Tonal is Officially Available in All 50 States plus our interview with Katie Curran

Last Updated: April 20, 2023By Crystal OKeefe (#ClipOutCrystal)Tags: Fitness Journey, Peloton, Rehabilitation, Sciatic Nerve Injury, The Superset, Tonal Physical Therapy, weight training

Tonal has a big announcement coming. What can it mean?

Tonal is now available in Alaska and Hawaii.

The Tonal Facebook group hits 10,000 members.

There’s a new Talent Development Lead.

Ewan McGregor has a Tonal.

Los Angeles Clipper Paul George has a Tonal.

Coach Liz is leading a new challenge.

New Features and New Content roundup.

Tonal stands in solidarity with the Asian community.

The Tonal blog spotlights best-selling author Mia Redrick.

Tonal’s Black Excellence series continues.

March Book Club – Biohack Your Brain

Wish Kate Telge a belated Happy Birthday.

All this plus our interview with Katie Curran!

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Watch the episode here:

Listen to the podcast here:

Tonal is Officially Available in All 50 States plus our interview with Katie Curran

Are you ready now?

I’m ready. I was taking a drink. You caught me off guard. You’re very sneaky. I hadn’t even hit my timer yet, so thank you.

I’m not sure how sneaky it is when you say, “I’m ready,” then I start.

You could see I was drinking. I’m nothing without my Coke zero. We all know that. Should we talk here about what we talked about on The Clip Out?

I think we should.

For people that don’t read both, they should probably know that there was a bit of a reveal on The Clip Out.

For those of you who are new to this show, or maybe have never read anything that we do, just so you know, Tom has never been a person who works out or cares about health at all. The only reason he’s here is because he’s a supportive husband, which I appreciate. Go ahead. Do you want me to tell them?

I still feel weird saying it. I’ve been using the Tonal for a little bit.

You sound like you just admitted to a drug problem. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.

I owned up to that on The Clip Out with Dr. Jenn Mann. She’s on The Cip Out all the time, but we figured there are probably people that listen read this that don’t read that, which would make sense. If you had a Tonal and not a Peloton, why would you read the other one? You should probably be aware that I do that now. We joke a lot about the fact that I don’t work out, and so I’ve been.

Yes, for an entire year, and now the secret is out.

If you want to hear the full story on that, it’s over there on Episode 196.

It’s in minute marker 19:25 if you only want to hear that part.

If all of a sudden, I mentioned something that sounds like I’m using the Tonal and you’re like, “What? When did that happen?” You’re not crazy that that occurred. We’re not gaslighting you.

Congratulations, Tom. We’re happy to have you as part of the workout family.

What do you have in store for people for this episode?

We’re going to talk about all the exciting new things going on with Tonal. There are new features. There are new content and new features in the news. All kinds of stuff to hit.

Before we get to all that shameless plugs, don’t forget we’re available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, iHeart. Wherever you find podcasts, you can find us. Don’t forget while you’re there be sure to leave us a review if you would be so kind if you like what you’re hearing. It helps people that come along after you to decide whether or not this show is worth their time. It’s one of the easiest simplest things you can do to help us out if you enjoy what you’re reading.

If you want to keep us around or you like what you read, that’s the best way to do it. If we don’t grow, then we can’t keep going.

You can also find us on Facebook, Facebook.com/supersetpodcast. While you’re there, like the page, join the group. You can watch these shows and in full HD if you want to see what the faces I’m making when I’m embarrassingly admitting to having lifted a weight. You can do that on our YouTube channel, which is our umbrella channel. It’s YouTube.com/TheClipOut. There’s all that. Let’s dig in, shall we?

We shall.

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Tonal has a very big announcement.

Very big, 40 new Tonal stores.

They’re taking up some space in the Nordstrom stores.

It’s going to be like a mini Tonal shops inside of Nordstrom stores, and I love this for a lot of reasons. I love this because Tonal is saving so much money by not having to open an entire store. I’m sure that they still have some kind of deal where they have to pay the renter, but it’s not the amount that they have to do in their own footprint.

By being in Nordstrom they are automatically going in high-end malls, and then they are also going to stores that are going to have foot traffic.

I was also reading in this article that Nordstrom is focusing on anything active. They are going to have this little kiosk in many Tonal stores right outside of the workout department, so that would be great for both Nordstrom and Tonal. It’s a good marriage. It’s so synchronous. It a beautiful thing about how companies can work together. It’s a great example of that.

A lot of people and companies tried it, but a lot of times it’s like, “Whatever.” This is a good fit.

