• John Mills joins us to discuss Peloton outsourcing equipment production.
• Jenn – When recovery gets hard.
• Unpacking a puzzling (for some) Tweet from Peloton.
• Invite Friends is back.
• You can now book in-studio classes online.
• Peloton is sending out free gifts for APIHM2022.
• Jayvee Nava is getting married this weekend.
• Olvia is getting married this weekend and instructors will be in attendance.
• Tunde made Ad Week’s list of Women Trailblazers.
• Tunde had an IG post about the beauty of uncertainty.
• Matt Wilpers completed his first post-Covid triathlon.
• Robin Arzon releases a new video on IG.
• Robin was on the Rich Roll podcast.
• Emma Lovewell was at the Pepsi Women’s retreat.
• Nico Sarani is doing DFB-Frauen classes.
• Marcel Maurer and Erik Jager had a Facebook Live.
• Marcel Dinkins is squatting almost 20 lbs while maintaining her mileage.
• Ben Alldis was on ITV’s This Morning.
• Angelo: Snacking while stressed.
• Ashton Kutcher partners up with Peloton to train for the NY Marathon.
• There are now classes available in Spanish.
• Kristin McGee has a Fit Family yoga collection.
• There’s a new Adidas Peloton collection.
• You can now filter classes by body activity.
• Peloton had a correction for in-studio preview classes.

All this plus our interview with Michelle Marchildon!

—

Watch the episode here

 

Listen to the podcast here

 

Peloton To Stop Manufacturing Its Own Equipment Plus Our Interview With Michelle Marchildon

Maybe we should start by explaining to people that saw your post about our cruise issues. First off, we will preface this by saying that we know first-world problems. That’s for sure.

In our defense, we have had one vacation already canceled due to COVID in 2022, not in general. This was our second chance at Hawaii and it got canceled. You got to remember that our oldest that’s in the house is graduating from high school in 2023, so I don’t recall if we’re going to have summer vacation for the kids and us after this. It’s still a first-world problem. I realize that, but it means something.

When our Hawaiian vacation got canceled the day before we were supposed to leave because Crystal got COVID, we took the insurance money because we bought the insurance and we booked a cruise as a backup. Doing the online check-in 21 days in advance tells us that the only vaccine acceptable for 12 to 17-year-olds is Pfizer. Sydney, Crystal’s daughter and my stepdaughter, is participating in a medical study for a different vaccine, and so they told us, “No way.”

Not only that but, “No, you can’t get your money back. No, we won’t help you rebook. The only resolution we can come up with is to leave your kid at home.”

She’s like Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone. We were in a panic because if they had told us this three months ago, we could have gotten her the Pfizer vaccine, but now we don’t have time because there’s a month in between the shots, then you need two weeks after the last shot. It’s impossible to get her on the Pfizer vaccine at this point. We were in a phase four panic, thinking we just threw away a ton of money on a cruise that nobody was going to get to take.

Luckily, I was able to surmise the email address formatting for the Norwegian Cruise Line. I reached out to their senior vice president of guest services among many other people, and they rectified it for us. They wanted to see the paperwork, which is more than fair. We sent it over and they were like, “You’re cool. This is fine.”

It was done within an hour on a Sunday. As much as I was upset on Saturday, I could not have been more pleased with how they resolved it, the professionalism and the courtesy. They were very nice and they were very understanding.

It helped that I was nice.

It sounded like you weren’t nice. That’s what I heard.

I mean I was nice to them. I didn’t come in screaming.

You just explain the situation.

I was very matter of fact. The meanest thing I said was, “You can cruise again because of vaccines and because people like her did trials to get these things to market. You should make an accommodation.”

It was never their intention. Let me just be clear. I don’t ever think they had a problem with it. I think it was Kyle in resolution who had an issue with it.

Kyle in resolution is kind of a jerk.

Not kind of. I am not a fan of Kyle. He got to hear it whenever he suggested I should leave my fifteen-year-old daughter at home for a family vacation. You know what? You suck it, Kyle. I don’t appreciate that. Apparently, you don’t have kids. You just leave them anywhere.

Who would want to breed with Kyle? He’s a jerk.

I know Kyle had a very bad day.

Anyway, crisis averted and thank you for paying attention to us. Now that we’ve done all that, what pray tell do you have in store for people?

We have an interview with the great Michelle Marchildon. She is quite an extreme yogist. There’s probably a better word for that, but you need to hang on and make sure you make it to this interview because she’s a delight.

I told Crystal when we got done, “This reminds me of the time I interviewed David Lee Roth. They were like, “You got Dave for five minutes. That’s all you got Dave for.” I’m like, “Hey, Dave,” and then twenty minutes later, he was done talking. We asked him one thing and he talked for twenty minutes straight. We got done and the rep was so mad at us. I was like, “Blame Dave.” It was like that. She was great.

Not the boring kind. There are times when people talk for twenty minutes straight and you don’t get a word in the end. That’s not what this was.

Just to be clear. You cannot compare someone boring to David Lee Roth or Michelle.

You need to stay tuned for that interview. We also have John Mills back. We are going to discuss with him the great stoppage of manufacturing that has caused panic. There’s going to be a good take and a bad take that we’re going to get into. Dr. Jenn stops by. We talk about when you are having trouble recovering, what do you do? We also have a visit from Angelo at MetPro. We talk about dealing with snacking when you’re stressed. Also, we have a whole bunch of updates on instructors. There are marriages out the wazoo. We got to cover all of that, plus where all the instructors are, and all the good stuff. I think that’s it.

Before we get to all that, shameless plugs, don’t forget we’re available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts. Wherever you find a podcast, you can find us. While you’re there, be sure and follow us so you never miss an episode. Maybe leave us a review. We have a new review from Mary Binder. She says, “Great show for all things Peloton. There are so many things I love about the show. First, Tom and Crystal are adorable and hysterical.” I think that’s in that order.

It should be, “Tom and Crystal are hysterical and adorable.” I’m hysterical and you’re adorable. “I especially love the rabbit holes that Tom goes down. I learned so much. My musical tastes and humor aligned with Tom’s. The best thing about the show is the analysis of all things Peloton. It’s smart, fair, and right on the money. Thanks for doing the show.” Her leaderboard name is @Ice_and_fire.

Mary, I love your leaderboard name and thank you for the very kind review.

You can also find us on Facebook, Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page and join the group. We now have a Patreon, Patreon.com/TheClipOut, where you can get this whole show ad-free for $5 a month. If you want to pay a little bit more, you’ll get bonus content like when the story broke about Peloton no longer making bikes. We recorded a little mini episode for people. It’s 10 to 15 minutes of us unpacking what that meant. You can also subscribe to our newsletter at theclipout.com. Check out our YouTube channel where you can watch these shows at YouTube.com/TheClipOut. There’s all that. Let’s dig in. Shall we?

We shall.

—

Joining us once again via the magic of zoom tube is John Mills from Run, Lift and Live. How’s it going?

How’s it going?

Let’s jump into the big story of the week, which is Peloton will stop making bikes and treads. It’s funny how some people make the headline, “It’s going to stop making equipment,” like it’s going out of business.

There has been a lot of that. I feel like they know exactly what they are doing.

It’s very clickbaity. I was tempted. I’m not going to lie.

It is technically true, but it is its own bike. It honestly makes a lot of sense because it’s going back to basics. Peloton has been slowly peeling off layer after layer and getting back to that, “We just do this one thing.” That’s where they started. That’s actually a good thing.

When they announced the Tread and the Bike+, they said then that these are exclusively being manufactured through Rexon. I remember they said that at that time. I don’t know if that ever changed.

I thought it did because they bought Tonic at some point. I’m not saying that this is accurate but in my head, Tonic was part of Peloton, and then Rexon was making all of the parts. They would send it over to America and then they would get finally assembled over here. That was how it works in my head.

I don’t know if that’s the case or not. Only in that, they always have these issues with these barges. I always picture them like bikes. Maybe it was just parts, and then they were coming and they were piecing them together. They own Tonic long before they announced that Rexon is going to be the exclusive manufacturer of Bike+ and Tread at the time. When I heard this, I thought this simply meant that Tonic is no longer making anything. That’s all it told me.

