Women’s Fitness editor Sarah Sellens jumps on the Peloton Tread to see if the company’s move into the running space is a runaway success.
Peloton made its name in the world of spin, but the brand has since branched out in various directions – including running. So is the Peloton Tread is up there with the best treadmills?
Men’s Fitness verdict
It’s hard to fault the hardware, and the range of instructors and workouts is seemingly endless. If you can take the cost on the chin, you’ll have one of the best cardio machines going.- Lots of varied instructors
- Good range of workouts
- Large, clear touchscreen
- No custom mode
- Expensive even before membership cost
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The Peloton Tread has revolutionised run workouts for the home gym crowd, with its huge variety of live and on-demand workouts and its first-class instruction. No surprises, then, that the price tag sets it at the higher end of the treadmill market: because you’re not just paying for something to run on, you’re paying for access to a new workout world in which you’ll find the run to suit your mood, your music taste, your training goals, and so much more.
As someone who has been using treadmills regularly for over 20 years, and who has access to two other home treadmills from two different brands, I can tell you that this is the only treadmill that really excites me and continues to get weekly use.
Peloton Tread benefits
First up, let’s talk about the classes. In the year or so of owning a Peloton Tread, I’ve tried everything from Bootcamps, to Pop workouts, to carefully curated Interval Runs and more, while my husband prefers the Scenic Runs and Guided Runs. And yet there’s so much that we haven’t tried. The options seem endless.
Logging on to the crisp and large touchscreen, with amazing sound (which you can connect via Bluetooth to your headphones if noise is an issue), makes a Peloton Tread workout feel like the real deal – you will be as motivated and supported as you would at an in-person, studio-style workout.
There are also some intuitive design features that are unique to the Peloton Tread, such as the Speed and Incline knobs that have a central button which allows you to jump a whole level for quick progression. And more recently, Peloton has introduced an auto-incline feature, allowing the treadmill to automatically adjust the incline to match the session underway. (But if you’re not keen on that, you can turn this function off if you don’t want to use it.)
It’s also worth noting that the pace (in min/mile) and distance metrics seem to be accurate with what we experienced on the road and during other run sessions, so it’s really easy to set the levels to suit your ability and to feel challenged.
Disadvantages with the Peloton Tread
Any downsides? This might not be the treadmill for you if you’re clear on the type of run workout you want to do, such as if you have set sessions provided via a training plan. The Peloton Tread does not have a custom mode, so when recently training for an event, I tended to do my pre-scheduled run sessions on a Technogym MyRun or, of course, outside. However, if you’ve a day or two in your training plan for which you just want to be ‘surprised’, this is a great investment.
You’ll also need to plan where you’re going to put the Tread. I’ve not found it to be any bigger or weightier than other treadmills, but it does weigh 290lbs / 130kg and that’s worth considering if your only spare room is upstairs. It’s not that it’s noisy – I don’t think it’s any louder than the other treadmills I use, and it’s certainly never woken up the kids when doing evening sessions – but depending on how heavy-footed the runner is, you will get some footstep clunking.
You’ll want to consider the space around the Tread, too, as many classes require getting on and off the Tread to do strength-based sections. With dimensions of 68 x 33in (173 x 84cm), the brand suggests you have a 6ft 6in (2m) clearance behind your Tread and 2ft (60cm) on either side.
Should you buy a Peloton Tread?
Let’s state the obvious: at $3,495 / £3,345 for the Tread and $44 / £39 per month to access the classes, this isn’t the cheapest home workout kit option. But if it gets a lot of use, it’s worth it.
When purchasing the Peloton Tread, I saw it as an alternative to a gym membership, because I had young children and a gym card that was gathering dust. And with a range of weighted workouts, yoga classes, stretch sessions and more available (Peloton also sells dumbbells from $55 / £45), you can consider the investment in this one bit of kit as an investment in all areas of your fitness.
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