• We’re back!
• Tonal gets a new CEO.
• Tonal gets a new round of funding.
• Kelsey Torres’ OTC post about L.A. coaches.
• Tonal members lift 100 Billion pounds.
• New marketing will focus on members.
• Tonal launches Smart View, Routine Planning, and Active Recovery.
• Tonal revamps its referral program.
• New content includes Cycle Sync Strength and Custom by Tonal.
• Joe Rodonis has a video message about leadership.
• Tim Lanicho talked about how to build confidence.
• Allison TIbbs is back at Beach Body.
• Nicolette got married.

All this plus our interview with Coaches Kendall Wood and Tanysha Renee!

—

Watch the episode here

 

Listen to the podcast here

 

Tonal Gets A New CEO Plus Our Interview With Coaches Kendall Wood And Tanysha Renee

Welcome to episode 48.

As I was saying.

I don’t think you can do that. There’s been a little too much of a pause for that one.

Sorry, I stole that joke from a 75-year-old television show.

What was the show?

It was The Tonight Show. The host at the time, Jack Paar, walked off mid-episode because he was so mad. They wouldn’t let him tell a certain joke because it was too dirty. It was because the punchline involved the word water closet. He walked off live TV. His sidekick, Hugh Downs, in pre-2020, had to fill in. A month later, they finally came to terms. He comes back and walks out in the first show. He goes, “As I was saying.”

I honestly don’t even know when the last one of these recorded was. I know it’s been a while.

It’s been a bet but we are back.

I feel like things in the tonal world are at a good point for us to pick back up.

For sure. They’ve done a reset, where we would call in the nerd movie world a soft reboot.

That is exactly what they have done.

We thought, “This is a good time to start back up.” Hopefully, someone’s missed us. We’ll find out as we watch our download numbers, if we have numbers.

It’ll be like crickets. That’s all.

Crystal will text me, “Did you download one? Is that what happened? Is that why our numbers are skyrocketing?” Normally, I would say what pre-tell do you have in store for people in this episode but we’ve got everything in store for people.

We do. We want to catch everyone up on what we’ve been up to, what Tonal has been up to and all the things. This is going to be a catch-up episode.

We’ll then get back into our regular rhythm.

We have a cool interview with not 1 but 2 coaches, Kendall Wood and Tanysha Renee. We talk to both of them about the new cycle sync program. It’s a pretty fun conversation. What a joy both ladies were.

I’ll do shameless plugs. Don’t forget, we’re available wherever you find podcasts. You can follow us while you’re there so you never miss an episode. If you’re reading, this is probably because you have followed us and you’re like, “This can’t be right. Why is this in my feed?” While you’re there, you can also leave us a review. That’s always helpful. You can find us on Facebook at Facebook.com/SupersetPodcast. You can also find us on the interwebs at our website, theclipout.com, which is for our other show but these episodes live there as well. You can also watch these on our YouTube channel, YouTube.com/TheClipOut. It’s the same story as the website. There’s all that so let’s dig in, shall we?

Let’s do it.

In some weeks, it’s hard to pick your lead story. In some weeks, your lead story picks you so it’s not hard at all. The biggest and most obvious lead story is Tonal has a new CEO.

This is a huge deal. Aly Orady has been the face of Tonal since the beginning of Tonal. He stepped down as CEO. A lot of people have reached out to us and said, “Is this a good thing?” The answer is a resounding yes.

Reading between lines, when you see a head one steps down, it makes it sound like he’s not there anymore, which is not true. His keycard still works.

Instead of CEO, he’s CTO so he’s the Chief Technology Officer, which is perfect for him. It’s a good match because he originally came up with the entire idea of Tonal and this is where he excels. What you’re going to see is he’s going to be able to continue to push the roadmap of new features and cool things to come for Tonal, instead of spending his days focused on running the financial side of things.

Doing the bookworm nerd stuff is not his forte. He likes nerd stuff but not this kind of nerd stuff.

He wants to be like a Tony Stark nerd. I don’t even know who the appropriate nerd would be to compare him to.

It’s because they don’t make movies about accountants, except for that movie called The Accountant. I’ve undermined my theory. You see this sometimes almost an accidental CEO. It’s like he made this cool product and so he launched a company. If he made the product and launched a company, he’s the guy. Your company reaches a certain level and now, its needs are entirely different. It’s not crazy that the guy who’s got the skillset to create the product and launch the brand isn’t maybe the guy to lead it up to the next level. My gut is he’s enjoying his 9:00 to 5:00s a lot more than he used to.

