Robin Arzón is an ultra-marathoner and a well-known instructor and fitness programming executive on the popular streaming service Peloton, an online group fitness course focused on cycling but offering many other fitness classes to millions of people per year. Having come across her work in other contexts, I was interested in trying out her MasterClass, in which she focuses on how to build mental strength in athletics and beyond. Let’s see what this course has to offer!
Table of Contents
What is Robin Arzón's MasterClass?
Robin Arzón has created an inspiring and motivational MasterClass about mental strength. If you haven’t come across it before, MasterClass is an online learning platform that brings together the top experts in their respective fields to distill their skills into concise courses with high production value. Like the other instructors, Robin is exceptional at her skillset and confidently conveys this to her learners.
This is a relatively short course. In all, the course lasts 1 hour and 15 minutes with 11 lessons. Each lesson is short, about 5-11 minutes long, so it really captures your attention. This is an easy course to take breaks as you please and pick up right where you left off. It is easy to follow and I really appreciated the short but high-quality content throughout.
Who is Robin Arzón?
Robin starts off her course by explaining her story and what fueled her fire. Unfortunately, Robin was a victim of being held hostage while she was an undergraduate at New York University. Along with 40 other victims, Robin was doused with kerosene and threatened to be set on fire. The perpetrator proceeded to grab Robin by her hair and use her as a personal shield. Robin ended up being the negotiator between the perpetrator and the police. With the right mindset, Robin survived this incident and used this painful experience to fuel herself for success.
After graduating from NYU and surviving her traumatic experience, Robin went on to law school at Villanova University in Pennsylvania. While in law school, Robin found herself still struggling from the trauma that had occurred the year prior. Robin began to heal when she discovered fitness could be both her fuel and medicine.
Robin was never an athlete growing up. Her friends and family were all surprised to find out when she started training for marathons and became a huge advocate for fitness. Robin actually became a lawyer first and then found out that being a lawyer did not fulfill her as much as fitness did. In 2014, Robin joined Peloton and hasn’t looked back since. Since then, she has also become a global ambassador for the Adidas brand and a certified running coach for Road Runners Club. Robin shares her secret for reaching your true potential, “leveling up,” and turning your dreams into reality in this MasterClass.
What is the target audience for Robin Arzón's MasterClass?
In this MasterClass, Robin is targeting viewers who are looking to improve their mental strength. Robin connects with her audience by telling much about her own story. I think she tells her story not to attract a certain audience but to be more relatable to viewers. Although viewers might not relate to every detail of her story, she uses it as an example of resilience and overcoming adversity. Who can’t relate to that? We have all had our own trials and tribulations, and Robin teaches us ways to master our own self-doubt and shortcomings to become the best versions of ourselves.
What does Robin Arzón teach in this course?
Overall, Robin Arzón teaches viewers about mental strength. She shares her own personal journey that has taught her these viewpoints. Robin gives expert advice about how moving our bodies, eating nutritionally, and honing our mental strength can all be catalysts to success on our own journeys. A majority of Robin’s course is about how to improve your mental strength through visualization boards, mantras, journaling, etc. Here are some more details about the topics Robin teaches in this course:
The Mind-Body Connection
Robin explains how movement is our own personal superpower. Movement unlocks improved mental and emotional capacity in every aspect of our lives. Robin suggests we start with small goals we can achieve and build from there. Don’t compare your journey to others, your journey is unique to your own goals. Robin shares her own personal struggle being diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes while she was training for a marathon – despite her new diagnosis Robin didn’t quit but still reached her goal.
To facilitate positive thinking and drive motivation for your own goals and accomplishments, Robin talks about using mantras, visualization boards, and journaling to help lead you to success. Robin suggests developing your own short positive mantra that you can continuously repeat to yourself to motivate and inspire you to reach your goals. Robin explains the unique idea of using a visualization board. This is a technique where you will take physical magazines, newspapers, or photos, cut them out, and then glue them together to inspire yourself. You can hang the visualization board anywhere that makes sense to you. Lastly, Robin educates the audience on the benefits of journaling–including how it helps you process implicit memories and relieves stress.
Food as Fuel
Robin shares her expert advice on how you should fuel your body. What you eat is directly correlated to your mind-body connection. Robin suggests you pay attention to the way foods make you feel. You shouldn’t feel lethargic or fatigued as a result of eating. Robin recommends using the 80/20 rule. You should eat healthily 80% of the time and allow yourself the remaining 20% to indulge in those not-so-healthy food items. When you are trying to transition to a healthier diet, make small changes that become ingrained as habits. Robin completes this lesson by sharing a few of her favorite healthy and high-quality recipes.
Find Your Purpose and Reinvent Yourself
Robin speaks about the importance of having your own “swagger”. Robin explains that this means being confident and having an internal knowing of yourself. We need to align ourselves with goals that are purposeful to us–that’s swagger. Know your worth and ask what you deserve – that’s swagger. Internal pride like this cannot be taken away. Robin also briefly talks about styling yourself so you feel like you have “swagger”. Styling yourself in a way that is energetic and positive to you is an important way to express yourself.
