For the Love of the Map

Episode 21: Twenty Episodes Later - Still Sweating, Still Laughing

June 19, 2024 • For the Love of the Map • Episode 21

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Join us as we take a nostalgic journey through the highlights of our podcast's first 20 episodes. This special episode revisits our favorite moments, from the hilarious and challenging workouts to deep discussions about the transformative power of VR fitness. Tune in for a heartfelt reflection on the laughter, learning, and shared experiences that have defined the podcast so far.

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Julia:

Hey everyone, this is Sweet Tea and I'm going to tell you a little story. About a year and a half ago, marla batted around the idea to start a podcast and I thought she was crazy. But at the beginning of the year she said go buy your stuff, we're doing this and the rest is history. So here's a recap over our last 20 episodes. I hope you enjoy it over our last 20 episodes.

MJ:

I hope you enjoy it. So I was thinking, if we just start a podcast going into our favorite workouts, into how long we've been doing Supernatural, whatever, some people would probably have no idea what is happening.

Julia:

A podcast.

Doc:

We want to start a podcast Are you kidding?

MJ:

You could explain to the people who don't know what Supernatural is. Maybe a little bit about what Supernatural is. How about that?

Julia:

Supernatural. So you put this white box on your face, yeah, over your eyes, okay, you have two controllers, one in each hand, mm-hmm, and you go in and there, well, I mean for me, one in each hand, mm-hmm. And you go in and they're Well, I mean for me, it was Leanne. She just pops up, she tells you what to do, but you go into a workout and this beautiful round portal opens up in front of your face and out comes white and black targets with cones that look like balloons, the cones fair and I mean you just turn your brain off, you go, move, you dance, sometimes you're boxing, sometimes you're flowing and you just move and you have fun and you sweat and you are transported into these places.

Julia:

You, you've got to tell them about the places.

MJ:

Tell them about places, there's so many places, but because you have this box on your face, this headset on your face and it's, it's VR.

Julia:

So it looks so real.

MJ:

It's such great quality. You really are transported to these other places. Personally, I like the made-up places, the sci-fi worlds, the not real environments. That's my preference. But you can look all around it 360,. You can look all around and you feel like you're there. And then you have the music, then you have the coaches coaching you the whole time and giving you affirmations and all these positive things that you need to hear. And because you're moving, because you're sweating and all these things are happening all at once, it's like your brain. Like Julia said earlier, your brain turns off, but it also opens up and allows you to accept all of this positivity that you had no idea you needed in your life first of all, but it just like absorbs it like a sponge, and I know for me that is probably the reason I love Supernatural the most. This was our first episode and it was fun.

Julia:

It was fun and I'm so glad, you know, for those that tuned in. Thank you guys. On episode two, Marla and I discussed the importance of community.

MJ:

I think that we should talk about the community on Facebook like the official Supernatural community. That's how you and I met.

Julia:

Yeah, very true.

MJ:

We sure did. That's how we interact with the coaches outside of the headset making posts and interacting with other athletes, finding people to add to your leaderboard. Um, what else? There's like a million things that happen on the community page People press videos.

Julia:

There are a lot of things, yeah, so many things. I think that before you find it you don't realize it, but you kind of feel alone. And then when you find the community which took me a week to find the community- when I first started.

Julia:

So that's very interesting, and I don't remember what, what cued me in to even think. I think I just sat down and was like well, I wonder if they, they have a place on Facebook, you know where I can connect with other people who, because I'm loving this so much, so I need to find you know other people, so I need to find you know other people. And when you don't have other people that love what you're doing and you can connect with you, you do you just kind of feel alone. So to find your people and to find the group of that like-mindedness is, I believe, very important to your supernatural journey.

MJ:

It is for me definitely an obsession, um, where it's like you're thinking about the workouts and this. This was after a week, and that's why I went searching, because I was like there's got to be other people who want to talk about this. I need people to talk to and I wanted to learn all of the um, just like anything I could about it who started? Who started it? Who makes this? Are the coaches real?

MJ:

Are the coaches, real people. You know, like, what is this? I didn't know. I went and looked at this post and I still have followers and I still follow them back from that post.

MJ:

Right back from that post and I just think that's so cool to look back on because over the years I've developed friendships with some of them, you know by just liking their posts in the app or leaving comments or making posts in the community and them interacting, and I just think it's really cool that, all the way from August of 2021, I still have friends and, yeah, you know, it's cool to look back on.

Julia:

And I mean it is good to interact there because I never saw your post and you were interacting, but I saw you through another athlete and so because I interacted with that athlete and that athlete shared one of your first, videos that you put out. Then I was like Marla, who is this Marla? And I never would have seen you or met you.

MJ:

So interacting there there's an algorithm, I'm sure, but interacting there is very important, commenting on people's posts, but it is an awesome place where you feel so much love and support what I think is also something important to mention, not only to get plugged into the official community page, but there are so many offshoot, little external communities that have sprung up because of so many people being interested in supernatural. You've got competitive groups. You've got groups for different milestones. You have groups if you want to focus on healthy eating and doing supernatural. You have groups that their sole purpose is to help motivate you to get in the headset by offering adventures or bingo cards.

MJ:

There's just so much out there besides the official community that you could plug into to really help you stay connected in your fitness journey, your health journey, your journey with Supernatural, and I think it's really important to share those things. For me personally, I know if it wasn't for the external communities that I'm very much involved in, I wouldn't get in the headset. Sometimes Life can be overwhelming. A million excuses pop up, but if I'm signed up for a competition or a team event, I'm going to show up for my team.

MJ:

I'm going to show up because I agreed to.

Julia:

I signed up for this and I'm going to do whatever I have to do and their own way of saying things there and encouraging people, and everybody has their place. Everybody belongs.

MJ:

For sure.

Julia:

No matter what, no matter where you are in your life, no matter how old you are, no matter your fitness level, there's something there for everyone and there's always. You know, I love to read and see people's journey.

MJ:

I feel like talking about the community and having an episode very specifically about the community and the importance of getting involved. It's very important.

Julia:

Now we come to episode three, where Marla and I talk about SuperSense and how your mood can affect your workout.

MJ:

I want to talk about SuperSense because, you see, last week we mentioned SuperSense during the episode. However, we did not circle back because we got distracted on all the other things we want to talk about.

Doc:

Of course we did.

MJ:

Yeah, I know it's what we do.

Julia:

Us.

MJ:

Distracted.

Julia:

No way.

MJ:

So I thought maybe we could explain what SuperSense is how to use it maybe show some really cool video clips of some people using SuperSense and go from there. So if you've never used SuperSense before, basically the targets disappear in front of your eyes and the coolest thing about it is, the better you do, the better you are with your accuracy the targets sort of disappear sooner. So as you're learning how to do it, when you first start up a workout and you're in super sense, the targets will disappear farther from the portal, like so when they're closer to you it's kind of easy to remember. But then as you keep getting more and more of the targets, they start disappearing farther away like closer to the portal um, and I just think that's really cool it is really

Julia:

jedi mind trick type thing you know it is, it's fun, and I don't use it a lot because I honestly forget about it. It's better to use super sense, in my opinion, in a higher intensity than a lower one, because I think that you're trying to hit the target. I mean, you're always hitting the target on beat, but it's just easier, I feel like on a high, a medium, or a high, a low, for me it's way harder.

Doc:

but it may not be that way for everyone.

Julia:

But you find SuperSense in your settings. It's going to be up at the top right-hand corner. It looks like a little toggle thing.

