Jon Hosking is trotting around the Peloton studio in London, high-fiving members of the audience ahead of our ‘90s Run’ class. I am among the 20 or so members of the live studio audience, dressed in our best workout gear, pacing out our nerves on our Tread+ treadmills, pinching ourselves that we’ve made it here, to the centre of the Peloton universe. The room is a black void, lit up here and there with the brightest of lights. A dozen cameras are trained upon us.
‘One minute until screen time!’ someone calls. The familiar intro to Mark Morisson’s 1996 classic Return Of The Mack strikes up and Hosking bounces on to the central treadmill. ‘I like to see myself as a relatively humble man,’ he smiles at us. ‘But I can’t lie, this playlist is a work of art.’
Hosking, 34, a former model from Bromley, combines the charisma of a litter of puppies with the focus of a jet pilot. When this man leans in for a high five, you do not want to mess it up. Like each of the 57 Peloton instructors, he has his own fanclub – #ClubHosky – and his own catchphrase: ‘What a time to be alive!’ We are under his control. If he tells us to turn up our speed to 10 and our inclines to five, we’ll do it. Some of the people in this room have flown 4,000 miles to run to Rhythm Of The Night with him.
Five, four, three, two – Hosking turns his attention to the camera – one. ‘And you’re here live!’ he beams. We run. What a time to be alive.
Making The Connection
I have come to Peloton’s state-of-the-art 30,000 square foot fitness complex in London’s Covent Garden for a glimpse into the world of the superstar PT. Or the digital drill sergeant. Or the endorphin ambassador. Or whatever name ends up sticking to the new type of celebrity that Hosking and his fellow Peloton instructors represent.
It’s fair to say that for those who do not have a £1,345 Peloton bike, a £3,345 Peloton treadmill or even a £39-per-month Peloton subscription, the names Jon Hosking, Leanne Hainsby, Cody Rigsby and Emma Lovewell will register a gigantic ‘who?’ But for many of the 6.4 million members, these people have a status that feels beyond mere celebrity. ‘It’s a unique interaction you have with a Peloton member,’ says Hosking. ‘You can be out doing your business, day to day, and then someone looks at you in a certain way… You can spot them coming a mile off, really excited.’
Fitness studios such as Barry’s Bootcamp, Frame and SoulCycle have long leaned on the charisma of the instructors who lead their classes. And we’ve always had fitness stars who’ve reached millions via video or YouTube: your Jane Fondas, Mr Motivators and Joe Wickses. However, brands such as Peloton, FiiT, Apple Fitness+ and Les Mills have found a way to combine mass appeal and cult-like devotion. Instead of reaching 30 or 40 people at a time, their instructors can reach thousands, potentially millions, while maintaining a personal connection with each one – or at least the illusion of one. ‘There’s something magical about it,’ says one devotee. ‘You feel like you’re in the room with the person. It feels like they’re talking to you. They say, “Come on, I know this is really hard but you can do it!” And I’m like, “How did you know this was really hard? This is really hard!”’
Users credit instructors with seeing them through bereavements, cancer battles and periods of depression, as well as with more conventional fitness goals such as weight loss. And such emotions are not confined to Peloton. Here’s a selection of responses from the AppleFitness+ Reddit forum: ‘I love Jonelle for yoga. I like the way she admits things are hard and uncomfortable’; ‘Emily’s enthusiasm is so infectious, and in a world so cynical, it makes me appreciate her all the more’; ‘My wife and I joke that if Dice started a cult, we’d join it in a heartbeat.’
After a few minutes in Hosking’s company, it’s not hard to see why he’s so popular. The man overflows with enthusiasm. He absolutely loves his job. Did he mention that he loves his job? He loves it! He has the unfakeable ebullience of someone who finds themself doing what they were put on this earth to do – and it’s infectious. ‘It’s a cliche, but it gives me extraordinary purpose to know I have that engagement with people,’ he says. ‘It’s what gets me out of bed because it changes people’s lives every day. And people message me about it – Peloton members don’t hold back. They say, “You changed my life. I lost two stone, I’ve got my relationship with my husband back.” It’s a lot. But it’s real. I love it.’
This sort of enthusiasm would appear to be non-negotiable in a digital fitness instructor. You think it takes a lot of energy to run a class? It takes twice the energy to project that through a screen. It also takes expertise. ‘Before, I used to think: let’s go for a little run. Now I have to answer why I’ve sped up at this point, or why I’ve increased the incline. My classes are definitely more entertainment led. But they’re still strong exercise classes that will get you towards your goal.’
