Smart Flex is here – a revolutionary new technique in variable resistance training.

There were two new Tonal Talks about Smart Flex and the future of the Tonal community.

Tons of new content including Shoulder Strength training, Power Balance Yoga, Family Fitness, and more!

Coach Nicolette launches a new Smart Flex program.

The Tonal store will have new merchandise soon including the return of T-Locks.

All this plus our interview with Diane Trantham!

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Watch the episode here:

Listen to the podcast here:

Tonal Introduces Smart Flex and our interview with Diane Trantham

It has been a nice lazy Sunday. What do you have in store for people this week?

We are going to talk about the new features that have landed on Tonal. We’re going to talk about the new content and a couple of the Tonal Talks that have occurred. We’re going to touch on those as well.

Before we get to all that, shameless plugs, don’t forget we’re available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcast, iHeart, TuneIn, wherever you get your podcasts, you can find us. While you’re there, be sure and subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. If you want to swing on by and leave a review for wherever you’re getting your podcasts from, that will be awesome as well. You can also keep up with us in between episodes by swinging on by the Facebook. Maybe you’ve heard of it, Facebook.com/supersetpodcast. It’s a great place to stay on top of things in between shows. There’s all that, let’s dig in, shall we?

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There’s a brand-new feature on your Tonal called Smart Flex. You can go to our YouTube channel. You can watch us as we talk about this.

It is a really cool new feature. Tonal is able to do things that traditional weights cannot. Smart Flex might be the most exciting because it’s something like nothing else out there can do. As you go through the strength curve of a move, there’s an eccentric motion and a concentric motion. As you’re going through that curve, you have moments where you’re a little bit weaker and where you’re a little bit stronger throughout that curve. I’m not even going to try to pretend that I can explain to you where you’re strongest and weakest on that curve, but it’s not a perfectly designed arc. It moves. If you’re watching the YouTube channel, you would see me waving. The interesting thing is that the Tonal has the ability with the Smart Flex feature to be able to figure out where you are on that curve and adjust the weights accordingly. Let’s say that you’re at the part of the move that is the hardest, it would adjust the weights to the lowest of your range. If you’re at the easiest point of the move, it would adjust the weight to the hardest part. Then there are a thousand little changes in between.

Basically, it’s constantly adjusting so you’re doing the most you can do, but not overtaxing to the point where your form will get bad. It’s going to help you do it right do it at a max weight for your current fitness level.

I’ve tried it but I haven’t done the program. There is a one-off workout that you can do that tries this. It is so fascinating because I felt worked out in a completely different way. I was tired in more places. I have no idea how, but somehow it works more of your muscles in a complete way. It’s fascinating.

Some people never lift weights in a gym because they don't know what they’re doing. Share on X

It seems like it would be a good thing for people, especially people that are like, “I want to do this and be done with it.” They don’t want to waste any time. It’s maximizing efficiency, it sounds like a little bit I can surmise.

It also would be maximizing for people who lift heavy all the time.

Maybe they’re almost maxed out and they’re at the end of the bell curve where the gains are so incremental, they might slow down.

It’s one way that you can increase the gain that you get from a move is to slow it down and do a slower repetition and hold it for a second. I think you would get a lot of benefit out of this Smart Flex ability by doing that, by slowing down the moves. On the workout that I did, I could see the numbers moving if I did the movement slow.

I was going to say it almost sounds like it almost tricks you into going slower because if you go too fast, it’s not going to keep up while it adjusts the weight. If you want it to do what it’s supposed to do, you almost have to slow down a little bit.

You’re automatically getting more time under tension, which is always a bonus when you’re doing weights.

If there’s anything we’ve learned in 2020, it’s you want more time.

That’s a different kind of tension. I for one would like to say that 2020 can give us a break at any time. This is a super exciting new weight mode. One thing that I want to know more about is should you be using it on every move? You can’t use this with a program that uses chains or uses eccentric mode. You could use them together, but I don’t know which one is winning out. I don’t know the usefulness.

To use any machine against itself, it will just start smoking.

No, it won’t. Don’t say that. The machine is fine.

Something’s going to win out though. The machine knows and it will figure it out.

