Jess Sims & Becs Gentry | Peloton

23:59You can't ignore it, but you can't do too much. Right. Yeah, exactly. I mean, and yeah, 100%. And I think that it's so important to remember, like, just sensical things. Like, if you can't be squatting super heavy when you have your long run the next day. It's just like more common sense, things like that. And I think the Peloton Marathon training prep program that just launched is incredible because not only do we focus on the single leg stuff and the strength for runners stuff, but the recovery stuff is huge. And it's not just recovery, like basic foam rolling, which you should definitely do.

24:29Foam rolling is really important. But we even have active recovery for your feet, active recovery for your shins, because the most common running injuries are plantar fasciitis on the foot and then shin splints. And it usually is when those kinds of injuries do occur when the training program isn't really great for you. Like if you're going out, if you're running too fast and you're running too much, you know, you're going for a 30 minute run when you should be going for a 20 minute walk plus run. And so we have all of these amazing classes five or ten minutes so there's really no excuse why you can't do it because by the time you feel pain in a certain part of your body yes you want to address the pain but you need to figure out the site of the source of it which is usually above or below so if you're having the shin and calf pain it's usually an ankle foot issue or a knee issue or potentially a hip issue so you definitely have to really break apart your not literally break apart your legs like break apart the like how you focus your recovery and your strengthening you're strengthening definitely be strong enough for you to climb that mountain yes be strong enough to prevent some of these injuries and then you're perfect on the segways as far as recovery oh my gosh look at me the uh like the foam rolling the foam rolling massaging your feet it's like it's the most painful thing and definitely the least sexy thing out there i call it like flossing your teeth yeah they call it flossing no one does it right that's so i'm so glad that you highlighted the importance of recovery oh yeah recovery yeah is there anything any tricks or tips that you guys do for recovery?

25:50I'm the recovery queen. Vex doesn't recover very much. Distance runners. Right? I mean, we got off the plane at, what, 3.30 yesterday? And I was getting a massage at 6.30 because, I mean, sitting on a plane for that long is also not ideal. But also, we do self-care multiple, I mean, I do it daily. And then we also, Peloton really emphasizes it. So we have to go get a massage, acupuncture, physical therapy, something every single week because our body is a machine. I've been a lot backed up. Yeah. It's just so important because it's one of those things where I tell people to do it proactively. Before you start to have pain, you should be foam rolling.

26:31You should be doing mobility. You should be doing, if you need to, if there is something sore, you know, icing, heat, there are so many different ways that you can prepare your body, not only to have a better workout, but to recover better after. So when we get on the tread or before every strength class, we always talk about take your pre-run warmup. Why? Because, yes, we warm up in every school of the classes, but it's so important to have targeted exercises. So in our pre-run warmup, we target the calves, the hamstrings, the quads and the glutes. Why? Especially the glutes, because we don't run laterally.

27:03Right. We run forward and back. And so we need to wake up our hips and our glutes and challenge them in different ways so that we don't have hip injuries and things like that. So you do all of that before you get onto the tread. And of course, the tread warm-up is meant to get your blood flowing and then get you a little bit warmer. I call it the glazed donut look because you want to be like a little shiny. Perfect. No joke. It's so funny. It's so funny. I joke. The things that, you know, that come out of your mouth when you're running on a tread, like in front of thousands of people. I said it one time in class and no joke.

27:32Like I got tagged in so many things on Instagram. Like the glazed donut look. I was like, wow, I guess that works. So yeah, that's like a thing now. So the glazed donut look, we get you there on the tread, but that's not enough to really target the quads, the hamstrings, the calves, the glutes, and things like that. And then on top of having a better workout, because you did that pre-run warmup, if you do that pre-run warmup and a post-run stretch, after your recovery is going to be so much better. So it's all a process. It's all very purposeful and strategic, and we really encourage it. Yeah, I encourage definitely that side of things, the warmup.

28:04There's no going out and starting a run. Like you guys know for sure for track, you're just going to, it's probably a given. If you just went out on the track, you're going to pull something if you're not warm. And the same goes for a long run. You need to have, we have the pre-run warm-up classes. We also have warm-up runs, which are five or ten minutes, where it's just a gentle increase in your pace up to a high end of a jog or a light run. And then that gets the blood pumping. Like we all know, if you run, right, the first ten minutes, ten, fifteen minutes of any run, if you just go out of your front door and you go, you're like, what is wrong?

