Everything You Need to Know About Peloton Strive Scores

Peloton recently announced and released a new feature called the Peloton Strive Score. I’ll be honest – when I first heard about it my initial thought was do I really need another metric to track?

But once I started reading more and actually trying it out, the more I’m becoming a fan of it and the potential it has.

In this post I’ll share more detail about what the Strive Score is, what it even means, my experience with it.

What is Peloton Strive Score?

Peloton Strive Score is a new feature that grades your performance on each workout.

The score is determined by how much time is spent in each of your 5 heart rate zones – so the higher your heart rate your is, the higher the strive score will be.

Heart rate zones can be set 2 different ways – Peloton can give you recommended ones based on your weight and height, or you can enter your own.

To get a strive score, you’ll need a heart rate monitor that can pair with the bike, tread or app.

I like to use a Scosche, but you can also use this hack to get your Apple Watch to pair with the original Peloton Bike (if you have a Bike+ it should auto connect)

Tip: check your Peloton weight in the bike or app every few weeks, especially if you’re losing weight!

I realized that the Peloton app doesn’t sync with My Fitness Pal, WW or Healthkit, so even though I’d been weighing myself daily Peloton still had my super old weight. This can make calorie and heart rate zone calculations off.

How Peloton Strive Score Works

When you go to workout on the bike, tread or digital app, you’ll notice the strive score shows up automatically on your screen with calorie and heart rate information.

The Strive score will start at 0 at the beginning of the workout and then will increase as the workout goes on.

The higher your heart rate gets, the higher the score will be. You can also click on the strive score bar and have it hide if you don’t want it to show.

The goal of the strive score is to give you an individual goal for each workout type so can measure your efforts.

Peloton says the strive score is not meant to be competition between yourself and other members – just something for yourself to measure your workouts.

My Experience with the Strive Score

So far I like the strive scores and how it reminds me of Orangetheory Splat Points. I’m one of those middle of the pack riders that will never get to the top of the leaderboard with my output, so it’s kind of nice to have another metric to focus on and measure my own personal workout.

It’s still early on so I haven’t really seen how the strive score shows up to show my average workouts, though. I hope the strive score average changes every few months so as your fitness improves you have up to date goals.

I’m currently pregnant so my strive score for workouts now will definitely change in a few months when I’m doing workouts postpartum.

I also hope that Peloton sticks to keeping this an individual goal and not making it into a competition like output on the leaderboard.

I’ve done a few strength classes so far and haven’t seen strive scores show up, but Peloton’s hinted at making others strive scores visible in blog posts.

Update: Found where this info is shared!

During workouts, the leaderboard will still be based on your output, but on the right you’ll notice a new color line that shows up next to your name and any one else that is using a heart rate monitor.

The color line represents where you are for heart rate at that time. As your heart rate changes, the color of the line will change to reflect that zone.

If someone on the leaderboard is also using a heart rate monitor you can see where they currently are as well.

You could also click on their leaderboard name to see what their actual strive score is.

Update: It’s been a few months since I’ve been using the Strive Score and I really like it the more I use it.

One of my favorite things about it is that now I have a tread, it’s easy for me to compare my tread and bike workouts (since output wouldn’t really be comparable because of the different metrics).

Related Post: Everything You Need to Know About Peloton Powerzone Training

Related Post: How I’m Using Peloton During My First Trimester, Second Trimester Update

What’s a Good Peloton Strive Score?

I’m often asked “what’s a good Peloton Strive Score?” and that’s really hard to say because it’s so individualized!

The Strive Score will depend on your individual efforts and heart rate so there really isn’t a good or bad Strive Score.

Once you get a few workouts in you’ll start to see an average Strive Score so you’ll know how to compare to your usual efforts – a Strive Score higher than your average means you worked harder, and lower means a lower intensity.

Since Strive Scores depend on your heart rate and maximum heart rates, it varies by person and it’s best not to compare to other people.

It’s meant more to be an individualized training metric.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, Peloton’s new strive score is an interesting way to keep people motivated to work harder in their workouts.

I think there’s a lot of potential with the new feature and it’s a nice alternative to just having ouput as a focus.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Strive Score Available for Digital Users?

Yes! The Peloton Strive Score is available for the bike, tread and digital app. If you don’t see if on your screen try updating the bike or app.

I’ve noticed with the outdoor runs I’ve done that I can’t seen my Strive Score until I complete the workout and go into my workout summary.

What Do I Need to get a Strive Score?

To get a strive score, you need a heart rate monitor that can pair with your Bike, Tread or App.

I like to use my Scosche heart rate monitor, but you can also use this hack to get your Apple Watch to pair with the original Peloton Bike.

How is the Strive Score Calculated?

According to Peloton, Strive Scores are calculated based on your heart rate and birthday to create your 5 heart rate zones (you can also enter in your own if you have custom ranges you want to use instead).

The Strive Score is then calculated based on how much time is spent in each of these 5 zones – kind of similar to Orangetheory’s Splat Points. Generally the zones are:

Zone 1: up to 65% of max Heart Rate (score is multiplied by 1) – this is an easy recovery

Zone 2: 65% to 85% of max Heart Rate (score is multiplied by 2) – this is when you’re starting to sweat

Zone  3: 75%-85% of max Heart Rate (score is multiplied by 4) – breathing is getting heavy

Zone 4: 85% to 95% of max Heart Rate (score is multiplied by 8) – really heavy breathing, can only do short bursts with this heart rate.

Zone 5: 95%+ of max Heart Rate (score is multiplied by 8) – your max effort

Peloton sets Zone 4 and 5 at the same amount because they don’t want you to overexert yourself.

What’s the Point of a Strive Score?

The Strive Score can help you determine your workout effort.

Once you’ve done a few workouts, an average strive score will show so you can use that to determine your effort – if your strive score is above your average, that means you worked harder during that workout.

If it’s lower, it might mean you took it a little easier.

Can I See Other People’s Strive Scores?

I haven’t been able to see anyone’s Strive Scores on the app or in the strength classes on my bike, but in a blog post by Peloton they hinted at it being possible.

I also remember when I opted into using strive scores there was an option to have my score visible to others.

Wha’s a Good Strive Score?

Strive scores are completely based on individuals so there’s no good or bad scores.

What’s the Maximum Strive Score?

There isn’t a maximum since it’s all based on your heart rate, the intensity at which you workout and the length of the workout.

I’ve been using Strive Score with longer Power Zone Rides and Endurance Runs and keep getting new high scores all the time!