• Text Search is now available on the app.
• Hilton and Peloton expand their partnership.
• Samsung Smart Watches (Wear OS 3) now pair directly with Peloton Machines like Apple Watches.
• Peloton partnered with GirlTrek for Harriet House Parties.
• Peloton partnered up with Sporting Equals to support ethnic diversity in sports.
• What’s this? A fun post in the OPP?!!??! 
• Workouts to watch. 
• Peloton investor lawsuit appears to be stalling out. 
• Dr. Jenn – Spring has sprung…and it sucks 
• Shape Magazine spotlights female Peloton instructors. 
• Jess King makes her DJ debut. 
• Jenn Sherman makes a member’s yacht rock dreams come true. 
• Olivia Amato moved. 
• Multiple instructors attended Variety Magazine’s Power Of Women event. 
• Ash Pryor squat-lifts another instructor. 
• Nico Sarani was hanging out with Riopy.      
• Angelo – Activating glutes to correct knee pain. 
• The latest artist series features Pharell Williams.
• Tonal releases Cycle Strength. 
• Hydrow is having music issues. 
• Filming begins on an Elin Hilderbrand (Ep. 182) adaptation. 
• Eliotte Woodford (Ep. 280) talked about kicking off the Taylor Swift tour on IG. 
• CJ Albertson (Ep. 206) and his wife are expecting. 
• 8th annual Peloton4Parkinsons (Eric Tostrud Ep. 148) – April 29th
• This week at Peloton.  
• New Lanebreak levels.       
• Erik Jager and Marcel Maurer have a new strength split.
• Birthdays – Jermain Johnson (4/5), Jennifer Jacobs (04/07) 

All this plus our interview with Rachel Sobel

—

Watch the episode here

 

Listen to the podcast here

 

Text Search Now Available On The App Plus Our Interview With Rachel Sobel

For the timeline, we’re now in the year 2017. It’s the single most important year in the history of Peloton because that is the year The Clip Out started. That will be our bonus episode. If you have not been checking us out on Patreon, you should probably give it a shot there. They are lengthy episodes, 30 to 45 minutes, talking about that year specifically, what happened and what it meant to the future of Peloton, and what it looks like through a modern-day POV.

It’s cool to see the cycle of things, and to go back through and see how they used to do things versus how they do things now.

Some of those things are coming back. People are like, “This is the first time they’ve ever done that,” and it’s not.

Get this, guys. The first time that there was a recording artist in the studio was not Lizzo. It was a long time ago. It’s little tidbits that you can get a deep dive into.

It wasn’t like a nothing artist. It’s not necessarily a name everyone recognizes, but they had a big hit song at that time. There you go. There’s a little teaser for you, so you have to go check out the timeline or listen to one of the episodes. What pray tell do you have in store for people?

We’re going to talk about the updates. Peloton has been rolling out new partnerships, or should I say expansion of partnerships they have done. Android finally got a major update. I’m so glad I went to Apple at this point. I would just be waiting and waiting. There’s a new lawsuit update. Dr. Jenn visits and we talk about why spring sucks. We had a visit from Angelo and we talked about activating your glutes to correct your knee pain.

You also get to hear about the weird things he has me do. Talk about my Lamaze class that he has me do.

We also have some updates on Tonal. That’s very interesting. We have an update on Hydrow. That’s super interesting.

The Hydrow one was fascinating.

Also, more past guest updates that we have for you.  People that we have on the show do things. They’re busy people. All that, and then don’t forget the interview that we have with Rachel Sobel.

She started her blog called Whine And Cheez Its. It’s a good name, and she loves her Peloton. We will also find out that she’s working on a book. Pretty soon, we will be able to get it.

It’s a good thing we got her here.

Shameless plugs, don’t forget, we’re available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts. Wherever you find podcasts, you can find us. While you’re there, be sure and follow us so you never miss an episode. Maybe leave us a review so the people that come along after you know that we are worth checking out. Plus, it feeds my ego about 90% of the time. The other time, I’m like, “That guy is obnoxious.” They can both be true.

You can also find us on Facebook, Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page, join the group. Don’t forget our Patreon, Patreon.com/TheClipOut. If you sign up for that, you can get bonus episodes. You can get episodes a little early. You get them ad-free. Also, you can watch all these on YouTube at YouTube.com/TheClipOut. Finally, don’t forget our newsletter at theclipout.com. You can sign up for that. We will send you a weekly email, a digest of what happened on the show, links, and a reminder that we’re out here. There’s all that. Let’s dig in. Shall we?

We shall.

—

There have been some changes to the Peloton app.

We got a rundown for you. There are a lot of things that Peloton added like distance-based badges celebrating your tread achievements. Let’s say you hit a 5K in one class, you will get a fancy new badge that says you got a 5K on the tread. They have several of them. There are going to be all kinds of these. Keep an eye out for them. They’re based on output for the given class length.

What else do we have?

The Guide gets the home screen and class stat. Now, there’s an added glance dashboard that shows the last seven days’ stats, just like you see on the Bike, the Tread, and the Row. Peloton added top-level insights to the movement trackers. It’s going to show your workout totals for the week, as well as total targets hit. You no longer need to dismiss the remote disconnected screen. This is in line with less clicks that Peloton has been working on lately. That’s one less thing that you need to do.

They also added a pause button to just run, ride, and row classes. Before, for bikes, treads, and rowers, you could pause the on-demand classes. Now, for just run, just ride, and just row, you can pause those too. That member’s behavior was showing that we might need to be able to do that.

I wonder how they can sense that.

I can tell you. If you say, “I’m going to do a 20-minute just walk,” and then you leave 10 minutes in, you get a little pop-up that says, “Why did you leave the class early?” They’re looking for that input. Whenever you do leave a class early, be sure to fill that out because it does help them have the data to make things better for you.

If you’re like, “Something came up and I couldn’t finish it,” then they know that, or you’re like, “I’ve decided exercise isn’t for me and it’s easier to be lazy.”

I think it might fall under other.

“I decided to forgo fitness. I’m having an existential crisis. Do you know what’s not working for me? Working out.”

I don’t think that button is on there. I think you’re going to have to file it under other. Returning to our conversation here, we also have reduced taps to workout. There are no more taps to start a class when another one is in progress. The last time we did one of these roundups, we talked about how they had removed a step. Now, there is yet another step removed. If you already have another workout in progress, you don’t have to end it. You just go in and take out these two taps, “Yes, I want to start the class. Let me do that.”

“Zero taps given.”

There you go. That’s the tagline, actually. Text search has been added to the Peloton app. This is huge. Now, you can go in and find specific classes by using a text search.

It’s so crazy that that wasn’t always there.

It was on the bike, the tread, and the row, but not on the app. You have to get into your filters to be able to find the things that you wanted and know what you are looking for. Now, to be able to search by a certain artist via text is amazing. This is really huge. I’m excited about this. By the way, I heard from a lot of people that it wasn’t showing up for you. I have heard over and over again a fix that is easy. Simply uninstall and reinstall your app, and it will be there.

I always hate it when that’s the solution. I’m like, “What if I can’t remember my login?”

If you have an iPhone, it remembers for you, Tom.

Mine does mostly but sometimes it doesn’t.

I will say that I have not had that issue with Apple. I hate to admit it but that’s true.

Does any of this apply to the Android app? I know how slow they are.

There is. Text search is available on the Peloton app on both Android and iOS.

Hilton and Peloton have expanded their partnership into international markets.

We have to send out a thank you to Tim for sending us this one. They have had a partnership with Hilton for a long time. Now, they’re going to have offerings in Canada, Puerto Rico, Germany, and the UK. It’s nice to see. I don’t see Australia on this list. Am I missing something?

