Peloton has been a titan in the fitness equipment industry for several years, and the promise of endless daily and on-demand yoga classes is tempting. Is Peloton yoga worth the hype?
Peloton yoga is excellent for people who enjoy doing yoga in classes ranging from beginner to advanced. At $12.99 a month for the digital membership, it’s well priced if you want a large selection of classes to choose from.
It turns out that Peloton yoga is a pretty good service. You certainly get what you’re paying for if you enjoy doing guided yoga classes. The rest of this article will run you through the pros and cons of Peloton yoga to see if it’s right for you.
Is Peloton Yoga Right for You?
Peloton yoga is great if you’re looking for yoga classes under the teaching of an experienced yogi. Peloton has nine yoga instructors, all providing helpful commentary, encouragement, and guidance on various poses.
If you’re someone looking to up your game in yoga and develop more strength, core stability, and flexibility, then Peloton yoga is definitely worth your time. The classes can be pretty challenging, ranging from 5 to 75 minutes, and you can peruse through thousands of classes based on your skill level.
In fact, several more classes have been released at the time of writing this article. Thankfully, Peloton has a helpful feature in the app that makes it easy to choose from the thousands of classes. You can filter by length (5 to 75 minutes), instructor, music, or difficulty. There’s even a filter if you want to try out brand new or trending classes.
Peloton also offers a range of yoga styles incorporated into their classes, so if you enjoy doing a specific type of yoga, then this subscription plan is perfect for you.
Whether you’re a fan of traditional poses, focus flows, restorative yoga, or power yoga, it’s got something that’s right up your alley. Furthermore, there are family-themed classes so that you can exercise with your kids if you want to.
If you like to vibe to music while you do yoga, music-themed classes, boasting everything from pop culture artists like Post Malone to Broadway specials, are available. You can also pick your classes by your current mood or classes that are more suited to the time of day.
Classes range in equipment requirements, but there are plenty that you can do with no equipment (or a little improvisation). Lastly, if you’re brand new to yoga, there are classes geared towards beginners who are just learning the principle poses of yoga.
What We Like About Peloton Yoga
Peloton yoga isn’t for everyone, but it does have some great features for fans of yoga. From the variety of classes to the encouraging instructors, there’s a lot to like about this feature of the digital subscription.
Variety
Variety is the key aspect of what makes Peloton appealing to any fitness enthusiast. In addition to the yoga classes, when you sign up for a membership with Peloton at $12.99 a month, you have access to thousands of live or on-demand workouts that you can do anywhere with wifi service.
There are classes for cycling, running, strength, meditation, stretching or HIIT. There’s certainly a lot of variation in your fitness journey that comes included in the app’s price.
Peloton yoga also has a lot of class types. Whether you’re a pro or a total newbie, Peloton has a class that will uniquely challenge you under the instruction of three certified yoga instructors.
Mood
Peloton also puts a lot of emphasis on creating an ideal mood setting for an instructor. Whether you’re happy, sad, or relaxed, a class on Peloton’s app matches those feelings.
Having a matching mood can help improve your focus and leave you feeling more mindful after finishing your classes, which certainly adds to Peloton yoga’s experience.
Challenge
One aspect of this app we love is that there’s always something new for beginners and pros alike. If you like being challenged on your fitness routines, there’s a class for you. Even if you’re an advanced yoga practitioner, their 45-75 minute classes will certainly make you break a sweat while working your whole body.
Whether you’re after improved arm strength, core stability, or lower body flexibility, Peloton has a yoga class that matches your needs. Challenge accepted.
Price
At $12.99 a month, you’re saving big over traditional in-person yoga classes. You also get the benefit of Peloton’s massive library of workouts and live exercise routines to play around with. In all honesty, you don’t even need equipment to start with most of Peloton’s workouts, which is excellent for beginners.
A lot of the yoga classes specifically are no equipment classes, which means all you’ll need is a decent mat, and you’re all set.
What We Don’t Like about Peloton Yoga
Nothing is perfect, and that’s undoubtedly true of Peloton yoga. The app’s lack of personalization or focus can make it a poor motivator to continue exercising. When it comes down to it, Peloton is a decent app, but there’s nothing truly special about it compared to other yoga apps that are much cheaper to buy.
Personalization
Peloton is always going to be lacking in personalization when it comes to a comparison between digital and in-person classes.
Try as they might, Peloton simply can’t capture the essence of what makes exercising enjoyable for most people—the sense of improvement in a community setting. Especially for yoga, where socialization is part and parcel of the experience, digital apps can never capture the same magic that makes traditional yoga appealing.
Sure, the instructors are friendly enough and offer encouragement along the way, but for many people who struggle to find the motivation to exercise, Peloton isn’t ideal.
