Thoughts on Peloton?

[specialmom]

So, this company got my attention when I started noticing someone was slimming WAY down.  She did work on her diet but she also became a peloton fanatic.  I started looking into it. They have the bikes and treadmills and awesome 'classes' that you can take with their equipment.  (wondering if you can get the app for the classes and use different equipment . . .).  It's expensive but they have great financing/payment plans.  I'm highly curious about feedback about this.  I saw that for the treatmill, they have a 'boot camp' type class you can do.  Sounds up my alley!  But it's pricey enough that it may make that impossible.  Wondering if it is worth the money from other's perspectives or what type of 'home' equipment you have or use?

[Barb135]

Instead of spending money on expensive equipment you might not use, why not buy something used?  There are always treadmills, etc for sale in my area and I, actually, got my treadmill at a place that sells used exercise equipment... might have been "Play it Again Sports" or something like that.  I'm glad I didn't spend the money to buy a new treadmill because for a lot of the time I've had it, it's been a blanket rack...  I do have it set up now in the room I'm using for an art room.  I have it facing the window so I can see outside while I'm on it, listening to my tunes.  Not like walking outside, but better than staring at a blank wall.  Unfortunately, I'm still not using it every day, as I should be.  

Sarah had some excellent ideas.  In addition, for other exercise, without a bike or treadmill, have you ever checked out Leslie Sansone?  She has a bunch of walking videos and perhaps by now she might have a "community" you could get into for motivation and/or support.  

Your Apple watch might have a "community" you can join as well.  I have a Fitbit and they have a community to help each other stay motivated, etc, so I'm sure Apple does too.  You might even find people in your own area that you could exercise with.   I didn't join Fitbit's community, but I've thought about it...

[specialmom]

I do have an apple watch and it is personally motivating.  Haven't looked into any communities with it.  I miss the community feel or misery loves company as I really see it of group fitness.  ha.  

Agree about used equipment.  I've checked out Craig's list and "let it go" and we do have a play it again sports.  There are things there.  I have to shake the feeling everyone is trying to rip me off though!  And the tech support issue.  And that I have to pay up front rather than a payment program.  But agree, that's an option I'm considering!  It's really tricky to predict if I'll get something and really use it.  Sigh.  

And I'll check out Leslie Sansone!  That sounds interesting.  You walk at home?

[Barb135]

I agree with the idea that "misery loves company"... hence my participation in this forum for 12 yrs.  lol  

If you have an Apple account, you could log in to see if they have a community you could join.  

You're right about the tech support for used equipment, but I didn't have any trouble with my treadmill and when I bought it  they said to feel free to call if I had any questions.  I did get it from Play it Again Sports and they were very helpful about showing me how to run it before I left the store, etc.  They even had the manuals to go with it.  I think they only take in "good" equipment.  

As for paying up front vs making payments - perhaps you could pay with a credit card and make your payments on that.  Of course, there would be interest added on whereas there wouldn't be if you bought the new equipment from Peloton, but since the price would be much lower, a little interest might not hurt so much.  

Yes - with Leslie Sansone you walk at home, in your living/family room, bedroom, wherever you can play a video on your computer (or DVD if buy one of those).  You start out sort of walking in place, but as it goes along, she incorporates lots of body movement into the walk.  

Here's a link to the first of her videos that I did (I think it's also my favorite...).  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECxnTuzZ614

[Paxiled]

My own experience is limited, but we bought new machines from the best manufacturers and the elliptical especially had a lot of problems.  When you buy used, there's very little of a warranty, and again, my experience was you will probably need it.  Exercise equipment runs from very simple to very complicated, and anything that uses a computer screen or monitor of any kind will -- not might, will -- have problems just as your computer does.  Laptops last 3 years at peak efficiency, and a Peloton is a bike with a monitor on it.  The machine may last but the monitor is bound to not last, meaning you will need service.  That's my experience with a much simpler monitor than one that broadcasts content.  Mine just told you how much work you were doing.  It broke a lot.  

