If you’ve had your indoor cycle for a while, you may be looking at ways to get your Peloton bike motivation back. Trust me. I understand.
I’ve had my bike since 2016. Like so many people, I became addicted to the bike when it first arrived. Then, like most new and shiny things, the shine started to wear off.
I’m not talking to the point where I started using my Peloton as a clothes storage device. No. I have consistently been using my bike for nearly five years. But the excitement of getting on the bike and trying new classes just wasn’t there.
Why you might lose your Peloton bike motivation
There are a couple of reasons you might find yourself no longer motivated to use your Peloton bike. One, you may have come out too quick, too fast. So, for example, you may have found that your backside was hurting and you gave up.
For issues of bum discomfort, I’ll point you to my blog post on how to make the Peloton seat more comfortable.
Two, you find it challenging to organize your time, including time to exercise. I get this.
When life gets busy, it is hard to carve out time for a workout. That is especially challenging if you don’t have a plan.
Three, looking at the Peloton schedule can feel overwhelming. These days, there are so many choices of classes to take on and off the bike.
From Pilates to Power Zone, you may find yourself with analysis paralysis or decision fatigue. And, rather than figuring out which class to take, you may just decide to call the whole thing off and not exercise at all.
How to get your Peloton bike motivation back
You spent a lot of money investing in a Peloton. I want you to learn to love it again. Besides, you know that exercise is good for you. So, how can you get your Peloton bike motivation back?
I’ve come up with a handful of easy suggestions so you won’t get bored with your Peloton. I hope you’ll feel motivated to start using the bike or the app again on a regular basis.
Note: some of the suggestions I’ll make in this article include Facebook groups you may want to join. I’ve included links to those groups at the bottom of this post.
Join a Peloton bike challenge for motivation
There are two kinds of challenges on the Peloton bike that can help motivate you. One, you can look on the tablet or in the Peloton app for actual Peloton challenges. Two, you can find challenges outside of official Peloton parameters, if you will. Nonetheless, these bike challenges can be very motivating.
Official Peloton challenges
Let’s start with Peloton challenges. These are the ones that you can find on the bike or Tread or in the app or website. These are challenges that Peloton runs monthly or seasonally or even just on a short-term basis.
For example, last summer Peloton had something called the Pelothon. They created four teams in the Peloton–the Peloton marathon–with instructors from each of the disciplines. You chose which team you wanted to join, based on which instructors you liked or even the name of the team. I was on the Grit and Grace Gang.
The Grit and Grace Gang team in this Peloton challenge had instructors Denis Morton, Anna Greenberg, Ben Alldis and Selena Samuela. One the one hand, it was a great opportunity to try new instructors. On the other hand, it kept me motivated to take classes regularly with them.
Why? Because at the end of the Challenge I would earn a new Peloton badge.
Where to find Peloton bike challenges
FYI, on the Peloton app, you’ll find challenges across the bottom on your phone or tablet. Unfortunately, the Peloton app aka the Peloton channel on Smart TVs does not include a menu option for seeing Challenges or even a way to Filter classes. I hope that changes in the future.
Anyway, on the Peloton website, you’ll find Challenges in the menu across the top of the screen. And on the bike you’ll find Challenges across the bottom of the screen. I imagine it’s the same with the Tread.
Monthly Peloton challenges
In addition to special challenges like Pelothon, each month Peloton offers a new challenge that you can sign up for. For example, there is always a monthly cycling challenge, a monthly activity challenge and a monthly running challenge.
You get rewarded for completing either a number of classes or spending a certain amount of minutes working out or going a certain distance in the month. In addition, you earn these incentives like medals in the Olympics. For instance, you can get bronze, silver and gold.
In addition, sometimes there are different monthly challenges, such as the current strength challenge. All it asks is for you to complete five-plus strength workouts in June. That’s easy enough, right, to earn a badge?
