• Kendall Toole’s classes not being purged…for now.
• Kendall offered more insight into her exit.
• Form Feedback comes to the Guide.
• Law firm perks include Pelotons at work.
• Introducing instructor high fives.
• Another store closing.
• Peloton Quick Hits.
• Dr. Jenn – Overcome your disinterest in Peloton.
• Becs Gentry gets honest.
• Emma Lovewell on maternity leave.
• Irene Kaymer to teach Pilates.
• Hannah Frankson IG post about her love of strength training.
• Instructor Games – Power Walking on the Tread.
• PSL instructors tried the world’s toughest exercises.
• Rebecca Kennedy changed her routine.
• Tunde was Faces of Fitness Chicago.
• Alex Toussaint has a new release with Puma.
• The latest artist series features Kid Cudi.
• Lululemon and the battle of “long butt.”
• Andrea Navedo (from Jane The Virgin) is a Peloton member.
• TCO Top 5.
• This Week at Peloton. “Just Workout” gets a new feature.
• Andy Speer launches Density Deload.
• Birthdays – Jayvee Nava (8/2), Marion Roaman (8/3), Jess Sims (8/5), Alex Toussaint (8/6), Oliva Amato (8/8)

 

All this plus our interview with Ross Rayburn.

—

Watch the podcast here

 

Listen to the podcast here

 

Kendall Toole Reveals Why She Left Peloton Plus Book Club With Ross Rayburn

The Bingo thing is over.

You have lots of submissions.

You have until August 6th.

I wanted to give people a full cycle. Tuesday, August 6th, I’ll give you till midnight. Wednesday morning is too late. Wednesday morning Central time when I am awake is too late.

If she wakes up to an email, tough shit.

I am not including it. We did have a very special word that you needed to include. If you are thinking you’re done and you’re like, “I don’t care about the mystery square,” you need to go back and listen to episode 371. Get the magic word and put it in your Bingo card. Email it to me at ClipOutCrystal@gmail.com, with Bingo in the subject line. Make sure your magic word is included. We are giving away a Sonos Roam speaker. One person will be chosen.

Very nice Bluetooth speaker setup. For our guests in this episode, actually, over the next two episodes, it’s a very special conversation with Ross Rayburn. We had him in the book club talking about his book and we had listeners asking him questions.

It was called Turning Inward if you don’t know.

That’s been over on our Patreon for a while but a lot of people have not partaken in that. It was free, like you don’t have to give us money to hear it. We thought we’d get it in front of a larger audience so people can enjoy Ross Rayburn and the lessons in his book. We’ll play the first half-hour of it in this episode and then the next half-hour of it next episode. That is your guest. It’s Ross Rayburn.

He’s awesome.

He’s very nice. What else pray tell do you have in store for people?

We will talk about lots of news going on with Peloton. There are a bunch of changes that have been made and new features. Kendall can’t stay out of the news. We’ll talk about that. We’re going to talk about another store that closed. We’ve got a bunch of quick hits. We also have a visit from Dr. Jenn and we’re going to talk about what happens when you are a long-time Peloton user and you become disinterested in Peloton. We have a bunch of instructor updates, We also have artist series, competitors, and celebrity sightings. It’s August. The birthday month has come.

There are five birthdays this week. There are thirteen Peloton-related birthdays in the month of August.

Peloton equals Leo.

I don’t know what the Peloton parents were doing in November. I think I know exactly what they were doing. They like Thanksgiving. That’s all I’m saying. One was thanking, one was giving.

Okay. That’s enough of that.

That’s all I’m saying. You’re like, “I don’t need that image because my birthday is this month.”

You’re talking about my parents.

Before we get to all that, shameless plugs. Don’t forget, we’re available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, and TuneIn. Wherever you find a podcast, you can find us. While you’re there, be sure and follow us so you never miss an episode. Maybe leave us a review. That’s super helpful.

We got a new review. This is from Scarlett Summer. She said, “I look forward to this podcast every week. Crystal and Tom are so funny and down to earth. Their attention to detail and sense of humor brightens my day, I recommend this pod for anyone in the Pelo community or even if you are Pelo-curious.” I love that. What a sweet review. Thank you so much.

You can also find us on Facebook at Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page and join the group. We have our Patreon, Patreon.com/TheClipOut, where for $5 a month, you get ad-free episodes. If we get an episode early, you get it early. Every week, we record an extra episode called The Clipped Out of stories we didn’t have time to get to on the regular episode.

There’s a lot this week. It’s a busy week. It’s a great way to support the show. There are lots of costs associated with something like this between the hosting, the computers, the microphones, and the articles. It’s a way to help keep the thing flowing. It is greatly appreciated. If you want to swing by, we’d love to have you.

As I said, it’s just $5. It’s not too crazy. You can also sign up for our newsletter at TheClipOut.com where you will have all the email links and whatnot sent directly to your inbox most weeks unless I’m in Hawaii or something. Finally, don’t forget, you can watch all of these videos over on YouTube. If you want to see the faces Crystal makes when I get her upset, they are in HD. There’s all of that. Let’s dig in. Shall we?

We shall.

‐‐‐

I thought this was all addressed when Kendall left. People are always like, “What if they’re out to get me?”

In people’s defense, this is actually on Peloton. A person sent a message to tier-one support.

That’s an AI chatbot.

They were saying they couldn’t find the class that they were looking for. It was Kendall’s class. They get a message back from Peloton and it says, “I know that Kendall has left Peloton and we currently have none of her classes anymore in our Peloton library.” Somebody was like, “Wait a second. I thought that they were not going to remove them.” They were like, “All of her classes are in the process of being removed.” She was like, “Do you know when they are going to be removed?” She was like, “It’s undetermined when it will be completed. There’s no te ETA at the time, but it’s in progress.”

With the long arc of history, all classes are theoretically in progress being deleted.

I know that and I agree with you, but this answer was super confusing.

This answer is dog shit, which is also why I wonder if it’s an AI chatbot. It sounds like some vague corporate chatbot response of like, “Theoretically, eventually, all classes will be purged.”

It went over on the OPP and people lost their minds. What it ended up being was this person who posted on the OPP when they were searching, they were looking on the search bar for Kendall, not the filter of instructors, and so they freaked out. We did double-check it. Kimberly has been writing for us. She’s been a tipster for us.

She has been on a mission for a long time to take all of Kendall’s classes, way before Kendall was even talking about leaving. She’s like, “I can confirm, the number of classes has not changed.” She looked at that number every day for a long time. She’s like, “It has not changed.” That was number one. Number two, we also want to put out there. To your point, they are going to go at some point.

It’s a conveyor belt. Eventually, they get to the end of the conveyor belt and they drop off.

If you want to read how they pick the classes, there’s a whole article out there. Tom, you can include it in the newsletter if you want. It was back in April that they wrote it. It’s like there’s Fridays, two years or a year, they go back, and they’re gone.

This is sort of inside information people come to us for. Every time a computer boops, a Peloton class gets deleted.

Only on Fridays.

It’s like It’s a Wonderful Life. Zuzu’s classes, Zuzu’s Pilates. While we’re speaking of Kendall, she offered more insight as to why she left Peloton. Was she not getting the engagement that she liked?

I don’t know about that. She keeps saying things that are nasty about Peloton, so then Peloton members keep saying to her when she says, “Ask me anything,” why did you leave Peloton? There’s some dirt here. You cannot bait people and then expect they’re not going to be dated. Have you met the internet? This is what they do. She posted, “I’m going to address it once and for all. I left Peloton because it was time for me to evolve. I outgrew my shell.”

She rehashed the same statement and said, “This is a new answer.”

