• Milestone Badges Get a Refresh – A spruce-up for your stats!
• Should Peloton’s Bootcamp Changes Worry Us? – What you need to know.
• Strength+ Shines! – Apple crowns Strength+ as App of the Day.
• New Peloton Sub-Groups – More ways to connect with your tribe.
• Beyoncé and Peloton Collaboration Rumors – Could more be brewing?
• February’s Missing Activity Challenge – What’s going on?
• Walking Meditations and Annual Challenges – Why aren’t they counting?
• More Store Closures – Peloton trims its retail footprint.
• Peloton Pops Up on Jeopardy – Wait, did Alex Trebek know Peloton?!
• Jon Hosking on a Bike? – Is this a hint for future content?
• Alex Karwoski in a Mich Ultra Ad? – Spot the Olympian.
• Camila Ramon in People en Español – A feature worth celebrating.
• Jeffrey McEachern’s Upcoming Podcast Appearance – Hear him on NYRR’s ‘Set The Pace.’
• Tonal’s Big News! – A look at the Tonal 2 upgrade program.
• Peloton’s Law & Order Cameo – Spot the bike on TV.
• TCO Top 5 – Our top 5 favorites from this week!
• Listener Recommended Classes – Fan faves you need to check out.
• This Week at Peloton – From workouts to updates, here’s what’s happening.
• TCO Radar – Classes and trends we’re keeping an eye on.
• Captain America Challenge – “Train Like a Superhero” is here.
• Peloton’s Awards Season Collection – Red carpet vibes for your workouts.
• Rising Country Classes – Heads-up on what’s coming soon.
• New Spring Apparel – Fresh looks for Spring and the Together We Go Far collection.

This week’s episode is packed with news, updates, and fun tidbits that every Peloton lover and fitness enthusiast will enjoy. Tune in now and don’t forget to share your favorite takeaways with us!

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Watch the episode here

Listen to the podcast here

 

 

Should Peloton’s Bootcamp Changes Worry Us? Plus our Interview with Kelli D!

Welcome to The Clip Out episode 398. We’re getting awful close to 400. I was surprised at that number.

To warn everybody, we’re not doing a dang thing.

It is a cool little milestone.

It is, but it’s also one of those things where we’ve been doing this for so long that we were like, “Yes. Let’s notch up another one.”

It’s like you reach your thousandth on Peloton and then you’re like, “Okay.”

One day, you’re like, “I reach 2,400, how about that?”

Exactly.

What pray tell do you have in store for people?

We have an interview with Kelli D. She is a long-time Peloton user. She uses the bike and the tread, but she also has PCOS and she has been using the equipment to manage her symptoms. That’s an interesting conversation to have. Also, we have an update on the milestone badges. There has been a little change. There have been some words and people have felt some feelings.

There’s no such thing as little change.

Isn’t that the truth? We also are going to talk about these bootcamp changes and what that means because there are a ton of them. Strength Plus, we have some updates on that. We also have an update on some things that Peloton has been doing on the bike screen, like how they’ve been breaking up those images, as well as what’s going on with the challenges for February. There are some big changes and people have all kinds of feelings, as they do. We also have some updates on some additional store closings. Not to mention, a fun update on Jeopardy because Peloton was part of that. We have very interesting Instructors in the News. We have some Tonal news to discuss. We have a celebrity sighting and we have lots of content to talk about.

Over on Patreon.com/TheClipOut, for $5 a month, you get all sorts of bonus content. We like you a little extra. You also get ad-free episodes. If we get them early, you get them early. We’re going to talk about an article from Psychology Today about music’s impact on exercise, specifically what it’s doing and how much it does it. We’re all going to have tons of instructor updates who didn’t make the show, from instructors like Cody, Robin, Christine, and so many more.

Shameless plugs, you can also find us wherever you listen to your podcast, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, TuneIn. While you’re there be sure and follow us so you never miss an episode. Maybe leave us a review. Check us out over on Facebook at Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page, join the group. These are all assignments that we’re giving to you if you haven’t done them yet. Stop and pull your car over so you can sign up for our newsletter at TheClipOut.com, where we’ll send you all the links and whatnot to the articles we’re talking about. You can watch all of these over on YouTube. There’s all that. Let’s dig in. Shall we?

We shall.

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Everybody panics. The milestone badges have changed colors.

They didn’t just change colors. They also changed the font. Honestly, the font bothers me much more than the colors. This font is so ugly. I don’t like it. They’ve been using it on all of their marketing for several months, and I don’t like this font. This font is aggressively ugly.

Is it Comic Sans?

I have no idea. I don’t know what it is. I don’t like it. You got to go back in time to 2015. I don’t remember exactly when badges got a refresh the first time, but I do know that when I started in 2016, the badges looked different. They were fun. It would say something playful like you had a swarm and you hung out with nine people, or you did 100 rides but it would say, “100!” They were fun. They were peach and blue and nice, then they changed them to what the badges have been since then.

I thought those were pretty sleek looking and they had different colors. The more badges you had done, the more rides, or whatever your Milestones were, they would get slightly darker and change shape. They had all kinds of different reasons for doing it, but each one had a little symbol of what you were doing. If you were rowing, it had a little rower on it.

They had a person that you could tell was rowing. If you were biking, you had a cycle on it. You could tell what they were for. The biggest thing that people have an issue with is the new milestones don’t look like something you associate with the sport. The ones that you see on the screen right now are the cycling milestones. What about that says “Cycling?”

They are round and the wheels are round.

Every single badge is round. That means nothing. What does it say? Nothing. They’re all like this, but then the designs change. The rower looks almost identical to that but it has a different background.

This bike one has what looks like a ’50s-era nuclear atom thing going on.

People are upset about that. When you look at the bootcamps, you can tell it’s a tread. It looks like a tread in the background. The bike one looks drastically different. It’s confusing. That’s the big thing. Also, the color scheme in general is much darker. It’s much more heavy-handed than it’s been in the past, which is very different from what’s been in the past. People don’t like change and these colors aren’t as soothing to look at. Between those two things, it’s not great.

