当SoulCycle的教练是一种怎样的体验？
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如果回到2006，SoulCycle 给人的感觉也许还只是诸多稍纵即逝的健身潮流中的一种，但这个在曼哈顿起步的自行车工作室如今已变成席卷全美的健身界当红辣子鸡。遍布美国全境的工作室，平均每家店能带来400万美元一年的收入，最初两个联合创始人的团队已经扩展到上千名员工。
不过没有任何一个员工比他们的教练显得地位更重要，300多个能在自行车上跳舞的型男索女，是这个品牌最大的吸引力。
典型的SoulCycle教练外表不输娱乐明星，兼具励志演说家和指挥家的角色，也许还是不少学员的梦中情人……
这样的模式在中国也不乏追随者，典型的有GUCycle、SpaceCycle等。
上周我去位于上海静安寺嘉里中心的GUCycle试骑了一节课，昏暗的教室、绚丽的荧光灯、强烈的节奏，就连墙上车轮的涂鸦也有几分相似，而能在单车上跳舞的外教也是帅气逼人。
在适应锁鞋的过程中，旁边的会员给予了不少帮助，这多少减轻了我初次上课的紧张感，不过说实话，过程中看着镜子中的自己摇头晃脑的样子，会有点尴尬症发作。
作为国内健身行业的新鲜事物，单车工作室能否复刻SoulCycle的辉煌尚不得而知，唯一可以确定的是，教练团队仍然是最关键的一环。
想要成为SoulCycle，首先得有一批SoulCycle那样的教练。
什么样的人能成为SoulCycle的教练，这些教练如何看待自己的工作和生活呢？
这篇对一些现任或前任SoulCycle教练的访谈，略可窥豹。
Be honest, do you really want to hang out with any of your riders from class?
老实说，你们愿意跟学员约会吗？
Marvin: That’s happened, though it is my personal preference to have more of a separation between church and state.
Marvin: 会有，虽然我更倾向于我们（与会员）的关系应像宗教与国家的关系（政教分离？）。
Ross: I’m always down to have a cup of coffee with a rider, or grab a juice after class. It’s hard not to develop relationships with the people who are coming to your classes over and over again. It’s a funny experience, though. Seeing riders outside of class is kind of like when you were a kid and you saw a teacher in the grocery store.
Ross: 我经常会跟会员们喝杯咖啡或者果汁啥的，跟那些一次又一次来上你的课的人不发生一丁点互动是不太可能的。这种经历很有趣，有点像你小时候在小卖部遇见老师的感觉。
Pixie: Think of it like this: Class is 45 minutes long, but this isn’t a job where you can go clock in and clock out. There’s the 15 minutes before class and then the 15 minutes after class. Now, a lot of people may think, “I would love to do that, you only work for an hour and a half,” but the truth is that your phone is blowing up before and after each class with e-mails, with social media, with text messages. Just everything from “I really loved that song that you were playing the other day, can you play it again?” to “It’s my best friend’s birthday, we’re surprising her” to “I’m running late, but please don’t give up my bike” to “I’m going through a really hard time right now, and something you said in class gave me great relief” to “Sorry I wasn’t on my A-game today.” You get so many things on your phone that work just continues. And the truth is, there’s only one of you.
Pixie: 试想一下：虽然上课时间是45分钟，但这不是一个你准时打卡上下班的工作。加上上课前后的15分钟，很多人可能会认为，“你只需工作一个半小时，我也想做教练啊。”但事实是，你的手机会在每节课前后被电子邮件、社交媒体私信、短信撑爆。“我真的很喜欢你那天放的那首歌，你能再放一遍吗？”，“今天是我最好的朋友的生日，我们要（在课上）给她惊喜”，“我要迟到了……”到“我最近经历了一段非常艰难的日子，你在课堂上的话给了我很大的激励”，再到“对不起，我今天不在状态。”你的手机会每天变的很忙，你会觉得自己疲于应付，分身乏术。
Charlee: I try to keep myself separated, only because that’s mine. That’s my personal life. That’s what I get to hold onto. I know some instructors become very close with their riders, and there are riders that I’m close with, but for the most part I really do try to keep it professional.
Charlee: 我试着让自己保持（与会员的）距离，毕竟这只是我的工作，我会坚持保护我的私人生活空间。我知道一些教练和他们的学员很亲密，我也会有关系很好的学员，但在大多数情况下，我会努力尽量专业的处理（学员的邀约）。
What’s the toughest part of the job?