Julia:

Yeah, a little. Yeah, so click on that. Go under your settings. I did not check this to see which one you click on, but if you play around in your settings inside of your headset you can turn super sense on, but when you go back in you have to remember to turn it off, because what happens is we go into something crazy like a pros only only, and then super sense is still on, and then you yell hold on, hold, on, hold on hold on, just wait for me, I'll be right back the super sense is a lot of fun and I think it really challenges you.

Julia:

So if you go into a workout that you used to be challenged in and you no longer feel challenged in that workout, the next best thing to do is turn on super spins Fun stuff, everybody needs to try it once.

MJ:

I agree I got a little full of myself, a little cocky maybe, and I decided to go in, to return to the madhouse in super spins because I know that workout like the back of my hand, like I can hear the music, I know the choreography, I know it's about to happen and I thought well, this workout it's very fast. I know it's like muscle memory kicks in. For me I'll be really good. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Julia:

I miss like 90 targets oh no, which song were you like? This was a big mistake, like the first one, or did you write it out for a little while?

MJ:

I mean I wrote it out, I thought it was. I was like okay, well, I'll just get better the more and more I do it. No no. And I think I miss in sudden death. I probably miss more targets than the very first time I ever played that workout, but it was a lot of fun, it don't get me wrong and you go into a flow state. I didn't allow myself to really go into a flow state. That was the problem, I think. I think it would be hard to. Yeah.

Julia:

And it's hard for me to go on a flow state anyway. But I think in um I have used it in forget the madhouse only. I've used it only once in a pros only and it was in Forget the Madhouse and it was challenging. It's quite challenging and sometimes it can almost make you feel because you do kind of have to give up that control, but it can make you feel some frustration if you're not ready for it. I can't, so maybe it's not good for the prose.

MJ:

You know, the best time to do Super sense is in a party with friends especially if they've never done super sense before, because you get to hear what, huh, what's happening.

MJ:

Oh no, I can, especially together. Like we realize that our mood has a lot to do with the way we're going to feel about a workout. Totally does. Did we do it together? Did my opinion sort of wear on your opinion and influence that, or vice versa? Are we just in a crappy mood and then we go and play it a second time to make sure?

MJ:

did I really feel this way about this workout. You know, I know a few weeks ago we did a workout that you really enjoyed the day it came out and you were like let's play this. And we played it in a group and I and me and a couple of the other people were like, like why are we playing this workout again? What is this? Why are we doing this one? I was like is this?

Julia:

the same one, right.

MJ:

But when we got to the last song and then it was like, okay, now I see why Julia really loved the last song. Choreo was great. But it's funny because your mood in your mind, you loved the whole thing so much that you wanted all of us to play it with you, yeah. But when we get in there and we're kind of like, huh, julie, what, what, what happened? What happened here? Oh man. So I think it's interesting that mood definitely has an effect on the way we proceed.

Julia:

The workout.

MJ:

It's always important to give it a second try.

Julia:

It is, it is, I think so. And now we come to episode four. We have a lot of stuff we talk about in this episode. We talk about knee strikes, comparison of flow and boxing and boxing form and style. Our knee strikes finally came to us on October 25th of 2022. So we had to wait so many months After being told about them. It was hard to wait. Months after being told about them, it was hard to wait, and then we they released.

Julia:

I think, it was what three flow and three boxing knee strike workouts so kind of how they did when they released boxing. We'll we'll talk about boxing one day, but you know, we had to try them all in the in the one day and then almost hurt ourselves. But were the knees for you the way that you thought they would be when they came out?

MJ:

No, I guess I try not to have any expectations. It's just the way I live life anyway, then, I'm not disappointed. I'm kind of good you know just that way. But I was shocked by how hard I felt it was to do knee strikes and flow when I initially did those six intro to knee strike workouts. It was because I was so used to my own style and flow.

MJ:

And I often add knees or lift my knees when it makes sense to me. Right and I would be standing, you know, in a flow stance, wide, ready for squats and lunges and stuff, and then you had this knee and it was difficult for me to figure out the stance for that you know, but boxing. I really enjoyed it in boxing, for sure. I loved it in boxing. In fact, I think I went back and did those three boxing workouts like over and over with the knee strikes.

Julia:

Okay, yeah, I think for me it was really the same. They came out and you know I was doing the workouts. I did all of them several times just to kind of see you know how I liked them and what I thought of them. And you know we have been flowing. I've been flowing since December of 2020. Um, you've been flowing since August of 2021.

Julia:

And so that's a long time to kind of, you know, get your style. Yes, I lean a lot with the targets and I really focus on what the triangles are telling me to do and I try to dance when I can dance and move my body. You know the way the choreographers are telling me to, but also, you know I put my own style in it and lean and you lift my legs sometimes, and so when I'm doing a flow workout with knee strikes, I'm anticipating the knee coming, and so I almost feel like I've got to be on both feet on balance and I almost feel like I can't, you know, do my own style, you know, and and do the knee strikes too, because it feels like I might fall over.

Doc:

Well see, this is boxing.

Julia:

I felt kind of like you. You know, I felt like it really went. It was easier because in the boxing you're kind of standing in your stance with your two feet and you're ready to go and you're ready for that knee and you can be more prepared for it, right.

MJ:

For sure I do, and even now I still prefer knee strikes in boxing over flow. And I love the balance work. I love testing my balance, you know, especially with leg lifts. So, knees just made sense. But it is still sort of difficult for me in flow just to make it flow basically to feel like it all is cohesive and goes together.

Julia:

Yeah, so for me, I, if I had a knee strike flow workout, I would rather it be almost like that teaser video where we just have knee strikes, it's just, and you go in there and you're like okay, we're basically more. It's more about the knee strikes than it is about anything else, so if less targets

MJ:

and more knees.

Julia:

Right. So if knee strikes left out of flow and they only had them in boxing, I probably wouldn't be mad. I think that I would feel OK with that, but I don't know. There are ways that the knee strikes can enhance a flow, if you think about boss moves.

MJ:

That's true, that's very true.

Julia:

There are times when they're used different ways.

Doc:

And.

Julia:

I'm not going to say every flow workout I don't like them. I'm not even going to say that I actually think this is something that you and I could say, that we always don't agree on going to say that I actually think this is something that you and I could say that we always don't agree on. I will like more flow.

MJ:

Knee strikes than you will. You'll be like today's had really good knee strikes and I'm like, oh really, and I give it a try. And I'm like, julia, what are you talking about? These are not good, but you know it's okay.

Julia:

We should have a little scoreboard behind us Instead of our pictures. We should just have. No, actually is wrong again, but you in so many workouts that you're like what are you doing?

MJ:

Well, yeah, you were. You were fired a long time ago. It's, it's been a while you, you've improved over time.

Julia:

I'll say I have, I have that good workouts now.

Julia:

Yeah, I do much better than I used to. So in episode five, Marla and I discuss a little bit of a controversial topic. We talk about form and supernatural flow. It took me a while to fix my form, but not only and I'm sure your form has evolved over your time in Supernatural the way mine has but so I've fixed, you know, chilling out on not hitting the target so hard. But then I also learned how to not just use my arms. Yeah, in turn I had to learn to use my whole body and turn it into a whole full body workout. So I'm, you know, leaning, using my legs, my core, my arms too, but not just my arms.

MJ:

I think once you've flown for a while, once you've been doing flow, um, and you get past the initial oh my gosh, there's targets coming at me, there's triangles, all of these things. I'm trying to focus, I'm trying to move. Once you get that stuff down and you start working on one thing after another, you know like, after you get the targets down, you move to the triangles and the movement with the triangles right, then you can start focusing on really using your full, full body to hit targets and then naturally, you're not hitting as fast or as hard because your lower body is doing a lot of work. Yeah, more fun.