It was in People Magazine. She keeps stirring the pot and then going, “Why is everyone asking?”

All I could think of was Daffy Duck drinking gasoline and eating a match. It’s a great trick, but you can only do it once.

I can’t help but notice that she was like, “I also have more on my next step in my journey this week.” It was timed strategically to get people’s attention.

That’s how you should do it, but also people are like, “Yeah.”

All I know is I have felt that for a very long time, she thought she was bigger and better than Peloton. She keeps telling me in every single statement that she makes that is how she feels. I hope she still feels that way, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. Moving on, the only updates we’re going to have about Kendall going forward are going to be over in the bonus episode unless it’s major.

This bi-weekly “Why I left Peloton” posts, we’re done with them. The Guide now has form feedback.

Yes, and so far, it is reported that it is working well.

How about that?

I know it’s not for every move. It depends on where you have your setup and how you are turned toward the Guide, but it should be telling you that. The only negativity that I have seen about it is the same as we have with Tonal. It gives you form feedback and if you’re turned away from it or you’re facing down, you can’t see it. It would be nice if it were spoken because you shouldn’t have to creek your neck to look up and be like, “What did I do wrong? Did I do something wrong?” People like it. I don’t know if it’s enough to get people super excited about it. Now is the time. It’s $95. Buy one.

They are practically giving them away. I wonder how long until we see like when you buy a Bike, they’re like, “We’ll throw in a Guide.” Not all the time, but maybe like Black Fridays and stuff like that.

I hope it continues to grow. With them continuing to grow on the strength side of things, I’m hopeful they will find ways to continue to make the Guide relevant with that.

This is fun. We get to talk about law firms, but nobody is suing anybody.

Yet.

That’s fair.

No, you’re right. It’s fine.

This is an article from ABA Journal that writes about law firms and their perks. One of the perks many of them are now offering is Pelotons at work.

Apparently, at some law firms, you can play pool, table tennis, and get on a Peloton.

It’s probably billable hours, as many lawsuits as there are against Peloton. You are riding your Peloton bike and you’re like, “I’m researching the next lawsuit. This feels a little loose. I think we should sue them.”

For a while there, you had Kindle on your bike. You could even read. If you had documents that you could pull up within Kindle, you could read them right there.

They purged all the Kendall classes.

I meant the Kindle reader. The Kendall classes have not been purged. That was the whole point of what we were saying. Don’t confuse everyone.

I read it on the internet. It must be true.

I love it whenever I posted on the OPP, which I always do with trepidation.

It’s like when you’re a little kid and you throw a firecracker. You light it and then run away.

I need to turn off alerts when I do that, but I made the mistake of somebody commenting on a post I made and I went to go look. There were several people that were like, “Sensationalism. They already said this when she left Peloton.” Really? Maybe if you read the article, you’d know that. I love people. They’re so angry.

We now have instructor high-fives live.

For years, people have gotten instructor high-fives if they’re in an on-demand class. Let’s say I’m taking a live class with Ben Alldis. Jenn Sherman might hop on and start giving out high-fives. That’s been going on for years. What’s different here is Ben Alldis might be teaching the class and start sending out high-fives from his bike live in the studio. That is new and that is cool. Although people do not seem that excited about it. I thought they would be more excited, but no. It is completely non-exciting. I think it’s great.

I don’t think I will believe it when it’s one screen name giving you. I’m not sure who it is.

You should be able to see the instructor touching the tablet.

I guess but aren’t they always touching the tablet?

No. When you high-five, you’re like tap, tap, tap. When they scroll, they scroll like that. I don’t think that they always are. To be honest, I never take live classes anymore. I haven’t taken a live class in at least two months.

Me too.

I have no idea if they are in time because there is also about a minute off, so you’re not going to see it in real-time.

You see and you’re like, “Did they really or is it some intern in the control room being like, ‘Launched the high-fives?’”

It could be. I’m not saying it isn’t. The instructors are saying they’re giving the high-fives. That is what they are saying.

It’s like when you’re going on your Disney trip call from Mickey Mouse. I’m like, “It’s not the real Mickey.”

How did you know it’s not Mickey?

That’s automated.

You think?

I feel pretty confident?

I don’t know, Tom.

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We have another store shutting down. Should I say, “Throw another store closing on the barbie?” Because it’s in Australia.

It is, which is why it was notable to me.

If you live in Australia, you can no longer go to the store in Bondi Junction. That’s the most Australian sounding store I’ve ever heard of, Bondi Junction.

I think it’s a location.

Is it the name of a town or a mall? Bondi Junction sounds Australian. I picture someone pulling up in a khaki-colored Jeep, wearing a pith helmet.

They’ve also got khaki-colored clothes because it’s hot. They hop out and then they’ve got a knife.

They say, “Good day, mate.”

Yes, and they’re wearing a knife on their hip for the outback.

In my head, it’s Yahoo Serious.

Really? The young or the old Yahoo?

I don’t know what old Yahoo Serious looks like. I just know what young Yahoo Serious looks like.

He was very cute when he was young. That’s all I will say about that.

I’ll take your word for it. I heard that he has a child now, Google Serious. Do you know his father Ask Jeeves Serious, or his grandfather Encyclopedia Serious?

I can’t help it. You make me laugh. I know it’s cheesy. It’s it’s partly your delivery because you’re so adorable when you say it.

That’s the comment I get the most often. It’s how adorable I am.

It’s my opinion.

That’s all that matters. Let’s do some Peloton quick hits here, talking about some smaller stories. I think we talked about this one a little bit last week. Walk-ins are welcome.

In theory, you can walk into the New York City studio. The door will be unlocked and waiting for you.

Like communism, it’s a nice theory. I don’t know how realistic it will be in practice. Ally Love to the hosting seat.

You skipped Emma Lovewell.

Sorry. I scrolled too fast. Emma Lovewell to the maternity seat.

She is going to continue to be dropping tread content while she’s on maternity leave. She has officially taught her last class before the baby comes. We are officially on baby watch for two babies from Jermaine Johnson and Emma. For two instructors, babies are imminent.

I thought she was having twins.

No.

She’s like, “Whew.” Have you heard about this? Ally Love to the hosting seat.

I have heard that. She was on The Today Show and she was with Craig Melvin and Jason. She got to chat with Nick Jonas about his new movie and Jesse Malone about her inspiring health journey. All the stuff she covered on The Today Show.

That has to be exciting, actually to get to host.

That would be exciting.

Christine D’Ercole received a heartfelt gift.

A very nice member gave her a race to commemorate her finishing the Palomar Mountain Climb. He finished it at the Giro di San Diego Palomar Metric race. It’s a 56-mile race and includes the Palomar Mountain Climb that Christine did. It was like, “Since I got two and you didn’t get a medal for what you did, I would like to give it to you.” Isn’t that nice?” I thought that was very thoughtful.

Hannah Frankson had some Vikings in her class.

Minnesota Vikings, specifically, were in London and took a class with Hannah Frankson. They looked like they were having a ton of fun, all of them. What a neat little thing to happen. That kind of stuff doesn’t get to happen in London often. How special for Hannah Frankson.

Coming up after this, we’re going to talk to Dr. Jenn. You love your Peloton, but you’ve fallen off the wagon. It doesn’t intrigue you in the same way. How do you get the passion back? Dr. Jenn is going to help you out right after this.

‐‐‐

Joining us once again via the magic of Zoom tube is Dr. Jenn Mann, licensed marriage, family, and child therapist, and sports psychology consultant. She was a five-year national team member in rhythmic gymnastics, and sports psychology for USA Gymnastics. It’s Dr. Jenn.

Hello.