[Barb135]

My treadmill was used and I've had it for several years.  Although I haven't used it a lot recently, I did use it daily for the first couple of years I had it.  It has a computer and comes with some pre-programmed workouts, a heart rate monitor, calorie function, speed/distance timer, etc and I've not had a bit of trouble with it.  

I'm not necessarily advocating for used equipment, but neither would I deter anyone from buying used if they can find a good product, especially, if they don't know whether they're going to use it long term or not.  One can always upgrade if/when necessary.

BTW - my laptop is 5 yrs old and still works great.  :-)

[Sarahjogs]

There are a lot of YouTube videos of bike classes (or treadmill classes) if you need a coach and something to follow, and a ton of different YouTube channels so if you don't like one channel, you can try another.  I believe some of these are live and you can chat with others in the class, some you may have to subscribe or pay for, but there are a lot out there.  If you are looking for just general exercise classes, there are tons of yoga, weight/strength training, cardio, etc. classes on YouTube as well, some may have live classes where you can interact with classmates or the teacher.  My sister loves FitnessBlender videos, just following the trainers on YouTube (not live) - FitnessBlender seems to be mostly cardio, bodyweight, and some weight training as far as I can tell.

There are also many Peloton competitors, with similar quality exercise bikes (or treadmills) at a reduced price, and many of these come with a year of classes for free, very similar classes to Peloton or SoulCycle, and there are lots of websites out there reviewing them.

There is also the Peloton digital app if you already own a (non-Peloton) exercise bike, and that gives you the same live class experience, for $20 a month.

My own thoughts about Peloton... if having a very expensive piece of equipment and paying $40 a month in perpetuity is what it takes to get you to exercise, and you have the money to spend, the space to put it, and the people who make financial decisions with you support it, then maybe it is worth it for you.  That price tag might not be too high if you are used to paying $34 for one SoulCycle class, but it is way out of my price range.

Unless I really, really loved indoor bike classes - I'm not sure I would enjoy years and years of indoor cycling as my exercise of choice (again, I am a runner, so maybe I am already very biased - I do like the exercise bike at the gym occasionally, if I ever find myself in the gym, I will do the elliptical, bike, and rower before doing some weight machines).

One other thought -- many cyclists use Zwift when cycling indoors.  It kind of makes biking into a video game, with an interactive map, other people biking at the same time and place with you.  Not exactly the same thing as a Peloton class, but it can be fun.  As far as I can tell, I think it is pretty cheap (or free?) to use.  Runners can use it on a treadmill but need to get a device attached to their shoe, so there might be a low startup cost for bikes as well, and you need a bike you can ride indoors, many cyclists use a road bike mounted on something that lets them pedal indoors - I'm not sure how this works, but that is a much, much cheaper option than buying an indoor exercise bike.

And a second other thought -- if you have a way of tracking your activities (like a GPS watch or Apple Watch), there is an app called Strava which lets you share your activities with the Strava community or specific people who are following you.  Kind of like Facebook, but just for posting your runs or bikes.  (You can share all kinds of exercise, but the majority of users are bikers and runners).  I've been running for decades, but started using it as a site to record my runs about 18 months ago (in addition to my GPS watch site).  I've recently got my mom to post her walks that she records on her Apple Watch on Strava now, so we give eachother Kudos and cheer eachother on.  It is one way to kind of have a "walking buddy" even if you are not together, you can check in and motivate friends and family.

[specialmom]

These are fantastic ideas!  Thank you.  I've been trying to look at other things.  I have yet, ironically, to check out youtube!  I like a good old aerobics fitness class with light weights and I bet I can find that on there too!  I was looking at ifit which sets up with less expensive treadmills and bikes.  I also saw a nautilus recumbent bike that wasn't too expensive that I'm eye balling.  No, my partner in finance (the husband) would probably think the peloton was far too much . . .   but if he could have a super model wife if I used it daily?  hm.  THAT is the problem though, right?  You never know if it will be used like you hope it will.  They should do a free two month trial.  That would be the best way.  

