Olivia Amato

Olivia Amato is a Peloton instructor who teaches cycling, running and strength classes.

In her childhood, Amato enjoyed playing and excelling at team sports, including lacrosse, field hockey, cheerleading and track.

After initially pursing a career in finance, Amato made the switch to fitness and eventually ended up at Peloton in 2018.

The Peloton website explains that Olivia has a professional background in boxing and cycling, which might explain why her classes are some of the toughest on the Peloton app.

At the time of writing, Amato has over 350 cycling classes, 280 running classes and 140 strength classes on Peloton, while she’s one of seven Power Zone instructors at the fitness company.

So, how much do you know about Olivia’s journey from finance to fitness and how she became one of Peloton’s most popular trainers? This is her story.

Early Life, Parents And Upbringing

Olivia Amato (Photo: @oamato / Instagram)

Olivia Amato was born in New York on 8 August 1991. Her heritage is Italian-American, according to multiple sources online.

Amato took part in a number of different sports throughout her childhood including lacrosse, field hockey, cheerleading and track. She was also a keen boxer and cyclist, underlining her versatility.

Speaking to The Adam Schein Podcast in May 2022, Amato explained that she loved team sports as a kid.

“When I was growing up, I was really, really big on sports. I did every sport. I loved being on a team. It was my favourite thing to do activity-wise.”

Olivia was a two time all-state field hockey player an an all-country track runner in high school.

Amato attended Fordham College in the Bronx where she found herself excelling at numbers.

“I was good at numbers and with people when I was at Fordham. My guidance counsellor suggested working on Wall Street. So I was like, ‘Ok, cool, let’s do that’.”

Olivia majored in Finance and minored in Business Administration and admitted that she initially relished the competitiveness of the industry.

When she landed a prestigious finance internship during her senior year at Fordham, it led to a full-time role after graduating in 2014.

Away from her studies, Olivia excelled at cheerleading, winning a National Championship with Fordham.

Life Before Peloton

Olivia Amato (Photo: @oamato / Instagram)

On the back of her successful internship, Olivia ended up working at Jefferies Finance for a couple of years in sales and trading.

“It was just a really cool experience and I’m so glad I had it. But once I was on the desk and they were like, ‘you can’t leave, even to go to the bathroom… for 12 hours.’ I was like, ‘I don’t think I have that much of a passion for these markets.'”

During her time at Jefferies, one of Amato’s responsibilities was entertaining clients. She spotted a niche that younger clients enjoyed going to fitness classes just as much as concerts and dinners.

Forming a group of clients from a younger generation who relished workouts and healthy smoothies over traditional networking, Amato realised it was quickly becoming her favourite aspect of her job.

“It became the best part of my day. I would look up the instructors before going to classes and be like, ‘I feel like I could be up there’. One day, I just decided I’m doing it.”

Her parents had a mixed reaction when she revealed to them that she wanted to ditch finance for fitness. Amato said her parents were initially nervous about the switch before getting on board.

“My family was definitely nervous, I was leaving a steady finance job. They were like, ‘Why did we just pay $250,000 a year for you to be a trainer’. They didn’t understand it at all. They suggested every possible other thing you can think of.”

Speaking to Shape, Olivia explained just how crazy her first year in fitness was.

“From the resignation day, my life was a whirlwind for about a year and a half, I can’t even remember some of it because it happened so fast.

“I had to get my spin and boxing certifications, I signed with Wilhelmina [a modeling agency] and had no idea what I was doing. ‘Fake it til you make it’ was my life except for the fact that I knew how to motivate people. It was a confusing time.”

Peloton

Olivia Amato (Photo: @oamato / Instagram)

Olivia ended up at Peloton after she was spotted by fellow Peloton instructor Rebecca Kennedy teaching cycling classes in 2018. Kennedy regularly attended Amato’s spin sessions and invited her to audition for Peloton.