Another thing that we need to mention is that the President, Krystal Zell, has stepped into the CEO role. What I can take from that is that this has been a plan for the company for a while. At the same time that all of this occurred, they also announced that their latest funding round was complete and they raised $130 million. I think it was million.

Yes. $130 billion would be quite to beat.

To be honest, I don’t always trust my brain so I have to make sure.

A quick recap for people who read this show but not The Clip Out that might not be aware, Crystal was hit by a car while she was jogging. She had broken bones and a concussion so sometimes she gets a little cloudy but doing much better. I will also say, Aly, I speak from experience. Sometimes, you’re better off. Take a step back and let somebody named Krystal be in charge.

With Krystal being in charge, you can’t go wrong.

That’s worked for me. You made a wise choice.

I’m excited to see where Tonal goes from here. The tone of the press release that they did and the tone of what they posted in the Official Tonal Community on Facebook was very much like, “This is a new page. This is a new chapter. We’re starting fresh. Also, we’re going to be listening to what the members have to say.” That was the resounding message and I’m super excited to see where things go from here.

Speaking of listening to members, we should probably talk a little bit about the elephant in the room, which is the original coaches who are no longer with Tonal. That is a shame but also that’s not going to change.

I feel like people need to come to terms with that. I’m not saying everyone should be happy about it or you’re not allowed to feel what you feel but at the same time, I hope people are being realistic. That’s not the way businesses work. When a business decision has been made and it’s been a very long time, people move on. Those other coaches have gone on to other things and are doing other things. Even if Tonal wanted to have them come back, I don’t know that they would come back.

They’ve all moved on to other things and they probably wouldn’t be maybe excited or have trust in coming back.

It would be awkward. I have never gone back to a place that I’ve left. I don’t mean on bad terms. I mean in any terms, I’ve never gone back. There’s always a reason. It’s difficult to go back to a workplace where you’ve worked before. I’m not saying it’s impossible. It certainly happens but it’s not the norm. It’s one of those things that it’s not realistic to think that it’s still going to happen.

You can go to McDonald’s Facebook page and post every day how much you want them to bring back the McDLT but they’re not going to do that.

Kelsey is one of the community managers and she posted this, I thought, a lovely message to everyone. My understanding is this came from Tonal that had posted a survey. They had asked everyone to give their thoughts on the Official Tonal Community going forward, what they wanted from it, what they hoped to get out of it and how the community could flourish going forward. They were very clear. This is not about content and yet so many people wanted to vent about the LA coaches and their thoughts on that.

Kelsey’s response was to say, “I can’t do anything about it. This is the Official Tonal Community. We want to know what you want to do with the community. The other coaches aren’t coming back so let’s focus on what we can do.” There were a lot of people that still are upset about this. I certainly understand being upset. I want to be honest and transparent here. It was a weird situation. I am not 100% with that decision being made. I have to assume it was a financial decision and also that it was a difficult one. I don’t quite know what people want at this point from Tonal other than they want the old coaches. If that’s not going to happen, then what is it that you want them to do? What else we can do then?

At some point, you’re hindering the company that you claim you want to succeed. Every time there’s a negative story, they’re like, “Is my Tonal going to stop working?” If you keep hammering home the same thing that’s unchangeable, then you are only pushing it more in that direction. It’s the reality of the situation and there you go.

My understanding from Tonal is that there are no plans on the horizon to bring back any coaches. That is direct from Tonal. That is their verbiage. It’s time that we do our best to move on and still be respectful to the LA coaches. I miss them. I still follow them on all of the social media platforms and engage with them. I’m rooting for them. I’m rooting for the new coaches too and engage with them as well.

We have a wonderful conversation coming up with two of them. We should also say that Tonal announced that the members have lifted over 100 billion pounds.

That’s throughout the lifetime of Tonal. The cool part about this is that’s 70 billion more pounds than there were in 2022. In a year, it went from 30 billion to 100 billion. That’s pretty cool. Tom, you lived at quite a bit of that. You have lifted 5 million pounds. That’s cool. Congratulations.

It’s also fun and interesting to watch how your time between millions decreases. That 1st million took forever and then 2 million is not quite forever. It was a little slightly less than forever. It keeps getting faster to that next million pounds. For some people, this is not a big number. For some people, it might be a very big number but for me, it’s a big number. Sometimes I’m walking away and I’ve lifted 16,000 or 17,000 pounds in a session, which is certainly not where I started.

It’s a huge number to me because when I was at my strongest on Tonal, which I am not now, my highest ever was 10,000. I broke 10,000. Now, I’m right around 7,000 or 8,000 and that’s a good day.

If I hit 10,000, that was a lot. Now, it’s rare for me to do anything that is under 10,000.