MJ:

Another thing I kind of want to point out when it comes to form and you hear this a lot in the coaching, when they consistently say don't use T-Rex arms or straight arms, this, that and the other, I think people misinterpret that the wrong way. And let me explain. To comfortably move your arm without shoulder pain, without injuring your shoulder, you need to bend, you need to be flexible, you need to be flowy. If you're consistently rigid and all of your movement is coming directly from your shoulders, that's a recipe for injury.

Justin:

It is.

MJ:

This is my opinion. I'm not a health professional.

MJ:

This is just my opinion from being and and using supernatural for so long and seeing so many other people go through injuries, yeah, and then when I see their form, I'm not saying my form is perfect, but it is definitely something to think about when they're telling you don't be T-Rex arms, don't just sit there and use your wrists, don't be T-Rex arms, don't just sit there and use your wrists. You can bend your elbows and you can move and flow and do what's comfortable. Obviously, if you can do a high flow with perfectly straight arms and not injure, not hurt yourself, well, more power to you. But I seriously doubt 99.9% of people can.

Julia:

Honestly, it's yeah. And and I mean, how many people do we know that have had rotator cuff? Yeah, Not only injuries, but surgeries.

MJ:

I know several athletes that have had to go in and have rotator cuff surgeries and I think it's important to follow the forum that feels good to you and to record, seriously, record yourself. You don't have to share it with anyone, but to look back and see what it is that you are doing while in the headset, because it's totally different than what you think it is. I promise you that?

Julia:

Oh yes, it definitely is.

MJ:

Yeah, it could help prevent serious injuries later on. It can address some of the problems you might be having of the soreness and and the injuries that you're dealing with, um. So I think it's very important to do that, along with paying attention to what the coaches say, obviously. But if you look in the community, they do those one-on-one videos or one-on-one where they talk about form and different topics.

MJ:

They haven't done one in a while, but I'm definitely going to find the one on form and post it in our group because coach doc and Mark went through it and man, it was like a light bulb moment for me when doc was like, listen, do what feels good for you, you know for me, and he's and this is me quoting him he was like for me I'm all bend my elbows a little bit. You know that's what feels good for me, because I have a college football injury and when they're saying don't be T T-Rex, they're saying don't close yourself up like this and just be hitting targets with your wrist. So I just find that interesting. And especially, I do it in lows too Lows, mediums, highs and pros only.

Julia:

Episode six is really fun because Marla and I discuss why we started the podcast and how that came about.

Julia:

We also talk about our thoughts on if Supernatural ever had a convention in the future. When I work out, I oftentimes this is one of the things I think about. Not only do I think about what if I was in the middle of Walmart doing this and people could see me? I know that's really weird. One of the other things I think about is what would a convention be like? The people that we would get to meet, Not only the athletes, are so many athletes like. One day. One day, you and I are going to have a podcast where we are sitting in the same room with each other. It's going to happen one day. It's going to be amazing.

Julia:

That would be really rad we probably wouldn't even be on a podcast. We would. We couldn't even act, right? No?

MJ:

definitely not.

Julia:

But to be able to meet other athletes that we've known some people for me for three years and to be able to meet coaches, choreographers.

MJ:

Yes, I was about to say I want to meet behind behind the scenes people. I want to see the whole filming process. But you know I get that Supernatural is probably a little guarded about sharing some of that stuff. But like, give me all the behind the scenes stuff. I want to know how things are done, how they edit everything together for the workouts, the choreography team I have a million in 52 000 questions and I also have lots of hugs for them because I'm a hugging kind of person.

Julia:

Um, well, and that's what we're here for, the core, for the love of the map. Yeah, if people don't know, I mean I guess we've never really explained this the map is the choreography. Yeah, the mapping, the choreography, exactly.

MJ:

So that's what we're here for Exactly Because that's while we were friends before our love affair with mapping came to be. I suppose that's really what got us hanging out together all the time and why we wanted to work out together all the time, because we wanted to experience workouts and talk about the mapping.

MJ:

And um, if and this will be kind of fun we should tell the people how this sort of started. Um, Julia and I would join group parties with lots of other people and we would start talking about the choreography and workouts and we'd sort of take over the party and everyone else would be quiet and we'd realize, oh shoot, oh shoot, We've sort of taken over the party about talking about this hit or that hit or this workout and that, and you know, everyone else is kind of focused on their day or their family or their life and we're like so we have blinders on. We're talking about mapping, that's right.

Julia:

And they got quiet and we realized that we were the only ones talking and we were like, oh, they're not talking about this stuff with us. We have taken over parties talking about things that people are like I don't even know what they're talking about what they're talking about.

MJ:

I just get in the headset why this is important to them, right? And so someone suggested, hey, why don't you guys do your own sort of like party and open it up? And we did. We hosted a party. It was like a Sunday party where the focus was just to talk about choreography, the maps, and it was open to anyone and people would join and we would pick the workouts. We would do all the same workouts and chat about them. And so that's how, for the Love of the Map happened, because that's what we called it, right, and Julie and I just talk so much about choreography and about mapping. And you know we had previously discussed starting a podcast about Supernatural A year and a half ago, which is insane, Insane right and I was like yeah, yeah, that would be cool, that would be fun, but that's not for me, you know.

Julia:

I always say, okay, you know, but I never imagined that we would be doing it. And then one day you're like but we are but we are yeah go buy your stuff and I'm like go get your stuff. What we do talk more about achieving our goals and finding motivation in episode six, so you could go check out that episode if you want to hear more. But on episode seven we talk about team-based community competitions and why they get us so excited.

MJ:

Speaking of side-by-sides community side-by-sides that is probably one of my favorite things we did together last year. When we decided to start doing them twice a month. Just getting to see everyone come together and film themselves and the whole process and you getting to see everyone come together and film themselves and the whole process and you getting to put them together. It's my favorite thing last year.

Julia:

It's really cool to spend that little bit of time that I do with each person, editing them in there, seeing everyone's style. Um, you know, I can recognize people from their yes, their, I'll say living room, but not everybody's in their living room, their workout area, and if somebody changes it up on me, I'm like wait, who is this? I don't know who. You know it's. It's so cool. It is so cool to see everyone in that one place together, the big rectangle or square or whatever that we put everyone in moving together, exactly the same it's. It's very powerful.

Julia:

Well it's very fun to put them together.

MJ:

It really is and see how that all started. I don't think a lot of people realize this, but it started from team competitions. From the first team competition, you finally joined because you used to. You used to work out with me and be like what are we doing today, marla? Are you in a competition? Like I am, I have to do such and such workouts. And you're like, okay, I'll do them with you, but you would never actually join the competitions, but you would do the workouts with me.

Julia:

I would all the workouts. It makes me wonder now, how many you know, if I was actually in those competitions with you, would we have even been on the same team? And would I have, how would I have done? Because I did so many competition workouts with you. But that's the way that we were able to even dive deeper into choreography.

Julia:

The way that we have it truly is, and that is Because we did some good workouts, but we also did some really bad ones, did some horrible workouts, and that is we did some good workouts, but we also did some horrible and like multiple time horrible workouts.

MJ:

I you are the best friend ever workout buddy friend ever, because you would suffer through one with me. Yeah, and then I'd be like Julia, I have to do this workout again. You're like what? And I'm like you do whatever you want, I'm going to, I'm going to do that. And she'd always say, no, I'll do it with you. I'm like, oh, you're the best.

Julia:

I would do them all. Well, and I think for me I get in the headset and I've said this before and I kind of just don't want to choose some days. I just want somebody to just choose for me. So it kind of took for you it helped you get through your competition, but for me it helped me not have that. What fatigue of of choosing what I needed to do that day it was like decision.

Julia:

Yeah, I just got in and I was like tell me what to do, but that's our theme, right, tell me what to do.