28:35This is awful. You're just dragging, you're breathing, and like, am I going to have a heart attack? What's wrong with me today? And then you settle into your rhythm. So that's the thing about having that warm-up time. You can get rid of all of that in you, and you can settle into your run when actually your run-run starts and feel good and confident that your body is warm and ready to rock. We were talking about recovery and warming up for the body specifically. How do you guys think about fuel as far as whether it's sleep or food? How do you guys kind of incorporate that stuff? And what are some big takeaways and tips that you can give, again, the normal people?

29:09Yes, sleep. No, everybody. Regardless of whatever level you're at, brand new or in it for years, sleep. And taking a day off. What is wrong with society right now in that we have to train every day? It is not necessary. We are always at Peloton like, take a day off. It's absolutely okay to take a day off. And it's probably going to do you better to take a day off. or at least just do if you really want to do it because you want some of your own time. Perhaps you've had a busy week and you want to just go and do something, go for a walk, go for a nice, like take one of the walking classes or a hike maybe and just have that downtime, take an outdoor session walk.

29:51But sleep for me, I'm a sleep junkie and I'm not afraid to say it. It's like the days I don't have to get up early, there is no alarm. I will sleep until like somebody drags me out of bed or something. Yes. I mean, sleep is so important. That's when your body repairs itself. So like that's a huge, huge, huge. Yeah, for sure. And then also other in terms of other fueling, we get asked all the time about like, what food do you eat? And like, can you share your meal plans? And we actually steer away from that in a lot of ways, because what works for us might not work for you. It's one of those things where you need to like spend time getting to know yourself.

30:27And again, failure is feedback. So if you eat something before you run, and then like your stomach is in knots the time, you don't eat that the next time. Like, but that might feel great for me. Um, for me personally, I will share just like a general piece is I don't like to run or work out hungry. I don't like to work out full, but if I'm feeling like at all, like I'm hungry and I have a big appetite, I have to have something like a go macro bar, something with readable ingredients, a banana with peanut butter, um, something small, but just to make, because I feel like nauseous sometimes when I work out without on a completely empty stomach.

30:58But then again, like when I teach, I teach six and 7 a.m. classes. Generally speaking, I'm fine, so I don't need to eat anything before that, but I definitely dig in after. It's important to really replenish with proteins. Carbs are your friends. Don't let anyone tell you that carbs are not good for you. They are necessary. Good carbs. Yes, yes, of course. Yeah, I mean, not to say, yeah. My biggest thing is just eat as clean as you can. If you do eat something from a package, make sure you can read the ingredients and just really try to eat what's in tune with your body and don't just copy someone else's meal plan because you'll figure out you might have little dietary sensitivities and things like that.

31:33Well, yeah, we'll talk more about, well, I like how you guys talked about, you know, trial and error. So like finding out what's good for you, either pre-run or post-run and all that stuff. How about, like, let's talk about, oh, yes. Okay. Sorry. I got it. When Bex was saying take a day off, I was at a training a couple of weeks ago. And the best thing that I've heard in a while is we need to exercise less and move more. Yeah. And just like think about that for a second. Yeah. Yeah. Like everyone, yeah, it's a moment of silence. There's another one. But no, for real though, because I think that when we think a day off, we think we have to be like this on a couch like all day long and like that's a day off.

32:08As Beck said, like go for a walk, do yoga, just stretch. Literally, instead of sitting on your couch on your day off, sit on the carpet and do, like we have a bunch of different mobility classes and things like that, but just moving your body in just different ways without exercising is so important. Oh, important for sure. Oh my God. Every time, because they, people say this because when we exercise, our cortisol levels go up. And cortisol is a stress on the body. It's produced, it's a hormone produced in the body. And the more intense your exercise is, the more cortisol you're going to produce.

32:38So that's why it's like a lot of people think it's okay on your day off to just Netflix and chill. But it's the polar opposite. Actually, what you want to do is get that movement in, get that lovely, get your body down from that cortisol high. And just remember that life's peachy, it's fine. I can just walk. This isn't stressful. but I'm still moving. Active recovery. There's still blood pumping. Yeah. There's the sleep where you're mummified. Yeah. But you actually need to move a little bit just to flush it out and, you know, be intentional about that. Yeah. Totally. Totally. And intentional about diet as well.

33:10You know, you can hype this up and, you know, obviously write books about all this. But, you know, it comes down to just like eating natural. Yeah. And same with the training there. Just move more. And what was that one again? Yeah. Exercise less and move more. There you go. So you can keep it as simple as you can, right? And that's the base. That's the base of the pyramid. and you can get super specific as you go along. So that's cool that you can go deep in general at the same time. Yeah, definitely. Cool. I think we're going to wrap it up with just one more lightning round question before we start Q &A.