Also, it expanded the partnership with Rexon and formalized its expansion. That’s the other thing. A couple of weeks ago, we talked about how Peloton had renegotiated some of their deals and their commitments. I can’t help but wonder if this is all part of it. It’s like, “If we go through just you guys, you can bring down our costs a little.” That’s how I hear it.

There’s less demand though but it makes sense.

It’s always a shame when somebody loses a job. Some people were let go because of this, and that is absolutely unfortunate. From a business standpoint, this is probably the sort of streamlining they brought Barry in for.

As much as I hate to admit it, that’s what a financial guy does. It’s what I’ve said from the beginning. He’s going to be axing things. He’s going to be coming in with his ax and he’s going to cut down things.

Doesn’t this say that Tonic is likely going to be sold? Why do you own a manufacturing plant in Taiwan if you’re going to be going to a third party?

That’s a fair question. If you’re not going to manufacture things, why do you own a manufacturing plant?

Let me put it back on you. You bought a house and you fixed it up. Now you move to a new house. Instead of selling that house, now you rent that house, and so you have another stream of income.

I don’t want to be in that business though.

I’m not saying that’s what’s happening. I’m just asking the question.

That seems counter to what Barry is looking to accomplish. It’s not streamlining.

When you get a little older, you have to be more interested in fitness because life happens. Share on X

Is that what you think, John?

Specifically, because remember right as they purchase Tonic, if I remember it correctly, Tonic was in the process of building an entirely new state-of-the-art facility. They didn’t start any manufacturing in the Tonic facility because it was still being built. If I remember it right, it took a year before that was done, and then they were going to start using that facility. Isn’t this like the Peloton Output Park? You got this brand-new state-of-the-art facility that you’re not even going to be using for the rest of the year. Why do you want that?

It’s just a little unclear, and this is not the first purchase that Peloton has made where we don’t have full transparency. We’re doing some guessing. If Peloton was responsible for getting rid of 570 employees, that indicates some of those employees are left. What’s next? Are they going to spin it off? Are they going to downsize? Why is anybody left then? I don’t mean that like get rid of everyone. It’s not like that.

You can isolate some people for the wind down though.

Does that indicate that more cuts are coming? Is that what you’re saying?

I mean it’s hard to gauge if you don’t know the total number of people that work there. If they had 10,000 people and they laid off 570, that says something a lot different than if they had 600 people and they laid off 570. I also think that it’s interesting that the people that don’t have Peloton or don’t like Peloton, their take on it is always like, “It’s going to be a clothes hanger. You’re going to buy it and never use it.” Oddly enough, that’s what Peloton seems to be doing with manufacturing facilities.

That’s right, but from a different angle. They spin it and then they were right.

I used to picture Barry walking to his office from his car. He’s like, “How come all this laundry is hanging on Output Park?”

“You haven’t touched this manufacturing facility in six weeks. There’s a layer of dust on it. Get it out of here.” Tom, I put a couple of articles in there because this is factual. These are facts that we’re discussing. This is the positive side of things. This is from Fortune.com. They talked about how this is going to simplify operations, streamline things and be cost savings. They also mentioned a couple of purchases or a couple of things that came out that I had not realized. One of them is that they created a new deal with a maker for the screen. All of the screens are going to go through a maker. Do you remember the name of it, John?

I don’t remember the name. I wasn’t familiar with those two entities that were mentioned. Only the one that Apple used, but I wasn’t familiar with the companies.

I thought it was interesting because with everything else going on, it slid through. It was real quiet. Quanta Computer is going to do the touchscreens and Pegatron is going to build its upcoming rowing machine. That’s interesting because why isn’t Rexon building their rowing machine? Those were two very interesting things. I don’t know why that is. The supply chain guy says that they want to have one internal and one external to be able to have these two different supply chains. That way, they can have simplification that all drives cost down and in turn, that will improve product quality.

When I was reading through that, I didn’t quite get that, to be honest with you. Hopefully, this is a component of what Uncle Barry was saying. He was bringing in these people that had a broader depth and more experience in doing this. There’s something relative to this structure that’s going to make it better. We’ll wait and see. Aligning is their expertise and they’re doing something better for the company.

That goes with what we’ve been saying for a while that Peloton can’t be the best at every single thing. They need to, from a process of, “This is going to be our strategy going forward.” I do think simple is better. I also want to point out that this particular paragraph says that Tonic is going to keep 100 existing staffers in Taiwan to work with outside partners. That does indicate that they are keeping Tonic. They will continue to work with other companies. To me, that says something about the renting situation I talked about earlier.

A hundred people are not very much. Does that mean there were 600 to 700 people there before? It still sounds odd to me.

It could be the shutdown piece of it.

Maybe they’re keeping the manufacturing expertise to oversee the manufacturing with the third parties. They’re going to serve almost like a project management firm because Peloton in New York doesn’t have manufacturing expertise necessarily. They’re going to be like, “You guys make sure these are getting made right for a decent price.”

Now that you say that, when I read it again, that makes perfect sense. That might be what they’re saying. I want to switch over to Mac rumors because this article cracked me up. I don’t think they like Peloton, the author of this article. There were some nasty sentences in here like, “Earlier this year, Peloton was looking for an investor like Apple to buy 20% of the company in an effort to improve its fortunes amid dwindling demands for its products and fierce competition from services like Apple+.”

In the first line, they flat out say, “A desperate attempt.”

“A desperate attempt to simplify its operations.” Come on.

That’s a little too much. Don’t get me wrong. I said something similar with regards to the Apple Fitness+ thing, but mine is much more benign. I’m going, “They’re a big company. They got some out there. They got time to play with it. They got all the time in the world. Maybe at some point, that thing will be a different animal,” but they’re presenting it like it’s already there and this thing is threatening. I don’t know if they are.

I don’t think they’re there. There are people that use Apple Fitness. I’m not saying that they don’t, but I do not think that content-wise, it is competing with Peloton in any way, shape or form, not buying it.

Maybe it will be there someday, but I don’t know.

Maybe. I am fascinated by this whole thing that the iPhone assembler Pegatron is going to be doing the rowing machine. I am fascinated by that. I want to know who decided that and why. In my head, we were further along in the assembly process with the rowing machine because where the hell is it? We know it’s coming out in 2022. We’ve been hearing this for years and years and years. We know it’s happening.

Is it possible that it’s like cookies, they already made a batch?

I don’t know. That’s what I want to know. I want transparency around this. Where are they? How many are they? Where are they sitting? Was it in pieces and now Pegatron is going to put them together? I have questions and I want answers to these questions.

That’s one thing I struggle with. That part of that article, I also thought was interesting. You know me, I’ve been all along going, “I don’t know. It’s Uncle Barry.” Do you really drop a rower?

You’ve been very skeptical if this rower is coming.

We’ve all been hearing what he’s saying. That’s why that article was helpful for me because they’re saying it in public. It’s July and they’re saying that they’re going to be. I guess they are.

They’re too far along to back off the rower. If he could wave a magic wand and go back in time, there are a lot of things I wouldn’t do, but the rower would be pretty high on that list.

That was John’s baby and they’re they would cross it off.

That was a key statement in that article. I attached to that, but I’m with you. They talked to us in 2018 and early 2019 that there’s a rower coming. At least we heard those rumors. I could have made a rower with my bare hands by now.

Do you think this cements that if we see new equipment, it’s going to be the Peloton versions of things we’ve already seen in the marketplace? Is this why you think they got rid of the strength device? Maybe these companies already know how to make a rower. They already know how to make a bike. They already know how to make a tread, but now you got this new thing and they were like, “We don’t know,” and they were like, “We can get rid of it.”

I remember Uncle Barry also talked about getting the software on other platforms. I could be taking it wrong, but I took that as what the hell are we making new hardware for? That’s what I got. We got world-class content. We could figure out how to integrate that stuff.

You and Tom have both been saying that where Barry comes from is subscription land. If he’s going to come in and “fix things” at Peloton, his mind is going to be on that subscription model. It’s going to be all about content. “Where else can we put it?” Logically, that makes sense. As a purist who has been in Peloton for a long time, I don’t like the idea of it. I understand the need for it and the potential of it happening, but I don’t like it.

We talked about this in our bonus episode, but do you think that means that maybe we start to see Peloton popping up on other manufacturers’ equipment that you can access through maybe a NordicTrack?