MJ:

But I, I, I don't think you're alone. I think there are a lot of people who are also like that and that's why they love competitions, because you know it's just like okay, well, here's your set workouts, I'll go do them. I know what to do. It gets them in the headset when they don't necessarily have internal motivation to get in.

MJ:

They'll get in for their team Um, but the first competition that you ever joined and the first competition that we did a team side-by-side for was the Oakland Harry Potter tournament, team tournament, and I talked Julia into this by saying I talked Julia into this by saying Julia you can be on my team Will you join, if you can be on my team, you can be like a helper, you can help me.

MJ:

And Debbie lead Slytherin house. And she was like really, I don't know, I have to think about it and I'm like, so I sent her a t-shirt. She did.

Julia:

I sent her a Slytherin t-shirt and I was like slytherin, slytherin.

MJ:

You know, it took me a while to even be okay with the slytherin, I know, and so I sent her a t-shirt y'all and I did. I'm like, yeah, she's either gonna go, okay, I'll do this, and she did, and it was the best time to actually be on the same team together there's we do a lot of theme events, so we go theme it up and we really get into it, and Harry Potter is probably our favorite theme tournament that we do.

Julia:

Episode eight is just filled with all kinds of things Burpees, hats and even high points workouts.

MJ:

You don't want to miss this one, but seriously now that we've gone off on a tangent about hats and merch and burpees. I mean, I did not expect to discuss burpees this morning. In fact, I can't even remember last time I did one I think I did try to do 10 about like a year ago and I was like why am I doing this?

Julia:

This is dumb 10 about like a year ago and I was like why am I doing this? This is dumb. I think I was in a group a supernatural group that had some like side challenges and we would do some outside of the headset things and it was like, um, it was like burpees, I think, one time, and I actually was able to do a lot of them. I hate them but I worked my way up to being able to do like so many and then I quit and then now I probably couldn't do 10.

MJ:

So if you don't use it, you lose it. This is true. This is true in all things, except for riding a bike, cause you don't lose that one.

Julia:

Yeah, that is very true. They say you lose your ability to skip. So everybody go outside today and go skip, so you don't forget For sure.

MJ:

Yeah, at least once a week. Skip once a week. I'm going to do that. Yeah, you should. It's fun. It is fun, it's like being a kid again. Yeah, I found a challenge that's getting me to do hard things, yeah.

Julia:

Yeah, to do hard things, yeah.

MJ:

Yeah, you've also found a way to work out and have workouts that have high points.

Julia:

So I'm not, I'm trying to, I'm like how?

MJ:

do I maximize?

Julia:

your time.

MJ:

Yes.

Julia:

So you have a graphic and. I'll put it in. And it's so helpful because, you know, for me, I go in, I'm like, what do I do? And then you're like, what are you doing? And I'm like I'm doing this one and you're like, get out of that workout, that one is no points. Well, you have workouts on a graphic that are fun and high points.

MJ:

So if you are looking for that type of thing, I will make sure that you have that I have a couple of those types of go-to workouts and on graphics, I have one graphic I share that Julia will share here, and then I have some kind of hidden workouts too that I don't have on a graphic. I know there's the community air table and lots of us, lots of people use it. It's an amazing free resource, has all the workouts. They even have it broken down to the best workouts for points per minute. This is my issue with that one it does not tell you anything about the choreography or about the workout itself, and so this is why I have made my own list, because for me there are lots of other workouts in the library that I could maximize my time, get more points, but I would probably complain the whole time because I don't like the choreography in the sense that it's just boring for me.

MJ:

Up and down movements If it's just consistently up down, scissor hits, the setup's not right. Setup is a huge thing for me. I need targets to lead me to the next target. I hyper-focus on it and I try not to, but I do.

Julia:

I think it steals your joy sometimes.

MJ:

It does, it takes me out. Yeah, I'm thinking then, yeah, instead of just flowing and going with the workout, I'm thinking Um, and so, yes, I do have um suggestions that I consider good choreography and also high points, yeah, so how would you suggest people move from high intensity to pros?

Julia:

only Julia, Well, I think there's two ways. One way is a smart way and one way is a crazy. I won't say not smart, but maybe a crazy way. Just do them. Yes, now, if you just go in and just do them and your body isn't prepared and you haven't trained for them, you could injure yourself. But if you go in and just do them and not care about your score and not care about if you miss a target or if you didn't get this certain pattern, you will eventually, if you do something over and over and over again, just get better at it. So if you go in and you base your first play on, if you like it or not, I think that's really not a good way to go about that, but I think a better way. Well and I say this because that's how my journey started I got in the headset and I played a low while I did training, played a low, then I played a medium, and then I'm like, well, all right, all that's left is a high. There wasn't a pros.

Julia:

Only when I first started and so I played the high with a lot of fear. I was like what is about to happen to me? I was like what is about to happen to me? I was like, okay, I can do this. So I don't recommend just going in and being a high flow person. I really think it's good to mix it up and keep your body guessing, but that's not what we're here to talk about. But I do think that starting with high, you know, working your way up to a high and then from there you can find some high plus workouts. We kind of call them like training workouts.

Julia:

Yes, we do that, you can you know we can compile a list of them for you guys. But if you're curious, but doing those and working up to it, you know some people just can't go get in a prose only. They feel overwhelmed by the targets and the complexity and some of the old prose. You know, target density in there is crazy Some of the songs. So, yeah, it's. It would definitely be a journey if you're not just going to throw yourself in and just keep doing it over and over again until you get it, if something new, a new prose comes out. That's kind of the way I do it. I just play it over and over again. Episode nine is really cool. We talk about the choreography team and we talk about some behind the scenes things that we've found, looking on Instagram and Facebook and other places to learn more about them.

MJ:

I want to talk about the choreography team. Oh, yes, Choreography team. I do. And there's a choreography team. I think so. I mean, I'm assuming. I know it's not AI who does the mapping, though Lots of people in the community want to say that I know there is a team because I've done a lot of deep diving in the community. I have a post Are you a spy? Maybe? Maybe just a little bit.

Julia:

Well, get that out in the open. Yeah, I'll be.

MJ:

No, um, I've done a deep dive in the community and I have a post where I went and found all of the information that I could possibly find about all of the choreographers and any content that they have had in the community group and I compiled it into a post with links and you can link and go go see the videos that are available, but there are not a lot and the ones that are there are from years ago.

MJ:

So as a spy, is there like a conspiracy, like why don't we know who the choreographers are?

Julia:

no, are they Like hidden people that we don't get to know about? I guess? But your post in the community is an amazing post full of a lot of great resources. Um, there's a lot of really good comments on there. Um a lot of things that, uh, that people want to see for sure I think are really cool ideas and you've just continued to watch for things and compare things I do their screenshots and as soon as I see anyone write a comment asking for some of the usual things that I know I've asked for.

MJ:

I want to see side by sides of the choreographers, you know, playing their maps.

Doc:

I would love to see that.

MJ:

And there are a couple, but they're not full length ones, they're just like little snippets and I've I've added that in there, but there are a lot of similar requests. So anytime I see those requests, I screenshot them and add them to a collage.

MJ:

And I try and keep this post that I made sometime last year, because it was right before I took my daughter to see the Nutcracker Ballet, because I remember thinking, oh, that reminds me there was a Nutcracker video of two of the choreographers going kind of talking about the Nutcracker. I wanted to say episode, but Nutcracker workout that was coming out, yeah.

MJ:

So anyway, point is I um, I try and keep the post relevant and update it with the screenshots of the people Cause I in the hopes that maybe one day we would get more kind of behind the scenes content from not just the coaches, which I just want to say. I do appreciate all of the content that coaches give us because they are out there, they share their lives with us.

