Tunde Oyeneyin Says She Felt Excluded From Fitness Until Age 25
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When asked what she does for a living, Tunde Oyeneyin doesn’t reply with “Peloton instructor.” She doesn’t jump to “Nike athlete” or even “fitness professional” (all titles on her résumé). Instead, she pauses, breaks into her signature megawatt grin, and says: “confidence builder.”
To Tunde, the word confidence means living fearlessly and unapologetically—a message she pumps out to some 20,000 users during live and on-demand workouts on the platform, as well as on her social pages. She’ll remind you to set standards for yourself. She cheers you on when you hit numbers. She dances and vibes and fist-pumps and makes deep eye contact. She sees you, she salutes you. “People assume confidence is a trait you’re born with, but it’s a skill I’ve worked at and hustled to maintain,” Tunde says.
Growing up in Houston with Nigerian parents, Tunde was one of the only dark-skinned students in her class. “When I was younger, I didn’t like attention on me.” She took note of the absence of coaches and teachers who looked like her. And for many years, she considered herself overweight and let the scale “rule me.” For those reasons, “I felt excluded from fitness pretty much from age 15 to 25,” she says.
Tunde began teaching cycling in her mid 20s after starting as a classgoer and becoming hooked. At the time, she worked as a makeup artist and trainer for a cosmetic brand. Despite 12-hour days and lots of travel, the bike energized her. “I’d land at the airport, take an Uber to the studio, teach an evening class, then do it all over again.”
Before long, she was ready to shift entirely to her passion. “I knew I wanted to work in fitness full-time, and I was looking for an opportunity that would give me the chance to make that possible,” she says. “I sat down with my best friend, and we thought through how I could cut back on spending—sell my car, downgrade my apartment—to make it work. I trusted that it was what I needed to do to get to where I wanted to be. I was open to making sacrifices.”
She also knew her experience and drive could get her there. In her best-selling memoir, Speak, Tunde describes how each chapter of our lives informs the ones that have yet to be written. “Yes, teaching cycling classes was new for me, but I could call on what I gained within the cosmetics world to guide me,” she says. “As a national makeup artist, I spent most of my days onstage in some capacity. I knew how to fill a space with energy and motivate a group. I just needed to bring that to the bike. Ultimately, I chose to lead with what I did know versus dwell on what I didn’t.”
In summer 2018, the 37-year-old landed on Peloton’s radar after Cody Rigsby DM’ed her on Instagram, encouraging her to audition. She didn’t get the job. Eight months later, they called her back. And in September 2019, she was announced as the newest instructor, alongside Kendall Toole.
Even after she heard “yes,” it took time and repetition (and pep talks laced with tough love from fellow pros like Robin Arzón) to reveal her authentic self on-screen. “Being a Black woman in a space that services predominantly white people, I felt I needed to alter myself or bring forward a version that would most relate to the mass audience,” Tunde says. “Although there were Black women that came before me, I kept telling myself I didn’t belong. I don’t take for granted what it means to be not just a Black woman in this space, but such a recognized dark-skinned Black woman.”
Follow @tune2tunde for more confidence-building tips.
The more Tunde gradually offered up more rawness and vulnerability—letting out her infectious laugh mid-class when she used to fear being heard—the more her audience related to her. “The second I got a taste of what it felt like to be confident, not only did I not want to let that feeling go, I wanted to bring other people into the light,” she says.
So what does a Tune2Tunde lesson in confidence look like? It might be spending time near people who put out a good vibration. Or it’s absorbing a trickle of energy in a 20-minute workout that “you take with you through an entire week,” she says. “My superpower is my ability to be vulnerable enough to allow people in so that they, too, can see they are capable.”
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Fitness is unequivocally a time for confidence cultivation for Tunde. But it’s also an opening for a new perspective. “Working out can be an incredible space to deliver a message,” she says. It’s part of the reason Tunde uses her classes to discuss topics like race issues or LGBTQ+ inclusion. “You’re in a controlled, motivating setting, and your body is under stress. The amount of energy it takes to be resistant in that moment? It’s easier to just feel,” she says. “You receive information differently, at a deeper level.”
Her advocacy fills her cup, yes, but it can also stretch her thin. So she has a North Star statement she refers to when depleted: “The mind is the strongest muscle,” she says. It means two things to her. First, that “your body will do anything the mind says it can,” she says. “It’s something I repeat to myself.” Second, the mantra serves as a reminder that your mental health requires just as much exercise as your physical self does. (Tunde is a fan of practicing positive self-talk in front of a mirror.)
And while her mission as a coach goes far beyond the workout, strength and body goals still have a valid place in everyone’s journey, she says—be it a Peloton PR, becoming a runner, or losing weight. “At the end of the day, if you’re working out and it’s improving your confidence, self-esteem, the way you feel about yourself in your body—who am I to judge or not support that?” she says.
Reflecting on her rise to fitness stardom, “I think of 12-year-old Tunde,” she says. “I’m saying, ‘You are capable of whatever you believe you can do. Be willing.’”
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Photographed by Caleb & Gladys. Styling: Kristen Saladino. Hair: Ty Shearn. Makeup: Rebecca Alexander at See Management using Danessa Myricks Beauty. Manicure: Nori for Chanel Le Vernis.
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