Peloton Fitness Now Has Its Own Zone 2 Classes.

A million years ago (somewhere before 2020), Peloton had a series of spin classes designed around heart rate zones . Christine D’Ercole would tell you what zone your heart rate should be in at each stage of the workout, and you would adjust your efforts accordingly. Those classes are long gone, but Peloton is bringing back heart rate-based training with its new “Zone 2” collection.

In Peloton, Collections are simply groups of existing classes, so there are currently (or are there yet?) no classes designed for heart rate zones. Instead, if you tap the “Zone 2” collection on your exercise bike, treadmill, or rower, or in the mobile app , you’ll see 16 classes that are close to Zone 2, including:

• Four cycling sessions , including two 60-minute endurance workouts in the maximum power zone and two shorter recovery workouts in the maximum power zone.

• The “Running + Outdoors” program includes eight workouts , approximately half of which are walking and half running. You can do it on a treadmill or outdoors, keeping your phone in your pocket.

• Four rowing sessions , all labeled as “endurance rowing” and lasting between 20 and 45 minutes.

What’s it like to take a Peloton Zone 2 class?

I tested one of the cycling lessons—a 45-minute recovery workout in power zones with professional cyclist Christian Vande Velde. Power zone workouts have nothing to do with heart rate zones. Instead of monitoring your heart rate, the instructor instructs you to pedal hard enough to match one of seven power zones, which are based on how much mechanical force you put into the pedals.

Power zone training typically ranges from 1 to 5, with peak values ​​in the Power Zone Max groups occurring in the higher zones. Power Zone Endurance (PZE) training is at the other end of the spectrum, with the majority of training spent in zones 2 and 3.

The two Power Zone Endurance rides in the Zone 2 collection are lower intensity than most other PZE rides. Instead of switching between Power Zones 2 and 3, you’re constantly in Power Zone 2. The Power Zone Recovery rides are even simpler: you switch between Power Zones 1 and 2.

I connected my trusty chest heart rate monitor to my Peloton bike and Coros watch and joined the class. We spent the first 15 minutes in Zone 1, then a few short stints in Zone 2 (out of the saddle!), with long sections in Zone 1 in between. If that doesn’t sound like a serious workout, you’re right—Christian emphasized that “it’s not a workout. It’s post-workout recovery.”

What is the purpose of Zone 2 classes on Peloton?

Christian’s statements during the class made me wonder if people would consider this kind of workout a scam. According to fitness bloggers, we should all be doing more—maybe even all— zone 2 cardio. So what do you mean by saying these classes aren’t a workout?

Honestly, I get it: heart rate zone 2 is a fairly low-intensity workout. It’s a great, low-impact addition to your training program, especially if you’re trying to increase your miles or training hours. But if you’re training to get fitter, you need intensity! Heart rate zone 3 has many benefits , and the VO2 max-boosting Norwegian 4×4 workout works wonders in zone 4.

I can definitely imagine myself using workouts from the Zone 2 collection when I need a recovery day or a lighter version of an endurance workout. But for more standard endurance training, I’ll still stick to the regular PZE classes.

Do Peloton Zone 2 classes really put you in Zone 2?

Besides getting familiar with the class format and intensity level, another reason I decided to try one of these classes was to see if my heart rate actually reached and stayed in zone two during the workout.

The success of this idea depends on whose definition of zone two you use, as different apps have different representations . If you connect a heart rate monitor to your Peloton equipment or app, you’ll get five Peloton heart rate zones, with zone two defined as 65-75% of your maximum heart rate. My Coros watch, on the other hand, has six zones, with zone two being 50-60% of my maximum heart rate.

By the way, my average heart rate was 122 beats per minute, which is about 60% less than my maximum.

• According to Coros, I spent 39% of my time in the “warm-up” zone (Zone 2) and 43% in the “fat-burning” zone (Zone 3).

• According to Peloton, I spent 65% of my time in zone 1 and 31% in zone 2.

• If I used a device like a Fitbit or Pixel Watch, my activity level would be split roughly evenly between “moderate” and “vigorous” (low and medium on the three-zone scale).

• If I were using an Apple Watch, I would be in zone 1 and zone 2.

• In some ways, Garmin is the “winner” here—it’s the only system that shows me in Zone 2 for the majority of the ride (57%), 23% in Zone 1, and 15% in Zone 3. (I used Peloton and Garmin syncing to get these numbers.)

While monitoring my heart rate on the Peloton screen (using a chest strap), I noticed that most of the time, when I was told to pedal in zone 1, my heart rate was close to the upper limit of zone 1. During interval workouts, I found that standing up would get my heart rate up to zone 3 fairly quickly, but if I did intervals while seated, my heart rate wouldn’t get above zone 2. This is partly because standing up is less efficient (so you work harder to achieve the same result), but I don’t think it’s the only reason.

Heart rate not only reflects your effort during exercise; it can also vary depending on your body position (standing or sitting) and other factors, such as how warmed up you are, the room temperature, and more. This is why cyclists typically prefer power zones to heart rate zones—power is a more direct indicator of what you’re doing on the bike.

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