crazy survival thing where they had you do zip lines, Alpine climbs, making improvised stretchers, building shelter, and kayaking. You were going non-stop for ten hours.

It was from 6:30 in the morning till 4:30 PM. It was a long day, but it was so much fun and I learned so much. I was proud of myself because like I hung in there. I did all the things.

You did and I hung in there.

I sincerely appreciate it because you got some good footage that we would not have gotten otherwise. To be fair, Lionsgate Films was also there and they were getting footage of everyone, so it’s hard to capture every funny moment. If Tom had not been there, nobody would have captured me eating a scorpion. I would have been lost forever.

It was funny because, for a minute there, you thought I had lost the footage. Sometimes I would go to hit record, but I wouldn’t be on video setting, I’d be on photo, and so you thought I had missed the footage of you eating the scorpion.

I did and I was so upset. I was such a brat. I was like, “Why did I even do it? What is even the point? It’s all worth nothing.”

I would have been mad too if I ate a scorpion and you didn’t get the video footage when you were standing there making me think you got the video footage. I was even mad at you for being mad because I was like, “That’s fair.”

I know you felt bad, but you found it.

You posted on Instagram a bunch of footage of you doing that and all the things. People can go and find that on the gram if they want to see all the things you did. I was taping you all day long, and so we got a lot of good footage. Later in the episode, we will talk to Mikael Lindnord for a few minutes about Arthur the King and his adventures and the movie and things like that. Before we get to that, we should remind people about our book club.

We are still reading Mel Robbins’s The 5 Second Rule and we are going to be talking about this on March 12, Tuesday. 7:00 PM Central, 8 PM Eastern. We’re all going to sit down and discuss this. I didn’t get to discuss it with Tina, but she had some thoughts. I was like, “Hold on. We got to wait for the event. You can’t get there yet.”

Also before we get too far field, let’s talk Bingo.

We have our first Bingo call out for the day. I feel like we should call out some funny things. The other day when Kevin was setting up these new cameras, he started playing sounds. We have sounds on our board. Never mind. Our first Bingo call-out is Rebecca Kennedy. That’s Bingo number one.

What pray tell do you have in store for people?

First of all, l our guest is Celestine Rojas. She is a huge Peloton fan. She’s also a Latin member of the community. She is very in tune with all of the Spanish-speaking instructors and is part of the groups as well. We’re going to talk to her. She’s got some amazing tips on how to take classes in any language. You’ll definitely want to make sure that you check that out.

We also have our interview with Mikael Lindnord. If you’re worried about that, don’t worry. It’s only a few minutes. We didn’t do two interviews full length. We kept it short. We also have some lawsuit news that we’re going to be talking about, new features that Peloton is rolling out, and we have a bunch of instructors in the news. There’s a lot of big stuff going on with the instructors. Not to mention artist series and there’s some competitor news you’re going to want to hear, as well as some past guest updates

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We shall.

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I think this might be the first time in the history of the show that we’ve started with competitor news at the top.

This is crazy though. Bowflex has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and they basically put themselves up for sale. Whoever the highest bidder is is going to be the brand-new owner of Bowflex. A couple of interesting things about this. We know that Bowflex has not had a great time in the last couple of years. I did not realize they had been looking for a buyer for them since 2021 though. That was news to me. This is one of those situations where because they are filing for Chapter 11 so they can restructure their debt, that means that they are going to get a loan that provides them $9 million and have a new owner.

So far, Johnson Health Tech has offered to buy them. They are a Taiwanese company. They also have North American headquarters and they have offered to pay $37 million, but it’s interesting because you would also recognize Johnson Health Tech as Horizon Treadmills and NordicTrack. Those are umbrellas underneath Johnson Health Tech. That doesn’t mean they’ll end up being the brand new owner though because it does come down to who’s the highest bidder, not to mention Bowflex owes $126 million in debt.

That makes some sense as to why acquiring them for $37 million doesn’t sound like that much money. I guess if they owe $120 million, you’re acquiring them for $157 million.

I know $37 million is a deal. That’s a steal.

For a brand name that’s recognizable as Bowfex, that’s being pretty low. I would have thought that that company had a much greater value, but I think it speaks a lot to the jilt that Peloton has caused in the whole fitness market. I can’t help but feel like Peloton has completely shifted how people workout at home. Part of me is surprised that people want to keep the brand alive at all.

That’s fair. I also think though if you’re somebody who already has all these brands, you can coast on this brand name recognition. There’s always going to be people out there that continue to buy Bowflex, continue to buy Horizon, continue to buy NordicTrack. If you own all of them, now you’re able to scale. You’re ability to make all of these components and make them work similarly. I would be able to use that to your advantage to get some savings when you’re doing the manufacturing. I would hope that would be possible.

You might not know the answer to this but does Bowflex do anything that’s not the resistant type stuff? Do they have a treadmill or a bike or is it all the weird contraptions?

I thought they had multiple things, similar to what Horizon has or what NordicTrack has. They have multiple things, but honestly, I did not look into that. One of the reasons I think that though is because $60 million of their debts are owned by component suppliers and manufacturing partners. I would think that would be a smaller number if it was not so much electronic pieces, like if it was all just benches.

That makes sense. There must be a little bit more going on.

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Peloton is rolling out a new leaderboard feature.

They sure are and in fact, you can block other members and hide tags and I am excited about it. I had a freaking party last week when this came out. I’ve been asking for this forever. Hey, stalker, you can’t send shit to my house and be high-fiving me all the time and think that you don’t get blocked, bitch. That’s for you. You know who you are and I know you listen. That’s for you. I’m over it.

