My Feleton Bike!

 I present to you: my favorite quarantine purchase ever!  I have been thinking about doing something like this for awhile but always held off because I assumed my spin studio would open back up as everything else was.  However, since my spin studio was a locally owned business instead of a chain, it suffered from COVID-19 and closed permanently.  I started doing other workouts at home but nothing was really sticking like spinning was for me.  What sealed the deal for me was a post in a Facebook group I saw asking about recommendations for exercise bikes on Amazon.  After looking through the suggestions and doing research on YouTube and Amazon reviews, I made the purchase.  It's the best decision I've made don't regret this one bit!

Bike // So the bike I purchased was the Sunny Health and Fitness Exercise Cycling Bike.  It has a 49lb. chrome fly wheel and even came with tools to put it together!  My dad set it up for me and said he didn't even have to open his tool box and that the directions were super easy to follow.  It also comes with toe cages so you don't have to have spin shoes to use it which is great if multiple people want to use the bike.  I'm thinking about getting dual shoe cage/SPD clip pedals to attach to the bike so that I can use my TIEM shoes and other people in my family can use the bike if they want without the shoes.  The big difference I've noticed compared to other bikes I've used is the resistance knobs.  I normally need to turn it to the right multiple times to increase the resistance, but the resistance is very sensitive.  Like for me, one or two full turns is max resistance for me when before it would take five or six turns.  The resistance knob also doesn't have a "zero" which took some getting used to.  I tried to zero out the resistance one of my first rides and realized that the knob would just keep turning to the left.  So keep that in mind if you get this bike!  Overall it is very easy to set up and does a really great job for a relatively cheap exercise bike.

Peloton Digital Subscription // To go along with the bike, I purchased the Peloton Digital subscription.  It's $12.99 with a free 30 day trial and I'm pretty sure I took more classes in my 30 day trial than I did the whole time I went to my spin studio.  The difference with this and the full membership that comes with the bike is no output monitoring with cadence and resistance, and not being on the leaderboard since your output is not measured.  This wasn't a deal breaker for me and I just watch the instructor's legs to see if my resist feels similar and I'm moving my legs at the same speed as the instructors.  There are cadence monitors you can purchase from Amazon but measuring my cadence isn't a huge deal to me.  I also have been taking other classes such as tread classes with my family's treadmill, outdoor runs, strength classes, stretching classes and more.  This app has everything and the $12.99 a month is so worth it.  Even without a bike I still highly recommend getting this app if you are planning to continue working out from home for awhile!  I can't even see myself going to a gym or workout class after this now that I have the Peloton app.

Instructors // I haven't taken every instructor on the app, but I do have a few that are ride or die for me.  My ultimate faves are Emma Lovewell and Cody Rigsby.  Cody is just so much fun and upbeat and I genuinely have a good time with him every time I get on the bike.  His themed rides are also truly the best, I have all of them bookmarked.  I love Emma as a person.  She has the best personality, she has awesome playlists, and her Groove rides are some of my favorite rides ever.  She also has a Crush Your Core program which is short ab classes over a few weeks and they are short but effective.  I've just loved every single class of hers I've ever done.  Other instructors I've taken and loved are Hannah F., Tunde, and Robin!  If you're into running, Becs Gentry is the queen but her runs are hard.  I've done a few of her beginner runs and I am not a runner and they were pretty killer!

Classes // I've been trying a lot of different classes lately, but my favorites are definitely the rides.  I've done a lot of different types of classes but my favorites are definitely the Intervals and Arms rides, themed rides, and groove rides!  Intervals and arms splits up songs by speed, endurance, or out of the saddle intervals with a few arm tracks in there.  Groove rides are basically Soul Cycle classes.  You ride to the beat of the music and some choreography is added in as well.  Lastly, the themed rides are usually artist based or even types like pop rides, country rides, EDM rides, etc.

The Peloton app has truly been the best thing to come out of quarantine for me.  I know I will use it long after stay-at-home is done, and it has truly changed my workout-game.  Happy riding!

xoxo, Hannah