Peloton isn’t Cutting It

I saw an article yesterday about Peloton. Honestly, I had forgotten about the craze of Peloton bikes. There were many saying that these bikes would put brick and mortar gyms out of business. I looked up to see how their stock was performing. It’s now under $5 per share compared to the $171 per share it reached in February 2021. That’s a big drop for something that was supposed to flip the fitness world upside down. The reasoning is because Peloton doesn’t actually have a unique advantage—it sells hardware and software that can be reproduced for much cheaper by bigger companies that are already doing so.

Whether the stock falls doesn’t matter to me; I’ve got no skin in that game. But between Peloton, Mirror and other emerging tech companies, I’ve been thinking a lot about this growing trend of technology + fitness and working out at home, and how they’re really just today’s version of the Bowflex and P90X.

Working out at home seems so convenient. You don’t have to drive anywhere, you can work out on your schedule and you can customize how long you work out. The problem is that no one sticks with it long term. I see Pelotons pop up on Facebook Marketplace all the time. Or worse, people end up buying themselves a really expensive clothes hanger. Just as those who did P90X for 90 days and then said, “Now what?”

Home workouts can definitely save time, but only those disciplined enough will stick with a routine. And frankly, most of us (myself included) are not disciplined enough to do things on our own. So what’s the trick? Accountability through community.

We are social creatures. Even self-described introverts need to be around others. If you simply look at human history, community matters a lot. At first, it was to simply to survive (a few of us will hunt for the tribe while others take care of the kiddos, etc). and now it’s built into our DNA to connect with others face to face.

Look, many of you are very smart people. But you wouldn’t have put yourself through a college education by going to the library and reading textbooks on your own. You went to a physical place where you had professors guiding you through the curriculum and correcting you when you needed it. You had peers surrounding you for both the academic push and the social interactions. And you progressed a heck of a lot faster because of both.

At [GYM], you have coaches to guide you through our workout curriculum and correct you when you need it. You have peers surrounding you for both the physical push and the social interactions. And you will progress a heck of a lot faster because of both.

At Showtime Strength & Performance, we push each other to do more in workouts; we create accountability to show up (in an obvious “Hey, see you tomorrow!” or a less obvious “I reserved for the 5:00am class—I can’t back out now!”), and we relieve stress when we’re able to laugh and connect with others.

When you’re chatting with others before and after a workout and have people that genuinely care about what’s going on in your life, you experience a connection that can’t be made through a screen.

This is what Peloton and many other companies are missing—and it’s what we pride ourselves on.

Nick Showman

Showtime Strength & Performance