Another good thing for Tonal is that this is going to help them get in front of people because people like to try equipment before they buy it. It’s hard when there are not that many stores. Tonal in particular because there are so many people that don’t understand it. Tonal has a high education level for consumers. They need to educate them on what it is that they’re getting.

When Peloton started, people knew what an indoor exercise bike was. Explaining like, “It’s got a screen and classes are going to be live,” that’s a pretty easy hump to get over where we still hear people that think it’s like a cable machine.

It’s not what this is. People will be like, “It’s the same as Mirror. It’s the same as Tempo.” No, it’s not the same. I think this is good for Tonal on a lot of levels. I’m very excited for them. I can’t wait to see how this spins out. I think we’re going to be seeing some big sales number this year.

I think so too.

There’s going to be one in the Galleria. I didn’t even see that.

We have a Nordstrom here.

We’re getting one in St. Louis. That means we have areal Tonal employees right here in St. Louis. That’s the other thing. That would be Tonal employees in the store so people will be able to go up and ask them questions.

I want to know what’s going on from an engineering aspect because people are going to want to utilize it.

I have a theory on this. I don’t know if you could see the bottom, where it connects at the bottom. It might be similar to how they set it up whenever you’re actually doing a workout. You know how they have in the studio. They have them bolted in. I think they’ve re-engineered it so that they have something strong holding this down. It’s clearly not just a piece of cardboard holding that up.

It’s free-standing so I was like, “That’s not into a wall. What did they come up with?” If they are setting this up in storage, people can play around with it.

That’s the whole point, that you can try it out. This is brilliant. I’m so excited about this.

This is a great plan and it gets them in all the right places in one fell swoop. It’s cost-effective for them, I’m sure. It’s still is not cheap, but it’s cheaper than going and renting storefronts.

I’m so excited. My favorite workout things are going to be in the same mall so I can go visit Tonal and Peloton any time together that I want.

I bet you because they are in Nordstrom, they are probably in a lot of the same malls that Peloton stores are in.

We’re scrolling through that list. We’re seeing a lot of stores I recognize. I saw the Short Hills Mall and other things like that which I know for a fact Peloton has those because I’ve spent a lot of time researching these things. There’s a lot of overlap and that will be so good for Tonal because many people who love Peloton also love Tonal. It’s a great fit. It’s a wonderful combination of equipment.

It was also announced that Tonal is now shipping to Alaska and Hawaii, which makes it officially available in all 50 states.

That’s pretty exciting. That’s a big thing. A lot of companies don’t ship to Alaska and Hawaii.

That’s difficult, especially on a larger item like this.

Also, when that needs to be installed. That’s the really hard part. Even if it’s a large item, there are a lot of things like a washer and dryer that can be shipped to, but they don’t necessarily need to be installed in the same way that Tonal does. That’s very exciting.

It’s easier ultimately to ship a washer and dryer because everybody has to wash and dry their clothes. The economy of scale is more to your advantage if you’re the maker of the washer and dryer than it is for a product like this.

I know that there are a lot of people that we talked to in our network that are super excited, and they’ve already placed their orders that live in Alaska.

How many people have been waiting for Peloton treads forever in Alaska? It was hard to get a bike there for a long time. People were putting them on pack mules.

I don’t know if they’ve ever done this for Tonal, but people ship them. I don’t think they can do it with Tonal because with Tonal, they install it when it comes in. With Peloton, they ship them to the border like in Seattle and then they “smuggle.” I put that in quotes because they’re doing it legally. They take the chance of their warranty being voided and then put it together themselves.

You lose all the consumer protections at that point when you do something like that. It would also be interesting to see if there are people who have been waiting in a tread that is like, “Then I’ll just get a Tonal now.”

I can see that happening.

They’re like, “I wanted a piece of connected fitness equipment, and who knows what I’m going to get in this other thing. Screw it, I’m getting the Tonal.”

It very well could be. Either way, congrats to Tonal and Alaska and Hawaii. You guys will be very happy.

The Tonal Facebook group has reached a milestone.

10,000 members. When we started this show, it was under 6,000.

That’s pretty much all because of us. Correlation equals causation. That’s what they say.

No, they say the opposite of that, but we are very excited for Tonal. It’s crazy in just such a short time to add that many people. Tonal is growing. Also, a lot of you will have already taken advantage of this, but in case there are a few people. If you read this before March 1st, you can get 15% off and free shipping in the Tonal gear shop. Any apparel that you buy, 15% off and free shipping because that’s how they’re celebrating. That is a very nice celebration, Tonal. That’s a present for us. I’m excited.

Tonal has added to the Total family. They’ve hired a new talent development lead.