工作中最艰难的部分是什么？
Ross: Definitely the recovery. When you have a schedule like ours, it’s hard to fit in the right amount of rest and recovery. There are weeks where I’m just exhausted and my body hurts and my head hurts.
Ross: 当然是身体的恢复。当你的课程表像我们一样满满当当时，是很难有足够的时间让身体休息和恢复的。很多个星期，我都会因为疲劳导致满身疼痛。
Willie: I’ve been an instructor for less than two months now, and the music is one of the toughest parts for me. I’ve always had rhythm, but I’m not a dancer. I didn’t know eight counts. I didn’t know how to listen to music in order to create a specific mood.
Willie: 我当教练还不满2个月，音乐对我来说是最困难的部分之一。我一直都很有节奏感，但我不是个专业的舞者。我不知道怎么数八拍，我不知道如何听音乐来创造一个特定的情绪。
Eric: The constant laundry I had to do. Laundry was ridiculous.
Eric: 每天很多的衣服要洗。
Marvin: As an instructor, you become the manager of the room and you’re dealing with so many different things. You’re dealing with the temperature of the room, the music, the volume, someone who is pregnant, someone’s birthday, five new riders, someone who wants the fan turned on. And the only way to learn what works and what doesn’t work is to go through the process.
Marvin: 作为一名教练，你就是整个房间的主管，你必须同时处理很不同的事情。房间的温度，音乐，音量，有没有怀孕的会员，今天可能是某人的生日，那边来了五个新会员，有人想打开风扇。学习怎么游刃有余的处理这些问题的唯一方法就是不断在过程中学习。
Pixie: Being a fitness professional that works out 12 to 18 times a week, I feel like I should have a rock-hard six-pack and the most insane, Barbie-doll body. And the truth is that I have a great body that’s super strong and super healthy, but there’s this part where physically I feel like I’m supposed to look a certain way so that I’m more inspiring.
Pixie:作为一周有12到18节课的健身从业者，我觉得我应该有坚硬的六块腹肌和芭比模特般的身材，虽然我现在的身体很健康很强壮，但如果能有更好的身型就更能激励人了。
It must be hard to find the time or energy to exercise outside of class. Is SoulCycle your primary workout at this point?
在上课之余自己还有时间锻炼吗？ SoulCycle是你们健身的首选吗？
Ross: I jump in the pool or jump into a yoga studio every now and then, but all I really do is Soul. I don’t even own a gym membership. Now, if I were advising myself, I would say, “Ross, do some cross-training. You need to do that.” But the reality is—if I’m being totally honest—my job is so physical that the last thing I want to do in my downtime is sweat more.
Ross:我偶尔会去游泳或是做瑜伽，但我主要在SoulCycle，我连健身房的会员卡都没有。我也会建议自己说，“罗斯，做一些交叉训练之类的饿吧，你需要这样做。”但现实是，完全诚实的说，我的工作已经很累了，我完全不想其他时间再出汗了。
Emily: I try to take dance classes or yoga classes. Anything that will move my body in a different plane. But sleep and hydration are everything to me, and there are just weeks that are more demanding than others. So if I have a week like that, no, I’m not going to go out anywhere. I’m going to go home and drink water and be in bed by eight.
Emily:我尝试去做一些让我身体能在各种水平面运动的课程（相对单车相对固定的运动形式），比如舞蹈或者瑜伽。但是睡觉和喝水是我的头等大事，有时候这些需求会更强烈（课多的时候），碰上这种情况，我不会去任何地方，我就宅在家拼命喝水，八点就睡觉。
Charlee: I was able to just cycle for about a year and a half, until I started to notice that I needed to start doing something else.
Charlee:我曾经骑行了一年半时间，直到我意识到自己需要做些别的训练。
Conor: When I first started at SoulCycle, I was teaching 18 to 19 classes without doing any strength training, and I was just running myself into the ground. I ended up injuring my knee outside of class because my body was so run down. After having knee surgery and my initial physical rehab, I picked up strength training again. I do it twice a week now.
Conor:当我一开始在SoulCycle上班时，我会连续上十八、九节课而不做任何力量训练，显然这是在透支我的身体。终于有一天我的膝盖在课外受伤了，显然因为我的身体太疲惫了。在做了膝盖手术和物理治疗后，我再次接受了力量训练，现在我一星期做两次。
Karyn: I’m taking a shadowboxing class later. It’s nice to take a class where you’re not the one talking. It’s nice to have someone tell me what to do.
