In this article, we will share with you the top Peloton classes if your objective is to shed some extra pounds and assist you in determining whether Peloton is effective for losing weight.
A Peloton generally promotes weight loss since it provides a wide range of programs that focus on endurance, building muscle mass, and improving your cardiovascular health.
Irrespective of your energy state, there is a program for every level thanks to the different classes that are available, as each one of them has a different duration and intensity.
Because trainers frequently don’t have the time to produce a teaching video with workouts, they use Peloton extensively for both themselves and their online clients.
This means that to adapt each session to the skill level of their clients, they have to try hundreds of sessions on the Peloton app.
The various weight loss classes that are included in this article are suitable for a wide range of individuals and their objectives.
Make sure to read the overview of each class below as they will further help you choose which Peloton sessions you should add to your training routine.
Cycling Classes
Since Peloton cycling is the focal point of every session, I’ll start this article with the cycling class. More than 9000 rides are available, and most of them are excellent for losing weight.
Generally speaking, using a bike can help with weight loss since every cycling session improves your body’s metabolism, helps you burn calories and form new, healthy habits.
Additionally, it provides a range of classes for all fitness levels.
The Peloton bike also helps with losing abdominal fat as half an hour to 45 minutes of practice may burn 400–700 calories.
Regular use of a Peloton results in losing more calories, which equally leads to losing weight and abdominal fat. To speed things up, when coupled with a calorie deficit, the Peloton bike can do wonders.
Pro Cyclist Ride
I can safely say that this is Peloton’s most difficult workout to date. Christian Vande Velde, a former American professional cyclist who has won two Olympic medals and has been in the top 10 of the Tour de France 11 successive times, is the instructor of these classes.
Pro Cyclist Ride: A Quick Overview
The session called Pro Cyclist Ride is taught by the legendary former Tour de France cyclist and emphasizes interval training carried out between various power levels.
The class includes numerous high-resistance sprints and gradually increases the effort until it is just below the anaerobic threshold.
Because it tests your aerobic fitness, raises your anaerobic threshold, as well as your pulse rate to enhance energy consumption, the Pro Cyclist Ride is beneficial for losing weight.
You can maintain your pace for the entire 45 minutes because the rounds are brief, and the rest periods are longer.
Another reason why this class is so great is that Christian as a trainer goes above and beyond to motivate you and give you all the confidence you need to pull this through
He also offers plenty of advice on techniques, respiration, and conditioning. It’s comparable to competing against a Tour de France professional and understanding his mentality.
Power Zone Endurance Ride
These are Peloton’s longest and most difficult cycling lessons. Over ten classes, each lasting an hour and a half, are offered in Matt Wilspers’ Power Zone Endurance Ride.
Power Zone Endurance Ride: A Quick Overview
The power zone endurance cycling class involves cycling inside a predetermined zone while increasing muscular endurance.
Throughout the 90-minute session, maintaining the intensity to meet the resistance increases endurance as well as calorie expenditure.
As it enables you to keep your pulse rate in between aerobic and anaerobic levels, power zone endurance rides are beneficial for losing weight.
Increased oxygen requirements and longer-lasting fat burning are both made possible by an increase in heart rate.
To put it simply, you may burn fat instead of using up the energy provided by carbs in this session without getting exhausted.
Moreover, to keep your energy levels high during the whole duration of the class, Matt cycles with you for the entire class. The cadence is greater due to the song’s continuous fast tempo, but resistance is moderate.
And that’s what is ideal for you when working out for long. You don’t need the intensity to fluctuate if you decide to cycle far distances to lose weight.
The intensity needs to remain constant. Matt also occasionally sprints and switches between lower and higher zones, but everything is balanced.
Climb Ride
With more than 300 Climb Rides available you can choose the one that’s best for you according to its duration.
These are another excellent choice for those wishing to lose weight, as they gradually build up the intensity throughout the session by steadily increasing the difficulty level.
