Fitness

My OTHER Pandemic Addiction: Peloton

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I am officially addicted to my Peloton. How addicted? Well, I’m currently on a train to Philadelphia and not only am I typing a blog about it, but I’m thinking about how much I miss my bike already. I made sure I did my core workout and cycling class before I got on the train. And I’m already excited about showing my mom all of the classes on the app. Also, I almost switched my trip because I found out it was Peloton Homecoming this weekend and I was going to miss it.

  • My Peloton arriving at my door!
  • It has welcomed me since Day 1.
  • Me, sweaty on my bike (and shirtless as always)

Even if you are not a pelo person, unless you live under a rock, you definitely know about it. It’s every other commercial on Youtube and Hulu. And you probably know the age-old joke, “how do you know someone has a Peloton? … they’ll tell you.” However, it didn’t always used to be like that. I started going to Peloton class in 2016 in person in the studio! This was WAY before the pandemic and I loved it even back then. In fact, I even wrote a blog about it! Actually, I wrote two from when I rode in the showroom in LA on a work trip. A lot has changed since then. It’s become much more bougie and the production value has increased. The instructors wear FULL makeup and matching Peloton clothes now, and they have bulked up and multiplied. Hundreds of thousands of more people have bikes. But the main reasons I fell in love with it still stand: the bike is super high quality, the community’s motivating, and the playlists are FIRE.

Pre-pandemic, people asked me if I’d ever buy a bike and I said I would never buy one in NYC but maybe if I moved. This was because of the availability of high-quality classes within proximity. But with Covid and studio closures, I really missed spin class. When I got my bike in February, it had been 11 months since I had been on a bike!

Before I took the plunge (the bike is $1800 plus $39/month subscription cost), I did a lot of research. I never take any purchases lightly, but even more than the cost, I wanted to love it. I had a few friends who went the alternative route, buying a regular bike from Amazon and then getting the cheaper Peloton membership at $12/month and riding that way. But the instructors teach to the Peloton bike specifically, using a “resistance” number that is based on their bike. When you take a class on demand, it pops up on the screen where your resistance should be and the bike also shows where you are within that range. That helps for me because sometimes I zone out on what the instructor is saying and I miss the cue. Ok, that happens a lot because I’m singing and dancing. Pretty much every class. I absolutely LOVE the music! I pick my classes by instructors who I know have the same taste in music as me. But Peloton also lets you preview all of the music beforehand. Most times I like a quick overview of the artists but I like to be surprised by the full playlist. They also have artist series, which is so fun. Last week I did the Usher ride and was jamming out the whole time. I’ve done Lauryn Hill, Beyonce, Monica v. Brandy, and many more. I have a favorite instructor (#TeamCody), but I dabble with a lot of others depending on my mood. I even did a barre class recently because it was a hip hop playlist. I usually hate barre but I sort of forgot because I was busy jamming to Trina.

  • My fav instructor #XOXOCody
  • Club Bangers with Alex, always a hard class.
  • Not my favorite instructor but sometimes I switch it up.
  • Back when I could spin with my friends IRL!
All photos from 2017!

Another reason I’m obsessed with Peloton: the STATS! Peloton keeps track of every one of your workouts, your averages, your PRs (personal records), and you are constantly racing yourself. I am a huge stats nerd and this is one of my biggest motivators. I love to see how well I can do in a class. I am not a competitive person, but when I’m having an off day and I’m feeling unmotivated, seeing that I still burned 300 calories in a low impact class gives me a great sense of accomplishment. 300 more than zero!

I have also found that the different class lengths have completely changed my mindset around workouts. Pre-pandemic, I felt like I wasn’t getting in a good workout unless I did at least an hour at the gym. But sometimes now I am not motivated, or my legs are sore, or I’m just having a bad day. I can hop on the bike for a 20-minute low impact ride between meetings or at 5:30 and I’m still showered by 6. Also, I always feel better after. Just yesterday I made a call for work. He said he couldn’t talk but asked if I could call back in 15 minutes. I said sure, popped on a 10-minute core workout, then called him back.