Karyn:我会在单车课后去练太极拳，去上一节不需要我一个人讲话的课感觉很好，特别是让别人来指导你的感觉很不错。
I imagine you have to be eating a lot of food when you’re teaching that many classes in a week, too.
是不是你们要吃很多东西，毕竟要上很多节课。
Eric: You’re eating constantly. Literally eating every two hours, which gets expensive.
你必须持续的吃，基本上我隔两个小时就要吃，这样生活成本很高。
Conor: I eat all the time. I have to. It’s constant. And lots of coffee. Coffee and food.
Conor:我每天不断的吃，还要喝很多咖啡。
Karyn: I try my best to keep my diet super clean. I feel like I don’t need as much food if I keep to that.
Karyn:我一直在尽力保持相当清淡的饮食，我觉得我如果坚持下去就不会需要吃的太多。
Ross: It’s about trying to keep up with the calories you’re burning, and last week I taught seventeen classes in seven days, so…
Ross:吃其实在于补充你所消耗的卡路里，比如上周我7天上了17节课，（那你说我要吃多少）……
Are there ever any moments in class that you just have to step back for a second and say, “I can’t believe that just happened”?
有没有在上课的时候遇到一些事，让你回想起来会有“卧槽，这居然真的发生过”的感觉？
Ross: As instructors, we want every class to be epic and life-changing. But that obviously isn’t possible.
Ross:作为教练，我们都希望每一节课都能对学员带来极致的生活改变，但想想就知道这不可能。
Willie: I’ve been an instructor for less than two months, but I’ve cried at least three times. I don’t even know why. I wasn’t sad or angry or bothered or anything like that; there were just tears. It’s happened in class, after class, while in training. I’ve never been like that in my whole entire life.
Willie:我是一个不到两个月的新教练，但我已经哭了三次了，不知道为什么，我一点也不生气或悲伤，也不知道是什么情绪，只是眼泪不自觉的掉下来，一次在课上，一次在课后，还有在我训练的时候 ，以前的生活中从来没有过。
Emily: There was a terrible thunderstorm during one of my earlier classes and the power went out, so obviously the sound system went down. I told everyone to keep moving their legs, but I couldn’t think of how to get my music to play. I was fully prepared to just sing the songs, ’cause I knew all the words. Finally, one of my riders waved me over and said, “Unplug your computer from the sound system!” It wasn’t very loud, but it was better than me singing and clapping for the next 20 minutes.
Emily:在我早先的一节课上，有一次外面正在发生可怕的雷暴，停电了，所以音响系统坏了。我告诉每个人要继续移动他们的腿，但我想不出没有音乐怎么发挥。我已经准备好唱起歌来，因为我歌词都能背下来了。还好，我的一个会员挥手跟我说：“把音响线从你电脑里拔出来不就好了！”，电脑的声音不是很响，但它比我在接下来20分钟又拍手又唱歌的感觉好很多。
Charlee: I gave myself a black eye. I think I have a photo of it on Instagram, but I literally hit my face on the handlebars because I’m an idiot.
Charlee:我曾经因为上课有过黑眼圈，因为我很蠢的把脸砸在手把上……
Karyn: I’ve definitely been overly enthusiastic and flown my head into the handlebars before. I’ve walked out with a welt on my forehead. That’s always cute. We slip and fall off the podium all the time. That’s just par for the course.
Karyn:我也有因为太过于投入把头撞在手把上的经历，这一度让我的额头上多了块胶布，我们还经常从骑行台上滑倒……课上的常事。
Marvin: It was my very first class, and I was hoping that no one would sue me. It was towards the end of class, and I was trying to stage one of those more internal moments for my riders at the end of class. I thought I was saying the most influential and inspiring things and got on this high. So I kept talking more and more and more. By the end of the song, I tried to slowly let my voice go out and at the same time planned to blow out these two candles so the room would go super dark. Well, I blew out the candles a little too hard and blew hot wax onto two of the riders in the front row.