That’s a light day for you. That was an easy workout. It’s cool to see your progress though. That’s not to say people who aren’t lifting 10,000 pounds or 17,000 pounds is not a lot. What’s cool is that Tom has progressed from a person who never did any exercise at all to lifting 17,000 pounds in 1 workout. That’s incredible. I am very proud of you, Tom.

Thank you. I was going to say I wasn’t fishing but you started this conversation so I very much was not fishing, plus I hate to fish. We should also say that Tonal is adjusting its marketing to where it’s going to be very member focused.

They came out with their first one at the very end of December 2022. They had a whole story about Michelle Tee who has been interviewed here on the show, telling her story about how she went from recovering from major surgery to lifting 8 billion pounds all on her own. I’m just kidding but she’s lifted a lot. She’s one of the heaviest lifters.

I’m looking at her pictures. She probably was like 16,000 pounds.

She’s like, “I lifted that with my pinky this morning.”

“Do you know what I call that? It’s my first set.”

Michelle Tee is a badass. She’s amazing.

While we’ve been gone, there were lots of new features added. Some of these you might already be familiar with and some of them you might not but we thought we’d go through and do a quick roundup of things you might have missed and maybe tell you some things about them that you didn’t know yet or something. Who knows? The first is Tonal launched Smart View.

To my knowledge, you’ve still not used it.

I have not.

I have used it. It’s very simple to set up. With the Tonal app on your phone, whenever you connect it and you say you want to use Smart View, it immediately turns into a camera. All you have to do is set up your phone in a location that can track you in the frame while you’re doing your Tonal workouts. It’s super easy to use. If you have a form correction, Tonal automatically records what you were doing during that form and then they send it to you or at the end of that workout so you can view what you were doing “wrong” during the form piece of it where they do a form correction.

One thing I would like to see in the future is being able to decide what moves you wanted to see pictures of. I understand they can’t keep the entire workout for everybody on there because it probably takes up billions of data points so it’s so much data but I would like to be able to say at the beginning, “I don’t feel confident about my goblet squats. I want to see what I look like when I do the goblet squat and be able to pick the exercises.” You have no ability to do it at all. If it doesn’t have a form correction, you can’t see it. It’d be cool to be able to pick certain moves that you wanted to see but some people would choose everything and that’s probably why they don’t do that.

You got to pick two.

There you go. That’s a good idea.

They also launched ways to plan your routine in advance.

This is cool because you can choose what days of the week your routine shows up. Let’s say you’re doing a four-day-a-week program. You can pick the days right up front. The app will then push out a notification to be like, “Just a reminder, it’s today.” If you miss a day, no big deal because the next day it’s like, “You were going to do this workout. Remember?”

If you miss two days, the app self-destructs and it breaks your phone.

It does not do that.

It’s accountability. It’s a way to keep you on track.

It’s also cool because at the beginning, whenever you say, “Choose the days for this program,” Tonal will tell you, “Here’s how we recommend that it’s laid out.” You can move the days around to work with your schedule. I love it so much because, on Saturday, I always want that to be my long run day and a lot of times, that’s a Tonal prescribed day. It’s nice that it’s easy to move around.

We always record a new episode of The Clip Out on Wednesdays. I don’t want to have to worry about working out on Wednesdays so I have it set up to where I never work out on Wednesdays. It does come in very handy. It’s nice too because once I did that, it knows it so whenever I join a new program, it seems to roll. I don’t know if that’s a coincidence but I’m going to assume it’s that good. It knows like, “This is what he likes to do and this is where the things land.”

I also want to point out that if you’re not doing a program and you have a single workout you want to do, you can choose a day that goes on your calendar as well, which is nice because sometimes you want to be like, “I want to do this program but I also have these other classes I want to do or maybe I have two classes I want to do for Tonal today.” You can put those on your calendar. I love being able to see that. It works nicely whenever I want to plan my workouts for Peloton and Tonal and see both on one calendar. I love it.

They have also added Active Recovery to the workout routines.

This is cool too. One of the easiest ways to use Active Recovery is to pick any workout. As you choose the class before you go in and hit start, you can decide if you want to do that particular workout at full-weight where it was prescribed or you can do recovery weight, which means that for any workout you want to do, you can still do it. Even if you had a big day the day before, you dial it back and use it more for mobility that day rather than trying to build your muscles up that day. I love that. That’s awesome.

It’s also a great way to cheat on leg day.

No, you’re only cheating yourself. Another thing I love about it is that as I have been recovering from the insane accident that I had, it’s also been nice to be able to still do a Tonal workout because I couldn’t use my left shoulder for a long time. Being able to switch out the exercises was amazing but being able to be in recovery mode was a huge game changer for me as I’ve been getting back to my normal routine.

