Peloton's Cody Rigsby Shares His New Perspective After Battling COVID-19

He's known as Peloton's "King of Quarantine" — offering entertaining, motivating, and breathless workouts as Americans hunkered down during lockdown and created their own home gyms. As Peloton's sales rose a whopping 172% during the first fiscal quarter of the pandemic (via CNN), so did instructor Cody Rigsby's popularity. Now, as Americans tentatively make their way into the world again, Rigsby's star is shining even brighter as the former backup dancer wows audiences during the 2021 season of "Dancing with the Stars."

However, Rigsby didn't only become one of Peloton's most popular instructors thanks to the way he handled the pandemic, always showing a smile and cracking a joke. In fact, he also became a victim of the pandemic and battled COVID-19 himself. Just like Rigsby's spin classes aren't always an easy ride, neither was Rigsby's experience with the virus, which has infected nearly 43 million Americans, as of this writing (via The New York Times).

But, as one would expect from such an upbeat guy, Rigsby came out the other side with some valuable lessons learned.

In early February 2021, Cody Rigsby tested positive for COVID-19. Vaccines were not widely available at this point, and the country was just coming off a major COVID surge when he contracted the virus. Rigsby announced that he was sick in an Instagram Story video. "Unfortunately, I have been dealing with COVID-19 for the past two weeks," he said (via People). "I have never been more sick in my life. It is a very, very real virus." 

After he recovered, Rigsby told People that he was a little more worried about the virus than he first let on when he made his Instagram announcement. "It was a really scary two weeks of it," he said. "One week, it would be like this, and then the next week the symptoms would completely change... [I was] very concerned and stressed about long-term symptoms."

Thankfully, Rigsby seems to have made a complete recovery and calls himself "really, really fortunate" while admitting that the experience changed him and made him more grounded. "[I'm] more centered around gratitude, just being grateful for what I can do, grateful for what my body is capable of," he told People. "Instead of letting that fear kind of drive me, I landed in a space of gratitude and just taking every day as it is, and to celebrate what I can do in that day."