I’m not seeing it. I’ve never been to Australia. The only thing I know about Australia is from Men At Work and Little River Band songs.

Ros told us a few facts because she used to live there. Ros and Mike, when we were in Saint Martin.

Do they have Hilton’s there?

Ros and Mike, let us know. I don’t know the answer to that.

It does not appear to be on this list as of yet.

It could be something that there are additional paperwork or things that have to be done or it could be that Hilton doesn’t do business there. I’m not sure.

That’s great news. It’s great to see that they are expanding. That’s great for Peloton.

Did you know that this partnership was in 2022? That’s not true. They had an original one with Hilton long before that. I know they did.

 

I know they had one with Westin at one time.

That could be what I’m thinking of.

It was only select Westins. I think in Disney, the Swan and Dolphin might be a Westin.

Now, there’s all of them in Westin. There’s a huge partnership with Westin, right?

I don’t remember.

Is it the Hilton that I’m thinking of? This is a moment where my brain is thinking of all the things and mixing them up.

I thought it was Hilton that had the partnership and now it’s going international. It’s not just in the States. Remember, we stayed at the Hilton when we were in Atlanta.

You’re right then. It was Westin that had the select ones. They had Peloton rooms that you could stay in.

They will bring a bike to your room. I remember when we see Hilton, they were like, “Before the end of the year, we will have a Peloton.” We were staying there the weekend after Thanksgiving. You’re like, “Really? Four weeks away?”

This is cool because it is going to be in 5,400 hotels around the world. That’s huge. Many people say they find Peloton at a hotel and then they go home and buy it after they tried it.

We’ve heard that story so many times. We’re talking about how good it is for Peloton. I think it’s good for Hilton. When people are on the road, it’s always like, “How am I going to keep my Peloton streak alive?” If you have to choose between a hotel with the Peloton and a hotel without a Peloton, and Peloton is important to you, I think Hilton is going to win that battle, even if it’s $10 or $20 a night more.

Remember, before Peloton put the Hotel Finder out on the website, there used to be people talking on the OPP about, “I’m going to be in Knoxville, Tennessee this weekend. Does anybody have a Peloton I can use?” Do you remember when that group started up? It was Peloton Hotels On The Go. People were putting all these different hotels where you could get Pelotons. That’s how we used to have to do things, and it’s on the timeline

You can now use your Peloton device with Samsung smartwatches.

Anything that has a Wear OS 3. The reason I say that is because when The Verge first printed this, they specifically only named two watches that you could do. I guess when Peloton first sent over the information, they did not say it was Wear Operating System 3. Now, it’s all of them. If you have a Samsung, Google, Fossil, or anything else that has Wear OS 3, you can get this now. It turns your watch into a heart rate monitor. You can broadcast your heart rate from your watch. That’s big news.

Peloton has partnered with GirlTrek to host Harriet House Parties.

Each year on March 10, Harriet Tubman Day, GirlTrek invites black women around the world to gather in their homes with friends and family for a Harriet House Party. This 2023, as Peloton pledges partnership with GirlTrek, they were honored to host Harriet House Parties for GirlTrek members and members at Peloton showrooms across the United States. The gatherings are a great opportunity for women to reflect on their personal health, set goals for the year, and make commitments to hold each other accountable.

If you’re wondering, GirlTrek is the largest nonprofit focused on the health of Black women and girls. The organization aims to inspire its network of over one million Black women and girls to use daily walks as a practical tool for healthy families and communities. Peloton supported them since 2021.

They did that with the help of Chelsea Jackson Roberts.

It says that each party begins with a fitness goals meditation. I love that.

Peloton has also partnered with Sporting Equals, which is over in the UK. I think we might have talked about this at least tangentially a while back.

Some of the last few weeks have been a little blurry. I’m not going to lie. On March 8, International Women’s Day, they were working with Sporting Equals. They had a panel and it was hosted by Hannah Frankson. Is that what you’re thinking of? I know that she did something.

I think we talked about this as part of International Women’s Day. It was another part of a larger story.

We didn’t talk specifically about Sporting Equals.

I think in passing. They exist to promote ethnic diversity across sports and physical activity. We talked about this aspect. It’s the only organization in the UK solely focused on this topic. It was like, “How is there only one?” You would think that there would be more than that.

You would, and I don’t remember that conversation at all. It’s a little concerning.

You got a good reason. Brace yourself, but there was a post in the OPP that wasn’t sh**ty and was actually fun. I have to agree. Thank you, Brianne Rachel.

Also, Donna Carr. She tagged me on this to make sure I saw it. Thank you because that page is not my favorite. I got to be in a good place before I go out there. There’s a trend going around where you can turn anybody into a Barbie box. This is for the movie, right?

This is a viral marketing campaign for the upcoming movie Barbie, starring Margot Robbie and directed by Greta Gerwig. She went from Little Women to Barbie. Sure. Make that sense in your head. There are a lot of famous people in this movie, and they had this poster that showed them all in these little Barbie boxes with a description of their specific character. I don’t know if people started doing it or if they created a meme creator where you could create your own person. This person went through and put a lot of the Peloton instructors.

These pictures are delightful. This one is a picture of Ross Rayburn and it says, “This Ken is putting me to sleep every night,” which he does. Jess King, “This Barbie is an experience.” That’s true. This is Cody, “This Ken is an opinionated homosexual.” Emma Lovewell, “This Barbie is loving well.” I see what she did there. Denis Morton, “This Ken is coming together like Voltron.” I love when he says that.

Voltron is owned by a competing toy company so you can’t do that.

They have Leanne, “This Barbie is in a sparkly fitness bubble.” Kendall, “This Barbie is never knocked out.”

One of the best things to ride a Peloton is getting to workout without having to go outdoors. This means less risk of injuries and accidents. Click To Tweet

This would be a fun game. You give the catchphrase, then you have to guess.

“This Ken is not at daycare.” Of course, that’s Alex Toussaint. We have Christine, “This Barbie is bigger than a smaller pair of pants.” I think it has to be more than a smaller pair of pants. We have Tunde, “This Barbie is a bad counter.” That is so true.

People will love the Tunde one. That’s all she made because she hates all the other instructors. If you didn’t hear your favorite instructor, it’s because Brianne Rachel hates them. You should take it personally, be deeply offended, go on the internet, and yell at people.

Please don’t. There are some people out there that might. That’s sad.

Peloton sent out an email about April workouts to watch.

I love this because it’s such a great place to pick up all of the different things coming out. They highlighted the fact that both Jess King and Becs Gentry are back from maternity leave. That’s going to be awesome. Also, I know we talked about this or we’re going to be talking about this later. Jon Hosking has a new series coming out. We’re going to talk about it. I am looking forward to this.

Also, Earth Day is in April. There’s going to be a whole selection of Earth Day classes called Hello  Earth Day. There’s also yoga for cross-training. They’re going to be highlighting some different classes like riders and runner classes. Those are launching on April 10. Total Strength with Andy, there is a collection where you can find everything. That was launched on 4/3. I love these.

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The Peloton investor lawsuit seems to be rapidly running out of steam. We don’t know the full details because it’s locked behind a paywall of a legal site. We get the first sentence.

We’ve seen this on a couple of websites. The gist is it’s been dismissed. Not to say that it’s not been dismissed like it can’t come back. We’re not saying it’s that one but the actual lawsuit has been dismissed. It’s very exciting.

This was the one where they were saying that during the pandemic, they had lied about the future of the company. The judge was basically like, “No, they just got it wrong. You’re allowed to be wrong. There’s a difference between being wrong and lying.”

For once, a judge I agree with.

Every once in a while, they get it right. Coming up after this, we’re going to talk to Dr. Jenn. We have a question from someone who thinks that spring has sprung and it’s sucks.