I think we’re going to start to see a couple of things along with integration with content in other places on other devices. We’re going to be seeing the existing hardware sold in new places and in new ways. All of that is Barry’s thoughts. To your point, I agree with you. They canceled that Tonal-like device, and I think they would have canceled the rower.

There’s too much sunk cost. I keep landing on the fact that Barry is from Netflix. Do you know what Netflix doesn’t do? Make televisions. Buy a TV that doesn’t have a Netflix button on its remote these days, I don’t know that you can do it. It makes me wonder if the long-term plan is every piece of equipment that’s out there comes with Peloton preloaded on it and the hopes that you subscribe. I also can’t help but feel like these companies like NordicTrack wanted to get into the content creation business. I feel like they wanted to make equipment, and then Peloton came out with great content and it forced their hand. If they could get out of having to do that, some of them would.

I agree with you. Think about what LG is doing now. They got a new product they’re about to drop. It’s going to be through their television and it’s going to be content, and then they’re producing one device. It’s going to be like a Guide type device that gives form correction and rep counting. To me, that’s the model. It’s some software and some content. If it can see you and give you some information, that’s great. All you other people that want to make hardware, that’s cool. We’re going to try to get our stuff on your hardware. That’s it.

The other big question we need to address before we wrap this up is what’s happening with Tread+ then? What does this make you feel about Tread+, John? Do you think it’s out?

I don’t think anything is coming with Tread+. I could be wrong. I’ve heard that somebody reaches out to Barry and he responds and goes, “We’re hopeful that we’re going to be able to release the Tread+l.”

That was in an email, but we don’t even know that he wrote the email.

In my mind, there is no way in hell that that thing is coming back. That’s where my mind is.

When I get to the whole we seem streamlining, I feel like the Tread+ is not part of the streamlining. It doesn’t make financial sense. I want it to.

It’s a big monstrosity thing. It’s amazing, but that doesn’t make any sense. I don’t believe it. I’m in this dilemma. I have one and I love it. Jab lost all this weight on this thing. She uses it religiously every week. I get up and I’m going to get on the Tread+, and she was already there every morning. It’s pulling out of my heart like I can’t send that thing back. I don’t even know how to do that.

I don’t know that you need to. This is where I keep landing, John. Tell me if my logic is wrong here. They said back when they announced the recall that they were going to come up with a fix. If they don’t come up with a fix, then it changes the terms of the recall. For those of us not inside the window and we decided not to send it back, let’s say we’re keeping it, doesn’t that imply that they still owe us a fix of some kind beyond the November date? Some kind of new communication has to come out of that.

 

I hope that’s the case. That’s not how I was seeing it, but I can’t find any holes in your logic. Hopefully, that’s the case. That would be great.

I keep circling around it. I want somebody to poke a hole in it because if I’m wrong, I’m in the same boat as you are. They have to do something for people that they’ve said they were going to fix it. If that means they give us our money back or give us a new tread, I don’t know what it means.

I would think of nothing else than they have to say, “We’re not going to fix it. Send it back or you’re on your own because you held on to it under the assumption that a fix was coming.”

That’s my interpretation. They are saying that they will still fix it beyond that November date. They’ll still work on it. That is their official stance. I am sticking with it for now. That could change any day. I go back and forth on this daily but right now, that’s where I stand.

I have never heard her go back and forth on it. Just for the record. I would like to let everybody know not one time has she said, “I’m getting rid of it.”

I said maybe.

It looks like a house divided over here. I love this thing. Jab is out of it. She doesn’t say anything. Erica is going, “We need to send that thing back like yesterday, when are you sending that?” We’re all messed up over here.

That’s a lot more complex. Since Tom doesn’t use it, this one gets to be my decision.

In fairness, if I did use it, it would still get to be your decision.

Thank you.

I don’t know that I meant it in a nice way.

I thought you were being nice there.

I was being very considerate.

I’m going to side with Tom here. He was being very kind.

Now I see it as a bunch of BS. That’s not nice anymore.

Now that things took an ugly turn, maybe it’s time for John to sneak out. On that note, John, until next time, where can people find you?

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

—

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

Hello.

One of our listeners has a problem. She has been doing floor bootcamps. For some reason, she’s finding recovery difficult so her body is in a constant state of hurt. We have a person who’s overdoing it. How do we help?

First of all, I want to look at what’s going on that you’re pushing yourself so hard. What’s happening emotionally that you’re pushing yourself so hard that you’re that sore and not recovering all the time? Are you using exercise to calm your anxiety? Are you using it as an outlet that has crossed the line from a healthy outlet into an unhealthy outlet? Are you struggling with some eating disorder stuff or body image stuff? I wanted to put that little checklist aside. We need to have her look at that first, and then you need to change it up. You can’t be doing that every day.

Also, I’m a big fan of foam rolling and stretching. I love to foam roll as Crystal knows very personally. Foam roll at the beginning and stretch at the end and see where that gets you. You also want to start to integrate some other kinds of recovery activities like massage, and Theragun. I happen to love cryotherapy. I’m a huge cryotherapy fan. There are so many new alternative recoveries. A lot of the time, if you follow instructors on their Instagram, you’ll see them like a couple of years ago, there was this thing that Becs had on her legs. It massages your legs and it’s supposed to help you recover. I went out and bought it immediately.

Did you get a Normatec?

I did. I spent a fortune and I get my legs massaged and every bit helps. You want to look at what is your recovery game. Sometimes we’re so focused on our endurance or strength or whatever that we don’t focus enough on how we recover so that we can have great workouts. It sounds like she needs to integrate that, and also at least one day of rest a week, and then regular rest cycles throughout the week.

I would like to add to that too that the bootcamps, in particular, are not meant to be done every day. It’s fine to do that a couple of times a week. You’re supposed to go hard on a bootcamp and you don’t want to go hard in every workout. To your point of switching it up, the bootcamps do those but adding some softer activities would be a good idea too.

I don’t go hard in any of the workouts.

I’ve seen you go hard when you do Tonal.

I was going to say you’ve been breaking numbers on Tonal, from what I hear.

Guess you broke three million pounds lifting?

I was virtually in the room.

You were there.

It happened to fall during one of your weekend runs. Sometimes I’m down here doing the Tonal because I know she’s not on the Tonal. I lifted three million pounds, not in a row.

That’s significant.

Who would have thought your mouth would say, “I lifted any pounds at any point,” after all of those years of not exercising. It’s fantastic. It is inspiring.

I’ve only lifted 1.3 million pounds.

You do all sorts of other things that I don’t do.

My point is that in comparison, you’re saying it’s not very much. I’m saying that’s not accurate. It’s a lot.

I don’t know how to handle compliments, especially about that sort of stuff. On that note, maybe next episode, the question should be about, “I have trouble handling compliments.” Until we pull out that question next episode, where can people find you?

Until I explore your entire family’s history to get to the bottom of that question, you can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram @DrJennMann. Also, Hump Day With Dr. Jenn is my column in InStyle magazine. You can catch it every week online.

Thank you.

—

This may be not the biggest story we’ve ever talked about on the show, but Peloton sent out a tweet that left a lot of people scratching their heads. It said, “You’re in his DMs. I’m high-fiving you on the leaderboard. We are not the same.” A lot of people, including me, were like, “What does that mean?” I thought maybe it was some fitness thing and I moved on with my life. That is as much as I thought about it.

You were in the minority. I saw this posted everywhere. Can somebody explain this to me? I saw it in so many places. I will be transparent, I felt every bit of my 43 years old knew it had something to do with DMs, but that was it. I know what a DM is, but that’s all I got.

You explained this to me.

I have to do my Peloton research.

It references a meme that’s going around where it’s like a mad lib joke.

You’re not alone. When you're on the Peloton board, there’s a feature that lets you know you're not alone. You can have friends and see who's working out. Share on X

The original thought process was like, “You’re in his DMS, but I’m the one that sees him every day. We are not the same.”

For our old listeners, it’s like Match Game PM where they would be live. They would go to the audience or go to the panel and they would each write a different joke that filled it in. People were saying, “You’re in his DMs. I’m living rent-free in his nightmares. We are not the same.” “You’re in his DMs. I’m in a refrigerator. We are not the same.” You’re in his DMs. I host a podcast. We are not the same.

Peloton decided to take their own spin on this and their own spin was, “You’re in his DMs and I’m high-fiving them on the leaderboard. We are not the same.”