I have a great question for you today. This comes from Susan Dutton Burton. She’s a long-time listener and I feel like there are a lot of people in the Peloton community who can relate to this. This is a little different. She says that she is struggling with becoming disinterested. She has been with Peloton since 2014. She’s got a Bike+, Tread+, and a Row. She doesn’t want to be disinterested, but that’s her struggle. She’s finding herself turning to other fitness platforms this year. I asked her to elaborate. I said, “Can you tell me a little bit about why you’re disinterested?” She said she’s struggling to answer that as well.

She said, “I don’t have a good reason. I should love it as much as I always do. It has so much to offer.” She talks about how many changes there have been. Since John Foley left the company, it has evolved a lot. Of course, the stock and seeing instructors come and go for various reasons. She said that she doesn’t know that all of the instructors that are still there necessarily feel as good as they used to feel. Her local showroom closed. These are a few of the things happening. I’m curious to hear your thoughts on this.

There are two parts to this question, and then the answer. The first is an emotional part and I’m going to address that first. The second is logistical, like what does she need to do to shake things up and get more interested? It sounds like the emotional part is hitting home more. I don’t know her, but I’m assuming she’s an OG. She was around when Peloton first started. She witnessed its feeling from a very small club. Everyone knows each other, high-fives, and super positive, almost like a small-town feel. Now, it’s a very big city feel. There are millions of members. There have been different people running the organization and some instructors have come and gone.

It’s a little bit like the curtain has been lifted. Dorothy has gone down the yellow brick road and we know who’s behind the curtain and a lot more about what’s going on, the gossip, and all that sort of stuff. Sometimes it’s fun and it’s chill, but knowing too much about an instructor sometimes can make you not want to take that person’s class. There are a few instructors I’m close with. There’s one in particular who I adore. She’s like the greatest person on the planet, but I don’t listen to her meditations because we’re pals. I’ll think about it like, “I know she had this struggle last week.”

It makes sense to me that she’s feeling restless. I also think that she has to grieve the Peloton that she once knew and loved to adjust to the Peloton that’s evolving. The truth is in life, nothing is static. It’s not just Peloton. It’s everywhere. We have to work on being resilient and we have to work on being like bamboo and being able to bend without breaking as change occurs. I don’t know her, but I’m wondering if there are other areas of her life where she struggles with change. That would make a lot of sense.

We get attached to people. We get attached to a way of things and a way of life. I think that for her to be able to reconnect and be interested again, she needs to have that grieving process. She needs to let herself feel those feelings. Sometimes someone who is a hardcore Peloton person feels almost disloyal to be like, “I don’t like this thing about Peloton, I don’t like this change, I don’t like this instructor,” or whatever it is. You have to let yourself have your feelings to move through them.

When we don’t give ourselves that grace and that ability to have those feelings, we try to go around it. There’s no going around it. We have to go through it. If you don’t go through it, you don’t grieve the loss, you don’t move forward. I think that that’s blocking her. Once she has that experience of grieving, being able to look at it and say, “It has changed. There are a lot of things that feel different, uncomfortable, and unfamiliar. What do I like? What has been added to the platform? What’s been added to the Peloton world that I like?”

I would recommend now going to the logistics aspect. It’s very easy especially if you’re an OG to always take the same instructors and the same types of classes. I would be saying like, “Let’s sit down and look at all of the classes you take.” How many dance classes have you taken? How many Pilates classes? How many shadowboxing? Some of the other more unique classes, Have you listened to Tunde’s podcast on the treadmill? Have you done the scenic runs? Have you done the scenic biking or rowing? What about lane break? To me, it’s time to shake things up. It’s time to try instructors that you haven’t tried, especially new ones.

Sometimes there’s a tendency to be like, “I’m sticking with the OG group,” but then you’re missing out on some amazing instructors that are new generation. There are some incredible instructors. Bradley Rose is amazing, and Jon Hosking. You know how I feel about Jon. His music selections in his run are amazing. There are so many. Susie and Joslyn are incredible. There are so many great new instructors and if you stick to the original group, then you’re missing out.

I think it’s important to look at all the different generations of instructors. When did you stop trying new instructors? When did you stop trying new classes? You know that I’m very music-based. If she is not doing searches under music, start looking for your favorite groups, bands, or artists. Do artist series. Do searches so that if you’re not inspired by the class, get inspired by the music. There are a lot of different things that can inspire you. It’s time to shake it up and come up with a new plan.

That makes a lot of sense.

Attack it from a different direction. Make it new again.

Make it fun again too. Look for that fun factor. That’s a good point.

It needs to be fresh again. It’s very easy to get stuck, especially if you’re a creature of habit. I know I am, but I work very hard to change up my workout plan every 4 to 6 months.

That makes a lot of sense.

Thank you so much for all that. Until next time, where can people find you?

On social media at @DrJennMann.

Wonderful. Thank you.

‐‐‐

Becs Gentry is getting honest. Has she not been?

It’s a serious subject. We should say here that if you have eating disorders, tune out now. Becs said that people are always asking her, “What do you eat in a day?” She doesn’t answer those questions and she doesn’t want to be rude to people but she has struggled with not being healthy with her eating habits. She’s gone through periods where she starved herself to look a certain way. She is in a great place now with her food and her nutrition. It puts her in a bad place to talk about all of that. When people ask, she’s not going to share.

I think also, with the platform she has, there are probably a lot of people who would try to mirror what she does, and that might not be the best for them.

Everybody is different.

I’m sure she is eating healthy now, but just because it’s healthy for her doesn’t mean it is for anybody. I’m sure there are a portion of people who would be like, “If it works for her, it works for me. I’m going to do the same thing,” but you are not the same person.

How many times have we talked about metabolism with Angelo? Whatever you’re eating right now, 3,000 calories a day or 1,000 calories a day, your body is adapted to it if you’ve done it for a while. If you go from point A to point B, whatever those two extremes are, your body is going to have to adapt all over again. If your body is not prepared for that, it’s not going to be great. You need enough fuel to be able to do your workouts. I am curious about what’s going to happen with this nutrition thing that Peloton is working on. Is she not part of it?

There are different ways to be part of it. You don’t necessarily have to be like, “Here’s everything I eat for nutrition.” She might talk about it in different ways, or it might be a program that people can opt out of for reasons like this.

That’s what I’m curious about. Peloton is always great about that thing and takes good care of the instructors. I suspect that it’s either opt out or it’s exactly what you said. It’ll be a way where she can participate without feeling pressure.

If she’s not comfortable doing it, then she won’t be good at doing it. What’s the point of making her do it? I’m sure it’ll be fine. They have a system. That’s my guess.

Just for conversation, Tom.

Irene Kaymer announced that she will be teaching Pilates.

This is her first time teaching Pilates on the platform and it’s going to be coming out in early August. It’ll be on Thursday, August 8th when we’re going to see the first class hit. That’s pretty exciting. I love that she’s going to be doing this. I’m glad that Peloton is still committed to growing classes for German-speaking people and Spanish-speaking people. It’s good to see that.

Hannah Frankson had an Instagram post about her love of strength training.

It was pretty fascinating to people because she talked about how she has been lifting weights since she was sixteen, in some capacity. Not necessarily the same way throughout her life. She also talked about how she doesn’t lift just to be stronger and to see gains. She does it for mental clarity, longevity, and all good reasons. The other thing that stood out about this was she usually doesn’t post about her weight training. Does this mean that potentially, she could be doing the next split program? It is pretty exciting to think about.

They seem to be going all-in on strength training, not all-in enough to buy Tonal.

It’s too bad.