A quick rundown, cycling has an atomic symbol, running is like parallelograms above and below the milestone number, and walking has a parallelogram but then it transitions them into rectangles. Rowing has wave patterns and is water-themed. Bootcamp reuses the cycling, running, and rowing symbols, but then they have a border around the circle.

Strength milestones look like a spoked wheel. Explain that. The stretching milestones frame the milestone number with two parallel lines and a crisscross finish at the top. Yoga milestones swirl gracefully. It’s probably the only one that makes sense. Meditation milestones layered their design with serene concentric circles. Cardio divides each into four quadrants featuring semi-circular line patterns.

What’s also funny about this is all of these go up to thousands and beyond, but for whatever reason, when they got to 200 or maybe 2,000 on strength, it stopped and the old versions were still there. We were like, “Are you guys not done yet?”

They were like, “Nobody’s going to get there. Nobody’s that strong.”

The other big complaint that people have is they have been asking for much larger milestones for years.

That seems like an easy thing to do.

It does. Right now, they stop at 5,000. There’s a little bit of disagreement. Some people say they’ve had 2,000 and 5,000 for years now. Maybe they did. I don’t remember it being that way but I am nowhere near 5,000. Maybe I missed it. For people who have large milestone numbers, your last badge then is like 2,500 or 5,000. That’s it.

If you have 10,000, you haven’t gotten a badge for years. People want it. Let me get this straight, Peloton. Instead of adding badges to the existing ones, you couldn’t be bothered to do that, but you spent all this time updating them and making them hideous and nobody wanted them. That’s the consensus.

“We did have time for this thing you wanted because we were working on this thing nobody asked for.” That makes sense. It’s like the kids. We have had all sorts of changes in the bootcamps and someone was asking. Was this in the OPP that they were asking this question?

 

I’ve put in so much. I am not positive. Which one are we talking about?

I’m starting with the “No more core bike bootcamps.”

Somebody put this on the OPP but Tunde announced it recently in a class.

They say, “Not sure if you all saw this but Tunde shared that they are no longer making core bike bootcamps.” I assume this means no more body parts-specific bootcamps either. It also seems like they’ve stopped different music genre bootcamps as it’s been a few months since they’ve done a genre-specific bootcamp. Do you think this is foreshadowing the death of the bike bootcamp?

That’s a great question because then you change gears and you see over on the OPP somebody posted that they wanted to see Callie back on the bike bootcamp rotation. Somebody replied that it was her decision to concentrate on strength classes. She spoke about it on her social media, which I hadn’t paid any attention to. When I started asking around, lots of people had heard this.

Apparently, she doesn’t want to do the bootcamps on the tread either. It sounds like she’s going to be focusing on strength going forward. Before, for the bike bootcamps, it was Tunde, sometimes Cody, and Callie. If Callie is not doing it and Cody never did that many, that leaves Tunde. You do have to wonder if it’s the end of bike bootcamps. It’s a good question.

I have no idea if they’re ending. It could be part of the conversation. In my mind, look how long these instructors are on furlough. That’s going to make a difference. Callie is in a weird place with hers because she lives in Florida. She comes back. She films for one week out of the month. A lot of the instructors are off for twelve weeks at a time due to their furloughs or the rest time that they’re getting. If it was Tunde and then she’s off for twelve weeks, then there’s nobody recording content for the bike for twelve weeks. Cody is off right or he was recently off for his twelve weeks.

I don’t know if it’s been a long time. We’re going to see these pairs back and how many they provide. Maybe we’re going to see some of this go to what we see with cardio. You might see a set of cardio classes drop or you might see dance cardio classes drop and then you don’t see any for six months or maybe a year. Maybe that’s what’s going to happen. That is very possible.

It may not be that we’re completely getting rid of the bike bootcamps, but I do think that it is very possible. We’re no longer going to see as many subdivides. We may not see the body-specific bike bootcamps. We may not see core. We might see upper-body. We may not see lower-body, and I think it’s also possible that we’re going to see less of them if they remain, and no more music. I mean they’ll have music but no more special series.

It won’t be a part of an artist series and things like that. Strength Plus was Apple’s app of the day on February 1st.

They listed it and it was there. You scroll down to the bottom of the apps and there it is. Apple is so weird. I don’t know if that’s a paid-for thing or if they chose it because a lot of people have downloaded it since started. It could be either. With Apple being vague as they are, they’re cryptic about things.

They don’t like to tell people how things work.

I could see it going either way.

Sometimes the Apple God smiles upon you, and then sometimes they don’t. Most times they don’t, but sometimes they do. Over on Reel Spoilers. At one point, the Apple God smiled upon us and we were featured in New and Notable, and it blew up the downloads. It was crazy. It was a lot of fun. These are crafty work that I guess doesn’t work anymore. We have never been able to replicate it. I got lucky.

You got lucky. They were smiled upon. They did run with it.

Peloton has added new subgroups for classes that you might be interested in, like Notoriously Hard.

It doesn’t have the same ring to it.

It sounds a little dirty.

I could see that. They also have Fun and Fabulous or something like that. They’ve broken it down. The interesting thing is you would think those would be collections and you could see those on the app. I’m not saying they won’t show up there. So far you can only see them on the bike and it’s on the main screen, which I think that’s fascinating. What is that about?

You know they wanted to call it unstackable. Come on. They never had a special classification for difficult classes.

It was pretty cute. You know what they say about flattery.

This is not the first time we’ve been stolen from.

Also flattered. The other thing that cracks me up about that was whenever you went into the notorious hard classes, you know how everybody has the thing about Robin and her yellow. In almost every class. Robin was wearing yellow.

Probably cuz that was the easiest way.

If you want to take her ideas, you should have gotten to know her and the unstackable ideas that our community has put together.

Instead, they were like, “Grab a bunch of classes that are hard. I don’t know, yellow, yellow yellow.”

What they probably did was pull the ones that have the hardest ratings because they used to have the ratings on there that you would be able to say it was this difficult. That’s probably what happened. It cracked me up to see all that yellow.