I’ve heard people being all Apple-plectic in this feature. My first thought is what a weird sense of entitlement and privilege you must have. If this doesn’t affect you, what do you care if somebody else blocks somebody? All I can think is if you’re upset about it, you’re afraid you are going to be blocked by someone that you want to irritate.

What else could possibly be the motivation there? If you aren’t being annoying, then you’re not going to get blocked. If somebody doesn’t like you and they block you like, who cares? How is that any different than any other social media in the world?

For me, it doesn’t seem like it’s any different than people who don’t want to see the leaderboard. Why would you have that strong of an opinion? It’s going to make the user interface better for some people and it will change your relationship with the platform not one bit. To be all clutching your pearls over this is next-level douchey.

Not only is it douchey, it says a lot about the people who are upset about it. You’re trying to annoy someone and you’re mad that someone took away your ability to do that.

You’re bad that someone is disrupting your ability to disrupt other people.

I was going to talk about the hiding tags feature.

I was going to say that we should also talk about the fact that you can hide tags now. This being an election year, that’s very smart.

I’ll be using it, I assure you. There are some things I don’t need to see. You’re right. You get to have an opinion. You get to do whatever you want, but I don’t need to see it. There are some things I don’t agree with and I don’t want to see it.

In the last election cycle, they had some real issues with you and on tags and racist tags and They should definitely be trying to squash over the racist tags. It became a game of whack-a-mole. They would block one and then they change one character and they pop back up. The ability to hide tags may remove this game of whack-a-mole.

Not to say that they should turn a blind eye to racist tags, but the political stuff. If somebody doesn’t like it, they can block it and instead of the platform blocking it and then them feeling like, “I need to change this tag and create a new one,” they’ll never know that individual people have blocked the tag and if you don’t like it, it goes away and no harm no foul. In the long term, this is probably the better way to go in most instances of tags that people don’t like.

I would agree with that. First of all, anything that’s overtly offensive racist, and other things should be taken off as well. If it’s something that’s like your political belief, because I don’t agree with it doesn’t mean it should be taken off the platform. I agree with that as well. I think this allows people to control what they see because some people want to get on the bike or get on the tread and all they want to do is workout. They don’t want to be reminded of the politics no matter where you are on what side of the issues right now, this is going to be an ugly year when it comes to politics. If you can get on your Peloton machinery and not have to think about politics, that is a blessing for all of us.

Peloton has announced their NBA ambassadors.

What does that mean? Here’s the deal. We don’t know because Peloton did not clarify what this meant. NBA did not clarify what this meant. We don’t know. We do know that Peloton is the official fitness partner of the NBA and we know that these these players are being highlighted. They’re all big deals. I don’t know anything about them, but I’ve seen their names so I know they’re big deals, and in the NBA. They’re also a big deal.

We live in a city that doesn’t have an NBA team. It’s not a sport that we hear about in the same way we would hear about baseball or hockey or formally the NFL. It’s not something that gets as much chatter in Saint Louis.

The only time I ever hear any talk about the NBA is when Peloton talks about the NBA. That’s it.

I’m not going to lie. I felt better when you were like, “We don’t know what this means,” because I was trying to write the subject line for this and the show notes. I was like, “What does this mean?”

Let me give you even further comfort. Helper Bee Nikki couldn’t find anything either.

She likes sports.

That’s what I’m saying.

That makes me feel better.

We are hearing that features similar to what you see on the Guide are going to start popping up on Bike+ and Tread+

Here’s what we know. There are a certain amount of users who started seeing the interface that’s on the Guide on their Bike+ and their Tread+ today. That happened. Is it a feature? Is it a test? We don’t know that yet. All I have seen is that it looks like it’s a very few people. it’s looking like a test to us and how people respond to this test, how they use it, how much they like it, and remember, Peloton can trick every click that you do. It’s not what you what you say. It’s also how you use it.

That is probably what is going to determine whether or not we continue to see this. Everything that I have heard from people is that they’re excited about this because this would allow them to be able to use their Bike+ or their Tread+ as basically a replacement for the Guide. They can still get the same interface and be able to do strength workouts and see what’s coming next, all the cool stuff that’s on the Guide, but if they don’t have a Guide they can’t do that.

Isn’t there content on the Guide that you get first access to?

There is and we are not seeing that content. Specifically, what we have seen so far is split classes. When an instructor has a split program and it’s over four days or three days and there’s like upper body, lower body, that’s where we’re seeing this. That’s the only classes that are appearing as of today.

It’s select content. It doesn’t automatically turn your Bike+ completely into a Guide. Some of the content can bleed over.

It’s the interface. You see over on the left how it has a counter and it shows you which moves are coming next and you see that that camera that shows where the person is in the room, that is what you are getting that’s normally on the Guide. What you’re not getting, at least thus far, is the movement tracker. You’re not getting the rep counting. All you’re seeing is the ability to have the screen. Think about that. That’s the camera that is integrated into the machine. It can pick you up now, a reason to have the camera back and also to be able to see what moves are coming up next and the same layout as what you see on the Guide.

Do you know if it will have voice commands like the Guide has?

Unknown.

This is very interesting. We’ll see how this plays out long term.

We sure will. We’ll keep you updated.

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We’ve talked about this a few times over the last couple of weeks, but it looks like the class action settlement has reached a new phase if you were following along.