Finally, for this segment, we should let people know that they have made changes to the referral program at Tonal.

This is quite a big change. When you referred someone, you would take $50 off of any of your purchases in the Tonal apparel store. What they’ve done is switched it around so that you get a free month of membership and then you gift $125 to the person that you’re referring. The way to do it is pretty much the same. You still go through, use your referral link and give that to people. As soon as they get started on Tonal, you’ll get your referral at that point. It’s pretty cool.

For those of you who had referrals in progress before, you should have gotten an email from Tonal that said, “We had a referral on hand for you.” All you have to do is go in and confirm you are whom they think you are by putting in your equipment code and you’re good to go. You’ll get your free month off. That’s awesome.

That probably has a lot more functionality for people. Plus, you know that the people participating in the referral program can use $50 off their membership. $50 in the store might or might not benefit them. If you want to spend $50 in the store, you save $50 on your membership. Go spin it there. There’s been lots of new content that Tonal has put out since we last recorded so we’re not going to bore you with listing a catalog of everything we’ve missed but we’ll hit a couple of the highlights. First and foremost, Cycle Sync Strength.

This Cycle Sync Strength is very long in coming. Tonal has been working with Stacy Sims for a long time. Stacy Sims is known industry-wide as the foremost leader in women’s studies of health and how their bodies are different from men’s. Having her weigh in on a specific program that is for women to be able to use during their cycle throughout the entire cycle is cool.

We’re going to get into this a lot more later when we talk to Coach Wood and Coach Tanysha. Where people need to hear the connection that we are trying to make and make sure you hear out there is that Tonal is committed to listening to what people want. People have been asking for a program that has input from Stacy Sims for a very long time. This expert-led type of programming is super exciting and what we’ve been asking for.

Some new things are coming down the pipe that is going to be other expert-led things with some familiar faces. Not the LA coaches.

I feel like I should also point out to the people reading who don’t have cycles that it’s still a very interesting conversation about what went into creating a program like this.

Also, how you can use it even if you don’t have a cycle, man or woman.

It’s worth giving the interview a shot. I get how a guy might be like, “This isn’t for me. I don’t need to read this.” It’s still pretty interesting as to what all went into it and how it could still even potentially benefit you.

I appreciate it.

This is what a feminist look like, Crystal.

I know. I live with you.

Speaking of new content, they have Custom by Tonal.

This is cool too. People have been very excited about it. It’s a series of workouts that combine the efficiency of a custom workout but it has all of the ease of pre-program content. As the user in the driver’s seat, you can train at your own pace. You don’t have somebody being like, “In 30 more seconds, we’re going to do this.” Nope. You can do it as fast or slow as you want to. It gives new, fresh workouts and more guidance to those that prefer custom and free lift workouts. You can set it up by yourself but you still have a little bit of guidance if you don’t know how to do that or didn’t know what to do. They’re all fitness, no filler.

It’s like, “What I do, I want my handheld. I don’t trust myself to pick the right thing and this is an intermediate level. It’s like training wheels.”

You’re not confident enough to go out there and do your custom programming so that’s done but they’re still going to tell you exactly what to do for each of those moves. You can easily get to those. All you have to do is go to your Tonal, scroll to the bottom row on your home screen or go to the bottom row on your four uTab in the explorer section and you’ll see Custom by Tonal Workouts.

Joe Rodonis had an interesting post about leadership.

He did. It’s his take on leadership in general but also his take on it is that you are silent. Let the results speak for themselves and you lead by example. He calls it a silent success. I call it a reminder to people to focus on yourself instead of focusing on what everybody else is doing, whether that’s on the Tonal or personal life. Stop comparing yourself to all the other people and what they are doing or not doing. We all can use a reminder of that from time to time.

We all know that silence is my strong suit.

You’re so quiet like a little wallflower.

Tim Landicho had a post about how to be more confident.

I like that he said that he had a perspective shift. He looks at how he used to see confidence and how he sees confidence now. It’s a lot about self-trust. Self-worth isn’t earned. You’re worthy always but self-trust is earned and I like that. Whenever you do things that you set out to do, even if it’s something that you consider simple or easy, it still builds your confidence. I’m always telling your son, Brian, “You think that you can’t do something so you stop yourself from even trying but if you would do simpler things and get them done, it makes you more confident for the next thing that might be a little bit harder.” It is a building block. I love that Tim shared this in TCO.

Catching up on some former coaches. See? We still like them. Allison Tibbs has landed at Beachbody, which is where she began.

