Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Health & Fitness
  3. Evergreens

These are the best Peloton classes for beginners

You don't need a Peloton to take these workout classes

Peloton landing page for beginners.
Peloton

Have you purchased a Peloton as part of a promise to adopt a healthier lifestyle? If so, you might be overwhelmed by all the classes available to you — we’re here to help.

And if you don’t have a Peloton? You can still partake. It’s understandable that you would think you need the Peloton bike or Tread to participate in a Peloton class. However, you can get access to the best Peloton classes for beginners without this equipment. There is a huge library of on-demand and live-streaming classes that you can do with the exercise equipment you already have at home. You can use this workout app at the gym and it provides you with many different guided, motivating, and challenging workouts for a modest monthly fee.

Recommended Videos

However, if you’re a beginner and new to fitness, Peloton classes and workouts may seem reserved for hardcore, fit athletes and indoor cycling fanatics with quads so chiseled they belong on fitness models. Though many Peloton classes are intense and geared toward experienced riders, yogis, runners, and athletes, some great beginner Peloton classes are perfect for those just getting started. Moreover, you don’t have to hop on an indoor cycle to take advantage of Peloton workouts.

Even though Peloton has become a household name in the indoor cycling or spinning space, the brand’s digital membership also offers hundreds of Peloton classes in other exercise modalities and disciplines, including strength, running, yoga, cardio, stretching, and more.

That said, much like how the litany of options on Netflix can make it difficult to settle on something to watch, the sheer number of choices of workouts in the Peloton app can be daunting and overwhelming to newcomers. Fear not — consider us your concierge service, helping you hone in on the best Peloton classes for beginners for each of the primary fitness categories they offer. So, if you’re not sure where to start, keep reading for our recommendations of the best Peloton workouts for beginners.

Beginner Peloton classes.
Peloton

How often should beginners do Peloton classes?

Whether you are coming back from a long break from exercising or are just starting your fitness journey, Peloton classes can be a great way to get in shape since there are so many options and an instructor is taking you through every step.

At first, you want to ease into things to help prevent yourself from getting an injury or overtraining. Try starting with two classes per week, as this is doable and sustainable for the average person. After training twice a week for a month, try adding another class if you think you have the time. Continue to add another class every month as you can.

The key to being consistent with weekly Peloton classes is to not overcommit. When you take on more than you can handle, you may end up feeling stressed rather than being able to simply enjoy the mental and physical benefits of exercise.

Peloton bike at home.
Peloton / Facebook

Best beginner Peloton cycling classes

The bread and butter of Peloton are their invigorating, music-pumping, and engaging indoor cycling classes. With thousands to choose from, you can find the exact music, instructor, class length, workout style, and theme you like, with anything from a holiday ride to an 80s rave ride.

They also have an entire collection of beginner Peloton cycling rides, which are not only easier in terms of intensity but incorporate more instructional coaching about form, riding positions, and technique. Our picks for the best beginner Peloton cycling classes include the 20-minute beginner rides led by Cody Rigsby or Tunde Oyenevin. They even have advanced beginner rides as you progress.

Peloton home gym
Peloton / Facebook

Best beginner Peloton running classes

With the advent of the Peloton Tread, Peloton took to the running market, but you can use any treadmill for the running classes. There are hundreds of beginner running classes, including ones with intervals, hills, HIIT, or building endurance. Our favorite beginner Peloton running classes are the Running Skills classes, the 30-minute Progression Runs, and the 30-minute Endurance Runs.

Pair of dumbbells and a resistance band with handles.
Kelly Sikkima / Unsplash

Best beginner Peloton strength classes

Guided strength classes are a real plus for beginners who can’t afford personal training but who could benefit from some instruction. You can sort all the Peloton strength classes by difficulty, selecting “Beginner” to see the best classes for newcomers. You can further filter classes based on available equipment, such as body weight only, resistance bands, etc., and by workout focus, such as upper body, total body, core, and others. Some of the beginner Peloton strength classes we like best are any of the 20-minute bodyweight strength classes, the 30-minute full-body strength classes, and the strength for runners classes.

Man on treadmill
Lightfield Studios / Adobe Stock

Best beginner Peloton walking classes

Most of the walking classes are appropriate for beginners, as walking is a low-impact, lower-intensity form of exercise compared to running or jogging. Still, some of the workouts are definitely intense. Walking classes range from five to 60 minutes, and many incorporate intervals of higher intensity or incline.

The best beginner Peloton walking classes include any of the 20-or 30-minute power walking classes for those with a decent base level of fitness. If you’re just getting started, consider the warm-up walking classes for a more gentle workout.

