Ride to the Rhythm: Peloton's Artist Series Classes Will Move You

In 2019, Peloton launched their official artist series classes. These classes receive special promotion by Peloton and feature music from a specific artist in a set of classes.

There are many classes that can be included in an artist series. Some series may only have one class while others could have several classes. Peloton may even run a second round of the artist series in some cases. This is what has happened with Beyonce and The Beatles. One can imagine Taylor Swift doing the same in the future. A complete list of classes and artist series can be found here.

Peloton announces a new artist series and you begin to wonder why an instructor isn’t allowed to teach one of these classes. Peloton uses a number of factors to choose which instructors will teach which classes. This includes which instructor is a fan who wants to teach it. But that’s another topic.

This post will simply look at data for the artist series. We’ll be looking at the Peloton instructor who taught the most classes (artist-series classes) in 2021.

There were 297 Peloton Artist Series classes over the course of 2021. The official artist series badge was awarded to the classes that were published in 2021. This number was calculated by looking at the class names. The complete list of classes that earned the badge can also be found here. This group of classes included the All For One music festival (AFO), that took place over the Fourth of July weekend, many Official Broadway Series classes and the Verzuz Head-to-Head classes.

Sometimes, multiple instructors taught the same class in a few cases. You can see a complete list here. Both instructors were given credit for the class’s teaching when this happened. This means that even though a class might only have 14 classes, there might be 16 instructor classes. This is due to the fact that two classes were taken at once.

There are many ways to analyze data this large. First, we will look at all the instructors in Peloton across all classes. Next, data will be broken down into 5 classes: tread, yoga/meditation and strength.

This list includes the names of all Peloton instructors as well as the number of Artist Series classes they taught in 2021.

Peloton had 56 coaches who taught classes in 2021. Christian Vande Velde is a notable exception. He didn’t teach classes in 2021, and it’s not clear when or if that will change.

You might consider jumping to the next section if you find the list overwhelming. These sections allow us to look at the list and count each class type. There are fewer instructors on those lists, so they are easier to read.

Below is the complete list of Peloton instructors as well as the count of instructor series classes across all classes. The first version of this list is in numerical order. At the top are the coaches who taught most classes, while at the bottom are the coaches who taught less. It also displays the overall percentage of artist series classes that each instructor taught.

Based on the number of classes they taught in artist series, these are the most popular Peloton instructors.

In 2021, the Peloton instructors who taught most artist series classes across all class types were: Jess King (13), Ben Alldis (12), Chelsea Jackson Roberts/12), Aditi Shah (12), Adrian Williams (10), Ally Love (10), Erik Jager (10) and Erik Jager (10) respectively.

This list includes both newer and more experienced instructors.

Other ways, the list is fairly evenly distributed. Not just cycling is represented. Chelsea Jackson Roberts has second most classes and is primarily focused on yoga&mediation. Peloton is expanding the artist series to Germany - Erik Jager (who primarily coaches in German) is near the top.

Peloton is expanding the classes in their two production studios. Three of the top 13 instructors (Ben Alldis and Erik Jager) are all based in the UK Peloton studio.

Below are the exact same data, but instead of being in numerical order, it is presented alphabetically:

In alphabetical order, the most popular Peloton instructors are based on how many artist series classes they have taught.

We know that not all Peloton members train across all classes. Therefore, we will now examine the data by class type. The first will be Peloton’s cycling artist classes. Next, we’ll look at tread, yoga/meditation and strength. Finally, we’ll cover all classes.

List of Peloton instructors that taught the most Peloton bikes classes and cycling in 2021

Peloton’s cycling classes are the original class type taught at Peloton. They were also the only one for many years. It is still the most loved class type and one that is taught the most often.

This list will include any type of class that is taught on the bicycle. It will include regular rides as well as bike bootcamps, warm up rides, cool down rides, and arms and weight classes.

The most popular class was cycling, with almost twice the number of classes and running second. Peloton taught 116 biking or bike-based artist classes over the course of 2021. These classes were taught by 26 coaches.

Although you might think that the most well-known instructors like Robin Arzon and Cody Rigsby would have more artist series classes for Peloton than they do, the data proves otherwise. They are both in the top 10, however!

In 2021, the top 10 most popular Peloton instructors were Kendall Toole (9), Sam Yo (9), Leanne Haysby (8), Ally Love (7), Cody Rigsby ((7)), Mayla Wedekind ((7)), Robin Arzon (7) and Alex Toussaint (6, Christine D’Ercole(6). Erik Jager (6).

Below is a complete list of the most popular Peloton bicycle coaches, as it relates the artist series classes:

Based on the number of classes they taught in artist series, these were the most popular Peloton instructors in 2021.

It is disputed whether seniority of an instructor influences the selection of artist series classes. The two most experienced instructors in cycling have been with the company for less than two years. Sam Yo joined the company in November 2019 and Kendall Toole joined the company in September 2019. Jenn Sherman, the longest-tenured Peloton instructor taught only 3 art series cycling classes, compared to Kendall’s 9 - proving that there are other factors than seniority that influence the process.

