How to Become a Peloton Instructor: Complete Guide

If you want to know how to become a Peloton instructor, you’ve come to the right place! We’ll walk you through the ways you can boost your online presence, expertise, and chances of being discovered by this huge fitness brand!

In this article we'll discuss:

• Why Choose to Become a Peloton Instructor?
• The Qualifications You'll Need for Becoming a Peloton Instructor
• Can You Apply to Be a Peloton Instructor?
• 5 Expert Tips on How to Become a Peloton Instructor

Before we start, the most important thing you’ll need is the best qualifications. Our industry-leading personal trainer courses are the ideal place to start!

You can also find out more about all of our courses if you download our full free course prospectus.

Why Choose to Become a Peloton Instructor?

If you want to know how to become a Peloton instructor, you need to know exactly who they are and what they offer!

Peloton has become one of the biggest fitness brands in the world, especially in recent times when fitness streaming services soared in popularity.

They offer a huge range of classes with the use of their own bespoke equipment and platforms. These include:

• A Peloton bike machine with a screen to view an instructor
• The Peloton tread machine with a similar screen to the bike
• A Peloton app where you can stream and watch a huge range of videos for a subscription fee

The HD screen displays one of their 51 instructors in live streamed classes as well as pre-recorded, on-demand content.

The classes include:

• Strength
• Yoga
• Cardio
• Meditation
• Running
• Outdoor
• Cycling
• Stretching
• Tread Bootcamp
  
• Bike Bootcamp
• Walking

Not only is this a great way of working and growing your own personal brand, you’d also be attached to one of the biggest brands in fitness.

In fact, Peloton currently has 2.33 million subscribers and 5.9 million members on the platform as a whole!

Though Peloton has never revealed exact salaries, Jess Sims, one of their instructors, revealed to the Wall Street Journal in 2019 that the figure was six figures:

So, no wonder you want to know how to become a Peloton instructor when these are the numbers!

There’s also a lot of business partnerships that instructors have established, ultimately becoming influencers and ambassadors as well as instructors. 

So, if you want to know how to become a Peloton trainer, and make the most of this and other lucrative revenue streams, there’s some vital steps you’ll need to take. 

The Qualifications You'll Need for Becoming a Peloton Instructor

If you’re wondering ‘how do i become a peloton instructor?’, the most important first step is to make sure you’re qualified, and choose the highest quality course.

You’ll at least need to match the expertise and industry know-how of their existing instructors. 

We’ll go through these qualifications individually. Then you’ll know exactly what you should be looking for in a course and what you’ll learn to help with how to become a Peloton trainer!

Personal Trainer Qualifications

The fundamental foundation is a combination of a Level 3 fitness instructor course and a Level 4 personal trainer course.

The first qualification you should complete is a Level 3 Fitness Instructor course. This provides a foundation for any career in fitness, and is an absolute minimum requirement for working in any gym or studio, including in a virtual environment like Peloton. 

Then you’ll complete a Level 4 PT course to become a fully qualified personal trainer and design bespoke training programmes for clients.

You’re able to do these courses individually, or as part of a combined qualification called a Personal Training Diploma. Let’s break both of these qualifications down!

Level 3 Fitness Instructor Course

A Level 3 fitness instructor qualification will give you the expertise to:

• Work on the gym floor
• Correct people’s form
• Teach fitness classes

With this course, you’ll learn how to keep individuals motivated towards fitness goals and engaged in their training.

You’ll also have some foundational learning about how to cater training to individuals’ needs and specific requirements.

However, a lot of gyms and facilities want potential employees to have more qualifications and be able to show further expertise, like a Level 4 personal trainer course, which we’ll look at now.

Level 4 Personal Trainer Course

Building on this foundation with a Level 4 PT qualification is the best way to develop more professional skills and experience.

If you're wondering should you become a personal trainer, rather just a fitness instructor, one of the advantages if you'll be able to work with individuals, creating bespoke training programmes for them.

