Getting Fit on the Fly: Peloton Member Lauren B.

It can be tough to maintain a fitness program when you’re on the road–or in the air, as is the case with 31-year-old Peloton Member Lauren B. Yet Lauren, an active-duty Air Force special operations pilot, has proven otherwise, never wavering in her commitment to fitness.

Even though she’s frequently deployed stateside for a few days or overseas for a few months, fitness has always been part of her routine. “Working out, even if it’s just doing a quick 20-minute class before or after a flight, is such a good destressor in my life and keeps me going physically and mentally,” says the flight commander and pilot, who flies the MC-130H cargo aircraft. Plus, every year, she’s required to take an Air Force fitness test, and finding a workout routine she enjoyed and could commit to has been crucial in the 13 years she’s been with the Air Force.

But during a deployment in 2019, her second of that year, her fitness resolve tanked. “I’d go to the gym but not have a set workout routine that I followed or particularly enjoyed,” Lauren says. “I wasn’t seeing or feeling any results due to my inconsistency and lack of excitement for poorly planned workouts.” She also realized how much she missed sports and all that being on a team brought, including competition. Enter Peloton.

How the Peloton App Led to a Peloton Bike

When Lauren’s deployed, her days consist of a regular routine: eat, sleep, work out, fly and repeat, although not in any type of order. Being deployed means fewer distractions from life, which allows time to think. And it was during that deployment in 2019 that she began to realize how lost she felt in her fitness program.

She knew, though, that one of her fellow female pilots had a Peloton Bike at home and was using the Peloton App for rides and workouts while deployed. Lauren decided to take advantage of the free 30-day trial. While deployed, she used a stationary bike to do Peloton classes on the app. She also did Peloton Yoga classes with people she was deployed with and tried other classes on her own. “I started to work out longer with less roaming and confusion in the gym,” she says. “I began to look forward to my workouts and started seeing results, physically and mentally.”

She especially loved that many of the workouts didn’t require equipment, a key factor when she’s on the road. Although Lauren frequently has access to gyms when she’s deployed, the pandemic has changed some of that, as many gyms remain closed and some have changed their hours so much that they’re not open when she can use them. “We often fly late at night and then sleep through hours when things are open,” she says. So when her only option is to log a workout in her hotel room, she uses the Peloton App.

She was so hooked that when she would call home, she would rave about the Peloton workouts to her partner. And when she returned home in 2019, she had a surprise waiting: a Peloton Bike. “Knowing that I’m not one to splurge on myself, my boyfriend (now husband) surprised me with the Bike,” Lauren says. (Peloton offers a military discount, so the Bike came with free shoes and weights.)

Improved Fitness and a Unique Way to Connect

To say that Peloton has been a game changer for Lauren is an understatement. She’s now loving working out and tracking her progress.

Depending on the week, she generally rides at least four times and enjoys being able to use the app anywhere in the world, as long as WiFi is available. And when she and her husband are both home—he’s also an active duty military pilot—they’ll often ride together, Lauren on her Bike and her husband on his. Recently, they’ve even been taking Peloton core and stretching classes together after their rides.

Plus, she can now compete, turning on the Leaderboard and using others to push herself. “It makes me feel as though I’m on a team again with the high fives, trophies and constant encouragement from other Members,” she says.

Another added bonus: Lauren recently started adding sleep meditation classes into her routine. They’ve helped her sleep, a key skill for shift workers and people working odd hours.

Honoring a Loved One

Peloton has also given Lauren a unique way to connect with friends and family, whether she’s traveling or at home. They’ve coordinated rides to do together at the same time, created Tags to ride under together and are always recommending rides to each other. Lauren’s mom recently bought a Bike and now they can ride together too.

She also used Peloton to honor friend Captain (Dr.) KelliAnn Leli, her roommate from her freshman year at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

KelliAnn was a Peloton lover who used the app whenever she was deployed as an Air Force officer and doctor. In November of 2020, she was killed in a non-combat-related vehicle accident while deployed to the Middle East. In January, Lauren and about 150 others came together to do a live ride in KelliAnn’s honor, riding under the Tag #InHonorofDrKelliLeli.

It was an emotional day for Lauren. Her husband had deployed a few days after KelliAnn’s death, and the send-off was different as a result. “I knew the world had lost an amazing woman, and my heart broke when I thought of her husband and family,” Lauren says. “With my husband deployed, I found myself putting myself in their shoes.” To this day, Lauren and many other Peloton Members still ride under the Tag created for KelliAnn.

While Peloton has helped her connect with others and ignited her spark for fitness again, Lauren admits she still has days where she’s not motivated. When that happens, she forces herself to get on the Bike, even just for 10 minutes—and she’s always found her motivation again.

“That’s what I love about my Peloton Bike,” she says. “It’s there for me when I’m on a workout kick, it’s there for me when I’ve got only 20 minutes before a flight to get a ride in, it’s there for me when I’m out of shape and out of my routine to help get me back in shape, and it’s there for me to help return the favor to friends and family when they’re looking for somebody to ride with.”

Meet our female physician community, a group of inspiring frontline workers who rely on Peloton classes for dealing with stress.