Doing whole-body workouts helps to burn a lot of calories in a relatively short period of time. In this article, I will explain if you can do full-body workouts with the peloton, and if so, which ones are worth your time.
As a whole, you can get a full-body workout with a peloton because it not only offers cycling and tread classes but also thousands of strength, HIIT, and yoga sessions. It also has full-body programs and boot camps that include both cardio and resistance training.
In addition to seeing the list below, please read carefully each section as it explains the benefits and differences between full-body for both beginners and skilled athletes.
Best Peloton Full Body Workouts
In general, most of the peloton classes target all muscle groups. Full-body workouts have been proven to increase metabolic rate and achieve muscular strength for both trained and untrained people.
Is peloton bike a full-body workout? Overall, the peloton bike isn’t a full-body workout because it works only for the number of muscle groups like hamstrings, quads, glutes, and core. However, cycling does require upper body strength, but mainly for stability purposes.
This means when you’re on the bike, you can feel like your arms and shoulders are getting a workout, especially when you’re out of the saddle. Unfortunately, this doesn’t stimulate hypertrophy or strength gains.
Studies have shown that upper body and trunk muscles play a role to generate high power outputs on the handlebar that can be transmitted to the pedals, especially when out of the saddle (Turpin et al. 2017).
This means that adding full-body training not only helps to hit all the muscles that cycling doesn’t cover but also makes you stronger and more efficient.
Does the peloton have full-body strength classes? In general, the peloton has over 400 full-body strength classes, as well as over 300 bodyweight-only sessions. Each class target the biggest muscle groups helps to build strength and increases lactate concentration, which is a strong signal for hypertrophy.
What full-body workouts does a peloton offer? Peloton offers a variety of full-body workouts, including strength classes with and without weights, power yoga, cardio HIIT, and Tabata sessions. It also offers a novel Bootcamp workout where you combine cardio and resistance in one class.
Does peloton have a full-body workout program? As a whole, the peloton does have a full-body workout program called total strength with Andy Speer. This whole-body progressive strength program consists of 46 classes that last for 4 weeks and its design to make you stronger, regardless of your current fitness level.
Here are the 7 best peloton full-body workouts that you can add to your training routine.
#1 Full Body Strength
In the world of bodybuilding, full-body workouts are often seen as beginner classes because they don’t fatigue each muscle group as a split training routine.
However, the reality is that full-body strength workouts help to increase training volume, without the need to create muscle fatigue.
Why peloton full-body strength is effective? The peloton full-body strength workout is effective because it allows to increase the training frequency for each muscle group. Doing a total-body routine more often helps to stimulate muscle protein synthesis and result in greater muscular adaptations.
The frequency of training will depend on how experienced you’re. If you’re a beginner, you should be doing peloton full-body strength sessions 1-2 times per week.
Studies have shown that there is no extra benefit of the training muscle group more than twice per week because a single resistance training session increases muscle protein synthesis for up to 48 hours (Damas et al. 2015).
In the graph below you can see the muscle protein synthesis rate for untrained individuals.
As you can see, after one workout the rate of muscle protein synthesis spike and remain elevated for up to 48 hours (for beginners). This means there are no extra benefits from adding more volume.
The peloton full-body strength class is good for beginners because it helps to maximize muscular adaptations and strength gains, without overtraining. It also has a variety of classes that range between easy, intermediate, and advanced, which help to personalize each session.
On the other hand, if you’re an experienced lifter, you should add more frequency to your workouts because muscle protein synthesis peaks earlier but it’s short-lived, which results in a smaller overall response.
In the graph below you can see the muscle protein synthesis response for trained people.
As you can see, the more experienced you’re, the more often you need to do strength training because the lifespan of the muscle protein synthesis response is much shorter.
Overall, peloton full-body strength workouts are good for skilled athletes because they help to add more weekly training volume, without overtraining. This helps to avoid training plateau and continue making progress in both muscle strength and performance.
Adding more frequency and training volume leads to greater muscle protein synthesis response, results in greater muscle growth, and a higher metabolic rate.
#2 Bootcamp Full Body
Peloton full body Bootcamp is very similar to a popular fitness program called F45 or OrangeTheory. What I like about this class is that you’re constantly on the move, which makes it more challenging and interesting at the same time.
Is peloton bootcamp full-body workout? In general, the peloton Bootcamp is a full-body workout because it combines upper and lower body exercises using weights, together with a cardio session on the bike. This class consists of 5 to 7 minutes bike intervals, followed by 10 to 15 minutes of full-body circuit training.
There is little to no rest in between, which helps to keep the heart rate high. There are over 100 classes, but keep in mind that only 2 are for beginners.
Is peloton full-body bootcamp effective? As a whole, the peloton full-body Bootcamp is effective because it combines weights with cycling in a 30 to 60 minutes class. Alternating between strength and cardio keeps you on the move with high intensity and helps to burn more calories, comparing to doing cardio alone.
To put it into the perspective, here you can see how many calories I’ve burned in just a 30 minutes session.
As you can see, doing just 30 minutes session (with medium weights) was enough to burn over 400 calories. If I would be doing this class 5 days a week, that’s over 2000 calories per week.
I think that Bootcamp is the hardest 30 minute class available on the peloton.