Beyonce won the Grammy for Country Album of the Year and it broke some people’s brains. It’s funny because as someone who does movie stuff all the time, I don’t give a sh*t about awards. I go through this every year on the radio show that I review movies on. It’s like, “What do you think about the Oscars?” I was like, “I don’t know when they happen.” It’s like, “Who do you think is going to win?” I’m like, “I don’t care.” I think that they’ve gotten silly and I could not care less. When people get so mad about this, I was like, “Are you lucky? Are you so lucky that this is what you have to get mad about?” I can also point you to songs from the ‘50s where people complain that today’s country music isn’t real country music like yesterday’s country music.

That happens every ten years.

It’s like, “You people are so boring.” Anyway, she won the album, and congrats to her. Grammys are a big deal even though I think they’re dumb. They are a big deal. Peloton has hinted that you have more Beyonce content coming your way.

They posted it and it was like Cowboy Carter Tour was on Beyonce’s page and then Peloton said, “Excuse us while we prepare for Beyonce Cowboy Carter Act 2.” It proceeded to get very quickly within one day with 570 likes just on that one comment because her post got 2.2 million likes in one day. That’s a lot of likes for one comment, and then people started putting in their orders to Peloton like it’s fast food.

Maybe complaining, “How dare you?”

I didn’t see those because I took it down. I took this screenshot pretty quick so I don’t know and I don’t care.

Our bodies can do so many crazy, amazing things, but also so many crazy, unexplainable things that just make life harder. Share on X

There is no activity challenge for February, which means, for the first time ever, I will complete a Peloton challenge.

There are challenges for February, but there is no activity challenge. That’s an important distinction because you still get a rowing challenge for February and a walking challenge. What they don’t get is an activity overall. What people wondered was, “Is this because they did their 100-day challenge? This is a completely legitimate thought until you realize they still had an activity challenge for January, and then you go, “Will they just forget it?”It’s been posted everywhere and it hasn’t like popped up. None that I know of.

It’s only 28 days, you’ll be fine.

I thought it was interesting. There you have it.

Also, something you should know is that if you’re doing the annual challenge, walking meditations don’t count.

At least not all the time.

You didn’t meditate hard enough.

Also, the monthly walking and running challenge doesn’t count for those. I don’t know if that’s an oops. I don’t know if it was on purpose. I also have to say that the number of people that got on this person for asking this question, because how dare you walk while you meditate, was astounding, and then followed up by all the people telling them how dumb they were because walking meditations isn’t a thing. I was like, “What are you talking about? They started these last year. There are lots of them. It’s a great idea. Some people can’t sit still to meditate. What is the deal?”

There’s a Reddit community that’s called Confidently Incorrect. There is some great stuff in there.

I bet, especially right now.

People are so like, “No, there is no way I’m wrong,” even as you’re showing them that they’re wrong.

To be a white straight man.

It’s not all them but there’s a lot of us. I don’t know why.

Now I know. I Love talking to him on the internet whenever I calmly explain my thoughts on something and then I get a pat pat about “I don’t understand this thing that I use every day. It’s awesome.” I know I’m not alone.

We have more store closings, not that it shocks us. If you’re trying to keep score at home or if you want to know if they still have one in your city, here are the ones that are no more.

San Diego, then the Santa Clara store, and the Washington store in Bellevue specifically. We had said in December that there were going to be a total of eight stores closing. This should be the last of them for a little bit. I’m not saying it’s the last forever. When we announced those eight, this should be the last that rounds out.

Peloton has cemented its place in the pop culture pantheon with its second appearance on Jeopardy.

This one was super cool because they named two instructors. I don’t remember exactly how they worded it but something to the effect of they were stars. They had Cody Rigsby and Kristin McGee.

The actual answer is “This company’s star instructors for member workouts have included Kristin McGee for yoga and Cody Rigsby on the bike.”

I love that it was two different modalities and that they didn’t just include the bike. I love that they included Kristin McGee because a lot of people don’t remember, she was a legit yoga star long before she joined.

She’s on MTV.

She is a big deal. Peloton was very lucky to have her. We’re very sad that she has gone. No, we’re not over it. Good for her to be included in that and very cool for Peloton.

It has to be for her a pretty nice F you.

I don’t know if it’s an F you. She’s a sweet individual. I don’t know if she would go the route of an F you, but I could see that she would be like, “Maybe that makes them appreciate my presence more.”

I feel like that’s a yoga version of F you.

Maybe internally, she says, “Bless your heart,” which is also an F you.

Coming up after this, we’re going to talk about which instructor might be heading to the bike. Did we see Alex Karworski in a Mich Ultra commercial? We’ll get to the bottom of that one. Stick around.

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Will Jon Hosking be headed to a bike near you?

Here are the pieces of information that say yes. 1) He is going to PSNY in February. He’s going to be in a Matt Wilpers class on Valentine’s Day and he announced that a long time ago. 2) He has been showing a lot of reels lately of him riding the bike. 3) He’s also been taking a lot of Power Zone classes. Sub-question, will he be a Power Zone instructor? We don’t know the answer to either of these things, but we predict that while he’s here in February, he’s going to be announced as a bike instructor and potentially a Power Zone instructor.

That would make sense to have a Power Zone instructor in both places.

They already do.

Who’s the other one?

Hannah Frankson.

 

I didn’t realize she was British. I don’t know because I don’t take the classes I never realized she was British. There are a lot of things that I don’t notice.

I know.

We’ll talk about one later. It’s a little embarrassing because I even met him.

There are others. I think Sam is one. I want to say, I haven’t taken a Powe Zone class in ages, but I’m pretty sure Sam Yo is too.

Lots of people are screaming at their podcast devices right now. “Come on, Tom. They’re already over there,” and they’re like, “Oh, it’s Tom. That tracks. That seems on-brand.”

It’s like you can say just about anything and nobody ever gets mad at you. There has only been a few times over the years that I’ve gotten mail about you.

That is surprising.

People give you so much more latitude. I tell people this all the time. We could make the same joke and I say it with the same tone, I’m a bitch. You get laughs and everybody thinks you’re hilarious. It’s a gift. Never let go and I’m taking you anywhere I need to insult people.

Now I’m like, “Is it a gift or is it a White privilege? Oh, no.”

Maybe a little both, I’m not going to lie.

I’ve done that.

NGL as the kids say.

People were asking about a Mich Ultra commercial. If you are watching on YouTube, there’s an image on the screen right now and people are like, “Is that Alex Karworski?”