Though as a Peloton instructor you’ll be teaching classes, rather than working one-to-one, you’ll need to have a well established career, full of experience, to get to this stage.

More doors will open for you the more qualifications you have. This will mean you can get a much wider range of experience and develop a strong career.

These key parts of the Level 4 Personal Training course will help you develop your career and gain vital experience, showing you’re a well-rounded fitness expert instructor: 

• Personal Training Delivery - this builds on learning how to keep clients motivated in Level 3. You’ll develop skills on delivering classes and sessions, which is vital if you’re wondering ‘how do you become a Peloton instructor?’
• Demonstrating Leadership - these practical skills will help you lead by example and will help foster some of the command you’ll need when you’re on the Peloton screen!
• Learning the Business - you’ll learn some significant business skills like how to write a business plan and some essential PT marketing strategies which will help you stand out to Peloton’s recruiters

As you can see from Emma Lovewell’s own impressive roster of qualifications, you’ll at least need a personal trainer qualification if you want to know how to be a Peloton instructor:

CPD Courses

CPD fitness courses (continued professional development) are additional qualifications you can do alongside or after personal trainer courses to boost your expertise, and help you develop a niche.

If you want to know how to become a Peloton spin instructor, you’ll need a dedicated qualification for spin.

However, as we’ve already mentioned, instructing a spin class isn’t the only option with Peloton. Out of the classes on offer, there’s plenty of CPD courses that match up to Peloton classes.

For example, we offer the following CPD courses that could help foster knowledge and experience using these techniques in your training:

• Boxing coaching courses
• Strength and conditioning qualification 
• Group training course  

If you’re teaching classes, as well as incorporating strength and conditioning and boxing techniques in your training programmes, you’ll be on the right track for shaping your career!

These correspond directly to some of the Peloton classes on offer so you’ll be developing skills directly applicable to the role.

You’ll also be developing a niche, growing your client base, and able to get more results, all of which will boost your reputation.

The more experience and knowledge you have the more likely you are to stand out to a talent scout and be discovered by Peloton! 

We’ll go into more detail in our section ‘5 Expert Tips on How to Become a Peloton Instructor’, but you’ll be expected to have experience and knowledge in several different areas to teach a range of classes. 

This is why our CPD courses, on top of our personal trainer courses, are a great way to increase your employability and give you some of the vital experience needed for how to become a peloton instructor!

Can You Apply to Be a Peloton Instructor?

So, is it hard to become a Peloton instructor? The short answer is: yes, depending on where you are in your career and how established you are.

This is because you can’t necessarily apply to Peloton trainer jobs - they use talent recruitment as part of their business model to scout out people who are a good fit.

Peloton discovers its instructors in a similar way to other industries (like football, for example) via talent recruitment. People build up their reputation and, either through word of mouth or networking, they will be scouted by Peloton representatives. 

Once people are discovered, they’re invited to audition, rather than applying to be a Peloton instructor.

If you’re wondering how to audition to be a Peloton instructor, you need to make sure you have plenty of experience teaching classes and feel confident in front of a camera.

You’ll try out, on camera, showcasing how you would teach a class, and demonstrate that you can talk and instruct on the bike or other machines at the same time.

However, the most important thing first and foremost is nurturing your career and experience as a PT so that you’re more likely to be discovered by one of these recruiters, and invited for an interview. 

On their careers page on their website they often advertise for these positions rather than for instructors themselves:

This role is for somebody who works in the ‘acquisitions’ team to keep attracting and supplying high quality talent for the Peloton company. 

If you're wondering how to become a peloton instructor considering this drawback, don't worry! There are things you can do to make your brand and services stick out.

We’ll run through some of these in more detail in our next section of ‘how to become a Peloton instructor’ tips.

If this an informative read, check out our other articles with more helpful tips on entering the fitness industry!