But beyond that, just about everyone I speak to talks of an ‘X factor’, an indefinable quality that makes an instructor connect. ‘They all have to have personality,’ says Gede Foster, director of fitness and performance at FiiT, Britain’s top- rated online fitness channel, available in 175 countries. ‘It’s a je ne sais quoi. It’s something you can’t put your finger on.’
Up until recently, FiiT auditioned trainers based on the specialist skills that were lacking in their core group. However, the company recently organised open auditions to expand the network. After an X Factor-style process, 150 candidates were whittled down to Matt Williams, a heavily tattooed weight trainer with an outlandish luminous mullet (‘Remember: we’re not here to be super-serious – we’re here to have a good time!’) and Jake Berney, a former PE teacher from Sussex (‘Yas, FiiT crew! Always showing up – proud of you…’).
‘Jake came from a sports science background and he had unique competencies in the strength space,’ says Foster. ‘But he’s also got this warm, jokey thing that really connected with members. He’ll talk about eating kebabs or something. So you’re getting a great workout – his was one of the toughest. But he’s very human, too. He can break that fourth wall. That’s what it is, that’s the X factor – it’s making the user feel they’re in the room with them.’
It’s important to remember that people come to these classes for different reasons, says Foster. Some will respond to humour. Others, tough love. Some will appreciate a Backstreet Boys run. Others prefer Metallica. ‘What I’m proud of in our coaching team is that none of them are the same,’ says Foster. ‘There are some platforms where the coaches are a bit cookie-cutter – there’s a definite brand. Whereas we have some trainers who are your best friend and take you under their wing, some that are tough love, some who are more technique focused and then some who keep it very light. Our users will love some trainers and not love others. That’s great. We want a trainer team that speaks to each level.’
Bodies Of Influence
Peloton has weathered business difficulties since its rapid expansion during the pandemic, experiencing over 5,000 job losses in 2022, a change in leadership and an even an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm in which Larry David bruises his testicle on a Peloton bike. However, during that time, the charisma of the instructors has emerged as a core strength. In the US, Cody Rigsby, the Britney Spears-loving cycle instructor and self-professed ‘opinionated homosexual’, has appeared on the American version of Dancing With The Stars and cut sponsorship deals with Adidas and Whole Foods among others.
The British stars are not quite in that league yet, but Peloton’s new Covent Garden studio complex, which has been renovated as part of a reported £50m investment in the UK, is an attempt to change that. The studio opened as a production space for the English- and German-language instructors in October 2021 and began to welcome members in for live experiences in August 2022 (something that members have been able to experience at the New York studio).
The class I attend on a winter Tuesday evening is one of 1,000 hours of programming pumped out each month. It’s all choreographed with extreme care. Hosking plans his playlist well in advance; meetings are held with the production team identifying the most dramatic moments; various tech-fail scenarios are anticipated. The action is captured by 12 remotely operated cameras, some for expressions, some for form (close-ups of tricky stretches, say), some for atmosphere.
‘Everyone knows what’s the natural next step in the dance,’ says Pete Flamman, who is in charge of Peloton broadcasts in the UK. ‘What’s going to look good on the screen at home. What’s going to feel good. What’s going to make people connect with the instructor. What’s going to make a good fitness experience.’
For the 20 or so members fast enough to secure tickets, the idea is to provide a ‘Disneyland’ experience, Flamman continues. There are luxurious changing rooms in the basement of the building and numerous locations to pose for pictures with the Peloton equivalents of Mickey and Minnie, all lit by studio lighting because – as Flamman says – if you’re taking a picture next to a Peloton instructor, you want to look your best. Often, these live events are a chance for an online community to meet in real life; there are Peloton groups with names like #EarlyMorningRiders or #BlackGirlMagic. But, more often than not, they’re a chance for superfans to meet their heroes. ‘We occasionally get tears,’ Flamman says. ‘It’s an emotional thing for people.’
Peloton’s reach is significant, but it’s not necessarily a type of influence that you can quantify in raw numbers. Peloton claims that it has 6.4 million members, but (in common with Netflix) it doesn’t divulge much by way of specifics. Recent Women’s Health cover star Leanne Hainsby is the most popular British instructor, but her 410K Instagram followers doesn’t necessarily compare with other influencers in the general sphere of health, say Joe Wicks (4.7 million) or Deliciously Ella (2.3 million).
And yet, the force of that connection is hard to quantify. When the writer and podcaster Elizabeth Day interviewed Hainsby, she declared herself more star-struck than she had been with anyone she’d ever interviewed. ‘Leanne is constantly motivating, upbeat and energising,’ she tells me. ‘She has been through unimaginable challenges and tragedy over the last two years, but on Peloton, she has always continued to show up for others. I just love her so much.’
