Giants Official Podcast Network | New York GiantsOn this episode of Her Playbook, Madelyn Burke sits down to chat with Peloton Instructor Selena Samuela, who lived in Italy as a child and grew up with a passion for multiple sports, including surfing, golfing, and amateur boxing. She currently teaches live strength, running, and bootcamp classes to help Peloton members accomplish goals they never thought they could achieve.
Welcome to an all new episode of her Playbook, a podcast highlighting inspiring stories of women in sports, business, and athletics. My name is Madeline Burke, and I'm joined this week by Selena samuela Peloton instructor. She does high energy tread strength classes challenging both the body and mind. And I'm so excited to have you here. Selena, how are you?
I'm great, Thanks so much for having me. And you absolutely nailed the pronunciation of my name.
I love that. I love that.
I know you're from Italy and so the actual pronunciation of your name is a little bit more Italian correct.
Yes, right, So I was born and raised in Italy, and my mom's Italian. When she named me, she named me thinking like we're going to be in Italy, So if we were in Italy, I would be I would be Selena Samuela.
But like, that's really not the easiest a name pronounce for an American. But you absolutely nailed it.
You know, we're doing our best.
Say, I'm so excited to have you here for so many reasons. You know, you do so many inspiring classes on Peloton, and I feel like Peloton is one of those forums in which you know, people taking your classes feel such a connection with the instructors. It feels like, oh, I know, Salna, I know you know so and so and such and such because of that connection. But how did you first get involved in Peloton?
Yeah, so it's a really long story. So I moved to New York from Hawaii. I had gone to school there and I I really just like felt drawn to the arts and I had the big dreams of being an actor, writer, director, and all those things. So I moved to the city. I went to Stella Adler Studio of Acting. I you know, was trying to audition and it just like, you know, it was really hard. It wasn't getting gigs. Eventually, I found myself teaching fitness. I got my certification as a personal trainer, which is also a crazy way that I got there because I wasn't getting jobs and I wanted to get my foot in the door and I wanted to get I wanted to get my bagcard. And one of my friends was a stunt coordinator and he was like, you know, you're really fit and you're active in fitness. He's like, why don't you try doing some stunt work, and like that's a way to get your foot in the door and like maybe from there you can build and start an acting career. And I was like, oh, amazing, great idea. So he was like, you really have to perfect a fight technique. And I was like, all right, Well, I was doing some boxing for fitness at the time, so I was like, all right, let me dig into boxing. So I really dug into boxing. And I'm just the kind of person that doesn't okay, I'm gonna curse a little bit, isay, I don't have ass anything like. So I really like devoted so much of you know, my time and energy to this this technique and I fell in love with it, and somebody was like, you're really pretty good at this, Like you should start fighting. And I competed as a boxer for a little bit and that kind of led me into teaching fitness because I was working in like restaurants and stuff at the time, and it just wasn't like aligning with it wasn't just aligning with who I was as a person, right because you're working late at night and then you know, it's just really hard to have like a healthy schedule and a healthy lifestyle when you're working those kinds of jobs. So I was like, all right, let's, you know, start working in fitness. This is something I love, this is something I'm good at while I'm trying to do all these other things. And then I got recruited by someone who was had a boxing fitness uh gym essentially, and they were teaching. They were teaching like they were doing what do you call it, like in class in class, like a.
Classes with multiple people in class, what do you call it? Group fitness? Than they were doing group fitness, group fitness.
I love that.
I forgot group fitness and I literally teach group fitness. But that's okay, you know, it's the little things.
It's a little thing.