I’m just curious from a behind the scenes aspect, like what it’s doing to your muscle, what are you getting the most bang for the buck? To your point earlier, this seems like a good feature for people who want to get in, get their workout done and be done. Is that more efficient than chains or eccentric mode? Is it using both of them together? Those are the types of questions I have.

It almost sounds like it’s better too for people that want to work at max efficiency, but also don’t want to struggle.

You shouldn’t be struggling. You should be tired at the end of a set. You should probably go to the point of exhaustion depending on your goals, but you shouldn’t not be able to complete something. Like you said with the form, that’s a big issue.

If you want to find out even more about Smart Flex, there was a Tonal Talk.

To be completely transparent, I have not watched it yet. All of the questions I just brought up, they might’ve been addressed there.

It was Wednesday, October 21st.

It was the day that it actually all launched. I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, but my understanding is that Brandt, I don’t know if he’s from the Design team, but he had a lot to do with this whole thing. He’s a pretty smart guy. He was on the Tonal Talk. I need to go back and watch that.

It’s a pretty fascinating feature.

I am absolutely fascinated by it because there’s nothing else like that. It is impossible to do this with dumbbells.

You can’t replicate it with traditional physical weights.

You can’t even do it with a standard machine either. There’s nothing out there that can do this.

One of the fascinating things about Tonal as it grows and gets more mature as a system of seeing how their minds work in terms of figuring out like, “We don’t have to lift weights the way we’ve always lifted weights. We can do it differently. We can have the machine adjust.”

That’s what makes the whole industry fascinating, connected fitness as a whole. That’s the industry. There are many different new products that are coming out in the next months that are saying that they can do similar things to Tonal that they’re able to lift weights in your home with a screen. Everybody is going about that in a slightly different way. It is going to continue to be fascinating to watch because Tonal obviously has the first to market. They’re able to keep coming up with new things while everyone else is still trying to come up and get theirs out to market, or to make changes to catch up. They’re ahead.

They are certainly not treating the product like, “We’re done. We built the Tonal and now here it is. Let’s sell that for the next 30 years like a Bowflex.”

To add to that, the community is helping to build it because the Feature Fridays aren’t just for looks. They’re out there, and some of the things that have happened in the last month have been as a direct result of those Feature Fridays. There’s a poll on Facebook, I believe it’s every week, then at the end of the month, they take up all the ideas and they put them into one poll. You’re supposed to vote on your top three. From that top three, things happen. People should interact and make sure that they’re going to that. When they have ideas, go to the Facebook Official Tonal Community and tell people that they love it.

While we’re talking about Tonal Talks, there was another one on October 28th where Kate talked to Richelle Martin.

The interesting thing is that Tonal is officially two years old. They celebrated their second anniversary in October 2020. This Tonal Talk was all about the direction that the community is going to be heading. My understanding is where it’s been and where it’s heading. I love to get little scoops, I’m always focused on what’s coming, that’s why I focus on that. This is another one that people want to check out. You can find it over on the Official Tonal Facebook page or you can find it on Tonal’s YouTube page. The point is that it was talking about, “Here are all the cool things we’ve done as a community. Here are some things that are coming up.” Some things that you can look forward to in the future or they’re talking about ways that they can be even more interactive with the community. For example, will there be additional Facebook groups that break down into smaller subsets so that people can have the ability and the chance to have even more connection with each other? People keep giving the feedback that’s what they want. They’re looking for that interaction with people. They’re looking for connection with people who are also using the Tonal. It sounds like we can also look for things like additional virtual group workouts. I’ve got the impression that there might be more coming with that entire feature as a whole, that they might be doing some things with that because they wanted to see how people used it and now build from that. Take a listen if you haven’t already.

 

If you can’t get enough of Richelle Martin, she was on an episode of The Clip Out.

What episode was it?

It was episode 112.

Thank you for looking that up.

I have it all memorized. I didn’t look it up.

You can hear all about Richelle’s story and specifics of Peloton also. That’s a great episode. I have to say, Kate was also on The Superset. Do you have that one memorized?

It was number two.

You look as surprised as I am. You can hear it from Kate as well.

Speaking of Kate, she was reunited with her Tonal. They’ve had a bit of a spat.

Sometimes, people and their machines go their different ways. For real, she moved, so she had to be separated from her Tonal. She’s been using other people’s Tonals in the meantime.

In regular times, she could probably be like, “I’ll use the one at work,” but she can’t probably go into work.