Do you know anyone who is into rowing?  Rowing machines are not very expensive and I think you can get a pretty good work out from it.  

Also, I like the idea of the Strava app!  I'm going to check that out.  I do have an apple watch and my phone seems to track me too . . .

I obviously miss my gym but just have a hard time getting there.  

[Paxiled]

Rowing is great exercise -- both aerobic and muscle building.  But boring, to me at least, and it just scares the older me because of what looks like stress on the back and neck.  I had a roommate who had one of those devices that he could put his road bike on and ride in the house if the weather was bad or it was late.  Seemed to work pretty well.

[Paxiled]

And, you know, real men don't really like supermodels.  Too thin, no muscles, too fragile.  

[Sarahjogs]

I like rowing, but I am not sure I like it enough to do it everyday (at least not as my main source of cardio).  I will usually do it if it is available when I am at a gym, but that is not very often (maybe once or twice a year?  I don't belong to a gym right now).   There is one rower at my local YMCA.  It is quite old, and out of the 5-6 times I have been there, I have seen someone on it once (except for me), even when the gym is packed, which makes me think it is not very popular.  

There is something very peaceful and meditative with the rowing motion for me.  I think I am less focused on the action when rowing compared to running outside, where I'm looking for traffic, trip hazards, upcoming hills, etc.

If I had a rower at home, I think I would find away to use it for about 5-10 minutes a day, most days, but not as a full workout.  Do I want a rower at home?  Absolutely.  I don't have the space or a "lack of doing cardio regularly" to justify buying one right now, but I would love to have one.  Just to use 5 minutes a day, everyday.  

[specialmom]

I have a friend that was really into rowing.  We went to the gym a lot before our lives took different turns.  She'd get me doing the rowing machine.  It wasn't bad.  Kind of rhythmically mind numbing.  But easy to not put the full effort into.  I've read it reduces blood pressure as all exercise can help but a cardiologist friend of mine recommends it to patients because it quickly gets the job done.  But ya, not sure I'd love it.  It's pretty inexpensive compared to other equipment though . . .  so thinking about it.  

[AnnieBrooke]

If I had an instructor or even a virtual instructor that sang out "Good job! Go, Annie!" to me, I'd find that motivational. That was why I gave up on the one I had, she was quiet when I did things and tried to be funny, but never smiled, and I just thought she was thinking she would rather be doing something else besides work this middle-aged lady through the weights.

[specialmom]

The funny but never smiled part would do me in too.  I like to moan and act like it's really hard.  I like an instructor that tells me that this is hard work and makes me feel good for even trying. That in itself makes me feel vindicated for getting my big butt moving.  :>)  Ya, a personal trainer is very intimate. I had one once who had this thing that measured your fat.  He kept wanting to use it on me and I was not into knowing that information.  My percentage body fat is not a need to know item.  I can guess it . . . it's too much.  I like cheesecake, what can I say.  Group fitness classes have an energy that I need to stay engaged.  

[Paxiled]

Intimate?  Mom?

[specialmom]

ha ha, paxiled.  Wow, the way I wrote that sounds pornographic . . .  working out is not THAT exciting for me.  

[AnnieBrooke]

lol  Probably personal trainers do come to realize that they have to act however the person being trained would define best-friend behavior in that role. My trainer seemed like she was watching the clock and disappointed in me for being not very strong (in other words, zero best-friend attitude there), and then she would try to brighten things up by calling me "m'dear" (a little more friendly than the situation called for there) but with such a cold face that it was like being judged, not supported. Free weights were new to me, it wasn't very interesting, and the last thing anyone wants to be thinking in a busy gym is that they are making a fool of themself for everyone to see. Maybe I could have laughed my way through it and been upbeat, but it would have taken a different trainer to get me to that mindset.