So yeah, so group fitness that they were teaching group fitness classes that had boxing in it, and I said, all right, cool, like this sounds like like I'm aligned with this. And then I became a personal trainer as well. So then that's how I was kind of supporting myself. And then Kennedy was the master instructor at Polton at the time. She was one of my clients. She came to my classes and she was like, I love your classes. Come an audition for Pelton, and I swear to you, I knew the moment I walked in there, I knew I was going to get this job. I was like all the auditions I've ever been on in my whole entire life. I went in there like with apprehension, like really just feeling kind of insecure about like am I going to get this gig? I don't know, like really not feeling it this one. I walked in the door and I was like, this is mine. Yeah, I know, this is mine. Like everything I've done in my life has led me to this moment, and it just made so much sense. Like all the things that I'd been doing my whole life, studying, acting, and you know, being involved in fitness and like.
Loving the lifestyle, like healthy lifestyle of.
Like working out and exercising like boom came together in this like amalgamation, like this perfect job opportunity for me, and it happened.
That is so incredible, And I love how you know so many of us experienced this. There's the path we think we're going to go down, the path we pursue, and then the path that opens up in front of us, and that one ends up almost being more appropriate and more on the nose for who we are, and like you said, there's everything that kind of came together. There's a performative aspect of peloton there's like that the acting. There's the fitness and you know you've grown up. I mean you mentioned it earlier. You were born in Italy, your family. Athletics is very important in your family. You had a lot of soccer players in your family as well, and you know you moved to the US when you were what eleven, But but talk about just kind of growing up in Italy and around that environment and how that planted the seed of the importance of physical fitness for you.
I mean, so yeah, my uncle Paulo specifically, like really did well in soccer and rose up all the way to Setia Bee, which you know for Italian soccer is quite wonderful.
Setia is like the top level.
It would be like, I guess the equivalent of the NFL, right whatever.
Like NFL and is like the CFL almost.
Right, it's just the level right underneath or I guess it would be like playing like college ball at one of the like top schools, Like it would be like the equivalent to that. But we just don't have like college sports the way the US does. Sure, So anyway, it was just is very Yeah, it was a huge part of my life growing up, going to my uncle's games and just how important sports were to my family and also just but the physical, active lifestyle of my family, my family, their family of farmers. So like you know, my grandfather now in his eighties still like is out there trying to move and like like we have to be like no, dude, like you cannot drive that tractor anymore, Like yeah, you know, So it's like it's yeah, I mean yeah, being active, being physical is just It's always been part of who I am.
It's part of who we.
Are, right and it's something that has translated to so many different walks of life.
You mentioned you went to college in Hawaii picked up surfing out there.
That is one of those things too. I grew up in LA I love to surf. Are you long board or shoreboard?
Both?
Any board? Any board?
Yeah, that's impressive long board, but the short board that's just a whole nother beast.
I'm much better.
I'm I'm a better short boarder just because I spent so much more time shortboarding. But I like any board shape is like I love riding any way of any board.
Yeah, yeah, and that, but that takes a lot of is a different type of endurance, you know, people who weren't swimmers. It's a lot of upper body strength and all that kind of stuff. How did you fall in love with surfing?
Oh my god?
So actually that was kind of the catalyst to get me out to Hawaii because I didn't really one hundred percent know what I wanted to do. But I got the surfing bug, like on a few trips, like during the summer to New Jersey and like I did a summer Martha's Vineyard and I was like, dude, the surfing thing is so much fun.
I want to do this all the time.
And so when I was like, well, since I don't have a clear direction academically with what I want to do, like you're just going to go to the place that like would offer me like what I would want to do outside of school, which.
There's some vibes.
Yeah, so I yeah, So that's how.
I ended up out there, And yeah, I fell in love with it. It was just it's it was such a challenge to progress because it requires so many hours. Right, you can't just like go out there and like on day one, be like all right, I'm gonna do like a sick cutback, Like it takes years to like get to that point, and like it also just like there's something about being out in nature and like having working with nature to achieve something incredible, like riding a wave.
Right, it's really special.
Yeah, And I mean and also challenging yourself in different ways. And I feel like in reading about you and in looking into who you are before we met today and before we did this podcast, one of the things I love is like the different ways in which you challenge yourself, you know, with surfing, with golf every time, you know, I feel like throughout the years there were different benchmarks. You can say, Okay, I'm trying to get my golf score here, I'm trying to get it there, and you know you really pursued that and shaving points off that golf is another one too that you picked up a little bit later in.
