Ladies Who Rêve: Catching Up With Joan Hopkins As She Celebrates Her 50th!

Joan Hopkins celebrated her 50th birthday at the studio during Ally’s 6 a.m. CoreCycle recently with her friends Allison Caruso and Kim Turner (not pictured: Michele Cushing, who also rides with Joan and Allison on a regular basis!). We love having these women – and their family members! – in the studio so often, so took Joan’s birthday as opportunity to ask her more about why they all ride and why Rêve has become a (healthy) “addiction”!

1. How long have you been riding at Rêve? I discovered Rêve about a year and a half ago, through a good friend who had recently started going to classes.

2. We hear you ride with a great group of women. How do you all know each other? Does riding with friends affect your class experience in any way?

I ride with a core group of friends from Gorham, where we all live. Most of us met through our children, all of whom are now in high school or college! I truly love riding with my friends and especially look forward to Saturday mornings, which has become sort of a ritual to kick off the weekend. We are all trying to fight off the effects of middle age as our metabolism continues to work against us, and I think we definitely motivate each other to keep battling. I can’t lie, there is also an element of “friendly” competition among us!

3. Do any of your family members ride with you? Why do you think Rêve is a good workout for people of all ages/fitness levels?

Several of our daughters ride with us when their schedules permit, and I even got my son to a few classes when he was home from college this summer -- he loved it. I am now working on getting my husband to a class! What truly sets Rêve apart and keeps me coming back are the instructors – they each have their own style, but they all provide consistent, positive motivation throughout the entire class. When you feel like you can’t pedal any harder, they magically come up with just the right thing to say to get you over the hump. I also love the variety of classes offered, such as Tone & Cycle and CoreCycle. I enjoy indoor cycling because it’s low-impact and so much easier on the joints than running, but it’s also one of the most rigorous forms of exercise that I can think of. One of the many things that I love about Rêve is that you are surrounded by a room full of people of all ages, shapes & sizes in a 100% judgment-free zone, all working toward a common goal of achieving and maintaining the highest level of fitness possible.

4. Anything else you'd like to share with the Rêve community?

I always feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment after finishing a Rêve class – I may be disgustingly sweat-soaked and completely fatigued, but it is truly the best feeling in the world. It’s becoming a bit of an addiction, actually, but I guess I could have worse habits…