The comedy is nerding me. Now that I understand what they’re doing, let me explain why it doesn’t make sense from a comedy theory standpoint. That the joke is supposed to be that you’re trying to get in this person’s pants by sliding into their DMs, but here’s this other way that I’m entangled with him that is infinitely more intimate than you’ll ever achieve. High-fiving someone on the leaderboard is less intimate than being in their DMs.

You’re not having a conversation high-fiving on the leaderboard. You’re just high-fiving.

High-fiving someone on the leaderboard is adjacent to a Facebook poke.

There’s no intimacy at all.

The joke collapses under its own weight at that point. That’s just the comedy nerd in me because I have written for Mystery Science Theater 3000. I don’t know if you know that or not.

I do know that. I was there.

I know. You were very patient.

We are not the same.

There you go, “I waited patiently while you wrote jokes for Mystery Science Theater. We are not the same.” The joke doesn’t work but all that aside, it got them tons of attention.

Everyone was talking about this.

The joke writer in me says it’s a big fail. The marketing guy in me says, “But it worked.”

That’s all that matters. Also, for those of you saying it has nothing to do with their actual message. It doesn’t need to. They are not marketing to the 40-year-olds. They are marketing to the 20-year-olds and it landed with them, so the job is done.

Peloton has reached a point where, in my opinion, they’re like Coke or Pepsi. They can do branding like keeping their name in front of people. They don’t have to explain what they are anymore. Just getting the word Peloton in front of people moves the needle. Invite Friends is back. It popped up briefly, went away, and now it has returned.

All of my friends are there. I should have realized it was temporary the first time when they only had two people on there. I thought it was weird because I even said I think they’re rolling it out slowly.

You were like, “Why does everyone hate me now?”

Now, the only downside is you can’t search for your friends’ leaderboard names so you have to scroll. If you’ve got 2000 people to scroll, that is a lot of scrolling unless everybody wants to get invited, all 2000 or 3000. I do like the idea that you can celebrate a specific milestone. Somebody brought up the fact that this is only for classes that are on-demand. If you’re celebrating a milestone, there is currently no way to use the Invite Friends for a new class where you would want to celebrate live. Hopefully, that’s something they are working on. That would be nice.

You can now book in-studio classes online if they are available. I mean the classes are available but they’re booked up.

Just to be fair, these were the Friday ones that they were doing in June and July. I think the last three weeks of July went up and you could start booking. They were full instantly because they were all the preview classes where you got invites sort of. Soon, I believe we’re going to be seeing the weekend classes pop up. You’re going to be able to book for the entire weekend. As soon as I see that, I will be posting. For all of you that keep asking, “When can I,” I will post it. You need to watch my posts because I cannot message you all back, but it’s coming very soon.

We got word that Peloton has been quietly sending free gifts to people.

Barbie Fisher posted that she got an email. It was from Peloton saying, “Thanks for celebrating Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month 2022 with us.” She got a sports bra, a hat, and a magnet. Lots of people apparently got this. I’m not sure how they chose. I never know how they choose. It’s very interesting. At any rate, it’s out there. Make sure you check your email because you might have gotten a free gift.

It seems weird that they would send out gifts for Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month but not make sure that they’re going to people who are of that ethnicity.

If you celebrate it and you took a class, it doesn’t matter. It might be offensive if you were checking people’s ethnicity.

That’s also hard to figure out because we want to look at the bigger picture, but it also seems weird for some white guy to get one. I’m torn but I get what you’re saying.

These days you’re better off just sampling. I don’t think you better guess anybody’s ethnicity. It doesn’t seem smart.

I feel like it has been a while since we’ve talked about her, but Jayvee Nava has a long and rich history with Peloton.

She does. She has been with Peloton since the beginning. She’s getting married. Congrats to Jayvee.

We should probably explain who she is to newer people.

For people that wouldn’t know, Jayvee is the voice of the OPP. She has been in Peloton forever. Back in 2016 when I got my bike, she still posted on the OPP when it was called the OPP. She would post things like if there were updates and things going on with Peloton. She used to be the one that posts the Feature Friday. She was everywhere. When you had a problem, you tag Jayvee, which is probably why Jayvee is no longer on the OPP anymore.

Whenever you went to the Homecoming events now called HRI, everything changed, she was the face of it. It’s always her department that does the HRI/Homecoming events. They are the ones that put the whole thing on. In fact, at Homecoming 2022, I saw she posted that it was her seventh anniversary of putting the Homecoming together.

I remember the first one we went to, she was the first person that walked up to us when we walked in the door. That was pre Clip Out. It’s not like she was aware of the show or anything. It was still incubating in our heads.

She was the nice person and saying hello.

She came up and started talking to us. We said, we are going to do one, and it all went from there.

The rest is history.

Congratulations to Jayvee.

Congrats Jayvee. That’s very exciting.

—

More weddings to talk about.

Olivia is officially getting married. She’s getting married in Ireland. I’m not sure who is attending. So far Christine D’Ercole has been spotted. Aditi has been spotted. There was somebody else on my list. Selena was actually playing golf on the most beautiful golf course in the world. I’m pretty sure.

Ireland has got golf courses.

Holy crap. She posted pictures of it. If you are a golfer, you must come to Ireland to see this golf course. It is amazing. I wouldn’t even want to play golf and I want to go to this golf course just because I want to see the views. Anyway, they’re all there to celebrate Olivia’s wedding. I have a feeling that there might be other instructors showing up, but I know there’s a lot going on this week, so we will see. Congrats to Olivia for getting married.

Adweek announced their Women Trailblazers. They had 24 standouts elevating and empowering underrepresented voices. Tunde made the list.

This list seems tailor-made for her with everything she has done. Since she has had a platform to do it, she has been doing it. I don’t think these are numbered in any way. Congrats to Tunde for being part of this amazing lineup of women.

While we’re speaking of Tunde, she had a post about the beauty of uncertainty.

 

It was a Nike ad, which is pretty cool. It’s pretty awesome to see her front and center in this amazing ad talking about embracing the unknown, which is very important to her. She says, “Lean into the doubt, trust yourself, and believe your best today is only the beginning.”

While we’re speaking of Tunde, she was in Texas.

We talked about she was going to be at this event a few weeks ago. She was there and she was in Texas and it was 112 degrees, then she headed back to New York ASAP.

They got the power stayed on for her. You know how Texas can be.

I do. It looks like she had a good time presenting. That’s nice.

Matt Wilpers completed his first post-COVID triathlon.

He did a half Ironman. It’s in Geneva, New York. I saw some people posting. They ran into him there and got to take selfies. That’s fun.

I also learned while writing up the show notes that it spelled triathlon. I didn’t know that.

Duathlon is the same way. It’s not spelled duo-athlon.

Robin Arzon has a fancy little video that she posted on her Instagram.

It was all a whole new video put together. She said parenthetically, I did it. I thought it was interesting. What are we using this video for? What does this mean? Is this her trying to get more gigs?

Because she’s missing out.

What do you want? You’re in People Magazine. You’re a masterclass creator.

You just have to keep your profile up.

I’m saying that jokingly, to be clear. I don’t, I don’t mean that shitty. I’m just wondering what does one do with this then? Do you think that’s why it was made?

I don’t know. I guess so.

It’s clearly a promo video.

I guess you got to keep the Gram hopping. It’s the beast that can’t be fed.

I don’t think this is just for Gram. That’s my point. I think this is to get other things because it says, “Athlete, keynote speaker, Latin, mother, creator, survivor, executive.” I feel like this is to get big speaking opportunities.

Maybe it’s something they made for her representation for things like this. She’s like, “As long as it’s made, I might as well throw it out there.”

I thought she wanted to share it because it’s cool. It’s beautiful. I want one of those.

While we’re speaking of Robin, she was on the Rich Roll Podcast.

For the fourth time. I’m not salty or anything, but seriously, four times Robin and not one time on The Clip Out. I’m just saying. That’s cool.

Emma Lovewell was at the Pepsi Women’s retreat.

It was for career and leadership development. She was talking all about being a Peloton instructor, etc. For some reason, they were all wearing robes. I don’t know what that was about, but she posted this on Instagram and said that the robes are soft.

Is Pepsi a cult now?

Do you know what this reminds me of? Do you remember the time that we went to Homecoming in New York and we ended up at that rooftop party at 4:00 in the morning, and then went to the pancake place? We were all in robes that night.