I didn’t understand this. I’ll be honest. I didn’t spend a lot of time on it. I saw it and it was recent and I was like, “I should grab this,” but I didn’t get a chance to dig into it.

From my understanding, this is about the lawsuit for Peloton investors who were suing on their behalf because they said that Peloton didn’t inform them of the Tread+ situation quickly enough and so it affected the stock price of their ability to sell, and so this is part of that $14 million settlement and so this seems to be entering the phase where if you are a stockholder during a certain period of time September 11, 2020, to May 5, 2021, I’m happy to say that you can log on to a special website and file as part of that class action settlement to get your chunk of the $14 million.

We were stockholders during that time.

Yes, we were and we still are, but they have a website listed here, and let me look for it. It’s PelotonSecuritySettlement.com. I did attempt to go to that website earlier today, but it did not appear to be live. I don’t know if that means the website was alive yet, or I was looking at it at work and did the firewall block it for some reason, but the website, if you were a stockholder during that period and you want your chunk of the money, you go to PelotonSecuritiesSettlement.com and fill out the form.

If you’re like, “I don’t feel right taking Peloton’s money,” and it was that big of a deal, I’m saying that’s Crystal, the money is already been awarded. It’s not like it will be a large amount the more people that go and try and get their chunk of it. It’s going to be the $14 million minus the lawyers are getting paid, divided by how many people go there and make their claims. You’re not taking any more money out of Peloton’s pocket that has already been taken. At least that’s my understanding of how this works.

For your knowledge, Tom. That was a work situation. I was able to pull or at least it’s up now. I can pull up that website on my computer and the form is there, and then they tell you how to do it within an FAQ as well.

We should end this portion of the show by saying we are not lawyers. This is not legal advice and we wish you luck. Coming up after this, we’re going to talk to Mikael Lindnord the subject of the new movie Arthur the King, so stick around.

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As we mentioned at the top of the show, we were fortunate enough to get to go to Catalina and participate in a press event for the new movie Arthur the King starring Mark Wahlberg in theaters, on March 15th, and we did not unfortunately get to meet Mark Wahlberg, but we did get to meet the guy that Mark Wahlberg is playing in the film. In the middle of the day, Crystal looks all sweaty and rained on. Do you still have mud on your face at this point?

I’m pretty sure I had already washed off my face. I did not keep mud on my face all day. I didn’t like the way I looked.

I don’t blame you at all. We were probably looking like a couple of drone rats because it started to rain halfway through the day and survival camps make you continue to attempt to survive while it’s raining. We’re going to stop here and talk to Mikael Lindnord for a second. Here we go.

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Tom O’keefe and Crystal O’Keefe with The Clip Out Podcast. For people who aren’t familiar with adventure racing, can you give us a quick tutorial on what that is?

It’s what we did today with zip-lining the bushes, repelling, and stuff like that. That’s the adventure part. The main thing is that you do it as a team of four and you take the course. It could be a short course, but to watch a championship, this could be like 400 to 500 miles and it’s like rounding or tracking and biking and paddling. That’s it. That’s the core three disciplines. You used your body to transport yourself. You do it as a team of four, at least one female per team. That’s the thing is you do the Bear Grylls. You have a bib with the number. It’s the same thing.

Did you do something before adventure racing that got you into the sport?

Yeah, I was a normal guy living in Sweden and I was not talented but I did my military service as a Green Beret in Sweden and that’s where I find my talent. My talent is never to give up, to do extra push and that was my talent, and then the sport came to swing at the end of ‘97. I did my first race and was like, this is my thing and it kept me with for almost 20 years.

What did you transition to when you were done with that?

I stopped because of everything with Arthur that’s happening. I did one more year as an athlete, but was very hard because everyone loved Arthur and we had a foundation and everything with that. Because I was kicked off my hockey team when I was 17, maybe I will come back. I did that at 43 years old. I did come back, took a spot in the team, and was team captain. We won that league so we’re qualified for their Division One. I wanted to do that to see if I could do it after all these years.

The story of Arthur is very special. How did it become not just a story? It became this global story.

It went global when we were actually in it. I didn’t know that anyone cared that we had Arthur. It was nice and at that time in 2014, the internet was booming, especially Facebook. It was a Facebook post as I understand that was posting about team Arthur and he’s in our team. That post was exploding around the world and that’s how it started. The story started with a big audience and we have no idea how it was. I was not even thinking of taking him home to Sweden, more like taking him to the finish line.

He was following us. We didn’t need anything. The only thing that I did acting with him was that we started to paddle because we’re not allowed to take the dogs with us. They volunteer, the staff member. We start paddling, then he jumps into the water, can’t do it anymore. I took him. That was the first time, otherwise, he was following us. Yes, to the finish line and then obviously to get the shack and then we have only four days to get all the paperwork. Have you seen the movie?

We have not seen it yet.

I don’t want to spoil anything. Many things in the movie are so true to real life. It was almost like seeing my life for the second time

That was very special.

With someone who wasn’t as good-looking, you can say it.

I think that to be portrayed by Mark Wahlberg, the biggest star, I would say that I’m on top now with everything that is going on. You can’t even dream stuff like that. I’m doing this all the time. This is happening. When I see the posters in Los Angeles and everywhere, I’m down, you know. The thing with this movie is not so much about me or Mark. It’s about Arthur. The thing is that Arthur is not with us anymore but there are a lot of other Arthurs out there. I think this will inspire people to get their own Arthur.

Thank you so much.