I watched this commercial five times and if somebody said put money on this, I would have put money. That is Alex K. I reached out to Alex K and his response cracked me up. He said, “Certainly not but I’m flattered you guys would think that.” I said, “This guy is your doppelganger. We all thought it was you. He looks so much like you. You should be getting royalties. He said, “I will reach out to them for the next one.”

Didn’t he say if he thought it looked like him?

He didn’t, but I went on to say, “Are you messing with me? Is it possibly one of your brothers?” I believe he has three brothers and he said, “I’ve never seen that person before.” It looks so much like him. Don’t you think it does?

I didn’t know Hannah Frankson was British. Do you think I’m going to be like, “Yes, that looks like Alex Karwoski?” I guess.

That is his doppelganger. It’s crazy. He could win a lookalike contest for that guy or vice versa.

If you’ve been wondering, we have the answer. It is not Alex. If you started drinking Mich Ultra because of Alex K, you need to stop.

It was some random actor.

Camila Ramon has been featured by people in Espanol.

It is also on Instagram and the entire thing is in Spanish. Go into it prepared if you’re going to watch it.

You don’t speak Spanish.

Yeah. Get a translator out or whatever, but she talks about her life at Peloton. It’s a cool little thing. Just a fun highlight.

I didn’t even know that was a thing. Why would I? I don’t speak Spanish and I don’t read People Magazine. I have two strikes against me, but cool. Jeffrey McEachern is going to be featured on an upcoming episode of the New York Road Runners Association’s podcast Set The Pace as part of Black History Month. When I was like I didn’t know Hannah Frankson was British, when I saw the headline, I was like, “Is he Black?” I remember him being super nice but I didn’t remember that. I was like, “Yeah.” That’s cool. That’s a big podcast, not as big as The Clip Out.

I will forever be grateful to the New York Road Runners and Rob Simmelkjaer for helping me make my dream come true of running the New York City Marathon.

That was an amazing event to not participate in.

The logistics of it. I wish that we lived close enough that I could legit work for the New York Road Runners. That would be my dream job. If we could somehow afford to live there and I could work there, I’d be so happy. I will be queen bee in my happy place.

It would be hell to commute for me though. Coming up after this, we have more information on the Tonal 2. We’re going to talk about which TV show featured a Peloton bike and we’ll give you tons of content updates if you’re looking for stuff to do. Sit tight.

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We talked about Tonal 2. If you have a Tonal 1, they have announced an upgrade program.

If you have a Tonal 1, they will allow you to trade it in and they will give you $1,000 off the Tonal 2. I think that’s a pretty good deal.

Especially if you don’t know what to do with it. You could try and resell it, but that can be a pain in the butt.

We sold the original bike. I’m glad the way that all worked out because it went to a great person. Selling stuff in general is a lot of work. The way I understand it is they could probably use some of these pieces from the Tonal 1 towards the Tonal 2. You’re also entering the recycling stream. If that’s important to you, I think that that is going to be a big factor for people. The way it looks to me is you only have 30 days to make a decision. If that’s something you’re thinking about, you need to go on over to the official Tonal community and get signed up right away. I may have read it wrong. That’s just my interpretation.

 

This is not a celebrity sighting on a piece of Peloton equipment, but we’ve been using this segment for this lately when Peloton pops up somewhere in pop culture. It was on an episode of Law & Order recently.

I thought that was fun.

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It is time for the TCO Top 5, where Peloton listens and then steals stuff from us. The first item up for bid is your favorite core class.

This class was taught by Joslyn Thompson Rule. It was a 20-minute core class and this was taught on January 27th, 2025. The Selly Athlete nominated this class. She said, “I love the way this class was structured and Joslyn’s cues. I want more strength with Joslyn in the future. This class used heavy medium and lightweights. That’s a lot of weight for a core class.”

I talked two weeks ago about there was a picture of Robin where she looked tough. I think we firmly established in this episode thus far that I don’t know what the instructors look like.

Apparently, even the ones you’ve met.

Her arms, I feel like they are all focusing on taking Tunde Arm classes on the side.

Maybe they’re all lifting heavy. A lot is going on with the Strength Plus app. When Peloton rolls out a new modality, what typically happens is it’s months in the making. When we saw the Strength Plus app get announced and rolled out and two programs on it were brand new, those had probably been in production for 4 to 6 months. Let’s say another one shows up in two weeks and it’s Joslyn, they have probably done it months ago. I’m saying it’s very possible that they could have been. You may not be saying something silly at all. We can’t tell right now because they could be doing those things off-screen and not showing them to us.

It makes me wonder if some of the instructors are focusing on it.

I know that Joslyn has been doing a lot of strength programs and splits. You might remember a while back when we talked about there being an instructor and it was Joslyn who was going through with her split. She was having all of these Facebook lives and she had all these directions out there for people who wanted to up their strength game. Specifically, it was for beginners to strength. She spelled everything out and helped people with a lot of questions that they had. My point is she has been making a point to be more involved on the strength side. It would not surprise me if other reasons for it had not become clear at the time.

Number two, your favorite run.

Everybody is going back in the archives lately. Christina Ribeiro is the most recent back-in-the-archives gal and that’s a little powerhouse if you don’t remember. She found a class from November 27th of 2020 and it was Becs Gentry’s Bring Up the Heat Run. She said, “What I love most about it is the playlist featuring all the songs to say thank you and be grateful for something or someone. Becs adds thoughtful and inspiring words to a beautiful reminder to be thankful always because there’s always be reason to be grateful even when everything may seem or feel the opposite. If anyone is going through some things right now, this could be a good opportunity.

Number three, your favorite yoga class.

This class was taught by Nico Sarani. It was on February 2nd, 2025. It was a 30-minute yin yoga class. It was nominated by Karen Smith. Karen said she’s not typically a huge fan of yoga, “This class was fantastic. It’s a slower pace and you hold the movements for longer and it’s focused on hip openers. Pretty doable for this very non-flexible body. It was my first class with Nico and I loved her playful commentary and how she interacted with those in the studio.” I love that.

Number four, your favorite Powers Zone ride.