Climb Ride: A Quick Overview
In the Climb Ride class, you will be pedaling uphill either standing or seated, increasing the difficulty as the class goes on. You may maximize the intensity of your training by leveling up the resistance.
The Climb Ride Peloton focuses on progressive overload during each session, where you maintain the same tempo but increase the resistance, a technique that helps lose weight.
This method of training boosts your metabolism and helps you consume more energy, and thus burn more calories.
These classes are ideal for people who do not have much time in their day or prefer to exercise for no more than an hour, as the Climb Ride lessons range in length from 10 minutes to 1 hour.
This means that you have the option of burning calories for an entire hour by cycling or combine strength training with a 10 to 15-minute uphill ride.
Tabata Ride
The 2:1 ratio of high-resistance exercise to fast cadence in an intermittent workout known as a Tabata Ride is succeeded by a recovery period.
On the Peloton app, there are several instructors, with each one having one or more sessions that range in duration (anything between 10-30 minutes) so you can choose the one that suits you best.
Tabata Ride: A Quick Overview
The 10-to-30-minute high-intensity interval training session known as a “Tabata Ride” involves working for 20 secs and then taking 10 secs off.
Depending on the teacher, the tempo or resistance is increased during the session’s intervals while the participant is seated.
Tabata exercises are beneficial for losing weight since they increase the heart rate while requiring little rest.
High-intensity resistance training boosts EPOC, which stands for excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, fat burning, and the anaerobic threshold.
The Peloton Tabata Rides are enjoyable also because they all maintain a high level of intensity and are constantly physically demanding. This implies that you will exert yourselves even if you select a 10-minute workout.
If losing weight is your objective, I advise you to do the entire 30-minute workout or complete a full, strength training session followed by a shorter Tabata Ride.
HIIT & Hills Ride
The focus of this class is climbing while seated and standing. Several teachers are teaching the 3-45-minute sessions.
One thing you will instantly love is the music that plays in the background of these classes. It is a distinct beat that gets you moving from the first seconds.
HIIT & Hills Ride: A Quick Overview
The HIIT & Hills ride is a session that emphasizes climbing intervals. It combines strength training, VO2 max training, and a Bootcamp class into one.
The session is split into smaller sessions, with each one of them lasting for 6 to 7 minutes. After every sub-session, there is a 90-second resting time.
HIIT And Hills Rides are beneficial for losing weight since they focus on a variety of training areas, including muscle strength, cardiovascular endurance, and speed.
They increase the heart rate, boost your metabolism, and also engage both type I and type II muscle fibers.
The session lasts at least half an hour, which is a great duration for it to be an effective workout.
If you’re experienced, I suggest beginning with the HIIT And Hills session and then dedicating another half an hour to performing Power Yoga or completing a strength training session.
Strength Classes
Moving on from the cardio classes on Peloton, it is time to talk about the strength training classes included in this list that can help you lose weight.
Strength training courses are among the finest peloton programs for burning fat.
These sessions are included in the Peloton digital app and don’t need any equipment like a Peloton bike or treadmill to be completed.
Therefore, you can attend them and complete them anywhere you are.
Can You Use Peloton Strength To Gain Muscle Mass?
In general, peloton strength sessions are good for building muscle because they include 20–30-minute programs that target particular muscle regions and employ progressive loading.
One muscle area is the focus of the whole session, increasing the amount of time under strain required to develop muscle.
How Frequently Should You Attend Peloton’s Strength Training Sessions?
This depends on your objectives, physical abilities, and free time for training. On average, you should attend Peloton’s strength courses 4-6 days per week.
People who are just starting or who are short on time might start slowly by working out 3–4 days per week.
What Exactly Happens During A Peloton Strength Session?
In general, Peloton strength sessions use circuit-style workouts to either train the entire body or particular body areas, such as the hams and glutes or the shoulders and back.
Each session is unique and is taught by motivational trainers that inspire you to stay active and give 100% of your power to the session.
So, let’s have a look at what the best strength classes on Peloton are that can help you lose weight!
