Robin Arzón’s Life and Career in Fitness

Robin Arzón is the Vice President of Fitness Programming and a head instructor at Peloton. She has redefined herself over the past two decades, knocking out massive athletic achievements along the way. She’s run over two dozen marathons, including three fifty-mile ultramarathons and a hundred-miler. (In 2010, she ran five marathons in five days, totaling 130 miles.) At Peloton, Robin inspires thousands of fitness fanatics to up their game and reach new echelons of excellence. Robin has a cult following on the fitness platform, and she calls her fans her “wolf pack.”

Robin has led an extraordinary life—see how her experiences have shaped her career as an author, runner, and coach.

1. 1. A traumatic incident sparked Robin’s love of running. In 2002, while an undergrad student at New York University, a gunman took Robin hostage with about forty others at a wine bar in New York City’s East Village. The armed man doused the hostages with kerosene, threatened to light them on fire, and held people at gunpoint. He used Robin as a shield to communicate with the police. Two patrons eventually tackled the man, freeing the hostages. A year later, she spontaneously signed up to run a 10K race, which marked the first time she had ever run a race and the beginning of her healing.
2. 2. She authored two books. Robin wrote Shut Up and Run: How to Get Up, Lace Up, and Sweat with Swagger (2016) and the children’s book Strong Mama (2022), both New York Times bestselling books.
3. 3. She had a career in law before transitioning to fitness. Robin’s father is a lawyer, and she went to law school at Villanova University, graduating in 2007 and then working at a law firm for seven years.
4. 4. She has Type 1 diabetes. Robin received her diagnosis in 2014. She was the captain of the New York City Marathon’s Beyond Type Run in partnership with Beyond Type 1, an organization Nick Jonas founded to raise awareness around their shared kind of diabetes.
5. 5. She’s run more than 50 races. Robin ran her first marathon in New York in 2010 and since then has run twenty-seven marathons, three fifty-mile ultramarathons, and a hundred-mile race. Once, she ran five marathons in five days for MS Run the US in honor of her mother.

Robin is a force in the fitness world. You can expect these highlights and more from her class, available exclusively on MasterClass:

1. 1. Your differences are a strength. “Nobody remembers normalcy; normalcy is an invisibility cloak,” Robin says, noting how her challenges and differences have made her stand out. “When you’re trying to leverage difference, and when you’re talking about elements of swagger, and you're talking about reinvention, you want to leverage difference. Leverage the ways that you are uniquely magical in the world.”
2. 2. A little bit of jealousy can make us realize what we want. Sometimes, it takes envy to understand how we desire others’ goals, which can inform a path forward. “We should notice moments of jealousy. Jealousy, if it unravels, is certainly something to be contained, but little flashes, little moments of, ‘Gosh, I wish I had what that person has,’ they’re glimpses of what we want,” Robin shares. “We should absolutely look at that and interrogate it. We can interrogate our fears. We can interrogate our dreams. We can interrogate these feelings of jealousy. They’re fleeting, and whether we indulge it and act on it, that’s a different thing.”
3. 3. Fuel for greatness. Robin uses food to fuel her athleticism and overall success. “I like to think of foods having vibrations, so I like to eat plant-based,” she says. “I like to eat as freshly as possible and live by the 80/20 rule: Eighty percent of the time, I’m fueling for greatness, and then there’s the twenty percent that you're going to have dessert—you’re going [to] have cake at a birthday party.” Robin’s favorite power foods include a seventeen-ingredient smoothie and protein banana bread. She adds, “It’s a protein-filled, plant-based banana bread with all-natural ingredients, and I eat it on a weekly basis.”
4. 4. Reflect on your wants, and act on them. Robin shares the importance of being courageous, changing your habits, and finding your purpose, even after years of living another life. “So I was a corporate litigator in New York City in the thick of it, eighty hours a week, making really good money,” she says. “By all accounts, [I was] successful. And I realized that I was leading a divorced existence. I was finding most of my hours were not joy-filled at all, or purpose-filled, for that matter.”
5. 5. Turn pain into power. Scars can become armor, making people stronger in the long run. “Pain is power—period,” Robin shares. “In the moment when we’re going through it, I mean, it’s not palatable. Pain isn’t palatable for anyone, I don’t think, but when you look at the thousand times that you’ve been cut and you healed, the most likely response to tragedy, trauma, [and] discomfort is self-repair, resiliency, [and] tenacity.”

For additional perspectives on fitness and developing a winner’s mindset, consider the following classes:

1. 1. Joan Benoit on the runner’s mindset: Joan Benoit Samuelson is a legendary long-distance runner. Watch Joan’s class to learn the fundamentals of running, her approach to strength training, and how to train for a race.
2. 2. Serena Williams on tennis: Serena Williams is a champion tennis player. Watch Serena’s class to improve your tennis serve and develop mental toughness before a match.
3. 3. Simone Biles on gymnastics fundamentals: Simone Biles is a gold-winning Olympic gymnast. Watch Simone’s class to learn basic gymnastics techniques and how to overcome fear and sports anxiety.

Ready to reinvent your story? Then, you must know how to tap into mental strength. Discover Robin’s approach to overcoming mental blocks, finding your purpose, and developing a hustler mindset when you sign up for the MasterClass Annual Membership.