I keep hoping but I also know that they are going through the couch cushions over there. They were having instructor games like the Olympics but not really because they don’t get sued. They’re very particular about what you can say regarding the Olympics.

You know all about that.

I know all about that because Simone Biles is playing in my building.

Are you allowed to say this?

I think I can.

Can you say why you can’t talk?

The Olympics has all sorts of rules. It’s to the point where you can’t use a gold emoji in a social media post.

There’s a time frame around the Olympics.

It’s like a four-day window or something. I post nothing. Every couple of days, they’ll be like, “Here’s something that you can say that won’t get as yelled at or sued.” Cut, paste, post.

That’s a good thing to do.

They were having the instructor games. One of them said they were trying to see how far you could power walk on the tread in 60 seconds.

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Takeaways from the comments section. Alex is a beast, Kirsten is relatable as fuck, and Matt has hair. Those are the comments.

While we’re speaking of fun times at the studio, over in London, the instructors were trying out the world’s toughest exercises. If you ever want to feel better about your own fitness journey, now the things they’re trying here are crazy hard but it is delightful to watch super fit Peloton instructors falling on their faces trying to do some of these moves.

They’re so strong. They’re so fit and they’re trying to do these things that some people manage to make look so easy, and these guys are struggling. I have so much respect for them for filming and posting this and having fun with it. That’s amazing. Some of the moves are push-ups and headstands. There was the one where you do the push-up with one arm and all of your weight is on the one arm as you try to do a one-arm lift. There was the one where they did the Superman push-up, which is practically impossible. Ben Alldis made it look good and so did Erik Jäger. They both made it look good.

They include footage of people who can do it so you can see what it looks like.

It was the best video this week. If you haven’t seen it, you should go check it out.

Rebecca Kennedy talked about how she made changes to her routine.

To be fair, I think that she originally posted this a few weeks ago. The original post is a couple of weeks old. It stood out and resonated with all of the Helper Bees. Nikki was like, “I want to write an article about this.” She did and talked about how Rebecca has gone through changes. She’s gone from running a lot and high-impact cardio to low-impact cardio and a lot more strength training. The changes for her have been perfect. She is not saying everybody needs to do that, nor are we, but if you think that this would be good for you, Nikki also went the extra mile and added in an entire routine that people could follow. It’s super helpful.

Dr. Jenn talks about this all the time, how every 6 to 8t months, she completely changes it to keep her mind fresh and engaged, but also so her body doesn’t just adapt like with food. Tunde was at Faces of Fitness Chicago.

This was a big event that took place in Chicago. We had talked about a few weeks ago that she was going to be one of the people there, but it’s cool to see the actual footage from it. She was putting people through their paces. It was a hard workout and there was a huge crowd of people there to see her. That’s cool.

We will have more stories about Tunde in Chicago in the bonus episode. I don’t know what the sudden tie to Chicago is.

A big part of it is the YMCA connection, which is based in Chicago. That’s where the original one started. Part of that is that connection that’s taking place.

Alex Toussaint has a new Puma release.

Specifically, a pair of shoes.

That’s true. I was like, “Puma means shoes.” I guess it doesn’t anymore.

It’s his brand and it has his little sayings and stuff inside the shoe. It has not only the Puma logo, but it also has a T on the side of it. Alex is very excited about it. It’s very big in the community for the feel-good fam. They are all super excited and I’m pretty sure these are going to sell out, knowing the feel-good fam.

Coming up after this, we’re going to tell you about the latest artist series. We will let you in on Lululemon and the battle of long butt, so stick around.

‐‐‐

The latest artist series features Kid Cudi.

We alluded to this last week. We talked about there’s going to be a bunch of new ones. Here’s your little preview. Week one is Kid Cudi and we have seven new classes that are dropping including shadowboxing with Rad. There’s going to also be a ride with Cliff, full-body strength with Jess Sims, yoga flow with Kirra, a ride with Alex, and a run with Camila.

‐‐‐

Lululemon found themselves in an awkward position this week.

They were the butt of a joke.

We’re better than that. No, we’re not. We’re not better than that. Not in any way, shape, or form. They put out this new series of leggings called Breeze Through that are seamless. They are seamless in the front ladies’ zone, but not in the back. I guess the back isn’t the ladies’ zone because we both got that zone.

They created what they call a whale tail Y-shaped seam in the back. It also had a V-waistband in the front. To replace the seam in the front was a V-waistband.

People were saying that it gives you a long butt.

They were not happy with the reviews. The inner reviews, they were not happy, is what I mean to say. Long butt came up a lot and people stopped buying them and there were awful reviews. Lululemon said, “Take them all down.”

This is like anything. Some clothes look better on some people than others.

These models look fine.

They are also their models. The seam goes right up to the crack of your butt.

There are a lot of leggings that do that and some of them are trying to make your cheeks look juicier. I don’t know what else to say. That’s what they’re trying to do. It makes a deep crack. That’s the whole point of them, but these don’t do that. They somehow make it long. I don’t know. I haven’t seen a picture of it on a person.

It’s like the opposite of mom jeans. A mom’s jeans make everybody look squat.

They were also trying to avoid camel-toe.

Instead, they gave you camel butt.

It was a fail, $98 for a long butt.

If there are ladies out there who felt like their butts are too short, this could be a win. It is your time to shine.

You could find probably some discarded one somewhere.

‐‐‐

We have a new celebrity sighting, Andrea Navedo.

If you don’t who that is, that is the woman who plays the mom in the show Jane the Virgin.

It was a very successful CW show with 5 or 6 seasons.

It’s great.

You just finished it.

It’s been a few months, but I started off thinking I was going to hate-watch it because during the day, I tend to hate-watch shows. I got so sucked into that show. It’s so good and I was not hate-watching. I was enjoy-watching. That was great.

Welcome, Andrea. I mean she has probably been doing it for a while but it’s new to us.

I did hear also that the man who played her husband, I don’t want to give away any spoilers for those who haven’t listened, but Jane’s dad. He too rides the bike. I didn’t have any record of that. I just heard that when we were putting this together.

Duly noted.

‐‐‐

Let’s turn our eyes to TCO Top Five. You have chimed in with which classes you like the best and we will share them with the class. Coming in the first spot is your favorite run.

This was taught by Selena Samuela. It was a 30-minute Anita run. Diana Volk loved it. She said, “The run was amazing. If you want to explore Brazilian funk. This is a great class and Selena’s cues are perfect for every level of runner.” That is great because you don’t want to take a class that you’re not sure about the music.

A lot of variables. Number two, your favorite split program.

Rebecca Kennedy launched her three-day split last week and people are loving it. Number two is Rebecca Kennedy. Barbie Fisher is loving it. She recommended it. She said that it has three 45-minute classes per week. They are designed to be repeated over a number of weeks. Rebecca encourages you to lift heavy. Barbie thought her heavy was 20 pounds, but now she’s lifting 30 pounds in Rebecca’s program. “It’s a beast but I love how she instructs. I will probably do 4 to 6 weeks of it. That’s cool.

Number three, your favorite Power Zone ride.

This one was taught by Christine and it was launched on July 28th. It was a 45-minute Power Zone Max. Kristen Lewandowski is a long-time listener and follower, but a first-time poster. She said that this class was so challenging. It could also double as an unstackable. She said she had to post about this class. Maybe it’s because she was lucky enough to take it live at PSNY but the vote for her favorite ride and favorite unstackable are one and the same. “Christine took us into alternating 30-second zone 6s, zone 1s, then into zone 7, zone 1 intervals with a four-minute zone 1 and 2 recovery in between each set. Tough but doable.”

I was saying dear God, what must the unstackable this week be if it’s a Power Zone Max class? Number four, your favorite mobility class with this week’s guest.