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Joining us once again is Dr. Jenn Mann, licensed marriage, family and child therapist, and sports psychology consultant. You may know her from VH1’s Couples Therapy with Dr. Jenn or VH1’s Family Therapy with Dr. Jenn, or her long-running radio show, The Dr. Jenn Show. She’s written four bestselling books, including The Relationship Fix: Dr. Jenn’s 6-Step Guide to Improving Communication, Connection and Intimacy. It’s Dr. Jenn.

Hello.

It’s springtime. We have a couple of people talking about allergies. Wendy Kissinger said that she is struggling because she’s getting so tired and congested. When she tries to workout her output isn’t as good. That discourages her from continuing. It’s a springtime thing. It’s not a real “sickness.” That’s what I’m trying to say.

It sounds like she got her doctor’s okay to workout even when she’s having an allergy attack. I’m going to say something very controversial. Buckle your seat belts. Are you ready?

Ready.

Hide your output. Stop looking at your output. Put it away right now because it’s messing with your head. You’re getting so focused on those numbers that you’re not giving yourself credit for your workout. It sounds like it’s taking away the joy from your workout. Sometimes people get too focused on the external, on those output numbers, on those mild numbers, on the calorie numbers, and on all of that sort of stuff. It can destroy the joy of the workout.

You’ve got to look at this differently. The fact that you can workout even when you’re having an allergy attack and that you’re able to do it is great. Pat yourself on the back. Stop beating yourself up about this because this is actually great. It’s ultimately helping your body recover from the allergy attack and all that sort of stuff. You’re getting your blood flowing. You’re using your lungs and all that sort of great stuff. You’ve got to change your focus to the process over the outcome and the numbers.

Also, get a UV light filter for your HVAC. We got one of those. It made a huge difference. At the beginning of COVID, the HVAC guy was doing the yearly maintenance or whatever. He’s like, “We got these things.” We were like, “We’ll take it.” It seems to make a difference. I also thought this was interesting. When someone would get COVID in the house, other people didn’t get COVID at the same time. Only two of the four have gotten COVID and not at the same time. We all still live together but it didn’t tear its way through the house. For whatever that’s worth.

It might help with allergies too.

They say it’s supposed to knock down allergens. We’re just throwing that out there. We don’t have a promo code or anything. If people need more advice, where they can find you?

You can find me on all social media @DrJennMann.

Thank you.

—

Shape magazine has an article about the various female Peloton instructors, and why they’re so inspiring.

They published this on March 29. It was wrapping up Women’s History Month. They focused on Chelsea, Camila, Callie, Ashley, and Becs. They go through each instructor and they talk about what they have specifically said and done in their private lives and on the platform, etc., and how they inspire people to show up. I’m not going to read through all of it because it’s long. It’s a great article and it’s from Shape. I think we mentioned a while back that Michelle K is working on another interesting project that we can’t reveal yet. This isn’t from Michelle K. This is another wonderful writer that’s writing for shape. They did a great job with this.

Jess King made her debut as a DJ.

Jess King explains that she has been wanting to be a DJ for a long time. She did it at one of Sophia’s shows. It was at the Jelly Club. This was set up by Sophia and then Jess King got to do it. She was very happy with everyone that came out to support her. She’s looking forward to doing it again.

Watch out, DJ John Michael.

We can’t replace DJ John Michael.

She’s going for your gig. I’m trying to cause strife.

 

Are you? Assuming that they listen.

Jenn Sherman made a lucky Yacht Rock fan’s dream come true.

This lady sent a letter to Jenn Sherman, and told Jenn Sherman and Peloton how she has been a member since 2017. She’s taken every single Yacht Rock class multiple times. Her dream was to be able to take one live. It was a big birthday celebration for 2023. She got to do it, and she’s filming a video while she’s in the studio. Congrats to Amy. If you haven’t gotten to take a Yacht Rock class, you absolutely should because all the Yacht Rock classes are amazing. There’s Amy, right in the front row.

They give her a good bike.

That’s a perfect bike. The one right next to the mirror is good but everybody always goes for that. The one that’s next to that, you don’t have the light on you the whole time but you’re still visible if you want to be visible. It’s a good in-between.

Olivia Amato has moved.

She didn’t say where. It’s somewhere.

I don’t blame her.

I know. Don’t do that. She moved to a different part of the city that she has never lived in before She’s looking forward to exploring the area, and she’s hoping that it’s going to be a little quieter and calms her dogs. She also gives a little shout-out to Road Wing Moving for making it smooth. I wonder if they paid for that? Did you time that with a partnership? I could see it.

Variety Magazine hosted a Power Of Women event. Lots of famous people there.

There’s our girl. The one that’s in all the shows we like. The second lady.

Natasha Lyonne.

Thank you.

We should take a moment here to plug Poker Face on Peacock.

If you haven’t watched it, you need to stop what you’re doing and go watch it right now.

That show is amazing.

Don’t binge it. You need to savor episodes.

It was created by Rian Johnson. He directed the first two episodes It’s a throwback to the ’70s detective shows like Columbo or The Rockford Files but with a modern-day sensibility.

Also, a feminine spin on it. I love it so much. I love her as an actress. I love her in everything she’s been in, but this is next level.

The hook is that she has I don’t want to call it superpower because it makes it sound like it’s a comic book, and it’s not. There’s something about her where she can always tell if somebody is lying. She ends up in these murder mysteries where she knows people are lying but she doesn’t know why. Knowing that someone lying isn’t always enough because people could lie for a multitude of reasons. She then starts to try to pick apart to figure out who did the murder, and you know who did the murder. It’s like Columbo in that regard of how she is going to catch up.

I love how they lay out what happened but they leave her out of it. They then go back and they put her in. It’s masterfully done.

It’s very clever and a lot of fun. If you haven’t watched it, you should. She was part of the Power of Women event with Variety Magazine.

She was one of the women being honored. There were lots of them, including Judy Blume, another hero of mine.

She has a movie coming out soon.

That’s true but she also wrote a million books that are amazing.

Her biggest book is getting turned into a movie, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.

The whole reason we’re telling you about this though is because several of the Peloton instructors were attendees. They were not honorees but they were attendees. We had Kendall Toole, Olivia Amato, and Emma Lovewell. Ally Love was also there. There were four of them. They all took a picture together so you can see them all. Looks like a neatly organized event, but it’s Variety.

Ash Pryor has done another in her ongoing series of squat lifting.

Did you see that she’s named it? I love the name. I know you will appreciate this, Tom. Squatting with the stars.

That’s a good name. I don’t know if it got that name only because it’s Cody.

Maybe. I just went with it. She has Kirsten Ferguson hyping her up. She then squats Cody Rigsby five times. Cody is not a small dude. Ash Pryor is so badass. I love her energy. I love how fun she is. I love that all the instructors have fun with her, and they’ll do stuff like this. It’s fabulous.

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Nico Sarani was hanging out with Riopy.

I recognize this name. It’s not like I recognize a song that he’s done. She got to hang out at the listening studio. DJ John Michael was there as well. I don’t know if this is one of those things where we’re going to be seeing an artist collaboration. Maybe this is just how they roll these days. I don’t know.

I think he writes like that spa music where you’re like, “Who listens to this?” Apparently, Nico Sarani does. I think she uses it in her classes too. He’s a piano player. I think he played a song on Lana Del Rey’s last album or something like that.

I hear so many great soundtracks when I’m taking a yoga class. The instructors all have a little bit of a different spin on it but they have this way of making music. The flow works with whatever the music is and it’s always very calming, but it’s not always just spa music. It’s a good mix of it.

Coming up after this, we’re going to talk to Angelo. He has tips for activating your glutes to correct knee pain.

—

Joining us once again is Angelo, here to answer all of your fitness and nutrition questions.

It’s great to see you again.