Marvin:那是我第一堂课，还好没人告我，那是快接近结束时，我正在努力将气氛拉到高潮，我大概说了世界上最激励人心的话，以至于让所有人都很high，所以我也激动的一直说一直说，到了歌的最后，我想逐渐减少语言，然后把蜡烛吹灭，好像大家在黑暗中骑行，不过，我有点用力过猛，直接把热的蜡烛油吹到前排的两个会员身上……
Pixie: One time, I had food poisoning really badly. I was “better,” but I wasn’t better, you know? That seems like TMI, but everybody has suffered from food poisoning at one time! I’ve puked in my towel before. I think it was the first time that the owners, Julie and Elizabeth, took my class, so I was beyond nervous. Plus, it was one of the toughest classes I have ever taught. I actually had to walk to the corner of the room during the middle of class and just puked right in my towel. I just rolled it up and threw it in the corner and nobody knew.
Pixie:有一次，我的食物中毒得厉害。我觉得可能“好了”，但其实没有好，（所以上课时吐了），我之前也发生过，那是因为两位老板朱莉和伊丽莎白第一次在我的课上出现，所以我超级紧张，就吐在了毛巾上…… 另外，那是我教过的最难的课程之一。我在上课的途中走到房间的一角，偷偷的吐在我的毛巾上，然后把它卷起来扔在角落里，没有人发现。
Is working as a SoulCycle instructor a viable career option?
做SoulCycle的教练能养活自己吗？
Ross: I think burnout is definitely a real thing in any endeavor, especially a really physical or emotional one. But as long as the job keeps fulfilling me in the way that it does now, I don’t see myself giving it up anytime soon.
Ross:我认为倦怠在任何工作中都会发生，特别是在全身心靠身体或情感投入的职业。但是，只要工作能继续像现在这样让我觉得充实，我不认为自己会很快放弃它。
Pixie: I remember when I first started out, the company told me, “We don’t want you to have five jobs. We want to make this your career.” We get benefits, we get vacation, we get a stipend for clothing. They take care of us. It’s a real job with a 401k.
Pixie:我记得第一天上班的时候，公司就告诉我：“我们不想让你同时打五份工，我们想让这成为你的事业。“我们有收入，有假期，还有服装赞助。公司对我们很照顾，这是一份真正交纳养老保险的工作。
Emily: Acting and dancing is why I originally came to New York, and I’ve still been pursuing that, but what I’ve come to realize is that I’m not going to leave SoulCycle for any ol’ job. It would have to be a show that’s really progressing my career or really important to me.
Emily:我来纽约最初是为了实现表演和舞蹈梦，我现在仍然在追求梦想，但我逐渐意识到我不会因为普通的文职工作就离开SoulCycle，这里工作对于我来说就是一个提升自我价值的舞台。
Eric: I gave myself five years when I started teaching. I told myself, “I’m not going to do this for the rest of my life. Let’s just see how far I can go with this before the wheels fall off.” The wheels fell off a little early for me, though. I had two slipped disks in my lower back. My doctor just told me, “You need to stop, otherwise you’re going to have severe problems when you get older.” It was a little heartbreaking for me.
Eric:当我一开始做教练时，给自己5年时间，我对自己说，“也许以后再也不会这么疯狂，不过在下车之前就想看一下自己能走多远。”结果我比想象中的更快离开，因为我下背部有两个椎间盘发生问题，医生对我说，如果我不停止（单车教练），等我来了之后会有一系列的问题，心痛。
A lot of different people have used the term “cult” to describe SoulCycle. What is your response to people when you hear that?
很多人用“邪教”来概括SoulCycle，你怎么看？
Pixie: People say that and I’m like, “Ok, so don’t go to SoulCycle, but continue to go to the bar three days out of the week.” What’s the technical definition of a cult? I don’t know it, do you?
Pixie:当人们说这个的时候，我会想“嗯，你不来SoulCycle，不过却每周去酒吧三次。”“邪教的定义是什么？我不知道，你呢？”
Let’s look it up. What’s the definition of “cult”?
“A system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure or object.”
让我们查查字典，看看什么叫“邪教”。
“对于某一人物或对象崇拜和忠诚的宗教系统。”
Pixie: Ok. So, yeah, for sure, SoulCycle is a cult. If that’s the definition, I would proudly say that you could call SoulCycle a cult. If you’re saying that the object is a healthier lifestyle and a positive change, you know what I mean?
嗯，这么说的话， 我会很自豪的说，SoulCycle 是邪教，如果你们指的是更健康的生活方式和积极的转变。”