Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Cody Rigsby was barely recognizable on Fire Island, New York. It’s a sacred place, a place where “nobody knows the glory I’m talking about,” said the Peloton instructor, who has been encouraging users to climb imaginary hills since 2014.
“A lot of our target audience is women in their 30s and 50s living in the suburbs or Central America,” she said, noting that she sometimes gets noticed when visiting her mother in North Carolina. “On a very gay island, there aren’t many of them.”
That changed with the arrival of COVID-19. As people look to stay healthy at home, Peloton is growing — from 1.6 million subscribers in early 2020 to 5.9 million in June 2021.
So was Rigsby’s reputation: in a time of silence and uncertainty, his dynamic teaching style resonated in many ways.
When Rigsby returned to Fire Island this summer after a year of doing nothing but visiting an empty Peloton studio in Manhattan, he learned of this new reality. Not the happy anonymity he once had, but now breakfast-goers posing for him. Sometimes they are celebrities.
“I have to be careful now,” she said via video conference from Los Angeles, where she is wrapping up a life-changing year with “Dancing with the Stars.” “Because I’m hanging out with friends and having fun, maybe drinking” – he rolls his eyes for humorous effect – “I don’t want to be too messy.”
Rigsby, 34, is a fitness guru whose self-doubt is a virtual mystery, cursing Justin Timberlake and telling cute stories about his girlfriend to distract him from his room. fatal disease. practice.
According to social media metrics, she is Peloton’s most popular teacher with almost a million followers on Instagram. The Britney Spears 30 Minute Lesson has been downloaded 650,000 times and keeps growing – more than any other similar course. NBC News’ Kristen Welker takes a class with Rigsby to prepare for the second presidential debate in 2020.
Rigsby made a few hundred dollars trying to become a professional dancer, which is not a bad job.
Like the members of the Rigsby Boys, each Peloton coach has a unique personality and teaching style: mental, calm, technical. Rigsby is a funny guy who easily plays what his co-star Emma Lavelle calls “the perfect gay friend”.
While other teachers focus on inspirational form or speech, Rigsby, who has a tattoo of Mickey Mouse ears on his arm, teaches with cryptic phrases, random pop culture observations, and hobbies. individual. The class was very fun. Chuck E. from Olive Garden. Cheese has been known to listen to all breads to the horror of the ball pit. In Cody’s popular XOXO-themed session, Rigsby shares sex tips over a fun pop playlist.