[Paxiled]

This company wasn't actually doing all that well until covid.  That really helped it because people needed to find a way to exercise.  It only recently became a publicly traded company, and again, it wasn't doing all that well.  One of the regular commentators on the business channel CNBC  said in his house his wife uses it as a clothes hanger.  My experience with home equipment is mixed.  My wife bought both a stationary bike and an elliptical machine, and we did use them quite a lot for awhile.  In fact we broke the elliptical.  The new one was more like a standing bicycle, and both machines eventually just became sculptures in our basement.  I also find the commercials for Peloton really funny.  They always show someone ripped and toned sweating in their beautiful living room next to a big glass wall looking out onto a woodsy backyard that none of us are probably wealthy enough to have.  Clearly these people didn't get their bodies riding a stationary bike, as that only works the thighs, really, and the heart.  They got those muscles in the gym.  I think we divide into two categories -- those who like group exercise and those who like the meditative quality of solitary exercise.  I liked group exercise when I did kung fu, but I was also learning something sort of useful, but practice was very solitary.  But the group classes at the gym seemed ridiculous to me.  I guess if you like that sort of thing and don't want to risk the gym now, any app, and I'm guessing there are thousands of them, can make it seem like you're not alone.  I would personally recommend that anyone who wants to ride a bike get a bike and go outside.  Ride places that are fun to see.  Ride bike trails, they're fun.  When the weather is bad, then it's good to have home equipment, but seriously, what do you need to be told to ride a bike or run a treadmill?  It's not complicated, like yoga or pilates or aerobics.  It just sounds to me like a very expensive way to do something we all learned to do as kids.  Peace.

[specialmom]

I'm sure covid made it significantly more popular as gyms shut down and people weren't outside as much.  All equipment was like that.  We wanted to get a weight set for my teen sons.  I took diligence.  After a 6 week daily check, I found some an hour away that we could go pick up.  I mean, every single morning I looked at the places in our area that sells it.  Out of stock.  One would come in, I'd try to put it in my cart and it would be gone before I could check out.  I called on a regular basis and was told EVERYONE is looking for work out equipment.  online ordering was all but shut down.   So, ya. Covid helped the home exercise industry tremendously.  And since it looks like we are in for round two, I am sure people are still buying.  

Riding bikes in real life.  Picture Wizard of Oz and 'the song'.  You know the one . . . when the witch is riding her bike?  Ya.  That is me on a bike in real life.  I do not like it!  My husband loves it.  Every vacation we have to rent bikes and I fume as I picture my impending death and the Wizard of Oz song plays in my head the entire time we're riding.  I keep saying under my breath "why couldn't we just get a golf cart . . .".  It's rough.  I try to be a trooper but am not a bike rider.  My husband during covid DID get into his own bike riding around the hood.  Dude lost like 15 pounds, I kid you not.  He says it's the biking combined with having to eat my cooking 24/7 . . . which I ignored.  I'm trying to decide if he is going through a midlife crisis.  

With regards to 'classes' and being told what to do on a bike or treadmill?  Oh, I love it.  I love an instructor that has music and enthusiasm and ideas for how 45 minutes can feel like 20.   They do a 'boot camp' class on the treadmill!  I would love to try that.  I liked boot camp class at the gym so much and then the instructor quit.  It ruined it for me.  ha.  So, when I find things I enjoy, I WILL show up to do it but it doesn't take much at all to get me completely off track.  I had a walking buddy for a long time and then she got a part time job and her schedule changed so she couldn't do it.  So, I stopped for a long time.  Then got audio books I listen to when I walk now so am back at it.  But I'm easily side tracked and like routine.  

More info than you need from me but I like the idea of this program but not sure STILL if it would be used enough to justify that price tag!  

[Paxiled]