Robin encourages us to reinvent ourselves – it doesn’t matter what age you are. The first step is to hold a mirror up to your own life to see if you are living on your terms or someone else’s terms. Robin suggests trying to talk about yourself in the 3rd person to express how much you have been through and survived. Robin explains that reinventing yourself includes taking a spiritual, financial, and physical audit and then reinventing yourself in all three categories.
Find a Mentor
Robin recommends finding yourself a mentor, or in her terms, a “superhero.” She explains that your superhero is someone whose story inspires you to take action in a positive way in your life. Robin explains her own example – Robin is a proud Latina, so her superheroes are her relatives who created a path for her to be successful. Specifically, her mother modeled hard work, success, and the idea of self-care for Robin to become who she is today.
Favorite lessons from the Robin Arzón Masterclass
Robin covers a variety of mental strength categories throughout the class. It is clear that she is very passionate about what she is teaching. Here are my personal favorite lessons from the MasterClass:
Robin’s Story
Without a doubt, Robin Arzón is a true inspiration. I personally favored hearing her story because she is a prime example of how we all have the opportunity to pursue our passion and make a career out of it. I cannot imagine the strength and trust it would have taken in herself to drop her law career and become a Peloton instructor. Robin inspires her audience to take control of their own life and pursue their own passion. Along with her inspirational career switch, Robin also speaks a lot about her training for ultra-marathons. We might not all become ultra-marathon runners, but she really influences her audience to move their bodies in a way that feels good to them.
Mental Strength Practices
A majority of the course is about improving your mental strength through various recommended practices. I appreciated the wide variety of practices Robin recommends, including exercise, nutrition, and mental health strategies like journaling, visualization boards, and personal mantras. Robin gives listeners actionable takeaways in each of these areas. Robin’s audience is able to implement these practices from day one after watching the course. They are easily achievable if the audience member takes one step at a time to integrate these practices into their daily routine.
Find your Superhero
Robin emphasizes the importance of finding your own “superhero”. Robin provides excellent examples of the superheroes in her life. I believe this is expert advice because we all need someone to inspire and motivate us to be the best versions of ourselves. Without someone to look up to, who would push us to be the very best we can be?
Cost of Robin Arzón’s Class
This course on mental strength is part of MasterClass, a subscription-based online learning platform that allows you to choose from a catalog of 180+ engaging courses on various topics. There are numerous experts speaking about their specific category of expertise. For an annual subscription, the cost is $120. This is a small fee for the wealth of knowledge and information you will gain access to by simply subscribing.
If you are not 100% satisfied after subscribing to MasterClass, they offer a 30-day satisfaction guarantee. You are easily able to obtain a full refund if, for any reason, you are not completely satisfied with the courses offered.
Strong Points of Robin Arzón’s MasterClass
Personally, I really enjoyed watching Robin Arzón’s MasterClass for several reasons. Here are a few key points about why I enjoyed this MasterClass.
The expertise of the instructor
It is clear that Robin is an expert when it comes to the topic of mental strength. She shares her personal experience and why fitness, nutrition, and mental health strategies are important to her. Robin has personal experience in exercising her own mental strength by leading many others through Peloton and training herself for ultra-marathons.
Instructor is inspirational
Robin Arzón is truly inspirational. She really captures the audience’s attention in this course and speaks confidently and matter-of-factly about each topic. Robin’s clear dedication to her own practices inspires her audience to take charge of their own life and create positive change.
Impressive production quality
The MasterClass production quality truly blew me away. The clarity and high definition made it seem like I was sitting in the same room as Robin. You are able to clearly see facial expressions and take away every emotion Robin is attempting to portray.
Weaker Points of Robin Arzón’s MasterClass
Although I was quite impressed with Robin’s MasterClass, I do think there are a few areas I would have added some more information.
Short duration of course
In general, I think more information in this course about mental strength could have been included. Half of the course was introducing new topics, which I was interested in, but I would like to see more content included.
Course does not always transition well from one topic to the next
Robin’s course seemed to be choppy in certain areas. During each lesson, there were several topics that were introduced by first a screen that listed which topic Robin was going to discuss next. Although I do think this made it easier to follow along, I don’t think it would have been necessary if the information easily transitioned from one topic to the next.
Minimal actionable takeaways from the course
A lot of the course was spent on Robin speaking about her own journey. While I do think this is interesting and inspiring, I do think that more actionable takeaways could have been implemented in this course.
Review conclusion: Is Robin Arzón's MasterClass worth it?
In my opinion, yes, Robin Arzón’s MasterClass is worth the watch. Robin Arzón is a true expert when it comes to mental strength. I believe anyone looking to learn new information on this topic should invest the time and money in this course.
Although this is a relatively short course, the content is high-quality and to the point. Listeners have the chance to learn about an inspirational journey that was fueled by trauma and overcoming adversity. Now, who can’t relate to that?
I believe the ultimate purpose of this course is to inspire and motivate learners to improve their mental strength. With some time, dedication, and advice from this course, you can take control of your own life and pursue your life’s purpose.
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