And it should be added that, given the price of some of that equipment, the audience that the Peloton instructors reach is an influential one. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak apparently works out on his Peloton bike each morning and I have never quite been able to look at him the same way since he revealed that he is a Cody Rigsby fan. ‘He is definitely my long-time favourite, which means you have to listen to a lot of Britney,’ he told a podcast just before he became PM. ‘But, you know, no bad thing in trying to get you motivated, I guess!’ Which might just mean that Rigsby has more influence over British politics than most MPs. Pinch me baby one more time.
Rigsby was one of the earliest Peloton recruits. ‘There was no audition. I walked in, had a cute face, and had a job 20 minutes later,’ he recently revealed on a podcast. It’s a little more involved these days. Hosking was spotted via Instagram Live. He had been a fashion model for about a decade, but when the coronavirus pandemic arrived in 2020, he began
to wonder whether there was much of a future in it. ‘The last shoot I did was a socially distanced shoot with Men’s Health in March 2020. I remember being on set that day thinking, “This is the end of my modelling career.”’
Rather than mooching around at home, he decided to set himself a challenge. ‘I had a rowing machine in my house. So, I said to my housemates, “I’m just going to do something with this.”’ He decided that he would row five marathons in five days to raise money for a mental health charity. He trained to be a fitness coach that summer and then launched his Instagram Live channel the following January, right about the time that Peloton’s talent scouts were looking out for instructors who could help launch their new running machines in Britain. ‘I wasn’t really a runner when I started. I’d just played football all my life,’ he says. ‘But that’s what they wanted so I thought, “Oh… Let’s get running then!”’
What does he think makes him a good coach? ‘From the minute I started working in a gym studio, I thought to myself, “I love the idea of being part of this community and being a bit of a leader.” Leading classes, bringing the energy… there’s so much that goes on within a class that’s broadcast here. You need a constant level of engagement.’
Anthony Oxford, a presenter, trainer and ambassador for Les Mills International, echoes the point. It’s about enthusiasm – and to a large degree, this isn’t something that can be faked.
‘I simply love what I do, so most of what I do doesn’t feel like work,’ he says. ‘You never know who’s watching – so my goal is to always be the ultimate role model, to inspire, to infect people with energy and motivate them to become the best versions of themselves.’
Les Mills began with a single gym in Auckland in 1968, founded by the eponymous New Zealand Olympic athlete and politician Les Mills. Now under the management of Mills’ children, it has evolved into one of the world’s leading online fitness brands. Oxford was approached by the company in 2017. There followed a two-day audition bootcamp and three months of training. But the ability to communicate didn’t always come easy to him, he says.
‘I was one of the shyest kids growing up,’ he says. ‘Teaching a class or delivering training to a group of people was something that I never thought I would be able to do. I wasn’t even going to attend that first audition opportunity in 2017 as I didn’t feel I was good enough. My life would have been very different if I didn’t.’ Aside from the technical stuff – troubleshooting – this is the thing that he has worked hardest on. As someone who is not a ‘big talker’, he’s made an effort to improve his communication skills.
‘You need to understand your strengths and work to them,’ he explains. ‘It’s not about being like someone else, it’s about being the ultimate version of you and letting your character and passion shine through.’
Gede Foster of FiiT adds another tip, ‘You want to make it seem hard, too. If it seems hard for the trainer, that’s reassuring for the audience. You’ve got to be in it with all of our members.’
A Personal Touch
After our 90s run at the Peloton studio – which we completed as the sound of dance-floor classics including It’s Like That, I’m A Dreamer, One Night In Heaven and Rhythm Of The Night pumped through the room – I catch up with Paul from Buckinghamshire. He’s queuing up for a picture with Jon – who he likes because he makes him laugh. He bought his Peloton bike and his Peloton tread the week they were released in the UK.
‘I guess the people who come here – we’re all going to be quite obsessed,’ he says. ‘My wife’s got a signed picture of Cody Rigsby by the bed.’
Stephanie from Minnesota is waiting in line, too. She’s come to London with her sister specifically to do this. Why? ‘First of all, Jon is gorgeous,’ she says. ‘But second of all, he’s just so much fun. He’s so bright and light and he dances on the tread. I’m not a runner but he gets me to run. There’s something about his inner light that just encourages me to move.’
She has been to the New York studio more times than she can count, and goes to all the book launches and signings she can, too. She’s tried a real personal trainer before, but it never worked. She would find excuses. She would cancel and feel guilty. With Jon, it’s different. ‘There’s no guilt,’ she says. ‘I can do what I can do. He encourages me to do what I can do that day.’