I'm like your husband -- love riding a bike.  I spent 3 years in my 30s without a car and rode my bike to work and everywhere.  But I can't ride one anymore.  I think the last time I rode one a ton -- I used to ride as fast as I could for 3 hours and covered a ton of ground -- it hurt my periformis muscle and I got sciatica.  Stopped for some years and then tried a stationary bike when I got plantar fasciitis on an elliptical machine of all things.  Hurt the periformis again.  I say I think because the muscle doesn't show up on diagnostic tests so you just have to guess that's what it is by the symptoms.  I really miss it.  What I don't miss is tire blow-outs and other equipment failures that lead to walking home all those miles you could ride in a short amount of time and getting home in the middle of the night.  But I loved it.  Mind you, where I live there are miles and miles of incredible bike trails, and they go really cool places like past George Washington's home and the DC monuments and along rivers and streams.  So it's really beautiful and really fun.  But, can't do it anymore.  Never needed to listen to anything on a bike or while running, but when I walk or go to the gym -- or when I could go to the gym -- I listen to NPR.  We have a station that is all talk and I learn a ton listening to the various shows.  If you listen to the BBC you actually get world news, which you don't get on TV here anymore.  Lots of stuff going on.  I have the opposite problem to you, Mom -- I really can't exercise anymore but I just can't stop.  I've been doing it so long I don't do well without it.  I think your son will have that problem if he keeps up the running after high school.  You just get so used to it you miss it when it's not there.  I think from what you've said, for you, Peloton if you can afford it is probably a good idea, but you can probably get something just as good a lot cheaper.  Peace.

[AnnieBrooke]

We have had an exercise bike, hopefully placed right in the TV room so we would use it. Did we? No. We now own a very nice rowing machine. Someone has used it two or three times since the beginning of the year.

It seems like the value of Peloton would be only in if it is motivational. If someone is prompted by the high price to become a fanatic for exercise, more power to he and to the program. I've paid to become a gym member before (even hired a private trainer to work with me on the weights) and didn't find it motivational enough (despite the price) to go in between the appointments. (I also didn't like the trainer very much, found her approach kind of pushy and felt she thought I was a waste of time. I stopped using her services when I tore a muscle under her tutelage, but that was just an excuse to get out of the whole unhappy experience.)

So, if someone is the kind of person who is going to get the value out of something because it cost a lot of dang money, maybe there is a lot to be said for an expensive program. But if all it will do is make you sorry you spent the money, like me with my gym, then probably no program would do a lot of good.

[specialmom]

I hear you.  I had a stair stepper when that was all the rage and it was a clothes rack in my bedroom basically.  It was manual though and not at all like they had in the gym so it felt like torture to spend 22 seconds on it.  I like to exercise and in my state, I need indoor exercise for several months out of the year.  I do go out and walk but it is the same thing over and over and on really bad weather days, easy to skip.  We have a lot of bad weather.  If i had something I could jump on for 20 minutes to a half hour that I actually liked, I'd do it.  I like treadmills and can force myself to do a recumbent bike at the gym.  I'm not sure the upright bike would work for me though.  That looks woefully uncomfy.  What intrigued me about peloton is 1.  the exercise apps and classes that go with it.  I have an apple watch.  I'm INTO it.  It tells me I need to get out there and exercise.  It tracks it.  It gives me fireworks when I do it!  It gives me little messages of good job.  It actually gets me to exercise more because I want my fireworks!  I want a good chart at the end of the week!  Ha.  Good design there as it definitely does have a motivating quality to it that is a little addicting.  Doing exercise classes has always been my thing.  I went to the gym doing group fitness for years.  It got harder and harder to get there, classes seem to change which threw me for a loop every time it happened, and there are just aspects that were a pain.  With covid, they stopped happening but I'd taken a long break from it anyway.  It's time consuming to get ready, drive to gym early enough to make sure you have equipment and spot, put all equipment away, drive home.  That really adds time to how long you have to work out during a day.  I can bang out something at home much faster!  But I LOVE the group dynamic and the class dynamic.  So, the classes that peloton offers are very intriguing to me.  And 2.  I have seen real live people have great result with their equipment.  I want those results.  I'm trying to decide if I could get their app/classes and use cheaper equipment.  ha.  I was thrilled to see they have a treadmill!  Which I prefer.  But it is close to 4000 to 5000 bucks.  I'd use it, I'm sure of it.  But that is pricy and where to put the huge thing is another problem.  Basement is not my 'area' of the house and more of a man cave and it might be a little obnoxious to have a huge treadmill or bike in the middle of our family room where I'd REALLY like to have it to work out.  :>)