It all started with Dr. Stephanie Freeman, a critical care physician and Peloton Member.
When she bought her Peloton Bike five years ago, she fell in love with it. Peloton gave Dr. Stephanie the freedom, for 45 minutes a day, to take time for herself and have an amazing workout. She was so enthusiastic about her experience with Peloton that she started posting on social media after just about every class she did. In her words, she developed a reputation among her peers for being the “Peloton expert.” Friend after friend found Dr. Stephanie’s enthusiasm for Peloton infectious, and soon enough, Dr. Stephanie felt her circle of referrals—many of whom were Black female physicians like herself—growing to a “critical mass.” So, she founded a Peloton group called Mocha Spin Docs.
Dr. Stephanie created Mocha Spin Docs as a place for “a group of women with a unique set of concerns, as physicians and as Black women” to get together online where they could be themselves and “feel comfortable around each other.” To Dr. Stephanie, sisterhood and a shared understanding are two key elements of what makes Mocha Spin Docs a special place. “Mocha Spin Docs changed me, because it’s really a sisterhood of women,” Dr. Stephanie says. “And I’ve never had that … there’s a community of people who get you, who understand you and who accept you for who you are.”
Over her five years of experience on her Peloton Bike and on Peloton Digital, Dr. Stephanie has picked up a few favorite expressions from instructors along the way. Among them are Christine D'Ercole’s “I am, I can, I will, I do;” Alex Toussaint’s “Trust the process;” Cody Rigsby’s “It’s not that deep;” and Jess Sims’ “You don’t have to, you get to.” These phrases echo in Dr. Stephanie’s head during her Peloton workouts when she needs an extra push and in her own busy life as a critical care doctor.
But when she’s not on the Bike, Dr. Stephanie shares this support and inspiration she feels from Peloton instructors with those around her, giving her all to the women of Mocha Spin Docs. The group, which has grown to over 700 Members, supports and encourages each other both on rides and off. During Dr. Stephanie’s 900th ride celebration, for example, around 30 members of the Mocha Spin Docs joined her from all around the country live on the Leaderboard—and even more celebrated on a live video chat with Dr. Stephanie after the ride.
Dr. Ericka Goodwin, a child psychologist and published author who’s a member of Mocha Spin Docs, was on the ride. “I was so happy that I was able to ride with [Dr. Stephanie], because she was such an integral part of me really engaging in Peloton,” she says. “So many people were on that ride that it felt almost like it was as much your milestone as it was hers.” On the live video after the ride, Dr. Ericka remembers Dr. Stephanie feeling “so grateful that people supported her, and it was just a blessing to be there … it was a win for everybody.”
For Dr. Stephanie, the fact that a group of busy working women would take time out of their day, on a weekend when they “could have been doing anything else” but chose to get on their Peloton Bike and ride in celebration with her was “an indicator of how powerful this community really is.” But the power and sisterhood of the Mocha Spin Docs community extends far beyond milestone rides.
Dr. Amanda Barner-Welch, an OB/GYN who is also a mother of three young boys and a wife to an active duty Marine, describes Mocha Spin Docs as an “extremely supportive place where all the members are there to support and motivate each other,” no matter where they are on their fitness journey—whether someone just needs a partner to ride with, or someone is seeking help in a time of need.
While Dr. Amanda was initially attracted to Peloton because of the convenience of working out at home, she’s found a much deeper relationship with her Peloton journey through the Mocha Spin Docs community. To her, the combination of Mocha Spin Docs and Peloton are integral to maintaining her work-life balance. Peloton affords her an opportunity to work out, which can be its own outlet for the stress and frustration of everyday life, while Mocha Spin Docs is, beyond motivation to work out, “an amazing space for us to just talk about other things, whether it's a difficult day at work, a clinical case that I may need a little assistance with or talking about the heavy topics like racism in America right now, what it's like to be a Black physician in the current times that we're living in. Having that safe space where other women who look like me and are going through the same things as me is really important to me.”
Dr. Ericka finds a similar solace in the community aspect of Peloton, specifically within the Mocha Spin Docs. She rides five days a week with the Mocha Spin Docs because “the energy in a ride feels different when there are people you know that are riding with you.” And she’s quick to talk about what “the bonus is beyond the Bike.” Since she’s a “one-hundred perfect extrovert,” the community is especially important to her: “We [the Mocha Spin Docs] get to surround each other with a lot of love and support each other, not only around Peloton and people doing Peloton workouts, but support each other around life and dealing with stress and milestones and what's going on in the overall community and society. And it's even been even more valuable in this time of all of these immediate stresses we all are dealing with, to have that community because we all understand each other in so many ways because we are all physicians, and we're all Black women. So we understand that perspective really well and can support each other on it.”
So, yes, it all started with Dr. Stephanie’s love of Peloton and her desire to create a space for a unique cohort of people just like her: Black female physicians who lead busy lives in service of others. But it’s grown to be so much bigger. While the members of Mocha Spin Docs have these attributes in common, they also have their differences. Each brings her own wins and losses, ups and downs in her workouts and in conversation with other members of the group. Some ride in the early morning, some late at night. Some love Power Zone classes, and others would rather enjoy a pop ride. One last thing they all share, however, is the depth of friendships they’ve found in the Peloton community—even with people they’ve never met before.
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