I’m thinking of getting my spouse a trendy interactive home fitness thingy for Christmas. Our kid out east just got a Peloton bike, so there is some heightened enthusiasm for such things in our house. I’ve heard my spouse talk about The Mirror, so that is where I might land.
So, I’m asking the SDMB community for any experiences, feedback, thoughts, or ideas of good competing products, for an interactive home fitness system.
Thanks!
My opinion, get the Bike. That Mirror is super-creepy and makes me think Big Brother or some other Sci-Fi lurking horror.
I think you have to think very carefully about what you are and aren’t getting, and what you’re paying for it, and whether you’ll use it. There is a use case for each where it’s a way better choice. But I would approach giving a gift of something like the Mirror very carefully.
It’s like $1500 up front, and it’s just a mirror without the subscription, which is another $50 or so for every month you want it to be anything. If somebody is going to use it frequently enough to make that worth it, it’s a super cool thing to have around. You’re paying for a gym membership, effectively, on a monthly basis, and you get to do whatever classes you want whenever you want at home on your schedule (I think - I guess some of them are on a live schedule).
In my individual use case, though, I’m certain that I just wouldn’t use it enough. Having it just sitting there on the wall at home, as opposed to being a big old building that you drive to and park and walk through the door and swipe a membership card and say hello and go do your whole routine, would be I think in my case very counterproductive, because I could just… not do it, and keep sitting in this chair instead. There’s no routine there. It’s not different enough from just Youtube or exercise DVDs, or some fitness thing on the Switch, for me. In theory I could always find some trainer to put on a screen to tell me what to do, and do it. The same thing goes for Peloton, but at least that’s always a bike. It is always a thing sitting there saying hey exercise on me a little. So for me, Peloton would be better because I’d be more likely to do the thing you have to do to make it worth it.
So, I guess long story short: the Mirror if the user is the kind of person that really wants to do frequent high intensity workout classes, for sure. It’s way more versatile and cooler, in my opinion. Peloton if you definitely want to get one of them, but aren’t sure how much use it will get, because I think spin classes are a little more appealing-sounding when you aren’t doing them.
Competing products: if I had several thousand dollars and the housing setup to do it, I would get Tonal. The added option of resistance training, for me, would mean it replaced not only the gym, but also a bunch of weights and bands and stuff that are otherwise taking a bunch of space. Only better if the user primarily wants to do resistance stuff, though.
I guess I deliberately didn’t offer any of my prejudices or assumptions upfront, because I wanted to hear what folks had to say. But, what the hey, here goes.
For us, the pricing isn’t a significant factor. My spouse used to have a personal trainer visit, but that was a while back and not on a very regular basis. They never really got into the gym or class thing, and bikes/spin were never something they took to. So, my leaning is to The Mirror. As it seems that the bike is just that, riding bike (in a variety of different tempos and resistances). Whereas the mirror suggests any of a variety of instructor lead full body workouts. Also, I don’t really like the idea of a bike taking up 8+ sq ft of floor space. Whereas the mirror, when not in use, is a mirror on the wall, yah?
If you are seriously considering Peloton, you might as well subscribe to Zwift - but you will also need to fit some power meter pedals to get it to work with Zwift - however the subscription is much less and also I would say that Zwift os pretty much THE online training tool for cyclists although there are other similar options.
The only disadvantage - and its a significant one, is that the only way of using resistance is to twiddle the resistance knob on the Peloton trainer - and that kind of takes away a lot from the experience.
Another option is to buy yourself a good home trainer such as TACX Neo and pair that up with Zwift - not cheap but the subscription is a lot less that Peloton online app and again it is pretty much the cycle home trainer nirvana.
If you already have a bicycle then you would be better off with something like a Wahoo Kikr or a Elite Suito. Using them will also connect you to a whole new world of riders and events where you can go out for a virtual ride anywhere in the world and race virtually against anyone in the worlkd similarly connected - you can even join a club and compete in virtual stage races - from time to time you also come across the full on pros, that’s when you start to understand your limitations.
The cycle is a monotasker. Take a look at the number of young pro cyclists in the prime of life who die of heart attacks.
IMHO, varied moderate exercise is a better idea.
I appreciate this information, but this sounds like athlete/competitive level stuff. We’re nearer the other end of the spectrum, think late-middle-aged gee we need to do SOMETHING to work out more.
I’m usually at the gym on a regular basis but since they’re closed up for the month I’ve resorted to free YouTube channels. Channels like HASfit or FitnessBlender have dozens and dozens of free workout videos that I’m not sure what something like The Mirror provides over them.
A lot of this stuff seems so fad/gimicky to me. High dollar fad/gimicky.
We got the Peloton and a Hydrow about a year ago, and actually have been using them quite a bit. I typically start with 15 minutes rowing and then 30 on the bike. It’s definitely a work out.
For us, even in the before times, we just didn’t get up and go to the gym where we had a membership. Having it right at home makes it easy.
We have a Peloton bike and love it. We do not have a mirror. Related to subscriptions and content - those are only as good as the sized of the user base and the financials of the company being strong enough to support continued development and delivery of content. I trust Peloton due to their track record. Mirror and other similar equipment providers are trying to mirror (bada-bum!) the business model of Peloton but will they succeed? Will there be the wide variety of content available that you can get with Peloton?
And of course with Peloton it’s not just the bike. A membership gets you a very wide variety of work-out classes - yoga, stretching, strength, cycling, etc. The newest version of the bike is built with features to encourage usage of the tablet for non-bike activities and there are new classes that get you on and off the bike during a class (i.e. cycling & strength class).
I freely admit to a bias towards Peloton. My wife and I are both big fans of our bike and the Peloton content. And at those price points we’re not going to own multiple pieces of connected equipment.
Thanks, MeanJoe, I wasn’t really aware that Peloton provided “off-bike” activity content. As for the available content with Mirror, from what I have seen it is sufficiently vast. ISTM, in today’s world, that there are unlimited people eager to create online content of ANY sort, and that there are endless buyers.
You are making something of a worngfooted statement there. The main reason any proffessional cyclists are dropping dead has been the use of EPOs which has been a doping problem for some years - they thicken the blood. When this is combined with very intense workouts involving dehydration especially but also mild viral infections - then yes it is an issue to be seriously considered.
However drug abuse in any specialism will make that activity more risky and especially so at world elite level.
This does not invalidate or even have the slightest reason for concern in a health adult - it really is at the very extreme.
As for it being a monosport that someone else commented on, well yes, but so is running so is swimming, so are many activities. Absolutely have variety if exercise is boring for you but often it boils down to what you like and how you can fit your life around it - cycling is one of those that it can be possible to build into your work life through commuting, along with running, and for some people this might be teh best way to fit it into their day.