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We have lots of Peloton fertility news. Let’s start with in Emma Lovewell is having a baby.

She is a preggers as they say and she had the cutest little announcement with the little tiny hiking boots getting added. I love it. Huge congrats to her and her fiance and wish everybody well. I can’t wait to see how her pregnancy goes and her new baby.

Peloton seems like an overpriced machine to get for your house at first, but you will never know its benefits until you actually start using it. Share on X

We also found out that Matty Maggiacomo and his fiancee Evan have an egg donor.

It’s so freaking exciting. I can’t wait to hear how this goes. I’m sending them all the good wishes and hoping that it is a smooth fertility journey for them because wouldn’t they make the cutest dads? Just adorable.

We should also point out that Katie Wang had an announcement.

She’s going to be out for a few weeks while she is freezing her eggs. She will be back on the leaderboard. If you see that she’s gone and not sure why, that’s why. She had put it on her story. For those people who are wondering, no worries, she will be back.

Susie Chan announced that her book will be out in June.

I’m so excited. I can’t wait to read it.

Becs Gentry completed the Tokyo Marathon.

She did it with an amazing time, a time that I couldn’t even hope to have a half marathon finished within. She did an amazing job, 2 hours, 52 minutes, and 30 seconds. Keep in mind that this is her first marathon postpartum and her sixth and final world major marathon. Huge congrats to Becs Gentry.

We should probably also talk about the world majors real quick if people are curious about what they are and how it works.

I thought this was fun because Runners World magazine posted a list of easiest to hardest rankings. This is highly subjective and I will also say it is, in the running world, one of the biggest arguments ever. People constantly debate this, but they compiled tons and tons of responses, but they also looked at the flatness of the course. They looked at like what the temperatures are typically that time of year wherever the marathons take place. They took a lot of different things into consideration. Here’s how they rank. The easiest is Berlin. The second easiest is Chicago, followed by Tokyo, then London, then Boston, then New York. That’s not terrifying at all.

Finally, for this segment, Hannah Corbin is celebrating ten years with Peloton.

Huge congrats to Hannah. It’s cool to see all these instructors who have been with Peloton for ten years since the beginning.

It’s amazing how many of them are racking up full decades.

It has been a wild ride.

Coming up after this, we’re going to tell you about the newest artist series, who it features, and have even more competitor news for you. Stick around.

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This should be very popular. The latest artist series features Olivia Rodrigo.

I can’t wait. I am so excited. I love her so much. For those of you who have no idea who this is, Billy Lenore, I’m looking at you. She sang the song Driver’s License. You remember that a couple of years ago. It came out and it was everywhere. I love that song so much and then I started listening to the rest of her songs and they are so angsty but it’s perfect. It’s like a singer-songwriter.

They’re lyrically driven, well-written songs, and then they’ve got these like fun kicks to them with the actual background music. I love her so much and she has her new album out this year called Guts. I’m super excited about this one. My only sadness is that to me, Mariana Fernandez should be doing the run for this one. I don’t know why but in my head, either that or Matty Maggiacomo because Matty Maggiacomo is the first person on the Peloton platform that played Olivia Rodrigo for me and I fell in love with her.

Billy Lenore, keep your fingers crossed. We’re still pulling for a Dream Theater Artist Series.

Maybe one day. Will you take a class if that happens, Tom?

No, of course.

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It’s nice to see that it’s not just Peloton who faces class action lawsuits.

Facebook users who have a body membership and stream workout videos on Beachbody.com or the Body by Beachbody app are all affected. The attorneys that are with ClassAction.org say that they have reason to believe that Body formerly known as Beachbody may have been using a tracking tool on its website and app to secretly transmit details about certain users and videos they’ve watched to Facebook, and now they’re gathering paid members to take action over this potential privacy violation.

Some of the stuff I don’t get why it is that big of a deal.

I agree with that.

Facebook knows what you’ve been looking at. I didn’t think that was secret information.

I think what might be secret or what might be at play here is that you know how it says like, “Here’s what we’re collecting from you,” and if you don’t have that properly documented. then I think that’s the issue.

“We forgot to put up the warning in 3.5 font” that you have to click if you want to use anything. It’s not even something you can truly negotiate.

So many of these suits are very silly and I would say that it’s very possible this is one of those.

They will probably still win, but that doesn’t make it any less silly sometimes. If there’s something about this that we don’t understand. I would love to hear what it is. There could be something going on that if we understood the full ramifications, we’d be like, “That’s awful.” I’m willing to hear that but at first blush, I don’t get why this is a big deal.

I think that’s fair. That’s a good point.

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We have a past guest update from Laura Watts.

I thought this was cool. Laura was featured recently in Women’s Running Magazine and they did a whole feature about how she’s done Badwater at least twice. I think she’s doing that again this time. I think she’s doing it this year for her third run at it. She’s a lovely lady. We had so much fun talking to her. She lives in the UK and I’m pretty sure this magazine is also located in the UK. If you’re not familiar with it, it doesn’t appear to be available online. Laura did post pictures of the article on her Instagram and we will have those in our newsletter and as part of the show notes as well.

Congrats to her.

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It is time for the TCO top five.

Wait. Bingo number two is Andy Speers.

Now it is time for the TCO Top Five. Where you chime in your favorite classes. If you didn’t chime in and you’re trying to figure out the best way to utilize your Peloton membership and you are overwhelmed with content to choose from, this is where we step in and try to point you in the right direction. Item number one is your favorite Peloton ride.