The interesting thing is that Max, which I neglected to pull in his last name. I apologize. Hi, Max. He has an extensive background though. He was working as a master trainer at Nike HQ for seven years. Not only was he a master trainer at Nike HQ for seven years, but he’s also personally trained multiple professional athletes in the Olympics, the NCAA, NFL, NBA, and the MLB. Max has a pretty nice history. There was a Tonal talk on February 24th where Max got to be introduced to the community, probably with his last name. He shared three major lessons that he learned while training professional athletes. The cool thing is that we at home can apply those to our training, so we can in turn train like a professional athlete. If you didn’t catch that Tonal talk, make sure you go back and do that. That was on February 24th at 5:00 PM Pacific time, and congrats to Tonal and Max.

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We got some new celebrity sightings on Tonal.

One, you do celebrity sighting because Tony Horton, we already knew.

There’s one after this one.

There is? I need more coffee.

You assemble the topics. I just put them in order.

I’m excited about this one.

It’s difficult to tell with the masks on, but Ewan McGregor. For the people reading and not watching the video, Crystal made a noise after I said, Ewan McGregor. I didn’t want people to think I was squealing. There’s nothing wrong. I’m happily married and don’t feel the need to squeal over Ewan McGregor.

This is cool because, for people who know Ewan McGregor, I know you probably know him from Star Wars, but I know Ewan McGregor from Trainspotting.

It is a very well known movie.

It is and it isn’t, especially for younger people.

Should I be worried that it’s like, “I think he’s hot not because of the big-budget action movies, but the one where he played a junkie?”

No. The reason that I’m excited about that is because I feel like I have watched his career. He’s the first celebrity that I did have a crush on whenever he first appeared on the scene. I’ve also watched his career completely changed trajectory. I’ve watched him in all of his movies. He’s a great actor. He is cute and hot. That’s great too, but it’s cool that I feel like I’ve just watched it. It’s like I’ve been part of it even though I haven’t. I feel invested. That’s all.

Remember this moment that Anna Kendrick ever gets a Tonal?

I know how into Anna Kendrick you are. I know, Tom. You’ve told me many times.

In my defense, I’ve noticed her as an actress way before. She was in a little movie called Rocket Science. I was like, “Who is this woman owning this movie?” She made that movie hers and I was like, “Who is this person?”

My point was that it’s part crush, but it’s also cool to see my worlds collide because I started watching him back when I was in college. Now, I’m so into Tonal and how he’s on Tonal. That’s so cool.

Here’s the other thing, he’s probably using his Tonal right now to get in shape to play Obi-Wan Kenobi again because they’re making an Obi-Wan Kenobi show for Disney+.

I think the post said that.

Does it? Let me scroll up on the post, and then we should say he’s being trained by Tony Horton.

It doesn’t. It says he’s starting to lean up and slim down.

I think he’s getting in shape to go back to playing Obi-Wan Kenobi. That’s pretty cool.

You’re training Star Wars.

Tonal now is officially one of the droids. It goes like R2-D2 and C-3PO.

There needs to be a special lightsaber Tonal training program, then you can buy lightsabers. I see a whole licensing aspect to that.

You could make the arms lightsabers, but then we’d all end up looking like Luke. Our hands would be cut off.

We should have more coffee before we do these things. We have gone down some rabbit holes.

Moving right along, we should go to the other celebrity here.

I remember posting this now.

Paul George, my favorite Beatle.

He’s not a Beattle.

He’s an LA Clipper. I know that because it says it in the article.

Thank goodness you read it before you started talking.

It excited me but I didn’t even recognize what the logo was. I was looking at the logo and I was like, “Cow? What’s a cow?” Although I get to this cleverly because it’s LA, but then it also spells like California. I guess that’s purposeful.

I would think so. They probably did that on purpose. The cool thing is that Paul George talked in this article about how much he loves his Tonal and how much he trained with it. If you scroll down, you can see that he gave a shout-out to one of the Tonal instructors. He gave a huge shout out to Coach Paul. How cool is that?

Who says you can’t do physical therapy remotely? With Tonal, the sky is the limit to the possible workouts you can incorporate! Click To Tweet

That’s cool. I’m betting that Paul even gets a link in the article in GQ.

The whole article is not too shabby. It’s great. Congrats to Tonal and congrats to coach Paul. That’s pretty awesome.

He’ll probably get in such good shape that he’ll probably be able to move up to like the Harlem Globetrotters because that’s the pinnacle of basketball.

No. Maybe in 1972 or something.

