Friday Joy: Exercise Classes for Introverts

Because not everyone likes being screamed at while sweating.

Welcome to Friday Joy! This is a weekly short piece on something that is making me happy, and a few recommendations for books, recipes, and other things to check out. I hope it brings something good into the end of your week.

I clearly remember a pre-pandemic morning several years ago, when I was at a small gym near my house for the first time, trying out a HIIT workout class. I was on the floor under fluorescent lights, sweating profusely through some bodyweight exercises while a woman with a headset microphone was screaming over loud music, encouraging everyone in the class to move faster, to do more. There was a moment where all the sound and fury fell away, and a single thought crystallized in my head: I wish there were exercise classes for introverts.

Of course there is the option of running, or quietly working out myself at a gym. But I like being told what to do when I am exercising. The rest of my life feels like nonstop executive function—managing my life and career, scheduling the family appointments, remembering when the winter clothes need to be sorted, filling out the forms, buying the tickets, planning the meals and on and on forever—so when I work out, I want zero responsibility over the routine. I want to zone out and let someone else be in charge of the decisions.

When I can afford it, personal training is a good fit for my introverted exercise ways—I get to know someone over time, I can ask questions about form or equipment in a non-embarrassing way, and someone is telling me exactly what to do while speaking in a normal volume. But I'm not training for a Marvel movie; I could only meet with someone once a week, tops.

Now here is the part where I reveal my magic secret that no one in the world has ever heard of before. Are you ready?

…It's Peloton.

I know. It's so stupid and basic, but it's been working for me for about two years, long enough to not be a fluke or a phase. I started using the app in 2020 after a friend mentioned she was using it with an off-brand bike. After a couple months of getting into HIIT classes, bodyweight strength classes, and the occasional yoga session, I felt confident enough in my commitment to buy my own off-brand bike, and I haven't looked back since.

I like that I don't have to talk to anybody, I can start and stop whenever I like, and I don't have to leave my house. HAS ANYONE IN HISTORY EVER MADE THESE FASCINATING AND ORIGINAL OBSERVATIONS ABOUT PELOTON. Anyway. Because I don't have to speak to anyone or use my brain to make any decisions while working out, I spend a lot of time musing about how obvious it is what each Peloton instructor was like in high school. Matt Wilpers? Kind of intense, kind of dweeby, definitely played sports, but nothing that would win any social standing, went to parties but only allowed himself one beer. Christine D’Ercole? Goth-y, 1980s black and ripped everything, Siouxsie and the Banshees, smoking under the bleachers, probably hated P.E. but secretly enjoyed the days they ran on the track. And so on.

(Shout out to my text thread where we talk about two topics: burning thoughts about specific Peloton instructors and classes, and what we are cooking lately for dinner. It's a great combo!)

Truly, the best thing is that the story I had been telling myself for decades—that I was a person who just didn't like exercise, and would never find a way to exercise regularly, let alone joyfully—turned out to not be true. And that is the greatest feeling at any age, but especially in middle age, realizing that life is still full of possibility and we can still surprise ourselves. Even introverts like me can have fun in exercise classes; we just need to find the right ones. 

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What I'm into this week

Watching

The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself on Netflix. Based on a YA novel, this British series is not something I'd normally see on my Netflix home screen and say, Yes, this! But it encompasses a lot of elements that appeal to both Rob and me: fantasy-supernatural world-building (me), occasional gore and striking moments of supernatural violence (Rob), Britishness (both), and high school crush yearning (Rob – he's a real softie). Nathan, the main character, has never met his Blood Witch father, who years ago massacred a gathering of Fairborn Witches. As Nathan's 17th birthday nears, when he will receive his witch powers, no one knows if the evil Blood side of him will emerge. Also he has a big crush on a girl from a prominent Fairborn family (of course). It's dark and edgy but not overly violent, and at least in the first half of the series, Karen Connell's Ceelia is filling the Gwendoline-Christie-as-Brienne-of-Tarth-shaped hole in my life.

huahsu

A post shared by Hua Hsu (@huahsu)

Reading

Stay True: A Memoir by Hua Hsu. Starting this memoir felt like being dropped into a cold swimming pool in somebody's suburban California backyard. The shock of seeing so many elements of my youth that I've never read about in a memoir, easing into a kind of comfort at how perfectly Hsu captures them: the mid- to late-90s thrill of indie rock discovery in the pre-Internet days when you had to comb through music magazines and scuzzy record shops; his immigrant father’s heartfelt letters written in sweetly broken English; the nuanced understanding of different types of Asian American backgrounds and how they shape your place the in world; the construction of an identity around what you are not (not Dave Matthews, not Abercrombie & Fitch) because you don't yet know what you are; and the complicated but intense friendships that happen with the people you meet during that process. For Hsu, one of those friends died violently and suddenly, and this memoir is one way to give permanence to his friend Ken. He does a beautiful job.

Recommending to Everyone, Forever

Paprika Recipe Manager 3 app. It is the best. I first wrote about it for The Kitchn in 2013, then again in 2016 because I still loved it, and now it is almost 10 years later—and I still use it at least a couple times a week to save and access recipes, and meal plan. Yes, you have to pay for it, but it is worth every penny if you cook regularly. Plus they usually have a sale around this time of year.

Gosh, this week was exhausting. You feeling it too?