This comes from Jenn Sherman, the 30-minute epic sing-along ride from March 3rd. Many people mentioned this class. It was very loved. Nancy Nelson, also known as Packers Fan, said, “The only problem with this ride is it wasn’t longer. Several instructors, Kendall, Rebecca, Andy, Kirsten, and Denis were in the class as well. The energy was great and it was so much fun to sing along with at home as it was with all the ballads you love to sing your heart out to. Don’t miss this class if you want to sing and smile.”

We’re coming in at number two, it’s your favorite Peloton walk.

No surprise, a 20-minute country pop walk with Matty. This took place on February 27th and Diana Williams Rosas found this class inspiring. She said, “It was going to church.” She wanted to scream Hallelujah to the uplifting playlist, in addition to a warm-up to Life’s About to Get Good by Shania Twain and a cool down to Something Better is Coming by LeAnn Rimes, the main 16 minutes of work in this class included progressive walking and power walking. I love Matty but even Matty can’t get me to listen to Shania Twain.

Your favorite Peloton outdoor run.

This is going back a little bit to November 6/23. It was a 30-minute New York City five Borough Run Brooklyn with Jess King. Katrina Noblos enjoyed this run, especially because she’s training for the New York City marathon, what better way to get a head start as Jess pointed out, so Jess encouraged people to run with a purpose, but you also want to party and refer to Brooklyn as the epicenter of cool, which is how you will look when you’re running down the road. I remember this one. This was one of my favorites and it included the Beastie Boys. It was so much fun. This was a great one.

Number four, your favorite Peloton strength class.

This goes back to November 10th. It was a 20-minute disco Pilates with Kristin McGee. Carrie Gormley said this class worked the core, had a great playlist, and had a fun way to end the class. We’re not going to give away the ending but check out the playlist and consider the possibilities or better yet, take the class and find out.

Finally, you’re unstackable of the week.

This is the first featured unstackable instructor with Hannah Frankson taking the lead from February 15th of ‘24. It was a 30-minute Tabata ride. This class left people in a puddle and you would not want to pair this. We heard from Sonya Norman who said that she loved the class and its results but also felt a little duped. She said when she started the class, she thought it was a 20-minute class and then realized when Hannah was describing the layout, that it was actually 30 minutes, but here’s the good news. She was so glad she stuck it out and finished because she felt a great sense of accomplishment afterward. I also want to point out that typically, Helper Bee Darcy writes this up every week for us, and Helper Bee Tina decided to do a little test read, like a backup. This was her first time writing the article. Thank you to both of those ladies.

Let’s take a look at this week in Peloton for support class suggestions.

First of all, there is a 30-minute ride coming up with a Ben Alldis to celebrate UK Mother’s Day. There are three classes. That’s the first one. There’s also going to be a live 30-minute walk plus run with Jermaine Johnson and a yet-to-be-released class with Susie Chan to celebrate the special woman in your life you think of as a mom. There are also new Lanebreak levels. I’m pretty excited about this because there are going to be some Green Day classes on the Lanebreak.

Do you get some more stuff out there?

We do. It’s going to be a focus flow for the rower. We’re going to see some new focus flows for rowing and it looks like this is going to be a cool one because the yoga session is led by Kira but Ash is going to be teaching the class as well.

We’ve also got some new strength classes.

Some more extra ten classes specifically which is perfect because you can tack this on to a different workout or you could string together several of the strength workouts for different body parts. You could do it in a couple of different ways. Very cool. I love these extra tens.

We have a new series from Logan Aldridge, Just Tabata.

This is going to be intense. I have a feeling this is going to show up as an unstackable very soon. Here’s the deal. It’s going to be all strength classes and it’s going to be all Tabata. When I say strength classes, think of things like push-ups, overhead presses, squats, burpees, etc. It’s going to be 20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest, 8 times through. You’re going to die. That’s basically what’s going to happen. Death by Tabata.

It will be the last Peloton class you’ll ever take.

I’m going to say that Helper Bee Nikki put together a new hashtag and that new hashtag is Death by Logan. I also wanted to talk about Logan’s new class. This was cool. Right after he did his first Just Tabata series, he went live and he was talking about how in the class some beeps are embedded in the class that help give audio cues so that people know when to stop and start so they know when to go and when to rest. He also indicated that he’s been working with the audio time for an audio team for a while to make sure that this happens and that maybe we might see these audio cues show up in other classes at some point in the future. That’s a big deal.

Also, Irene has a new core class coming.

She does. Strong Core Strong Body Number 2, people have been excited about this. Keep in mind it’s going to be in German. Also, keep in mind from all the people who have taken classes so far, we did Chris Perrone. He did an overview of this after he took the class and he said that even when it’s in German, it’s no problem. It’s easy to follow along. Subtitles make it easy. It’s easy to follow the subtitles. No problem.

We should also say in this week’s interview that we have tips for you on how you can take a German language class and still understand what they’re saying.

It’s very helpful.

Peloton is also celebrating Women’s History Month.

This is going to have a different spin on it. They’re going to be spotlighting remarkable contributions of women in music and there’s going to be special classes all month long. There’s going to be vocal Legends. There’s going to be women in rock and there’s also going to be women who mix and fem power. There are lots of fun classes to look for.

Coming up after this, we’re going to talk to Celestine Rojas if you want tips on how to take German classes when you don’t speak German like we were talking about. She has cracked the code, so stick around.

‐‐‐

In this episode, joining us is Celestine Rojas. How’s it going?