Speaking of core workouts, I never used to do them because I was scared and intimidated, but the app has so much content that I have been tempted to try a lot of new things. Last month, I did a challenge with Matty Maggiacamo called March Maggic, and it was 5 days of 20-minutes strength workouts all month, with different muscle groups every day. The 20-minute workouts seemed very easy to fit into my life (sometimes after a cocktail, oops), and I did 400 minutes of strength that I never would have done. In April, I did a program called “Crush Your Core” with Emma Lovewell. Did I feel like I crushed my core? No. I crushed my ego and I felt weak as hell. But I did do 2 1-minute planks on Wednesday and I definitely couldn’t do that a month ago.

The main reason I got a Peloton versus a “faux-loton” is because I wanted to spin with my friends! I miss my gym community SO MUCH. And since the pandemic, a lot of my old cycling peeps have gotten Pelotons. I have multiple group chats on Facebook and Instagram where we plan to take certain rides together, or do a long 100-minute ride on a Sunday. I love seeing my friends “on the leaderboard” and giving them incessant high fives. There’s nothing better than being there to witness a friend scoot by you and achieve a PR. (#HighFive!!!) There is even an option to video chat while the class is going on, but I haven’t quite mastered that yet. Plus, I’m usually wearing a sports bra and no shirt (why bother, I’m in my bedroom!) so I don’t love my friends checking in on my sweaty self.

  • Can you guess which day in February I got my bike?
  • An example of a Sunday Stack with friends. Many classes in a row! Lots of cals burned and high fives given.

The weird thing about my Peloton obsession is, I got the 3-month free trial of the Peloton app when I was in Texas and I only did 3 classes in 3 months. Now, it’s normal for me to do 3 classes in a day! I’m not sure what changed, but I love the variety. I also feel a bit more like my normal life living in my own apartment, so I can prioritize my workouts more than I could in Texas when I wasn’t living in my own space. I’ve done 206 workouts since I got the bike on February 9th: 112 cycling classes, 50 strength classes, 39 stretch classes, and a few outdoor runs and walks.

I was nervous I wouldn’t get my money’s worth, but that is certainly not a worry anymore. I put the bike in our bedroom so it is literally the last thing I see before I go to sleep, and the first thing I see when I wake up. The real question is, will I continue to use it after the gyms open back up? I’m not sure but I definitely think so. It’s so easy and I love it. Also, I can ride with my friends all over the country. Do you have a Peloton bike or work out on the app? Drop your LB name in the comments!

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Fitness

CycleBar

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Last weekend I went to Charleston, South Carolina to visit a friend. Surprisingly, it was a trip with girls that did NOT include a bachelorette or a wedding. These are few and far between. It’s a true unicorn nowadays in my 30’s. The issue, of course, was… if there are no wedding plans, then what are the plans!? A week before our trip, my bestie and I who were going together started a group text asking about our possible activities. If we didn’t need a black-tie-optional dress, what do we pack?? My friend told me she was planning a full itinerary and she would email us later in the week.

The itinerary included mostly relaxing and flexible plans (pool, beach, happy hour), but the one thing that required pre-planning was a Spin class. There is more background here – the reason I met my friend who lives in South Carolina was because she used to take my Spin classes, 11 years ago, at University of Florida! We knew we had to make Spin happen. My friend was dying for me to try out her favorite South Carolina instructor, Sam, at Cyclebar.

I was excited to try it out because I had never been to Cyclebar. They don’t have any in New York City, but I had heard people around the USA talk about it. From what I had heard, it was a mix of Soulcycle (BARF!) and Flywheel (YAY!). When we got to the studio, the staff there asked where we were from, and told me that our instructor, Sam, used to teach for Flywheel. Already, I was excited. However, we had written to him on Instagram the day before and requested a heavily-hip-hop class and he hadn’t replied, so it was a wild card!

The studio had self-locking lockers, and they wrote my name on the front of the locker to welcome me. They also included a free water bottle and magnet, which I think is supposed to go on your car, but it now lives on my fridge #NewYorkerLife.

