You guys know I love the Peloton bike. I wrote this Peloton review a couple of years ago. I also did a video review on the Peloton bike and classes! It still get’s a lot of views and I stand by my opinions.
Since then, Peloton has added a treadmill to their equipment line up as well as an app that has yoga, running, walking, stretching, meditation, outdoor running audio, strength training and bootcamp classes. You can now watch the classes on your TV and not just your phone or tablet with the help of the Amazon Fire TV cube or stick, too!
We recently got one to watch Disney+ on our TV and are now trying out some of the various classes in our living room. Tommy joined me for some yoga with one of my long time favorite yoga instructors, Kristin McGee.
I do not own a Peloton bike but I use the one at our gym. I do not pay to use the bike at my gym but in order to try the other classes you can pay $12.99/month and have access on your phone, tablet or TV. They give everyone a free 14-day trial and two weeks ago, feeling inspired by my love for Barry’s Bootcamp, I decided to see how good the treadmill and bootcamp workouts really were.
This is not sponsored however Amazon did gift us the Fire TV Cube (after I ordered the Fire Stick on Black Friday and after I began my 14-day Peloton Free Trial). Skip to bottom of this blog for the TLDR summary. (Too long, didn’t read).
My first “class” was a run by Olivia Amato. She was a new instructor to me and man did she bring the fire. I did a 20-minute treadmill workout on a Woodway treadmill at my gym. It’s a treadmill that looks most similar to the Peloton tread and the same brand that Barry’s Bootcamp uses. The 20 minutes flew by and were VERY challenging. I took an intervals class and I enjoyed Olivia, her music, the intensity of the run and the sweat that was produced. I was hooked immediately.
Without the official tread, you cannot compete on the leaderboard. This does not bother me at all! You can however pause the workouts. When you use the Peloton bike, you can’t hit pause frustratingly enough. On the app, you can hit pause and even preload the workouts to avoid having to unnecessarily pause during a workout due to poor wifi connection/cell service. The also just came out with an Apple Watch app but since I don’t have one, I can’t tell you why it’s cool but I’d assume it would maybe give you a heart rate/calories read out???
Next I tried a 45 minute bootcamp class with Rebecca Kennedy. It felt similar to a full body Barry’s but maybe toned down a bit. I enjoyed being able to get a challenging combined cardio and strength workout on my own schedule. The workout went by so quick but was not as hard as I usually prefer.
Next I attempted a 30-minute run with Robin, one of my favorites from the cycling workouts. Again, I enjoyed the run but it was not nearly as hard as Olivia’s. I began to realize that if I wanted a really hard cardio workout on my own schedule, the treadmill workouts on the app were an amazing alternative and more difficult option to the bike but knowing the right instructors for me (besides Olivia) would prove to take some time.
I LOVE my FASTer Way strength workouts and now with the FWTFL app, I wanted to see how the Peloton strength workouts compare. I chose a 30 minute full body workout with Andy Speer. To be honest I didn’t love it. It just moved too slow and the recommended weights were not challenging enough for me for some moves. I would have preferred to have multiple sets of weights but moves were combined and I had to use lighter weights to do part of them. Does that make sense? As an instructor, Andy knows what he’s doing and he’s catering to the wide audience that is a Peloton user BUT for me as an advanced female/fitness person, it just moved too slow and I didn’t love the moves. I will try more of his workouts but per DMs on Insta, most of his classes are slow. Rebecca’s strength moves were slow as well during my 45 minute bootcamp. Sooo in my opinion, the FWTFL workouts are better when it comes to strength in dialing it in for 30 minutes, getting results and feeling challenged at the gym.
I next chose a bootcamp by Jess Sims. Someone told me she was good and they were right! We did 20 minutes of running, mainly sprints on the tread and then 10 minutes of strength. The running went by quick, was challenging but not impossible. The strength moves were introduced quick and we moved through them at a desired brisk pace! Yay! I was happy to be sweaty and done in an efficient 30 minutes!
The workouts on the app cater to all levels but you can search by level of difficulty, time, music genre and instructor. I did not find a single 30 minute bootcamp class that was advanced though and only 20 that were 45 minutes long. After you get to know the instructors and take enough classes, you’ll be able to find where you’re challenged when they call out speed ranges. I’m used to be in the middle at Barry’s, but on the Peloton, I’m on the upper end. For weights, they suggest a very wide range and you’ll need to figure out your sweet spot as well.
With the strength workouts, I feel like they are geared towards home gyms with only a few sets of weights in mind which is good and bad. They usually have you using lights or medium sets of dumbbells. This is great but I can definitely lift heavier than they had me lifting for certain moves especially lower body. That being said, I was shocked to be sore from a ten minute full body workout in my glutes using 15 lb dumbbells with Oliver Lee. I didn’t love his music but I liked his 30 minute bootcamp.
I have done mostly 20 or 30 minutes classes with one 45 minute bootcamp and last night, Tommy and I tried a yoga class as I mentioned above. I love Kristin’s classes and plan to do more. She had contemporary music, moved right into the flow and provided a great yoga workout in just 30 minutes that had me and Tommy feeling restored and limber.
You can download the app for free to try your own 14-day trial. It’s just $12.99/month afterwards which for me would be worth it for the tread workouts once a week as classes in Boston will you $20-30 a pop!
TLDR; The tread workouts are just like Barry’s Bootcamp treads. The bootcamp classes are a little easier than Barry’s but also, I didn’t try many longer than 30 minutes and since Barry’s doesn’t do 30 minute classes I can’t really compare. I don’t think you need the Peloton treadmill at all for these workouts. They can easily be done on any treadmill but my pick would be a Woodway.
Again, this isn’t sponsored, just my honest opinion.