It’s always the pinnacle of basketball for everyone. Say what you will about the ‘90s era balls. Did they rescue the cast of Gilligan’s Island? The not short answer is no, they did not. Michael Jordan will never be able to make that claim. Although we technically haven’t finished watching The Last Dance. If Michael Jordan did save Gilligan’s Island, my apologies. I feel like I would have heard that. Moving along, Coach Liz has a new challenge.

It’s not just Coach Liz. We’ve been talking about these every month. Tonal is having each coach gets to put on or host a challenge of one of the programs that they do. It takes over the entire month. This time it’s Coach Liz’s Side by Side. I love that these challenges exist. They are awesome. Every month, you get not only the entire program, but Coach Liz also puts together all these other classes that you can be taking. They mesh well. You do not have to guess what workout to do on any given day of the month because the entire month is planned out for you.

You can also risk hurting yourself if you want to do a little something extra.

You already know what you can and can’t do. If you want to add cardio in, that’s a question that you can do because they have these live Q&A sessions. Coach Liz will answer all of your questions like how to include cardio in a way that is safe and effective, and you’re still getting the results that you’re looking for. There are multiple Q&A sessions. There’s a virtual workout session every week. There’s also at the end of the month, the big celebration that you guys did the program together. It’s cool.

I’m looking at this picture with her holding the rope thing, and I want to turn the end of those rope things into eyeballs like she’s in Pan’s Labyrinth.

We’re never recording in the morning again, but now that you said it, I can’t unsee it.

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There are so many new features rolling out. We could have done a whole episode on new features.

This one is for the free lifters. This is cool. Warm-up sets have now been added. When you’re building your own custom workout, you can go in and add a warm-up set. The cool part is that warm-up sets will be set at 60% of your recommended weights and they will not impact the string score. Let’s say you want to do a bench press and you want to warm up. You do 60%, you do your warmup, and then you do a real set.

It then will start keeping scores.

You can build it right in. They made it super easy to do. I don’t know if people know this, I haven’t made a custom workout in a while, but when you add a custom workout now, there are little toggles that you can add the different things like Smart Flex and Chains. You can add those advanced modes right in your custom workouts. It’s amazing. Tonal is killing it. The next new feature is now I can say, Tom, you know how if you pause during a set, you’re in the middle of it, you’re trying to adjust or whatever. You know how it’ll go to the next move. It’s like, “You didn’t do it, so we’re moving on.” Now you have a six-second pause like a countdown.

That’ll give you a heads up like, “I’m about to move on.”

Not only will it come up, but it also gives you the option. If you didn’t mean to do that, you can be like, “No, stay here.” It will stay there. It won’t automatically go to the next one. That is amazing. You have to X to stay on your move.

Especially if you got to pee in the middle of one. None of that’s ever happened but for some people like I saw a Paul George tweet about having to pee in the middle of doing a Tonal. He’s an investor too. That’s why he probably called up and was like, “I will invest in an additional $17 if you will put in a pause button so I can pee.” That’s exactly how that went down. I read it in Bloomberg.

Tonal also reminds you in a serious manner that if it does move on and you didn’t mean it to, you can always tap back twice to go back to the move and finish it up, so you can still hit 100% of your move goal if that’s important to you. For some people, it is. They like that number to be 100%.

You need to tap back twice on Ewan McGregor.

No comment.

That’s not a no.

I’m a happily married woman.

She says ten minutes after we get done talking about Ewan McGregor, “I am a happily married woman.” Who are you married to?

Tom O’Keefe.

I’m just making sure. You get a little flustered. Obi-Wan Kenobi is flexing his arms over there.

There is a new feature that you can filter by live beta or bodyweight only so that you can easily find the classes that you’re looking for. It’s adding more ways to be able to get to the classes that you’re looking for. Last but not least, they have made tweaks to the heart rate zone indicator. In the past, it’s connected, it’s tracking your heart zone. Now, you can see a heart rate zone bar graph and indicates which zone you’re in. It has a multicolored heart. The heart changes colors depending on which zone you’re in. That’s helpful for people who have colorblindness or maybe a visual impairment. It helps them easily see which heart rate zone that they’re in. Also, one last thing about that. If you happen to be working out with a partner, not that you’ve ever worked out with me, we’re going to do that now. That’s going to be a thing. The point being that when you have two people that are connected, it will show both names. You can see whose heart rate is which, so you can easily distinguish whose heart rate is up there.

Are you going to make me wear a Jedi robe while I work out?

Don’t give me any ideas, Tom.