Ross Rayburn. We’re taking it back to May. He taught this class, a 20-minute full-body mobility. His content is still on the platform. You notice how it’s happening and he doesn’t make a big deal about it. Sonia Norman picked this class and she said, “For each exercise, Ross first had you engage muscles for stability which enhances the mobility part of the movement. It was so effective and I felt great afterward, and the playlist was great, songs from Hozier and Billie Eilish.”

Finally, your favorite unstackable.

This is a toughie. This is a 60-minute full-body strength that Adrian Williams taught on 7/20. Felicia Allen recommended this as her favorite class and an unstackable. Adrian announces his weight and his heavy weight is 60 pounds, just for reference. “This class starts off cool with some heavy lifting sets, then transitions to conditioning with medium weights to where you question everything you ate that morning because it’s on its way back up, but I’ll do it all again.” I love it. That is a very worthy unstackable. Nice job, Felicia.

Now let’s take a quick look at This Week in Peloton. We have new scenic classes.

These classes are taking place in Naira Park in Tenerife. You can do that on the bike, the tread, or rowing. They all dropped on July 31st at 10 AM.

We have a two-for-one stretch.

This is from Ally Love and Hannah Corbin, two-for-one stretch and it is starting on Friday.

New Latinos classes.

These classes are going to feature Rad, Mariana, and Camila. They are all going to be on the live schedule this coming Saturday for strength, yoga, and cycling sessions.

A 45-minute power flow.

It’s led by Marianna, on Sunday, August 4th, at 10:30 AM Eastern. This one is focused on building strength and flexibility.

Just Workout has gotten a new feature.

This is pretty exciting because whenever you’re taking a class on the tread, you have this digital 400-meter running track that you can use when you’re taking Just Run or Just Walk mode, and then you’re going to be able to see exactly where you are in relation to the tracks. If you like track workouts, this can be a way to bring that into your home setting on your tread. It’s also helpful. It gives you that nostalgic vibe of racing games like Mario Kart because there’s a little map on the side of the screen.

Technically, the treadmills are side scrollers.

That’s true. That’s a good point.

Andy Speer has launched Density Deload.

This is for folks who finished up his new density program. This particular deload is a mini program he would suggest that people take in between. He’s like, “Do this, and then go back and do another round.”

They don’t fall out of the rhythm of workouts by taking a full day off. It’s a way to keep moving without taxing yourself.

You back it off, and then you bring it forward. We have the whole thing over in an article on TheClipOut.com. I know that technically that was the end of in case you missed it. I also want to add. It dropped today that there is going to be a new barre program, first-ever, that’s going to be taught by Ally Love and Hannah Corbin, and it is dropping on Friday, a four-week program. That’s pretty exciting since we’ve never had a barre program.

We have classes but not a program.

We never had a program. It’s very exciting and they’re teaching the classes together including a 60-minute barre class. If you don’t sweat and hurt during that, you are superhuman. That’s going to be painful.

You’re already a professional ballerina.

‐‐‐

Brace yourself, folks, if you’re sending cards to these people.

You’re going to need some stamps. Hope you got your forever stamps on the deck.

You won’t be joining Patreon this week because all your money is going to postage. It’s also fun because some of these people are going to maybe have to be explained to. First up is Jayvee Nava, born on August 2nd.

The moment of fear and the moment of revelation next to each other is one of the most beautiful things about creativity. Share on X

Jayvee is one of the original employees of the Peloton company. She was our first-ever contact at Peloton. She had a whole team working with her and that took away from all their hard work too. She was overseeing the homecoming/HRI while she was there.

She was the main admin for the OPP for a long time, back when one superhuman could do it.

She was super. She remained super but no longer with Peloton.

On August 3rd, we have Marion Roaman.

Marion was one of the first-ever instructors at Peloton. She also was the first person who was over-content at Peloton. If you knew who Howie Godnick was, he was a long-time Peloton lover, a huge member of the community who spread the word of Peloton everywhere, and a super nice guy. I love him dearly. I miss him dearly. He was brought to Peloton by Marion.

How about that?

I have to give the whole history if I’m giving it. Happy birthday to Marion.

August 5th, Jess Sims.

Jess Sims is still an instructor. We all know and love her.

From here on out, you will know people. August 6, Alex Toussaint.

On August 8th, Olivia Amato.

Happy birthday.

You almost sing.

I did not.

You did.

Coming up after this, we have our interview of the week. It’s Ross Rayburn. It’s not a normal interview. It is from our book club. He’s taking questions from listeners and readers of his book. We hope you enjoy it, so stick around.

‐‐‐

Welcome, everyone. I’m so excited for everybody to be here. Ross, thank you so much for taking the time to do this. We appreciate it. Lots of people are excited and they have been loving your book and we’re excited to talk about it. Do you want to start with a few words?

Remind me, who are you all?

This is How Did That Get Made? It’s a reel spoiler.

I have a friend who calls me the guy who’s funny 10% of the time, which means since you all laughed, it means now you have nine that you have to put up with until we get back to the laugh. Do you know what? I have not done it yet, but this is the first time I’ve organically felt the right thing to do because this is what I do.

Whenever I meet my team, one of the things that we do is take a moment in silence, turn in, and set an intention. I don’t do this typically but this feels more like family. Would everybody be okay if we did that? You don’t have to close your eyes. It’s not a meditation per se. I always like to say that, it can be as simple as breathing and gratitude, “I’m glad I’m here. I may enjoy this or do my best,” or if it’s something you are working on.

One of the things I’m working on is it’s called Adbhuta. It means making sure that I’m full of wonder, and that I remember to be childlike and appreciate beauty. If you’ve got something you’re working on, in these ten seconds, you can imbibe that. The traditional thing in yoga is Om Shanti, which means peace. If you want to close your eyes you can.

Did I just get tricked into doing a Peloton workout?

I think you did. You haven’t worked out once since, Tom.

I don’t know if I have the authority to give you some badge for that but if I did, I would have got everyone. I was an Eagle Scout. I don’t know if anyone knows that.

I did not know that.

I’ve got all sorts of merit badges and stuff. Maybe we’ll call that the intention merit badge.

I love it. It should be a little picture of Ross’s face. That would be a great badge.

It explains a lot about me, don’t you think?

I expect you to always be prepared, now that I know that about you.

I still know the oath, and to be fair, I hated it. I only did it because of my dad. I was eighteen and we were sponsored by the Methodist Church in Clear Lake outside of Houston. It was torture because once a year, we would do the flag ceremony on Sunday at church. Imagine, eighteen years old in your Boy Scout uniform, in front of all your friends in the Methodist Church. Now I love it because I can tie a bowline knot with one hand faster than anybody that I know, but I have a complex relationship with the Boy Scouts.

I think a lot of people do.

That is true. Do you want to start with some questions about the book and jump in?

That sounds great. Thank you for having me. It’s an honor to be here. I don’t have much to say to begin, but we should jump right into questions.

The first question is from Maria and she said, “How long did it take you to write the book?”

The idea was ten years ago and it was in my computer for a long time. I met a woman named Eve. Her name is Eve Minkler. Her professional name is Eve Adamson, so it says in the book Eve Adamson. Eve took my class. I used to go to Cedar Springs, Iowa every year and Chris, my husband, was doing The Nutcracker in Chicago at the Joffrey and they were out of town down in Iowa City. Eve came down there and said, “The last time you taught, you said some cool stuff. If you ever want to write a book,” she’s a professional ghostwriter. Cut to the idea. Very good. “You’re not famous enough, but you can self-publish. I’ll help you cut to Peloton.”