It’s good to see you. I have a question that’s totally selfish for me.

Let’s do it.

Here’s my question. I went to my physical therapist and we were talking about how my knee goes in a little bit. He started doing all these exercises with my knee. Long story short, he ends up saying that I need to figure out how to activate my glutes better. How do I do that?

What he is noticing is that most of us have some minor and some more major postural deviations. That’s a geeky term, postural deviations. It’s basically poor posture or misalignment in our body that develops over time from injury, atrophy, over-use, and under-use. In the technology age where we’re sitting in front of computers or when where texting on our phones, we’re in that posture so many hours a day. It has massive repercussions throughout our bodies. One of the most dominant repercussions that your PT is noticing in you, and basically everyone else. Don’t feel this is in any way unique to you.

I’m sure it was because of the car hitting me. I’m sure that’s what it is.

That has little to do with it.

It’s nice to know that he’s not singling out her glutes. It’s everyone’s glutes.

This is everyone’s glutes. Equal opportunity here.

I was like, “Should I be concerned?” I think this is going to turn into a Dr. Jenn question real quick. “Dr. Jenn, a physical therapist keeps talking about Crystal’s glutes.”

It is a thing. All physical therapists are going to talk about the glutes. They always come back to the glutes. Here is why. It is not the glutes. It is actually the hip flexors. It’s the root of all evil when it comes to biomechanics problems. When we’re in a seated position for extended periods of time, that means basically everyone in the world these days, the hip flexor muscles that connect your spine to your lower body diagonally through your hips tend to shorten when you’re in a seated position for an extended period of time.

What you have in the body is a function called a myotic reflex. I’m going to try not to get too geeky, but it relates to the neurological wiring of agonistic and antagonistic muscle groups. I’m going to give you a very simple illustration. In order for your arm to work properly to flexion and extension at the elbow, your bicep fires or your tricep fires the front-back of the arm. When your tricep is firing, your bicep is neurologically deactivated. It has to be so, and vice versa.

When your bicep is firing, it will neurologically turn off the tricep muscles. That way, you can flex and extend. We understand that relationship. That relationship is mirrored throughout the entire body to varying degrees. With our hip flexors, that’s a much more complicated relationship because you have right and left, and there are a lot more moving parts going on. The basic relationship takes place when you have hypertonic hip flexors. It tends to deactivate the glutes.

That’s why that muscle group tends to weaken over time. Here’s a population that invariably you’ll see it in. It is the older population. That’s where you see that hunching. Guys, as we get older, what happens to our butts? They disappear. That’s that agonistic relationship where the hips tend to be hypertonic tight and firing. The glutes tend to be deactivated. What are some common things that we’ll see when we go to the PT office? I’ll give you an example for women.

Women have something called the Q angle. Have you ever heard of that before, Crystal? It used to sometimes be termed the Marilyn Monroe effect or angle. For me and Tom, if you were to trace straight down to our knees, it’s going to be a straight line, up and down. For women, some more so than others, it depends on your shape. There’s going to be a little bit of an angle coming in. What will happen is women sometimes are more prone to internal or external rotation of that femur bone because there’s a Q angle.

What competes against that? What prevents that natural position of the body from getting too out of alignment? It’s your glutes. That’s one of the reasons for women amongst many that we want to keep the glute strong. It helps hold your femur bone and knee position in alignment. When your pelvis is in alignment, everything else is in alignment. I’ll tell you something that most people are shocked to hear. Our pelvis and foot position are all manipulated for vision. That’s a weird one, right?

I remember you telling us this. You showed all of us coaches this. This is crazy stuff right here.

Most people don’t think about this. In years dealing with biomechanics and postural rehabilitation, what we have actually learned is that your body will prioritize vision, proprioception, and depth perception above anything else. In other words, your head and eyes will always stay level on the horizon. Everything underneath will adjust. That way you’re not looking crooked straightforward. You’ll always be straight, eyes on the horizon for vision.

What that means is when we spend hours and hours sitting at the computer hunched over our laptop or our cell phone or whatever our job is, the head and shoulders roll forward. In order to keep your eyes level on the horizon, everything below adjusts. One of those adjustments is your pelvis tends to move forward. I’m not talking about half a foot forward, it moves half an inch to an inch forward over where it should be positioned.

If you were to measure someone against the plum line, the ideal posture is the greater trochanter would be just anterior, and everything would be lined up perfectly. You rarely see that anymore. The hips translate forward. Why? To bring your eyes back to the level of the horizon. How do we combat that? It all comes back to what your PT is asking you to do. We got to get those glutes strong.

Simple ways of doing that are sideline gluteal raises, leg raises, and hip thrusters. You can do glute raises. There are lots of different movements. Talk to your PT about what version and slant are best for you. When you’re training your glutes, as far as your body is concerned, it’s actually amazing the global positive implications of restoring not just glute strength, but what you’re doing is you’re restoring the balance between the glutes and the hip flexors, which restores your pelvis, thoracic spine, head and shoulders, knee position, and foot position. It’s good stuff. Your PT is definitely on the right track with you.

That’s good. I’m glad to hear that.

You get more than you were bargaining for on that one. I threw a bunch of nerdy stuff at you there.

I love the whys. Why is this happening? Thank you.

It has always been easier for me if I know the why to do it because I know that there’s a reason behind it.

 

Also, when you talk about posture, I then start sitting up correctly.

I got into that particular area of the wellness and fitness field because my posture was so compromised because of having a spinal fusion. People say, “Your posture’s not that great, Angelo.” I said, “You should have seen me without the work.” It was a disaster after my surgery. It impacts your body. There is a lot that we can do to bring the body back into balance.

Thank you. That was very helpful.

If people would like information like that tailored to their lives, where can they find you?

Come talk to us at MetPro.co/tco. Thanks, guys.

—

Our latest artists collaboration features Pharrell Williams.

There are a couple of things we need to note about this though. One, it’s the first ever producer series. Do you see how the little words are circling around there? That’s the first time they’ve ever done it. That means they are featuring music that he’s made as a producer, a writer, or a performer. The classes start on April 6. There’s a huge range of them, including Assal, Tobias, Cliff, Jermaine Johnson, also known as JJ, Hannah Frankson, Nico, Adrian Williams, Tunde, and Denis Morton. Huge variety of classes.

He worked on a ton of songs before he became a solo artist. He’s been behind a lot of hit records.

That’s why I wanted to highlight that because I had a feeling you would know. Maybe you even know a couple of songs off the top of your head that he might have worked on.

I thought he worked on that first Bruno Mars record. I’m scrolling through his Wikipedia production page. He worked with Gwen Stefani, Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, Leah LaBelle, and Frank Ocean. Blurred Lines, my guess is they won’t be playing that one. He has worked on a lot of stuff. He’s also worked in a lot of movies. He did a lot of stuff for Despicable Me and stuff like that.

With the way the instructors typically structured this, I’m guessing they will get a little bit of an education in each of these classes. I always love that. Learn some more about their favorites and why.

He’s been around for a long time. He worked on Rump Shaker with Wreckx-N-Effect. That’s 1992.

I don’t know what that is.

You don’t know Rump Shaker?

I don’t recognize it by name.

I think you’ve heard it.

We have this conversation a lot. I typically know them once you play them, but I don’t know the name of that song.

I didn’t realize he’s been around for 30 years.

He has.

—

Tonal has announced Cycle Sync Strength.

I’m excited about this. They made this program in collaboration with Stacy Sims. You know I love my girl, Stacy Sims. We actually got a chance to interview a couple of the coaches for this on our other podcast, The Superset. It is coming back very soon. If you’re interested in hearing about that, you wander on over and type in The Superset and you can hear that interview. I am very excited about this. The bottom line is it’s a class. It’s a program that is allowing you to match the intensity of the workout with what is best for you and your body during the different phases of your cycle.