33:39I don't know why I did this, but the first couple of questions are going to be all music related. So those would be those ones. You guys ready for it? Do it. Lightning round before we open it up to the audience for questions. So what is your favorite hype up song? Oh, no. I'm a boss. I'm a boss by? It has so many different artists in it. It's hip hop. Okay. Or, okay, but most recent, Wish Wish by Cardi B. Oh, yeah. That's my first one. I literally, like, don't stop playing it. Yeah. I was going to say I Like It by Cardi B. That's my most recent one. Or Bad Guy by Billie Eilish. Loving that. But original, like, yeah, yeah, yeah, his heads will roll.

34:13Okay. And then how about maybe a little bit different? What's your go-to karaoke song if you had one? Oh, my God. You guys... Spice Girls Wannabe. I'm with you. I'm with you. This voice does not sing. I will break every mirror in the room. Okay. A spirit animal. Ah, penguin. A penguin? I'm embarrassed to say, well, my dog, Sienna, I was going to say. So if anyone follows me on Instagram, she's like my spirit animal. But then the first thing that just came to mind was a sloth. I don't know why. That was really weird. I don't know. We're losing street cred, quick. That was weird. It's like Sienna sloth.

34:47Okay, cool. That's why it's like penguin. Okay, how about this one? Pancakes or waffles? Oh, pancakes. Wow. And French toast. And French toast. Yeah, you didn't add that in there, but I'll add that. Perfect. I was like, you're just going in. And then maybe the last one. If you could run with any celebrity, who would it be? Kevin Hart. David Letterman. Oh, wow. Okay. Okay. Good one. I like the lightning round. That was fun. Hello, yo. All right. Well, we are now lining up for questions from the audience. If anyone has any questions regarding starting their journey or running specifically. Ask us anything.

35:21Yeah. Come on. I just want to say thank you all for coming. I've taken your outdoor classes. and have gotten a few PRs here and there running a few segments. Love the Houston hip hop. So keep it going. My question is actually first, do you guys do any of the cycling classes? Great question. That'll kind of depend on where I go with the second part of it is, who is your favorite Peloton cycling trainer? And if you don't want to answer that, what's your favorite style of class or music to listen to at the class? Yes. We don't teach them. We don't teach cycling classes, but taking them sporadically, yes.

36:00If I'm not in training for a race, then I will. Otherwise, I cannot walk for a while after taking cycling class. My favorite style of class is definitely more of an interval, the Tabata style of thing because it's short. Put me on a climb or something on a bike and I'm like, I'm unclipped. I'm getting out. I'm done. I love the short burst because it really does test me cardiovascularly. It's so different to running sprints. And just the whole fact that you can move your body up, like get out of the seat and just go and like, ah, it's all so intense. So that would be my, yeah, my favorite side of it.

36:42Yeah, it's tough. So we have the luxury of, of course, taking the classes in studio. And at my apartment at home, we have a couple of bikes. And, but it's so tough because we also teach on the tread five days a week. And we might have like I taught a 60 minute run on Saturday, but then other days it's like a little bit lighter. So it's tough, like fitting them in. But when we do, I love hip hop rides. Shocker. And because when I go and take a cycling class, I want it to be fun and just like carefree. I actually don't go for intervals. I go for like the groove ride and just like the fun kind of thing.

37:11And my favorite instructor, I will not name drop because I because depending on my mood, it depends who I want. Like, you know, you know, the instructor is going to push you and that's going to like say some stuff. And then you have the instructors that are going to be like silly and funny and just like talk about random things. Like Cody Rigsby talks about Paula Abdul while he's riding. And I'm like, yes, like just takes me out of my own head. And like Robin is like, you're a boss. And I'm like, hell yes, I am. So it's like depending on what mood I'm in is who I choose to ride with. Yeah. Thank you so much for coming.

37:41Yay. In your sort of fitness journey, especially coming from the perspective of folks in the room who've had challenges reaching their fitness goals. What has been your biggest challenge, that biggest hump that you had to get over in yourselves in being able to reach the goals that you had set for yourselves? Oh, for me, it would be signing up for my first ultra marathon living in London and just not the schedule I had when I lived in London was quite full on. I'd have private clients in the morning. I'd be teaching at Equinox in during the day and sort of afternoons I'd have off. But then you're planning a laptop.