She called me back up in 2019 and said, “Now because of Peloton, you’ve got the platform. Publishers will now talk to you.” Unfortunately, no matter how great a writer or how great your idea is, the way the publishing world works, for good or for ill, is you have to bring something to the table platform-wise. I love Peloton for a thousand reasons, but one of them is I would have never gotten to publish this book without them and without Eve, similarly. We started the proposal in late 2019. Chris won his second Tony in June of ‘22 for Michael Jackson, the MJ musical. I sold the book the Friday before the Sunday of his Tony.

That was a big week for you guys.

No, but what was so funny was Chris won a Tony and I’m like, “I sold a book.” I knew it was going to be fine. One of my favorite stories is Chris’s first Tony for American in Paris. Chris and I are a team. I love to write and I would draw on a lot of his stuff. I studied myth and storytelling for years, so I often will help him. Even with MJ, I helped him shape the stories because sometimes even great writers like Lynn Nottage, who wrote the Michael Jackson script.

Even great writers sometimes get lost and they forget the basic hero’s journey often that Joseph Campbell, who I studied quite a bit, is most famous for creating or articulating. Chris went up for American in Paris. He’s English and didn’t want to get played off and he forgot to thank me for his first Tony. He didn’t even go to the press line because he felt so bad and came back to the seat.

To be honest, I was quite upset. I didn’t say anything at the time. It took me a couple of weeks to process. He’s the most creative wonderful human being on the planet. Every time he leaves, I’m like, “Do you have my keys or your keys? Do you have my computer or your computer?” That’s what you get with the way he sees the world. It took me a while to process. I’m like, “My ego wanted to be thanked.” That’s what you get with Chris Wheeldon. I got pasted and worked through it and became a beautiful part of our relationship. One of my friends who is very funny said, “To be fair, you shouldn’t thank Chris until your second book.”

I was thinking about it. I was like, “Did you thank him in the book?”

Anyway, once we sold the book in ’22, we then took a year and a half to write it because, from a proposal, you then wrote the book. Six months before publishing, I woke up one day in an existential, “This is not my book. This is not what I want to write.” We scrapped the entire thing and rewrote the book for six months.

The way that we wrote it is it’s on my words. The reason why I put Eve on the cover is because it wouldn’t have happened without her. It was her discipline. I talked and she recorded it, and then she would put my words in order. I tend to speak a little floridly and a little too verbose. She would put it into more pedestrian language, and then I would spice it up a little bit and make sure there were transitions and stuff.

It was like a tennis game. Speaking of tennis, I always equate it to when you play tennis with someone better than you. You play better and she was that for me. I would say things with her that I’d be like, “Who said that? That was amazing. That was not me.” That’s why I was like, “It’s a book about authenticity. Even though it’s my words and no one ever puts the ghostwriter on the cover, I don’t want this to just be me or this is us. The short answer is 6 months, 2 years, 4 years, and 10 years.

What was the most challenging part of writing this book then?

By the way, whenever I am silent, it’s me practicing what’s in the book. Not that some questions aren’t important but some questions are easy. I feel like that is such an important question that I often will practice what I preach and turn in. To give you some insight into what I personally do, if you’re ever in the studio with me, you’ll see me do it right before I teach a meditation.

I go in and I believe this is what the book is about. There’s a guru that I mentioned in the book. That was Elizabeth Gilbert’s guru in Eat, Pray, Love. Her name is Gurumayi Chidvilasananda and I got to meet her once. She was my teacher’s teacher. She speaks of a blue pearl at the core of everyone’s being. Have you all heard me talk about the blue pearl before?

I feel like I’ve heard you talk about it. I remember you talking about a blue light surrounding you. Maybe I’m getting that confused with something else.

That’s Tunde. We share that. Tunde and I are very close. It’s funny in a beautiful way that she speaks of that as well. Gurumayi teaches that at the core of all of our beings, there is a blue pearl. That blue pearl is indefatigable, inexhaustible, untarnishable, and omniscient. It’s all of the superlatives that don’t have a description because they exist in the ephemeral transcendental realm beyond time and space.

It is a belief statement and one can argue, depending upon your religious beliefs. Whether it is the basic core or it exists on top of original sin or whatever. I believe that it is this core of our being and is cloaked. For some people, it’s so cloaked that in this lifetime, it will never penetrate those cloaks such that it manifests in terms of any luminosity, effulgence, generosity, or benevolence, meaning in other words evil.

In the same way that the sun is not doubted that it’s behind the clouds, I don’t doubt that there’s a blue pearl at the essence of every person’s being. That allows me to have a lot of patience, belief, and faith not to stop fighting sometimes, but at least to fight, assuage, or bond. Ultimately, I know that I’m talking through a cloak to someone’s essence in their blue pearl. For probably everybody, we emit the light from that blue pearl a lot most of our day.

It gets cloaked and it sometimes feels like it goes away when we feel like an imposter or when we get so angry, sad, or fearful. Whenever I would go through a moment, to answer the question, that was challenging. Probably the one that I alluded to when I woke up that day and the book was written. I woke up after reading it all in one day and realized that this was the culmination of something I envisioned twenty years ago that wasn’t what I wanted to say. This was like my one chance to say to the world what I wanted to say and it was done. It was like the ship had sailed and it wasn’t what I believed.

It wasn’t depression because I don’t believe that’s the right word. I believe that’s a clinical word but it was awful. I did what I believed, which was I turned in what I did before meditation. I sat down in the place where I meditate in the morning. I looked in and said, “What do I want to say?” I almost think of it in the third person like, “You, Ross, the spirit that we all share, goddess, essence, or whatever you want to call it.” I don’t give a name to it because I believe that it’s there even though I don’t need to know what it is.

I turn toward it almost in the way when you’re on vacation. You relax and you feel the sun on your face. Can you all picture that? I turned into that and said, “What?” What rises up almost like a bubbling up from the Earth was a very simple triadic idea of “What do we share?” which is the capacity to turn in, “What is the problem?” which is that we are all separated and that apparent separation is the source of our suffering.

Anything we can do to bridge that apparent separation in ourselves with each other, with our countries, our friends, our foes, and the world, any bridge to ameliorate and possibly heal the trauma of apparent separation, that for me is the beauty of who I want to be as a human being. That basic idea of we are all together, we feel separate, and let’s find a way to remember that we’re together. That simple triad gave me the formula the go back and say, “Eve, we’ve got all the words. Let’s reorganize the entire thing.” It was very scary to say that to her. To her great credit, she’s like, “I’m in. Let’s do it.”

That was my next one, what did she think of it?

That seems very scary.

Didn’t faze her a bit.

Is that what you’re saying that having to have that conversation was the hardest part or realizing that you hadn’t said what you wanted to say was the hardest part?

The moment of thinking that it was lost, everything that I had worked for, because I did envision this twenty years ago. In about 2004, I love what I do. I love teaching yoga. At the time, I didn’t love teaching meditation, but my theory was if I was going to change my life, I needed to start aiming toward building credibility internally, meaning learning kinesiology, physical therapy, how to be a great teacher, how to be a great storyteller, and eventually then, how to meditate and how to teach meditation.

Anything that led me toward being an authentic expert in this world of yoga and trusting that over the course of time, I would be able to take that expertise and find a way to monetize it to turn it into something that what provide me in life. Thanks to Peloton and many things. I’m able to support my mom now.

I’ll tell you another time about the struggles that my mom has had, but I completely support her. She doesn’t have to worry about things. There’s no greater thing in the world than to be able to tell my mom, “You don’t have to worry about money.” She has never had anyone say that since she was twenty years old. To have that culmination and waking up one day and realizing that I missed it and I got it wrong, that morning was one of the worst moments of my life.