Christian is back again. This is the class that he taught on November 17th, 2024. It was a 45-minute Power Zone Classic Rock ride. This keeps being nominated. People love this class. This week, it was nominated by Susie Brunzel. She said, “This is part of the week-five rides of the current Power Zone Pack Challenge. Super intimidating with five zones and six intervals, but completely doable with plenty of Zone 2 recoveries. You’ll feel so strong when it’s done.”

Finally number five, some people call it notoriously difficult but we know that they’re unstackable. It’s a strength class.

Tina writes these articles every week. She pulls everybody’s suggestions and she finds them and puts them all together. This week, she nominated a class.

She’s gone mad with power.

No. I love that she did that. It was so funny because I told her how much I loved that she nominated her own class. She was like, “I’ve suffered this class so many times. It’s classes you love to hate.” She thought about this class so many times and she’s taken it. You love to hate it kind of class. It just came out on February 2nd. It was a 20-minute arms and shoulders with Rebecca Kennedy.

Tina said she wanted a quick upper-body class because she was short on time and feeling a bit under the weather. She said that she should have known it was impossible for Rebecca to program a strength class that is a quick light 20 minutes. The warm-up includes a full minute of holding a medium dumbbell straight above your head while marching, then moves into three rounds of EMOMs that include four different moves and three tricep push-ups at the end of each EMOM. “This l class left my arms like jelly and 20 minutes was more than enough, but the time flew by because the variety of moves kept my brain busy.”

We will now take a look at This Week at Peloton. We will start with a 90-minute run with Susie.

This was this past week. It’s on-demand now. You should check it out. Any class with Susie is amazing and 90 minutes. That’s amazing for sure.

We also have a Heart Health walk with Matt and Doctor Yancy. I don’t know who that is.

I don’t know who that is either. I assume he is an expert in heart health. It is now on-demand, but it got added this week. Since it is American Heart Association month or whatever they call it these days, it makes sense that they put that out there.

It’s Dr. Clyde Yancy. We also have Start Your Morning Right with Anna.

It’s a morning stack. She does a 20-minute morning yoga flow, and then there’s a 10-minute meditation. That was on February 4th at 7:30 AM. It’s going to be out by the time people see it. If you didn’t take it live, you can still go and enjoy this later on-demand.

We also have a Metal Ride with Charlotte.

Charlotte has embraced the Metal. I am so glad to see that. This is a 30-minute Metal Ride and it is going to be coming out on Saturday, February 8th at 9:00 AM. This one is live but it’s also in English. How exciting is that?

We will now take a look at the TCO Radar, classes coming up that are on our radar and should be on yours too. We’ve got some Black History Month classes. All those are still legal.

There are encore classes from years past, either the last year or the year before, and they’re mixing those in with some new classes. Be aware of that. You’re going to see hip-hop collections. You’re going to see the earlier Artists Series, and it seems like Peloton is going to be announcing special new classes one week at a time. For week one, we have a couple of classes. There’s going to be a Gospel Glow Yoga Flow with Chelsea, and then there’s going to be a Supreme Soul Row with Ash. That’s week one.

It's really hard to get treatment for anything woman-related. Share on X

We also have here that Callie is back in PSNY.

She’s going to be teaching classes on the 3rd, the 8th, and the 10th. There will be live classes those days including one from her signature series, the Soundtrack Strength Club.

The Artist Series this week features. De La Soul.

There are also classes that are going to be taught by Nico, Robin, Chelsea, Emma, and Joslyn. In February, we also have One Republic. We have Kirk Franklin and Ray coming out at the end of February.

We should also talk about the fact that some of the instructors are starting their twelve-week pauses.

Some of them we don’t know how long they’re going to be. Maybe it’s only going to be four weeks. We know Aditi is going to be out for a while but we don’t know that it’s going to be the full twelve weeks. She had said a while back that she was going to be traveling for Peloton and doing some things. We’re we’re hoping that this time that she’s away will also include whatever that was or maybe we’ll learn about it soon. We also know that Andy is going to be taking some time off and Alex Toussaint. All in February.

We also have a Power Zone class coming up with Matt and Christian.

Yes, 120 minutes with the two of them and it’s on Valentine’s Day. That’s the class. That could be the class that Jon Hosking is going to be in. We’re tying it all together and it’s a Power Zone class and Jon Hosking is going to be there. Do you see what I’m saying?

It’s like the final scene in The Usual Suspects.

It is if he limps in there.

Don’t forget, we have a Captain America cross-promotion where you can train like a superhero.

This is in addition to the last one. This is now going to be a challenge.

I’m going to say, technically, Captain America is on performance-enhancing drugs. The serum is why he can do all that. He didn’t train at all.

He’s still a superhero.

I think this is a bad precedent for Peloton to be setting.

I’m not allowing you to derail me. Let me get to the point here. When the first thing came out and it was a cross-promotion, that was on the Strength Plus platform. You could take classes but the weird thing was that every time you did it, it was a different class. It was like generating an upper-body class. I wasn’t too impressed with that one.

Superhero’s skip leg day.

This one though is a challenge that everyone can participate in because this shows up on the app and this is for all equipment. Will these be specific classes? Maybe we’ll see something like Tunde teaching classes. Maybe we’ll have something like that. I don’t know.

A female superhero? They can’t do that.

You’re a comic book nerd. You should know better.

It is award season and Peloton has a collection for you.

We’re doing the collection. I don’t know who else is going to be on it. I guess everybody who won Grammys before. We’ll see. I didn’t even care enough to go look but I know I know Ray was in this collection.

Finally, we have Rising Country classes coming up.

Several different instructors are teaching them but for new ones. They don’t appear to be attached to anything so I don’t know if this is also some Grammys thing that they’re doing. I’m not sure. When is the Country Music Awards?

I have no idea because it’s awards and I don’t care.

It’d be nice if you knew this.

Would that be great if I’d have been like, “It’s March 19th,” but I have no idea.

‐‐‐

We have two new apparel things to discuss. We have spring apparel that you don’t hate.

It’s been a while since I’ve been excited about anything and there are lots of great colors and the floral in this. All the instructors that have worn the floral look beautiful in it. It’s a very flattering floral. I haven’t bought anything don’t worry. I do like the colors in the spring collection. They did a great job.

We also have the Together We Go Far collection.