Julia:

We see behind the scenes makings of workouts and, like coach Rainier's Instagram, I just I would love to see some of that from the choreography team, you know it would be cool it would be cool to see what they're working on and I mean, I'm sure they can only share so much, but like how they go about, you know, getting their content and putting it together and kind of what goes into a lot of those back-end things that we don't get to see.

MJ:

I know, I know we get so excited about like the possible of seeing behind the curtain and I get that supernatural wants to be protective. It's we get it, but like show us, can you show us some things like?

Julia:

something Like you said. We do get some glimpses on. Instagram If you, if you really watch um some of the coaches and even supernaturals Instagram page. They, if you really watch um some of the coaches and even Supernatural's Instagram page they will show you every now and again a little workout snippet of um. You know, one of the coaches in the studio you know working out with the blue screen, and um, some of the behind the scenes little you know.

Julia:

I'm always pausing and like pausing, pausing, pausing seeing what things I can see and what things I could like deduce from from what I am seeing.

Julia:

Try not to make too many assumptions of what's going on, but I'm always like what's happening here, what are we doing? And I think that's how we were able to see some like knee strikes before. Like I paused and I was like that's a different type of target or, you know, it was just a little cause. We were waiting for those, those to come, and so I think there's a whole lot of things you can get from that, but for sure. But back to the choreographers yeah, we want, we want to know more about them, even just a question, question and answer.

MJ:

Oh man, a Q and a would be so fun, and of course they wouldn't be able to answer all of the questions that the community asked. But you know they could have like a moderator in there and and and I'm sure the choreographers know what they're allowed to talk about and what they're not allowed to talk about, right? I mean, we just want to know who they are.

Julia:

See them we don't want to know where they live or anything. What's your favorite food? I mean, don't you want to know cool little facts about people? I do, I think that would just be really neat to know a little bit about each of them, just so we could relate to them, because they're the ones that put together the targets on these workouts that we are doing. So I think it would be really cool just to know a little bit more about them.

MJ:

For sure. I have lots of questions for a question and answer session. I'm already prepared for if it ever happened one day. I have a list and I'll just be in there typing, like let's see if they can answer one of my questions.

Julia:

So, yeah, episode nine is a really fun episode and I urge you to go back and listen to it and hear all the things that we have to talk about about, because that was just a small snippet of things that we know about the choreography team. So that brings us to episode 10. And episode 10 is a really special episode because Marla and I share our journeys of how we found Supernatural and how we heal our mind, body and soul with VR fitness.

MJ:

Our stories, our Supernatural stories.

Julia:

Yeah, okay, I didn't know if you were going all the way back to our birth or what was happening.

MJ:

That's why I thought I would clarify, because, man, I know we record long episodes, but like our whole stories, wow, yeah, that would be a lot.

Julia:

But then, yes, I found the headset, bought it for my kids, it was just for them and I put it on just to check it out. Just standing in my home, in the home environment that the kids had set on there, I looked around for like 10 minutes in awe. We had bought them something like the year before.

MJ:

It was like this little plastic thing that you put your phone in, and it was same VR, yeah.

Julia:

And so I was expecting it to look like that you know, just kind of like rinky dink, I guess, and I stood there just like this is just putting it on. This is real, this is crazy, and it just disconnected me from reality. Um, and I just kind of messed around in it for a few days and I would take it from them when they weren't in it and you know they're like mom, give me back, give us, give us back our headset, you know, and um, and then, you know, found different apps and I played on different things and games and, um, I think I played virtual virtual reality, which is just like a little game. You go and solve clues, never even thinking about fitness, and I think I just did a search one day for fitness apps and I found several.

Julia:

There's a lot more now but there were a few and tried a few of them and then Supernatural popped up and I was like, oh, this is this looks really cool and I I put it on and I did the tutorials. Leanne pops up. I've told the story that I didn't even think she was real. I thought she was, like you know, ai or something an.

Julia:

AI or a CGI or a hologram. I didn't know what she was in my living room, did not think she was a real person Cause I didn't know about supernatural at all, like I'd never heard of it before. Really, I hadn't heard of the the Oculus Is that what it was called?

Julia:

then it's changed names, I don't know, Whatever the thing is, it was we had a quest to quest, a quest to, and I had never really even heard of that when we got it for the kids. So I put it on, saw her did the tutorials, did my very first workout and I was like this is the most fun thing I have ever had done in my life. I couldn't believe it and it was exciting and it brought me joy and I was just standing in my living room doing it but remember, but thinking I don't care who sees me doing this, I don't care. You know, I just wanted to keep doing. It was so much fun. And I think that day, my first day, I did like five or six workouts which, wow, as you know, that was Wow, the worst thing that I could have done?

MJ:

Did you get in the next day or did you take a break?

Julia:

Oh my, goodness, I was obsessed with Wow like it was an immediate obsession, obsession, and I'm just so excited every time, even if it's an old workout that I've done before. There's just something about going in there and hitting those balloons and it stimulates some place in my brain. It's never a bad time. So I would like to know what is your story? Is it similar to mine?

MJ:

Is it?

Julia:

different. How did you get started?

MJ:

Similar in the sense that I had no desire to use the quest to uh. We bought it for our daughter for Christmas. She played on it. I didn't even get on it like for months.

Julia:

Oh wow, oh wow, for months you never even like put it on your head or anything I mean once to do the roller coaster game.

MJ:

Roller coaster, I think my daughter was really big into vacation simulator at the time and she she would want to show me the little butterflies and the things she would collect, and so I would go in there. We would cast it to the TV. But she wanted me to go in and so I would. But that was that. And, um, I had a doctor's appointment. It was in August and I had a doctor's appointment and the doctor was like Marla, you know, something's got to give, something's got to change. You're not, you are not. Well, you will not make it another 10 years if you continue living the way that you are living today. Um, you know, you have a beautiful little girl. She was like almost nine, or she was. She had just turned nine, I think at the time, and, um, the thought of only making it till like her 20th birthday scared the crap out of me. Like that was on a Friday. And then that Monday I took her to school and I dropped her off and I decided I'm gonna do this program that I've seen some of my friends on the internet doing, which was called 75 hard, and I went for a walk after I dropped her off at school and then, in 75 hard, you have to do two workouts 45 minute workouts a day. One has to be.

MJ:

So I went for a walk and then the next one can be outside, it can be inside, but it has to be 45 minutes. And I was like, what am I going to do? And I remembered, oh well, this headset thing. I remember BeatSaver. My kid plays BeatSaver. That looked like a little bit of exercise. So I went in and played BeatSaver and then, when I got out of Beat Saber and add, I went to the apps to see what else was available. I didn't even type anything in but because I had played Beat Saber, Supernatural came up so I downloaded it and at the time you could have a 30 day trial. And I did the 30 day trial and my first workout was 45 minutes because that's all I could. That's all I could do. I could barely make it the 45 minutes. It was a lot. Um, I did all the training stuff, uh, all the the intro things. I am someone who follows directions. I've got to follow the way it's intended to be so I did that.

MJ:

And then I went right into my you know first few little workouts which resulted in 45 minutes, and I was, Ooh, I was winded, like seriously winded. And then I got up and did the same thing the next day, and the next day and the next thing, and I did that for 75 days because I was doing 75 hard and I just continued. And three years later, here I am getting the headset basically daily for a minimum of 45 minutes when I get it.

Julia:

Marla and I love nothing more than pros only flow. So episode 11 is dedicated to us talking all about pros only. We found our biceps.

MJ:

Yes, yes, we did. That was the next day.