Yeah, because we were on this rooftop in this fancy trendy bar. They brought out robes for everyone. They were these maroon robes. We all look like Hawkeye Pierce on M*A*S*H.

Except they had hoods. I’m not sure what that was about, but it was fun and I took great pictures. I don’t know but that’s what it reminds me of.

That makes sense. Nico Sarani is doing some classes teaming up with the DFB-Frauen team. It’s the Women German Soccer team. You don’t think I knew that. Did you? I knew a sports thing. You need to recognize that.

She did these classes with the team in the studio and they did a focused flow, four poses, and then they did a peak performance meditation. That was cool. There’s also a fun video that they did like a commercial for the team. I’m not sure who the director was, but it was pretty awesome. I like this little match-up they got going on.

While we’re in Germany.

Marcel Maurer and Erik Jager went live on July 13th. It will be up so you can go see it, but they were on Facebook Live.

While we’re speaking of Marcel.

I have to say I appreciate the time that you took on these transitions. There was another picture of her where she was like, “I’m on the verge of squatting 200 pounds while maintaining my weekly mileage.” What that means is that she is doing major strength training while training for a marathon. That’s why that’s a big deal. It’s tough to do both. Somebody was like, “How are you maintaining your mileage? Balancing weight training and love of running feels impossible.”

She answered like this, “One, I did just enough running to maintain my conditioning to run and speak while teaching. Number two, no speed/mileage goals were sought throughout the cycle. Three, prioritizing strength meant being okay with running slower than usual and letting go of super long runs. Ultimately, my goal is to have 200 pounds be a moderate weight for me, not a heavy one.” I think that’s an amazing goal. I love that she said this. As a MetPro coach, I talked to runners all day long who neglect strength training. This is so good to my heart right here.

Even beyond the strength training aspect, I think it’s a good message that sometimes to achieve one goal, it’s okay to put another goal aside or maybe backslide your achievement in one area because you want to make an achievement in a different area. You can’t be all things to all people.

That’s how you get hurt. That’s how you get injured, trying to do all of the things at the same time.

It gets a great message to send that even a Peloton instructor or someone in the upper tier of fitness is like, ”I can’t do them both. Something has got to give because I’m a human being.”

Thank you, Marcel Dinkins, for sharing that. I absolutely adored it.

Ben Aldis appeared on ITV’s This Morning. That’s what it’s called.

It’s apparently a UK morning talk show. He was there to help with shaping up your bat wings or bingo wings as they call them. That’s what it says, “Today he’s showing you how to blast those bingo wings with some simple exercises you can do at home.”

If we have any British listeners, explain bingo wings.

Is bingo another word for bats? Does it mean something different?

Are you guys being shitty to people who like bingo? What does that mean?

We need a UK dictionary. If you’re British, reach out to us. We got to solve this.

We don’t say this often, at us. We want to know what the hell is a bingo wing. We know what it means, but why does it mean that? We are confused. We haven’t been this confused since Benny Hill.

At any rate, Ben was on TV. He did a great job and he helped some women form up their triceps. Let’s call it that until we understand bingo wings.

Let’s make sure we’re not saying something horribly offensive.

We might be.

—

Joining us once again here to answer all of your fitness and nutrition questions. It is Angelo from MetPro. How’s it going?

It’s good to see you again.

It’s good to see you too. We have a question for you from Diane Garrison 1. She wants to know about snacking and sweets when she’s tired or stressed. How can she curb that?

The first thing I tell everyone is that whether you’re tired, stressed or low blood sugar, nothing is going to change the fact that chocolate tastes good. That’s the battle we all are going to have indefinitely. However, the battle we don’t have to have is that lightning or electricity-like surge where your body craves sweets and sugar because of a cliff drop-off in your blood sugar. The way to prevent that is ahead of time, to get ahead of it.

The whole yoga landscape has changed. We’re in a new space, and we're coming along and hanging in there. Share on X

There’s a number of things you can do, a lot of the standbys. I’m certain this will not be the first time you hear this, but eating more frequently throughout the day can help stabilize your blood sugar especially if you get cravings, including protein. More often, it doesn’t even have to be massive quantities of protein. A little protein with each meal can go a long way. It helps stabilize that blood sugar. Also, eating balanced meals. Fats can be very valuable. There’s a lot of debate over when to time fats and the best time.

Suffice to say, if you’re not an elite athlete where you’re timing digestion rates to maximize glucose uptake, start with a simple protocol of treating it like protein and have a little bit with each meal, and you’ll be served well. If you’re a more advanced athlete, then there’s a bigger discussion to be had. Balanced meals throughout the day will help get ahead of it. Now, you’ve done all those things. You’ve prepped in advance. If you can prepare breakfast and snacks, you’re going to be well ahead of the game. I tell that even to my clients who work from home.

I had one client we fought on. He’s like, “I’m at home. I have all the ingredients. I don’t need to prepare in advance.” I said, “Humor me for one week.” He said, “For you, Angelo, I’ll do it for a week.” Sure enough, he was like, “You were right.” His clearance was double, maybe triple what it typically was because it’s that thrifty nature we have. We don’t like to see stuff go to waste. Once you’ve prepared it, you’re unlikely to see it go to waste. You’re likely you’re going to eat it.

When you’re busy, it cuts out the time of even having to put a meal together. It’s already prepared. Prepare in advance. I can’t stress this enough. My favorite prepping meal is a mid-afternoon snack. It’s the one that most frequently gets missed. It’s the easiest to prepare, simple stuff, fruit and nuts. Keep it simple. There are a lot of other combinations that work great. Don’t overthink it. You want low perishable, portable, and not messy. That’s what you’re looking for. Simple snacks will do amazing things for your appetite and blood sugar, especially the afternoon snack because most of us go more hours consecutively between lunch and dinner than we do breakfast and lunch.

I like mid-morning snacks and mid-afternoon snacks. If I had to prioritize one, it would always be the mid-afternoon snack. If you’ve done all of these things, but you’re still getting hit with cravings, have good options available. As support, importantly, those are the times to not have junk food and your particular triggers in the house because when you get stressed out, if there are Oreo cookies in the house, you will eat them. Do you know how I know that?

It’s because they’re Oreo cookies.

When I get stressed out, if I have Oreo cookies in the house, I will eat that. I have deduced that no amount of knowledge or scholarly info on the impact of Oreos on my waistline or metabolic health will deter me from them once they are inside my house and I’m stressed. Unless you can figure out a way to never get stressed out, keep the Oreos out of the house. That will go a huge way.

If you do figure out a way to never get stressed out, please share it. You will be a billionaire.

Share it with all of us. We want to know. Good snacks are things that you can go to. Find a way to enjoy fruits and the natural sweetness of fruits. Not everyone is going to like the same thing. I have some clients who like to freeze grapes, and then it’s more of an event to eat. Frozen blueberries. I have other clients that like to put a little Truvia on cut-up strawberries, and that works well. I have other clients that like to do plain Greek yogurt with fruit mixed in, and that satisfies them.

There are great combinations. You can take a little bit of a cup of strawberries, a cup of Greek yogurt, and a couple of packets of Truvia or all-natural sweeteners. Put it in the blender and turn it into almost like frosting or put it in the fridge or freezer for about an hour or so. It will make nice satisfying treats. These are little tweaks you can try. You’ll find things that work for you.

Avoid boxed items. What a lot of times we do is we go to satisfy our sweet cravings with processed marketed as healthy things like granola bars and such that come out of a box. Let me tell you, those are so tightly packed with both sugar and high calories and carbohydrates that undermines our efforts, especially if weight loss is among our goals. If it’s not among your goals, then there are some bars out there that are reasonable. If you can go for grandma and grandpa’s options of food, the way it comes out of the ground or grows on a tree or from an animal, better still. Look at those options as your go-to, but 90% of the battle happens before you get to your craving, Diane.

That’s so true. I miss that snack. Watch out.

If you could be a fly on the wall for one of my consultations with one of our clients or any of my coaches while they’re coaching their clients, in the first week, here’s what you would hear. “Yes, Johnny. Good, Johnny. I don’t care if you lost weight, Johnny. Here’s what I want to know. Did you pack your meals? Did you have a routine in place?” Until that falls into place, any streak of good habits or bad habits or somewhere in between is going to be simply a practice of randomization because that’s how life goes.