We are living in the time of the butt, so get yours. Share on X

I think that they are going there because they’re filming there. I don’t know where she lives. I don’t know what all the rules are. COVID is such a weird time. She was reunited and that is the important thing. Now, she’ll be able to more easily record her Tuesday Tonal Tips, which are very helpful. She will be able to host some virtual group workouts, which I am very much looking forward to. Send her a congrats that she has her baby back. That’s what she called it, her baby.

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We now have Shoulder Strength with Coach Jackson if you’re nasty. Remember my nicknames from the last one.

He prefers Action Jackson. I’m going to keep throwing that out there.

If he’s reading, he’s probably like, “Please don’t let that stick.” I’m trying hard to make Action Jackson a thing. Back to the topic at hand.

There’s a new program. I’m very interested in this. I have not looked at all of the movements, but I’m curious about it because it’s four days a week and it’s all about building strong, functional shoulders. It’s using pressing movements in every workout. When I hear things like that like the shoulder one or a recent one that Coach Pablo had that was all about squats, I get nervous because I’m like, “Are they going to overwork those muscle groups?” These guys know what they’re doing.

They do it for a living. I think they’re going to be okay.

I know they do but it becomes a fear-based thing, then I start to push it away because my brain is conditioned to make excuses. This would be an example of it. I’m just being transparent with the people. I cannot be the only person that goes through these thought process.

What are you afraid about that you’re not going to be able to use your shoulders?

No, I’m afraid that it will be too hard because shoulder workouts, they are really hard for me. One of the moves that’s on the Tonal that I know is good for me is front raises. You’re supposed to stand facing away from the machine, and you use the two handles and you pull them up so that they’re right in front of you. The thing is that I can’t just go straight up with my arms. I have to like try to stay like a little T-Rex. An entire four-day a week workout built around that scares the crap out of me.

I wonder if that would be an easier move for you with Flex Mode.

That’s a good question. I don’t know. I am curious about this workout though. I’m sure there are other moves besides just shoulder moves because they are very good about balancing that. Every day, there’s going to be a shoulder move, but there’s also going to be legs and stuff in there too. Other great workouts that are coming up, they released a new Yoga power balance workout. That sounds intriguing to me because Power Yoga tends to be super energizing. It’s high-paced yoga.

That’s counterintuitive. I don’t think of yoga as high-paced.

There are a lot of different types of yoga. I understand that because the traditional yoga that everybody did was the slow flow.

It’s the kind of stuff you’d see on PBS.

Power Yoga is more intense, a lot more sweating involved for me anyway. This one, when I hear Power Balance, that’s even more fascinating. You’re taking on a whole series of balance postures. I’m curious how you take power and move quickly, but also taking unbalanced postures which move slowly. There’s another new one. There’s also the new high-intensity workout, Full Body Conditioning with Coach Gabby. I don’t know about everybody else out there reading. I’m not going to bother addressing this to you, Tom, because I know you don’t care. I can use some full body conditioning. It’s always good to do a workout that hits on everything. This looks like it’s got alternating upper and lower body movements and lots of core. That’s a good one. Then there’s some new family fitness, kids’ camp, animal adventure with Coach Allison. It’s a full body beginner and it helps your kids stay active. That’s awesome, I love that.

Another new exciting thing is I saw that Coach Jared just wrapped up. It hasn’t even announced when it’s going to hit the trainer, but he just wrapped up his next four-week program. It’s called Push and Pull Power. It’s designed to break plateaus and get you fully integrated into the Learn, Earn and Burn method. I am super curious about that one because pushing and pulling is a workout. There is a specific move on the Coach Pablo program that I’ve been doing, the Radical Muscle Rock. It’s a push and pull move. I’m not even trying to explain it to you. It’s complex. If you guys haven’t done it, it’s on the trainer. It’s the first time I’ve had this move has come up, and it’s like you’re using both arms. One arm is pushing. One arm is pulling. I’m not going to try to explain how the trainer arms go, but it’s a thing and it’s cool. The first time you do it, you’ll go like, “Where’s my arm go? Where does this go?” Once you got it, it’s fine. I’m super excited as I talked earlier about the Smart Flex. There’s a whole new program with Coach Nicolette. It’s all about the Smart Flex. It’s a program that is specific to the Smart Flex. Coach Nicolette did that. She also did a one-off workout called the New Smart Flex Blast with Coach Nicolette. I’m excited to try that.

