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I’m always working on a side quest, from getting certified in an obscure professional trade (airbrush tanning) to developing a new skill (just because I live in Manhattan doesn’t mean I can’t learn to golf or fish). Since March, I’ve been hellbent on learning to do the splits, and I’ve given myself until the end of the summer to get it done. I have I never been what anyone would consider a flexible person (physically, anyway), so at the start, this mission seemed ill-advised. But then I discovered that my beloved Peloton app offers stretching classes.
Meeting this goal has not been as easy as learning to fish was, but practicing my stretches with guidance from the pros has absolutely helped me make significant progress. Even if I weren’t randomly endeavoring to contort my body in a strange new way, I know stretching is important; I start and end every spin class I teach with a stretching routine, because warmups and cooldowns enhance any workout. Whether you’re trying to become significantly more flexible or just want to serve your own fitness, Peloton’s guided stretching classes are a good option.
Why you should follow a guided stretching routine
The Peloton app offers all kinds of classes on it, some of which I’ve highlighted before. With an All-Access membership ($44 per month), you can access the at-home fitness company’s famous cycling classes, go on guided walks, and even meditate. Peloton also offers multiple options for strength training.
Some of these activities—like cycling and lifting—more obviously lend themselves to guided classes, especially for newcomers, but you might think stretching is too straightforward to bother seeking instruction for. After all, it’s simple enough to just reach down and assess whether or not you can comfortably touch your toes, then kind of reach farther until it hurts too much and call it a day. But this thinking is wrong.
As Peloton points out in its own blog on the topic, stretching can not only help you prepare for or recover from a workout, but can enhance your overall fitness, blood flow, and even your posture. But just as it can be beneficial, stretching can also injure if you use the wrong form or overextend yourself. Listening to a certified coach walk you through not only the exact stretches you should be doing before or after a certain workout, but how they should feel, what tools you can use to help yourself ease into them (like yoga blocks), how long you should hold them, and the kinds of modifications you can make if something doesn’t feel right, can help you stay safe and get more out of the effort you’re putting in.
Peloton offers targeted stretching classes for specific goals
You can find the stretching classes in the Peloton app by searching for “stretching” on the home screen. (“Stretching” may also appear as a standalone button on the home screen, depending on what the algorithm is serving you when you open up the app.)
Like all of its offerings, from running to yoga, Peloton’s roster of stretching classes is diverse. You can filter your results by length (from five minutes to 30) and by class type. Here are the types of stretching you can filter for:
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Full body stretches
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Upper body stretches
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Lower body stretches
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Core stretches
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Mobility stretches
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Foam rolling
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Boxing stretches
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Dance cardio stretches
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Pre- and post-cycling ride stretches
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Pre-running stretches
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Post-running stretches
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Pro- and post-rowing stretches
You can also filter by music genre and instructor and add stretching classes to your Peloton Stack, the app’s version of a playlist (running your Stack will play your pre-selected workouts in order). Add a stretching class to the beginning and end of your workout to makes the entire thing more well-rounded, safe, and beneficial.
How Peloton’s stretching classes have helped me
As noted, I am not flexible. I have never been flexible. I remember dreading those days in elementary school gym class when the teacher would measure how far everyone could stretch, and I struggled to extend past my knees. At the start of my mission to do a split, I began doing a stretching routine on my own every night, not really feeling much of a benefit or seeing much progressive improvement. I spent a lot of time watching YouTube tutorials, and while YouTube does have some great stretching classes, the “how to do the splits in two weeks” videos are basically useless. Those are too broad and don’t leave enough room for viewers who are starting from different levels of preparedness and fitness.
Every time I completed one of those free routines and found myself not much stretchier than before, I was demoralized. I was growing disillusioned and annoyed with every new YouTube video of a hyper-flexible ex-gymnast claiming it’s “easy” to achieve the splits, then hitting them flawlessly with no explanation of how, precisely, she did that.
The more structured Peloton classes changed that—I can look at my phone screen and see exactly what I’m supposed to be doing, and hear succinct verbal cues that tell me how I should be feeling during a stretch. The reminders about how I should be feeling in a particular moment are helpful for me, as someone who thinks ahead too much to a certain goal. Being pulled back into the present by a knowledgeable pro is crucial to my gradual improvement.
I have absolutely noticed that since I started following along with the app’s classes on lower body stretching, I can sink lower into a stretch while experiencing less pain and friction. Physically, that’s a benefit in and of itself, but mentally, it’s both comforting and motivating—comforting because I am less terrified I will accidentally hurt myself by stretching incorrectly, and motivating because I can actually feel myself progressing toward my goal.
The instructors are encouraging and well-informed, which is typical of all Peloton classes. They explain what is coming up, tell you when you should rock back and forth or stay static, and detail the function of each stretch, whether it’s intended to help you with your posture, make your daily activities easier, or help you reach a workout-specific goal. I’ve even stolen a few of the stretches I’ve learned to incorporate into the ones I lead my spin classes through.
While it’s easy enough to do a few improvised stretches before you lift, after you do cardio, or when you’re just feeling tight, it’s beneficial to open up the Peloton app and run through a more intentionally planned routine with help from an expert. It’s yet another way this app has become indispensable for me on my broader quest to improve my fitness.