The studio itself was awesome. Very modern with stadium-style seating and two huge flat screen TV’s mounted on the wall above the instructor. Also, it said “CycleBar” in red backlit neon lights. Cool touch. I sat in the front row, which is always weird for me because I am not used to being able to see myself in the mirror. When I teach, I generally stare at everyone else! It’s weird to stare at myself. I know I say I sweat a lot, but DANGZILLA. Good thing the lights were turned super low the whole time. Also, good thing the bike next to me was empty because I stole the towel off the empty bike halfway through class. When you’re a sweatzilla you need at least two towels per class.

SO Sweatzilla.

Speaking of the actual class, it started with a warmup to Touch the Sky by Kanye, and Cyclebar Sam played the music video on the flat screens along with the song, which was amazing! I love spinning to old Kanye, despite his recent crazy shenanigans. The music throughout class was awesome. When Sam started playing Everyone Nose by N.E.R.D., I turned to my friend and screamed “YASSSS.” The Jamz. The only thing I can complain about with the music was that it was all remixes and had some EDM mixed into the regular song. My friend’s fiancé said he specifically liked that about CycleBar. It just goes to prove that you can never please everyone. I like to Spin to the original versions of songs so I can sing along to them in my head. To each his own.

I can see why people said CycleBar like Soulcycle, because there were a few times when we did pushups, and tapbacks, and other weird non-spinning exercises. Also, there was an arms section where we used body bars for about 4 minutes. Most cycling studios do this nowadays, although there are mixed reviews about whether it is effective in any way at all. Luckily, Cyclebar Sam didn’t say anything like “spin through the pain and reach Nirvana” or whatever B.S. they are constantly spouting at SoulCycle. (I really hate that place, if you couldn’t tell.) It was much better than any SC class I had ever been to. Also, the monitors on the bikes help to make sure you are never or rarely going above 120 revolutions per minutes, which is one of my least favorite, and least safe things about Soul.

Cyclebar is similar to Flywheel in that they have a leaderboard that shows everyone’s statistics, if you opt in (a little homage to the GDPR regulations). The good thing about the leaderboard is that it isn’t up there the whole class, so it isn’t very distracting. The bad thing is that it isn’t up there the whole class, so you don’t always know who you’re trying to beat! I started out the class in 4th place, but I was determined. Also, I was never sure exactly how much I should be turning the resistance up. At one point, Sam told us to turn our resistance half a turn. Then he told us to do it again. I was at Gear 21, and I was thinking “dang, this is really hard.” Turns out, I was pushing myself crazy hard. My friend who is a religious CycleBar-er said she didn’t even know it went up to Gear 21!

Ultimately, I ended up in 2nd place for the class, behind the one man in the class, a big guy sitting in the back row. I was spying on him in the mirror, vying for first place. Damn you, “Marshall A.”! Oh well. 2nd is pretty darn good. Plus, they sent us our stats to our email after class and it said I burned 965 calories!! HIGHLY doubt that is true, but it made me feel better about consuming 10 Truly hard seltzers later that day! Overall, I’d definitely recommend Cyclebar. The staff was friendly, the atmosphere was fun, the leaderboard makes for friendly competition, and it was a great workout!

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I Hate SoulCycle

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I hate SoulCycle. Hate is a strong word, but it is justified. When I say this to people, they often ask me why, to which I answer, “I could write a whole blog post about it.” Well, here you are.

Full Disclosure: I haven’t been to SoulCycle in a year, so some of these things may have changed, but I highly doubt it.

So why write about it now? I keep seeing the trailer for the movie I Feel Pretty where she falls and gets a concussion during SoulCycle, to which my first reaction was “they were clearly making her spin too fast while standing out of the saddle, which is why she fell. That should never happen.” But at SC it does. In fact, I’m not sure why SoulCycle has been promoting the movie on their own Instagram, given that the whole premise is that they let a participant do something incredibly unsafe on their watch.