Cycle does not mean bike.

I know some people were disappointed about that. I get it.

They have lots of classes that are designed to help you get better on your bike. It’s not like they don’t have those. It’s just that this isn’t one of them.

It’s a different kind of cycle. This one is for the ladies.

There was also an interesting thing going on with Hydrow, while we were talking about other connected fitness. They appear to be having some music issues.

This is all hearsay. This is based on people’s comments. I do not have the inside scoop. I want to be very clear about that. A Hydrow user and a past guest on The Clip Out, Susie Barris. She was saying that the way that it works now is you used to be able to see the playlist. They would align the music with cues in the classes that you were taking. Now, it just says rock or whatever genre, but now it doesn’t align. If they go hard until the end of the song, now it’s a generic song in its place.

It’s like when you watch WKRP on Vudu versus watching WKRP on the Shout Factory disk.

There are a couple of things going on here. Some people are upset because I guess Hydrow posted on Facebook, “We’re enhancing things by changing the playlists, and then it’s going to change every time you repeat the row.” It sounds like a benefit. What it feels like to people, unconfirmed, is that their music licensing expired and they went for a cheaper service, and they weren’t transparent about that. You then have the added insult to injury of people’s perception. I’m sure there’s more going on behind the scenes here that people don’t know. People felt though that if you can’t afford better music, maybe you shouldn’t be sending the whole crew to New Zealand to film.

If you can’t afford better music, what does that mean for the long-term trajectory of your company? Especially, when you’re over here and Peloton has a rower now. You know Peloton has music on lockdown. If music is a motivating factor for you, that has to be a little concerning, I would think.

I think though that all of the connected fitness companies are not in the best place. It’s definitely not 2020 anymore. I feel like a lot of people jumped to the worst-case scenario. I will also say this does not mean in any way shape or form that Hydrow was on the ropes going down. Tonal made choices to get rid of some of their instructors. They changed some things around. It doesn’t mean that they’re going out of business. I have a feeling that Hydrow is going to have to make some tough choices, and this is one of the choices.

When riding a Peloton, you can have a better and a more enjoyable experience if you stop comparing yourself with other people on the leaderboard. Click To Tweet

This is me reading between the lines of the lesser of two evils. They also purged some rows. There are the same responses there when Peloton first started purging these big chunks. People had the same responses. You can still choose athlete-only for sound, and then you can use closed captioning. You’re still able to take the classes and listen to your own music. If you were an existing member, your membership fees stayed the same. If you’re a new member, the cost did increase from $39 to $44 a month.

It makes me wonder if they have internal data that shows them that people were muting it and playing their own music. They were like, “This is silly to pay for. We don’t have enough people that are utilizing them.”

The thing that makes me think it’s not just that simple is that a lot of their instructors would indicate, “This song that’s playing, I like it.” They would talk about the music playing.

That’s going to be weird if people go back.

That’s why people are so upset.

It is really like watching the stripped-down versions of WKRP.

It’s exactly like that. It’s definitely an interesting change and we will keep you updated on how that continues to play out.

—

Lots of past guests updates.

I love our guests. We have so many amazing people that have been on the show. You might remember Elin Hilderbrand. She is an author. She’s the queen of the beach read, not just an author. She has so many different books. One specific book, The Perfect Couple, is being made into a movie.

Is this her first film adaptation? This cast is pretty baller.

It is. Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Dakota Fanning, and Omar Epps. Those are the ones that stand out to me. Is there anybody else?

Those are also the names that I recognize. Those are big names.

Elin Hilderbrand is still in St. John. They are going to be filming in St. John. It’s a beautiful island. A lot of her books take place in St. John. Congrats toElin Hilderbrand. That’s awesome.

You might remember, we talked to Eliotte Woodford a while back. She is a backup dancer. She is currently back at work with an indie artist by the name of Taylor Swift.

There were some amazing pictures of her onstage at the AT&T Stadium in Texas. Congrats to Eliotte Woodford.

Did you see the footage going around of how Taylor Swift gets on stage? It’s funny. They hide her in a roadie case that looks like janitor supplies with mops and stuff sticking out of the top. They then wheel the state. I guess it’s in the round so people are sitting behind the stage. I guess 5 to 10 minutes before the show starts, they wheel what looks like a roadie case up onto the stage and but she’s inside of it.

Somebody got footage because it had been going around that she was in the road case. Somebody got footage of it. They wheel it up on stage and then they open up a panel and she steps out immediately behind a curtain that they have up. It’s all before the lights go down or anything. That was fun to watch. Now she has to find a new way.

I said Texas is where Eliotte is from. It was in Arlington. Sorry.

CJ Albertson, runner extraordinaire.

The fastest dude on the planet.

He runs faster than a Tread+. That’s not hyperbole.

That’s his training in endurance speed.

That’s just him working up a sweat. He let out that he was going to be a dad again.

Second time. He posted on Strava and it was cute. A lot of times, people would put this thing on Instagram. He put it out in Strava and said, “First run, knowing I’ll be a girl dad.”

He probably has more followers on Strava.

I mean the dude is fun to watch on Strava.

Congrats to him and his wife. Finally, Peloton for Parkinson’s is coming up and it’s the eighth annual. We’ve talked to the creator of that event, Eric Tostrud on episode 148. That’s coming up on April 29 if you want to check it out.

I can’t believe it has been eight years. Congrats to Eric and the whole team. I hope that it goes well, as all the past events have.

—

Peloton has a post this week.

There’s a new Walk Plus Run series called At The Club with Jon Hosking. I am excited about this because Jon Hosking is fun and funny. He has absolutely wonderful or brilliant playlists. When he did the footage for this, he did a little video where he had all the dance moves you see at the club. He then did all these dance moves and named each one. The whole video is hilarious if you haven’t seen it. There’s also a brand new live DJ run with DJ John Michael.

With DJ Jess King. It’s happening already.

 

It will be DJ John Michael. That is fake news, Tom. It will be DJ John Michael with Robin on Friday at 5:30 PM Eastern. It’s been a while, so make sure you hit that. Also, The new strength collection from Andy Speers. We talked about that. All the total strength classes have been put in a collection. I think we talked a few weeks ago about Cliff being the new strength instructor. You can get his premier class on demand. There are also the Good Morning Peloton classes. Every Monday, there’s a meditation and a yoga flow. It’s a wonderful way to start off the week. If you don’t get a chance to take them on Monday, there’s the Good Morning Peloton collection and it is wonderful. It’s so soothing.

There are new levels of Lanebreak.

Kylie Minogue hits number two. We told you there are going to be two. This is number two, and a Yacht Rock Lanebreak. I’m so excited. Ambrosia, Carly Simon, Chicago, The Doobie Brothers, and Firefall. Tom, Firefall.

I love me some Firefall.

Those all dropped on 4/3. They are out there for the taking.

I guess this is their way to try to get Amy to use Lanebreak.

It could be.

We have new split strength programs.

Yes, with Eric and Marcel. If you haven’t gotten to take them over on the Guide, they are out in the app. Seven weeks have passed and now they are out there for the taking in German.

—

We have one and a half birthdays this week. One, we missed last week. Jermaine Johnson, April 5th. Our apologies, Jermaine.

Happy birthday, JJ.

Ironically, the previous JJ, Jennifer Jacobs is celebrating her birthday on April 7th.

Happy birthday, JJ. How ironic. What are the odds that they’re within two days of each other and they both go by JJ? That’s interesting. Happy birthday to both.

Coming up after this, we’re going to talk to Rachel Sobel from the blog Whine and Cheez Its. I think you’re going to dig it.

—

Joining us is Rachel Sobel.