They added several new items to the Together We Go Far collection. That is out now as well.

Coming up after this, we’re going to talk to our interview of the week, Kelli D. Stick around.

‐‐‐

Finding Peloton And Falling In Love With Fitness

Joining us is Kelli. Kelli, how’s it going?

 

Good. How are you?

Good. We’re so happy to have you here. I always like to start these conversations out by understanding how you originally found Peloton and decided, “I think this is a good match for me?”

I came to Peloton in 2019. I was introduced to it by one of my friends that I met through the Bookstagram community. She knew that I was taking spin classes at our local gym and they kept getting canceled. I was annoyed. She said, “Why don’t you try Peloton?” It was a little expensive. I had a little raggedy spin bike in my garage and was using the app through that for a couple of months. I fell in love with it and wouldn’t stop talking about it. For my college graduation present, my husband bought the first Peloton bike and the rest is history.

He was like, “I got to get her this bike so she’ll stop talking about it.” Tom thought by starting this show, I would stop talking about Peloton.

I was like, “We’ll only talk about it twenty minutes a week.” I was so so wrong. That makes sense that you would get your feet wet, make sure that you’re going to like it before you pull the trigger on a purchase like that.

The Journey To Jaw Surgery And Recovery

You were taking spin classes. Have you been pretty active your whole life? Does fitness fit in and start for you? How did it go? I was not a fitness person so that’s why I’m always curious about that.

I’ve been pretty active my whole life. There were a couple of years where I had jaw surgery and my mouth was wired shut. I was in a lot of pain and didn’t workout during those couple of years but I’ve always been pretty active outside of that.

That sounds miserable.

Can we ask what precipitated the jaw surgery?

My jaw was moving into the back of my head. They put braces on to try and correct it. I had a jaw surgery where they moved it forward and then screwed it into place. I had it wired shut while it healed.

I didn’t know that was a thing.

I’ve heard of underbites. I had an overbite as a child and had braces. That was the end of it. I didn’t know your jaw could get yikes.

The surgery was painful and the healing I’m sure was painful but was it painful before that?

No.

That’s even worse.

I had an overbite but I had no idea. It’s been about ten years since that so I’m mostly healed. I do have permanent nerve damage though so I can’t feel this part of my face. My bottom lip and chin, I can’t feel.

You should have been a boxer.

I was thinking of the kids getting all the piercings. You wouldn’t even feel anything. You could get piercings galore.

She’s like, “I’ve got screws in my mouth so I feel like I’m all up-to-date on piercings.” Does your husband say you got screws in your head loose? Do you get a lot of those jokes?

No.

You would never not hear them if you were my wife.

That’s so true.

It’s a window into poor Crystal’s existence.

If we’re going all the way back to 2019, are you just a bike person at this point or do you take other classes on the platform?

I was using an outdoor bike in 2019. I lived in an area that had miles of outdoor trails built around the city. I took frequent advantage of that but then I also had a gym membership that I use.

What do you do now? Are you bike only? Do you do any of the other classes on the platform or stick with the bike purist?

I have the bike and then we bought the tread in 2021. I also do strength classes.

A little bit of a lot of things.

Now it’s mainly tread. I’ve been stuck on the tread for a while. It goes back and forth on what I get obsessed with and hyper-fixate on.

I hear that. I’ve been in my tread era for a while. Does your husband use the bike and the tread since he was the one who was like, “We should go ahead and get the bike since you can’t stop talking about it?” Where does he land on these things?

He uses the bike more than the tread. He’s slowly starting to pick up more on the tread but he’s overwhelmingly a bike person.

Managing PCOS Symptoms With Peloton

That works out well since you’re hanging out over on the tread. When we were talking offline, you mentioned that you have PCOS and you feel like Peloton helps you manage those symptoms. Can you tell us how that works?

I am more prone to not only gaining weight but holding it. I tend to be more heavyset and that comes with a lot of problems. Mainly, I’m predisposed to diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and all of that that comes with being heavier. When I was first diagnosed, I had gained 50 pounds in six months with no change to anything that I was doing. I was working out heavily, eating normally, and doing all the same things, and could not stop gaining weight. They finally threw a bunch of tests and figured out that I have PCOS.

While I was on medication to manage some of those symptoms, they were concerned about me being prediabetic at the time. My A1C level was high. When we got the Peloton within six months of us having it, I was no longer prediabetic and I haven’t been since we got the bike. I have had no problems with diabetes, high cholesterol, or high blood pressure. I’m heavier but I don’t have any of the health problems that they associate with some of that stuff.

 

That’s fascinating. I’m trying to ask this question delicately. Say no if you don’t want to answer. Did those levels get affected? Did you end up losing weight or are you still pretty much where you’ve been but it’s just you’re healthier because of the additional movement in your life?

I’ve lost weight. I haven’t lost all of it. Maybe with the 15 to 20 pounds of that 50 have come off. It’s hard for me to lose weight because it all tends to turn to muscle. I have three times the amount of testosterone a woman is supposed to have. It’s easier for that to turn to muscle than it is to lose it.

How frustrating. It’s like our bodies can do so many crazy, amazing things but also so many crazy, unexplainable things that make life harder.

It was explainable but unexpected.

When you’re growing up, you hear about cancer, don’t smoke cigarettes, and don’t do this and that but nobody’s like, “By the way, your body might suddenly start producing three times the amount of testosterone that other people do. Good luck with that.” No one says that.

There are so many women with PCOS who either go undiagnosed. Like me, they don’t find out until they’re in their late 20s or early 30s. It affects so many things like fertility. It can wreak havoc on your life if it’s not checked. A lot of people don’t get diagnosed like they should.

I hear a lot about it lately but is it a difficult thing to test for? It sounds like it was quite a struggle for them to even figure it out. I’m curious why it wouldn’t be tested more commonly.

I don’t think it’s something that you’re like, “Here’s a box you check.” It’s one of those diseases, I believe, you tell me Kelli, you know a lot more than I do, that it has a lot of moving parts and can present in many different ways.

