After a Week, I Am Enjoying Peloton’s New ‘Personalized Plan’ More Than I Thought I Would

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Last week, Peloton unveiled a fleet of new equipment and major software updates to go along with it. The updates immediately reflected on the Peloton app and the interfaces of the company's existing at-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 a lot easier to use than I was expecting.

What the Peloton personalized plan does

With the new update, you can log into the Peloton app on your mobile device and you'll see the personalized plan option right at the top. Tapping it brings you to a series of questions about your goals (like gaining strength or supporting weight loss or maintenance), what types of exercises you prefer (like cycling or walking), how experienced you are at working out, and how many days per week you can devote to exercise. There's even a question about what you'd like to do on rest and recovery days, like stretching, meditating, or yoga. You can change your answers at any time.

Once you fill it all out, the app generates your personal plan, which updates every Monday and includes something to do each day, even if it's a rest day. 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

After the plan is generated based on your inputs, you'll 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 See your weekly plan to pull up the full schedule. You can tap the classes recommended for the day to start working out or work ahead or backward. It's not super rigid; it's more of a broad overview of all the things your week should include to align with your goals, scheduled in a way that makes the most sense. But you can override whatever you want.

Credit: Peloton

For instance, you don't have to take a certain class if you don't want to. It recommends particular cycling classes to me frequently, but I've found that any cycling class I take "counts" toward completing a personalized plan class. The other day, I took a yoga class in a studio and used my Peloton app to track a non-Peloton strength workout. To my surprise, it counted that as one of my "plan" classes for the day, since I was supposed to do strength that day. I didn't do the exact class it recommended, but that didn't matter.

Why I like this more than I thought I would

I am a big fan of my app streaks, as gamifying the tasks I need to do every day motivates me a lot. (I have a 206-day streak on Peloton right now, for the record.) I was initially worried the personalized plan would be too structured and throw me off. Would I be penalized for not doing cardio on a day it told me to? Would this somehow affect my streak? The answers are no. There is no penalty for not following the plan. In fact, it's quite flexible. Like I said, any workout you do can count toward the plan, not just the workouts it suggests. Moreover, it doesn't matter if you take a class or track a workout that doesn't count toward it. You're still in charge of what you use the app for and how you work out. This is just meant to help you schedule a little better.

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