Discussing what it means to be part of the Peloton family, Olivia told The Adam Schein Podcast in 2022: “For me, I need to lead by example. I need to show up for people because all I talk about is ‘show up for you, show up for you’. If I’m not showing up, nothing I say has any meaning or value. I look at myself almost like a captain of a team. I look at the Peloton members as the team players.

“Being part of the Peloton family means that you have a community of people all over the world rooting for you. It gives you comfort knowing that you’re not alone and you’re never alone. Sometimes all you need are words of encouragement or a high five and Peloton gives you the place and the platform to do that.”

If you’ve ever taken one of Olivia’s classes, you’ll know that she’s a big fan of all of Justin Bieber’s music. Speaking about her musical choices for her classes, Amato revealed that her playlists differ depending on whether she’s teaching a cycling class or a treadmill class.

“Music is super important to me. I tend to play more EDM in my Tread classes to complement the energy of running. For cycling, you have more flexibility with music so Members will get a little bit of everything.”

You can find Olivia’s Spotify playlist here.

Power Zone

Olivia Amato (Photo: @oamato / Instagram)

Olivia joined Peloton’s Power Zone team in January 2020 alongside Christine D’Ercole as the duo teamed up with Matt Wilpers and Denis Morton.

Power Zone Training is a method of intentional training based on the metric of output or power, which is a combination of cadence and resistance. Peloton explain that it’s a great tool to improve and track fitness over time.

She has contributed classes to three of Peloton’s Power Zone programmes – Discover Your Power Zones, Build Your Power Zones and Peak Your Power Zones.

At the time of writing, Olivia has over 40 Power Zone classes available to ride on the app.

Outside of Peloton

Olivia Amato (Photo: @oamato / Instagram)

Amato is a certified NASM cpt as well as an RRCA run coach and Wilhelmina model.

When Olivia isn’t teaching Peloton classes, she can be found chilling with her dog Tobi in her apartment in NYC or going for walks around the Big Apple. Speaking to Shape, Amato said:

“One of the coolest things still is I could be walking down the street and picking up after [her dog] Tobi’s gone to the bathroom and someone’s like ‘Olivia, I love you!’. I still forget and think that’s so bizarre and so cool because that means we’re reaching more people and helping more people. That’s something I never expected.”

In fact, Olivia revealed to Peloton’s website that her first word was “doggy”. “My first word was doggy, so you can imagine what my favorite animal is!”

Discussing some of her other passions away from the bike and treadmill, Olivia revealed that she loves fashion, family, skincare, being outdoors, and “being a crazy plant lady”.

Olivia got engaged to her long-term boyfriend, Daniel Waldron, on September 9 2021. She married Waldron in a ceremony in Adear Manor in County Clare, Ireland on 16 July 2022 with some of her Peloton colleagues in attendance, such as Wilpers, D’Ercole and Aditi Shah.

Waldron, who is originally from Galway but currently works in finance in New York, regularly features on Amato’s social media but the Peloton instructor told Parade in 2021 that she does like to keep her inner circle relatively private.

“My friends and family mean everything to me,” she said. “I keep my circle small; they are people who have been around for a long time. We want what’s best for each other and the trust is real.”

Following the wedding, Olivia changed her Instagram profile name to read: Olivia Amato Waldron.

What The Peloton Community Has To Say About Olivia Amato

One Redditor user posted an Olivia Amato appreciation post in 2021: “She’s fun, she’s a CHALLENGE, she’s got great playlists, and she’s great across all platforms. Lately I feel like I’ve been rediscovering how amazing ALL the instructors are. Like Chase – I took a pop punk run from him and was like WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?! And Selena made a progression run fly by. Olivia consistently kicks my butt. I was on a new-instructor kick for a few months, so now I’m rediscovering some of my OG faves.”

Another Reddit user wrote: “She’s a beast disguised as beauty. Don’t let that fool you, she will down right kick our ass every single ride, Think riding with her is tough? Try running or worse, her floor core exercises you will get a six pack in no time. Working out with her is a great way to benchmark yourself.”