Rachel, whenever I interview people, I always like to find out what their background is with Peloton. Where did it first come into your life, and you decided, “I want to try this thing.”

I’m the only person that maybe has ever said this on your show because Peloton is a loving cult. I did not want the Peloton. I wanted nothing to do with it. My husband was like, “I want to get a Peloton because I need something at home that I can workout because I work and my hours are crazy.” I was like, “All right.” I had a brand new baby. We went to the mall to the little store set up. I was like, “If you are going to spend money on this thing, this cannot be a clothes hanger like those typical memes that go around.”

Cut to the pandemic happening. I have always been active, but I’m usually a runner. I will pop into a gym or a class here and there. I was gaining weight left and right from all the sourdough bread and cookies that everyone in the world was making during the pandemic. I said, “I’m going to start getting on the Peloton.” I never stopped. I was on it. I go on six days a week. My husband has not been on it in probably four years.

It has become an integral part of my sanity because that is how I start my morning after I come back from dropping the kids off. I laugh now thinking because I did not want this in my house. I was against it. I was nervous he wasn’t going to use it. I didn’t think I was going to use it because I was more of a treadmill person at the time, but I loved it.

I always get worried when it starts like, “My husband bought it.” I was like, “You can’t do that.”

He bought it for him. He got shoes and everything for me also, but I was like, “I will use it once in a while. This is stupid. I don’t want to do this. I want to run outside. I’m not interested.” Now I get mad when my favorite instructors don’t have new classes for me to take.

He bought it for himself, not for you, but did he though? This is some Jedi mind trick stuff.

This is not the first time my husband has bought something, whether it is a gift I have been sorely disappointed in and it ends up being the best thing of my life. Before the pandemic, for my birthday, he bought me a case of my favorite wine. I’m not a huge drinker in the house. I drink at dinner with friends and if we have friends over. I’m not that person who comes home, cracks open a bottle of wine, and drinks by myself.

He goes, “You are disappointed.” I go, “This would have been an awesome gift on a random Tuesday, but for my birthday, I didn’t want a case of wine.” A month later, the pandemic happened. I was like, “This is the best present you could have.” He is 2 for 2 with the Peloton and the wine. He knows what he is doing.

It is also like things you think you don’t want like he’s luring you. If he starts coming home and he is like, “Three ways are the worst.”

I promise that if that ever happens, you will have me back on your show. That is a hard no. It is not happening. Take the Peloton and the wine back. Get out of my house. Two things have happened. I ride the Peloton six days a week, which I didn’t want. You never know.

Ironically, a hard no on a three-way is called a soft no, believe it or not. It is counterintuitive but it makes sense.

I have an actual question. I know Tom’s in jokey joke mode, which is great. I love it. Keep it coming. You were a runner. Are you still running now? Are you doing both or are you not doing anything at all?

Every once in a while, I’m like, “Let me switch it up.” I know you are supposed to do that thing where you switch up cardio because your muscles get tired of the same thing. I go outside and get bored immediately because I don’t have someone on the screen playing amazing music and yelling at me. I haven’t tried the app where you hook it up while you run. I haven’t done any of that. I’m like an old school, get on the bike, and use what is on the screen. I have my go-to instructors. I walk my dog ten times a day for half an hour. I still get that kind of cardio. I have not run since I got the Peloton.

You must try the outdoor classes with Susie Chan.

That is what everybody says.

 

You have to promise me you at least try one.

It is merging two things you already love. You already love running, you have learned to love Peloton, and it is two great tastes that taste great together.

They are entertaining. I know you think they are not going to be entertaining because you can’t see them, but they are. Matty tells great stories. Susie Chan does too, and Becs Gentry. They are all good. I highly recommend that you try that. If you are already walking your dog, you should try outdoor walks. There are many of those.

You are motivating me and you’re also in a cheerleader way, shaming me. I’m going to do it. Whatever you did, your sorcery worked. When I walk the dog, I’m going to download that. I’m going to do it.

I’ll be on the beach but I will check up on you a week from now.

You can buy a tread for your husband and not use it.

Everyone has a different setup for their bike. My bike is in my garage, where we ended up putting an AC to turn it into a playroom for my six-year-old. It is 25% bike and 75% Barbies everywhere. She sits there and plays while I’m on the bike. She knows who all the instructors are. My dog sits and stares at me. I don’t even get a break when I’m on the bike. Everyone is staring, yelling at me, and telling me what to do. It is an interesting setup. It is like a self-deprecating workout.

You got about five more years, and she will not give two cents about you.

I have one of those too. I have a fourteen-year-old. I’m like, “You both destroyed my body. I’m 46 years old. I have to do everything to fight against gravity. Stop saying anything. You did this.”

How long had you been a runner before you have forsaken it for bikes?

It is only a handful of years. I have been active my whole life. I danced my whole life. I cheered and taught dance. I started to get into going to the gym and doing circuit training. I started liking running but couldn’t go more than three and a half miles. Some people say that is great. When you talk to real runners, they are running like crazy.

I lived in Manhattan for a while. I loved it because I would run along Central Park. I bought myself, on Amazon, one of those little belts with all the water bottles. I’m like, “I am such an idiot. I am going 3 miles. All marathon runners don’t even have this type of equipment.” I thought I was so prepared and cool with all of my different little water bottles and squirt bottles on my belt. I look like such a moron, but I did it for four years consistently.

They didn’t know how far you were running. You could have run an entire marathon. They wouldn’t know.

When we first started dating, he was into 5Ks and stuff. Now he doesn’t do that either. I’m on my own island by myself. He plays tennis multiple times a week. I’m the one who is doing all the heavy lifting.

Back to your water bottles, I will tell you what I tell our kids, which is, “You wouldn’t worry about what people think of you if you realized how seldom they did. No one was paying any attention.”

Especially in New York, no one cares.

I wasn’t like an avid runner that required that level of hydration, but in my mind, I was like, “I’m going to get better and run further.” I never did. It was always the same 3.5-mile track and I was done.

You did it, and that is the important thing. I want to ruin her groove and tell her about what happened to me when I was running

We didn’t want to hijack the whole conversation.

She is not hanging. She was hit by an SUV. Concussion, partially collapsed lung, broke the clavicle, like the whole thing. She was five weeks out from it.

You didn’t see them. They came from behind.

They were turning left. I was crossing through the intersection, and I didn’t see them at all. They came at an angle into me. I didn’t see them at all.

You are lucky that those were your only injuries.

I am lucky to be alive. It is ridiculous. Every time somebody tells me they are running outside, I feel this is a need to warn them of the dangers of running outside, even though I ran outside.

I see people running in the street. I’m like, “Why are you running on the street?” If you don’t have sidewalks, it is one thing. I live in a suburban area. There are sidewalks everywhere. I’m like, “Why are you in the street? You were asking for trouble.” It makes me crazy. I never had that level of injury, thank God.

A month before my wedding, when I was in workout mode because I wanted to look good in that dress in those pictures. I tripped in my neighborhood and flew face down on the concrete. I scraped up my elbow. I was a mess. All I’m thinking is, “I’m going to have crazy scars on my wedding day. This is crazy.” That wouldn’t happen on a Peloton. That is another reason why I love it. I’m not going to trip on the Peloton. It is not going to happen.

Wedding days are for emotional scars, not physical scars.

I have done it twice. I’m good at getting married.

Same for both of us.

Tell us about your day job. What do you do for your day job?

After I’m done being an Uber Eats driver and an Uber driver for my kids and doing all the mom stuff, I am a full-time writer. I have my own podcast. I’m a speaker. I mostly focus on things about motherhood, divorce, blending families, and remarriage. I have been writing a lot more about fun middle-aged stuff, which slaps much differently when you start to connect with the women who are going through all the things you are going through. It has been fun stretching my wings and doing more general writing along those lines. I have two anthologies that I have essays in. I’m working on my own book as we speak. It is with an agent that we are pitching out to publishers. I’m hoping I will sell a book in 2023.