They have learned coaching hundreds and thousands of clients that the only way to get a predictable outcome, 60 days from now, six months from now is the battleground is do we have a routine in place? That doesn’t mean no variety. It doesn’t mean you never deviate from the routine because that’s not life, but you have to have a foundation to come back to that can be built on. That’s the secret to our success at MetPro. You can implement little pieces of that to help stabilize blood sugar and cravings even on your own.

Thank you so much for all that. Until next time, if people want this sort of information tailored to them and their personal fitness goals, where can they find you?

Call us up and reach out at MetPro.co/tco for The Clip Out.

—

It’s not an artist series in the traditional sense because Ashton Kutcher doesn’t sing, at least not on record like he may be in the shower. He is partnering up with Peloton to train for the New York Marathon.

He has never done a 26.2 before. He is going to be not only teaming up with Peloton, but also Becs Gentry. She’s so lucky. She’s going to get him race-ready. He’s going to use the Peloton marathon training program, which has already existed out there. If you don’t know, it’s in three chunks. It already exists. Go get it. He’s going to train for a cause. He’s raising funds for a nonprofit called Thorn, which he cofounded ten years ago. We will see. They are going to keep track of his progress. We will be giving you updates here and there. He will be there in November. Tom, this is why I want to go to the New York City Marathon. Ashton Kutcher is going to be there. We need to be there.

I’m sure he’ll stop and talk to us.

Of course, he will. We’ll have a Clip Out booth. He’ll be like, “I’ve heard of you guys.” We’ll do an interview. It will be amazing. If I manifest it, it will happen. That’s what people say.

It worked for Ralph Macchio. We met him in St. Louis. We went to see the Karate Kid play and we turned around and Ralph Macchio is there. He also liked my WKRP shirt.

He did.

—

We have Spanish language classes available for people. I say we because I work at Peloton.

No, Spanish classes have existed. It’s just a collection. That’s all it is. They have created a collection so you can go and find them easily. That’s it. All these classes are in the Spanish language.

They’re now clustered together.

 

There’s strength, cycling, yoga and meditation altogether. Maybe some of these are new as far as they didn’t know they have all of those, but I thought we did. At any rate, you can go find them. It’s a nice little collection out there for you. It’s under collections on the app or your bike or your tread.

Now we’re talking about collections I don’t understand.

Peloton made a collection so it’s easy to find all of the Peloton preview classes. Every Friday, in June and July, they’re having the member preview classes. That’s what they’re calling them. A special invite only, that’s what I call them for the special people. Anyway, those classes have all been put into one collection so you can easily find them so far. So far there are 39, with more to come. Jenn Sherman’s class will be coming up on July 22nd.

A cool little feature has been added. You can now filter by body activity.

You can get very specific. You can say, “I want biceps and lats,” and it will bring up every class that has both biceps and lats.

Just to be clear, these are the body parts you’re supposed to be working on. Not the ones you want to look at.

It’s not a sexy people filter.

We’re getting closer. The technology is there.

Now, you can be like, “I want to see the best biceps,” and then that will happen.

Kristin McGee has a Fit Family yoga collection.

There are other Fit Family classes that have dropped as well. Kristin McGee had some that dropped.

Apparently, yoga does not run in the family.

She was trying to do a tree pose with the kids and they were everywhere. She was like, “The trees all fell down.”

It looks like it made a sound.

She tried. That one on the left has got it down. He’s like, “Let me know when you people get it together.”

He’s clearly her favorite. I know you don’t have a favorite child, but it’s that one.

I also saw that Jess Sims had some fun family classes too where they were playing games and stuff. Look for those if you need some activity for the kids. They’re all nice and short, which is perfect.

Finally, we have a new Adidas Peloton apparel collection that will be at your fingertips by the time you read this.

It’s dropping on July 14th. It’s going to be another Adidas and Peloton apparel drop. Apparently, they’re featuring all the UK and German instructors this time around. I like the look of this one. It looks more sporty and fun. I’m excited about that. I like the color, soothing blue instead of that snot green. It’s much better.

—

Joining us in this episode is Michelle Marchildon. How is it going?

It is going great, Tom. Thank you.

We are so excited to have you here. Michelle, you have been doing yoga for years. You are an athlete. Tell us how you came across Peloton. How did it become a thing for you?

I cannot say I have always been into fitness, but when you get a little older, you have to get a little more interested in it because life happens. When I had children, a whole lot of life happened, as it should to anyone who has had children. Your body and your health change, and that includes dads because you are more sedentary than you have ever been before. That is a huge change. Not sedentary, but you are leaning over chasing after 2 feet tall people. It is a huge change for the body physically. I was always a writer and a journalist, but I became interested in fitness at a young age in my twenties. I was always able to get away with the bare minimums. I run 2 or 3 times a week and go to work. When you get a little older, the body lets you know loud and clear that that is not going to be sufficient.

We have a regular old bicycle. It was stationary. I was able to read while I biked. I had an inkling that that was not an efficient use of my cardio and my time, but I did get a lot of reading done. It was 2019 and my husband said, “I think it is time to upgrade the bike.” I was all in. He does not exercise as much but he said, “I am reading a lot about Peloton. Let’s get you a Peloton.” I think it was up there with my wedding ring. It is about the best gift he has given me, and the two children and Gigi, the puppy.

If you are not watching, just so you know, Gigi is sitting on Michelle’s lap because she was a little mouthy when she tried to not have her on her lap.

I got it in April of 2019. I have to be honest, it saved me during 2020 and 2021. When they closed the gyms, the fitness studios, and the yoga studios, I do not know how people made it without doing something other than worrying. This bike and all of the classes that went along with it saved me. It saved my spirit and my health.

Was that a culture shock for you to go from a regular old bike that you apparently had to pedal with your hands to a Peloton where you have got coaches, classes, music, and it is like a discotheque? Was that a little shocking for you?

It was not too bad because I had gone to spin studios. I knew how to spin in a spin studio.

It was not an alien concept.

I live in Denver, Colorado. When I went to big cities, I would go to SoulCycle, which I enjoyed. Not the price perhaps, but I enjoyed the format of the product that they offered. The way I discovered Peloton and wanted it was we were in New York visiting my kids. My family is there and my parents. We were in New York and I was staying at a hotel that had a Peloton bike in the fitness center for guests. I got on it and I remember my very first class was with Olivia Amato.

I think she said at the time that it was her first spin class that she was offering because she had been a running coach prior to this class. I was doing her first class. It was my first class. I was just doing it on the clips that you put your foot in on a hotel bike. I remember running upstairs to my husband, “This is the greatest thing ever.” I said to him, “If it is not public, make it go public and buy the stock.”

That turned out to not be the best advice.

I am happy with my stock. I am a believer. I am all in. I am holding it. I am going to give it to the kids someday.

That is a hot take, given that we are in July of 2022. It has been a rough year for the Peloton stock and I am very impressed that you still feel that much passion. I love Peloton but I do not know that I could say that much excitement about the stock price at the moment.

I am fine with it. I am not a day trader. I am a yoga teacher. If you want more stock tips from me, just ask because I am the worst. I believe in it and I feel like the format that they have delivered has just been phenomenal, but people do not want to listen to this. Let’s talk about something interesting like where are the people on Peloton? I am there looking for my 60s and my 70-year-old people.

They are out there. You have to call them. The two that come to mind right off the top of my head, we got Cycle Nan. I do not know her age but I know that she has been a Peloton rider since I have been a Peloton rider in 2016. She has been doing it for a long time. May has been a guest on our podcast and she is lovely. She has done everything in her lifetime. She is like the Forrest Gump of Peloton. She has been everywhere. She has done all of the things, everything. She is amazing. I look up to her. If I get to her age, I want to have lived that amazing life.

May is my idol too. I have known her through a yoga life and also through Facebook and social media. She has been my idol for many years. She is a wonderful human being.

Has May found other people for you like, “Here are some people in their 60s and 70s?” Has she pointed them out to you?

I went on the Facebook page for Peloton. I made a post. I explained that when I am on a ride, I click to see who is there at the same time. Anybody who is 50, 60 or 70, I give a high five to. I just wanted them to know that I was not stalking them. I am married, and it is not going to go any further than a casual flirtation on the leaderboard. I think I had over 1,000 people click like and click, “Thank you for explaining that.”