That’s for people that want to try it but maybe they’re in another program, they don’t want to ditch that program and they don’t have to wait 2 or 3 weeks.

That is exactly what I did. For those of you who enjoyed the Dance Cardio, my understanding is there are some more Dance Cardio classes that dropped. Definitely want to check those out. If you didn’t see them already, they had the new family fitness, the Trick or Treat Classes with Coach Pablo.

Finally, I know people are always looking for more stuff in the boutique, and there will be more stuff in the boutique.

There’s going to be a fall drop coming very soon, according to Kate, and a restock on the T-locks, which people get very excited about.

What are T-locks?

T-locks are the little things that like allow you to plug the weight into the machine, but you can use those with other weights that exist out there. You might need the T-locks for other weights that you pick up aftermarket.

I thought it was you trying to come up with a hip new thing to call like a tank top or something.

Locks are a thing. No specific dates, but keep an eye on the Official Tonal Community because that is where you will hear about it first.

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Joining us is Diane Trantham. Diane, how’s it going?

It’s going great. How about you?

I’m good. Normally I would say, “Thank you for taking time to join us,” but I’m like, “You teach eighth-graders. This has to be a step in the right direction.” You’re like, “Any moment away from eighth-graders, I’ll take it.”

It sounds like you enjoy it though.

I do.

You have to.

It takes a special person to be able to enjoy middle-schoolers like you. Thank you on behalf of the fact that we have middle-schoolers to be able to teach them because they can be pains in the butt.

We all can. I’m sure that my students could possibly feel the same way about me, although we try to make it as fun as possible. Not take advantage of the situation but make it the best of it.

It’s a weird year as we were talking about, so it’s great that you’re able to take lemons and make the lemonade.

We knew that you’d be a guest that already knows how to use Zoom.

You’re like an expert. We can have you teach some of our other guests how to use it because you use it all the time.

Yes, very much. Zoom and Google Meet and we can interchange them and all kinds of things.

How did you originally find Tonal?

We found Tonal through the Peloton groups. I remember there was somebody who posted looking for advice comparing the Mirror and the Tonal. We were comparing those two but we already had cardio down.

You guys have the bike. Do you guys have the tread?

No, we don’t.

The bike is plenty of cardio.

It’s a lot of cardio, plus you have all of those of the content that’s on the app so I can take it around the neighborhood and on trails. We can run and we can do all kinds of things. I felt like that was taken care of. We’re waiting on the rower, but we have a space prepared for that. I have faith that that’s coming. We knew we had that, but we were looking with being the mom of three boys and they’re loving their weight training class at school. We’ve had it since about December 2019, but I know that they love that. I know that I don’t want to pay a gym membership for them. Lots of different reasons but that’s how we found it. I knew that weight training was the way to go and that’s where we wanted to focus.

I would think there’s also going to be a comfort in that if your kids are using it that you’re not setting them loose in the gym with a bunch of free weights and they’re doing God-knows-what and they hurt themselves because they don’t know what they’re doing. Here, it’s like you’ve got a personal trainer for each one of them. They can go on that journey in a very directed manner instead of lifting a bunch of weights.

That’s how I felt for me. The reason I’ve never lifted weights in a gym is because I don’t know what I’m doing and I will look silly. They will laugh at me.

Even if people don’t outwardly laugh at you because I feel the same way when I go into a gym. Although I have to say no one ever has. I feel like they’re going to, but it’s very intimidating in a weight room. All that testosterone and because if you don’t know what you’re doing, “Should I use the 10 pounds? Should I use the 15 pounds?” You just don’t know and you need some space to figure that out. Since you feel intimidated, it’s hard to feel comfortable taking up that space to do the investigative work you need to do.

I was always so jealous of those people who were able to go to the gym and have their little personal trainer. That would be the only way that I could be successful with that. I was excited about the whole system. Here’s one thing though that had me concerned. If I was concerned about this, I’m sure other people are concerned about this, although it is a great big myth. I’ve discovered that if you lift heavy, you’re going to look like a bodybuilder. Looking like a bodybuilder takes a whole lot of work in the kitchen.