Life, right, Yeah, totally something that I think like the similarity there's so many similarity similarities in surfing and golf. Maybe from like the nerdy, like uh like fitness expert version of me would go like, oh yeah, like rotational sports and like balance and all that stuff.
Yeah, the NASM version of exactly like.
These muscles exactly, but also kind of the more zen version you know, where you do have to center. It is also an individual sport. It's not about anybody else, Like it all comes down to you, right, Like whatever somebody else is doing on their wave or how whatever game the other person's playing, has nothing to do with your game, Like you have to like you're responsible for your game, right, And that's kind of cool. But also, you know, in surfing, like you can't hesitate, like once you choose to go on a wave, like, if you hesitate, that's when bad things happen.
It's kind of the same with golf.
It's like you can't midswing be like, oh I'm gonna hesitate or do like that's gonna end up a disastrous like it will be a disastrous swing.
Right, And that's translatable in so many walks in football, if you hesitate on past or a picture of if you hesitate, you know, you'll get you know whatever. In life, if you hesitate on a decision, you know totally.
Yeah, Yeah, it's kind of about the like like doing it in the now, right, That's actually something I say a lot in my classes, like you know, what you practice is what you get good at, and like you got to practice the thing now, like not later, like now.
Yeah, because so often people like, Okay, when I get to this stage in life, then I will be this.
But in reality, like like you're saying, you got to.
Be this to get you to that stage in life, right, and practice the habits. I read something it was like, you know, do the daily habits that the person you want to be would do, or the best version of yourself would do. Like that is really incredible and inspiring because so often people like, you know, I'm going to sleep in today, I don't have to get up.
I'm gonna do this.
I'm gonna I'll do that later, I'll procrastinate. Exactly would the best version of yourself do that? Would the highest version of yourself do that?
It's so interesting too.
So with these you know, you're teaching peloton, you're doing all this stuff, but you're also a well not new anymore, but a young mother. You know, you have a two year old, right, and that is so incredible going through that journey as a woman, as an athlete, you know the amount of changes your body goes through and the.
Amount of joy and emotion.
But you know, I saw that you were going to train for your very first triathlon right after and then realize like, oh, I'm going to have to push this back because of I'm realizing now I'm reacclimating with my body.
How is that experience for you?
Yeah, that was like a big That was a big lesson. I really had to check myself there, and I had to check my ego. And I think the what I took away from that is that you can't assign yourself an experience.
If you do that, you're going to set yourself up.
For probably disappointment, especially with something like having a baby.
It's so unpredictable.
Pregnancy is really unpredictable, and you know, it's really magical and wonderful, but it can also be.
Kind of scary in that way.
Sure, and you just don't know how your body's going to react to that experience.
You also don't know if.
You'll have a c section or a naturally, there's so many things that can happen in the process, and so yeah, I like I really did That was the mistake I made is that I like assigned myself a postpartum experience, I'm like, this is how it's going to be, and then as soon as I have you know, and then I'm going to start training on this day and then dada da, and it was just like really unrealistic to the experience I had. And sure, like I'll just I'm going to just say it, like I gained seventy pounds in my in my pregnancy, which is you know, it's not nothing like, it's it's above what was recommended. And granted I had a very healthy baby and everything was okay, but it made it a lot more challenging to get back to the physical activities that I had planned for myself, right, and that was how my body reacted to pregnancy, and that is what like, and thank God, like, you know, I had this beautiful, healthy baby, and so I'm not complaining, but it was certainly a challenge that I didn't expect to to deal with, and so training for a triathlon didn't make sense in the timeframe that I thought didn't make sense. But what did end up working out was, you know, by the time I saw the New York City Marathon was coming up in November, so by the time I was like maybe six and a half months postpartum, which was the time that I would have had this triathlon insane, right, because you have to train. So it's like, yeah, I thought I was going to start training for this triathlon at like two months postpartum, Like no, no, no, But that was more more realistic, and so I didn't. That made so much more sense for me, And I was really happy that I was able to kind of let go of this idea of the triathlon give myself some grace because of what it did is it allowed space for this other really great achievement that I accomplished that I'm super proud of, was running a marathon ten months postpartum. And honestly, like, when I think back on it, I'm like, wow, that was like that was so amazing. But at the time, like in the very beginning, I was so hard on myself about not, you know, being not being able to train for this triathlon. I remember feeling so upset with myself that my body wasn't like cooperate essentially cooperating with me. But what I learned is that it my body was cooperating with me actually gave me an enormous gift of my son. Yeah, and it was just doing its thing in the time that it needed to do. And so yeah, not assigning yourself an experience, I think is kind of the best way to go and to kind of just like work with it day by day and just.
