I went to yoga and ended up in a H.I.I.T. class

Robert’s Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Written 12/12/2025.Every Thursday I go to yoga at 7:45 pm. It’s the only time that works for my schedule. Yoga helps stretch me and keeps me from injuring myself during my regular workouts. So, I was surprised when I showed up for yoga only to find out that it had been replaced with a high intensity training class.To be fair, I never check the LA Fitness app on my phone to see whether my class was still on or changed. The only time I open up the app is when I use it to get into the gym. Even then, I hit exit on all of the changes that show up. So, this was kind of my fault.John, the instructor, had taught the prior class and was asked to teach his class in the yoga slot. As I was already there and had missed my usual Wednesday workout, I decided to join him in my crocs.He used an 80s remix of music all at a driving beat of 140 bpm. Imagine your favorite 80s songs all at a very fast pace. That’s what we had. John synchronized our movements to the music and worked clusters of muscles to make sure we didn’t work the same muscle twice in a row. He’s a master of this, teaching between 14 to 21 classes a week and personally consuming 5000 calories a day to keep up with his workouts. His normal classes average 60 people.Tonight, there was only one other person in the class, so we basically had the place to ourselves. John asked us to get light, medium, and heavy weights plus a band that would eventually go around our knees.The good news was that I didn’t need to do another workout this week as he hit every part of the body and did it long enough for me to bring my muscles to failure. When I look back at what happened, it really is a metaphor for life. You come with an expectation and when reality hits you in the face, you are left with a choice. Either go home or roll with the change. I’m the kind of guy that likes to roll with the change. It makes life much more interesting. Last year it landed me accidentally being entered into an ugly sweater contest.The worst case is that I get a fun story out of it. Usually, I learn how to deal with uncertainty and being uncomfortable. This helps me in the rest of my life.I’d love to hear from you about how you decided to go along with some change and how it turned out.Let me know.As always, I love you,RobertRobert’s Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rslayton.substack.com/subscribe