I thought this was cool to see how things go back in a cycle. This is the opposite of what I was saying earlier but it also took thirteen years. She started her fitness journey at Beachbody and then went and did other things and now she’s back at Beachbody but as an on-camera coach. You can take live classes with her or a day pass for Beachbody if you want to. They call it just BODi now. If you’re looking for that, that’s where it is. Congrats to Allison. She’s super happy about this and we are very happy for her.

Speaking of congrats and super happy, Nicolette got married.

I’m so excited for Coach Nicolette. She had been in this relationship for a long time. I don’t think she even told anyone she was doing this. They just went and did it.

Congrats to them.

They’re on their way across the country to move to New York. They’re doing all kinds of stuff on their way and apparently getting married was one of those things.

Good for them.

I agree.

—

Joining us via the magic of Zoom tube are Tanysha Renee and Kendall Wood. How is it going?

It’s good to be here.

I am so excited about this. This is the first major recording we were doing for the return of the show. Don’t make me throw out my brain injury. I figure I have got another few weeks at least.

I’m surprised my ex-wife didn’t know about that. She would be like, “Sorry, I forgot we were married.”

I want to start with a little bit of getting to know you. Woody, I have gotten to interview you but I haven’t gotten to interview Tanysha. Tanysha, tell us a little bit about what brought you to Tonal.

Strength training has been the foundation of how I started my fitness journey and career. I was on the track and field team. If you were on any varsity team, you were required to take conditioning. I was like, “Let me try out something else.” I did my regular gym for one semester and I was like, “This ain’t it. Let me go back to the weight room ASAP.” I walked into a gym when I got out of college. I was like, “Are you guys hiring?” I worked my way up and came full circle. I taught cycling for several years. I was like, “I need to go back to the roots of it.”

When the Tonal opportunity came along, I auditioned three times because it was not in my vernacular. It is not right now. My thing is always this, “You got to find the yes.” Tonal felt right from the auditions and the crew. The first day we met the team, it was like, “Honey, I am home.” Tonal is home. It feels good through. I get to work with this beautiful person every single day, along with five other amazing humans.

We are getting a note from our legal team. They are saying, “Find your yes but not in dating. Take the no in the dating world.”

There are a lot of nos out there. I’m single. Let me tell you, there are a lot of nos on the swiping. I am not finding the yes in the dating.

We met right before the swiping became a thing.

We are old enough that our online dating was things like Match.com. There was Plenty Of Fish. That is where our dating came from. Plenty of Fish is like a cesspool. It is awful.

You are not finding your yes in there either.

No, but funny enough, we did. It is because we had talked on Match.com and Tom stopped talking to me.

You stopped talking to me because you were much more popular than I was. You had a lot more fish options.

I wasn’t quick enough with my answers.

It is weird that I was emailing her.

Everybody else jumped a text. Tom was sending these long, thoughtful emails. I’m like, “I don’t know what this means.”

I want to be like, “Baby, what is your phone number?”

The Cycle Sync Strength Program takes you through a workout week that correlates and corresponds to where you are in the phase of your cycle to maximize what your body will and can do. Click To Tweet

Every other guy sucks at 2:00 AM. Tom was sending his long, thoughtful emails. I didn’t know what to think about that. I was taking my time to get back to him. It took too long.

I thought you weren’t interested.

He stopped talking to me. Six months later, we end up over on Plenty of Fish and I see him. I’m like, “I’m not reaching out to him this time.” I reached out to him on Match.com. Here he comes over there.

Did you ghost her?

He did ghost me.

I appreciate the email approach. You don’t want to come in too hot too soon. Tom was trying to take it easy.

I’m a gentleman.

It was weird in context with the other men out there who were not gentlemen. I did not mean to turn this into our interview. Woody, tell us about your journey at Tonal so far.

It has been several years. I do not believe it. The first time I sat down with you two on the show, I had only been here for maybe six months. What a journey it has been. A lot has changed at Tonal. I reside on the East Coast, which is where I’m from. I started my journey with Tonal on the West Coast in L.A., which is where I was living for seven years. It was incredible, beautiful and amazing. I had this feeling that I wanted to be coming back to the East Coast, where my family and lifelong friends were.

I made my return and I am able to be a part of the amazing team that is out here on the East Coast. We are seven strong in total. It is small but mighty. I feel lucky every day to work alongside these amazing humans who push me and challenge me in new ways every day. My journey with Tonal has been nothing less than special. It has been an amazing opportunity to connect with people across the country, which was the biggest thing for me when I came here.

I was searching for a new way to reach and connect with more people. Tonal has given me the opportunity to be on a platform where I’m connecting with the widest demographic and the most number of people daily than I have ever had the opportunity to before. That is something that I do not take for granted.