I won’t explain here in detail all the benefits of doing peloton Bootcamp classes. I’ve already covered that in my article “peloton bootcamp“, which I recommend you read.
#3 Bodyweight Strength
What I like about bodyweight strength training on a peloton is that it can be done anywhere without any equipment. This is good if you travel a lot and you don’t have access to the regular gym.
Does Peloton have bodyweight training? As a whole, the peloton does have bodyweight training in both strength and cardio class categories. There are over 300 bodyweight sessions with a variety of exercises. The class typically consists of circuit training where you do exercises with minimum rest.
Are the bodyweight strength classes effective? Overall, the peloton bodyweight strength classes are effective because they work on strength and conditioning at the same time. Each class consists of 4 to 6 rounds of multiple exercises including push-pull, core, and legs, done back to back.
The best peloton bodyweight strength workout is with Andy Speer. He keeps the intensity close to failure in almost all of his exercises.
This helps to not only build muscle endurance but also increases the heart rate, which is good for fat loss.
Another thing that I like about the peloton bodyweight workouts is the variety of exercises. In case you’ve missed it, adding variety to your sessions is important because it helps to increase (or maintain) intrinsic motivation.
In fact, the studies have shown that 8 weeks of training with randomly selected exercises for each day via a training app improved motivation and willingness to train, compared to the group who trained with fixed exercise selection (Baz-Valle et al. 2019).
Not only that.
The results showed that both groups had the same improvements in lean muscle mass and body composition, but the motivation decreased in the fixed exercise selection group.
Below you can see a graph from this study.
As you can see, adding variety matters.
Doing peloton bodyweight strength classes helps to add variety to the training routine, makes the sessions more interesting and less tedious. This has a positive effect not only on fat loss or muscle mass but also on willingness to train.
#4 Strength For Runners
Peloton strength for runners program is another good option to use for whole-body training, especially if most of your training is around cardio.
Several studies have shown that adding two to three strength training sessions per week helps to improve performance for both short and long-distance runners (Blagrove et al. 2018).
What is peloton strength for runners program? As a whole, the peloton strength for runners is a full-body workout that helps to improve running economy and posture by working on the muscles that running doesn’t cover. It also helps to improve breathing mechanics, as well as core stability and balance.
Is peloton strength for runners effective? This class is effective because it targets the muscle groups that are responsible for keeping us stable and upright during the long-distance run. It also helps with muscle activation and generating more speed and power for short-distance runners.
What I like about the strength for runners program is that it doesn’t only work on the lower body. There is a misconception that runners only need lower body strength to improve.
The reality is that a whole-body routine that combines the upper and lower body is effective for arms strength and your ability to perform arm swing during the run.
Swinging arms during running minimizes torso rotation, helps with running efficiency, and reduces the metabolic cost of running (Arellano 2014).
In other words, it helps you do the harder work easier and run more efficiently.
That’s why I always like to recommend this type of class to my clients who are runners and are looking for ways to improve their time or distance.
Peloton Full Body Workout Plan
Now that you know which full-body classes are worth your time, let’s have a look at how you could schedule them into your weekly bike routine based on your level of fitness.
Below you can see the example of the whole-body training plan for beginners.
| Day | Beginners | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Peloton Full-body Bootcamp | 30 minutes |
| Tuesday | Low-impact ride | 20 minutes |
| Wednesday | Power Zone Endurance Ride | 45 minutes |
| Thursday | Peloton Full-body Strength | 30 minutes |
| Friday | Recovery Ride | 20 minutes |
| Saturday | Peloton Bodyweight Strength | 20 minutes |
| Sunday | Restorative Yoga | 20 minutes |
As you can notice, the strength sessions alternate with your regular peloton rides. On Friday and Sunday, I’ve included active recovery sessions like recovery rides and restorative yoga.
In general, you need to have rest days, but instead of doing nothing (passive recovery), it’s much better to add some physical activity (active recovery), even at minimum intensity.
This helps to speed up the recovery and feel less sore after strength sessions.
Here you can see the same example, but for advanced riders.
| Day | Advanced | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Peloton Full-body Bootcamp | 60 minutes |
| Tuesday | Power Zone Endurance Ride | 60 minutes |
| Wednesday | Peloton Full-body Strength | 30 minutes |
| Thursday | Recovery Ride | 20 minutes |
| Friday | Peloton Full-body Bootcamp | 60 minutes |
| Saturday | Power Zone Ride | 45 minutes |
| Sunday | Restorative Yoga | 30 minutes |
As you can see, there are several ways you can add intensity to your weekly schedule. You don’t have to add more sessions. What you can do instead is to increase the duration or choose more difficult sessions.
I like to add some relaxation classes like restorative yoga one day of the week. This helps to kick-start parasympathetic response, improve healing and get you ready for the next week.
Also, keep in mind that when you slowly progress, try to increase the intensity in just one class per week. This means if you add more duration for Monday Bootcamp, you don’t have to increase the time for all the classes in a week.
Conclusion
Peloton full-body workouts are a great way to improve your fitness at home. The class selection offers a huge variety which makes the workouts more fun and engaging.
If you’re looking for the best full-body class, I recommend trying Bootcamp as it’s one of the toughest sessions out there.