Julia:

We could not. Well, you didn't do it, but the night after you did it for the first time. But that day, the next day, I don't remember. I should, I should have gone back and looked at this too, like I know, I did it on the first day, but did I just do it once? Did I do it more? Did I do it twice? I don't remember. I have to go back and look now because I've sparked my own interest.

Julia:

But the next day the arms were like we're taking Motrin, we're sore all in our upper body. We needed help. But I don't think and we'll touch on this when we have an episode just for itself, touch on this when we have an episode just for it for itself but if Mark would not, did not get on there and I think I've said this before and make his video on the community and say Look, you guys just get in there and have fun. This is just fun, which you know down the road, you know somebody wants to make a hundred percent accuracy club. We're like, ooh, a hundred percent accuracy.

MJ:

And that line drove me crazy, because I was like no, no, I'm in here for a reason, yes, to have fun, but I need to hit every single target. Stop telling me to chill out.

Julia:

And this is the only one that I have not gotten a hundred on, other than the Madhouse Monster. Yeah, I've still not gotten a hundred on. Welcome, like one target away.

MJ:

What's your nemesis song?

Julia:

The Trooper.

MJ:

The Trooper was my nemesis song too. In fact, I cannot tell you how many times I have gone to multiple chats calling the trooper an a-hole because it stopped me from getting 100% multiple times. I did finally conquer and I burned that madhouse down.

Julia:

You did. It is my least favorite of the madhouses, but I think that it did make me appreciate tornado of souls for sure you know, I had a real hate for that one because it was the last one, it was so long, it was so hard, it was really complex at that time. Yes, I mean still is complex and it's my favorite real tornado, and now I just want to do tornado of souls, like in the quick hit we got spoiler alert.

MJ:

I want tornado souls in that one of my all five all-time favorite supernatural quotes is found in tornado of souls. And we promised each other we would not get stuck on madhouses during this episode because we have we plan to dedicate some episodes to Madhouse.

MJ:

We could seriously talk about it forever, but anyway, we will put up Mark's quote here just so you can read it. We will play it. You can read it if you're on YouTube. It's one of the best. It has made the most impact. I recall it in my memory when I'm doing hard things and during that song. I recall it in my memory when I'm doing hard things and during that song. It's at a pivotal point where you can easily get lost in the choreography and get you know, miss targets or bonk targets or want to give up. But that when he says you know you reach inside yourself, I seriously reach inside myself and it gives me a second wind and I'm like I'm gonna burn this madhouse down. Here we go 100%, let's go.

Julia:

No, celine Dion's here. No, celine Dion's here. Then we move on to episode 12, where Marla and I talk about one of our least favorite topics, which is boxing. But somehow we talked about boxing for over an hour. Oh, it's finally time to talk about boxing. I think we put this topic off for a while. It has been all me.

MJ:

I have pushed this topic off for a while. It is all me. I just find talking about boxing difficult. I guess it's not. There's choreography in boxing. Obviously you know they're mapping. There is choreography, depending on the music In my mind. I'm thinking choreography dancing, but we're boxing. But there are some boxing workouts that lend to dancing, workouts that lend to dancing, right? So I've just put talking about boxing off for a long time and today's the day.

Julia:

Well, I mean, we've all. We've gone on a journey with boxing. We've had our ups and downs and our loves and our hates. I mean, when I started, there was no boxing and I didn't have boxing for over a year. Um well, maybe, maybe that's not right. It was under a year by two months. So boxing came out and October 26, 2021 totally shocked me. I had no idea 2021.

MJ:

Are you sure it was 2021?

Julia:

Yeah, 2022 is when we got our knee strikes, so 2021, we got our boxing.

MJ:

You are right. Wow, where does the time go?

Julia:

No, way, because I questioned it too. When I looked it up, I was like I think this is 2021. No, that's right. It's on the cards right in front of us. I see it.

MJ:

I double checked you. I was like no, Really I still don't believe you, I know you.

Julia:

I was like no, really, I still don't believe you. I know it feels like to me that we waited longer for it. Then yeah, well, not waited because I didn't know it was coming. I mean, I was running around the house at that time. I had a nurse here with my son she also played supernatural and she says hey, did you see this? They just announced on the community page boxing. And I'm like nah, nah, and I get on and introducing boxing, so wow.

MJ:

I felt like cause see, I started Supernatural in August of 2021. Mm.

Julia:

Yeah, I feel like I was doing flow much longer than that.

MJ:

Wow, my brain is officially blown.

Julia:

I feel like I was doing flow for longer before I got. I mean, it feels like I did flow for like two years before we got the boxing. But it may just be because when it came out well, I'm glad I could blow your brain because yeah she's like no, you don't want to look at 2021.

Julia:

Yeah, Wow. Well, they threw these six boxing workouts at us on on the first day when they released it and, um, which was really nice to get so many, we got two low flow, low flow. See, we can't do this. We can't talk about boxing marl, it's impossible. Oh man, that's my favorite low boxing workouts. Two medium workouts and two high. Well, no, that's not true. One high boxing workout and one pros only we would know it was pros only if it had the square that said po in purple next to it and not have that, please for everything and then.

MJ:

So pros only wouldn't have to be labeled. Pros only than the name. It could just be the name and then like different categories within pros only. Oh, man, man, man.

Julia:

We shouldn't, even we're going to go off onto we're going to go get lost. But it's true, It'd be so much easier for me to find in this app, because I did want to pull all of these up and it it.

MJ:

it's not easy to find a pros only workout, and it's not easy to find a pro-zombie workout, and I think there's so many factors that go into this. All right, I think we get a little lazy in flow and don't do the full body movements or go as low as possible in our squats and lunges. But in boxing it's in the community a lot that boxing gives a better workout. One and I know, I hear this in the community a lot that boxing gives a better workout than flow.

MJ:

And I think there's so many factors that go into this. All right, I think we get a little lazy in flow and don't do the full body movements or go as low as possible in our squats and lunges full body movements or go as low as possible in our squats and lunges, but in boxing, we're so focused on staying in boxing form. All of our muscles are engaged. We're focusing on so many things.

Julia:

Okay, make sure you're stepping with your punches, make sure you know you're moving this way and so maybe that's why our heart rates go so high. I don't know, but I mean the, the mental like more the mental focus that has to go into boxing, maybe, maybe I mean it totally uses different muscles.

MJ:

boxing info yeah, yeah, 100 percent, um A hundred percent, I don't know, dude, I think. Well, I definitely get like, if you compare high boxing with high flow, I can get my heart rate up into the max on both of them, depending on the effort that I'm giving. That's very true. I often don't try and go to my max heart rate because I train at a lower heart rate for my own goals.

Julia:

But my journey. I do believe the reason why I was frustrated was because I was trying to use a specific form that I really think that just did not work for me and I just didn't feel comfortable with it work for me and I just didn't feel comfortable with it and once I kind of let go and kind of came into my own boxing form, because we're not in a ring actually fighting someone. So it's okay.

Julia:

It's okay if we're not, you know I mean, don't do anything that's going to hurt yourself. But you know, be mindful of that. But if you're not having fun, of course you're not going to like it.

Doc:

Yeah.

Julia:

If you want to learn all about the training that Marla and I do, episode 13 is for you. We talk about triangle training and madhouse training, training, like but that sounds like a kind of a negative word, but right Our supernatural world. No, it's important you got to have that training Right If you want to get better and it can be fun.

MJ:

Yes, if you want to get better at anything, you've got to practice. Practice is training intentional. You know this is talking about taking on triangles intentionally right. Taking on triangles intentionally right.