38:16and then at night I normally had a Nike run of some sort and I just didn't know how like to me I'm like I'm gonna have to run to my parents house which is like 300 miles away to get these runs in um and then during the middle of that I actually tore my VMO so in amongst training for this massive race which was up and over a volcano in La Palma in the Canary Islands I was just like I live in a flat area there's no volcanoes it's cold it's wet they have barely any hours left in the day to run. And then I tore my VMO. And that's when I actually did go back to cycling, got on a bike and started training my cardiovascular health that way.

38:56And then just had to find the weirdest things. Like I'd never before gotten a train out of London to Windsor and ran back to London from Windsor. And I just had, I didn't think about that. And I just had to expand my mind and talk to other people who'd done training like this and look at the geography of where I lived of running you know the go-to for me was to run along the river perhaps but somebody said to me do you know the canals go all the way up to the midlands from London it's like oh yeah of course that's a really long way it literally is up to where my parents live in the middle of England and so I just started running up along all the canals I'd never done it before and it really overcame my fear of wanting to do something crazy, but my geography, my environment stopping me.

39:42And yeah, it was a really nice way of, okay, overcoming it once my knee healed. Yeah, that's a great, great story. I would say, so two different perspectives on it. As a college athlete, I tore my ACL my junior year. It was horrible. My junior year, we were up at Bates and tore my ACL. It was the quarterfinals and we lost the next game. We won that game, but we lost the next one. And I was devastated. I suffered, I don't, I was not clinically depressed, but I definitely was depressed after that. I had surgery a month later and I realized how much the mental comes into your performance. Because even though I rehabbed my ass off and I came back for my senior season up here, I was like, be careful.

40:30Oh, you tore it because you were anticipating a pass. Don't do that again on the court. or like that court was super sticky. Oh, this court is super sticky. So I think that I really tapped into the mental training behind things then, which carries on to today, which carries on the tread, on the mat. Like when I was a teacher in the classroom, you win your workout, you win the rest of your day. And so I really try to like build myself up during the workout and then bring that into the rest of my life. So I would say that that's the thing there. And then I was going to mention with being an adult, staying on track with your fitness goals.

41:08So like the non-athletic side, like I mentioned before, I went from doing two a days to working out two times in six months. The parallel between teaching in a classroom and teaching fitness is I would always say I don't believe in – I don't believe there's such thing as a kid who doesn't like to read. They just haven't found the right book. I feel that there's no such thing as an adult who doesn't like to work out. They just haven't found the right workout. So I think that it's so important to figure out if you love boxing, you box your ass off. You love running, you run. You love lifting, you lift.

41:36And within each of those things, you're not going to love every one of the workouts. Not every workout that you do is going to feel like Disney World, and it shouldn't. Because then you're not pushing yourself as hard as you could be or should be. You find your ugly in whatever workout that you choose, and you go with it. And some days are going to get ugly, and you're like, oh my gosh, this is so hard. I don't know if I can do it. And then you do it, and the next day you're like, wow. Now, this today is going to be more of like that active recovery type thing. So just kind of accepting where you are.

42:02Stop judging yourself. Stop labeling yourself and get on with it. Cool. So this might be slightly self-serving and more for Jess. But so I was I did college athletics as well. And my transition out, I felt like I felt the same way as you did. Like you lose yourself. You're like, what am I without my sport? So my question is, have you found something that you love just as much as basketball? and any advice you could give those who are kind of transitioning or going through a life transition in that way? Yeah, that's a great question. And it's funny, by speaking about the college experience, college athletics experience, not being a runner, running was a punishment.

42:41Like with basketball, you lost, you run. You're late, you run. You know, our coach had a bad day, you're running. And so like to me, again, the mindset of it was like, this is no longer a punishment, which is like linked to the you don't have to, you get to type of thing. And when I was reflecting back on college athletics is that, yes, I love the sport of basketball. I love watching it. I love playing it, all of that. But I love being part of a team. So I think that Peloton is so, it serves the same purpose that being a part of a team served for me back in college and before it because when I'm done with the class, it's not like that workout is done and over with.

43:17I come back and I look at my phone and I have a bunch of messages from people all over the world that have taken the class. And this isn't just like my experience. If you today took a class and you high five someone, you could go to the Facebook group and find that person. And no lie, like our homecoming, we have an annual homecoming where thousands of people come from all over the world. And they're meeting their best friends that literally are now best friends simply because they work out at Peloton together. It's so amazing. And that is, it's literally mind blowing in the most beautiful way.

