Live spin classes from the comfort of your home
It’s often a struggle to find time to work out, but one fitness company, Peloton, is offering live and on-demand spin classes from the comfort of your own home
With four children and a busy household, 42-year-old Cathy Brodsky struggled to find time to attend a fitness class or go to the gym.
“I wasn’t consistent with fitness because I’ve always been so busy with the kids and they’re my number one priority, so to have time to go to the gym, come home, shower, go pick them up at school, it was very, very tough for me,” Brodsky told FoxNews.com.
Looking for a more convenient way to stay fit, Brodsky tried Peloton, an indoor cycling bike that offers live streaming and on-demand spin classes taught by top New York City instructors.
The sleek and quiet belt-driven bike comes with a waterproof tablet that lets you follow live cycling classes taped in Peloton's flagship studio in the Chelsea section of Manhattan.
"I loved it and the music gave me such a high and I didn’t even realize that 45 minutes went by," Brodsky said. “Because I have it in my bedroom it motivates me to get up every morning, get on that bike and get it done before the kids wake up. If I had to go to the gym at 6:00 am I would never do it.”
With up to 12 live classes a day and thousands of on-demand classes to choose from, riders will never become bored or lack a challenge, said John Foley, Peloton's founder and CEO.
"We have different styles of instructors. Some teach a rhythm ride where it’s more on the Lady Gaga-, Rihanna- dance beat on the bike and some of it’s more metrics-driven, where it’s ‘Get your resistance to 30 and get your cadence to 70,’" Foley told FoxNews.com.
The large tablet screen— four times the size of a regular iPad— can show personal statistics like cadence (pedaling rate), calories burned and mileage. These metrics also allow a rider to be visible on Peloton’s global leaderboard. The leaderboard ranks all the riders— in-studio and at-home— by how hard they’re working, based on how fast their legs move with the amount of resistance.
The leaderboard also helps instructors interact with people cycling at home.
“Though we can’t see them, we can see their names. Just this morning I taught at 10:30 am and this woman Susan was taking my class from her home in California. I see her name and give her a shout-out, 'Hey Susan, what’s up?’” Marion Roaman, a New York City-based Peloton instructor, told FoxNews.com. “Everybody loves the shout out; it lets the people at home become a part of the studio culture, not as a viewer, but actually as a participant.”
The sweat session primarily works your glutes, legs and abdominals and in one 45-minute class, cyclists can burn between 450 and 1,000 calories, according to Roaman.
“There are two great workouts you can do. When you slide back and climb with some resistance you’re building your glute muscles, which just lifts your butt up a little bit. And then when you’re standing out of the saddle you’re really lifting the work up, so you’re lifting your toosh up and at the same time, engaging your abdominals,” she said.
For those who enjoy riding outdoors, the bike also streams scenic rides and pro cyclist-led classes.
"Christian Vandervelt, who finished fourth in the Tour de France, will come in here and teach classes from the Peloton studio. That hardcore outdoor cyclist can get coached by one of the world’s best," Foley said.
Whatever your style, the health benefits are clear, Brodsky said.
“I de-stress, I relax, and I feel like a better mother by far,” she said. “I have more patience with my kids and I just walk around with a smile all day.”
The Peloton bike costs $1,995 and a subscription for unlimited live streaming and on-demand classes is $39 a month.
For more information, visit Pelotoncycle.com.
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