Many things that shouldn’t happen, happen at SoulCycle. Here are just a few of the things that shouldn’t happen in a spin class. Not ironically, they are also the reasons I hate SC.

The Music.

Music is the main reason I like group fitness. I love working out while jamming to some great hip hop or singing along to the newest pop. It’s great to have the music blasting with the freedom of not wearing headphones. But at SoulCycle, you’ll never find yourself jamming or singing along. That’s because they only use remixes. Almost exclusively. I once talked to a friend who taught SC (no, I didn’t excommunicate him because he worked there), and he told me they encourage the instructors to use remixes and other obscure versions found on the cloud to give participants an experience they couldn’t replicate on their own. But what’s the fun in listening to a remix I don’t know?? Just when I’m about to jam to the chorus of I Wanna Dance With Somebody, there’s some techno bridge. No thank you. Give me the original any day.

The Bikes.

Guys, I teach for a YMCA. The bikes at my non-profit institution should not be drastically better than the ones where you pay $35/class for the privilege to ride on them. But they are. At the Y, our bikes are on lease, so we get a new version every 12-18 months. At SoulCycle, they just replaced the bikes last year (2017) for the FIRST TIME since they were founded in 2006. 11 years. That is mind-boggling to me. How they were selling 11-year-old technology at $35/class while Peloton has literal ipads and live-streaming on their bikes for less, is baffling. Especially in an age where the bubble of niche fitness is finally popping, and studios are reducing their prices, I couldn’t believe people would pay for that crap. The bikes made a lot of noise and the ride was the opposite of smooth.

Tapbacks.

These are dumb. The end.

Weights.

This has become customary in almost all niche cycling studios, but I still hate it. According to a Business Insider piece about why someone stopped going to SC (I guess I’m not alone!), a writer said SC got “a failing grade for exercise physiology and biomechanics” and that “the whole idea of working one’s upper body while pedaling a stationary bike is not only counterproductive,” he wrote, “it can be physically detrimental over time, according to several experts I talked to.” And from the same article, Jennifer Sage, a master-spinning instructor with a degree in exercise science wrote, “You’re probably going to burn less calories because your power output is going to drop.” I agree wholeheartedly. If you want to lift weights, go to a BodyPump class or to OrangeTheory where there is a dedicated section for weights.

The Color and the Smell.

I know you’re already thinking, “Wow this girl really hates this place. She has something to say about the smell?” But the smell is a thing. In fact, SC loves to open their doors to street and you can smell that grapefruit from a block away. It’s like Subway. Both the gross smell permeating from the subway TRAINS and the crazy bread smell permeating from the Subway SANDWICH spot. SC literally makes their own candle. Although I’m not sure who the hell would want to bottle that and put it in their home.

And the YELLOW. So. Much. Yellow.

 

YELLOW

The Heat.

It’s hot in there. Way. Too. Hot. They cram 65 bikes in a tiny room, and then they hold 45-minute classes back to back to back all day long. If you dare to go to an 8 pm class, that means there have already been 200+ people sweating in that room in the past 3 hours. Picture a locker room that is only 200 square feet, and then imagine 300 people working out in it. And sweating on each other. BARF. It does get you sweaty, I’ll give you that. But is the whole point of a fitness class just to sweat? I could do that in the sauna!

V SWEATY

THE SPEED.

They spin too fast. Plain and simple. I see SC instructors going 150 RPM EASILY in the saddle, or 140 when they are standing. One of the many things I like about Peloton (here I go again…) is that they advise never to go above 120 RPM. This is a safe speed for a sprint, while still maintaining some resistance on the bike. 150 v. 120 is a grave difference.

The Standing.

Why are you out of the saddle for 70-80% percent of the class? It’s a bike. You sit on the seat. You only stand to get more power, like if you are trying to get up the last part of a huge hill. Spinning was created to mimic outdoor rides, to help cyclists train on the off-season. Granted, a lot has changed since then, and people now ride in SC every week but have never set butt on an outdoor bike. And also, I understand there are some drills we now do in fitness classes that you’d never see outside (switchbacks and jumps, anyone?) But standing for 70% of a 45-minute class? Come on. Also, you can’t spin as fast as they say, while you’re standing, and keep a safe body position. In order to achieve the speed they want you to have, you need to have very little resistance on, as I said above. Add the fact that you’re standing and you’re setting yourself up for injury. Or a fall like in I Feel Pretty.