Julia:

Yeah, it was about a year ago this time where I started to notice that the choreography, especially in the triangles, were changing. I don't know if you noticed it too. I know we talked about it a lot because we talk about choreography but I noticed there were more triangles and more variations of triangles and I started to feel frustrated, like I'm just going to turn these things off. What is happening and I don't know if it's just, I just all of a sudden started noticing them more. I really feel like something changed with the triangles and they started using them more.

MJ:

Yeah, well and different. It wasn't just like a triangle tunnel, right, because we used to see that all the time, or just lunges like and when I started.

Julia:

That's kind of when you watch the, the triangle, training that supernatural gives you, because I think there is an actual one that will train you on the triangles. They need to make a new one. And I have seen, people in the community ask all right, what are we doing with all these triangles? So I think that there are some new ones and it does need to be talked about and there needs to be a new video made, but I don't work there, so I can't do it.

Justin:

But we can talk about it?

Julia:

Yes, we can. So I had to either start ignoring these triangles, turn them off, something because it was starting to affect my experience, or I had to embrace the triangles, figure out what I was supposed to do in them, learn what was new, because I was, I felt like I was. They were almost like a distraction to me and I didn't want them to be, and I felt like they were there for a reason and I felt like the choreographers put them there because they wanted us to do something. Obviously, if it was, I mean, there are triangles that are there.

Julia:

I think there's some stand tall triangles that are in some maps, just kind of as fillers to you know to be there, but these, these were triangles that were in some maps, just kind of as fillers to you know to be there, but these, these were triangles that were making you move all over the place and they were part of the dance and part of the choreography that we were given. So I wanted to do these triangles justice. Now, if you don't want to do the triangles and you want to do your own dance and you want to do your own thing, go for it. But for me, I just felt like not only were the triangles there for a reason, but I felt like they really helped me to move Once I put myself through the triangle training.

Julia:

There is no real training. I just did it for myself and learned how to move in them to make my experience better. So, basically, head underneath the point of the triangle, legs and feet at the bottom points of the triangle. If you follow that, you will be doing triangle training, because that's basically what I did doing triangle training, because that's basically what I did.

MJ:

So madhouse training this all started because madhouses are intense, as we all know, and got us thinking are there high intensity workouts or other pros, only flow workouts that get you ready for madhouses?

MJ:

And we did find some we definitely found a lot, in the sense that they feature a lot of the same things that you'll find in a madhouse, such as drum rolls, um complexity with three portals or even more than three portals, lots of movement, what else? All the things, all the things, all the things, just everything you would find in a madhouse, the challenge of it. You'll also find longer songs, especially like full throttle roar hail to the King, which we now have. A quick hit of Goosebumps every time.

MJ:

And then test your endurance on these higher, more dense, complex tracks helps you prepare for the madhouses. And when I go back and I include the madhouse training workouts any of them there's seven of them, but if I keep those in my rotation and then I go do a madhouse, I'm a lot more prepared for them. My brain's not super overloaded, and either is my body, for that matter, because I've been preparing for it. Um, and I often give this list to people in the community and post about it in comments. When someone's like I just did a mad house today, how do you crazy people do this? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, I'll say you train here. Go try these workouts. They're step much step farther down than the madhouses, but they'll get you ready. They'll get your body and your mind ready for mastering a madhouse.

Julia:

I'm only going to share one tiny little clip of episode 14, but I urge you to please go watch this episode in its entirety. We have special guest Justin, one of the supernatural choreographers on to talk to us about the madhouses.

Justin:

To describe my process for choreography is I like to do what the music tells me to do, and that doesn't always make a lot of sense, so I'll do the best I can to explain it. But essentially what that is is I like to sit down with whatever song or songs I'll be working with that day and I'll listen to them, probably two or three times before I actually get into the mapping process. And while I'm listening I'll see if there's anything that my body kind of naturally reacts to in the music and I take a note of that. Or if I'm already in the headset and I'm listening to it.

Justin:

Um, in our mapping tools I will kind of just put down the targets that I need to to kind of emulate that move and I'll just be like I'll come back and fix that later, make sure it's all nice and pretty and presentable. But, um, just getting like the baseline for the movement down is like I want to have that ready to go. So that way when I come into that point, if I need to find a right setup to go into that move, it's just kind of already there and I can figure out how my body would naturally go from one place to the next to interact with each move in a sequence. But it mostly comes down to the ebb and flow of the music itself and how my body naturally reacts to the way the music is kind of just presented to me.

Julia:

For episode 15, marla, and I talk about the choreography style that is very flowy Sometimes workouts overlap, overlap, but the ones we should talk about today are just super flowy flow well, and it's throughout the whole workout. It's not just oh, this song here this song here we're talking about ones where the whole entire workout is just this flowy yeah thing, like I don't like to say thing, but it's just, that's the way it's put together, it's a flowy experience.

Julia:

But the one, the side-by-sides that you shared with me when we were talking about this. Most of your side-by-sides and you may just now be realizing this or you may have already, you may already know they're all the flowy type. Well, the ones of you alone, yeah, the ones that you like and you film, a lot of them are the very flowy flows. It is you connect with the most.

MJ:

I feel like it is a hundred. You, you figured me out. No, I, I do film myself a lot, so, um, but you're right, I think the ones that I film just for me or when I'm alone are definitely super flowy ones. Um, on occasion I'll reach out and be like hey go film this. Um, but a lot of times you're, you're right, wow, I didn't even. Yeah, it's because it's the experience, it's the music. Flowy flow hits me in my soul.

MJ:

It's like I know I talk about this a lot and that it's like a therapy session for me to get in the headset, but the flowy flows just do something to me.

MJ:

They, they made me feel graceful and beautiful and feminine and all the things that, as an older mother who works full time, who, you know, has a million, wears a million different hats, um, it reminds me. Hey, you know, this is, this is me, this is who I am, so maybe that's why I film them and, um, it's easy for me to just like put a dress on over.

Julia:

That's right, it's so fun to flow in a dress. It really is. If you haven't flown in, the dress flown if you haven't done supernatural flow in a dress or flown an airplane, I guess too, you know whatever, If you're a dude, you know, try it if you want. We're not saying to flow in a dress, but women falling in a dress is the most freeing, it really is beautiful.

MJ:

It really is.

Julia:

Especially if you record yourself because a lot of times Marla will be like do this one and wear your dress, because you got to have your dress for this one.

MJ:

Yeah, it's a lot of the jazz ones and yes, yes, there are so many in this category, but we should probably start with lows, and you said a lot of the jazz ones. I would also say sweat. Symphonies lend themselves to flowy flow yes, where lots of tails and the setup when you finish the tail ends in a great target. Those all go really well together Indie workouts.

Julia:

Indie workouts, yeah. Going back to sweat symphonies, I think that was actually, as a supernatural user, one of the first times where I was kind of shocked that I could move like this and enjoy working out, because essentially we are working out, yeah, in a symphony, a sweat symphony, where there's, you know, symphonic type music, yeah, classical music and yeah, classical ballets, and yeah, yeah so you're like this is weird and you click on it.

Julia:

But gracefully, as you go, it's just the, the movement just feels so good and sometimes, before we get into the lows first, you just have. You know, I'm kind of trying to figure out. You know, when would you use, when would you say, hey, I need one of these workouts. You know, sometimes we just need a good stretch or you have this feeling or you need.

Julia:

You know you have something you need, just need to release or let go. I think that there we, like you said you want folders so you can go and be like this is today I'm feeling like this day. Today I feel like I need to go do a madhouse. I'm I got some rage. Like this day today I feel like I need to go do a madhouse. I'm, I got some rage, I need to get out. But these are just for, like you just want to just gracefully flow and just kind of let let things just go. Maybe that you're feeling I agree with that.