Yeah and just loking. I mean that's thing too. I Mean we see, you know, covering the Giants. You see so many football players go through these injuries and come back and say, Okay, I'm going to be ready to play by this day. But you got to kind of listen to your body and it just and especially for an athlete and a competitive person much like yourself.
I mean the very first marathon.
You ran, you wan like I just need to say that again for the people watching and listening. This woman the very first time she decided I'm going to run a marathon, she won the thing I did. Like that is like I think most people are like, I just want to finish. I just want to get there without throwing up.
Yeah.
You that's an incredible accomplishment and that is just kind of a testament to the athlete you are.
Thank you.
Yeah, that is it was wild.
I didn't expect to, like I wasn't like gunning to win the race, and it was I came in first overall for females. It wasn't still but and like, okay, like let's level set. It also was not the New York City Marathon. It was a marathon Nova Scotia. It was a small marathon. There were only like four hundred and fifty participants or something like.
You won it.
Yeah, I think that even if you want to say in the most downplayed way, like the very first time you said I'm gonna run twenty six point two miles, you did it in the fastest said of anybody out there.
Yeah, it was cool. It was a really cool experience.
I remember at one point like looking around and being like, dude, am I alone out here?
Am I gonna I'm coming in out?
Did I take a wrong turn? Or yeah?
I was like, oh my god, it was amazing. But that was actually that, you know, that contributed to why I had to like kind of let go of some of the ego when I ran the New York City Marathon after having my baby, because I knew even though I was yes ready to train for something like that, I wasn't ready to train for it at the paces that would have been competitive with like my last marathon.
Right, I was ready to set that standard for yourself in a way, yeah, exactly.
So I had to you know, I had to shift, I had to adjust.
I had to say, Okay, well, what is what is possible for me right now, and then like and then push a little bit past that. Right. So then it was just kind of like, okay, let's do the thing that's just that's going to keep my body running, going to keep me healthy so I can continue to teach classes, but this is also going to get me across that finish line. And so I you know, I trained at a pace that was like way slower than anything I'd ever trained at before, but it was it made sense for me, and I had nice, solid, even splits, and I cross the finish line with a smile and could go and hang out with my son and play with them after the race, and that was that was the goal.
And yeah, it was great.
Is there you know something that you've learned about yourself in you know, the last five ten years, perhaps that you think, wow, this is something that has changed my view, and this is something that I find so important to share with the audience that I've built.
That's an interesting question. I think off the top of my head. And I guess this is more personal, because I think this can very personal person But for me personally, I've found that allowing myself to be vulnerable and to share my stories, my various stories through life experiences has been to great personal benefit. But I also feel like it's allowed me to grow in community. I'll give you an example of what I'm talking about, because that sounds really vague, but I recently went through pregnancy loss and I felt, you know, at the time when it happened, I felt so alone and isolated, and that got me thinking, Like, you know, I did some research on it, obviously and found that so many women actually go through it and it.
Is such a common thing.