It’s much better to have motivation from people you can meet and know in person than through an app. As such, the digital format of Peloton’s yoga classes can feel extremely impersonal and cold.
Music
Another critique of the Peloton yoga classes is the absence or poor choice of music. For many people, music makes the experience special. A good selection of music seems to make the time fly by all the faster, enhancing the experience and the sense of progression through various exercises.
A lot of the music is bland and will leave you feeling uninspired as you exercise, leaving you with a sense of monotony that is hard to shake off and might discourage you from continuing the yoga classes.
This isn’t a problem if you find music distracting or annoying while doing yoga. Still, for the myriad of people who enjoy having background sounds to focus on, the music on Peloton yoga is a big letdown.
Focus
Peloton yoga classes are excellent and challenging, but one of the most extensive critiques of Peloton’s app is the lack of focus on your fitness goals. Sure, you can pick a class that looks like a challenge and give it a go, but where do you go from there?
Peloton offers so many yoga classes for different goals that it can be utterly overwhelming if you don’t know what you want to focus on. The difficulty of the classes in the intermediate section varies immensely, with most of them feeling far more advanced than they should.
Peloton yoga lacks direction and focus when guiding prospective yoga practitioners toward developing greater strength and flexibility. If you like to pick and choose your classes for fun, then you’ll find the app to be a blast, but if you have specific strength or flexibility goals, it can be hard to find the right direction to take with Peloton yoga.
Uniqueness
When it comes down to it, Peloton yoga is just another app with an extensive library of workouts and classes to choose from. It’s nothing new to the fitness scene and doesn’t foster an enthusiastic mindset toward yoga.
It can sometimes feel quite bland and stoic; there’s simply nothing about the app that will get you excited about doing yoga classes, making the app lack vision and complexity.
Peloton yoga gives you the resources to get started and pick your path if you have a strong-willed intrinsic motivation to do yoga. Still, if you enjoy a more structured, personalized experience, then Peloton yoga might leave you unsatisfied.
Pros and Cons
Pros | Cons |
Inexpensive | Impersonal |
Challenging | Bland |
Varied | Unfocused |
What’s Included?
If you’re looking to get Peloton yoga, then you also get access to a myriad of other classes as well. These include boot camps, running classes, strength routines, and meditative exercises. Of course, Peloton also offers classes geared around their trademark cycling exercise machine.
Some of these classes require equipment, while others don’t. You might also get a free trial if you sign up during a promotion, and you can get a discounted price through your health insurance or credit card.
You get what you pay for with the digital subscription of $12.99 a month. You can also upgrade to the Guide-Only Membership ($24 a month) or the All-Access Membership ($44 a month). These require additional equipment like the Peloton Guide, bike, and tread.
Features and Benefits of Peloton Yoga
For the price of a single session in a yoga studio, you have access to over 2500 classes ranging in difficulty and duration. If you use Peloton yoga regularly, you can look forward to benefits that help you in your fitness journey. For example, if you’re a runner or long-distance cycler, restorative yoga can help you recover better.
If you’re trying to relieve pain in your neck, hip, knee, or back, Peloton yoga basics can improve your flexibility. Yoga flow is another class that can effectively challenge your mobility and core strength.
Peloton yoga also offers a variety of other benefits as well:
- Saves time
- Builds strength
- Improves posture
- Increases flexibility
- Strengthens your mind
- Has programs for beginners
Saves Time
Forget the showers, the preparation, or the commute to and from your studio. With Peloton, you can boot up the app and be ready to go in no time.
Builds Strength
Strength is a prerequisite for more advanced poses, and as you work through different exercises, you’ll challenge your body in new ways to get stronger.
Improves Posture
Yoga is excellent for your posture. It can stretch out your spine and other muscles that get overtight from too much sitting. Regular yoga practice can vastly improve your posture.
Increases Flexibility
Yoga also increases your flexibility by stretching out tight muscles and working them in challenging ways. This helps with a lot of athletic pursuits as well.
Strengthens Your Mind
The mental fortitude to keep going with yoga is excellent in various aspects of life. Learning to challenge yourself with something new is an excellent practice in life.
Has Programs for Beginners
Peloton has a 3-week program catered to new yoga practitioners if you’re a beginner. It starts with just 10 minutes a day and works up to 30 minutes at the end of the program. If you’re brand new to yoga, this program can help you find a place to start in a judgment-free zone.
Final Breakdown
8/10
Overall, we were impressed with how Peloton has seamlessly brought yoga into its digital subscription. For the price of just one session, you have access to a massive library of classes to go through, all ranging in difficulty.
It’s dead simple to start; boot up the app, choose a class, and you’re ready to go. In a judgment-free environment, anywhere you have wifi, you can get started with Peloton yoga simply by visiting the App Store on Apple devices or the Google Play Store on Android devices.