I just wanted everyone to know that we are not alone. When you are on the Peloton board, that’s a feature of being able to know that you are not alone and to have friends and to see who is working out. It was a lifesaver when we were all isolated. I still use the feature. I enjoy seeing who is on with me and what age groups are attracted to which music and to which instructors. It is fun.

I am curious. When do you read?

I cannot read on the Peloton.

She is like, “I never read anymore.”

Now I read in the evenings.

I just want to make sure that you are still reading. You got to exercise your brain too.

Are you still teaching yoga classes?

Yes, I do teach. My career pretty much blew up in 2020, as well as with every other yoga instructor, because the majority of us were not on Peloton. It is hard to believe. The majority of us taught in studios across the country and the world. My whole studio closed for fourteen months and Denver closed for even longer. I am older so I do have older students. The majority of my students, even when we reopened, never felt comfortable coming back. The whole yoga landscape has changed. I do teach and we lost our physical space during all of this because commercial real estate prices have gone skyrocketed high. We are in a new space. We are coming along and we are still hanging in there.

Zoom yoga, which I am going to categorize the Peloton yoga experience as a Zoom class. Even though it is not live particularly except for a little chat in the beginning, you are doing it on a screen. There is something just to be able to have a stretch and a practice where you are not in charge. When I get on my mat without a Peloton instructor or without a class, I have to decide on everything that I am going to do, “I am going to do this pose and then I am going to do that pose.”

There is a beauty in not being in charge, especially if you are in charge of the other 23 hours of the day. It is just nice to get on your mat and have someone else tell you what to do. That is why I do Peloton yoga. People say to me all the time, “I thought you know how to do yoga.” I am like, “I do, but it is a joy to not be on top.”

We need to explain to folks that you know Ross. In the yoga world, you said that you have known him for quite a while. It is what it sounded like.

If people do not know that he is old, I am going to let you know he is old. He is almost the same age as me, but I have known him for 20 years, maybe it’s 18 years. That’s a long time. I trained with him a long time ago in New York. He has been to my house several times to visit and teach yoga in the Denver area. I am still offended that he did not invite me to his wedding. I will hold that against him for the rest of my life. If people are reading, I joke around. I love that man appropriately, also maybe a little inappropriately.

It is hard not to have a crush on Ross. He is a beautiful man.

He is beautiful inside and out, but probably because I love him inappropriately is why I was not invited to the wedding. That would have been awkward because when they get to that part about, “Does anyone have any objections?” I would be like, “Ah,” a little bit. Ross, if you are watching, you are missing out on Gigi now.

Did you see it? He got a new puppy.

We are not going to have to talk about him anymore. He has got a great job. He has got a gorgeous husband. He has got a puppy. He is got an apartment. He travels all over the world to London. We are done with that conversation.

The love stopped quickly.

I love him. I enjoy practicing with him because it is a style that I am also trained in and that I teach. He will do cues and do work with props that I can take into my own classes. I enjoy that quite a bit. I also enjoy other teachers. He is not my only teacher. The joy for me in Peloton is I can click around and experience a lot of different kinds of yoga. I am an equal opportunity yoga-hoe. I will do it all.

In an appropriate manner, of course.

I am at an age where we take what we can get. I am in my 60s. I am happy with whatever comes my way.

Tom, I feel like you need to ask for a follow-up to that.

It was fascinating when you are talking about enjoying it as just a student, even though you are an instructor. That was very counterintuitive to me. I would have looked at it like you do it all day long, so you would not have any interest in it.

It is a joy to not be in charge. Here is the thing about what I tell my students about developing a home practice. The tendency that we would do is we do the things we like. We are human beings. We are going to go for the cake or for the thing we like. Even how you eat your food on your plate, you go for the thing you like, and then you eat the thing you are not that fond of, next. Yoga practice is the same thing. There are poses that I would tend not to do unless it was suggested that it is a good time. When you take a class from somebody else and you put yourself in somebody’s hands, it is an opportunity to open yourself up to the universe and just say, “Universe, what did you bring for me today?”

It is a nice way to stay open to transformation and to stay open to change. If an instructor does something that is not right for my body because I have an injury, then I just skip that part because I know that is not in my best interest at the moment. That is the joy of Zoom yoga. I am not in the classroom and I do not have to explain why I am skipping that pose and be like, “My back or my shoulder.” I can skip it and wait for the next thing that is offered.

You do not feel the pressure that it is a commentary on what the teacher is doing.

To that point, Tom, what is interesting that I have heard from many of my students was that one of the aspects they love about having gone to Zoom during the incident, meaning the pandemic, is that when they were in the classroom, they often felt that pressure. They felt pressure from themselves, “I have got to look good,” or they felt pressure to keep up with other students and that is completely gone. As yoga instructors, we are always saying, “It is not a competition. You do not have to keep up.” I say little jokes like, “If you have open hips, that has been proven they have a lower IQ, so you are much smarter.” It is a joy to be able to just rediscover what the practice should feel like without that competitive pressure.

You ride the bike and you do Peloton yoga. Do you do strength, Pilates, barre or any of the other types of workouts too?

I have done all of it. Much to everyone’s horror, I did the dance one and then I put that up on Instagram. I put up what Cody and Ally Love were doing, and then I filmed what I was trying to suppose to be doing. It is hilarious. It is an older clip. I look like I need medical attention. It is like that old, I Love Lucy clip where she is going the other way and they are going this way. I loved it. I have tried almost everything. If there is something that does not feel right for my body because I am in the 60s, I might take a peek because I do not rule anything out until I see that it is not right for me.

I am an avid barre practitioner. I think barre does certain muscles that no other practice does. Barre does what we call the outer hip or the outer rotation. I have always taken a lot of Pilates and I have canceled my Studio Pilates membership. I love the Pilates they have added, even though it is mat Pilates. You get quite a good workout for your core and your deep interior muscle. I do everything on the air.

What about running? Do you run too?

That is one of the things I do not do because I had two brand new knees, the titanium version. I do not run. In fact, I was in New York City with my son. You know how the light flashes and you got to hurry it up. My son said to me, “Mom, hurry up. Run.” I was like, “I cannot run. Just tell everyone I love them. Let me go. If an Uber comes by, just know I love you. I had a good life and daddy has the combination to the safe.”

I do not run but I do the outdoor. In fact, I do all of Jess Sims’ outdoor tapes. I listened to her talk about her dogs. Especially when I travel, I will do the walking ones. There are little exercises while you are walking. I love the outdoors so much. If you just walk, you will not get as good of an increase and decrease in the heart rate as if someone tells you to take a squat or pick up your leg. It is a wonderful way to do your outdoor activity.

Even the way that they instruct power walking, I pushed myself so much more whenever they are pushing me than I do. I am just doing my own.

I want to give the smallest plug if that is okay. I am an author too. I am the co-author of Fearless After Fifty. It was just featured on PBS. We talk about how to thrive with grace, grit and yoga. That is a book I wrote with Desiree Rumbaugh. I also am the author of Finding More on the Mat, which is when I was in my 50s. The reason I wanted to bring that up is that we are doing all the research for the 60s. I am adamant that as we get older, perhaps yoga may take more of a backseat. All these other activities that I have been experiencing on Peloton and the real world might have to take up more of my precious time because I feel that weight training, strength, training, and different disciplines like Pilates and barre add to your physical health, including yoga and cycling.

In fact, as you age, if you do only one thing such as you are only on the treadmill or you are only on the cycle bike, you are at a huge risk for injury. Let’s think of it as a rut. You are doing the same motion over and over and it is not for 1 year or 2. It is for 40 years, 50 years, and 60 years. You can only imagine the kind of rut or grooves that your muscles and your fascia would have. Even your bones, the way water runs through rock, activity and motion will run through your bones and create not just ridges, but will create tightness and a groove.

That is what contributes to things like knee replacements and hip replacements. We are the largest generation of getting hip replacements and knee replacements ever in history, the Boomers. I know a lot of Generation X that are already in their 40s getting their hips and their knees. I tell you this because I am adamant that something like Peloton for the same price, all you have to do is click and try something new. You do not have to leave your house. You do not have to sign up for something. All you have to do is click on it and give it a minute to see if it helps your body.

We usually ask people to give advice. You just did.

I am a mom. It is very hard to shut us up.