You sure made a comeback from it. You bounced back.

Thank you. That’s why it was so beautiful going in and realizing the blessing of trust. I trusted so much in the blue pearl and the spirit that I could let it all go and trusted that I would find it again. The moment of fear and revelation were right next to each other. To me, it’s one of the most beautiful things about creativity.

It also says a little bit about your risk tolerance.

Thank God, he found out before he went to press.

That’s what I’m thinking.

All I could think about was the writing was equivalent to someone on their deathbed being like, “Maybe I shouldn’t have been a stockbroker.”

By the way, I do meditation. I don’t teach it on the stream, but I can talk about it with everybody. It sounds a little bit more but it usually needs a little bit more than a ten-minute meditation, but I call it the deathbed meditation. Whenever you have a difficult decision, I often encourage people to imagine when you’re 90 or give yourself a long life, and think about it on your deathbed. Looking back at this decision, which one would you have made? Which one would you be glad that you made?

I can see why that would be effective.

We have a question that I feel is next to that. It’s a question from Maria. She says, “What do you recommend as the quickest way to turn inward in stressful situations?” I feel like that’s linked because you were talking about this moment of amazingly high anxiety and scaring us with a lot of vulnerability. I don’t know how you turn that into, “I should look inward,” because I start scurrying around and trying to do things to fix. That’s a very appropriate question as a follow-up to that story.

Let’s level set a little bit. That was a beautiful moment. I can give you a moment from yesterday when I did exactly the opposite because I’ve always had anger issues. I get fearful and sad sometimes, but mostly when I’m off, anger is my go-to. We all can share all three but usually, you have one of the others or one of the three. By the way, to be fair, I’ve been living this practice since 1997.

I said something to Ben Alldis when I was posting his book launch. I said something off-color and he’s like, “I can’t believe you said that.” I was like, “If you ever get the sense that someone is putting you on a pedestal, tear that freaking pedestal down before someone else does.” I improved that the universe is not a place of justice because I have effed up more than anybody, and look where I am.

I wrote a book and got to talk to all of you. I have all these people listening to me and I am more flawed than all of you combined. To answer the question, take a deep breath, or when you’re running around, Crystal, to use your words, just stop for a second or two. Everybody, listen if you can hear something outside. That alone, whether it’s listening, looking, feeling, or some sense like a deep breath or anything that makes us stop, move, and extrovert and instead turn in. That’s meditation.

That’s all you have to do. You think of it like if you’re sewing, that’s one knot. You do it when you brush your teeth and in a conversation. You do it when you’re fighting with your beloved or in a meeting and everybody’s catastrophizing. All of a sudden, you’re in front of a group of people who want to hear your opinion about something.

You make it sound very easy.

You’ll never hear me say that word.

Next time, Crystal, when you accuse me of not listening, I’m going to be like, “I was turning inwards.”

Here’s the thing. You can say that if it’s honest. A friend of mine said to me recently that I often used to think binging a show on Netflix could be turning in. It only has efficacy if you are doing it and you imprint. Let’s say you said, “I was turning in and not listening.” It’s only efficacious when you say to yourself in the moment or after, but definitely before you say something or maybe even after, where you said, “I did that for affirmative, progressive, and benevolent purpose.

Corollary bonus, I’m going to remember that imprint of benevolence so significantly that next time when the shit hits the fan, I’m going to remember that moment so that I handle that situation with either more mindfulness, a plum, and possibly even so much more goodness that it’s not about you. That moment when everybody else is cursing the darkness, you’re able to be a beacon of hope and light. That’s when that moment was not just, “I was turning in,” but it became the source of you being the teacher.

High standards, Tom. This is not on the approved list but I feel like I can ask it as a side note. Are you quite a reader, Ross? I feel like you read a lot.

You're able to be a beacon of hope and light when everybody else is cursing the darkness. Share on X

I have at least eight books going at one time.

You have quite the vocabulary that has come up a few times in my conversations with other people.

That’s only because I have vocabulary toilet paper. There’s a word on every sheet. It’s amazing.

What was the word of the day?

I’m kidding, Crystal. It’s a joke. I don’t actually have a vocabulary. If someone wants to make it, I’ll buy it but I don’t have that.

It sounds expensive.

Plus, would you use one? I don’t know.

That’s a very good point. You might have to make a whole sentence before you can finish your business.

Thank you. I appreciate it. It’s a very kind compliment. I love words. I love etymology. Raise your hand if you have kids. If you have kids who are excited about the SATs or in elementary or junior high, Latin is great. That’s what I studied and I did pretty well on the SAT, but study Sanskrit. Sanskrit is at the top of the Indo-European chain. Latin and all the other come from that.

One of the words in the subtitle is authenticity. This was one of the questions but I’ll try to do the short version of this. The sound “Om” is A, O, and M. A is the sound of creation like a baby crying. U is about refinement because you close your mouth and you make the sound U. In the ark of narration, A and U are sustenance in life. The M is the dissolution. It’s one of the few consonants that you can sing and hum.

There’s a fourth sound called the chorea. That’s the silence between the next wave that’s next to Om. It’s why M, A for the next om is all the matter, mother, and material. Anything to do with creation is M and A. One more thing, the letter T is across because it’s time and space. Anytime you have something that is like the word heart or even fart. Anytime you have RT, R is movement. T is a fixation on time and space.

That’s why A, U, and T are A creation, U refinement, and T a creation in time and space, so authentic, author, and altier are about creation, sustenance, and a fixated piece of art. Therefore, to live authentically, you become the author, the creation, the sustenance, and the imprint of your life. You write your own story to be authentic. Study Sanskrit.

I want to make sure we get some more of these questions in.

I’ll answer questions shortly, I promise.

You are hilarious. Mike Koehler asks, “What is the most impactful experience you’ve had using meditation and yoga to get unstuck?”

Tonight.

You weren’t stuck tonight. I don’t believe it.

Honestly, I’m being a little bit tongue-in-cheek. Whenever I used to travel the world, people would say, “What’s your favorite city?” I would always say the city where I’m in. To get unstuck, it’s every day. Every day I feel stuck. I believe this is a practice that you have to do. Do you know the Sisyphus myth? Hades had Sisyphus rolling the stone up the hill. When he got to the top, the stone rolled back down.

One of my favorite revelations was when I studied with a professor. He said, “The secret to the Sisyphus myth is Sisyphus found joy in the rolling up of the stone.” We ask those questions like being stuck as if it’s a problem. Like the blue pearl, I believe that when we remember that the blue pearl is there, we use these words like suffering. This is a radical statement and I don’t want to say this cavalierly because when you’re in pain, this is not appropriate to hear.

Please do not take this out of context, but from a philosophical and theoretical place, as long as you’re not in a place now of trauma. If you are, do me a favor and look at this theoretically. The radical view of this is that even in a moment of great pain, to be able to see that pain as a privilege and to still rise above it or go beneath it and find light. If you’re a religious god or goddess, in that pain. When you’re not in pain, the celebration of abundance is not only better. In my experience, it becomes like this.

I’m now in a great place of abundance. I’m in a room full of people that this is not about me. I don’t feel like I’m in an ego moment now. Especially with Peloton, I feel like I’m in a community that I get to share. I believe that’s my perspective and I don’t come at this from an ego place most of the time, to be fair. I have done the work when things were awful and I do the work when things are awful. When people come into the studio and I get to listen to them and their stories, I’m not jealous or fearful. I know that we’re connected and I celebrate them. I give that unstuckness. That’s why I believe you have to do it every day.

