Amy Tuller - Passion Born Out of the Pandemic

By Haley Hart

October 20, 2023

Amy Tuller, one of the co-founders of Rowdy Workouts in San Luis Obispo, is a Los Osos local and recalls always having a keen interest in staying vigorous.

The story began during an eventful and hectic year for us all, 2020. Tuller had taught part-time fitness classes pre-pandemic, however due to the worldwide lockdown, all gyms were forced to close. Tuller recalls seeing and feeling the effects of not having a stress and fitness outlet during the pandemic. She says, “I just felt like people needed some sort of release that they weren’t getting because of quarantine.” 

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how “Rowdy Workouts” was born. Well, almost.

Tuller, along with fellow co-workers, Joanna and Shayla, decided to start hosting fitness classes outside. This way, people could still workout, while staying safe. These workouts were only done to create an outlet for members of the community and were completely free. They were done out of the instructor’s own beneficence. Amy described how truly resilient and dedicated she, and the individuals she was instructing were, saying, “we’d work out in sun, in rain, on hot days, on cold days, and even with smoke in the air.”

All was flowing fine, with little to no bumps in the road, until the group received complaints about the volume in which the workouts were being done. Tuller describes the critics saying, “We had gotten our share of complaints about being ‘too loud’ or ‘too rowdy’, but that’s how the name was born.” 

They received backlash, however, nothing could end the determination they had to work out. Tuller recalls always having that feeling, saying, “Being told that we were being ‘too noisy’ only motivated me.”

Though there was a “lack of equipment and a lack of a building”, there was not a lack of skill and liveliness, which did not go unnoticed. Eventually their hard and selfless work paid off. In 2021, Les Mills, one of the world’s top fitness companies, founded by Leslie Roy Mills, a New Zealand Olympian, licensed them as the first ever fitness group without a physical location to teach their classes. 

While talking to Amy, one major thing was apparent, she truly has a passion for what she does. The most fascinating thing to me about her journey as a business owner, was that she never even sought out to own a business. She shared, “I followed opportunity and passion.” 

Tuller spoke about the big takeaways from the experience saying, “you can’t let people calling you ‘too much’ affect you, you have to let that fuel you. Don’t question it, own it.”