Recently Peloton released their new gaming options to all users. Lanebreak, or Lane Break, is a series of “music inspired workouts” that incorporate simple gaming and point collection into short 5-25 minute rides. The rides use your cadence, or pedal speed, and resistance as controllers to a multi-lane virtual riding course. Over the course of the ride, various power ups appear in different areas and create motivation to put down some watts or match a specific cadence.
Comparing lanebreak vs classes, both can create a solid workout. Especially if you have trouble pushing yourself into the zones that instructors suggests, the gaming mechanism means that you are missing out on points by slacking or being slightly out of a zone. Similar things happen for the start and end of each power up section, where in classes it is easy to let up a few seconds early, doing so on in the virtual game will leave points on the table.
Unfortunately there is no live leaderboard or social aspect yet to lanebreak. At the end of your workout the point total is summarized and you are placed on a leaderboard, but if you are motivated in classes by how you are comparing to your previous best or others currently riding, this motivation will be absent in the game. If you want to do Lanebreak with friends, you will need to wait.
Is Lanebreak a Better Workout than Peloton Classes?
After riding more than a dozen lanebreak classes (levels?), I can confidently say that they offer just as good of a workout as the classes. Choosing the right skill level is a big part of this, since an expert level requires higher total resistance to collect power ups and correspondingly requires lots of power output. Similarly, by choosing to push in the higher of the lane options (often a power up will exist in two different lanes, with the higher one offering more point bonuses) leads to a better workout. At the end of sessions the gaming rides had similar total outputs, and sometimes more, than the same length tabata and power zone classes.
Where is LaneBreak in Peloton?
To access Lane Break you will need to have a Peloton Bike or Bike+. The gaming offering is not available to mobile only subscribers, in part because the game play requires feedback from the bike on resistance and cadence. If you are wondering how to get lanebreak on Peloton, it should automatically be there so long as your bike is connected to the internet and receiving updates.
Even if you are used to taking classes on a Bike or Bike+, if do not pay attention to the announcement banners on your bike then you might have missed the Lane Break roll out. To get to the game options, you need to click on the “More” tab at the bottom of the home page screen. From there Lane Break shows up next to the options for “Just Ride” and “Scenic Rides”. Once you click into Lane Break it pulls up a new interface and you can select your lane break level or ride.
Each ride or level is summarized by the playlist that it corresponds to. For now all the levels are relatively short, with 5 minute up to 20 minute sessions and makes for a nice alternative to classes where the only 5 minute options are cool-down and warm ups.
Does Lanebreak Count as a Ride?
Yes, Lane break rides show up as workouts in your account summary and add to your total count toward century or mile stones. If you are going for a milestone, say 100 or 1000 rides, a Lane Break ride will count towards this goal. They will also count toward any weekly or daily streaks that you have going. If you want to extend a streak easily, see our guide on what to know to extend a Peloton streak.
When it comes to counting Lanebreak vs. classes rides, Lanebreak is likely to get you to higher overall numbers. Each level counts independently, so if you are doing the same 5 minute level 6 times in a row trying to get a perfect score, it will count as 6 independent rides.
Some folks, who view themselves as purist gate keepers of arbitrary numbers, will argue that Lane Break should not count towards your ride totals. Similar arguments have been made around warmups and cool down rides, that they are so short and should not count towards totals. It is a silly argument since the milestones do not actually get you anything other than a promotional t-shirt (for 100 rides) and online clout. Even so, if you are motivated by the numbers switching over to Lane Break will help boost them as it makes more sense to string together multiple 5 minute levels than it does to continuously do 5 minute warmup classes.
Is Lanebreak Available on Treadmill?
Currently there is no comparable offering for the Peloton Treadmill. Peloton marketing materials make mention of “Jump into a gamified workout experience.” and there is no doubt that if the response to Lanebreak is good that they will continue developing more gamified workouts. The tread may make sense, but look for other workout options that start to integrate more leaderboards and point scoring as they start testing what people really respond to.