Power Zone Max Power Profile Challenges Riders Aug. 7

Matt Wilpers Tests Four Power Zones in One 45 Minute Class

Peloton’s Power Zone Max Power Profile ride returns to the live schedule this Friday, August 7 at 6:30 AM ET/3:30 AM PT, giving riders a chance to test their fitness across four different power outputs in a single 45 minute class. Matt Wilpers teaches the Power Zone Max Power Profile ride, which trades the standard 20 minute FTP effort for a format that measures endurance, anaerobic capacity, VO2 max, and neuromuscular power in one sitting.

What the Power Zone Max Power Profile Class Measures

During a recent live class, Wilpers walked riders through why a single FTP number does not tell the whole story. He described four measures that make up what he called the fitness stack: threshold power, or endurance, is what most riders already track through their FTP test. VO2 max reflects effort sustainable for around five minutes. Anaerobic capacity covers efforts in the one minute range. Neuromuscular power measures a rider’s short, explosive output over just a few seconds. Together, these four measures are exactly what the Power Zone Max Power Profile class is built to test.

Wilpers noted that riders often show strength in some of these areas and not others. Some are naturally suited to longer sustained efforts, while others generate more power in short, explosive bursts. Testing across all four gives a fuller picture than a threshold number alone, which is the entire point of the Power Zone Max Power Profile format.

How the Power Zone Max Power Profile Test Breaks Down

The Power Zone Max Power Profile class includes dedicated test intervals for each zone, with Wilpers cueing riders to go as hard as possible for each specific duration. Afterward, riders can review their results as a graph directly in their workout summary, showing exactly how much power they produced at each interval.

That data can also be plotted on a power duration curve, a tool used across endurance sports to compare an athlete’s output at different time intervals and identify where their strengths and limiters sit. Riders who want to track changes over time can retest the Power Zone Max Power Profile format periodically and watch how their curve shifts as training continues.

Riders looking to preview or revisit the format ahead of Friday can find the original Power Zone Max Power Profile ride on demand in the Peloton library, though it is not labeled as a Power Profile class there. It’s listed simply as “45 min Power Zone Max Ride,” taught by Matt Wilpers and dated Saturday 10/07/23, so it’s worth knowing that title if searching the library directly.

Where the Power Zone Max Power Profile Ride Fits This Year

This class lands during what Wilpers has described as the second and final peak of his 2026 Power Zone periodization plan, a training structure he has been building out publicly since January. After a base building phase in the early months and a first peak in June built around threshold and VO2 efforts, August marks the hardest stretch of the year before the plan eases into an aerobic reset in the fall.

Riders following the plan can treat the Power Zone Max Power Profile ride as a checkpoint, a way to see how each of the four fitness measures has developed since the first peak. For anyone new to Power Zone training, it also offers a lower barrier way to see where their own strengths sit without committing to a full FTP retest. For the rest of what is on the schedule this week, check out This Week at Peloton.