The Vibe.

SoulCycle thinks they are a yoga class. But they’re a spin class. They can’t decide though. One song you are sprinting at 140 RPM standing out of the saddle, and the next moment you are in the saddle, closing your eyes, because “this song is for you to focus on your inner strength.” Excuse me? I’m not closing my damn eyes in a spin class except to prevent sweat from getting in my contact lenses. According to their website, it’s “so much more than just a workout — it’s a powerful mind-body experience.” GTFO.

In my first SC class, when an instructor told us some bizarre saying like, “Breathe into what’s burning right now. Your body will adjust to this pain,” I literally laughed out loud. It was not received well. SC is a cult, you know. I was almost ritually killed by grapefruit-candle torture.

I didn’t realize this was a normal thing in SoulCycle. There are many articles online dedicated to “motivational” sayings from SC. Don’t get me wrong, I say motivational things in my own classes, but it’s more in the style of Robin Arzon from Peloton, “New Day, New Slay.”

Those DAMN CANDLES.

I know what you’re thinking. Candles? I thought we were talking about spinning! Well, there are candles. Two of them on either side of the instructor’s bike on the podium. WHY!?!??? Really though, why? This is not a séance. There is no Ouiji board here. We are not communing with the Gods here. We are sweating on each other in a too-hot room with not enough air conditioning.

But no, SOULCycle thinks that the addition of candles is necessary for our spiritual community. GTFO of here with that. At the end of class, about 3 songs from the end, the instructor moves the candles from the podium, and puts them in front of the first row. At my first SC class, I was in the front row (kill me), and the only thing I could think of was, “OMG I hope my sweat doesn’t drip off my face and onto this candle to put it out.” So of course I did what anyone would do, and adjusted my posture to a full standing position (we were out of the saddle again… OF COURSE), and put extra pressure on my knees and lower back, just to avoid sweating the candle out. I do not recommend this, but I was nervous! How embarrassing if the candle went out.

The only good thing about the candles is, 2 songs from the end, they blow the candles out, which creates a sulfur dioxide smell, which covers the disgusting sweat and locker room smell that permeates the room at this point in class. It’s like lighting a match to cover poop smells. It works. But only because the smell of burned candle wick covers the even worse smell of sweaty hot humidity.

I wish I could wrap up this blog by explaining why people still go to this class. There are 21 studios in the 5 boroughs alone. But I can’t explain it. I don’t get it! Feel free to try it out yourself and let me know what you think. But be prepared for a hot, non-productive 45-minutes, at a pretty-penny cost.

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Fitness

Themed Spin Class Playlists

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I write this post while blasting Jason Derulo in my earbuds. You may ask me why. What a great question: A. I’m hiding from construction noise at work. And B. I’m creating a theme playlist for Spin next week! DUH. Next Monday, 3/5/18, all Jason Derulo. I have been teaching fitness classes for more than 11 years, but I haven’t talked about it too much on the blog yet. One of my favorite types of Spin classes to teach is a theme class. Here’s why:

  • Costumes. Y’all know I love any opportunity to dress up.
  • The hype. There’s nothing I like more than gloating about my upcoming classes on social media. Like here where I posted on Instagram about my upcoming boy band playlist. Or here where I showed everyone my amazing talent of keeping my “Happy New Year” tiara on my head the whole 60 minutes during my “Top Songs of 2017” playlist. I also tweet about themes in the hopes that the Dodge YMCA will retweet me some day.

  • Groupies. People love a good theme. Advertising in advance means more people will come. And sometimes I can even get people to create the whole playlist for me! Remember when Tim created a playlist for my Guest DJ Ride?
  • Easy to make the playlist. I just type “hot” in Spotify and BAM. I have a playlist. Ok it’s not that easy. But it is easier than pulling 15 random songs out of thin air.