• Fitness Instructor vs Personal Trainer
• How to Become an Online Personal Trainer
• How to Use Zoom for Fitness Classes

5 Expert Tips on How to Become a Peloton Instructor

Despite this difficulty, you can still learn how to become a Peloton instructor by boosting your career and becoming discoverable. 

We’ll run through some of these now so that you can choose which classes to teach and how to grow your social media presence!

#1 - Know How to Become a Peloton Instructor by Teaching Similar Classes

First up on our list of tips for how to become a Peloton instructor is to make sure you teach the classes that Peloton does.

The benefit of investing your time into these classes (like boxing, or indoor cycling) is that you’re developing skills for a particular type of training and deepening your expertise in that area.

For example, if you use your expertise in indoor cycling to run a boxercise class that mixes biking with punches and swings, or specialise in weaving boxing into your training, then you can promote yourself as an expert and specialist.

This is what Kendal Toole did - through specialising in boxing, and mixing it with other athletic specialities, she was discovered and teaches boxing classes with Peloton:

She also continues to do this outside of Peloton growing her personal fitness brand:

Not only will this make your personal training stand out to clients but you’ll be curating a career that’s attractive to Peloton recruiters.

When you look at some of the top instructors, it’s often through teaching a wide variety of classes and showcasing their personalities that they got discovered.

#2 - You Should Have a Unique Niche if You Want to Know How to Become a Peloton Instructor

If you’re wondering how to get a job as a Peloton instructor you’ll need to develop your own USP so that you stand out as a PT!

Though available Peloton instructor jobs won’t be advertised in the usual way, this is another thing you can do to boost your chances of being discovered by recruiters. 

By showing yourself to have unique and diverse experience, as well as just focusing on the classes taught by Peloton, you’ll be matching the high quality experience of its existing instructors. 

Peloton instructor jobs usually go to those who’ve excelled in their field and have mastered a particular activity, winning awards and competitions in that arena.

Some of the best ways you can do this include: 

• Try out different sports jobs alongside your training
• Include a sport, fitness activity, or dancing style in your training and classes
• Do sports or athletics coaching
• Complete competitions in a particular sport or athletic activity 

Maybe you’ve got a passion for running and you’re starting to rack up marathon running experience? This is one of the ways Becs Gentry got discovered:

She excelled in distance running and has the marathon personal best time to show for it.

You could start your own running challenges, train for a marathon, or run running groups in order to get noticed. 

One of the best things you can do is to get involved in coaching a sports team or individuals. Whereas Becs has excelled in her own right, plenty of Peloton instructors have experience coaching a team or individuals through competitions.

Jess Sims is a great example of this:

It’s her experience as a basketball coach, and how she used that in her previous work as a teacher, that got her noticed by Peloton.

So, the best professional moves you can make if you want to know how to become a Peloton instructor are to gain your own success as well as helping others achieve their own!

#3 Work for Boutique & High End Gyms if You Want to Become a Peloton Instructor

Another one of the best ways to make sure your experience could get you noticed by Peloton is to work at some of the best gyms.

If you’re working for a boutique or high end gym or health club, you’re much more likely to have high profile or celebrity clients.

Not only does this mean you’ll make more money, from wealthier clients, but you’ll also have more opportunity to branch out and develop your niche and expertise.

This is because having more money will mean a wider, and more state of the art, mix of facilities including: 

• Tennis courts
• Boxing rings
• Pools

This will mean that there’s a wider range of classes available too, and more opportunity to develop a unique roster of experience teaching them! Some of these include:

• Outdoor boxing inspired classes 
• Mixed martial arts classes
• Barre classes

These higher end gyms and boutique health clubs usually demand more experience from prospective employees so this is something to work towards.

However, once you’ve got more experience as a PT you can start looking to work for these gyms and health clubs to boost your chances of getting discovered!

This is how Jess Sims got discovered, developing her fitness brand in luxury and boutique studios in New York City:

As you can see, she’s made the most of the classes on offer and diversified her skills and experience whilst she’s built up her brand.