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There are like a billion new contents since we last recorded. We have new programs. There’s a new program from Coach Nicolette called Smart Build with Coach Nicolette. It’s a full-body intermediate program, four weeks. It’s all about simplicity. It’s about focusing on getting a well-rounded workout that has your efficiency. It also adds an efficient strength. Single limb exercises, you’re focusing on your balance. You’re focusing on stability and postural health. Also, there are a whole bunch of new workouts. We’ve got new Tonal High Intensity, Quick Beginner Burn, Full Body Fix with Coach Paul. We have even more new workouts. There’s a new live beta with Coach Paul. It’s Advance Core. Coach Allison has Core Sprint, Glutes on Fire, and two new meditations, The Light Within and Body Scan with Coach Allison. Not to mention, she also has a new warm-up, the Full Body Kickstart with Coach Allison. All kinds of new stuff.

They’re always throwing new stuff.

I love how Tonal is always starting out new content. It’s amazing. Especially given the pandemic and how hard it must be to film in the studio, that’s fabulous.

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Tonal put out a statement. You’ve seen a lot of companies doing this over the last few days about standing in solidarity with the Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities.

Not only is Tonal taking a stand and putting it in writing, but they also are making a donation to the Asian-American Federation, an organization that raises the influence and wellbeing of the Asian-American community with research, awareness, and nonprofit support. They also are sharing resources.

The Asian-American community has been seeing an uptick during the COVID era with hate crimes. They’re doing their part to try and put a stop to that.

We need to educate ignorance.

The Tonal blog has a new feature called Strength Stories.

It’s a new interview series that focuses on people in the community. The very first one is Mia Redrick. She was from the community. She is a best-selling author and a renowned mom strategist. Mia is very focused on self-care. She helps people understand how to give themselves care, which is important. Some of us aren’t so good at that. This article focuses on getting to know Mia so that she can help you take care of yourself. Congrats to Mia and congrats to Tonal for an awesome new addition to the Tonal blog.

They also have their monthly series on Black Excellence.

It is going to be hosted by Coach Allison, Coach Jared and Coach Paul. Together, they’re going to discuss how you can have meaningful conversations about race with colleagues, family, and friends, which is a very difficult topic. Not that I’ve ever been exhausted by such a conversation, but they are having this conversation to help us get better at that.

Their book club is continuing. The March book is Biohack Your Brain by Dr. Kristen Willeumier.

In this time, it’s going to be all about how to keep your brain in shape instead of just your body like we’re going inward. I read what Kate had to say about this because I haven’t read the book. She says that it’s incredibly informative and actionable. She was halfway through and she’d already sent copies to multiple family members because she was learning so much from it that you could easily apply it to your normal everyday life. The idea here is that you can improve your neurological function regardless of age, regardless of what’s going on in your life. That can be easily applied to people in sports who might have had multiple concussions or brain injuries. The author shares her experience because she’s worked with NFL athletes patients that have had severe brain injuries. You can take those tips and apply them to anybody every day and get better with your brain. That’s pretty cool.

We’re finally wishing a belated happy birthday to Kate.

Happy birthday, Kate. We hope it was a good one. Her birthday is on our anniversary. We’ll never forget Kate’s birthday, right, Tom?

Exactly. We would sing happy birthday to you, but then we’d have to pay for the rights so we won’t do that. We don’t have to tell you guys about music licensing. We didn’t want any part of it.

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Joining us is Katie Curran. How is it going?

I’m good, how are you?

We’re good. We’re excited you’re here. Thank you for joining us. We wanted to talk to you all about Tonal. We’re going to start with what has your personal fitness journey been? Have you always used weights?

I started with quite a diverse background. When all the gyms were open, I only went to the gym. I live in an apartment. It was a much smaller apartment and college dorms. I would go to CrossFit gyms or Orangetheory and also try to do some powerlifting. I embraced anything weight training. I love gymnastics. I don’t do any of it very well, but I’ve been pulled to all of that. I have a fairly deep background in weight training.

Was it because of the pandemic that you transitioned to Tonal? Was that the big reason or was it something else?

It was a couple of things. When March 2020 came around, I got a new job, which required me to commute in a different direction. It took away a lot of the gyms that I could go to. Everyone went to working out at home. At the same exact time, I also developed a back injury that I had never experienced before. I was like, “I don’t know what’s going on here.” I thought it was temporary. I didn’t realize how bad it was. I was on Facebook groups and found Peloton, which is what I first purchased. This was before the pandemic, everything surged. I got that and then I got the Tonal with some stock money. It all came within a month.

Did you buy a Peloton stock and then used it to get a Tonal?

It was a previous company I worked at. I called them and was like, “What’s my stock doing right now?” It was all starting to drop and I wanted to get rid of it. They’re like, “It’s good. You’re here.” I was like, “Sweet,” and just put two and two together.