It comes with a lot of weird symptoms too. A lot of things like irregular periods and ovarian cysts. Doctors don’t treat. They give you birth control and tell you, “We’ll check it in 3 to 6 months,” and then nothing ever comes of that. It’s hard to get treatment for anything woman-related. When I got diagnosed, they found all of these cysts and were like, “You’re full of cysts. You probably had these for decades.” Nobody ever told me that. That wasn’t a thing that they looked for. You have to find a good doctor, stick with them, and not leave at this point because it’s so hard for women to get proper treatment.

They’re very blessé about cysts in general. Not very long ago, I went to the doctor with a whole bunch of symptoms. I was concerned I was having some kidney issues. We have a lot of kidney stuff in my family. It was this dull pain that I was having. I was like, “What is this?” They were like, “I’ll assist. No big deal.” “It seems like we should check that out.” “Nah, it’s fine. It hurts whenever they pop or rupture.” I’m like, “Okay, thanks.”

There’s nothing they can do about it either. They’re like, “It popped. Here’s some pain medication. Good luck.”

This is what it’s like to be a woman, honey. I give him these speeches all the time.

As if I’m in the medical community.

I know. I’m like, “Let me tell you.”

It’s your call.

It’s like, “What’d I do?”

Navigating Grief And Loss During COVID-19

You’re conveniently here for me to complain about. That seems like quite a journey. When we were talking offline, you mentioned that you had lost your father in the middle of COVID. I can’t even imagine that. I feel like about all of us know at least one person who passed away but that’s your dad and that’s crazy.

I don’t know much about that but I’m curious, was that at the beginning or middle? My grandpa got COVID. Two days before, they had given the okay to do the strong drug that was able to go in. I don’t remember exactly what it was called. I remember it had gotten approved two days before he ended up in the hospital. I’m pretty sure that’s the only reason he survived it. It was a scary time.

It was surreal. This was in 2022. A lot of people had thought we were out of it. Everybody’s home free and he wasn’t vaccinated. He was in his early 60s. He got sick. He was in the hospital for a week. They put him into a coma shortly after he got there and he did not wake up. He and I weren’t on the best of terms when he passed. There was a lot of trauma with that. Watching somebody die from COVID is the worst thing that you can imagine. It was horror and death.

I’m so sorry.

I didn’t know if she needed a second. I’m sorry.

I’m okay. It happened and there’s nothing that I can do to change it. I wish he would have gotten vaccinated. I know a lot of people have a lot of feelings about those vaccinations but after seeing someone suffer that much, it’s worth it to get them for me.

I know you never know who you’re talking to. We’re very pro-vaccination. We both participated in the medical trials that got the Moderna one approved.

My family is ultra-conservative. I was so surprised and grateful when my parents took it seriously that they needed to get vaccinations because I was not sure that that was going to happen. It was scary. I was glad when they were not leaving the house. I was like, “That’s awesome. You guys hang out right there.”

It’s 2025. You guys could maybe leave the house a little bit.

We’re like, “Do you want to go on vacation?” “No, we’ll stay here.” Do you feel like it was good to have the physical outlet during that time of all the trauma that went with that?

It was. We rode a lot of sweat steady rides. That was more help than I could have even imagined that I needed at that point. The sweat steady rides take it out of you and make it so that you can’t think about things. That was exactly what I needed at that time.

That’s amazing that that was so helpful for you. I do feel like there are so many different classes that you can take. Dr. Jenn, who’s on the show all the time, always says the right rides or the right classes will find you. You will go and pick it up. It’s always what you need to hear at that moment. I believe she’s right.

Bookstagram Adventures And The Reading Challenge

Tell us about your Bookstagram adventures. How did that come to be?

I have always been a reader. Through my twenties, I had let it go a little bit. You’re growing up and figuring out what you want to do with your life. I did not have time to read. I started picking it up again in 2018. That’s when I started everything on Bookstagram and it’s snowballed since then. I’m traveling out of state multiple times a year to meet authors. I met Cody Rigsby at one of his book events. It’s crazy sometimes but it’s fun. You meet a lot of cool people through that community.

I’m not much of an Instagram guy. All the time she’ll show me posts, she has to hand me her phone.

He’s always like, “Wait, what does this mean?”

I’m like, “What am I reading? What am I looking at?” She’s like, “It’s right there in the comments.” I’m like, “Where the hell are the comments?” There’s nothing intuitive about Instagram about me. How does that work? Are you posting little miniature reviews or covers of books and being like, “I like that one?”

It’s a lot of book reviews and different advanced reader copies that I receive. I’ll publish reviews ahead of the publishing dates. I am doing a difficult reading challenge for 2025. I don’t know if you can see them in the background but I wrapped all of my books.

Find the classes with the playlist that you like the best and take those. Also, don't necessarily worry about the metrics. Share on X

I was like, “Can I ask a question?” I feel like a dick when you’re like, “I love to read.” I see all these books but I don’t see any book covers. I’m like, “What the hell is going on?”

They’re very pretty. I thought it was a style.

I wrapped them for 2025 because I came to the conclusion while decorating for Christmas that I had way too many unread books. I have developed a lot of mood reading habits and a lot of bad habits to where I’ll look forward to a book for so long and I cannot wait to get it and then I get it and I don’t read it for three years. I’m trying to break myself out of that.

As a result, I wrapped all of my books. I have numbered them. Every time it’s time to pick a new read for this year, I draw it from a bowl and then that’s what I read. There are 340 wrapped books behind me. I am slowly making my way through those. My Instagram is a lot of those reveals. The fourth one will be posted tomorrow. I’m alternating the book reviews for the books that are revealed.

I love that.

That’s awesome. Anybody who is an avid reader I’m sure has a version of what you said in their life. I’m more of a Kindle guy but I have so many books on the Kindle. I have to stop myself from not going and reading another true crime one. I’m like, “I got to stagger these so I don’t just that.” Crystal sometimes gets mystified by my choices.

He’s the very opposite of me.

I’ll read something like that and then go grab the longest book in the world.

He can read slice-of-life books that, in my opinion, go nowhere. They’re written well. That is not necessarily a bad thing but it doesn’t appeal to me. They’re always long slice-of-life novels that don’t go anywhere.

I’m a slow reader.

10 or 15 hours of just that, no.

