WHAT WILL PELOTON DO TO MY BODY?
Struggling to lose weight is an everyday battle and if you’re still struggling with it, your body simply isn’t burning fat as efficiently as it possibly could. Riding a Peloton bike or any stationary bike for that matter is one way that has been studied and proven to improve the body’s fat burning capabilities. This fat burning process is facilitated by two things in the body, capillaries and mitochondria.
WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE CAPILLARIES AND MITOCHONDRIA?
What in the world are capillaries and mitochondria? That’s a great question. First, we will take a look at capillaries, sounds fancy, but these are simply small blood cells in your body that act as your delivery network. These cells which are connected to arteries and veins, remove waste products from the body and more importantly for weight loss purposes, deliver oxygen and nutrients(fat is a nutrient) to your muscles.
Mitochondria are the cells inside your body that take the oxygen delivered by the capillaries in your body and convert the fat and other nutrients into energy. Consistently using fat as energy through the body’s delivery system of oxygen and nutrients to the fat burning cells in your body, is a great way to cut body fat and get lean.
This fat burning process is a symbiotic relationship, based on the body’s delivery system and the body’s furnace, if either of these things are off, or worse both, you won’t see the weight loss goals that you are looking for. Thankfully, riding your stationary bike is a way to increase the amount of capillaries in your body and increase the size of your mitochondria allowing them to burn more fat and produce more energy.
Now, I’m not a doctor, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, I think I just dated myself. I simply love to nerd out about this stuff, so if you want to dive a little deeper and find out my sources for the article, feel free to purchase Ride Your Way Lean By Selene Yeager and the editors of Bicycling Magazine.
IS PELOTON SAFE FOR MY KNEES?
You’re now committed to riding your Peloton as a means to improve the efficiency of your capillaries and Mitochondria, but you’re worried about your knees. Is Peloton safe for your knees? My personal answer to this question as someone with bad knees is, yes, Peloton is definitely safe for your knees. The question really should be, can I hop on the Peloton bike for a ride and not take an egotistical perspective of trying to go as hard as I possibly can during the ride, even though my body is signaling to me that I should take it easy.
I’ll share a real life story to drive my point home. My wife and I bought our Peloton back in 2021 during CoVid. I had broken the cartilage in my knee 20 years earlier and while it has never really been an issue for me, the doctor informed me that high impact exercises are a no no at this stage of my life, which is why I prefer riding our Peloton. I rode my Peloton bike for 4 years with out issue, even taking what I consider to be some of the tougher courses with Ben Aldis, who tends to call out slightly higher resistance levels than most instructors. Eventually, I broke the cartilage in my right knee during a ride. Sure, the Peloton Bike isn’t Perfect and you can find out more about the not so glamorous side of Peloton by reading this The Peloton Bike Isn’t Perfect — Here’s What Buyers Should Know blog post, but before reading that, let me give you some insights on why Peloton wasn’t the reason I broke the cartilage in my knee.
Here’s the facts, cycling is naturally going to tighten up your hamstrings, quads, lower back and IT band, if you don’t stretch and give yourself the proper recovery time. The week I broke the cartilage in my knee, my IT band was super tight, to the point where I was going to the chiropractor to see if there was anything that he could do to help. My adjustments didn’t help, but I still continued riding at the same high resistance as I normally do and eventually damaged my right knee as well.
Is Peloton bad for my knees, no, I simply didn’t listen to my body and should have made sure I wasn’t riding with a super tight IT band on high resistance levels and I probably could have saved my knee. The reality is, I still ride my Peloton 2 to 3 times a week on a resistance level that my knees can handle, which at this point is between 30 and 38, I go as hard as I possibly can at that level and still get an amazing work out that gets my blood flowing and my heart pumping.
IS PELOTON GOOD FOR YOUR HEART?
Next to losing weight, improved cardiovascular health is another reason you are going to want to get a Peloton and start riding for at least 30 minutes a day. Riding your Peloton is great for your heart. You can easily track the efficiency of your heart during your rides with a Peloton specific heart rate monitor or another health wearable device. I’ve used both and while the Peloton heart rate monitor is more accurate, because it straps around your chest and actually monitors your heart to get an accurate reading of the beats per minute your heart is performing, it was actually a little bit cumbersome for me to get on before every ride and place in the proper position. I just stopped using it after a while for that reason. My heart rate monitor of choice is the Apple watch, it’s not as accurate, because it’s monitoring your pulse to get a reading on your heart’s number of beats per minute, but I rarely ever take my watch off, so everytime I hop on the bike, my heart data is synced to my iPhone in the health App. Over time, my heart’s resting heart rate dropped all the way down to 43 and it’s normally in the low to mid 60s. Lowering your heart’s resting heart rate BPM improves the efficiency of your heart, because it decreases the amount of beats your heart has to take to get the blood around your body. On the other end of the spectrum, when you are exerting yourself, the improved cardiovascular health helps you to get through the workout easier as well.
Improved fat burning capabilities and increased heart health is all you should need to know to get a Peloton bike and get your riding routine started. If you still need more motivation, it’s also a great option for people with bad knees like myself, who have been directed by the doctor not to perform high impact exercises.
If you still need more reasons to go all in on the Peloton bike, read this Peloton Bike: Full Length Review & Hidden Usability Advantages blog post that analyzes the Peloton bike and you can see if it’s the right choice to help you reach your fitness goals.
