When we were in Quarantine Season 1, and the pandemic was new, most folx found themselves suddenly baking, cooking, reading all the books they’d been meaning to read for years, remembering that puzzles are a thing, knitting, and working out.

I’d never heard of Peloton before the pandemic, but all at once, with people stuck inside their homes with time on their hands, it was not just a thing, but the thing.

I’m skeptical of most trends, and regard fitness/diet/eating/workout trends with an even heftier dose of skepticism. This is mostly because of my own experience with intense dance training, my professional dance career, and the disordered eating and body dysmorphia that those experiences outfitted me with. I’ve been on a journey to heal and change the habits, inner dialogue, and hurts those experiences left me with for several years now.

So when the Internet exploded with Peloton memes, and my friends far and wide texted me extolling its virtues, I listened, and was happy they found something that worked for them, but remained unconvinced.

Then, in December, with the upstate New York winter closing in around me (and making getting outside for exercise about as appealing as hot dog lunch day in the school cafeteria ) I decided to put my skepticism to the test and give Peloton a go.

For the first month, I still didn’t really get what all the hype was about. I took a variety of classes, from strength, cardio, and bootcamps. I even dabbled in the yoga and meditation classes (since that’s my jam), but didn’t really get it. To my credit, I even kept trying classes, even when the instructor of the very first class I took uttered one of my most hated fitness/dance phrases: ‘earn that water break!’ (FYI, humans don’t have to earn water. It’s essential to, you know, keeping us alive. So I’ll drink my damn water whenever the heck I please, thankyouverymuch.)

But then, the holidays came around, and I was tickled by the holiday themed workouts, and got into a groove with the instructors that didn’t rub me the wrong way. (Specifically, those wonderful instructors are Cody Rigsby, Tunde Oyeneyin, Matty Maggiacomo, Chelsea Jackson Roberts and Chase Tucker.)

And when my husband bought a stationary bike from Amazon, I quickly commandeered it to try the cycling classes, which is when things began clicking into place for me.

As a dancer, I appreciate the rhythm and music of the cycling classes. The pace makes me feel like I’m accomplishing something, rather than being punished, and the instructors were finally speaking my love language - encouraging me to drink water, take breaks, do my best, while being mindful of what my body wanted, needed, and could do (while doing some spicy body rolls).

There was no pressure to prove myself, to push myself to the point of pain, but rather, an acknowledgement of challenge and discomfort, and encouragement to rise to the challenge, and then honor and celebrate my body for all its strength and adaptability.

That’s when I got it. That’s when I was convinced.

That’s when I finally realized that there’s a difference between pain and the discomfort of a challenge.

As a dancer, I was always told to ‘shake it off’, ‘push through’, and ‘keep going’. Even when I was injured, or on the brink of injury. Years later, as I started untangling the mess that messaging left on my brain and body, I started to balk and resist at movement that hurt or felt uncomfortable. “Nope.” I thought, “I’m done hurting and not listening to my body.” and would take a hard pass on any workout/movement that brought those feelings up for me.

But in my Peloton workouts, I was able to see, and feel the difference, and close the gap between pain, discomfort and challenge. I built a bridge between all those things in a way that felt good, right, and in tune with my body and mind.

Now, I’ve been working on this for a long time, and I don’t think it was all Peloton, but rather, a right place/right time happening, and a culmination of many years of work, but I’m grateful, and almost giddy about this newfound knowledge.

And all of this made me even more aware of something I talk a lot about, which is the importance of the language we use in dance classes, and with our students.

Words matter. Even if your intention is 100% positive, we can’t control how a student will take, and interpret our words, so it’s always a best practice to be clear and kind.

To my example earlier, about ‘earning that water break’, I realize that what most people mean when they say this is ‘rise to this challenge and do your best!’, but what most dancers will hear is ‘I have to keep going, no matter what!’ And that message isn’t one that teaches dancers to honor, respect and value their bodies; that message is one that reinforces dancers to push themselves, no matter the cost, even to the detriment of their bodies and mental wellness.

So would I recommend Peloton? Yes, with the strong suggestion that anyone who tries it finds the instructors that make them feel good about their efforts, their performance, and that they stay mindful of any phrases or behaviors that make them feel triggered.

Because fitness, like dance, shouldn’t be a punishment for the body. It shouldn’t teach us to hate our bodies or be in a constant battle to change them. It should be a celebration of all our bodies can do. It should be fun, enjoyable, and something you do because finding, and realizing a challenge through discomfort is a beautiful thing - both in dance, and in life.

I Tried Peloton for 60 Days. Here's What Happened.