It’s nice to meet you guys virtually. Thank you for inviting me. I’m so happy to be here with you.

Discovering Peloton

We’re so happy to have you here. Take me back in time. How did you originally find Peloton and decide, “I’m going to try this?”

Like many people, it happened pretty much during COVID. I had heard about Peloton at work and it was at the gym. They had Peloton Bikes but I was one of those gym people who were like, “I’m not going to do that.” I’ve been always more strength girly but then when the gyms closed down and we couldn’t go to the gym, I couldn’t go to any of the hiking trails. I’m an avid hiker as well. It was like, “What do I do?”

My husband started using the app in the garage and lifting weights. He was doing Andy Speer’s program. He was like, “You need to check it out. I refuse. I would be in work meetings and the Hollywood producers would be talking about how they got this. They love Cody. I was like, “It’s cycling. No.” Sure enough, I checked out the app. I love the strength classes. Andy was one of the first ones that I started taking. It was almost my birthday and my husband’s like, “Why don’t you get the bike? Everything is still closed down. We can’t go hiking.” I got it and the rest is pretty much history.

How long did that take? If you’re doing this during the pandemic, that was a rough time to get one.

I got mine in November of 2020.

When did you order it?

I was one of those people who were like, “I want the bike. To get the Bike+, I was going to have to wait until March to get it. That’s ridiculous.” I ended up getting the OG bike, which was cheaper. That was another factor. I thought it seemed an overpriced machine to get for your house. I didn’t know until I started using it. With some of my first classes, I did a power zone class with Matt Wilpers, not even knowing what I was getting into. I slowly started finding other instructors at the time. Cody was one of my favorites. I have fun when I’m working out. If I’m not having fun, I’m not going to enjoy myself.

There is a Peloton instructor for everybody. If you don’t know which one is best for you, try to attend all classes. Share on X

If you’re not enjoying it, you’re not going to show up the next day.

I’m one of those people who works out every day pretty much. I have to do some movement, whether it be going out for a walk or something. Peloton helped keep me accountable and that’s what I love about it. I also have a tread, too.

Do you still have a bike or did you get a Bike+?

They’re in their separate rooms. I like keeping them separate. That way, if my husband wants to hop on the tread, he can and I can take a live class on the bike in the other room.

Sometimes, I’ll come downstairs and use the Tonal while Crystal is on the bike or tread. It’s so loud.

I’m going to jam. If I’m going to do it, it’s going to be up super loud. Besides, you listen to your show anyway while you work out.

It works out well because if I was trying to listen to music, it would be a mess. I’m listening to a podcast while they’re listening to Hank in the background. It works out okay. It’s got a score.

I jazz it up for you, Tom. You’re welcome. I want to know what the thing was that pulled you in. How did you originally start taking the classes? What made you say, “Fine, I’ll try a strength class and do this?”

It’s the routine. I was working out in my backyard. I had all my weights and stuff. It started to get boring and not being able to go to the gym. I started seeing how the classes were so fun and engaging. The instructors were inspiring. I represent one of those communities, the community of Camila Ramón, the MilaMafia. It changed my life. Everything is different. I’m from Chile. Camila Ramón is from Argentina.

For me, the Latin instructors are the ones who brought me in. It first started with Mariana, to be honest, with the yoga. I was like, “She’s only doing yoga. I don’t do yoga but I’m going to do it because I want to be there for her to represent the community.” She was the first one to teach Spanish yoga classes. We had Rad with the strength. When Camila came around, it was the bike first and then the tread. It was a dream come true. Camila has changed the way I see fitness.

Growing up in Chile, it’s always about shrinking your body. I lived in a city right by the beach in Viña del Mar. It’s a typical beach city, probably like Miami or something like that. It’s always about your physical appearance more than anything. It was always a big struggle with me trying to fit into that mold and everything. Having Camila Ramón come in and be like, “Wear the shorts, be happy with the way your body is,” it’s like, “I’m going to start doing that.” She has changed that for me. I look at fitness differently. It’s about being healthy and strong. I love myself the way I am. If I want to eat the croquetas or have the ice cream, it’s fine. I don’t think, “I ate 500 calories.”

For those of us who don’t speak Spanish, what is a croqueta?

It’s Cuban food. There’s chicken and ham. It’s fried on the outside. The texture inside is like a mashed potato. It’s creamy. It’s good. It’s a finger size. You eat 4 or 6 of them. The chicken ones are a little bigger. I would say it’s a finger food or fast-food-ish but it’s a very typical Cuban food. If you go to Miami or California and you go to Porto’s, they have them there. It’s so good. You have to try it.

I will be on the lookout. The next time I’m anywhere near one of those cities, I’m going to try one.

I’m Chilena so for me to like that food is a change for me.

Convincing Others

I’m curious about going backward. When you first thought about getting a bike, it sounded ridiculously expensive. You changed your mind but if you were talking to somebody telling you, “There’s no way I’m getting that bike,” and you were like, “No. Listen, it’s life-changing,” what would you tell them? What would be your rationale to help people know it’s a good decision, assuming they can afford it?

The first thing I would tell them to do is for them to go and check out my reels. I made a whole bunch of funny reels of all of the instructors. Some of them, you can tell which ones are my favorites. Seeing those snippets, people are like, “You gave me a reason to get the Peloton or that bike.” I am drinking more than the Kool-Aid because I go to the gym, too. I take the Peloton app. I’m one of those few people who use gym workouts via the Peloton app.