We are lucky, as members of Tonal, to have both of you. I’m so happy you are both here. Thank you.

Thank you for having us.

One of the reasons we have you two lovely ladies on is to discuss Cycle Sync Strength, which I am freaking stoked about. Tell us a little bit about it. Whom is it aimed at?

This program is aimed at anybody who experiences a menstrual cycle. A lot of people are also quite excited about it. We all get the question or have wondered at some point in our female adult lives, “When is the best time for me to be working out?” We hear a lot of information like, “You should work out during your cycle because it will alleviate your cramps or reduce them.” There is a lot of information.

Through this program, the four of us take you through a workout week that correlates and corresponds to where you are in the phase of your cycle to maximize what your body is doing, able to do and the output. Even taking the class after, we filmed it and were able to be like, “This is where I am, week one.” Following along in the program, I was like, “I’m so excited about this. It is phenomenal.” If you experience a menstrual cycle, this workout and program is a game changer.

I have a silly question that’s not on the list. How did you decide who got PMS week?

 

It was very strategic the way that it was done because the people who are most soothing in their demeanor and presence got PMS week. That was a good call to be intentional. When your hormones start to creep up and you start to feel the effects of that, you got the beautiful Tanysha Renee and you also have Kristina Centenari.

We are going to kick some bad ash and she was on it. I was like, “Get it, girl. Do it.”

We should probably get more into that. What are the different phases of the menstrual cycle? What should your training look like?

I can kick this off. T, if you want to jump in halfway where you jump in at the program, that would be amazing. This is structured in a monthly fashion. This is a four-week program. We kick off in the early follicular phase, which would be when you begin menstruating. A little caveat here is most people, when they kick off that phase or begin menstruating, symptoms are intense.

The caveat is if you don’t begin or feel as though you don’t have the energy or you simply can’t muster up what it takes to begin the program, it is fine. It is not going to make or break your success if you set it off by a couple of days but nonetheless, the program begins when you begin your period in the follicular phase. This is going to take up the first two weeks of the program, weeks 1 and weeks 2. The programming and the goals are the same.

The idea here is that during this period, the time can fluctuate and does fluctuate for everybody. Depending on how long or short your follicular phase is, that is going to be how long or short your period is but within the program, it is a two-week period. We are attacking high-intensity interval training during these first two weeks because, during the follicular phase, your hormones are at their lowest. Your body is at it is most resilient. You are able to recover quickly. Your body is able to manage stress.

During these first two weeks, we are aiming high, going for strength empowerment. The energy and intensity are up there. We are pushing our bodies in these first two weeks of both the early and late follicular phase, which week one is with Coach Ash Wilking and week two is with me. We are going to push up into week three when coach Tanysha Renee comes in and joins.

In the first two weeks, there are high hormones. As we start to get into week three, which is where I start to come in, we got a little bit more of a surge of that post-ovulation estrogen. We take the intensity down a little bit. We are still working to whatever our full potential is but the intensity comes down for those next two weeks. Woody and I close out some of this here.

In the part where your body is relying a little bit more on fats and less on carbohydrates, your output is not as strong. We are going to move and work with our intensity but you don’t have that extra push and energy to hit those big HIIT workouts. For those next two weeks, we dial it down a little bit. We are still moving and you are still going to get that workout in but this is why it is beneficial to work with the cycle. Instead of like, “I’m going to do this workout.” Not a lot of people are very particular about their strength score going up or going down, even by one point. This is going to allow you to stay on track with where your body is and where your hormone levels are to hit your PRs when you can and excel at them.

Does this still benefit someone if they are seasonal, like the birth control that makes you not keep having one a quarter?

If you are not on any hormone-induced birth control pill, you want to start week one. If you are on the pill, you want to start this one during week 2, day 1 of your cycle so you can match up with the pill pack and the flow of those hormones as they are being released from the pill package. If you are on a controlled method, you can still benefit from this but you got to push it out in one week.

What can people expect as a benefit from taking these classes?

I feel like we have touched on this a little bit but the overarching theme here is I experience it. Every month, it feels like you are thrown off track when your period comes into play. You feel like you have to switch up your routine, not sure what to do and not sure about the proper foods to eat. The nutrients that you are ingesting, how are they affecting your symptoms? How is your period affecting your performance?

The biggest thing here is that this program is a solution for all of that. This becomes a lifestyle. I have this joke that I say. That is not a joke because it is true. I am always either beginning my period, ending my period, getting over my period or about to start my period. Sometimes it is an excuse for bad behavior but it is the truth.