You said that you had a smaller apartment. Did you go out and get a bigger apartment?

That was also a crazy timing. The building I’m in is one of these giant luxury apartments in the Downtown LA area. They have work-live lofts at the bottom. We were up against our lease and had been here for a few years. I was like, “Those look nice.” They’re two levels. It’s a loft. It has concrete flooring. There are no neighbors. It’s roomier. I was getting two dogs at that point. I wanted to get out of the last place, which was a couple that couldn’t stand us walking around at 10:00 AM. We had to transition. It just timed out so well. That was Thanksgiving of 2019 when we moved in. I’m glad we did that because we’ve utilized this space so much now.

Because the couple didn’t like you walking around, I’m sure they footed the bill for you making the move.

They thought we have completely moved out. We’ve walked our dogs since and run into them and they’re like, “Why are you still here?” They think we moved to another nearby building.

It sounds like you’ve had a lot of change over the last couple of years. What was that like? All of those changes at once going through all of that, how are you doing?

I’m doing good now, but I had to do a lot of wellness care, especially because I don’t work from home. Normally, it’s a commute or some separate thing. I then go to the office and also learning a whole new industry too, which has been overwhelming. It’s been a good kind of stress. I’m very privileged. I’ve kept my job. I have all this stuff at home. I live in a nice weather area too and have been able to be active.

What about the injury that you mentioned? What exactly happened there? What kind of injury was it? You said you didn’t think it was that bad, but it turned out to be a longer-term thing.

I ended up noticing I couldn’t sit down anymore. It’s a sciatic pain that went all the way down one of my legs. I couldn’t do bending over. It developed over time pretty quickly. I couldn’t sleep well. I bought a new bed thinking it would fix the problem, but it didn’t. It traumatized me. I reached out to a physical therapist. When I first started doing that, everything was shutting down. I was like, “Am I stuck at home?” You can’t do physical therapy remotely in a lot of ways. You can, but at the time, it was something you think about. I went to somebody downtown and they put me on the right track.

They were able to help you get your mobility back and all of that.

I had some progression and then the pandemic scared me so I stopped going. My ankle started giving out while I was doing yoga. I thought it was an ankle injury. I saw a bone doctor and they’re like, “We’ll put a cast on it. Don’t stand on it for a couple of weeks.” I got to a point where that nerve pain got to be unbearable. I couldn’t sleep. I turned into a mental patient for two weeks. It was traumatizing. I went back to the physical therapist again and told him what I was doing. I was on one of those scooters. I didn’t think I could stand on it. He’s like, “You can stand on it. It doesn’t look like a bone injury.” He looked at it more. I had an MRI done a little bit after that, which is also a big hassle with health insurance. I found out my ankle was a nerve problem, and that I would need surgery in three weeks on my back. I found out it was the nerve that goes down to the ankle. The sciatic nerve was crushed. I don’t know why. I have no idea.

You’re better now, so the physical therapy fixed your ankle and your back?

I started with physical therapy and the Tonal happened to be already installed. I realized I can do all those exercises on the Tonal. I spoke to Tonal on a similar topic with their VP of Operations, Liz Letchford, with who I’ve worked personally while this was all going on. They’re looking into developing more stuff related to therapy. I put the stuff in here and started doing it. I reached out to Liz Letchford. I was running out of sessions with the physical therapist or I liked her methodology so I reached out to her and she fine-tuned it. I’m doing squats and all those glute, hamstring, and lower back and core workouts and yoga. I don’t know how it worked out, but it healed everything over time. Now I have no pain at all. I fully recovered.

You don’t have to get the surgery?

No. My nerve came back. We did some major focus on the Bulgarian split squats and calf raises. The physical therapist is like, “If this nerve doesn’t come back, if you can’t do these things very well in three weeks, you have to go into surgery right away or it won’t work anymore.” I’m going to be paralyzed in my leg or I don’t know. It was a big wake up call. I’ve never been injured before and then blown away by how much this has helped.

You could do it at home, especially in the middle of the pandemic, not having to go to the doctor and put yourself at risk every day.

Can you write it off as a medical expense?

I would love to. I feel like I owe so much to Tonal and that’s why I was like, “I’ll be happy to talk to you guys about there’s a business opportunity here and how it directly helped me.” They can help a lot of people and get physical therapists involved, and put the custom workouts on here or do assessments virtually. The sky’s the limit. They have a camera on the machine as a matter of fact.

When you got the Tonal, what was your favorite thing about it and has that changed as you’ve gone through this rehabilitation process?

