Peloton Bike on Carpet: Solutions for a Better Workout (with Photos)

Ah – Peloton delivery day!

It was exciting yet scary to start something so new.

But when the delivery guys expressed concerns about our new Peloton bike on carpet, I became a little concerned.

I knew exactly which room I wanted our new exercise bike to live in even before we put the order in and this just wasn’t something I thought about.

But after figuring out how to stabilize our Peloton bike (even with thick carpeting) using a couple of little tricks, the workouts we did felt much better.

Keep reading to learn:

How to deal with a wobbly Peloton on carpet
How to use an MDF board or plywood to stabilize your Peloton bike
What thickness and size MDF/plywood you should choose
Can you use a yoga mat under Peloton
How to choose the best mat for Peloton on carpet (without using a board)
Our top pick for carpet bike mat

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Peloton Bike on Carpet: Solutions for a Better Workout

I’m not going to lie – I didn’t like working out on our Peloton before we fixed the wobbling issue.

But once we did, I found myself working much harder during my workouts.

Here’s what our Peloton space looked like when we had our bike upstairs in a carpeted room.

It was a super simple setup that included:

Peloton bike
MDF board
Bike mat
Dumbbells (I do NOT recommend adjustable dumbbells for Peloton workouts)
Kettlebells (Peloton doesn’t offer any kettlebell workouts – we do ours through Onnit)
Fan

The bike was on the second floor of our home in the North-West corner of a well-lit room.

More ways to enjoy your Peloton:

Peloton Wobbly on Carpet

If you’re having issues with your bike being stable on your carpet, plywood or MDF is likely the best solution for you.

When we got our bike, we had just put in brand new carpets and stability was an issue during workouts!

You can see just how lovely the carpet is in the image above, haha.

Honestly, it’s part of the reason I didn’t enjoy using the bike from the start – although the bike weighs about 135 pounds (61 kg) and feels REALLY solid, I just didn’t feel comfortable with all of the swaying going on!

But one day, my husband had a brilliant idea and went to purchase a piece of MDF cut to the EXACT same size as the Peloton bike mat!

The Peloton mat dimensions are 36″ x 72″ by the way 🙂

We had the bike upstairs for about a year and a half on our MDF board before we gutted the laundry cabinets to make room for a small gym space!

The bike mat MDF board combo gave us zero issues and significantly improved the wobbly Peloton on carpet issue!

Personally, I found that using the Peloton bike mat alone was NOT enough for the stability I wanted on carpet.

What MDF or plywood thickness should I get?

We went with 3/4″ and had zero issues.

It was the perfect little platform to elevate our bike out of the carpet!

Here’s a photo of my husband using the bike for the first time ever – since the Peloton bike mat was still on its way, we used one of the carpets they use for protecting locations’ floors in film.

Not pretty but it worked until the bike mat finally showed up!

If you want to add a little extra weight to your Peloton platform, I’d recommend keeping your weights on it.

Depending on how heavy your dumbbells are, it could improve the wobble of your bike just a touch more.

We have three Onnit kettlebells ranging from 18 lbs to 72 lbs and that sucker wasn’t going anywhere, haha.

Best Mat for Peloton on Carpet

If you really want to try and use your Peloton on the carpet without the extra stability of an MDF board or piece of plywood, look for a bike mat with a good weight and thickness to it.

This bike mat is available on Amazon and measures about 0.3 inches thick with a pretty solid weight of 3.79 pounds.

My husband still has trouble unclipping, haha.

Can you use a yoga mat under Peloton?

You can but I would NOT recommend it.

Unless you have a high-quality mat like a Manduka or Lululemon (although I wouldn’t recommend damaging these beautiful mats by using them under your bike), your yoga mat will likely experience wear and possibly even tearing over time.

Peloton spin classes can be super intense and honestly, my cleats have left punctures in my Onnit workout mat when I’ve stepped off the bike and onto it in order to switch out my cycling shoes for runners during BootCamp classes.

I currently have a Lole Prima yoga mat I picked up at Costco and can’t imagine that under my bike.

It’s just too sticky and thick and as a result, I could see the bike being wobbly on here like it was on our carpet.

An exercise mat like this one is absolutely 100% worth the small investment.

While we had it upstairs, we created a small gym/toy room space for our Peloton.

It was a nice little way for this mama to get her workouts in while my toddler played.

More Peloton tips:

Peloton on Carpet Solutions for Stability

To lessen the wobble you experience on your Peloton bike, consider the following:

purchase a 3/4″ MDF board or piece of plywood to use under the bike
top your board of choice with a quality bike mat
add your favorite dumbbells or kettlebells to the outer edges of your new bike platform for a touch of extra stability

This is exactly what we did to improve our Peloton on carpet experience and I hope you find it as helpful as we did!

Happy cycling, friends 🙂