Reaching workout goals can be daunting. Peloton offers personalized workout plans designed to align with individual goals, considering time commitment and preferred class types. This feature streamlines the process of navigating classes to achieve desired outcomes.
Discovering Peloton's Personalized Plans
Launched to all App and All-Access Members with English as their default language in September 2024, these plans blend technology and personal training to provide weekly workout suggestions. Progressing through these plans contributes to long-term fitness objectives.
What are Peloton’s Personalized Plans?
These plans eliminate guesswork by using technology to create weekly workout schedules tailored to specific goals. By combining the knowledge of in-house fitness experts with tech that analyzes class history, Peloton delivers a customized training schedule to the App homepage each Monday morning. Users set parameters by choosing a fitness goal, the number of training days per week, workout duration, and preferred activities. Class combinations are dynamic, allowing flexibility in the order of completion each week.
If a recommended class doesn't feel right on a particular day, users can skip it or swap it for an alternative suggestion. Credit is also given for workouts completed outside of Peloton by marking them as completed in the App. The plans include recommendations for optional active recovery classes to end the week.
Personalized Plan Goals
There are four Personalized Plan goals to choose from:
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- Get Stronger: Focuses on strength classes with supplementary cardio, with progression in weight and intensity. Pair it with the Peloton Cross Training Series to seamlessly transition between the two.
- Support Weight Goals: Emphasizes high-intensity, fast-paced workouts with recovery days, focusing on cardio and strength to build a healthy routine.
- Boost Cardio Fitness: Prioritizes improving cardiovascular fitness through aerobic activity and intervals.
- Promote Longevity: Combines strength, cardio, and stretching classes to maintain activity and mobility with age. Recovery classes like walking and mobility are automatically included.
How to Use Personalized Workout Plans
The option to try Personalized Plans can be found on the Peloton App homescreen. To get started:
- Select a Goal: Choose from one of the four goals.
- Tell us Your Activity Preferences: Add strength training, indoor cycling, outdoor walking, treadmill walking, treadmill running, outdoor running, rowing, hiking, and HIIT to your plan.
- Choose How Many Days You Want to Work Out: Select between one and six days to ensure at least one recovery day.
- Pick Your Preferred Workout Duration: Choose workouts ranging from 20-30 minutes, 30-45 minutes, 45-60+ minutes, or a combination, plus preferred recovery class types.
- Describe Your Experience Level: Indicate whether you’re new to most exercises, have the basics down, or are confident trying most workouts.
The app then uses this information, along with data on music taste and favorite instructors, to build a unique, personalized workout plan. The daily workout recommendation can be accessed from the App homepage or on Peloton equipment.
Benefits of Personalized Workout Plans
Personalized Plans facilitate routine building and goal progress, regardless of fitness level.
- Propel Your Fitness Journey Forward: Plans introduce new classes to avoid plateaus and strategically diversify weekly workouts.
- Create a Consistent Routine: Plans provide a clear idea of which workouts to do, making training less intimidating and building a sustainable routine.
- Discover New Workouts: The recommendation algorithm considers top instructors, music preferences, and typical workout duration to suggest appealing offerings.
Optimizing Workout Timing for Weight Loss
The best time to work out depends on individual biology, but there are advantages to be had at different times of the day, depending on your schedule and workout goals.
The Impact of Biology on Workout Timing
The body’s circadian rhythm, chronotype (early bird or night owl), and biological sex influence body temperature, hormone levels, and preferred exercise times.
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Morning Workouts
Morning workouts are effective for weight loss and reducing belly fat, especially for women. A study showed that women who exercised in the morning had greater loss of total body fat and belly fat, as well as reduced blood pressure.
Morning exercise can also act as a natural appetite suppressant and help in sticking to an exercise routine.
Afternoon Workouts
Afternoon workouts can improve heart health and longevity. A study found that people who worked out between 11 AM and 5 PM were less likely to die prematurely of heart disease or other causes. Afternoon exercise can also increase focus and brainpower. Muscle strength, muscle power, and sprinting abilities all peaked in the afternoon.
Evening Workouts
Evening workouts are beneficial for men looking to lose weight and improve their cholesterol levels, as well as both men and women who want to build muscle. Men burned more fat in the evening hours compared with morning workouts. Evening resistance training can promote greater muscle growth. Nighttime exercise may be the best bet for lowering blood sugar.
Building a Sustainable Workout Routine
Creating a thoughtful workout plan is essential for sticking to an exercise regimen.
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Clarify Fitness Intentions and Goals
Write down your routine and a challenging goal, along with the reasons for pursuing it. Set a small, manageable target on a weekly basis using the SMART acronym. Reward yourself upon achieving your target and then set your next intention.
