Houston, We Have a Workout: Watch This Peloton Ride With Astronaut Jessica Meir - CNET

Peloton instructor Robin Arzón just took fitness out of this world and into space. Her new 20-minute class features astronaut Jessica Meir, who was broadcasting straight from the International Space Station when the ride was recorded. The class is available for free on Peloton’s YouTube channel or through the Peloton app.

The ride starts with Arzón introducing Meir, who shows riders her view of Earth from the space station’s cupola, the dome-like observatory that many astronauts use to photograph Earth. Meir remarks during the ride that the view of our planet is magical and “never gets old.”

Meir joins the class on an exercise bike that resembles a minimalist, high-tech unicycle mechanism with no seat or handlebars, anchored to the wall, called the FERGO, or Flight Ergometer. In microgravity, pushing down on a pedal would launch an astronaut backward to the ceiling. To stay in place, Meir wears a wide waist belt secured to rigid side struts, with her cycling shoes clipped into specialized pedals with straps.

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Meir talks about the importance of cardiovascular activity and “living happily in isolation” in a short video during her prior stint on the ISS in 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdown. There, she and fellow astronaut Drew Morgan showed off an earlier model of the bike, called CERVIS (Cycle Ergometer with Vibration Isolation and Stabilization System), as well as a T2 treadmill for running that uses a harness and bungees to counter near-weightlessness.

A wild fitness ride through space

Even if you don’t ride, it’s worth watching the class to learn what it’s like aboard the ISS. Meir addresses questions that anyone interested in fitness or space (or both) would appreciate: the importance of strength training for astronauts and the changes the human body undergoes.

“We need the loading on our muscles and our bones to keep our muscles and our bones healthy,” says Meir. “If we didn’t have that, we’d lose a significant amount of muscle mass and also bone density. Up here, when you come into microgravity, your bones start leeching calcium just because they’re not being loaded.”

Meir says that astronauts commit 2.5 hours a day to exercise, spending a lot of time on the ARED, or the advanced resistance exercise device, doing everything from squats and deadlifts to bench presses and sit-ups. The machine, which she describes as an “engineering marvel,” can go up to 600 pounds.

There were other fun moments in the video, including when Meir takes a drink of water by making a blob in midair from her water pouch and gently flinging it into the air before catching it in her mouth, a moment that seemed to genuinely delight Arzón. Meir also talks about using a “space toilet” (consisting of a “big pump” that sucks everything down), and how the ISS recycles up to 98% of its water, including processing urine. She quips that “today’s coffee is also tomorrow’s coffee,” or as astronauts like to say, “from toilet to tap.”

Exercising with astronauts

CNET Senior Editor Laura Michelle Davis, an avid Peloton member who frequently chooses Arzón as an instructor, found the ride both instructional and inspirational.

“The ride was full of information about the effects of microgravity and the importance of lifting weights when you’re just floating around,” Davis said. “It was also full of tech and engineering marvels, livestreaming a conversation from hundreds of miles above Earth’s surface to a Peloton studio in NYC and eventually appearing on my bike monitor at home.”

Physical activity is a common talking point for astronauts. Sunita Williams was the first astronaut to run an entire marathon in space, syncing it with the 2007 Boston Marathon and completing the race in 4 hours and 24 minutes. Astronaut Tim Peake was the second astronaut to do so, running in the 2016 London Marathon, which he completed in 3 hours and 35 minutes.

For people on Earth, the Peloton video was a chance to get some reps in while learning a little bit more about the ins and outs of living in space.

“It’s always easy to get lost in the experience when doing a Peloton ride,” Davis said. “This ride kept my brain active, pushing me to think about what it’s like to live (temporarily) in space and how astronauts’ bodies have to adapt. It felt like my own intergalactic journey.”