So I chose to share about that experience, even though it was really scary thing to do. But I had planned and as like one would, you know, I'd planned to announce my pregnancy and I had shared that with my employer, and like we had a date set for when I was going to announce my pregnancy, like in my second trimester, and you know, I ended up using that date to actually announce my loss, and my loss happened pretty close. It was, I was an early second trimester pregnancy loss. And so I used that date and I felt really empowered by this because I felt that so many women go through an experience like this, feeling isolated, feeling like they don't have community. And think about it, like, your entire first trimester, you're hiding that you're pregnant, and you're hiding that you're pregnant because like probably to avoid any sort of like public like okay display of like or whatever, you know, when.
If in case you do lose a baby.
And usually they say once you get out of the first trimester, it's like you're in the clear.
You're in the clear, right. But I thought about it, and I was like, but what an isolating thing it is for all of us, Like, so we're you know, we're hiding.
The first trimester can be the hardest trimester for a lot of us, right, because you're sick all the time, You're you're essentially kind of like lying about why you're not having a drink or you're fake drinking, and you're like there're so there are all these like aspects to it that just like don't feel awesome, right, You're like, oh, yeah, I must have eaten something bad and that's why I'm throwing up in the middle of a meeting. Me.
Yeah, exactly. So it's just like so already the already just like having to like.
Kind of this, you know, this this essentially hiding of like the fact that you're going through this this first trimester and you're going through it and it sucks and you can't like lean on people while you're like, you know, lean on your community is already difficult enough, and then when you go through a loss, you're for isolated because you're like, oh, I just went through this horrible first trimester, and now I'm going through this terrible thing, and I can't share about that either, because then that's you know, that's taboo and it's like weird and people don't want to do so I was just like, you know what, I think we should really if this is such a normal thing. I should hate to say normal, because it's it's a horrible and common as the word, right, If this is such a common thing and so many of us are going through this, I think that we should.
Be We should feel able to we should feel that we could.
Be in community on this topic, and that we shouldn't feel afraid to share these things and we should feel empowered to share them. So I shared about it, and the response that I got was overwhelming. Thousands of people reached out sharing their own stories, and it wasn't like, you know, it wasn't It wasn't like something that you would expect where you're like, oh, this is so sad and I'm going to feel sad.
All the stories are stories.
Of hope I had.
You know, I went through a loss and then I had my baby six months later, or I had my rainbow baby six months later, or I went through a loss and then I adopted my son like a year later, and like all these wonderful stories of like there's light on the other side of this, which was so helpful for me, and I think it was healing for just the folks in my community as well, where they were able to share about their stories. And some of these people were like, this is the first time I've ever shared about this, but here it is. And so I think, like, yeah, letting down your guard a little bit can really offer.
Something wonderful.
It can offer a lot of opportunity in a way that I hadn't expected, And so I guess that's maybe one of the I think that's probably one of the more inspiring or lessons that I've.
Learned in the past like five to ten years.
Yeah.
Absolutely, And like you said, you know, it's one of those things that when you're going through it, it feels so isolating, it feels so you know, singular, and then you recognize when you put it out into the ether just how many other people have similar experiences and that sense of community. I love that word community that you come back to because you know it having other people in a support system and building that in an authentic way.
It takes bravery too to.
Be able to say, hey, here's this that I'm going through, I'm going to be vulnerable, I'm going to be open, and to do that in a platform like you have with you know, some people who they feel like they know you quite well because they get to experience you and all that, and you know, to you some of them are you know, regular names that you see on the board or whatever. But now you're developing this sense of a real community and building that. And that's one of the things that I feel like, you know, the Peloton community has built as well, but also just girlhood and womanhood.
And absolutely I love that girlhood and womanhood, I think absolutely, because the last thing when you go through something like that, right, the last thing I wanted was was for anybody else out there to feel like it make them any less of a woman, right, any less of a caring mother or you know whatever it is that you might think when you're going through something like that alone. Yeah, you almost like you want to lend a hand or lend strength or lend support to someone else you might be going through something similar, because why the hell not like when we lift each other up, we're lifting you know, it's like the boat rises with the time.