Establish Your Fitness Baseline
Acknowledge your starting point to track progress and avoid injury. Assess your cardio fitness with a 12-minute run or a one-mile walk test. Evaluate total-body strength and stability with a plank fitness test.
Pick Your Form(s) of Exercise
Adults need 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity and two days of muscle-strengthening activity per week. Cardio workouts build aerobic fitness, endurance, and stamina, while strength training workouts foster strength and stability. A combination of the two allows you to create a well-rounded exercise routine.
Schedule Your Exercise Routine
Treat workouts like doctor appointments by putting them in your calendar. Map out your exercise plan for the week, including a hard workout and a mix of weightlifting, moderate-intensity cardio workouts, and rest days.
Ease Into Your Workout-Then, Amp It Up
Aim to work out three days per week as you ease into a new fitness routine. As you become stronger, increase the volume and intensity of your workout routine.
Optimize Your Strength Training Efforts
Incorporate a variety of exercises to get the full benefits of strength training, including upper body, lower body, and core exercises. Plan to incorporate both "push" and "pull" motions.
Staying Consistent with Your Peloton Workouts
To ensure you stick to your Peloton weight loss program, consider these strategies:
- Track Your Workouts: Keeping track of your exercise performance helps give you insight into your mental and physical performance.
- Embrace Short Workouts: Research shows that a workout doesn’t need to be hours long in order to be effective.
- Make Exercise Convenient: Setting up your environment for success is critical. Place fitness equipment where you can see it.
- Plan for Off Days: Rest days are just as important as your high-intensity workouts.
Addressing Diet Pitfalls for Weight Loss
While Peloton offers excellent fitness resources, it's crucial to understand the role of nutrition in weight loss.
The Nutrition Factor
If you’re working out hard and you’re not seeing fat loss results or losing weight, it probably has less to do with your workout and more to do with your nutrition. Weight loss requires a consistent calorie deficit, repeated over a period of time. It’s more than possible to overeat foods that we view as healthy or okay, especially foods higher in fat like avocados.
Calorie Outputs and Estimations
Calorie outputs are estimations based on power, your weight, time, and a few other factors. Calories burned estimates aren’t a perfect science, and while that science might be improving, the estimates of how many calories you burn while exercising can still be wildly off base. Exercise in itself isn’t a weight-loss tool, but a health tool.
The Importance of a Calorie Deficit
Creating a calorie deficit usually involves a very small margin of error. For plenty of people, that might only be 100-200 calories. Creating a calorie deficit usually involves a very small margin of error. For plenty of people, that might only be 100-200 calories.
Hunger and Exercise
The double-edged sword of working out is the fact that working out, by its very nature, is bound to make you hungrier. If you’re not actively paying attention to how much you’re eating on a daily basis, working out regularly can accidentally lead you to overeating.
The Constrained Model of Energy Expenditure
When you work out really hard, the constrained model of energy expenditure says that you will then start moving less over the rest of the day, bringing your NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) down from where it previously was.
Balancing Peloton with Nutrition
Riding your Peloton is awesome, but it’s important not to treat riding your Peloton as the only thing you need to do to lose weight. If your goal is fat loss, you will have to pay attention to how much you eat and be mindful of other lifestyle areas.
Real-Life Success Story
One individual shared their experience of losing over 70 pounds by prioritizing Peloton workouts and intermittent fasting. They emphasized the importance of consistency, smart programming, and a balanced approach to food.
Effective Peloton Workouts for Weight Loss
When it comes to weight loss, consistency and smart programming are key. Peloton offers a diverse lineup of classes and programs that cater to different fitness levels and goals.
Recommended Peloton Classes
- HIIT and Hills Ride: Alternates between high-intensity intervals and challenging hill climbs.
- Tabata Ride: Short bursts of maximum effort followed by minimal rest periods-Tabata rides are efficient fat burners.
- Full Body Strength: Lifting weights helps build muscle, which increases your resting metabolic rate.
- Bootcamp Classes (Tread or Bike Bootcamp): Alternates between cardio segments and strength training.
- "Total Strength" with Andy Speer: A progressive strength training plan designed to build muscle and burn fat.
- "You Can Run" Program: For beginners who want to build up their running endurance.
- "Discover Your Power Zones": Ideal for riders who want to tailor their cycling to their fitness level.
- Intervals & Arms Ride: Burn calories with intervals, then tone your upper body.
- Core Strength Classes: A strong core improves posture, balance, and performance in other workouts.
A Winning Combination
After a year of using Peloton during a period when I wanted to cut fat and improve endurance, I found a winning combination: three HIIT rides per week, two strength sessions, and one long Power Zone ride. Tracking my food, staying consistent, and mixing intensity levels made all the difference.