If it was that easy to look like a bodybuilder, a lot more people will look like bodybuilders.

I was always concerned about heavy lifting and things like that but I love it. It made me feel so good.

Does it make you feel strong like, “I just did that?”

Yes. It’s amazing how it makes you feel. Cardio gives you all those endorphins and those are wonderful things, but you also get that from weight training and that was unexpected.

You had never lifted weights at a gym. Had you ever lifted weights on your own or done anything at home? You use Peloton, so I didn’t know if you ever used any of the strength training programs that they have.

I did. Full disclosure. I’m getting old. I am also a teacher. Do you know what kids notice when you write on a board? The arm that is swinging. You keep writing and you stop writing and it’s still swinging. I thought, “There’s no way that this is going to happen to me.” I would do rides with the arms built-in, but I felt like I needed to do a little bit more. It was one of those things like, “That’s great but I think I need more.” We had other weight training machines like benches and stuff like that, but I didn’t know what I was doing. While I do love that, the strength training on Peloton I think is upsy a little bit.

I agree because I feel like having somebody guide you through a program takes that guesswork out of it, and then having the machine tell you, “These are the weights you need to use,” also takes the guess out of it. When I have tried to do weights before, it depends on the day. If I’m feeling super confident, I might grab a 15 or 20. If I’m feeling like, “I don’t feel so good today. I’m a little sore,” suddenly I’m on the 8 and the 10 pounds and maybe that’s not what I need. I never knew what I needed. I didn’t even know how to tell what I needed.

Even the number of reps in a set. It takes the guesswork out. It’s amazing.

It is important to do the form properly than to hit the number on the weights. Share on X

Even what move to make.

For me, I would do everything to avoid an overhead press. I would probably never make myself do that ever. It’s the one thing I need to for that reason of the arm swing, but I dislike them so much. When they show up in a program, I’m only doing it because my trainer is telling me to.

That and burpees and mountain climbers. Which do you hate more, mountain climbers or burpees?

Burpees for sure. I will do mountain climbers all day long before I will do burpees or burps. Come to find out, those are two different moves. Who knew?

Since you do Peloton and lots of cardio, how are you balancing weights and cardio? What do you do? What does a week look like for you for Tonal and your cardio?

A week when I’m off looks a whole lot better than a week when I’m working. When I first started out, when I first got Tonal, my plan was to lift and then hop on the bike. I learned quickly that that’s not going to happen a lot because they are truly full-body workouts. Typically, what I’ll do is on my rest days, I’ll do a four-day a week program. I’ll either alternate days if we’re having an overhead press day the next day. Anytime that I have a break in the program, I’ll hop on the bike or I take a walk or I do something. I try to do something to balance both. When you’re a mom, you’ve got kids, you’re working, and stuff, that’s one of the key things that is so hard, but the best thing about it is it’s right up here in my sitting area, my bedroom. You can put it anywhere. It’s our workout area and so I’m glad I don’t have to travel which is huge.

That can make a twenty-minute or a half-hour workout happen that never would have before because if you had to travel to go to a gym, there’s your travel time right there. It takes it out.

It’s made this year tolerable in every way.

You also do the swag wagon, right?

We do.

That’s where I know you from because we’ve been co-Peloton people forever. I’ve seen your store. Tell us about that. Do you sell clothes for Tonal people too?

That hasn’t happened much. We would love to do things like that, but what we don’t is knowingly rip off a trademark. We want to be careful about that. A lot about Tonal is that logo. That’s something that we won’t step out and do on our own because that’s not right. Whenever Kate says, “Diane,” I will say, “I’ve been waiting for this moment.” SAG Wagon just happened by accident. That’s the beauty of the whole thing. I was riding on my road bike with the app on a trainer. I was doing what I do and what I did. At the time I remember I was riding with Christine and she said something and I was like, “That is amazing and it was so much wisdom.” I took my little crafty, and I don’t know what that was at the time, maybe a silhouette and I’m like, “I’m putting that on my shirt. I’m going to remind myself of that.” Something happened and it went because I wasn’t the only one who wanted to wear inspirational words. That’s how that happened.