Yeah.
Yeah, And it's like you never know just how common something is, and it makes you almost feel like a weight is lifted off of yourself. To have that absolutely as well, and you know going through all these you know, growth and changes as a woman. And there's something that you had said in uh that I read that I thought was so hilarious and that I feel all the time is that I think you tweeted this out. The amount of people that call me mam now because you have you're out with your son, Like, what is it?
The ring? The baby?
Why can't I have a baby in a wedding ring and still be missed. I know, I feel this so deeply because and I know most people are just trying to be polite totally, but I'm like, I am far too young to be mam.
Yes.
And it's like as a woman too, You're like no, no, like that that just cracked me.
But that was the most relatable thing I just had to bring that.
Oh my god, I feel that's so hard. I'm like, you know what, I'm still like reading like sci fi and fantasy.
Okay, I am not a man.
I listened to Chapel Road exactly. Oh my gosh, it's so good.
But it's also too one of those things like as you are, you know, going through new chapters of your life and marriage and motherhood and all that kind of stuff, and as an athlete too, and kind of holding onto different parts of your own personality. You know, what has that experience been like in growing through those things?
Ah?
So like basically like being like pub like a pup like almost yeah, like a public figure as well too, and saying okay, you know, you guys first met me here.
And now I've gone through these new chapters and new versions of myself and you know, kind of evolving in the public in a front facing way.
Oh yeah, Oh my gosh, that's like a that's a tough question.
That was just yeah, because I feel like I don't know, I feel like, you know, naturally, you just you evolve as a human being and then and then people just kind of come along.
For the ride.
But you're absolutely right, Like, you know, when I first started at I was single, I wasn't married, I wasn't thinking about having a baby. Yeah, I certainly wasn't a man. I think everybody was calling me miss at that point, deep in.
The miss era.
I was very deep in the miss era. And so yeah, I mean it is definitely like as you evolve and you take on different, like new challenges too, right, Like I got into golf while I was a peloton instructor and now I'm so deep into that sport. Like it was twenty twenty that I really started playing when we had the pandemic and I was with my now husband when we were dating at the time, and I was like, oh, this is like really a huge part of your life, and like I don't have anything else to do, and yeah, we were staying at his folks house when we were like lockdown.
It's a great way to spend a day outside. Yeah, and so golf was great during the pandemic. It's like wait, I mean I get to be in the grass in nature outside and nobody else is around.
Yes, amazing, it was amazing for that.
And so and then also like you get to social distance, but you still get to be like social and you're outside and it's like so it was like, you know, it kind of took me by storm, like I became viciously obsessed with the sport. I was, you know, like I said, I don't half ass anything. I put my whole ass into it. And so then I not only did I become obsessed with sport to like better myself than I was like, oh everything that I do, like you know, as a fitness like I started thinking about it from that perspective, like from the perspective of the trainer that I am, and started thinking about like you know, kinematic sequence and all of those things.
And I ended up getting like.
Certified through uh the Titleist Performance Institute, and I actually created the very first Strength for Golf, Strength and Mobility for Golfers program at Peloton. So you're right, it really these evolutions as you change as a person really do affect what you do in your life and in your career. But it's for me, it's it's felt like it's been in such a like organic way, and I've been able to with a platform like Peloton. They're so wonderful. They've allowed me to kind of grow and do you know, and really access some of these passions that I have and and you know, and expertise and kind of marry my passions and my expertise to create like really fun new content.
Right, And like you said, you don't have asset, you whole ass So not only are you going to be playing golf, but you're going to be teaching other people how to optimize their golf with this. That is such an interesting way to approach it. It's just like, okay, let's start this Peloton class. Because people don't think about it and think, oh, let me go out to the driving range. Sure, we go to the putting grain, but like you said, a rotational sport and building the muscles needed for it.