Man using a jump rope.
Pavel Danilyuk / Pexels

Best beginner Peloton cardio classes

The Peloton cardio classes are designed to get your heart pounding and lungs burning while you work up a sweat, so they can be tough when you’re just starting out. That said, the best beginner Peloton cardio classes are the 10-minute HIIT cardio led by Olivia Amato, the 20-minute dance cardio led by Callie and Hannah, or the 30-minute HIIT cardio for beginners led by Callie Gullickson for those looking for a real challenge. Be sure to filter the classes by difficulty and select “beginner” to find the most appropriate ones.

Peloton strength classes.
Peloton

Best beginner Peloton yoga classes

You may be one of the strongest guys in the gym or a seasoned marathon runner, yet you struggle with flexibility and have rarely — if ever — rolled out a yoga mat. If this rings true, you’ll benefit from some of the beginner Peloton yoga classes, of which there are literally well over one thousand. You can filter this huge library of beginner yoga classes by not only difficulty level but also duration (from 5 to 75 minutes), instructor, type of music, and types of class, such as Flow, Power, and Focus Flow. We recommend Restorative classes and Yoga Basics for beginners.

Man meditating.
cottonbro studio / Pexels

Best beginner Peloton meditation classes

Meditation certainly isn’t a fitness-boosting workout, but it’s a great mindfulness modality to reduce stress and augment your overall health. Just like approaching exercise as a beginner requires a slow progression, meditation can take some getting used to. Accordingly, instead of trying to sit down and meditate for 30 minutes on your first go-round, try a beginner Peloton meditation class like one of the 5-minute wellness meditations or healing meditations. We also like the 10-minute morning meditations and 10-minute sleep meditations to help ease you into a restful slumber.

Two men hiking.
Kamaji Ogino / Pexels

Best beginner Peloton outdoor classes

The outdoor Peloton workouts are guided audio workouts without a video component. There are approximately 25 beginner outdoor workouts, many of which involve intervals or HIIT training. These will get your heart rate racing while also giving you chances to recuperate during recovery intervals. Our favorite beginner Peloton outdoor workouts are the 20-minute interval runs led by Matty Maggiacomo, Andy Speer, Chase Tucker, or Selena Samuel.

Amber Sayer is a fitness, nutrition, and wellness writer and editor, and was previously a Fitness Editor at Byrdie. She… Read Full Bio
Topics
Fitness 101: The perfect biceps curl with fitness expert Liz Baker Plosser
Liz Baker Plosser

There is no shortage of examples of the male bicep becoming the driver of confidence in men and desire for women. Men have been fed this narrative since we were kids, from Popeye winning the love of Olive Oil when he eats spinach and is awarded with bulging biceps, allowing him to be the hero (I won’t go on a tangent about how this was also used to manipulate me into eating vegetables…which I have thankfully overcome as an adult) to Captain America displaying his hulking biceps by holding down a literal helicopter. The bro culture makes memes of men like Arnold Schwarzenegger locking hands with Carl Weathers and showing off the boulders under their tee sleeves, resulting in all of us men wanting to learn how to get the giant arms to show off our hard work.

Of course, that means one of the first things we reach for in the gym when we first get our membership is the dumbbell so we can start our journey towards attaining our own Olive-Oil-rescuing muscle. But, like anything, it is best to listen to experts. Liz Baker Plosser is a fitness and wellness expert who has spent two decades teaching others on the same journey to attain their fitness goals. From being the editor and chief at Women’s Health to appearing on national shows like Live with Kelly and Mark and The TODAY Show, she has become a staple in the fitness industry.

Read more
Get the “Extraction” body before Chris Hemsworth’s threequel
Extraction Workout

Movies lied to me when I was a kid. When I joined the Army, I had dreams of being an Army Ranger. Too many movies made me think I could be a special operator and maybe even get myself a great nickname like the GI Joes. Instead, I told one of the sergeants of my aspirations, and he flat out said I wouldn’t make it. Not that I couldn’t do it, but that they wouldn’t let me. I was too big. 6’5″ and 220 pounds was going to require too many calories. You see, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and Dwayne Johnson made me think that the elite soldiers needed to be hulking giants. Or world-class martial artists like Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, or Jean-Claude Van Damme. And since I couldn’t do a roundhouse, I decided to follow the more practical path of the everyman like Bruce Willis, Nic Cage, and Tom Cruise.

You see, special operators need to be agile. They need mobility. That is why Chris Hemsworth adopted a workout with that goal to prepare for his third turn as Tyler Rake in his new Netflix film, Extraction 3.

Read more
The Manual’s Health & Wellness Awards Are Open for Submissions
Clothing, Footwear, Shoe

For years, The Manual has told readers which products actually work. Not which ones arrived in the nicest box, and not which brand bought the most media. Which ones held up after weeks of real use, and were still worth reaching for at the end.

Now we’re bringing that same approach to health. Introducing The Manual Health & Wellness Awards 2026, our first awards program dedicated to the products that help men sleep, train, recover, and feel better. And it’s open to submissions.

Read more