After a Week, I Am Enjoying Peloton’s New ‘Personalized Plan’ More Than I Thought I Would
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Last week, Peloton revealed a fleet of new equipment and major software updates to go with it. The updates immediately trickled down to the Peloton app and the interfaces of the company’s existing home workout equipment. So even if you don’t upgrade to a new bike or tread, you’ll still benefit. One of the biggest updates is the new “Personalized Plan,” which uses information based on your preferred workout types, goals, and available times to create a weekly workout schedule for you. I tested it for a week and found it much easier to use than I expected.
What the Peloton Custom Plan does
With the new update, you can log into the Peloton app on your mobile device and you’ll see the custom plan option right at the top. Tapping on it takes you to a series of questions about your goals (like gaining strength or sustaining weight loss or maintenance), what types of exercise you prefer (like cycling or walking), your workout experience, and how many days a week you can dedicate to exercising. There’s even a question about what you’d like to do on rest and recovery days, like stretching, meditation, or yoga. You can change your answers at any time.
Once you’ve filled everything out, the app generates your personal plan, which updates every Monday and includes something to do every day, even if it’s a day off. My original plan included cardio on Monday, upper body and core work on Tuesday, recovery on Wednesday, intervals on Thursday, lower body and core on Friday, a full body day on Saturday, and a rest day on Sunday.
Credit: Peloton
Once the plan is generated based on your inputs, you will always find it at the top of the screen when you open the app. Your suggested classes for the day will appear there, but you can tap View your weekly plan to view the full program. You can tap the recommended classes for the day to start training or move forward or backward. It’s not super stiff; rather, it is a general overview of all the things in your week should include to align with your goals, planned in the most logical way. But you can replace whatever you want.
What do you think of it so far?
Credit: Peloton
For example, you don’t have to take a certain course if you don’t want to. He frequently recommends private cycling classes to me, but I have found that any cycling class I take “counts” to complete a personalized lesson plan. The other day I took a yoga class at a studio and used my Peloton app to do a non-Peloton strength workout. To my surprise, this was among my “plan” classes for the day, since I was supposed to be doing strength that day. I didn’t follow the exact recommended course, but that didn’t matter.
Why I like it more than I thought
I’m a big fan of my app series, because gamifying the tasks I have to complete every day motivates me a lot. (I currently have a 206-day streak on Peloton, for the record.) At first, I was worried that the personalized plan would be too structured and throw me off. Would I be penalized if I didn’t do cardio on a day when I was required to? Would this affect my streak in any way? The answers are no. There is no penalty for not according to the plan. In fact, it’s quite flexible. Like I said, any workout you do can be factored into the plan, not just the workouts it suggests. Plus, it doesn’t matter if you take a class or do a workout that isn’t covered there. You are always responsible for why you use the app and how you train. This is just to help you plan a little better.