MJ:

I think that's a perfect description and the reason I would pick a flowy flow um. I do often try and incorporate them into a warmup workout because they are so expansive with the moves and it allows for you to really fully stretch out. Um. I have a couple of lows that I use that specifically for Um. In fact, I did that this morning. I've already I've worked out once today and my first workout of the day was a medium, super flowy workout. One of my all time favorites, um Florence and the machine.

Doc:

We will talk about it when we get to medium.

MJ:

But um, that was my first workout of the day and let me say it set the tone. I was fully stretched, I was moving and grooving, happy, moved on to highs after that.

Julia:

Some people like to do supernatural in some very different ways. So on episode 16, Marla and I talked about supernatural shenanigans. I think we should talk about just shenanigans.

MJ:

You know I'm 100% on board with this. Supernatural shenanigans, yes, and how to stay engaged, when you're kind?

Julia:

of bored.

MJ:

And you want to try something different.

Julia:

I've even gone back to some 2020 and 2021.

MJ:

Yeah, I've been meaning to send a wellness check your way because I keep seeing it pop up on your journey and I'm like what is she doing?

Julia:

Why did you play that?

MJ:

Are we researching? Are you taking on the old 2020 workouts? So I don't have to? What is happening?

Julia:

I have to go back and play some old OGs so I can get that feeling of, oh yes, this is where we started and it is that for me. I know some people will play them and be like what in the world is this? But for me it's like nostalgia that I need every now and again. You know, hurt my shoulders. My shoulders hurt so good. That's great. But when we don't have things to go back on and we get bored of that, we kind of go into shenanigan mode that we kind of go into shenanigan mode.

MJ:

We do so and we start adding extra things to workouts or not doing the workouts like they're intended. Last week in the community someone posted a video of them doing a workout while they were on a stair stepper and I had lots of thoughts and Julie and I are like yes, julie and I are on like, look at this.

MJ:

Total opposite ends here. She's like that is a hardcore workout, could you imagine? And I'm like no, no, that's silly. Just do deeper squats and lunges. And she's like no, no, no, no. Think about all the balance work you have to do and the coordination of stepping.

Julia:

And I'm like, no, but your question was was how wide could you do the arm hits, but does it impede how much arm movement?

MJ:

you can do. It is definitely core focused and it involves a lot of balance, which is something that I love. When it comes to balance work, I am all about that. So I could see, but, man, it would be so hard not to want to pick up my feet and move around. Well, this video sent us down like a rabbit hole, we spiraled.

Doc:

Yeah, we did.

MJ:

Of looking at all the past ways other supernatural athletes have attempted to do supernatural one where she was on the ground with her controllers on her feet hitting targets. Now she did this multiple times. She tried to perfect how she was going to connect them to her feet. She even had you doing it at one point. I know our friend. Crystal, tried it at one point I have never tried it.

Julia:

I bought the archery armbands.

MJ:

That's what she recommended.

Julia:

I have them and I see them every time I get my headset out. I see those archery because they're in the cubby hole where my headset lives, and I think about the controllers on the feet and it's just, I'm like take it out of my memory because it is hard.

MJ:

Didn't she try a madhouse that way too?

Julia:

I can't remember it hurts to be on the floor laying like that. It strains your neck. So she went to the couch and so I tried it on. I can't do it long, even on a low. It is difficult. You can find a slow low, like there's like slow lows and there's low. Plus I found a slow low. It's like 15 seconds and you're done. Your abs are on fire, your legs are on fire. You can't even go anywhere, like you can't do it anymore. I'm not going to highlight anything from episode 17. But Marla and I did a really fun q&a. You should go listen to the episode. There's a lot of questions that the community asked us and a lot of laughter on episode 18. Marla and I discussed workouts that make us dance.

MJ:

So today we mentioned a few weeks ago, we talked all about flowy flows and I promised myself I would never say that sentence again because, like hearing that podcast over and it was like flowy flow, flowy flow. Oh man that drew me crazy. Anyway, we mentioned styles of flow, right.

Julia:

We talked a little bit about it.

MJ:

Let's talk more in detail about dancey flow today.

Julia:

And this one made our heads spin, thinking about this, because we had a full circle conversation. Well, yeah. What is dance?

MJ:

I started overthinking a little bit because it's very subjective, right.

Doc:

Yes, if you like the music.

MJ:

if the music makes you dance, you're going to dance. Are you a dancer already, you know? Does music naturally make you dance, or are you someone it's difficult to get to move? It's difficult to get to move, so is it the choreography making you dance, or is it the music making you dance, or is it a combination?

Julia:

It's just oh man, my brain was like la, la, la. Episode 19 was one of those really special episodes where we got to have on Coach Doc and have a conversation with him about supernatural.

Doc:

You know, not an athlete well and and that's another cool thing I don't think we talk about much is for folks who have never worked out, had a coach been on a team the experience you're getting.

Doc:

That's what I grew up with. Yeah, like that's what I had from the age of four to 21 was someone being just right there pushing, and so it baffles me in a sense of like, wow, you didn't, you didn't get that. Like, oh man, but the fact that you get to have it now, but so it's something I think about often is, oh, I have to realize I can't take this for granted and what this means for some folks, because this has just been a part of my life. But for some people, this is the first time anyone's ever called him an athlete, told him good job, told him I see you, you know what I mean, yeah, you're right, you're right.

Julia:

And then, last but not least, marla and I talk about what makes us keep coming back to supernatural day in and day out.

MJ:

Supernatural is just, it's different and it's the best, it's just the best, yeah, and I think for some people, and a lot of people actually, it just gets you right from the jump. It's just so fun it is. For me, that is the main selling point.

Justin:

It is fun.

MJ:

Every day is something new, right? Yeah, and there are lots of workouts that we go back to often, but for me it's fun and I don't realize I'm working out.

Julia:

Yeah, true, we have our six wonderful coaches who, visually, when we turn the headset on, they look real. I mean, they are real. I know that's a joke, I didn't think they were real at first, but when they're standing in front of you they look like you could just reach out and touch them, like they're there with you and they're there with you throughout the whole workout if you leave them on. Marla says so.

Doc:

Yes, never, they tell you such. Don't turn them off.

Julia:

Yeah, don't turn off the coaches and they tell you such amazing good uplifting is the word I was looking for things while you're working out and they help you with your form, your moves, to blink, your eyes, to breathe. They're just there with you and a lot of times they're telling you I'm here with you, I'm doing what you're doing. I'm experiencing what you're experiencing. My arms are burning too.

Doc:

My legs hurt too.

Julia:

So just knowing that you're not alone, because that's where I'm having fun, and fitness has to be fun for me or I'm not gonna do it same. I don't want to meet you at the park and go on a run. I will walk. I think walking is great, but I don't want to go on a run with you at the park, so don't invite me don't invite me.

MJ:

That's hilarious, yeah, I. I just think supernatural is different. They figured out a way to brainwash us. Man that's how I feel sometimes. Like went from this totally sedentary person who didn't move, who I've always been sort of positive, optimistic, I always see the best in situations and choose to laugh more than a cry.

MJ:

I choose to laugh. You know what I'm saying. It's always been my mindset. But to get in the headset and listen to the coaches brainwash me and to believe in myself and believing that I can do anything I want and knowing I can like that's, that's the thing I don't. Just I know I can. I get in that headset and you hand me a pros only or anything, and I know I'm going to succeed. To the best that I can yeah.

MJ:

I just think Supernatural offers something that no other app does, Like you said the locations, so immersive the choreography so innovative and different.

Julia:

Yes, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to hang out with us. We appreciate you so much.

MJ:

We really do. And don't forget the real joy and love of supernatural is in the journey you go on.

Doc:

Bye.