To stay in shape while their respective sports are shuttered due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many professional athletes are turning to riding Peloton bikes in their homes.
According to ESPN, the preferred instructor for athletes — including Patrick Mahomes and Baker Mayfield of the NFL and Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas of the PGA — is a 27-year-old New Yorker named Alex Toussaint.
A proponent of “tough love” and hip-hop, Toussaint started out mopping floors at a cycling studio in New York called Flywheel and eventually became a teacher.
“That’s why I show up in every one of my rides in that Michael Jordan Game 7 approach because I know what it feels like to not have any sort of hope,” Toussaint told ESPN. “And now I have all of the light, and I want to provide that to anybody that can possibly need it. That’s my No. 1 priority right now. It’s all I want to do.”
Now a senior instructor at Peloton, Toussaint wants his classes to feel like a competition.
“I try to bring that straight athlete approach to my class,” he said. “I feel like for them it’s super relatable. I think the approach is super relatable. The delivery is super relatable, the music is super relatable. It makes them want to compete and want to continue to show up.”
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