Hearing about all the hip and knee replacements makes me happy I did not start exercising until I was 50.

To her point, even if you are a person who has been exercising your whole life, if you have been mixing it up, it is easier for you. I agree with that. In my own research, I think that weightlifting is very important to keep you young.

I play rap music in my yoga classes all the time. I love it. I am not going to quit.

Do you always know the artist series when Peloton puts them out?

I have been paying attention and I enjoy a lot of it. I have to say that Megan Thee Stallion was the very best. Kendall did the Megan Thee Stallion ride. I have taken that ride six times. If I cannot find a 30-minute ride quickly, I will just go right to that ride because it makes my day.

Does your husband do any of the Peloton stuff or was the bike just for you?

He has gotten on it. I do not understand this at all, but this is an option for people. He takes these rides through the countryside with nobody telling him what to do. I feel good because he will not do it if I tell him what to do. I do not take it personally. It is like anybody who’s telling him what to do, he does not want to hear it. He goes to the countryside. He was like, “I took a ride through the French vineyards.” He has his headphones on and listens to his own music, but he enjoys that part of it.

That is the beauty of Peloton. You can meet people wherever they are. Isn’t that amazing? That is pretty cool. What is your leaderboard name on Peloton?

Denver Yogi. My picture, you can tell it is me. I am doing Lotus and I am levitating in the picture. I am not touching the ground. If you look at the whole picture, I am doing Lotus levitating, which is how you know I am truly yogic. Even though I listen to rap music and I love the Megan Thee Stallion ride, I am truly a yogic because it is not about what you listen to. It is about your heart.

Do you have a preferred instructor?

I do not want to play favorites.

You do not have to worry about hurting Ross’ feelings because he did not invite you to his wedding.

He’s off the list. Ross, I cannot joke about that. He is a delight and he makes my day all the time. As far as cycling goes, I have taken a lot of instructors. I choose who I am in the mood for. Doesn’t everyone need a little more Cody in their life? There is an expression that, “You cannot be sad and eat ice cream.” You cannot be sad and take Cody because he will make you happy. Cody, Jess Sims, and Adrian from my strength training are wonderful. I appreciate them so much. Denis Morton, I could just watch the man and read a phone book. I do not have to bike with him. It is a crime that he cut his hair. Let me go on the record. I am still not over that change.

The hair gait was a real thing.

I am still speechless, which is not something that happens to me. I could watch Denis Morton, read a phone book, and have a very nice day afterwards. Ally Love is an absolute dear. I do theming for yoga. That is one of my things. It is more shameless advertising, but this is a book that I wrote years ago.

What else do you have over there?

 You got a whole section in the bookstore.

This book is called Theme Weaver and it teaches yoga teachers how to theme their classes in a more soulful way to connect to people. That is what I enjoyed about SoulCycle because their teachers were doing that connection, but Peloton does it so beautifully. People say to me all the time, “Don’t you miss that connection when you are in the studio?” I still go to the studio because I teach in a studio. There is a human connection that you do not get, but that soulful connection, the instructors are good at it and I teach it. I know that they are good at it.

What you watch when you pick an instructor, each instructor will have a certain way of talking to the camera and talking to us. That certain thing is the thing that touches our soul. That was what creates that sense of human connection. That is another reason why I enjoy Peloton versus getting onto any old YouTube. The teachers do not touch you the way that Peloton teachers do.

I would also think with a YouTube class, they are not necessarily vetted in the way a Peloton instructor is. You do not always know what you are getting. Anybody can upload a video to YouTube and be like, “Put your foot over your head. There, that is yoga.”

To let Ross know, I am on this little thing called Yoga Journal. There you go, Ross. You can get quality anywhere, YouTube or Yoga Journal or Peloton. There can be an offering from even Peloton that may not be right for your body. It is an okay offering, but it may not be right for someone with a knee or a hip or another issue. You still have to be in charge of yourself, but it is that sense of human connection. No matter the class, you will notice, now that I pointed this out, there is a little bit of drop of what I call in my book, the golden nugget. The golden nugget has nothing to do with the exercise. It is that little like, “You got this. Hang in there. I know this is hard.” It is that little moment of encouragement and nurturing. That is the human connection. That is what is missing in a lot of other practices.

Thank you so much for joining us. Before we let you go, where can people find all your books and things? Are they on Amazon or do you have a special website?

You can find my yoga books, wherever yoga books are sold, which are on Amazon. That is a little joke about the bookstores these days. You can buy them at Barnes & Noble. You can buy my books anywhere. It is Michelle Marchildon, I am known as the Yogi Muse, but do not worry about my books. The thing that I wanted to mention about them was two things. One, I know great theming. I know a great inspiration. That is why I am here on Peloton. Number two, I am doing research on how to stay healthy in your 60s. I firmly believe from my few years on Peloton that it is diversity.

Diversity is what will keep us going. Not the same thing you have always done. I work with runners who come in and they need a hip. They have never done stretching. They have never done yoga. They have never done cycling because they love running. I have to suggest to them, “You have to try something different now.” You have to give your body an opportunity to heal from one motion, and then give your bones, tendons and muscles an opportunity to develop in another way. It is really important.

Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to join us. We greatly appreciate it.

Thank you so much for having me in. One last time, do not give my love to Ross. It will go to his head. Thank you. This was a true honor.

Thank you so much, Michelle.

—

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

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

You can find me on Twitter @RogerQBert or 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. We got all sorts of bonus content and ad-free episodes. That’s it for now. We’re working on other stuff though. Also, don’t forget our YouTube channel, YouTube.com/TheClipOut. None of this matters because no one is listening.

No one makes it this far. Parsnips, that’s the magic word.

Say parsnips and we will send you a free button. That’s it for this one. Thanks for tuning in. Until next time, keep pedaling and running.

 

Important Links

• Michelle Marchildon
• Peloton
• Fearless After Fifty
• Finding More on the Mat
• Theme Weaver
• Apple Podcasts – The Clip Out
• Spotify – The Clip Out
• Google Podcasts – The Clip Out
• Patreon.com/TheClipOut
• Facebook.com/TheClipOut
• YouTube.com/TheClipOut
• Fortune.com – Peloton to stop in-house bike production in strategy to simplify operations
• Run, Lift and Live – Facebook group
• @RunLiftAndLive – Instagram
• @RunLiftAnd Live – TikTok
• RunLiftAndLive.com
• Facebook page – Run, Lift and Live
• Dr. Jenn Mann
• Facebook – Dr. Jenn Mann
• Twitter – Dr. Jenn Mann
• Snapchat – Dr. Jenn Mann
• @DrJennMann – Instagram
• Hump Day With Dr. Jenn
• Adweek – Adweek’s Women Trailblazers: 24 Standouts Elevating and Empowering Underrepresented Voices
• Rich Roll Podcast – episode with Robin Arzon
• Facebook.com/crystaldokeefe
• Instagram – Clip Out Crystal
• Twitter – Clip Out Crystal
• @RogerQBert – Twitter
• Facebook.com/tomokeefe

 

About Michelle Berman Marchildon

Michelle Berman Marchildon is the Yogi Muse. She’s an award-winning journalist, blogger, yoga teacher and the author of four books on yoga. “Fearless After Fifty: How to Thrive with Grace, Grit and Yoga,” is co-authored with Desiree Rumbaugh. She is also the author of “Finding More on the Mat: How I Grew Better, Wiser and Stronger through Yoga,” and the Theme Weaver series.

“Theme Weaver: Connect the Power of Inspiration to Teaching Yoga,” is the best-selling textbook for yoga teachers who want to inspire their students by weaving inspiration into their class. Her latest book, “Theme Weaver: A Companion Workbook to Plan Yoga Classes” is a supplement to the original Theme Weaver. It contains 60 fresh new themes, worksheets, more than 300 inspirational quotes and help to create your own authentic classes.

Michelle writes for Yoga International, Elephant Journal, Mantra Yoga and Health and Sports Illustrated. She is a proud Ambassador for Corepower Yoga, Kiragrace, and Innerwaves Organics. She has contributed to the Yogaland Podcast, My Yoga Online, Yoga Journal, Yogadownload and Yogasteya.com. She is an E-RYT 500 with Yoga Alliance and teaches in Denver, Co. You can find her blog and website at www.YogiMuse.com, and you can take her classes on www.yogadownload.com.

 

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