I love hearing stories about how people stumble into something and then it becomes a passion. It’s great because it’s your way of being able to share what inspires you with other people. I like that you have such a variety of different things that you put out. It’s not like that’s all you do is sell t-shirts that have words on it. You also have workout clothes for anybody they can buy. You don’t have to put any words on them if you don’t want to. They’re reasonably priced so that’s very nice for people because not everybody wants to buy $100 pair of leggings every time they want leggings.

That was my motivation. I thought we need some reasonably priced items.

 

I know every time she’s like the boutique and I was like, “Couldn’t you go to a store?” Boutiques are way more expensive. Go to a store.

They got to say Peloton.

We will support the Peloton boutique. They have some amazing things.

I’m glad that the Tonal boutique is starting to get more options. They have different tank tops and t-shirts that have different colors and have the logo on them. It’s nice to be able to share my love of Tonal as well. I’m sure that they will have more variety in the future and I can’t wait for that.

Me too. Their mug is cool.

I love the mug. What would be cool is if they had that mug and then as it got hot or cold, the little emblem, our weight thing would come on.

That’s a great idea.

That would be cool.

What about when you’ve been using strength training, how do you feel that it’s transformed your body, doing strength as opposed to doing cardio? I feel like it’s different for everybody.

I’m going to go full disclosure. I should have prefaced the whole thing with I try to have a filter and I’m trying hard, but sometimes you have to say some things like, “I’m building a butt.”

To anybody who is not watching YouTube needs to go watch it because your expression was priceless.

I’m not kidding. Pablo says, “We are living in the time of the butt, so get yours.”

I do feel like every time I turn on the TV, I see more and more butts.

Butts are in now.

I do notice that. Also, I am stronger. I am 199% strength improved. I could round it up but I’m waiting for the 200. That’s incredible. I can move a mini-fridge all by myself. I don’t have to have anybody to do it for me anymore. I can lift some kayaks. I finished the Dead on Deadlift.

How did you like that? I’m scared of that one.

I was scared but I think it was key in helping to build the butt because of the deadlift. I love seeing where exactly I’m going to hurt the next day.

It’s also very motivating at the end of your workout to see all of the different muscles you worked on. It’s like, “I did all of that.” When you do a little bit at a time, it doesn’t feel as impactful and then seeing that entire workout. It’s truly a full-body workout.

Do not be afraid of Dead on Deadlift. I absolutely loved it.

It wasn’t all lower body?

It’s not. It’s very well proportioned. You’ve got your upper body and lower body. I love the lower body days. I’m working on my upper body strength. It’s way improved.

I hurt my back and it was during a goblet squat. Ever since then, I’ve been very nervous. I lowered my weights so my strengths core hovers, it hasn’t gone up. It went up, but it’s not going up and up. I had to adjust back down because I was afraid that my lower back wasn’t strong enough in my core. I wasn’t doing all the things that I needed to be doing. I backed off of that. That’s one reason I’m nervous about it because I can do deadlifts and I can do squats, but I’m scared of having a program super focused on it because I’m afraid that it’s going to hurt. I have it in my head. Isn’t that funny how you can get scared of something like that and it’s working out? You can always stop.

That’s true. You can always lower the weight. If Tonal says I can do this, I’m going to do this. Sometimes I have found too that I’m very reluctantly lower, but I’m like, “If I’m not doing the move right, then I’m going to hurt myself.” There’s no sense in cheating so that they think I’m lifting more.

We had one of the coaches on that was saying that.

I think it was Nicolette. She was like, “Lower the weight if you need to.”

It was important to do the form properly than to hit the number on the weights. You’re doing the right thing.

In the end, you’re only going to hurt yourself. You’re only cheating yourself. It’s our score. They’re not keeping a score of like, “Diane lowered her weight.”

I would say too that Pablo talks a lot about hinging in that program. It’s to remind you of how you should move your back so that it doesn’t hurt you.

That’s good to know. I’m doing a Pablo program. It’s the Radical Muscle Rock.

How was that? I was looking at that one.

I love it because I got done doing Muscle-Building Burnout with coach Jackson. Day three of that one made me want to cry because of the legs. The very first week I did it, I couldn’t finish all of the moves. I was scared of the leg day and this one because I saw it and it was a lot of the same moves, but the way that it’s divided out is a little bit fewer reps, even though they’re heavier, I can do that easier. Those bite-size is easier for me. It’s a great program. I often don’t feel my upper body is completely sore the next day. I’m not doing enough reps or I’m not doing something the right way. I have felt like during this program, it has been amazing. I am super sore the next day in a good way. I feel it and I love it. I can’t recommend it enough.

