Peloton App for Beginners: Ready to Love Your Workouts?

How to Get Started with Peloton

You can purchase any Peloton equipment from the Pelton website, including the AI-powered personal trainer. If you’d prefer to buy equipment elsewhere or use what your gym offers, you can download the Peloton app on your iPhone or Android device.

Getting Started with the Peloton App

Peloton offers a 30-day free trial of their app. You can download the app to use with or without equipment. Once you download, you can sign up for your free trial from their website or within the app. After the 30-day trial, they will charge $12.99 to the credit card on file.

Once you sign up and create a profile, you can start your workouts! You’ll see a list of 10 fitness categories on the homepage. When you select the category, it’ll bring you to a list of all available workouts. You can filter the workouts by length, instructor, class type, class language, music, or difficulty. There is also an option to sort workouts by whether you’ve taken them or if the exercise is new, trending, popular, or highly rated by other Pelton users.

Starting Your First Workout

Once you find an appealing workout, click on it to learn more. Before you start, you can check what equipment you’ll need, the muscles you’ll work, and the class difficulty on a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being very difficult.

When you find a class you like, you can schedule it for an upcoming live class or start it immediately if it’s on demand. You can also save and schedule on-demand courses to set up a workout schedule and plan what exercises you want to do throughout the week. If you have friends on the Peloton app, you can share your workout schedule and encourage them to take classes with you if you need an accountability buddy.

One thing to note about Peloton workouts is that not all include a warm-up and cool-down. It’s always crucial to warm up and cool down to avoid injuries, so before you start training, check the “Class Plan” on the app to see what the instructor includes. If no warm-up or cool-down is listed, do your own or find another workout with them.

Another consideration for the Peloton app is that many classes are less than 30 minutes and focus on a specific muscle group or fitness technique. While short, focused workouts have plenty of benefits and are a great starting point for new members, many will stack classes for an extended workout session.

They might start with a 5-minute warm-up walk, go to a 20-minute leg workout, follow up with a 10-minute core burst, then finish with 15 minutes of stretching.

The short classes are excellent for some members because it allows you to customize your workout. Still, for individuals starting their fitness journey, it might feel overwhelming to understand what to schedule and when. When in doubt, look for a 45-minute or 60-minute class.

The longer courses provide more guidance for newer members, including the warm-up and cool-down.

Types of Peloton Workouts

Peloton has eleven fitness categories in the app: strength, meditation, cycling, stretching, yoga, outdoor, running, walking, cardio, tread boot camp, and bike boot camp. Each workout type has options for beginner, intermediate, and advanced classes. Some workout categories may require equipment, so it’s always best to check the equipment list before you start.

Strength

The strength classes are a mix of weightlifting and body weight. These are the workouts that focus on building and toning muscle. The strength category is also where you will find some barre and pilates options.

Every strength course may have a different layout depending on the length and focus, but below is an example of what a glutes and legs strength class may look like. This sample workout requires a pair of heavy or medium dumbbells.

Complete each movement for the allocated time, then use the transition time to set up for the next exercise. Once you complete the table, take a 30-second break and repeat exercises 2 to 3 times.

Meditation

Your mental health plays an essential role in your overall well-being, which is why Peloton offers a variety of meditation sessions through their app. Most meditation courses range from 5 to 20 minutes and guide you through various breathing and mindfulness activities to help you relax, rest, or recharge.

Cycling

The cycling classes are ideal for Peloton beginners with their bike or a different brand of stationary bike. Most cycling classes are high-intensity interval classes that push your cardio and endurance. You’ll likely start with a 2 to 3-minute warm-up where you cycle at a leisurely pace on a flat road. For the bulk of the class, you’ll go into intervals, picking up the pace for 1 to 3 minutes, followed by 30 seconds to 1 minute of recovery. You may go through 3 to 10 intervals depending on the class length. Sometimes, an instructor may encourage you to increase the incline or resistance on your bike for an added challenge.

Stretching

You may consider trying a few stretching courses for the classes that don’t include a warm-up or cool-down. You can find stretch classes specific to a workout, such as a pre-run or pre-cycling stretch or a stretch class based on a muscle group. The instructor will lead you through a flow, explain each position, and encourage you to hold each stretch for 30 seconds to 1 minute.