 

Give us the name of the blog.

The blog is Whine & Cheez(its), WhineAndCheezIts.com. I have Instagram and Facebook. I post content daily. I make fun of myself on the regular. My brand of humor, as I mentioned before, is self-deprecating and sarcastic. I don’t like to make fun of other people and be a mean girl. I’m the target of my jokes. I shame my family constantly for the things we do around the house, the laundry, and all the typical stuff we deal with. I have a lot of content that fits that mold.

Does that mean you don’t consider your family people like you?

I feel like they get to live with me. I do everything for them. The trade-off is I get to make fun of them a little bit.

It is the price of admission.

You are making money off of it. That seems a good trade-off.

How did you make that transition? I’m curious. To start a blog and make money off of it is not the easiest thing in the world to gain attraction and attention. How did you achieve that?

My background is in public relations. I worked for about fifteen years in a corporate PR. I was on the agency side. I was in-house and mostly for boring backend technology stuff that the regular consumer would never know about. I was good at getting my clients spotlighted in a lot of publications and getting them speaking slots.

I had that natural publicist drive, where I know how to sell things without having the actual product. I got disillusioned in my last corporate job. I was divorced and getting remarried. I’m at a much better place in my life personally. Professionally, I was miserable. I was surrounded by nasty mean girls willing to stab each other in the back to climb that corporate ladder. I wasn’t about it anymore.

I reached the point where I was not enjoying my work anymore. I felt like I was living in a poorly lit cubicle, counting the hours until I got to go home to my kid. I have always been a writer by nature because public relations is writing heavy. I said, “I’m going to start a blog.” I started a blog. It was ugly because I did it myself. I didn’t have it professionally done. It was like one of those amateur templates. It was terrible.

I started writing funny stories about my family because I have a hilarious big Italian and Jewish family. We are inappropriate. I started sharing things about stuff that happened at family holidays, things that happened when my kids were at school, and all these different little anecdotes. Before I knew it, I was pitching stories to Scary Mommy, HuffPost, and all those publications. They were getting accepted, and it took off from there.

I love hearing stories like that. I find that inspiring because many of us find ourselves, how did we get here in our 40s? Whenever you hear stories like you completely changed what you were doing and how you were going about it, it is not too late. There are a lot of people who think it is late to switch gears.

It is never too late. It is interesting because I have two daughters. I am adamant about them having big voices, vocalizing everything they want in life, not shrinking into the corner, and letting people step all over them. I’m feisty. I’m raising two feisty little girls. I love that they are watching me do something that is not traditional. My little one doesn’t understand, but my older one, I say to her, “If there is something you have a passion for, I’m not saying it is going to be easy, and sometimes it is way more work when you go off on your own than when you have a stable paycheck in Corporate America. If you have a passion for something, there is a way to monetize it. You have to put the grit in.”

I thankfully had a supportive partner. When I was going to take that jump and leave a nice paycheck, we had the honest conversations of, “This is what it is going to look like. There are some months that are going to be amazing. I’m going to trump my salary. There are some months when you are going to have to pay my car payment because I’m not going to be able to do it. That is how it is going to be.” We now laugh because I do partnerships with brands a lot, which is a fun part of my job. I’m selective because I don’t want to be one of those Instagram accounts that every week has a random ad.

Someone reached out to me. It is called Colon Broom. I was like, “Do I want to do this? This is one of those embarrassing things that people don’t talk about like your digestive system and gut. I’m going to make it funny. I’m going to do it.” I had a couple of friends being like, “Aren’t you embarrassed?” I’m like, “No, I wasn’t embarrassed when they paid four car payments for me.”

You sometimes have to do things that take you out of your comfort zone but are relatable and are the things that nobody else wants to talk about, even if it is in the form of an ad or content. I feel like what grew my brand was that authenticity of not just talking about the funny kid stuff but the messy things. I have written heartfelt articles about experiencing a miscarriage, having a breast cancer scare, and all these things with my own little brand of dark humor.

Social media gets such a bad rep. When we go out there and put ourselves out there in an authentic and honest way, real begets real. You start to build a community of people who crave that and don’t have a voice to express it themselves. Someone is always going through what you are going through. You are never going through something alone. Social media is showing us that. I’m learning it as I go. I don’t even know where I go from here. There is no path. It is not like I have yearly reviews and salary increases. It is unstructured and sometimes overwhelming, but it is also pretty damn exciting.

It is also nice when a brand, back to the first part of the topic, is savvy enough to know if you are going to hire somebody to do something, you got to let them do it their way. That is what you bought.

If they were like, “You have to say this script. You have to be like this about it,” that wouldn’t have allowed you to be you. You wouldn’t have done a good job with it.

That is the first thing I say to every brand. I was like, “If you want to give me speaking points, I am happy to work them in. If we are going to work together, it is my voice, my way. If you are not okay with it, that is cool. No hard feelings. I have built a platform where people trust me not to throw up these cookie-cutter ads.”

You see all these influencers. They are gorgeous and doing these amazing curated, aesthetically pleasing pictures. Mine are like holding a laundry basket. I’m like, “I’m doing laundry for cardio today.” I’m doing relatable stuff because I don’t want to be that obnoxious salesy person, but I also need to make a living. This is my livelihood. Sometimes it is challenging to mesh those two worlds. It is a learning experience every day.

I always tell people, “You don’t hire Gallagher, and then tell them not to smash watermelons. You bought the watermelon guy. You let him do the watermelons.”

What about your speaking engagements? Do you have to travel for those a lot?

Travel is mostly concentrated at this point for a few months out of the year. I’m the keynote speaker for a large event with six different markets called The Mother of All Baby Showers. It is for new and expectant parents. It is amazing. It is a cool night because it is new moms and veteran moms having additional children. It is a cool group of people. People are happy when they are walking around pregnant, eating samples of food, and talking to vendors.

That has been something I have been doing for about five years. I do it in South Florida. In 2023, I was in Orlando, Tampa, and Charlotte. We have a bunch of new markets in 2023. That usually kicks off in May. That is the bulk of my travel. Here and there, there will be little things. My daughter goes to a big school down here. I’m speaking at an event at her school in May 2023.

Are they knocking a little off the tuition for you?

I’m like, “You don’t have to pay me. Can you split the tuition in half because it is killing me? That is where all my colander money is going.” I said to her, “Are you going to be embarrassed?” She thinks what I do is cool. She is into it. I have a whole highlight button on my Instagram of her trolling me because she trolls me hard constantly, and she is good at it. Thankfully, it is not a student-focused thing. It is only parents, but she was excited about it.

Our kids don’t care. They are like, “What are you doing in the basement? Is that still a thing?”

When you do travel, how do you keep up with your workouts? How does that work for you?

I used to be one of those people who was ambitious. I was like, “I’m going to bring my workout stuff. I’m going to workout in the hotel gym.” That has never happened. I say to myself, “I’m getting a break. I will make up for it.” I used to get stressed out. I’m type-A. If I missed 1 or 2 days, I would start to get upset that I didn’t have my routine. Now I have adopted that YOLO mentality.

The truth is when I’m speaking and I’m on the road, I am tired. The adrenaline that goes through your body when you are standing on stage and talking to people, no matter how many times you have done it, I get those butterflies and get nervous until I start talking. I’m mentally drained. I feel like it is good for me to take that break. I’m usually only gone for a couple of days. I typically workout the morning before I leave, and I give myself 2 or 3 days to take off.

