Peddling my Butt to success…sort of

Last year, before all this lockdown stuff happened, my wife got herself a peloton bike. Now, for me, I’ve never really been a fan of exercise bikes. Partially it was because whenever I’d ridden bikes before, nothing is going on in front of you, maybe the number which to me really didn’t mean much to me. There’s also the fact that I’ve NEVER found the bike seats comfortable. So while she was getting it for her, she talked about it like when “WE” would use it….and I wasn’t convinced that I would. I was convinced that I wouldn’t like the workouts they had and that the trainers on the workouts, which I had heard of before, would be too “peppy” and way too enthusiastic for me to take them seriously.

Ok….so I know I’ve been wrong before, but this one may take the cake.

1) Why the bike is awesome – Here’s the thing about the bike; Yes, the seat is uncomfortable, but when you’re working out, you’re supposed to be a little uncomfortable, so I figure it’s the price of doing business. Once I got over that, I found that the Peloton program is quite cool. I should clarify these health posts that I’ve done over the past few months; I’m not a health nut. I’m an out of shape blogger trying to use what I know (Primarily technology) to get myself in shape, so when I say that this is a REALLY good way to get in shape, I’m speaking as a guy who’s just trying to get in shape. The bike is great because you get badges for your work, you get instructors who are not over the top, and there are metrics on the screen in front of you which are easy to understand. Not only that, but the instructors go through them so often at the beginning of each class that they WILL be easy to understand by the end. They also track how often you take classes and will

2) The App and why it’s incredible – Say you want to go for a walk, but you don’t want to break your Peloton streak, or you want a Yoga workout or whatever. Peloton has got you covered. Indeed, since they have an app that will, you can not only find it on your phone or tablet, but they also have apps that you can use on your Apple TV. It’s excellent following along while in your bedroom or living room. I have a yoga mat and a set of weights in my bedroom for when I want to do a workout at night.

3) Personal training without the guilt – I used to go to a personal trainer, and while that’s not an option at the moment, there was always the odd morning when I didn’t want to go. Not because I didn’t like getting trained (The trainers I’ve had in the past have been amazing) but because I went for training early in the morning. I went anyway because I would feel guilty if I cancelled the appointment. With the Peloton App, I can make my training a bit more flexible. I like that I can do my workout whenever I want, and there is no guilt over what time I want to do my training. Even in the time before COVID, if I wanted to use part of my lunch hour to go for a quick 20-minute walk, Peloton was there with me. It was and continues to be great.

I have really enjoyed using the Peloton system, it’s been amazing, and everything about it has worked out great for me. The only thing that hadn’t worked out for me in the past was the running aspect. As I mentioned, the seat on the bike can be a bit uncomfortable, and up until a few weeks ago, their treadmill system (called “the tred”) was only available in the US. It’s now available in Canada, and as I’m writing this post, we are expecting our Tred to come in this week, so hopefully, after a month or two of running on the Peloton Tred, I will be able to come back and rave about that as well. I know that Apple has come up with Apple FItness+, which is essentially the Apple Version of Peloton. So I may have to try both and see what the difference is. For now, I’m happy with Peloton, and I’m EXCITED about the Tred!

Do you use Peloton?

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