She also became involved with, and got noticed by, fitness media outlets, which we’ll touch on a little more shortly.

These facilities can be quite exclusive and sometimes, especially with the really high end places, it can be a question of having professional connections with existing members of staff.

This is why it’s important to also focus on personal trainer networking, which we’ll cover in our next tip for how to become a Peloton instructor. 

#4 - Do Plenty of Networking to Secure Peloton Instructor Jobs

As we mentioned earlier, if you want to know how to become a Peloton instructor, one of the best things to do is to network with other fitness professionals.

Networking is the process of meeting and interacting with other people in your industry to swap information and make professional connections.

Because you can’t necessarily apply for Peloton trainer jobs, you need to make sure you’re making connections with people who are already involved with Peloton, or people higher up in the fitness industry.

Not only might you meet a Peloton representative at one of these events, but you could also make other valuable connections to help you grow your brand. 

This, in turn, will increase your chances of being discovered. These people include:

• Potential clients
• Potential investors
• People with prominent brands interested in collaborating
• Brand you could become an ambassador for

This is why it’s an advantage working at a high end or boutique gym because you’re much more likely to meet these influential people! 

You can keep your eyes open and register for events hosted by Ireland Active if there aren’t ones hosted by your gym specifically:

As you can see, events like these are a great way to meet industry leading professionals and make vital connections that will help you along in your career.

So, if you want to know how to become a Peloton instructor, attending events like these and contributing is a great way of getting noticed.

#5 To Be a Peloton Instructor, You Should Develop Your Online Brand

Though there’s no direct way to apply to be a Peloton instructor, building your online brand is a big way you can boost your chances of getting discovered. 

As well as building a personal trainer landing page and other marketing strategies, one of the most important things you can do is grow your social media presence.

This means utilising some key social media strategies to grow a following and build yourself as a brand, rather than just as a PT!

This is how you can capitalise on the connections you make through networking. If you’re meeting other brands, influencers, and prominent figures in the fitness industry, you can use this to produce engaging content.

You only have to have 1,000 followers to have a chance of earning money from your platform and, looking at the top instructors at Peloton, you can see how lucrative this revenue stream becomes!

In terms of the type of content you should be posting, we’ll run through some of the key features now so you know how to become a Peloton instructor using your socials!

Have Consistent Branding on Your Social Media Page

You want to make sure that your fitness brand is instantly recognisable and your posts are consistent in terms of:

• Font
• Filters
• Colour scheme

This will help to actually develop your services into a brand and make your Instagram grid more aesthetically pleasing!

We do this with our own posts as you can see below:

As you can see, we’ve got a consistent colour scheme and our name is on everything we post, as well as having a similar font and structure to the posts.

Create Content People Want to Save

‘Saving’ the post is when people bookmark your particular post on Instagram in order to save it for later, and revisit it.

If you make content on Instagram that encourages people to ‘save’ the post rather than just like it, this is much better for the algorithm and better for growing your brand.

One of the best ways to do this is to create content that gives people advice or a resource they’ll want to use again. This includes:

• Fitness regimes
• Healthy recipes
• Training tips
• Tips related to key goals of clients

We do this with our own content with things like recipes and tips for personal trainers:

As you can see from the stats, we get huge engagement from these posts and plenty of saves:

This in turn generates traffic to our page and reaches plenty of people who aren’t already followers. This means we gain more followers in the process: 

As shown below, the current Peloton instructors have got huge following on social media and have utilised these platforms to become ambassadors for brands and their other businesses:

Before You Go!

So, if you’re interested in becoming a Peloton instructor hopefully we’ve given you plenty of tips to help you boost your chances!

Don’t forget, the most important thing you can do is to ensure you get the best diploma in personal training and boost your expertise with some additional courses to develop a niche.

Remember you can also download and browse our free course prospectus for information on these and all of our courses.