I’m going to check that out because I finished on the Dead on Deadlift. I’ve got to come up with a new one. My fifteen-year-old is finishing up Go Big or Go Home. He’s got one workout left.

That’s another one I’m scared of because people say that you feel completely exhausted at the end of every workout. Is he loving it? Is he doing great with it?

When you're starting out and think, 'I can't,' or you burn out, that’s okay. That's not losing, that's winning. Share on X

He was doing a partner workout with my husband. That was their opportunity to workout together every day or not every day, but on the program. It brought my friend and I together to do partner workouts and father and son time. It’s been great. He did like it and he loved to tell me every day, “Mom, I’m hurting so bad.” He and I are on the same page with it’s a good hurt. It’s not a hurt like, “I hurt myself.” It’s a hurt like, “I did awesome.”

You should tell him, “I guess you didn’t go big because you’re home.”

That’s the one that brought me to tears. It was tough but I was proud when it was done.

You should be because I’ve heard that from a lot of people. It’s a painful one, but a good pain. Which do you think is your favorite program? Do you have one?

I love them all. I want to repeat Lean In. That was one of the very first programs that I did. I don’t think that I had the appreciation for it that I would now. That’s one of the things. Now when you repeat a program, it compares your current workout to the one that you did at the beginning. It tells you how much more you lifted and how much more time under tension. That’s one thing that’s motivating me to go back and repeat because I want to see those numbers.

That’s great. I didn’t even realize that. That’s a cool thing to know. Have you tried the virtual group programs?

No, I want to.

There’s a group of people doing it on October 20th. I know there’s a bunch of people doing it. That’s a way away though. I wasn’t sure if you’ve gotten a chance to try it because so many people have and I haven’t had a chance to. I am super excited to try it. It looks fun.

It’s brand new. I don’t know exactly how it works but I did see a group workout. For instance, could you and I workout together?

It can be. It’s from two people up to ten people. You can work out together. You can’t see each other on the camera. Have you had your little avatars up there so we could see each other when you’re done with the reps and how many reps you did of that move? If you get a PR, I would see that you got a PR and vice versa. You stay in the waiting room and then you enter the workout and progress through it at the same time. It’s exactly like your partner workout at home, but it’s with up to ten people at the same time.

We should get a group together before October 20th and we could put on your YouTube channel so everybody can see how awesome it is.

I’m totally down with that. Let’s do it but I usually work out at 6:00 AM my time. We could do an afternoon.

I would do the early morning.

Do you have any advice for people getting a Tonal?

Jump in and do it. Don’t be scared. It’s okay to not finish one of your sets. When you’re starting out and you think, “I can’t,” or you burn out, that’s okay. That’s not losing, that’s winning.

That’s true. In a perfect world, you would go to failure on your last set at the very least so there’s nothing wrong with that.

It won’t get easier, but you will get stronger.

That weight will get easier, but the next weight won’t get easier.

Don’t be limited also by thinking that you’re a beginner. If you see a program that you want to jump in with or a coach, adjust your weight.

That is very good advice, especially for people who are beginning. I could see them like, “That would be scary to go try.” The very first program that I did was intermediate. Honestly, it’s about the complexity of the move, not the weight to your point. Adjust your weight if you need to. You could technically start at an advanced now but you might need to pause a little more or you might need to watch the move a few more times. As long as you can do it with good form, it’s okay.

Also, partner workouts. That means you get some time to breathe. You get some time to relax for a second before you get back in. I don’t know if you’ve not done the partner workouts or gotten used to those. I got used to those. When I went back to solo, I was like, “Oh, my gosh.” Jackson, Pablo, and Nicolette, it didn’t matter. They all got an earful. I love also the form at five and all of the different things that the Tonal coaches do on our Facebook page. It’s amazing talking with them. There’s a move which they call the Front Raise. It’s those muscles that I don’t like to use a lot, but they had to modify so that you felt successful with the move. Tune into the coaches. They are great about making sure that they connect with you and help you if you’re not sure, if you’re hinging correctly, if you’re lifting something right, or you need to modify and you don’t know how. That’s been awesome.

