Every issue, GRAZIA USA highlights Game Changers, who inspire, educate, and celebrate individuality, beauty, and style. Meet Jess King, the Peloton instructor merging fitness, fashion, inspiration, and a well-timed hair toss or two.
I’ve always been a performer. I have always loved the spotlight and I’ve always loved depth and connecting with people beyond the surface level, beyond what you see. So when I came to Peloton, learning how to ride the bike was new for me, but the performance element was something that was very intuitive.
I don’t see us as any different than a Netflix in that we’re providing a source of entertainment. Yes, the medium by which we are moving and connecting is fitness, but the general consensus around fitness is that it’s a drag. I want to take your mind off of that and heighten the entertainment factor, the production value of what we’re delivering. So it feels more like an immersive show, something that you are participating in.
I quickly realized that I wanted to have a bigger impact: not just in the way of entertainment or fitness, but really a transformative impact on our members. So, I became a certified life coach, and it gave me the vocabulary to be able to create a safe container for members—and myself included—to be able to explore discomfort, find new perspectives, and really process the thoughts that we have when we work out, which can be quite a vulnerable place.
Transformation is messy—and bless the mess! There’s a lot of falling down, getting back up, trying something new. It’s really not about the destination. I know you hear that all the time, but especially in fitness, what you don’t necessarily realize is how deeply transformative the experience is beyond just that goal of hitting your marathon, or hitting your PR, or getting to feel healthy in your body.
Everything in your life changes when you decide to get on the path of transformation. The hardest thing is to stay on the path. We have all started over so many times, right? Be curious about who you are and who you become when you stay on the path, because you already know who you are when you quit and have to start over.
Such a key piece of being able to do that or finding the courage to do that comes from the community right there with you.
There’s something magical that happens when we move in sync with the music and you start to trust that rhythm moving through you, and then your mind kind of stops and settles, and you allow your physical intelligence to just lead the way. For me, that happens in my body in every class. So, what I try and do in the moment is to really feel into what’s happening for me and express that to the members … really just offering it up.
Because we are connecting to that same beat with that same movement, this resonance starts to build, this vibration between me and thousands of people at the same time. That is such a powerful place for human beings. It’s such a sacred place. We’re always distracted looking at different things, answering things, checking Instagram, doing all the things. It’s very rare that you have a moment in your day to just breathe and be in your body.
It definitely is a moving meditation. I’m asking people to do hard things: running, intervals on a bike, climbing for six, seven, ten minutes. That is hard to do, but it’s a very vulnerable place. And if you allow yourself to be in that discomfort and keep going, something will shift. It feels like you don’t know what you’re doing (Ohmigod, ohmigod) but you stay with it. And all of a sudden your body starts to shift. And then you’re like, Wow, I’m doing this.
I’m breaking through instead of breaking down. What else might be possible for me?