The metrics, seeing that reinforcing record, I’m getting stronger and that I can come to it and not memorize everything. It’s ready to go. It had programs that were already built-in and also that it integrates mobility and stretching. There’s all this great yoga. There are all these complimentary classes that you can stack around it. All the moves are very solid, consistent moves and do directly benefit what you want to do. You can put together a whole great program. It’s correlated and I’m stronger too, which is cool. Not just from my injury, but as an athlete or a fitness person.

Most people get the Tonal because they want to lift weights. They want some strength training. It’s also interesting to realize that should you need physical therapy, you’ve already got a thing hanging on your wall right there that you could pivot slowly too. It’s right there. It’s got this whole other function that most probably people didn’t even contemplate when they purchased it.

I remember when we interviewed Eli originally for The Clip Out because I was not skeptical of Tonal, but I didn’t know that I would be able to justify a second payment every month. He talked about that. He talked about specifically that if anything happens and you need rehabilitation of any kind, that it always is weight-based. It’s the core building block of movement and getting better. Especially, getting older, it’s important to be able to keep that strength up. That was a huge mind-changing piece of information and way to look at it. It is cool to go from that conversation in 2020 to having this conversation where you took that and put it into motion on your own machine.

It’s comforting to know that I have this here. If I get another injury or if I’m not feeling well, I can do mobility or recovery or and you can look back at what you did for the year. It’s like your friend. They keep track of everything and make sure that you’re going in the right direction.

Do you have a preferred instructor? Is it Liz?

I met her in person when the pandemic was not so bad in the summer. In 2020, I went to the Century City Mall and met her at their Tonal store, which is cool. I’m a total fangirl of everything. I also love Coach Nicolette. I did the last challenge and got to get to know her more. Her enthusiasm, support and excitement for us getting better and stronger vibe with me. I also love Coach Jackson. His programs are really solid. They were hard, but you get results. I like his personality as well. I love all the other coaches like Coach Jared and everybody. They’re all great.

They all have such wonderful personalities. Do you find yourself doing the programs all the time or do you ever do your own custom workouts?

I’ve done a little bit of both. When I first started, I did a couple of Liz programs and then decided to venture into my own stuff. I found this service online. It’s called Black Iron Nutrition. You sign up and you get a program that all these people work on together. It’s got a CrossFit background, but it’s all weight training. What blew my mind was I was able to copy it into Tonal and do it, and then see everything on there. I was like, “That’s so cool.” I did a little bit of that once the challenges started. Coach Pablo came out with something back in October 2020. That’s when I jumped back into programs. I’ve been doing programs mostly. I do a little bit of custom stuff, but mostly what they’ve made.

How involved are you in the community? Do you interact there very much?

When I work and take breaks, I go there mostly. Unless I’m reading the news a little bit, I mostly go there. I’m in the book club. I try to jump on the happy hours and the events they have. The people are amazing and my husband joins the Trivia nights too. I’ve connected with a lot of people on Instagram. It became a fresh excitement for me on social media because I got rid of that a long time ago. I’ll post pictures. I follow many people that do Peloton and Tonal. I never thought that would be a thing. I have a lot of online friends on Instagram. It’s motivating because you login and you’re like, “Yes.”

What are the Trivia nights? I’m intrigued.

I’ve been in two. They did one for New Year’s or sometime in 2020. Kate posted it and it was like a magic show.

We were driving in the car. I couldn’t even have the camera on because it was so bright. He was driving and I was holding up the magic show while we were driving.

We were so impressed with that whole performance. I was like, “Zoom can become very immersive.”

He did a good job of pulling the audience in. It’s interesting that you do both Peloton and Tonal. I do too, but since we live in different places, it becomes a different thing on social media. I find it hard to go to all the Tonal events because it’s two hours later here. By the time they usually start, I’m winding down for my day because I go to bed super early. I feel like it’s hard for you to go to some of the Peloton things because it’s so much later there. You miss out on things. I find that interesting that it’s depending on where you are in the country, trying to make it work for all that social stuff, which I love that Tonal does all of the social events. They are so cool and fun. Do you have a favorite one? There’s the Nicolette’s cooking show, there are all the challenges, the happy hour and the trivia, which one’s your favorite?

I enjoy the challenge like FAQs or the group virtual workouts. Having that as an option is cool to build a check-in and follow along. I’ve also asked a coach because you get to know them a lot more and get some good advice. I like the happy hour. They did this hilarious trivia night where they use the Kahoot! app. You could download it on your phone. Someone put together all those Tonal trivia. I was like, “I can’t believe that people can get that clever.” It was fun to test their knowledge. Only fans would do this.