Motivation through Peloton bike annual challenge
Likewise, last year Peloton started an annual challenge called, what else, The Annual. This special badge rewards you for the cumulative minutes you spend working out with Peloton. It doesn’t matter if it’s riding the bike or walking with the app. Each minute counts.
I believe last year the challenge only went up to 5,000 minutes. Maybe it was more. All I know is in 2021 the annual challenge tops out at 15,000 minutes. That is the equivalent of 250 hours.
That may sound like a lot of time, but if you break it down into its daily components, it’s not. Over the course of 12 months, if I’ve done my math right, that comes down to just 20 hours a month. That’s under one hour a day each month for working out. If breaking down exercise into bite-sized morsels like that doesn’t encourage you, I don’t know what will.
Power Zone Challenges
Recently, I wrote a blog post about Power Zone training. In it I talked about how I’ve been participating in Power Zone challenges. These challenges were the push that I needed to take using my Peloton bike to the next level.
For starters when you join the Power Zone challenge, you’re assigned a team. Next, for every ride you take–and your teammates complete–you earn points. The more rides you do, the more points you earn your team. Each team has its own Facebook group where you can find camaraderie and encouragement. Overall, there is a Power Zone Pack Facebook group that runs the challenges.
If you like to earn points through playing games, then that’s reason enough to do something like the Power Zone challenge. Finally, this could be the fire you need to join this kind of challenge. You’ll see improved fitness. Real, sustainable, measurable improvement in your fitness.
Start a Peloton bike program for a push
Just like the challenges you can find in the Peloton app or on the bike, you can also find programs. Peloton continues to add these programs for you to follow on and off the bike.
For instance, with the aforementioned Power Zone training, as of this writing you can find two programs on the Peloton bike. They are Discover Your Power Zones and Build Your Power Zones.
Other Peloton programs to push you include (but are not limited to):
- Beginner Strength
- Total Strength with Andy Speer
- Beginner Yoga
- The Power of Sleep
- Crush Your Core with Emma
With this last program, you may have seen Peloton instructor Emma Lovewell in a Super Bowl commercial shouting encouragement for people to crush their core.
Find a Peloton Facebook group for motivation
As I mentioned, if you join a Power Zone challenge on the Peloton bike, you’ll get assigned a Facebook group for your team. These groups are temporary during the challenge, but if you stick with the same team, you’ll get to hang out with the same people time after time.
Another way to find Peloton Facebook groups for motivation is to join those affiliated (officially or not) with your favorite instructors. You can find lots of encouragement this way through your mutual interest in riding or working out with these favored instructors.
Instructor inspired Facebook groups
For example, I’m in two instructor affinity Facebook groups. They are for Denis Morton, called Denis’s Menaces, and Christine D’Ercole, called the CDE Project.
Each group often has rides or classes that people take together on a regular basis. For instance, I started to regularly practice yoga with Denis Morton thanks to the Menaces. One member of the group is religious about posting when Denis has live yoga flow classes. This gave me a reason to set aside time each Sunday morning at 11 a.m. to do yoga.
Another example are the Saturday 60 rides with Christine and CDE Project group. This past year the organizers have been trying to work through all of Christine’s 60-minute rides before the next Peloton purge of classes. So, each Saturday I know I can find a group of people all taking a 60-minute class together.
Fitness and Peloton bike Facebook groups
In my recent blog post about Peloton strength classes, I’d mentioned the newest Peloton Facebook group I’d joined. It’s called hardCORE on the Floor. Each month the organizers put out a calendar of strength workouts. There are two to three classes each day in a variety of strength disciplines.
This calendar also includes Peloton bike pairings if you want to get your cardio that way. There are class suggestions–usually no longer than 30-minute rides–as well as ways to work the calendar if you happen to be participating in a Power Zone challenge.
While the calendar really helps take decision fatigue out of my day, here’s what’s really motivating. People in this Facebook group consistently post progress pictures. It’s amazing to see the results many are able to achieve in a short amount of time, just by concentrating on strength training.
