Good morning! I missed you guys yesterday afternoon! I ended up getting tied up at the gym when a coworker called in sick, but I am back in action today. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Baby Boy-Themed Spin Class
My morning began on a very fun note thanks to a little cheesiness during my 6 a.m. spin class. On the Group Exercise Instructor Cheesiness Scale, I’m pretty sure I hit a 10 out of 10 this morning. I took the whole “themed ride” thing to the extreme and created a boy themed playlist to let my class know Ryan and I are expecting a baby boy!
Most people at my gym found out about my pregnancy weeks ago, as I wanted to keep my boss in the loop just in case nausea knocked me out and I needed a last-minute sub (which, thankfully, never happened), but they’ve been waiting to hear the sex of our baby for a few weeks. I wanted to do something creative to tell everyone and put together a totally cheesy playlist that incorporated songs with the word “boy” in the title. It took way longer than I would’ve thought to come up with nearly 60 minutes of boy-themed music (thank goodness for Google!), but my class really got into it, which made it more than worth it!
The song that was the biggest hit? “Let’s Hear It For The Boy” by Deniece Williams from the movie Footloose. It was an ‘80s-music party on the bike! The two songs that made people laugh were “My Boy Lollipop” and “Bad Boys” (the theme song from Cops). It was a rather ridiculous class, but we still got in a good workout and the energy in the room was very upbeat and fun, so I’ll consider it a success!
Breakfast
After class, I headed to a local coffee shop to pick up a decaf caramel latte before driving home. That coffee shop stop was apparently too long because nausea started to kick in, so I immediately inhaled two small bowls of Cheerios right when I walked in the door which helped a ton.
My “real” breakfast included a bowl of egg white oatmeal but this time I added Hershey’s cocoa powder and a spoonful of almond butter to the mix before digging in.
Looks like death, tastes delicious!
Now it’s time for me to turn right back around and drive to the gym again. I’m subbing for another instructor today and teaching a Spin + Sculpt class, so it’s time to boogie!
Question of the Morning
- Have you ever taken a “themed” group exercise class before? Any favorites?
I’ve done a Michael Jackson and ‘80s themed spin class before and they were a lot of fun! I’ve also heard of people doing holiday-themed classes, boy band-themed classes (<— sign me up!!!) and more!
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I’ve never taken a themed fitness class, but now I want to! Sign up for that boy-band theme as well 🙂
Oops, sign ME up!
That is so fun! I think sometimes cheesy is best as an instructor with stuff like that because it changes things up a bit. I did a Valentine’s themed BODYPUMP & CXWORX class that week of the 14th & it was super fun 🙂
I’ve never done a themed workout class. But, it does sound like a ton of fun! Can we please do an ‘N Sync themed class?! Or…Spice Girls?! 🙂
Your baby themed class sounds like so much fun! One of my favorite instructors does a themed spin class every week (we are so spoiled). It varies based on events of the week (a good example is a super bowl themed ride like someone mentioned above). My favorite is her anniversary ride where she tells the story of how she met her husband. It is a very fun class (and not sappy either!). I don’t know how long it takes her to come up with all the creative ideas that she has, but I really do appreciate it!
What a cute idea!! I’ve got to hand it to you, your energy and creativity while prego is amazing! I would love to take a boy band theme spin class. How fun! I wish Charlotte wasn’t so far Greensboro or i’d come take classes from you all the time!!! 🙂
I love a Michael-Jackson-themed spin class. This song is always a hit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97nAvTVeR6o
That’s so cute! I just graduated from my internship at a local studio and get to start teaching classes on my own this Friday. I definitely have plans for all kinds of themed playlists. Definitely 80s, movies, and a few other ones I can’t remember right now.
I used to teach spin classes during college, and in order to encourage one of my friends to come to one of them, I created a whole Beyonce playlist. I through in some Destiny’s Child for fun, too. It was one of my favorites because it was so upbeat, and who doesn’t want to be motivated by Beyonce during a hard workout?
I”ve gone to a Beyonce vs. Lady Gaga theme, a Ladies of Hip-Hop theme, and a throw back Thursday theme. So much fun! I’m working on getting certified so I canNOT wait to come up with playlists.
I love the idea of a boy themed playlist! So fun 🙂
Adorable!
I love a good halloween themed spin class. My gym does one every year and people dress up (usually with either wings/head accessories/tights). It’s always a class I look forward to!