For anybody out there reading, who doesn’t know where to find those, if you go to the official Tonal community and you look at the different topic tags, those are under form tips. You can find those and you can find a forum in five about every move on Tonal. If you see one and you’re not finding the actual move on there, all you’ve got to do is ask and they will do one. They’re still real enough to be able to talk to us. They’re not so busy and overwhelmed.

It’s not the Peloton coaches aren’t real. They’re not overwhelmed with people quite the same way.

They’re on the same growth curve. It’s just that they’re a couple of years behind. There’s a difference in time there. I cherish that they are able to answer questions. I was talking to coach Pablo about my knee. I was asking him about step-ups because when I use the bench for a step up, my left knee caves in a little bit. It hurts the next day after step-ups and I have to push myself through each one. If you remember the old workout called The Firm. It was a video that you could do on-demand at home. It was back in the day when we had VHS tapes.

I had these steps from then because I was doing step aerobics all the time. I use the step to do the step-up instead of using my bench. It was a game-changer. It was so much easier to do because it was a firm surface, not a squishy bench. I could step up from behind instead of stepping up from the side. It completely changed the move, but then I was worried, am I not getting the same benefit out of it? If I’m stepping up from behind, am I not working the same muscle in the same way? We had a whole conversation about that. He gave me all these tips about that I need to like stretch the fronts of my calves, which I didn’t even know was a thing.

You’re going to have to go back to that because I didn’t even know that was a thing.

He sent me a little video. You have to have your feet underneath you and you sit down on your knees and it stretches out the front of your calves. It’s not an extreme stretch like if you were to stretch your quads. It’s a different kind of a stretch. He said that can help. I bike and run so much. He said that I’m probably tight in my quads or tight in my calves on the front side and that is putting a lot of pressure on my knee. He was like, “You need to stretch all these areas to be able to step up easier.” He didn’t say, “Don’t use the step. Don’t do that.” He was more like, “We need to fix this. We need to tweak this.” I’ve been doing that and time will tell if that helps or not.

Before we go, where can people find you on social media if you would like to be found?

I’m Diane Trantham on Facebook. There’s SAG Wagon Swag. You can join our group where we have some fun and we have some sales. On Instagram, you can find @SAGWagonSwag there too. I’m on there but I’m more of a Facebook person.

I know the feeling. I do Twitter a little bit. I have an Instagram account, but I always tell people like, “Don’t bomb off waste to follow. I don’t post anything. It’s not worth it.”

Things won't get easier, but you will get stronger. Share on X

He’s like you. He’s more of a Facebook person.

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

Thank you so much for having me. I’ve enjoyed it so much. After hearing from you all, it’s so much fun to be included.

I will reach out and ask you when you would like to do our group workout.

That sounds so much fun. I cannot wait. I’m going to expect you to reach out.

I will. Have a good one.

Thanks, bye.

—

That brings this one to a close. What pray tell do you have in store for people next time?

We are going to talk to Nick Utter next time. We are going to talk to him all about how you can be a heavy lifter and still get a ton of use out of the Tonal.

Until next time, where can people find you?

People can find me on Facebook at Facebook.com/CrystalDOKeefe. They can also find me on Twitter and Instagram, @ClipOutCrystal.

You can find me on Twitter, @RogerQBert or on Facebook at Facebook.com/TomOKeefe. You can find the show online at Facebook.com/supersetpodcast. Wherever you’re getting your podcasts from, be sure and subscribe so you never miss an episode. Thanks for tuning in. Until next time, keep lifting.

Important Links:

• Apple Podcasts – The Superset
• Spotify – The Superset
• Facebook.com/supersetpodcast
• Tonal Talk
• Official Tonal Facebook page
• Tonal’s YouTube page
• Episode 112 – Previous episode of The Clip Out
• Number two – Previous episode of The Superset
• Nicolette Amarillas – Previous episode
• Diane Trantham – Facebook
• SAG Wagon Swag
• @SAGWagonSwag – Instagram
• Facebook.com/CrystalDOKeefe
• Twitter – Crystal O’Keefe
• @ClipOutCrystal – Instagram
• @RogerQBert – Twitter
• Facebook.com/TomOKeefe

• Here’s How »

• theclipout.com
• The Clip Out Facebook
• The Clip Out Twitter
• The Clip Out Instagram