Bodyweight Strength
The majority of Peloton workouts do not use any equipment and include several versions of squats, crunches, pull-ups, crossovers, and explosive movements.
All fitness levels can benefit from bodyweight exercise.
Bodyweight Strength: A Quick Overview
The only equipment needed for bodyweight strength courses is an exercise mat. Classes go between 5 to 30 minutes and feature several calisthenics exercises that activate the muscles in your entire body.
Peloton’s Bodyweight Strength exercises are generally successful since they are constructed in the form of circuit training, which targets every group of muscles in the human body.
For those who are more experienced, they can be performed as part of a bigger group of workouts during the day, while novices can do them on their own.
The bodyweight peloton lessons are great since they will introduce you to numerous new, effective movements.
The trainers have also approached such movements differently, so these classes will be different from your basic strength training sessions at the gym thanks to the creativity and thought put into combining different exercises and incorporating them into one single session.
While some sessions are slower yet call for more demanding movements, others are fast and follow a non-stop training routine with minimal rest in-between exercises.
Strength For Runners
The Strength For Runners sessions are created to increase physical strength and endurance so that you can run better.
These classes employ weights and test your breathing, which is wonderful for burning extra energy and helping with weight loss.
Strength For Runners: A Quick Overview
Peloton is a collection of classes with the main objectives being boosting endurance, preventing injuries, and promoting recovery.
Each session lasts for 5 to 30 minutes and focuses on one of the following: strength, full-body, and core.
Peloton’s Strength For Runners features several functional workouts that increase the heartbeat and contribute to the fat-burning process, making these classes beneficial for losing weight.
Based on your level of fitness, you may hold medium to heavy weights, which will increase the difficulty and effectiveness of the workout.
There are several uses for the classes, so you can do them:
As the main workout (20- 30 minutes)
As a warm-up before running (5 -10 minutes)
As a cool down after running (5 minutes)
As a mobility workout on your active rest days (10- 15 minutes)
Upper Body Strength & Lower Body Strength
Gaining muscle mass is one of the greatest strategies for weight loss. Your basal metabolic rate rises as your lean muscle mass grows.
To achieve the best possible results without the gym, though, might be a bit difficult and it will certainly take longer.
Nevertheless, Peloton’s Upper Body Strength & Lower Body Strength are a great way to do it, even at a slower pace.
Upper Body Strength & Lower Body Strength: A Quick Overview
Since Peloton’s Upper Body Strength only offers lessons that concentrate on the upper body, and the Lower Body Strength program does the same for the lower body, you can lose more fat and gain muscles at the same time.
Compared to a full-body workout, this split helps isolate the muscles and focus on one area at a time, which also increases the time a muscle is under tension and stimulates the muscles much better, promoting their development and growth.
The 20-to-30-minute sessions work on the target muscles like the chest, shoulders, glutes, quads, and back.
Therefore, a great piece of advice is to design your workout routine for each day and change between the upper and lower body to let each muscle group rest for at least 24-48 hours before using it again.
If your objective is weight loss and you enjoy weightlifting activities, this type of workout is the best one for you.
This way you will maximize the level of muscular exhaustion for each muscle, promote muscle protein synthesis, and increase fat burning.
Total Strength with Andy Speer, one of the pre-made programs available on Peloton, has a four-week duration.
For the first three weeks of this program, Andy just requires you to train 3-4 days per week. He just increased the number of workout days to five in week 4.
I think that’s fantastic for starters, but if you really want to reap the rewards, you should start with 5 days per week straight away.
Here is how I would carry out the Peloton Strength training to lose weight:
Monday: Chest and Back
Tuesday: Glutes and Legs
Wednesday: Core
Thursday: Glutes and Legs
Friday: Pilates
Saturday: Arms and Shoulders
Sunday: Active recovery or 5-minute class
As you can tell, each day we just focus on one group of muscles. This enables you to continue even if you exert more effort the day before since the next day, you would train the muscles that weren’t used.