Sometimes a theme playlist is based on current events, sometimes it’s an artist I want to highlight, sometimes it’s a trip I’m about to take, sometimes it’s a holiday that is coming up, and sometimes it’s just when the mood strikes me. Like almost every Thursday when I decide to throw in some throwbacks (#TBT, ya know?).

Sometimes my themes are specifically requested, like the Jason Derulo class coming up next Monday, 3/5/18. I am always trying to get people to give me requests, and some of my best themes have been suggested by participants, like Britney v. JT. This particular theme was requested by my best friend, who happens to be a special guest next week. Monday, 3/5/18. (Have I said it enough times yet?)

Here are themes I have used in the past, including links to my Spotify, once I started using it. Feel free to follow my Spotify, or follow those individual playlists if the theme moves you:

Photos from My Theme Classes of Yore

I am always accepting new ideas for Spin class themes, song requests or theme requests. If you have any, leave them in the comments! And if you’re in the Brooklyn area, don’t forget to come to my class, next Monday, 3/5/18, at 7 pm. Wear your Jason Derulo fangirl outfits.
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How much is that Peloton in the Window?

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As you may remember, the only Spin class I will pay for is at Peloton (usually). I’ve written at length about the experience of riding live in the studio, but I had never had the experience of being an “at-home rider.” That all changed last Friday. I wasn’t at home, per se, but I was in the window, for many passersby to see and wave at me, and I did get to watch Emma Lovewell LIVE from 2,783 miles miles away. That’s an exact number.

Last week, I traveled to Los Angeles for work (more on the trip later), and on my first day there, I stumbled upon a Peloton Showroom. If you did not know, Peloton has only one studio, in Manhattan, but they sell their bike worldwide, and they livestream the classes from New York all over the world. They currently have more than 25 showrooms in the USA, where they sell the bikes and apparel. When I accidentally came upon the showroom in Santa Monica, I absolutely had to go in, but not before taking a photo to post on my Instagram story.

When I walked in, I met Deano, the nicest salesperson I’ve ever met. He laughed about me taking a photo for my insta-story, and we chatted for more than 30 minutes. I knew it wasn’t just a sales pitch, because we discussed right away that I wasn’t buying a bike. I told him I lived in a New York apartment, and therefore it was the size of a closet, and therefore a Peloton bike would have to take the place of like, a couch or a table or both. He motioned to the corner of that store and was like “haha yea, your apartment is probably like, this big.” HAHAHA. LOL. SO FUNNY. But for real.

Anyway, Deano and I talked about how the company was a unicorn, and how it somehow grew rapidly by finding a niche hole in the market that needed to be filled. I told him that I only had the experience of riding in the studio, and how I had never ridden the bike with the big screen. (The bikes in the studio have littler Ipad mini-sized screens, since they don’t have to show the video of the instructor.) He told me I should come in to take a class live in the window. And I knew I had to, simply because of the blog. And also because of snapchat. And Instagram. Oh, and also because it was my favorite price: FREE!

Two days later, I popped into the showroom, and Justine and Christopher (equally as nice as Deano) were there to fulfill my window-riding dreams. They gave me spin shoes in my size, a water bottle and a towel, and Christopher promised to take many Instagram-worthy pics. I was ready to roll. I logged into my account (LongLegsBigCity, DUH), and I was off! I took Emma Lovewell’s live DJ ride, where the DJ spins the tunes and we follow Emma’s cues. It was so fun, especially because people were walking by the showroom windows the whole time, pointing and gawking, and I just waved to them like a princess. A very, very sweaty princess.

Pros:

  • I got an amazing workout.
  • I got to feel famous riding in the window.
  • I got bombass pics for Instagram.
  • I had an awesome experience I could blog about.
  • I got a free Peloton workout!