43:44Because when we get older, you know, of course, I'm still best friends with a lot of people that I was friends with in high school and college. But in your adulthood, you find a new group of friends that share common interests and things like that. And Peloton just brings people together. So I think that my love of being part of a team and being part of a community is what that drives me. People are like, how do you get on the tread every day and teach? I'm like, for you guys. I don't do it for myself. There are times where I'm like, I could totally call in sick. Like, I'm not feeling this. But then I'm like, no, like these are people that are celebrating their milestones with us.

44:11Like they're celebrating their birthdays. and it's, you don't want to let them down, but also it gets you up off the bed, the couch, whatever. So I would just say like, find what you, try different workouts, try different things and stick with it and find your community. Yeah. Join Peloton. Join Peloton. Oh yeah. Shameless plug. Yeah. We might have time for just one more question. I have a pretty basic question, but I think all of us as Googlers, we're very focused on our work and then also like to work out on the side or maybe like in between work. You were both in the non-athletic professional world prior.

44:50Do you have any tips for like working out and then being able to go back and being like more presentable? I feel like it's a lot more difficult as a male than as a male. Like men, they just jump in the shower. Like women, like your makeup gets all messed up. Your hair is weird. Yeah. Just curious. Yeah. Oh my God. I'm with you. I'm with you. Embrace it. Embrace it. I would much rather have gotten in my 30-minute workout and have my hair in a messy bun and looking all sideways going into a meeting than not get in that time because it's your time. Think about it. When you work out, it is your time.

45:23I say this all the time when I'm working out and teaching. Forget everything else that's going on. This is your safe space. Forget about the worries, the concerns, the stresses, all that other stuff. What other time other than when you're sleeping, when you're not really consciously knowing that you're spending time with yourself, are you able to say, like I'm getting stronger physically and mentally right now. So I would say like I worked, I experimented. I'm not an evening workout person. So I just woke up really early in the morning. And guess what? It did suck some days, but I never regretted it.

45:52I've never regretted waking up early for a workout. So you have to find the time and give yourself like two weeks of doing it before you say whether or not it's going to work for you. Because so many people are like, well, I did it for two days and then third day I gave up. Well, don't they say it's habit forms after 13 or 14 times doing something. At least, yeah. At least 30 or 14 times, a habit can start to form after doing something. So if you set your alarm at the same time for those four, even the weekends, like the weekends are the same. You've got to do it continuously, get up, do that workout.

46:19But on a side note, I worked with a lot of people in London, a lot of companies who were experimenting with allowing their employees a little bit extra lunch breaks to work out, do whatever they wanted because their productivity was going through the roof because they were getting blood flow to their bodies they weren't stagnating at their desk they weren't working through their lunch breaks and exhausted then for that three o 'clock meeting which was an ideas or innovative meeting and they're just like uh what no and so i think i mean i i on your note dry shampoo and screw screw the makeup just screw the makeup don't worry it's fine you're beautiful like literally it doesn't matter at all red face I get racing stripes when I run and train really hard like and I'm kidding you not I get white here and red here and my old trainer used to be like that's a sign of a great session I know you've killed it today and I used to be so embarrassed walking out of the gym like people are going to be thinking I'm weird and now I'm like I own it I'm like yes I'm strong I've really worked hard and so that's that would be my thing like literally have that quick shower get the shower in because that will make you feel like you're okay yeah but like the quickest shower you can bang that hair up put it up and just walk in because that glow that you'll have from what Jess is saying that self-satisfaction of having gone out done that workout you won't need makeup you won't need anything you'll just be like I'm ready people will be looking at you like man your ideas are through the roof right now because your brain is awesome and you're just going to be glowing like yeah this is great yeah and it's so funny our own perspective because if you walked if we were you know in a meeting and you walked in and you were sweaty if anything i would be envious that you just worked out completely and i don't know if that's because i'm used to being around sweaty people like my whole life like from sports and stuff but like i'd be like damn like she got a workout in already like okay i'm gonna do that damn it i was eating that bagel so in your head you're thinking i look crazy and all this other people are like damn she got a workout in yeah so own it own it perfect plug for gfit everyone invest in yourself right invest in yourself yeah nice that's perfect go get that peloton app and whatever you are.

48:26All of our plugs. Yeah, right. Yes. Perfect. I think that's it for our time. Thank you guys both so much for coming. We're so stoked. Thank you guys so much.

48:40Thanks for listening. You can watch this episode and tons of other great content at youtube.com slash talks at Google. Talk soon.

48:54Thank you.