Peloton family--we’re so excited to welcome two brand new instructors to lead you to your best on the Bike: Kendall Toole and Tunde Oyeneyin. Learn more about their journey into fitness and beyond before clipping in to your first class with them.
Kendall Toole
“What are you fighting for?”
Kendall liked to move as far back as she, or her mom, can remember. “My mom was an aerobics instructor when she was pregnant with me,” says Kendall. “I think the whole fitness bug and dancing thing happened early.” While growing up on the West Coast, Kendall opted into anything that allowed her to express herself. Acting, gymnastics, dance and cheerleading were early examples of how she stayed active and inspired.
When Kendall encountered challenging times during college, she looked to movement again as a way to find her way through it. “One of my mentors said, ‘You need to get into a boxing ring,’” says Kendall. “I had a coach that trained me three times a week and that became a form of therapy for me.” After college, she landed a competitive job producing social media content but quickly realized the environment wasn’t for her. Once she left the position, she was encouraged by the owner of her boxing gym to give fitness a shot. In that moment, Kendall stepped into her role as an instructor and has never looked back. “What I found at the time was that everything was guiding me towards fitness and empowerment,” says Kendall. “I’ve learned that you can have a plan, but the plan never goes according to plan.”
Kendall is so excited to help Peloton Members show themselves exactly what they’re capable of. “I want people to recognize what their power is--maybe they're discovering it for the first time, or they're rediscovering it,” says Kendall. “Once you find it never leaves you and then it becomes a through-line and everything you do.” During class Kendall will queue up rock, EDM or hip hop tracks and will ask you to meet her wherever you’re at that day to lose yourself in all your hard work.
Tunde Oyeneyin
“Let me allow you to push yourself”
While growing up in Houston, Texas, fitness wasn’t a part of Tunde’s life. Around the time she turned 13, she decided to sign up for a membership at her local gym, walking a mile and a half there nearly every day. Intimidated at first, Tunde decided to stick to using cardio machines every day for 30 minutes, but after a while the group fitness classes caught her eye. “I would see people inside the group exercise class and I was very intrigued,” says Tunde. “I would always walk slow to kind of see what they were doing in there.” After booking a spot in class just a few times, Tunde fell in love.
During her previous career as a makeup artist, she clipped into her first boutique cycling class while on a work trip to New York City. “I remember leaving that class, snow falling down, and I said to myself, ‘I'm going to be doing this for the rest of my life,’” says Tunde. “It was like electricity came over me and said, ‘not only are you going to be doing this, you're going to be on the podium teaching it’--I knew it clearer than anything I've ever known in my life.” Even though she was challenged by some natural self-doubt and hesitation, her incredible charisma and spirit landed her an audition and her first instructor job, and eventually brought her here to Peloton. “I just said to myself, ‘Never again am I going to put something off based on the way that I think that other people might view me or based on what I think someone's opinion of me might be’--I'm capable of doing it.”
Since that initial decision to transform her life, Tunde has continued to discover deeper levels of fitness that fuel her life in every way and allow her to be her authentic self. After losing multiple close family members, Tunde dedicated her hard work and energy to them--everything she does, she does in their honor. And Tunde plans to show you all your layers of strength. “I want to get people to that next level.” she says. “This is what I love--allowing people to see the best version of themselves.” Tunde is so excited to meet this incredible community by sweating together to her favorite top 40 tracks, eclectic beats and “anything with good bass.” Who’s in?
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