That’s 10 or 15 hours for her. It’s funny because the Kindle will give you your estimated finish time. It’s dead on. If a book’s going to take her 15 hours, it’s going to take me 30.

I can’t commit to that. If it took me 30 hours to read one book, it better be a damn good book.

I’m a fast reader but 30 hours is a lot.

It’s got to be something that’s like that true crime or a thriller that has twists and turns because otherwise, 30 hours, it’s going to be hard-pressed to keep me engaged that long.

I don’t blame you there.

Exploring Different Genres And Reading Habits

Do you have a preferred genre? It sounds like you do and you have to avoid it because you’ll read nothing but that. That is what I’ve surmised.

I started out reading heavy thrillers. It was almost 90% thrillers. It got to the point where I would guess the ending because I would read so many. I’d get 3 to 5 chapters into a book and say, “That person did it. This is what’s going to happen.” They got boring for me. I’m reading a lot of romance books. That’s probably what I have the most unread on the shelf.

I see that.

I’m assuming as a thriller reader, and I’m going to tell the story, you’ve read Gone Girl.

I have.

For anyone who hasn’t seen or read Gone Girl, if that person still exists, this is spoilers for Gone Girl. Crystal read it and she’s like, “This is so good. You got to read it.” I started reading it and I was, legit, one chapter in.

You were in the first chapter.

I stopped and was like, “Is this a well-written book? It sticks the landing. It all makes sense.” She’s like, “Yeah, totally.” I was like, “The wife’s batshit crazy. She’s roping this guy in.” She’s like, “How would you know?” I was like, “He would do these things for her that were nice but it wasn’t nice in the right way. It was so much like my ex-wife. This is crazy. I’ve seen what this looks like. If this author knows what they’re talking about, then she’s the problem.”

That’s how that conversation went.

I was glad I had a witness. It was such a jaw-dropping surprise for most people that if I didn’t have a witness, they’d be like, “Sure, you knew.”

That sounds like a lot of fun. I do want to say that we are very sorry to hear about passing your books to Grandmodel, though. That sounds very sad. How long had you had him? I can’t remember his name.

It’s Batman.

How would I forget that? That sounds like you had a lot of fun together doing that.

We did. He was universally loved on Bookstagram because he had such a personality. He was so grumpy. He was the perfect dog for reels and pictures. He was a mess.

Batman is grumpy. It makes sense.

I had him for twelve years and he was grumpy his entire life. From the moment I got him, he was grumpy but he was perfect.

It is funny how they have their own personalities because the dog we had before the dog we have now was Marshall. Marshall was clinically depressed.

 

It always looked like we beat him or something.

He was so mopey.

All the time. If you give him a toy or take him for a walk, it doesn’t matter. He was so sad all the time.

Have you ever read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy?

I have but it’s been a while.

You know how everybody has a voice for their dog. My voice for that dog was the depressed robot from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, especially if you’ve ever seen the BBC version, where he’s like, “Bring the size of a planet and they have me opening doors.” That was Marshall.

It summed him up so well. He was a good dog.

Favorite Peloton Instructors And Classes

Just always sad. What is your leaderboard name?

My leaderboard name is What_Kelli_Reads.

That makes sense.

That’s on-brand.

I wanted to make it easy to find me because in the beginning, I would constantly tag whoever I was writing and they almost always responded. I kept doing it, particularly with Jess King because she is my absolute favorite. Every time I took her class, I wanted to make sure she saw me and knew that I loved everything that she did. It was a bit hyperfixation. I can’t go back and change that.

She’s like, “Kelli’s going to be reading a restraining order.”

Who’s your favorite over on the tread if Jess King is your favorite bike instructor? She does do classes on the tread but I didn’t know if she’s still your favorite on the tread.

I’m all over the place. For the bike, it’s Jess King. I love Matt Wilpers also when I get into the power zone mood and I need a hard class. I go to Tunde. Those are typically the three. On the tread, I love Kirsten and Matty. I take a lot of his classes and then Jess Sims.

You like to mix it up. That’s awesome.

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

Find the classes with the playlist that you like the best and take those. Don’t necessarily worry about the metrics if you can’t go 80 to 90 cadence for a minute straight. Enjoy your actual time on the bike or the tread. Build your stamina and endurance from there. Don’t necessarily worry about the metrics right out of the gate. Have fun with it.

That’s excellent advice.

It’ll keep you coming back. If you’re someone who maybe isn’t feeling it right away or like me, hates to exercise, if you can make it enjoyable, then you’ll do it more.

It can be hard to psych yourself up some days but if you get on the bike, the biggest struggle is over. You got on the bike or tread. You have 15, 20, or 30 minutes, whatever you’re doing, to get it done and then it’s over. That part of your day is done and you can move on.

Very good advice.

They can’t take that away from you. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day. Before we let you go, remind everybody again where they can find you and all the places.

I am mainly on Instagram but I also have a Blue Sky account that I started. I am under @What_Kel_Reads.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

‐‐‐

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

People can find me on Facebook at Facebook.com/crystaldokeefe. They can also find me on Bluesky, Threads, Instagram, and the Peloton leaderboard @ClipOutCrystal.

You can find me on Threads and Bluesky at TomOKeefJr or on Facebook at Facebook.com/tomokeefe. You can find the show online at Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page and join the group. Don’t forget our Patreon. For $5 a month, you get all sorts of bonus content and add-free episodes. If we get them early, you get them early. That’s it for this one. Thanks for tuning in and we’ll talk to you next week. Keep pedaling, and rowing, and running.

Bye.

 

 

Important Links

• Kelli D on Instagram
• Gone Girl
• Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
• The Clip Out on Apple Podcasts
• The Clip Out on Spotify
• The Clip Out on iHeart
• The Clip Out on TuneIn
• The Clip Out on Patreon
• The Clip Out on Facebook
• The Clip Out on YouTube
• Peloton’s website
• Tonal’s website
• Crystal O’Keefe on Facebook
• Crystal O’Keefe on Instagram
• Crystal O’Keefe on Threads
• Crystal O’Keefe on Bluesky
• Crystal O’Keefe on TikTok
• Tom O’Keefe on Twitter
• Tom O’Keefe on Threads
• Tom O’Keefe on Facebook
• Tom O’Keefe on Bluesky

 

 

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