Treadmill Classes
Running helps you lose weight since it enhances your cardiovascular fitness while also burning a lot of calories.
Rapid recovery and elimination of pro-inflammatory byproducts such as myoglobin, creatine kinase, and lactate are associated with high aerobic endurance.
Studies have also revealed that engaging in the cardiac activity is the greatest way to promote active healing and get rid of DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness).
HIIT Run
Peloton’s HIIT Run is one of the best ways to lose weight since it leaves you out of breath for the whole session. Running in intervals is a powerful strategy to build both your stamina and increase your muscle mass.
HIIT Run: A Quick Overview
HIIT Run is Peloton’s series of intense workouts combining sprinting for 1 minute with walking for another minute.
Depending on your levels of stamina, you may adjust your speed throughout this challenging workout, which can last anywhere between 20 and 45 minutes.
Peloton’s HIIT Run sessions are beneficial for losing weight since they improve breathing and burn more calories for many hours after you have completed the workout.
Running in intervals raises your EPOC and enhances your overall caloric expenditure throughout the day.
You can do a HIIT Run session first thing in the morning on days when you don’t have a lot of free time.
The 20-minute workout will not exhaust you, but it will be long enough to raise your heart rate, cause you to perspire, and leave you alert the rest of the day.
After all, it has been proven that exercise in the morning boosts metabolic rate for the rest of the day, increasing oxygen intake and calorie expenditure.
Heart Rate Zone Power Run
Maintaining a high level of intensity while keeping a steady speed is another method of using running to lose weight. This Peloton class is a more difficult workout that is typically carried out by those who desire to compete or speed up their running.
Heart Rate Zone Power Run: A Quick Overview
A collection of sessions called Heart Rate Zone (HTZ) Power Run is created for running at a particular heart rate and level of exertion.
Not quite like the previous interval training sessions. The key here is to run as hard as you can while staying slightly below the lactate threshold.
The lactate threshold is the pulse rate at which your body cannot remove enough lactic acid from your blood due to an increase in blood concentrations.
The high-intensity activity makes the muscles burn and cease contracting.
Peloton’s Heart Rate Zone Power Run is great for burning calories as it pushes you to run as efficiently as can.
Running just below your OBLA thresholds (onset of blood lactate accumulation) causes an energy deficit and best allows fat to be used for fuel.
This is a tough kind of jogging since you have to be physically fit to keep your heart rate at its highest for the entire 20 to 45 minutes.
That is why this class’s instructor isn’t concerned with the speed but rather with the heart rate whilst running.
Tempo Run
Tempo Runs are great for whenever you want to challenge yourself. It’s known as a PR, or personal record, in the fitness industry.
Many people occasionally utilize the tempo run to push themselves over their limits. The duration of the Peloton Tempo Run sessions ranges from 30 to 45 minutes.
Tempo Run: A Quick Overview
Peloton’s Tempo Run is a collection of sessions that can help you get ready for your first 5k, 10k half-marathon, or even full marathon.
It doesn’t matter if you’re an advanced marathoner or a novice; this class is great for everyone since you can run at your optimum pace.
These classes encourage you to push yourself beyond your present boundaries, which is helpful for weight loss.
You will be able to run more effectively, burn more calories, and increase your aerobic potential to recover from previous training sessions if you run at a quicker speed.
This program will assist you in accomplishing your objectives, whether they are to touch your toes or complete a 5k.
If your objective is to run better, then I advise you to use these sessions as a way to evaluate your progress once every fortnight or every month. There’s no better motivation than seeing how much you’ve progressed.
Hills Run
It is not that difficult to run on level ground. Running uphill, though, is a very different story.
You suddenly find it harder and harder to breathe and your quadriceps start to burn shortly after you’ve started running. If you have ever experienced this, then get ready to feel the same sensation with Peloton’s Hill Run.
Hills Run: A Quick Overview
Peloton Hill Run includes several sessions that use the uphill function of the Peloton treadmill. These sessions last anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes.
