Tour de France Giggle Ride! Pedal, puff, and giggle your way through history!
🚴♀️ “Life is like riding a bicycle — to keep your balance, you must keep moving.”— Albert Einstein
😂 “You can’t be sad while riding a bicycle… especially if you’re pedaling with a big goofy grin!”
🏆 “Cycling isn’t just about being the strongest — it’s about being smart, committed, and believing in yourself when it matters most.”— Geraint Thomas T de Fr winner/Olympian
🎈 “Pedal fast, giggle loud, and pretend your bike is a flying unicorn with streamers!”— Every happy kid
On July 19, 1903, a cyclist named Maurice Garin became the first-ever winner of the men’s only Tour de France, a super-long (3 week) bike race that zooms all over France—even up steep mountains! Riders face wind, rain, and exhaustion with only 2 days of rest! Traditionally, the bulk of the race is held in July.
Women started in their own race in 1955 and since 2022 have their own multi-stage 9 day race after the men’s race. While the route changes each year, the format of the race stays the same and includes time trials, passage through the Pyrenees and Alps and, from 1975 to 2023, a finish on the Champs-Elysees in Paris.
Now, there are 21 day-long stages and cover nearly 3,500 kilometres (2,200 mi) total. The race alternates between clockwise and counterclockwise circuits but… the teams keep pedaling!
And what jersey do you want to win?! The leader wears yellow, fastest sprinter gets the green, polka dot for the fastest thru the mountains, and the youngest gets the white! Let’s pretend we’re in the race—with laughter as our fuel!
And hello everyone. Hello and welcome to laughter yoga. I am Met and Metaf. I am a laughter yoga teacher and I am learning to laugh at myself all the time when I make mistakes, say something silly or I just make a mistake doing something. You know what? I laugh at myself because I content and there’s no point in getting about it. We just h we’ll laugh it off and just go on to the next thing, you know, just kind of go with the flow. So today we are getting on our cycling helmets celebrating the first tour to France win in 1903. Can you believe it? Woohoo! How can it get any better than this? Oh yes. So let’s get started because laughter yoga is about laughing. We don’t tell jokes and we just we do our giggle wiggle jiggles. We laugh at the silliest things and it’s an invitation to for especially for adults and for some kids to be totally goofy silly goofy silly. And when you do that, the dose hormones go up. the dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and the endorphins. Cortisol goes down and the dose hormones go up and it’s that beautiful feelgood feeling when you’re laughing with friends. And this way we can do it every day and in different ways. So today, we’re celebrating. July 19th, 1903, Maurice Guttin became the first ever winner of the men’s only tour to France. Yes, sorry, men’s only. A super long three-w weekek bike race, the zooms all over France, up steep mountains, and the riders face wind, rain, and exhaustion with only two days plus a little extra of rest. Traditionally, the bulk of the race is held in July. Women started in their own race race in 1955 and since 2022 had their own multi-stage race after the men’s race and it’s about a 9-day. While the route changes each year, the form of the race stays the same and includes time trials, passage through the Pyrenees and the Alps. Woo, that’s pretty high. And from 1975 to 2022 they finish on the sh in Peri. Now there are 21 long stages and they cover 3500 kilometers which is 2200 miles. Wow. In three weeks. Whoa. You got to practice for that one. The total um the race alternates between clockwise one year and counterclockwise the other year. And teams keep pedaling. And what jersey do you want to win? The leader of the day before wears yellow. Uh the fastest sprinter gets the green shirt and the polka dot for the fastest through the mountains and the youngest gets the white. So let’s pretend we’re in the race with laughter as our fuel. So let’s get started. And so we’re going to do our giggle wiggle jiggle. get our energy going because we’ve got those hands on those handlebars, helmet. Whoa. Incredible shape you got to be in. Oh, probably months if not years of practice. And you know what? If you said about that as your dream, then you put the effort and the endeavor into it and you work towards it. Any dream you’ve got. Shake it off. Whoa. All right. You know what? Let’s do our crossbrain gym exercise. And this is probably pretty easy stuff compared to some of the the things that cyclists have to do. All right. So, let’s get going. So, pedal power laugh. So, we imagine and even if you’re not a bicycle racer, we can imagine. And when we imagine those things, it sets up something in the brain to thinking, “Oh, maybe this person can do that.” So, so we’re on our we can be on our imaginary bike and we’re just going we’re going to sort of move as if we’re pedaling who super fast. And you know what? We’ve got laughter cream in our hands and we’ve rubbed that laughter cream in our legs and we are going to go cycling. Whoa. Can you pedal faster? It’s almost like a run. We’ll just pretend we’re running. How can it get any better than this? Very good. Very good. Yay. Woohoo. Oh, you know what happens sometimes? a flat tire. So, get your pump out and we’ll just go a faster faster. Oh, it’s getting harder to pump, which means we’re getting enough air. Very good. Very good. Woohoo. Now, uh, we’re going to pretend we’re cycling uphill. And we change the gears. All right. And put a little laughter cream in there. Let’s put more laughter cream in those legs of ours. Whoa. You get those those sore muscles, right? Wow. Oh, yay. We’ve gone to the top. And guess what? We go to the top. We get to go downhill. [Laughter] Now, let’s take a cycle. Deep breath. All that cycling and laughing, we need to catch our breath. And so deep deep breath in and getting all that residual leftover air that’s deeper in our lungs out and breathing in fresh mountain air. And just exhale with a so breath in. Hold it. And And another breath in. Hold it. Oh, and you know, you got to be hydrated when especially in the summer months, all that cycling up got mountains and down, you need to get keep hydrated. Water is so important. So, we’re going to squirt water on your face while you’re biking. And then just so get your water bottle in hand and squirt the water. Have a sip. [Laughter] Whoa. And just squirt it all over your into your face. Whoa. Oh, that feels so good. Oh, another squirt. Whoa, that feels so good. As we’re cycling along and another squirt step. Oh, yum. Oh. Oh, it feels so good. Squirt. Squish. Oh. Oh, that feels so good. And now we’re we’ve the race. We’re down cross. We’re getting close to the finish line. Whoa. And we’re crossing that imaginary finish line. Arms up high. Woohoo. Woohoo. You did it. Woohoo. Very good. Very good. Yay! Woohoo! Oh! Wow! Well done. Now, you’re going to spin your hands in circles as you breathe in. So, this is our wheel spin and then reverse the spin as you breathe out. Okay. So, you ready? So, breathing in Hold that and blow out. Breathing in. Hold it. Keep your smile. And Awesome. And a few little thoughts to share with you. Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving. And that is by Albert Einstein. Cycling isn’t just about being the strongest. It’s about being smart, committed, and believing in yourself when it matters most. And that’s by Jolene Thomas who was a Olympian and a tour to France winner. You can’t be sad while riding a bicycle especially if you’re pedaling with a big goofy grin. And from aa mil you are stronger than you think, braver than you believe and faster than you ever imagined. So have fun with your day and just laugh because you can laugh even in those sort of moments when ah and remember laugh at yourself. Ah and that’ll get you going. All right. So have fun today. Thank you for joining me and until tomorrow.