There’s no excuse for somebody to tell me that they can’t do Peloton because I’m like, “If you can’t get the bike, you can rent it. Use my referral code.” If they’re in New York, they can go to a class. I know that will change their minds. I feel like there’s a Peloton instructor for everybody. I’ve always been a true believer that you have to take all of the classes of all the instructors. If you don’t speak German, take it anyway.

Before the Spanish instructors were on the platform and I wanted to listen to some good Spanish rock, I would take Erik Jäger’s classes. I don’t speak German. His playlists are amazing. He goes to Brazil a lot so he knows a lot about South American Spanish rock. That attracted me to him. I don’t know if you know Argentinian rock but he was the first one to play Los Fabulosos Cadillacs on Peloton. For me, that was huge. They’re a very popular Argentinian rock band. I’m a rock girl at heart but Camila has me into Reggaetonera.

Are they like blues-based rock?

No.

I was curious because there’s a band that’s a blues-based rock called The Fabulous Thunderbirds. I was wondering if there was a riff on that.

I don’t know. Their music has a lot of beats in it too. It makes you think you’re out in a carnival but mixed with rock. It’s this whole vibe. The Argentinian rock in general, honestly, is the best in Latin America for me. There are so many amazing bands. To have Spanish instructors on the platform playing those on a regular basis, I feel seen. I love it. It’s amazing to hear my language on the screen and hear the other languages too. I’m one of those people who will take German classes. I like taking Assal’s strength classes too. She’s good.

Peloton Sessions In Different Languages

Do you take the classes that have the subtitles at the bottom or do you know enough German? How would you take a German class with us all? Are you watching what she’s doing?

Exactly. I follow what I see her doing on the screen. I usually have either the tread or the bike casting to one of the TV screens in the room. I can look at it from either angle and follow what she’s saying. I can catch some of the things she’s saying. This is my life hack. On the bike, what I do for the German classes is turn on the Google Translating app on my phone, put it in German, and hit the button. While I’m riding, I can hear what Erik Jäger or Benny Adami is saying.

That leads me to my next immediate thought. Are you translating it into Spanish or English?

I translated it into English, not Spanish because I feel like it looks better. With Spanish, sometimes it doesn’t hit all the right translations. It’s like, “What does it say?”

I feel like German is a little closer to English. It’s less of a leap. If you were translating German into Spanish, it reminds me of something. I’m going to nerd out here for a second. There’s an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. That’s the show where they watch bad movies and then make fun of them in real-time. They do an episode of Hamlet that was filmed in Germany. They translated Shakespeare into German. When they repurposed it for American audiences, they didn’t use the original Shakespeare but they translated the German translation of Shakespeare back into English. Why would you do that? It’s a hot mess but in a fun way.

I get it. It makes sense to do it that way.

I love that though.

I was stunned that there aren’t more Spanish language classes on Peloton.

There’s a lot more than you realize, Tom. It has gotten a lot better but I’m not saying they don’t need more. You should speak to that, Celestine. We don’t talk about it because I don’t have the knowledge to talk about it.

It’s not on my radar in the same way because it’s out of your wheelhouse.

I’d like to hear your thoughts.

It’s about the amount of Spanish language classes on the platform.

We have Spanish classes. Every Wednesday, Camila has your own Latin party. It’s all in Spanish. She plays different kinds of music and everything. We have a lot of people in the community that a lot of you know and they don’t speak a peep of Spanish. They show up to the classes because it’s a vibe. It’s fun. You don’t have to understand everything. You can choose to follow somebody you know. Following their cadence and resistance is a good rule of thumb or doing the Google thing that I mentioned.

Those are great tips for people who want to venture into that world of classes that aren’t in their native tongues.

I want to use some of this to repurpose into an article. We’ll give you credit. These are great ideas because there are a lot of people who don’t know this. That’s such a fantastic way to spread the word like, “Here’s how you can still enjoy these classes.”

Spanish Classes

The other thing I was going to say is one thing that Peloton hasn’t done yet that they need to do is have live Spanish classes on the tread. They do not offer live content in Spanish. It’s only on demand. For the tread, it’s only with Camila Ramón. Even though Mariana Fernández is on the tread, they have yet to schedule her in Spanish. She’s not even on the regular schedule, which is a shame. I feel like she’s an amazing runner. When I see Mariana on the tread, she’s like the Latin version of Matt Wilpers with knowledge about how to become a runner and all of that.

I agree but I also think she has this light to her. She’s always so soothing. She’s amazing. I wish she had meditations in English because she only has Spanish meditations. I love her so much that I want to take her meditations. I’m going to have to try your Google Translate.

That seems weird for a meditation.

I know but I’m still going to try it because I love Mariana.

Her voice is so amazing and soothing. When I think of Mariana not on the tread but in general as a person, she’s magical. When you meet her, her hugs, and everything, she’s such a beautiful person. Sometimes, I’ll take the time to translate reels for the community and put them up on our MilaMafia counter on my account. If there’s something I find that means a lot and a lot of times, it’s funny, I’ll go in and put those translations up there for people. The hope is you will take more of these classes and check them out.

There are so many great ideas to be able to enjoy it. I appreciate all those tips.

If people are always looking for new ways to utilize Peloton, that opens up a whole avenue for them.