They are set up to gradually raise the elevation so that you can feel as if you are jogging uphill while performing speed intervals as you gradually go higher on the elevation scale.
Since running uphill intensifies the exercise more than jogging on level terrain, Peloton’s Hill Run is beneficial for weight loss. Additionally, it works the muscles, particularly the gastrocnemius-soleus axis.
Compared to a flat surface, moving upward demands substantially more effort.
Even on days when you won’t feel like working hard and would rather just walk, choose these sessions to feel better and more content with yourself.
An additional elevation will make you feel much more powerful!
Bootcamp Classes
Peloton’s Treadmill Bootcamp is a terrific opportunity to mix weights and cardio in one controlled way, especially if you prefer to include jogging in your weight loss program.
You don’t need to lift heavy or run quickly to participate in the Treadmill Bootcamp. Once you complete a session, you will get what we’re talking about here.
The Tread Bootcamp training series combines weight training with running or cycling in a single workout session. Cardio is the part of the class where you run or cycle for 5-7 minutes.
Then you exit the treadmill or bike and begin a 5- to 7-minute weight-training routine. 20 to 60 minutes are spent for the entire session.
Bootcamp Full Body
When there is a strong demand for oxygen, the system requires more energy.
When strength training and cardio are alternated in an organized and repetitive manner, the muscles are worked during the resistance training and the blood is flushed from the extremities during the aerobic part of the session.
This practically means that because you continuously reduce the buildup of lactic acid, you can keep on exercising without experiencing the intense burn caused by lactate.
This pushes you to exercise more, keeping your heart pumping.
You may exercise while increasing your oxygen intake and flushing blood from your extremities.
If you decided not to attend the biochemistry lecture, let us tell you that the body uses oxygen to burn calories when exercising and transports that oxygen via the blood.
The more oxygen is fed into the bloodstream, the more it will need to circulate.
Running or biking alternated with weightlifting is more effective in maintaining blood flow than either exercise can do on its own.
Bootcamp Core
Although this session is quite comparable to Bootcamp Full Body, it places a greater emphasis on core training.
Whenever you feel like you can complete a workout but feel that your thighs or biceps are too sore for your last workout, opt for this Bootcamp Core class.
Rather than going for a full-body workout, you can combine core and aerobic exercises.
Bootcamp Core: A Quick Overview
Peloton’s Bootcamp Core is a set of workout sessions that combine back-to-back aerobic and core training. 5-7 minutes of core-focused movements for a few rounds follow the class’s jogging or cycling opening.
The number of rounds completed for the core workout will vary depending on how long the session lasts. Because this class raises your heart rate without causing muscular weariness, it is effective for losing weight.
The resting periods are brief, and the interval running, or cycling helps the abs get rid of lactate accumulation while keeping a high pulse rate.
Bike Bootcamp Upper Body
You can burn more calories and improve your recovery times by taking the Bootcamp Upper Body class on the Peloton app.
Bike Bootcamp Upper Body: A Quick Overview
Your lower body’s muscles are the ones that are used the most when pedaling.
However, after getting off the bike, the only thing you concentrate on is your upper body. This is a great technique to avoid going over the limit and over-exhausting a specific muscle group.
For instance, taking this class after a strenuous leg workout or while you’re recovering from jogging would not only assist you to maintain an upregulated metabolism but also improve the blood circulation in your body.
As a result, you won’t have muscular discomfort the next day.
The Bottom Line
The 90-minute Power Zone Endurance Ride with Matt Wilpers is generally the best cycling class for losing weight since it burns the biggest number of calories when compared to all the other classes on the list.
Anywhere from 800 to 1,400 calories can be burned throughout a 90-minute cycling class.
Nevertheless, all of these classes are great and extremely helpful when it comes to losing weight, so instead of focusing on the one that will burn more calories in one session – and which will probably leave you with no energy to work out the next day – focus on the long-term commitment you are making and choose the sessions that will make your weight loss journey fun!
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