Last week, Peloton’s stock price peaked at 600% of its value six months ago. Back then, no one was selling a used peloton bike. This morning I saw four for sale in my Facebook marketplace app, and there’s about to be a lot more.
I’m not against Peloton. I program it for one of my clients who has one at home. The bike even covers a few of the reasons people don’t stay in shape. It’s accessible (maybe too accessible), It’s simple (anyone can bike right here, right now), and it tells you what to do. But the problem is that it’s an “it,” not a he or she.
Where all equipment falls short is the fact that it’s just equipment. We don’t have to answer to it. We won’t feel bad if we ghost a machine.
I’ve seen some great garage setups; hell, I even have one, but without a compelling reason to do work in it, garage gyms collect dust.
Here’s an alternative.
This past weekend, one of my clients was in Memphis for a wedding. She was going to skip her workout because she was out of town. Instead, I told her to get on her computer at 6:30 am on Friday morning. She did, and we spent 25 minutes on video conference, working out, and talking about the food choices she was going to make that day.
No equipment.
No gym.
Nothing. Just a person who will be up at 6:30 and waiting to see you.
Because that’s how your internal reward system works, you’ll go because you have accountability. You’ll return because you leave feeling better than when you went in. If you do that enough, you’ll gradually become someone who prioritizes your health over telling stories as to why you don’t.
And we’re all guilty of that.^ I’ve been too.
Most of us don’t want to write. We just want to be writers.
Most of us don’t want to work out. We just want to have the stuff so we could work out.
Equipment is rarely preventing anyone from doing the work that needs to be done.
