Leanne Hainsby
Peloton instructor Leanne Hainsby has experienced a year so brutal that you’d understand if she chose to retreat completely, in mind and body. But as she fronts Women’s Health a year after starting chemotherapy for breast cancer, she shares how movement has kept her going – and why she’s building back to the healthiest version of herself
It’s 6.30 on a murky Monday morning
and the irresistible hook of Kylie Minogue’s Padam Padam thunders through the spin studio-cum-TV set. Two dozen of us are cycling in time to the beat, with our eyes fixed on the instructor, someone so classically beautiful, neon pink-clad and joyously camp with her instructions that you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d accidentally wandered into the filming of a deleted scene from Barbie.
But no, I’m at a Pop Ride spin class at Peloton Studios in Covent Garden, London, led by our cover star, Leanne Hainsby, complete with whooping, personalised shout-outs and bracelets containing her catchphrase, ‘Yes to you’, looped around the bike’s handlebars. ‘This is hard work,’ the 35-year-old calls out, as we move from the playful first ride into the high-intensity sprints of the second. ‘And it’s a privilege to be able to work hard.’ It’s a powerful sentiment, I reflect, as I shower and dress in the pristine changing rooms, alongside endorphin-boosted type As with a catalogue of international accents and high-net-worth energy. But those words have deeper resonance when you consider who they’re coming from.
Made to move
If you regularly use a Peloton bike, Leanne requires little introduction – likewise if you’re one of her 400,000-plus followers on Instagram. But for the uninitiated, she’s a 35-year-old from Chislehurst, Kent, who still has a fondness for dressing like Sporty Spice (her words) and a hardwired urge to grab as much as she can out of life. A dancer by background, she trained at the Royal Ballet from 11 before pivoting towards commercial dance, enrolling at a performing arts college in Essex. ‘I was like, these are my people,’ she grins. ‘From different backgrounds, different genders, different sexualities – everything was different. I thrive on that.’ Her 11-year professional dance career took her to TV sets and stages worldwide until, in 2018, Peloton heavyweight Cody Rigsby attended one of her London spin classes. Impressed, he took her out for coffee and, following a successful audition, a fitness star was born. Peppy, Hollywood-pretty and with a positivity moderated by British sensibilities, Leanne quickly became a firm favourite among regular riders.
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