What this program does is it empowers you and gives you the keys to working with your hormones at every phase, whether they are low, mid or raging. It gives you the keys to knowing exactly what to do at that point. You are always working with your hormones and never against them. You feel a little bit more empowered because you have this little bit of knowledge like, “I am capable of this now.”

Even when you are beginning your period and you have intense symptoms and your body is feeling at a disadvantage, you go, “My body is highly resilient at this moment. I’m at my most powerful. If I can get started with this session, it is going to alleviate my symptoms. That is amazing. Let me start and get through it.” Towards the end of week four, when my hormones started to rage and I was not in the mood for anything but solitude, I got my de-loading week and I know I can recover. I’m still working with my hormones at that phase. It is like a rollercoaster but the program is there as a guide. It is there to support you at each phase of the rollercoaster.

In a nutshell, the program optimizes your training. Wherever you are, it is designed to optimize your training potential at that specific phase of your cycle. It is a chef’s kiss. You got to do it.

If you experience a menstrual cycle, the workout, and Cycle Sync Strength Program is a game changer. Click To Tweet

You guys got to work with Stacy Sims to design this.

Yes, it was so cool. She is amazing.

I love her. I have a huge girl crush on Stacy Sims. She is freaking amazing. Did you guys learn anything that you didn’t already know about working with her?

Yes, all of it. I’m guilty of never appreciating the fact that this information was made readily available to me. You commit yourself to a program or a schedule and you want to stick to it. In experiencing menstruation, different factors are always going to come into play that is going to affect. I would continue with the routine I set for myself. I’m going to stay committed to it. I never took advantage of knowing how to work around my cycle.

The additional knowledge, the science and the backing to sometimes maybe what we feel or a little bit of information that maybe you have heard of but now you have the scientific data to back up. I was like, “When I’m in this part of my cycle, I feel this way.” It seems counterintuitive to be like, “I’m cramping. I feel achy.” You work in those phases to work out your cycle. It reduces that inflammation. It is beneficial even though you have to work through it a little bit.

For me, that was nice to know. A lot of times, we will track our cycle for ovulation if you are planning to start a family and extend the family. This was nice for those of us who maybe are not there or want to know what our body is doing at any given time. From a training standpoint, it has been helpful, even post taking the class, to track how my body is feeling from one week to the next and what I’m capable of doing, even if my mind is telling me we are feeling tired. I’m like, “We are feeling tired but I know that my body in this phase has the ability to perform in this way.” It was nice to match and pair up what I feel with what I know and move accordingly. You get it done because you know you are going to hit a PR. I know you feel blah but this is a great opportunity for you to know your body.

It helps you learn when you are letting yourself off the hook and when it is a real thing like, “Am I making an excuse? Science says this isn’t okay. I’m not ‘bad’ for not doing this thing.”

He has lived his me for a while. He knows that I have trouble with that.

I was doing my best not to look over it while I was saying that. I know that you guys don’t turn on the cameras without requests but I would love for the camera to get turned on for every man that thinks this is about bike riding. They are like, “I don’t know how this makes me pedal faster but I’m teary and bloated.”

The workout for sure is designed for anyone who experiences a menstrual cycle. Tom, you should advocate for this one. You should take this Cycle Sync Strength class and tell us how you feel. Report back to us. For all of the men who are like, “This is not for me. This is not cycling,” give the people what they want, Tom. Let them know.

There is a lot of period talk but at the least, it is educational for those who do not know. This program can be taken by anybody. When you pull back, it is a couple of weeks of intense training with HIIT and strength classes. You start to wane a little bit. You pull back and fully de-load the last week. Who doesn’t love that? That looks like a lot of training programs for a lot of people.

How do I figure out when to start since I don’t have the other thing with the thing?

Start at the beginning, Tom.

I don’t have to time it with anything.

You should time it with mine.

You should jump right in.

I don’t think our cycle should be synced. I think that it would be bad. We have to be very careful there.

 

I want to mention that both of you are coaches. I know we mentioned Kristina and Ash are both coaches as well. Each of you teaches a different week. Is there anything that stood out that was your favorite part of your individual week?

I’m going to say no. The entire week was an experience. Truth be told, I was on week 3 there while teaching week 3. It was a very interesting experience for me moving into that. I noticed that it felt good and right. It is almost supportive of the timing of it. That was nice to come back around and start with Ash’s Program to be like, “I get it now.”

The most interesting thing for me is I was on during week 3 while teaching week 3. I didn’t feel like I had to force and push my body in a way that it was struggling. Sometimes you get into a workout and you are like, “I’m going to have a seat now.” It felt like I was like, “No, I’m in it and I can do it.” Teaching week three was the best thing I could have asked for in-the-moment experience.