Yeah, and also like teaching your body how to move in a way that's going to help you have you know, good form essentially or come up with good swing mechanics. Like something I talk about in my golf program is dissociation, Like can you rotate your upper body with keep while keeping your lower body stable? Can you rotate your lower body while keeping your upper body stable? These are all key aspect to being able to like have a mechanically sound swing, because kinematic sequence would have you rotating your lower body first than your trunk, than your arms, and then finally the club head. So it's like those little things that you wouldn't necessarily think of, and you're like, Okay, these moves make sense because it's kind of training your body like that neuromuscular you know, connection to to like understand how to make how to make this move or essentially optimize the move, and how do you.
Do it in a way that Okay, this is that you know. I'm curious too, how do you translate that to the peloton app and different? Like is it okay, let's do this exercise and do you tell people this is how it helps your swing or.
Are you how do you translate? Yeah?
Kind of so like in the program, I talk about kinematic sequence, and I talk about like essentially what the ideal way it is for your body to move to create like the best, the more optimal like swing, right, and everyone has different everybody will have a different swing. There's no swing that's alike, right, And so depending on what your body can do is going to depend on what your swing is going to be. And so you want to like work with what you got essentially, but at the same time, you want to also try to heighten whatever it is. So like here's an example, say you find that you have you don't have a lot of great rotation with your upper body, and you would probably want to focus on like mobility work that's going to help you get that rotation.
It's so interesting too, because the New York City Marathon was recently just you know, relatively within the last few days.
Weeks.
Where are we in time?
I don't know it was it was two weeks ago, Yeah, it was like no last week, it was last Yeah, there's a lot of things that have happened, and like time is expanding.
It was the third of November, I know that, depending on what day it is today.
So we just had the New York City Marathon early November.
Yeah, and I, much like many New Yorkers, decided I want to run a marathon. And I have seen and I've gone through this motion so many times as a just lay person who you know, tried to get out of running the mile every week in te and suddenly after college was like, you know what, maybe I could be an athlete, you know. And every time I've thought I want to run a marathon, I was like, I'll train for a half marathon, I'll do that, and then I'll do a whole one. I've run a handful of half marathons, and every time I have finished a half marathon, I think I cannot imagine doing that Twice. I feel like though there's some level of just a mental hurdle there too. And you know when you've got you know, people in your classes or people you're coaching or people you're working with that are like, this is the goal I have, but I am hitting this mental block here. I don't know if my body is physically capable of it. How do you encourage people to get over those mental blocks, whether they be in running, in fitness, in life?
What have you?
Yeah?
I mean, to be honest, we have so many members that it's rare that I have people well, at least not during class time right, they'll make it come up afterwards.
But yeah, I I guess.
Like the mental wall thing is very real. I think like anything else, it's it's kind of like you make you make when you decide to try something new, right, Like whether it's if you said, Okay, I'm gonna try this marathon, but it's scary, Like first of all, you made the choice to to tempt this new thing. Good on you, Like you're amazing just for being brave enough to say I'm gonna try something new.
And then if it scares you, good right, it should.
Yeah, because if it didn't scare you, then that probably you need to shoot for something higher.
Then there's a lot of growth in it.
And I think you got to make peace with the fact that not everyone is going to win their first marathon, unlike some people at this table right here. I cannot get over how impressive that is. I know you can minimize and say, oh, there's only four people in Nova Scotia, whatever, that is still wow. That is such an accomplishment and just kind of facing these and tackle these hurdles and life and all that kind of stuff. It's such an impressive journey that you've had. And I'm excited to watch it continue to unfold.
Thank you so much, Yes.
And I'm really grateful for you coming on this show today, Selena, Thank you so much for joining us.
Selena Samuela Peloton.
Instructor, mother, sister, wonderful, inspiring human is our guest this week on her Playbook podcast, presented by Kendra Scott, the jewelry company that's shining bright and doing good. Shop jewelry styles designed for every day and every occasion at your local Kendrascott store or at Kendrascott dot com