Cons:

  • My knee has been bothering me a lot lately, so I couldn’t pull the big numbers on the leaderboard that I am accustomed.
  • Emma is a relatively new instructor and I hadn’t taken her before, she isn’t my favorite. How does she ride with her hair down and not get sweaty?? It’s very irksome.
  • I don’t love riding with headphones on, it’s one of the best parts of group fitness, feeling unencumbered and still having loudddd music.
  • I realized, after sweating buckets, that I had never once ridden a spin bike in full light before. Not only were the lights on, but the doors of the store were open, I was in the window, it was afternoon, AND the bike had spotlights on it because I was in the window! It was SO HOT. I was chugging water the rest of the day to rehydrate.

The best three parts about the at-home rider experience vs. the studio:

  1. They track your best output in real time, so you can constantly chase your own best numbers on the leaderboard. For example, at 10 minutes in, it showed my best output at 140, and I was hovering at 80. I told you it was a rough ride. Anyway, it’s very motivating to chase your PR throughout the class.
  2. When you ride at home, you are on the leaderboard with hundreds to thousands of riders at a time. It’s awesome! In the studio, you are only on the board with the 60 people in the studio. Peloton literally is a noun that means “the main field of cyclists in a race.” And the point, according to their website, is for “riders in a peloton to work together, conserve energy and perform better because of one another.” This is easier achieved when you know you’re in it with 1000 other people!
  3. Beyond the ride! They had a 5 minute post-class stretch, and they have other classes like arms and abs classes that you can’t see in the studio, but you can see at home. I tried to do the stretch, but it was a little cramped in the window space. Maybe next time.

Yesterday I got back to New York, and of course I had to take a Peloton class in the studio with Cody. I got the big numbers I didn’t manage to get on Friday, and I feel like some of that is because I feed off the energy of those around me. Also because Cody is the BOMB. Long story short: It’s an awesome experience if you don’t live in NYC, and it’s incredibly unique, but if you can get yourself to the studio, DO IT!

Check out the photos below, Christopher did a great job!

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Fitness

Guest DJ Spin Class

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I have been teaching Spinning classes for 11 years. During some parts of my life, I was teaching 4 classes/week on the bike. And I made the playlist for Every. Single. One. Y’all remember Kazaa? Napster? They were after people like me. JK. I downloaded allll of my music legally. 😉 Anyway, I digress. Monday, that all changed; I didn’t make the playlist, Tim did!

Tim has been attending my Spin classes religiously for a year. I thought it was longer, but it’s just because he never misses a class! When his sister was in town, he even brought her along for the ride. Literally. (I crack myself up.) Anyway, Tim had never made a playlist before, but after attending nearly 100 of my classes, he wanted to try it out. I had faith in his musical choices because he tends to win round after round of Name That Tune when I challenge the class. I figured if he could identify Taio Cruz with less than 1 second played, I was in good hands.

Sure enough, he pulled through. He sent me the full playlist on google play music, and I transferred it to Spotify, where I have an unlimited membership. See? I’ve transformed into a good, law-abiding citizen. Tim knows I love a good spattering of K-pop in my class, but unfortunately the only song he picked that I couldn’t find on Spotify was Energetic by BOA. Truly unfortunate because it is a JAM. Not to worry, I subbed in another K-Pop song in its place: New Face by Psy, the lyrical genius who brought us Gangnam Style.

The playlist featured some of my favorite artists including Busta Rhymes, Major Lazer and Ariana Grande. He also included some songs I had never heard of before by great artists, like Alphabeat by David Guetta. Tim told me the drills he thought would go best with half of the songs and left the other half to my spin drill expertise. I played the new songs through about 4 times until I felt comfortable cueing them, then I called it a day. So much less effort on my part.

We had a blast, and I had to do so much less work! Since I had been promoting the class for weeks on Instagram, I had to appease my followers. Accordinglyyyy, after class we took some awesome photos and boomerangs to commemorate the occasion and post on all the social meds. Duh.

If ANYONE wants to guest DJ in the future, send over your playlists! I even take requests for single songs. The only thing is, I always reserve the right to VETO. Maroon 5… never gonna happen.

The full playlist can be found here. And while you’re at it, click here to follow me on Spotify to stay up-to-date.

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