Speaking of things that you do every day, you’ve talked about when you were writing the book and how you practice every day. You talk about that in the book as well. How did you personally find time to write with all of your other obligations?

That was not a hard part.

I was looking for some clarity to figure out how to be more efficient for myself.

I’m probably not the best person to ask about that. It’s like when I was nervous about getting a second dog. When you love something, you find the time.

You’re right. We’ll do some rapid-fire ones. This one comes from Gwen Dawson, “Do you miss acting?”

No.

This one comes from Amy Alstrom, “Would you please consider doing more back-to-sleep meditations? There are only two on the platform.”

It’s not the right forum for that discussion.

This one comes from Elizabeth Franks, “Do you have a favorite meditation on the app, whether recorded or it’s done by you or someone else?”

I don’t remember my meditations from yesterday. The way I do meditation is I never script any of my meditations. I plan them out for a couple of days. In the morning, I go inside. I don’t mean this pejoratively, but I asked my teacher and all the teachers that have come before what is the thing to do that is the greatest service I can do today.

If there’s one thing I believe, there’s a God called Hanuman. He’s the monkey god. He’s often shown ripping open his chest to expose his heart. He’s in the Ramayana, which is one of the epic poets in India. I think of Hanuman like this meditation. I’m going to rip open my chest proverbially. What is that meditation? I honestly don’t know what I’m going to say until it comes out. If you ask me what my meditation was, I couldn’t tell you what it was last time.

Whatever you’re doing, it’s working. Keep it up.

Thank you. Honestly, all credit is to Sally Kempton who died in 2023. I call her my Yoda. She’s back here behind me. Remind me to figure out what day she died. The meditation on that day or the day after she died, if I had to pick one, that’s the one I would go to. I don’t remember what day it was because it was the most powerful meditation I’ve ever taught. She’s an amazing being.

Thank you for sharing that. Margaret Robertson would like to know how you come up with the stories that you tell during your meditation. I feel like you just answered that.

I do think of those stories before. I do write all my own stories. I told the story about the Chinese proverb, which is one of my favorites. If it sounds like a made-up story, that’s me creating a story based on an idea like if I want the idea to be about generosity. It’s a little bit of planning, letting go, and letting the story be extemporaneous.

Aaron would like to know what is your favorite color.

I will say blue, but I don’t know if that’s true anymore. That’s what it was as a kid. I don’t know if I have one, to be honest.

What color do you hate?

Here’s the thing. There was a color when I did my first photo shoot. I called it Captain Kirk Green. Do you remember Captain Kirk and the color of his shirt in old-school Star Trek? I got the shirt and I’m like, “Somebody in the wardrobe hates me because this is the worst color.” The picture was so right. It’s one of my favorite pictures I’ve ever taken. It was my skin tone and the lighting. I was like, “Damn it. That is a good color.”

Were you mad a little bit?

I was so happy. It proves that you have to know what you don’t know. This is one thing I learned in Peloton. I worked for myself for twenty years and I joined a team. I joined this beautiful organization that lets people do their job. That’s it. Anyway, that’s what I learned. I was like, “There are people that are good at their job. You don’t have to do everything, Ross.” That was a fantastic learning at the age of 48 at the time.

That’s a positive spin on that. I love that. Debbie Pino would like to know what your fitness routine looks like currently.

I do a little bit of everything. I always joked that in the ‘90s, I had to come out as a weight lifter. At the time, people were so poo-poo at yoga. I’ve been lifting weights since college in ‘89. I love rowing, by the way. Everybody on my team is wonderful. I love the rowing team so much. They’re such wonderful and beautiful people. The rower is great. I have a meniscus tear. I love cycling but I can’t push myself because the asymmetry of cycling is tough on my knee. Because rowing is a single plane of motion, I was like, “This is amazing.” I am a giant fan of the rower. If you haven’t gotten it or tried it, please do.

Could we start a rumor that you’re going to become the next rowing instructor?

Here’s the thing. I love so much what I do. I believe that for other people, that’s their thing. I don’t want to do everything. I’m so happy. However, the one thing that I have enjoyed is I now teach in the stretch category. I have enjoyed that because you all know how much I love biomechanics and the nerdy stuff. Let’s be honest, there are a lot of people who won’t try yoga because of what they think it is. They’ll try to stretch. It’s been nice to be able to be in that silo because a lot of people then get to see that I do know a lot about the body and it doesn’t have to be yoga.

That’s a good point because there is this attachment to the word yoga, even though yoga and stretching aren’t all that different.

They are but let’s just leave it there.

Fair enough. What is your best advice for establishing a consistent yoga and meditation schedule? Would it be the program that you have at the end of the book?

You have to look inside. What I recommend is to ask yourself what it is you need. If you’re the type of person who needs some discipline to progress, then set a schedule. If you’re someone who needs some freedom, then do it when you feel organically inspired to do it. You’ve got to know yourself and do the formula that will give you what you need.

That makes sense. On that note, do you have advice on how to introvert when life around you is chaotic, especially if you’re new to it?

I do believe in starting simple. Whenever I can’t introvert or get up in the morning, I’m so angry, like I had a dream that makes me so mad, it takes me a while to realize that it’s not true. For whatever reason, like when something has gone wrong in life, I’ll go into the shower and look at the water coming down. I will say to myself, “At least that’s the same. The water still goes down. Gravity didn’t change.” To me, that basic truth is enough to not fix it all but just a moment of reset.

Pause before you speak. You listen to something outside. You put your hand on a tree and say to yourself, “This tree gives a rats blank about my problems.” Find something that gives you the freedom to take a deep breath. Again, not to fix the problem, but it can be enough to turn you toward the blue pearl, and possibly enough to go in a new direction, and this is what I’ll close with, maybe even enough to become more of who you already are.

That’s beautiful. Thank you so much for all of this, Ross. We appreciate your time. Everybody that I have talked to has very much enjoyed your book. I enjoyed your book. I enjoyed reading it. I’ve recommended it to so many people, including a Tonal instructor. It was a great read and I appreciated it. It’s something that I can use daily. Thank you so much.

Thanks, everybody. If you haven’t read the book yet, chapter 3 and chapter 4 are more dense philosophy. It’s the thing you might want to sit with for a while. I recommend getting through 3 and 4. Get to 5 because chapter 5 gets back into the daily, the quotidian, how to navigate when you’re angry, when something bad happens, and when something good happens.

The last thing is if you don’t already take my class on Peloton, please do. If you don’t like my class, I have a wonderful team, Aditi, Kristin, Anna, Mariana, Kira, Chelsea, Nico, and there’s this other guy. I don’t know his name, but he doesn’t matter. This is one of my favorite last stories that I’ll leave you with. I was leaving. I was in the airport and this woman came up to me and said, “You’re Ross Rayburn from Peloton.” I’m like, “I am.” She’s like, “I love Denis’s yoga classes.” I was like, “Me too.” Please let people know if you like the book. Any love you can give on social media, This is the book that will build momentum the more people read it. Thank you for all of this. Much love.

Thank you.

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

On Facebook at Facebook.com/crystaldokeefe. They can find me on all the social media and the Peloton leaderboard @ClipOutCrystal.

You can find me on Twitter @RogerQBert or Facebook at Facebook.com/tomokeefe. You can find the show online on Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page and join the group. Don’t forget our Patreon at Patreon.com/TheClipOut, where for $5 a month, you get all sorts of bonus content. You help us out which is greatly appreciated and you get ad-free episodes and bonus content like another 15, 20, and 25 minutes, depending on how long we talk, every week. It’s like your own little mini-episode. Come join us. Until next time, thanks for tuning in and keep pedaling and running and rowing.

Bye.

 

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