 

I feel like I’m lying to myself. I’m like, “I’m wasting valuable real estate in my suitcases by bringing workout clothes that I’m never going to put on my body. This is stupid at this point. I need to be real and be true to myself and leave room for the stuff I know I’m going to buy in the hotel gift shop for my kids. I didn’t find anything when I was out and about. That is how I’m going to live my life from now on.”

It is funny the lies we tell ourselves and the way we bargain. If we were gone for a week, I would take a workout outfit for every day we were gone. I was like, “I’m going to work out every day.” I didn’t do it. I make this deal with myself that if I take three outfits for a week, I can work out three times. I could make that happen, but I had to bargain with myself.

This is the same reason when I was in college, I stopped carrying a condom in my wallet. What is your leaderboard name?

Rachel Sobel.

How did you come up with that? I’m kidding.

I tried to do Whine and Cheez-Its because I was like, “I may brand myself everywhere. You never know who is watching.” For whatever reason, I don’t know if it was too long or what it was. I see other people’s leaderboard names. I’m like, “That is original. Why did I not do that? I am wasting too much energy thinking about this, and I’m going to let it be.”

At least you have an easy name to say. You don’t have a difficult name that is going to rob you of shoutouts.

I do judge people sometimes when they have graphic names. I’m like, “Couldn’t you tone it down a little bit?” I’m all for the sense of humor, but nobody needs that level of sexual innuendo in their leaderboard name.

Do you have any examples that you want to call out?

I can’t think of one right now.

We are going to see somebody we know. Do you have a preferred instructor?

I love Cody. I loved him even more. I wrote a meme about him. It was something like, “I know that when Cody is wearing the lightning bolt earring, I’m going to get my ass served to me.” It was something like that. He shared it. All my friends down here on Peloton were like, “Oh my God.” It was a big moment. My friends, who have no idea what Peloton was, were like, “So?” I’m like, “Get lost because this is a big deal.” I love Cody and Jenn Sherman. I did her Sing Along Ride, which is one of my favorite rides I have ever taken. I want to take it over again. I hope she does more of those.

You know she has a whole library of those, right?

The older ones. I got to go back and look at those because I didn’t know when she was saying, “I originated this.” I didn’t start riding her rides until a little bit later. I was much more into Cody, Alex, and Robin because I’m a big ‘90s hip-hop person. That is always where I gravitated. I typically don’t like rides that are all rock and roll heavy. I like a little bit of pop. Cody is my favorite because he is entertaining, and time flies so fast. It doesn’t feel like a workout. It feels like you are hanging out with a funny friend. Robin is a badass. Sometimes I take Kendall, but she kicks my ass hard. I love Emma too.

You got a nice plethora of instructors.

It is good to have backups in case one of them leaves.

Don’t start any rumors, Tom.

We don’t know anything. I’m just saying, no one stays at one job forever. You never know. It is good to have a backup.

If anyone is going to leave, it is going to be Cody because I know he is writing a book. He was on Dancing with the Stars. His career is taking off. How long is he going to stay a Peloton instructor before he is on some major TV hosting? It is bound to happen

Until they pay him big money, that is how long, because Peloton keeps letting him, and I don’t mean letting him in a negative way.

They don’t discourage him from doing other things. It is a weird analogy, but they have learned from WWE. Guys go off and make their movies. They come back even more famous and bring more eyes back to the brand. It is very synergistic. Do you have any advice for people just now entering the world of Peloton?

You have to be easy on yourself. When I did my first ride, it wasn’t fun because I think I didn’t do enough. I just went on and picked something. I didn’t know the difference between beginner and advanced. No matter how active you are, it is a different workout. You got to ease into it and find your groove. Play around with the music choices and the instructors. Don’t give up on it. There are some people who have tried it a few times, and they are like, “I didn’t like it.” They did the same instructor three times and never branched out.

The trick to loving it for me was having that variety, trying a bunch of different people, and finding what workouts I liked. I never thought I would like a low-impact workout ever. I was like, “That is a waste of time.” Now I do those often because if I have an injury or something’s bothering me, and I want to workout, I’m like, “This is perfect. It is deceptively hard.” You think the low impact is going to be an easy one that you are going to fly through. Sometimes those have been some of my hardest rides. I like the fact that there is something for everything you have going on in your life to adapt to workout-wise.

I love that, especially the low-impact thing. You mentioned Jenn Sherman. Hers are the hardest.

You look at her, and I’m like, “She is a middle-aged mom like me. This is my people. She is going to go my speed.” She is a beast. I’m like, “How is she doing that right now?” The other advice I would give people is don’t get caught up in the numbers because all of us are built differently. Our bodies are built differently. The way we exercise is different.

There are many times when I know that I’m in good shape. I workout all the time. However, there have been times I will get on the bike, and whoever is teaching will tell me where my number’s supposed to be. I’m nowhere near that. I’m like, “How are they doing this?” I got so in my own head at the beginning of feeling down on myself for that. Now I look at it for myself competitively compared to what I have done in the past, but I don’t compare myself anymore.

I wish that people would stop high-fiving 100 times. One is enough. It is amazing. High-five me. I love the support. I’m going to high-five you back. Don’t do it over and over again. I have news for you. It is mostly men. It is never women. It is men who do it. I don’t know if there is some loaded thing behind that because I will not lie. My picture is a professional picture of me sipping on a sippy cup with a long straw coming out of it. It is a little bit suggestive, and I get it, but I don’t want to high-five you a million times during a ride. Enough, you get one. Me too, if I have had a good day, but please cool it with the high fives.

All those high-fives are equivalent to going, “Hey.”

If it is a friend of mine, I have no problem with that or somebody I know. You are cheering each other on. That is different. If it is like a person you have no idea who they are, they need to back off.

It is egregious. I can’t keep letting go of the handle to high-five you. You are now interfering with my workout. I want you to chill out.

On the tread, I have to run faster to hit the button.

 

Rachel, thank you so much for joining us. We greatly appreciate it. Before we let you go, remind everybody where they can find all of your wares.

Your blog, podcast, and all the things.

It is Whine and Cheez Its on everything. That is my website, Instagram, and Facebook. TikTok is Rachel.Sobel.Writes. My podcast is called Friends Without Benefits. It is available wherever you podcast. There are quite a few of them. It is a pink background with me and my friend Dale dancing together. He has been my platonic friend for over 30 years. We talk about everything. It has been fun. We posted our 40th episode. We are excited about it.

Congratulation. That is very exciting. Thank you so much, Rachel.

Thank you so much for having me.

—

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, or the Peloton leaderboard @ClipOutCrystal, where I hit 600 rides this week.

Well done. You can find me on Twitter @RogerQBert or on Facebook at Facebook.com/tomokeefe. You can find the show online on Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page and join the group. Of course, don’t forget our YouTube page at YouTube.com/TheClipOut. That’s it for this one. Thanks for tuning in. Until next time, keep pedaling, and rowing, and running.

 

Important Links

• Rachel Sobel – LinkedIn
• WhineAndCheezIts.com
• Instagram – Whine and Cheez Its
• Facebook – Whine and Cheez Its
• Rachel.Sobel.Writes – TikTok
• Friends Without Benefits
• Apple Podcasts – The Clip Out
• Spotify – The Clip Out
• Google Podcasts – The Clip Out
• Patreon.com/TheClipOut
• Facebook.com/TheClipOut
• YouTube.com/TheClipOut
• Dr. Jenn Mann
• The Relationship Fix: Dr. Jenn’s 6-Step Guide to Improving Communication, Connection and Intimacy
• @DrJennMann – Instagram
• Shape – article
• Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
• MetPro.co/tco
• The Perfect Couple
• episode 148 – past episode with Eric Tostrud
• Facebook.com/crystaldokeefe
• Instagram – Clip Out Crystal
• Twitter – Clip Out Crystal
• @RogerQBert – Twitter
• Facebook.com/tomokeefe

 

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