Not only fans, but that’s also a different thing, entitling. Although if you use your Tonal and Peloton enough, you could probably get a pretty good only fans account going on.

That’s a different conversation. How are you balancing all of your workouts though? How do you put it together? You’re still fitting in your Peloton. How does that fit in?

I have been pretty good about doing the Power Zone Training. I do 3 or 4 days a week of that. I do it on the same day, so they have the schedule for it. I do weight training. Arm day is on those days also. I do leg day on a day off. When I’m not doing Peloton and only Tonal, I’ll try to put in some yoga to work some mobility. I am like two hours a day activity, but it’s what I like to do. It does make me tired sometimes, but it’s fun. I enjoy it all.

When you were injured, were you still able to do the Peloton or did that have to stop too?

I did have to stop because fully extending my leg properly biking or pedaling agitated my back a lot. I could only do twenty minutes at a time. It got better from using it so much. I also got a professional fitting from Matt Wilpers, his company. I jumped on that, it helped a lot.

I could see the injury with what you described. I see that going either way as to whether or not you could use your Peloton. If it was a weight-based thing, if you put weight on it, then it was problematic and a bike wouldn’t do that. The extension, which was what you did have. That’s why I was curious about how that played out.

It was pretty weird. You’re always thinking, “Am I doing too much? Am I not doing enough?” One doctor says, “Stay off of it.” The other doctor says, “Use it more.” It’s a balance. I’m glad it worked out. I live in Downtown LA, so it’s not like I can go for a run out here.

We’ve stayed there a couple of times.

If anybody out there is struggling with any injuries, do you have any advice for them on what steps they should take?

I advise that if they don’t want to reach out to a professional, they should try some of the classes on here. They have focused on classes that they can try. I also recommend trying yoga if you can. Reach out to a physical therapist that can work on giving you the exercises you need and put those inside Tonal. A lot of physical therapists would be open to doing it with you side-by-side. Pull out your app and build it with them. That’s a thing they can do. If you also want, you could reach out to Liz Letchford. She does a great assessment. She does see your body alignment and mobility. She tells you what your improvements could be especially with the range of motion. That’s also helpful.

For the people who don’t know, Liz Letchford got a PhD in this stuff. It’s not just someone who’s tossed a couple of weights around a gym. She scientifically knows her stuff. While you’re handing out advice, do you have any advice for people just now getting the Tonal?

My advice is to jump in and pick a program. Liz Letchford has a new beginner program. That’s a great one to start with and get in the community. There are a lot of Facebook groups outside of the official one too that are good. It seems like Tonal Fitness Nation is great. Start to find people to follow, start exercising and doing programs that call your attention and give them a chance. If you don’t like it or it’s not the right difficulty level, switch out and do another program. There’s much great stuff there. Try the custom program builder and play with that because you may be surprised that what’s in there may be able to see a lot of different movements and focusing on specific body parts. There’s a great filtering system in there to use and build your own programs. That’s the way to go, start and get in and try it. There are shorter programs too. Give yourself 20 or 30 minutes a day. It’s great.

Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to join us. Where can people find you on social media if you would like to be found?

I am @Katie_lalaland. That’s my Instagram and it’s public. All my workouts are on my Insta Stories. I’m always happy to follow you back if you’re into working out. I do post pictures on my main feed of places I travel. We like to go all over California. On Peloton, I’m Katie O. Curran.

Are you just a fan of the movie? Is that why La La Land or because you live in LA?

It’s a mix of both. That movie is amazing. There are many great movies. Especially once you recognize the train, it’s cool to see how they do it, but I also like to call it La La Land because it’s interesting here and there’s so much fun stuff going on, even in a pandemic. I’m not from the Midwest but it’s similar, Idaho. It’s the same kind of suburbia world.

Thank you so much for joining us. This was a lot of fun.

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

Next time we’re going to talk to Tonal data scientist, Taylor Stein.

We should say we interviewed him and we teased him about his job title of data scientist. I woke up and my Google feed was full of ads for how to become a data scientist.

No, they were not. Are you Joking?

Yes. They’re always listening to us. I promise you, there is nothing else I said in my life that would cause them to offer me a job as a data scientist. Anyway, that’s what you have to look forward to. Until the next episode. Where can they find you?

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

You can find me on Twitter @RogerQBert or Facebook at Facebook.com/tomokeefee. You can find our show online, Facebook.com/supersetpodcast. While you’re there, like the page and join the group. Also, don’t forget wherever you get your podcasts from, be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. That’s it for this one. Thanks for tuning in. Until next time keep lifting.