You may have skipped the first section of this blog post. This list includes instructors for all classes. However, this list is only for cycling. It might not reflect the true number of instructors who teach more than one class type. Matt Wilpers, for example, has only 2 classes in artist series cycling but 5 classes in Tread. This is one example of how an instructor may appear to teach fewer classes when only looking at a particular class type. However, when you look at the total instructor count it is teaching a greater percentage of classes than it appears.

List of Peloton Tread instructors who taught the most running and Peloton Tread classes by 2021

Next, we’ll be looking at the number of Pelotons’ tread&running-based classes. This data set includes the “Running” classes as well as outdoor runs, walks, runs +, Tread bootcamps, Tread warm-ups and Tread cool-downs. The second most popular type of class for artist series was the tread-based classes, but only by a small margin. 60 classes were taught. These classes were taught by 19 coaches.

Becs Gentry (8), Jess King (7), Chase Tucker (5) and Matt Wilpers (5, Matty Maggiacomo 5), Selena Samuela ((5)), Adrian Williams (4), Jermaine (3), Jess Sims (3,3), and Rebecca Kennedy (3) were the top 10 most popular Peloton Running Instructors in 2021.

Here is a complete list of the most popular Peloton Tread and running coaches (in terms artist series classes).

In 2021, the most popular Peloton tread instructors were ranked based on how many artist series classes they taught.

It is important to note that the PelotonTread instructor team has grown significantly in the past year. Many instructors have not been with Peloton for long enough to have had the opportunity to teach as many artist series classes. As the newer coaches become involved in the artist series classes, this list will likely change. Jermaine Johnson was already moving up the peloton list for 2021, even though he has been teaching classes for only 3 months since September 2021.

You might be wondering why long-time Peloton instructors Andy Speer and Olivia Amato aren’t high up on this list. They both have artist series classes in other modalities. Andy Speer has a variety of strength artist series classes and Olivia Amato can be found across both Tread&Strength classes.

List of Peloton teachers who taught the most Peloton yoga&meditation classes in 2021

Peloton’s Yoga team saw a lot of new instructors in 2021, just like other classes. This included Mariana Fernandez who is Peloton’s first Spanish language coach and KirraMichel, Peloton’s first Australian coach. Nico Sarani also brought German language classes onto the Yoga platform.

(Speaking of Spanish classes, Peloton added Camila RAMON to its Spanish-speaking group. She teaches both English and Spanish cycling classes.

We have included both Peloton’s yoga classes and meditation classes in this list for convenience. Most instructors who teach both are the same. Cody Rigsby is an exception. He teaches only meditation classes on top of his cycling classes - but he didn’t have a meditation artist class.

Peloton’s 9 yoga coaches taught at most one class during 2021. There were 56 Peloton yoga and Peloton meditation artist classes that took part in 2021.

In 2021, the top five most popular Peloton Yoga&Meditator instructors in terms of number of classes taught were Aditi Shah (11) and Chelsea Jackson Roberts (12).

Based on the number of classes they taught in artist series, these were the most popular Peloton yoga teachers in 2021.

Denis Morton is one of the top coaches. He teaches a variety of cycling classes. Both Kirra Michel and Nico Sarani are recent additions to this team. Anna Greenberg was one of the original Peloton Yoga instructors. However, she didn’t teach as many artist series classes in 2021.

List of Peloton instructors that taught the most Peloton Strength classes by 2021

Peloton has repeatedly stated that strength will be a new focus in 2021 and 2022. They feel they have won cardio with the Bike and Tread so they are now focusing on strength. Peloton’s first hardware device to help with strength will be released in 2022. It is the Peloton guide

Peloton didn’t have as many strength classes in 2021 than other modalities. There were only 51 strength-based artist classes taught by 16 instructors. The Guide is out and it’s possible that Peloton will increase the number of strength-based artist series classes through 2022.

This list included strength such as HIIT cardio and core, bodyweight strength, regular strength classes, and bodyweight strength. Barre is not included here. Instead, it is included in the next category.

Based on the number and popularity of instructor classes in artist series, Peloton’s top five strength instructors were: Ben Alldis (8), Adrian Williams (7), Emma Lovewell (5), Matty Maggiacomo ((5)) and Andy Speer (4).

Many of these coaches can be seen in many other modalities, so you may see coaches with just 1 or 2 strength artists series classes.

Peloton also introduced “strength first coaches” in 2021. These coaches are more focused on strength than most other coaches, who focus on biking, tread, yoga, and teach a few classes. These included Rad Lopez and Callie Gullickson, so it is possible that they will be higher up the strength list in next year’s.

List of Peloton instructors that taught the most classes

After looking at tread, strength, yoga/meditation and cycling, you will be left with everything else. This list contained several artist series, including dance cardio, barre pilates, stretching and one or two other. In 2021, there were just 14 classes of this type.

Only 4 instructors taught more than one class in this category. These were Hannah Corbin (4) and Ally Love (3), Ben Alldis (2), and Emma Lovewell (2).

In 2021, the most popular Peloton instructors in other classes were ranked based on how many artist series classes they taught.

Peloton does not have a regular release schedule for most of these categories, so it is not clear whether the number of artist series classes will increase in 2022.

Wrapup

All classes, except one, are still available at the time of publication. It has been 6 months since the previous class purge, which took place in August 2021 so that may not be the case for much longer.

Is there anyone on the list that you think might have taught more classes than they did?