Tech
Peloton's $295 Guide camera is a body-tracking home workout assistant
The Guide offers a full workout experience with Peloton’s programming for a fifth of the price of its bikes.
You can now get the Peloton brand name in your home for less than $300. The Guide, a home workout camera is a more low-key and affordable option designed for strength training.
Peloton’s Guide camera hooks up to your TV and watches your workout, helping instruct you as you exercise. Since it’s a Peloton product, you’ll get access to its library of programming and a bunch of other features designed to maximize your workouts.
Peloton announced The Guide back in November with an initial price tag of $495 and the inclusion of a heart-rate band. The company has since had a rough start to 2022, after reports of internal documents saying that production was temporarily halted due to low demand. February wasn’t any kinder to Peloton, who saw interest from Amazon about an acquisition and another damning report showing they sold rusty bikes after concealing problem areas.
Full of features — The biggest draw of The Guide is that it’s much simpler to set up than an exercise bike or treadmill and requires no additional space. But, to make sure we’re not just paying $300 for a workout camera, Peloton designed The Guide with Movement Tracker that appears in classes and scans your movements to monitor if you’re doing the exercise correctly and will improve over time with machine learning.
The Guide also has a Self Mode that lets you see yourself next to the instructor to check your form. Meanwhile, the Body Activity feature keeps track of your workouts, remembering the muscles you recently worked out and recommending focus on other muscle groups to keep your body balanced. If you’re ever confused about a certain exercise, there’s a Movement Details function that acts like a video dictionary with specific explanations on how an exercise is done.
As with all Peloton products, The Guide relies heavily on its programming. Peloton created a bunch of new programs, including Floor Bootcamp for strength and endurance, Split Programs for building muscle, and a weekly Strength Roll Call program. Peloton said they will also be creating live classes made for the Movement Tracker feature, which are expected to start soon.
Out now — The Guide is already available for the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Australia, starting at $295. If you’re already a Peloton All Access Member, you can add The Guide to your membership for free. If you don’t have weights, Peloton is also offering a package that includes The Guide, a workout mat, and Peloton dumbbells for $545. Another package includes a heart-rate band and Rogue dumbbells instead, starting at $935.
Even at the highest price, The Guide is still far more affordable than Peloton’s bikes or treadmills. It’s hard to say if this pivot for Peloton will bring them back into mainstream relevancy, but at least we won’t have to pay close to $1,500 to find out.