I love themed exercise classes! I used to take a regular spin class where the instructor always had a hidden theme in his music. He wouldn’t say what it was so people would yell out their guesses as the class progressed. The memorable ones were: road trip (so we’d start at west coast and the song would be about Cali, then each song after would be based on cities or states heading to the East. He’d then reverse it at another class), songs from one year (this was hard! He did this for his birth year 1969 to celebrate his bday), we did one where each song was about colors and another class about weather. It was fun not knowing the theme and helped distract us during a hill or sprint. I can’t imagine how long it took him to put together the playlists but he’d repeat them twice a year, so 26 themes total!
I love the theme, and congrats on your pregnancy!
PS – judging by the length of the playlist, that sounds like a long ass spin class! 😉 haha.
I have done some themed classes, one of them was a 80s and were encouraged to dress up for it! This Thursday I am doing a spin class where we watch a movie! I think the movie is wedding singer this time.
Such a cute idea, I love it!! Congrats 🙂
I’ve taught a candy/scary themed Halloween class & I taught an anti-valentines day theme on vday this year…biking to angry music is so much more fun than sappy love songs, my students loved it!!
Footloose is one of my favorite 80’s movies! Sounds like a fun music selection for your class.
That is super cute! I taught a few themed classes…School’s Out/Summer time (since I’m a teacher, and a lot of college kids come home for the summer and start back up at the gym), Superbowl/Playoff prep (I used all songs that are relative to a Pittsburgh football season when our team was in the playoffs/superbowl, Whitney Houston tribute after she passed, Michael Jackson, 80’s, and I did 1 holiday themed class-Halloween (ghostbusters etc…) I just can’t bring myself to play Christmas Carols to spin to. There is an instructor that I teach with that does though!
I’ve taken a ton of themed spin classes. My favorites are Rihanna Vs Beyonce and East Coast Vs West Coast! So fun!
Love the boy themed class! I used to take a spin class for years and we had some great themes: 80 hair band (my fav), Pitbull vs Pink, songs about sex, butt songs, artists with the letter a, ,b ,c , etc (some letters were combined, Michael Jackson, Eminem and tabata, one hit wonders,
OH now I miss spin……
The closest I’ve come to a themed class was a fun dance party-type session at women’s circuit gym more than a decade ago, where all the music was boy band Christmas music. lol Super fun! (It was December, and yes, Backstreet Boys and N’Sync were involved!).
My pictures of oatmeal always look weird too. I shared an oatmeal + peanut butter + frozen raspberries + stevia bowl pic with one of my bffs, and he said “what IS THAT??” lol I said, “It’s delicious, that’s what it is!” Tasted like a pbj in a bowl.
I LOVE themed classes! In college my favorite music theme was definitely 90’s themed music! I think that was such a cute way to tell your gym the sex of your baby! Love it!
I went to a body pump class where the instructor would occasionally tell us there was a theme in all the songs. For example, once all the songs had the word “day” in the title. Another time they all had a summer theme!
I havent been in a themed class, but how about One Hit Wonders!
Julie- it is very exciting you are pregnant but did you ever stop to think about people suffering from infertility? I can’t imagine you knew every person in your spin class. It’s probably more than likely infertility affects someone there and you are making a whole class revolve around the fact that you are having a boy? I doubt everyone there even knew you were having a baby let alone cared about the gender. Just saying you seem to be going a little over the top with the baby stuff. I am a long time reader and have fertility issues. Your post just rubbed me the wrong way.
Thank you very much for your comment, Sam, and for your longtime readership. I am so sorry to hear you’re experiencing fertility issues and I appreciate you opening up to me and sharing your perspective. You’re right – I do not know about everyone’s story who takes my class. I will say, however, that I’ve been teaching the same small group of people at 6 a.m. for several months (I teach at a very small gym so there’s only 12 bikes in our spin studio) and know every single person that attended my class on Tuesday and while I don’t talk about the baby/pregnancy when I teach most days, they have all come up to me numerous times individually to ask about the baby and whether we found out if we’re having a boy or a girl yet, so I felt okay about telling them in a fun way. I’m not planning to do the same thing for my Thursday cycle class because that particular group changes much more frequently and your comment really made me think about that a lot more, so I appreciate your perspective very, very much!
What a lovely way to announce the gender of your baby! Very creative.