I teach week two. I’m right before Tanysha. It is marked as the late follicular phase. This is going to be the second week that we teach these big power HIIT and strength classes where we are aiming high for strength and power PRs. Naturally, I love that. I love being in a position to challenge, push, motivate and get you to achieve those new highs. That was the highlight for me. I enjoy teaching recovery. That doesn’t hit as hard for me.

She likes getting up there and smiling while she is kicking your ass. That is what she said.

These weeks were appointed well. It is strategically set out.

Is there anything else we forgot to cover that you want to make sure people know about?

That was the long and short of it. I would encourage women and anyone who experiences a cycle to take the program. Tom, are you giving us your word that you are going to test this out? Are we getting that on the record?

I started a program. When I am done, I will do cycle strength to see what it is like for the boys. I’m hoping, based on what I know from you, that this will be the first Tonal class where the recovery includes chocolate.

I’m going to bring him a Dove chocolate right at the end. I will be like, “Tell me when you get to Tanysha week. I know you need your chocolate.” That is when you have that PMS week. You are ready for it. I will be ready. I have one follow-up question. It is not on the list. If you want to veto you, tell me. For people who are in perimenopause and menopause, can they get anything out of this class?

If I can do it, they can do it.

How do they know when to sync it? How do they know when to start it? Sometimes people in perimenopause don’t always know. My cycle can be 23 days. It could be 28 days or 32 days. We don’t know. It is like a lottery every month.

Crystal, my suggestion for you and anyone else who is experiencing the same thing is to take the program as it is laid out and as it is prescribed. Start at day one. As with anything, even with those who are taking this program for the first time and experiencing their cycle, this is the first program that we have issued that targets a demographic in this way as far as working with hormones and what is happening in the body.

We have had programs where we target runners or things that are apparent in the lifestyle but this is the first program of its nature for us. This is also a high learning opportunity. There are more coming up. Take this as it is prescribed and issue the feedback. Get involved and let us know how it makes you feel. If you felt like this phase was appropriate for you, what you were experiencing and the fact that you did take it from day one to the final day, that is going to help us as we look to the future and look to creating more niche-targeted programs.

The program is based on a 28-day cycle. I might be moving at this stage of my life. It is the same thing that Woody was saying because it is based on 28 days. The recommended place would be to start at the beginning and follow it through to the end, report back and let us know.

In closing, what we are saying is, “Don’t let your cycle totally change your workout. Let it Tonally change your workout.” Thank you so much for taking time out of your guys’ date to join us. Before we let you go, remind everybody where they can find you besides the Tonal.

You can find me on Instagram @TanyshaRenee_.

The Cycle Sync Strength Program optimizes your training. It is designed to optimize your training potential at that specific phase. Click To Tweet

You can find me @WoodySnacks on Instagram. I’m on YouTube and Facebook. I’m going to be leading the April Community Challenge in 2023. I’m not sure when this episode will be issued but if it’s in due time, April Community Challenge, it is coming in hot and heavy.

We don’t know either because we have to wait until we get the official, “It is okay.” We will see. Thank you guys both so much for being here. I appreciate it.

Thank you so much for having us.

Thanks for giving us the opportunity to talk about Cycle Sync Strength.

Thank you.

—

That brings this episode to a close. The plan is we will see you again soon. It’ll be like Chuck Woolery, 2 and 2, except there’s no second two because I don’t know what that would mean. Where can people find you?

People can find me on Facebook at Facebook.com/CrystalDOKeefe, on Instagram, Twitter and on the Tonal leaderboard @ClipOutCrystal.

You can find me on Twitter @RogerQBert or Facebook at Facebook.com/TomOKeefe. You can find the show online at Facebook.com/SupersetPodcast. You could find me on the Tonal leaderboard @TomOKeefe because that’s how creative I am. That’s it for this one. Thanks for reading. Until next time. Keep lifting.

 

Important Links

• Tanysha Renee – LinkedIn
• Kendall Wood
• Facebook.com/SupersetPodcast
• YouTube.com/TheClipOut
• Official Tonal Community – Facebook
• Michelle Tee – Past Episode
• Tonal
• Cycle Sync Strength
• @TanyshaRenee_ – Instagram
• @WoodySnacks – Instagram
• YouTube – Kendall Wood
• Facebook – Kendall Wood
• Facebook.com/CrystalDOKeefe
• Instagram – @ClipOutCrystal
• Twitter – Crystal OKeefe
• @RogerQBert – Twitter
• Facebook.com/TomOKeefe

 

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