An incentive to stack classes on your Peloton bike
In 2021 Peloton introduced the ability to stack classes. That is, you can plan which classes you’re going to take and “save” that day’s workout. Then, once you boot up the app or get on your bike, your stack is there. There is no question what class you’re going to take that day because you’ve already planned it out. I love this option.
Since joining hardCORE on the Floor, I’ve gotten into the daily habit of stacking classes from their calendar. What’s great is the calendar, a downloadable PDF, includes links to each class for the day.
So, when you click on those links, it takes you right to the Peloton website. From there you can start stacking your classes for the day.
Note: you can stack classes on Peloton hardware and website, too. You cannot stack classes from the app. However, once you’ve created a stack, you can access it from the app. Weird, I know, but that’s how it works.
Below is a video I made that explains how to stack classes.
Here’s a blog post that explains the Peloton class schedule.Find motivation with a Peloton workout calendar
While the hardCORE on the Floor calendar is all the motivation I need, it might not be right for you. So, if you want to create your own Peloton bike workout calendar for motivation, here’s one that I’ve created and sell on Etsy. It’s just $2.99.
Peloton Inspired Workout Calendar
Peloton-Inspired Workout Planner Schedule Calendar PDF Printable
I designed this Peloton-inspired workout planner calendar because I found that I was great at getting my cardio on my Peloton--through cycling classes or walking on the Peloton app, for example--but I was neglecting the rest of my fitness routine, meaning strength and stretching.
Once I created this planner, which is now available on Etsy, and could fill in which classes I was going to do each week, I got better at actually following through. This is from someone who has had the Peloton since 2016.
How it's organizedTo make it easier for me--and for you--to find your class on the Peloton tablet or in the app, I created a space for the class instructor, the kind of class, the date and time, and the class length. That was if you're doing the classes On Demand, you can filter by class length and instructor so it's easier to find them and bookmark them. I've also suggested themes to make it easier for you to find classes you could do for cardio, strength and stretch.
I find that writing down my workout plans as my fitness tracker on this calendar works better for me than putting them in a digital calendar, where I can simply ignore the notification.
Page 1 of this PDF is Monday through Wednesday.
Page 2 is Thursday through Sunday.
If you want to follow me on the Leaderboard, I'm #Leah_is_Pawsome
I made it after I was having a hard time getting motivated to stay on track with my Peloton workouts, on and off the bike. The calendar includes cardio, strength and stretching. That, to me, is a well-rounded workout.
You can read more about how the calendar works in this blog post.
Decorate your Peloton space with motivational quotes
When people share pictures of their Peloton workout spaces on Facebook, I always notice the motivational quotes that they have hanging on the walls. These could be framed prints or decals that they’ve put on the walls. I have a framed print that says “You can do anything for 30 seconds” near my bike.
The idea is simple: if you put motivational sayings or instructor catchphrases near where you workout, then when you need a push, you just have to glance up. You’ll hear those words in your head and get the kick in the pants you need to soldier on.
You can find a ton of Peloton instructor sayings, mottos and motivational quotes on Etsy. I’ve shared some, below.
Peloton Bike Motivation Quotes and Sayings
Cody Rigsby Britney Spears Survived 2007 Peloton Instructor | Etsy
HANDS On YOUR BACK: Power Zone with Meter cde Fitspiration | Etsy
Exercise Fitness Inspired Motivational Quote Wall Art PDF | Etsy
Just Ride The Bike Banner Home Gym Decor Large Quotes Wall | Etsy
Peloton bike Facebook groups to join for motivation
As promised at the beginning of this post, here is a list of links to the Peloton bike-related Facebook groups I’ve mentioned. If you end up joining any of the ones I’m in, tag me when you get there.
The CDE Project–Christine D’Ercole
If I’ve missed any Facebook groups that you’ve found motivating for your Peloton bike or other Peloton classes, please post a comment and let me know. I’d love to check them out.
The post How to Get Your Peloton Bike Motivation Back appeared first on Leah Ingram.