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Yoga

Yoga is an excellent workout choice if you’re looking to build your mobility, flexibility, or balance. You’ll need a yoga mat and blocks for most yoga classes. You may need light weights or a strap in some workouts, but you can modify the movements if you don’t have them.

If you’re new to yoga, try the yoga basics or one of the slow flow courses. The basics walk you through the most common yoga poses, while slow flow gives you time in each pose to learn and understand how it feels in your body. If you want something more challenging, try a faster-paced power course incorporating bodyweight workouts like plank holds, squats, and lunges.

Restorative yoga classes are perfect for those looking to make yoga part of their cross-training regimen. Restorative yoga makes an excellent cool-down to any workout. It’s also a great option for recovery between high-intensity workouts to minimize injuries.

Outdoor

The outdoor classes are primarily a mix of walking and running workouts that you can do outside instead of indoors on a treadmill. When you do running or walking training, you can enable a distance recorder on your phone that uses a map feature to track where you’re running.

Throughout the workout, you’ll receive audio cues for picking up the pace and slowing it down. The instructor may also provide encouragement to keep you motivated and help you push through the challenging parts of the run or walk.

Running and Walking

Running and walking are separate categories on the Peloton app, but the setup is similar. You will need a treadmill for running and walking workouts. If you don’t have access to a treadmill, browse the options in the outdoor category. Running and walking workouts have a similar layout to cycling workouts. They’ll typically start with a slow-paced walk or jog for 2 to 3 minutes before jumping into the meat of the class.

A few running options include interval training, endurance, and speed. Interval training is where you do bursts of sprints for 30-40 seconds, followed by a short rest. Endurance runs are usually longer runs that you do at a moderate pace, keeping your pace for the entire run. Speed classes are a variety of tempo runs, short distances at a quick pace, and hill runs, which are sprints at a high incline.

Walking workouts included guided hikes, which bring you through various inclines, power walks, and walk/run classes. There are also multiple walking warm-ups and cool-downs, which are great options for before and after a running course.

Cardio

Workouts in the cardio category are classes that will increase your heart rate but are not running or cycling courses. Workouts included in the cardio category include dance, shadowboxing, and HIIT.

For the dance classes, the instructor will walk you through the moves, then give you a few rounds to put the choreography to music. There are beginner, intermediate, and advanced dance classes so that you can enjoy the dance cardio no matter your level of dancing.

The shadowboxing classes start with a warm-up where the instructor will review the six boxing punches. The course then goes into rounds, where you’ll shadowbox out various combos. Between each round is an active rest where you’ll do bodyweight exercises like squats or jumping jacks.

HIIT is high-intensity interval training, a type of workout that involves high-intensity movements with brief rest periods between each move. The cardio HIIT classes focus on activities that increase your heart rate, such as jump squats or burpees. Below is a sample HIIT workout similar to what you’d find in the Peloton app. Start with a warm-up, then go through each exercise on the table, working for 30 seconds and resting for 15. Once You complete the table, take a 30-second break and do all the movements 2 to 3 more times.

Tread Boot Camp and Bike Boot Camp

Tread and bike boot camps are separate categories within the Peloton app but have a similar format. You will need a treadmill for the tread boot camp and a bike for the bike boot camp. Some boot camps may require weights, but you can modify workouts to use your body weight.

Boot camps mix cardio on the treadmill or bike and strength training. You’ll start with a warm-up, then go to your treadmill or bike for 3–4 minutes of work. After your cardio, you get on the floor for 10 to 15 minutes of strength work. The strength portion is similar to what you’d find in a strength class, but instead of running through an entire exercise circuit multiple times, you’ll only go through each exercise once. After the strength, you’re back on the bike or treadmill, then the floor for a different combination of strength workouts. Some boot camps will end with a cool down; if not, take 3 to 5 minutes to bring your heart rate down and stretch it out.

Bottom Line

Peloton is an excellent workout app for those who enjoy group classes but what more freedom and flexibility in their workout schedule. The various workout types mean there’s something that will appeal to everyone, whether you’re new to fitness or a seasoned professional. Plus, their app syncs with all their quality bikes, treadmills, and row machines, or you can follow along with any workouts using your own equipment. To try Peloton for yourself, visit Peloton’s website.