Why I Use the Peloton App to Track All My Workouts
I love finding new ways to use apps to make my life easier , but sometimes I find that I use so much technology in real life that I get a little bogged down. This has been the case with my workouts and health for a while now : I weigh myself in the morning on a smart scale that sends data to a nutrition app , Apple Health, and Peloton . I go to the gym and use the Workouts feature on my Apple Watch to track my cardio data, then open Strong to track my strength training. At home, I use Peloton to track my cycling workouts, stretching , yoga , and more. It’s all getting a little overwhelming!
That’s why I was so excited when I recently discovered a previously unseen feature in my Peloton app: I can now track my non-Peloton workouts without having to fiddle with other apps as much. I can keep more of my workout information in one place, easy to view and streamlined.
How to Track Your Self-Paced Workouts with Peloton
When you open the Peloton app, you’ll see a bottom menu with five options: Home , Classes , Track , Community , and You . Most of these are pretty self-explanatory, and I’m guessing you’ll typically choose Classes to join one of the thousands of guided workouts the $44-a-month app offers. But a few weeks ago, I decided to open Track just to see what it was.
Tapping the Track button brings up a screen that says Track Activity . The options available depend on what kind of activities or workouts you use the app for most often. Right now, the app offers me Outdoor Walking , Cycling , and Strength , but you can tap More Options to see a range of options, including running, yoga, cardio, meditation, and more. When you select one of these options, it will appear as “Just” in your Peloton history, like “Just Riding” or “Just Walking.”
If this reminds you of the built-in Workout app on the Apple Watch, that’s because it’s essentially the same thing. If you select one of those options on Peloton, you’ll get a screen with a timer, start and pause buttons, an option to share your location “for accurate metrics,” a calorie counter, and a heart rate monitor. It’s essentially the same thing that the Workout app tracks.
This is especially helpful if you have a heart rate monitor or wearable connected to the Peloton app. I think everyone should do this , as it will help the app more accurately estimate calories burned and heart rate.
Why I like it
First of all, I like having my data in one place. For example, I ride a Peloton bike a lot, but I also teach spin classes , and I like to know how the two compare in terms of performance, not only for my fitness goals, but also for my future success and work as an educator. Tracking my in-person classes with the Peloton app makes it much easier for me to compare the two categories of cardio workouts.
Plus, I get better data. I tracked an elevator ride the other day using the Peloton app, trusting it to monitor my heart rate and effort. I got a detailed graph showing my heart rate over the two hours of the workout, my “Strive Score” (Peloton’s proprietary metric that measures your output), and an analysis of the time spent in each heart rate zone. You also get different data depending on what you’re doing. For example, if you’re walking, you get a little map of your route and can even see your pace and elevation at each stop. What’s more, my strength training data automatically added to my Apple Workout and Health data, helping me meet the (albeit arbitrary) goals I set in those apps for daily active minutes and daily calories burned.
Which brings us to another reason I like this setup: I use apps not only because it’s important to track my activity and progress, but also because they hold me accountable. As I mentioned, I try to hit my preset goals in Apple Health every day by “completing circles,” but I also try to keep up my streak of active days on Peloton. Does any of that really matter? No, but the act of doing those things motivates me, and the threat of not hitting them on a given day keeps me going when I might otherwise choose to be sedentary.