We’re trying to encourage people to take classes with all the instructors. We have a Bingo game going. There are a lot of people who don’t even have their language settings to include German instructors or Spanish instructors. Some people are missing. It is wonderful that the Latin community feels seen but we, the larger Peloton community, could do a better job of making sure those instructors feel seen to your point. I feel like I have not done enough with that. That’s something I need to work on. I’m glad of all these ideas.

Meeting Your Instructors

I forgot to mention Rad Lopez. He’s such a beautiful person. I’m lucky enough that I got to meet all three of them. I’ve been to Peloton Studios in 2023. We did a MilaMafia takeover. It was weird but I met Rad Lopez not in class but at the Starbucks outside of the studio. I was at Starbucks and he was walking in. I saw him come in and I opened the door. I’m such a weirdo. I said in Spanish, “Destiny made us meet today.” He had this beautiful, bright smile. He’s such a wonderful guy. He’s so nice, approachable, and everything.

I haven’t gotten to talk to him. One time, we were in New York. This was when the studio was still under lockdown and we stopped by the new studio. He was being escorted out by his guards. I was like, “I know who that is.”

He was new at the time too, wasn’t he? It was funny, and not bagging on him, but we were surprised he had the escort because we were like, “I don’t know that anybody knows who he is yet.” He had been there for such a brief period.

He hadn’t blown up yet. It was a real eye-opener for me to see how they had changed everything because prior to the pandemic, there was none of that.

I was even like, “He’d probably be happy that someone recognized him at this point.” It’s still a novelty. He hasn’t been there long enough yet.

He’s not jaded.

The dental hasn’t even kicked in. He’ll take it. She was like, “I’m not going to do it.”

I felt weird about it.

That’s how I was when we were at the American Airlines lounge and Mickey Dolan sat down next to me. I was like, “I can’t talk to Mickey Dolan.” He’s two seats over from me and I’m like, “Hell no.” It’s like, “I’m going to take out my camera and show you the back of my computer.” On my computer, I’m like, “Mickey Dolan is going to file a restraining order if I go over and try to talk to him.”

We wanted to see the new building. I don’t know. It felt weird when he had his armed security guards walking to his car. It feels very stalker-y like I was hanging out there specifically for that. People did do that. That’s the other thing. That made me feel uncomfortable too because that’s very different than how things used to be. I was uncomfortable with the whole thing. Rad’s awesome. I haven’t had a conversation with the man but I love his classes. He seems very nice.

I wish that he would put him on the tread, bike, or something. I see him more being on the tread but I can keep wishing.

I hope for more tread instructors in general. I feel like there are plenty of bike instructors. They need to spread it out.

What is your leaderboard name?

It’s Celestine_. That’s it. I wanted it to be Celestine but it was taken by somebody who doesn’t even use Peloton.

I’m sorry. That’s sad.

That always sucks when somebody takes it and has given up.

I’m the only Celestine who has probably thousands of workouts on the platform.

That’s how we’ll find you.

I’m pretty easy to find.

I feel like we know who the favorite instructor is based on your admin duties. We can skip over that one.

I was at the Peloton On Tour. I was one of the first people to receive a Leaderboard Award. I don’t know if you can see it over there. I took that from the event. There was a high-five crowd or something. They were holding these things with the leaderboards. I snagged. They never knocked out Crew One for that community and then the MilaMafia one.

Celestine’s Advice

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

Do not take it so seriously. Try out all of the instructors. Look for the music that you like to listen to. Check out every discipline. Do not be afraid. Don’t tell yourself, “I can’t do yoga or power zone.” No. You have to test everything out. At the end of the day, you’re at home, I’m assuming. No one else is going to see you putting in those workouts or what you’re wearing. You have to check it all out and see what you like. Join communities. It will be the best way for you to figure out and feel like you belong somewhere.

Sometimes, in the gym, for example, I feel like I don’t belong anywhere. Everybody has their headphones on. They’re focused on their workout. In our world, you go online and join Facebook groups, even your group, or the MilaMafia one. The rest is history. It’s a matter of taking that first step. The motivation is not always there but as long as you get on that bike, one little pedal in, you’re good. You’ll get into it eventually.

I love that advice. It’s important to remember that even if you join a group and it doesn’t feel like your vibe, they’re a very different vibe in a different group. I feel like they all have different personalities. It’s similar to how the instructors have different personalities. They coalesce around those instructor personalities. You tend to find your people in those groups. Keep trying if you don’t click with one right away.

Can I say that one advice is to not join OPP?

I bet people suck that out pretty quickly.

I feel bad. Maybe take it as an area to find other groups from there but don’t make that your area. They’ll be posting your workouts.

Join it but mute it. That way, you can go look at it when you need to but you don’t have to see it when you’re not ready.

Don’t post there ever unless you want to get yelled at. If you’re in a mood to be abused, then that’s your call. Do what you have to do.

Joining communities is the best way to figure out yourself and feel you belong somewhere. Share on X

Closing Words

Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to join us. Before we let you go, let everybody know where they can find you in all the places. I’m assuming you want to be found because you’re an admin and you talk about your reels and stuff.

You can find me as @CelestineOnInsta on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Threads.

Thank you so much for talking to us.

Thank you guys for having me. It was a pleasure.

It was a lot of fun.

‐‐‐

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 all the socials and the Peloton leaderboard @ClipOutCrystal.

You can find me on Twitter @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, join the group, and of course, don’t forget our Patreon at Patreon.com/TheClipOut, where you can get ad-free episodes and all sorts of bonus content. If we get them early, you get them early. That’s it for this one. Thanks for tuning in and until next time, keep pedaling and running and rowing.

 

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