The Life Fitness X5i Cross-Trainer - helping me lose that baby weight!
Written: Mar 28 '03 (Updated Nov 11 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Smooth, no impact riding elliptical machine with great technological features
Cons: The Cross-Train features don't beep, so you may miss them if you're watching Television
The Bottom Line: If you know you're disciplined enough to use it consistently, this is definitely worth every penny!
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| dramastef's Full Review: Life Fitness X5i Cross-Trainer |
Four years ago I went from a svelte 102 pounds to a whopping 169... in just nine months. No, I didn't develop some sudden addiction to Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream (okay, maybe I did, but that isn't where all the weight came from!). After my beautiful nine pound daughter was born, and once I set my mind to losing the weight, it was no problem... I stopped eating bad food, the weight came off.
Last year, I went from a very respectable 115 pounds to 163... in just nine months. After my beautiful nine pound son was born, and once I set my mind to losing the weight, I ran into quite the problem... I stopped eating bad food, the weight wouldn't come off! I'm not that much older!
Knowing that I didn't have time to run to a gym before or after work, not wanting to take any more time away from our kids, I started investigating a machine for the home and eventually decided upon and purchased the Life Fitness X5i Cross-Trainer.
The Hefty Price Tag, The Purchase:
Going to various fitness stores and visiting numerous websites, I kept coming back to one particular store in our area that sold the Life Fitness series. After a bit of negotiating, we settled on a price of... $3200. Being frugal-gal, I had a hard time with that one, but I to made it my Christmas Present and went with it. A mere three days after I gave my hesitant nod, I had the Life Fitness X5i Cross-Trainer sitting in my basement. Two boys came to set it up, and it took them a little over an hour. They gave me a quick how-to and left me to play with my new toy.
The Machine:
Assembled, the Life Fitness X5i Cross-Trainer is 350 pounds, 77" Long, 27" Wide and 62" High. It's not a little piece of equipment that will willingly give up dominance to any other exercise machine currently residing in your home. It has a very nice accessory tray, which can hold two bottles of water, a baby monitor, remote control and cordless telephone in it's recessed pockets. There is also a computer console, which is where the user picks their workout program, accesses their statistics, and monitors their progress.
The X5 and X5i elliptical cross-trainer models have what Life Fitness calls SelectStride technology, which is basically an adjustable stride length. At the very back of the poles the oversized pedals are on is a mechanism that allows you to release, lift and lock your position of choice into place. You can choose from an 18 inch walk, a 20 inch jog, a 22 inch run or a 24 inch sprint. So far, I've remained on position 2, the 20 inch jog. But, in playing with the other three positions, I can feel the burn in completely different places. Because the hand grips are attached to the leg poles (for lack of a better word), your upper body movement is proportionate to the chosen stride.
The "i" in the X5i model stands for interactive, meaning that this particular model allows you to keep tabs on your heart rate in order to maximize your workout (from a fat burning or cardiovascular perspective). Our cross-trainer came with a Polar Digital Heart Rate Monitoring Chest Strap which is worn right under the breasts. There is a very slim band attached to an adjustable elastic strap. Once you have a reading on your heart beat, it communicates to the Cross-Trainer.
The computer console allows you to keep track of four user's statistics. Before I begin my workout, I press the My Workouts button until I come to "Stefanie". Then I press the Enter button, and then the Up or Down buttons until I come to the Workout Program I wish to do that day. The first time I entered my name, I also entered my weight and age. If I choose to concentrate on one of the fat burning programs, I also choose my target heart rate, referring to the handy-dandy chart right on the console. There are also two Level buttons, allowing you to raise or lower the level of resistance during your workout, from Level 1 to Level 20... shamefacedly, I admit that I haven't yet raised it past 2. Lastly, there are two buttons called Quickstart buttons, allowing a user to jump right into one of two workout programs, the Cross-Train Reverse and Cross-Train Aerobics.
The LED display constantly displays the time you've been working out, the time you've been in your zone (if you're in that particular workout program), your heart rate, your speed in Revolutions per Minute, your heart rate percentage, miles traveled, calories per hour, and total calories.
The 12 Workout Programs:
Heart Rate Control workouts include a Fat Burn, which pushes you to keep your heart rate at 65% of the maximum you entered, increasing resistance if your heart rate falls too low, and decreasing resistance if it climbs too high; a Cardio workout which adjusts the resistance to maintain your heart rate at a higher 80% of the maximum you entered; a Hear Rate Hill workout which adjusts resistance to simulate three progressively steeper hills; a Heart Rate Interval workout which adjusts resistance to simulate climbing the same hill over and over; and a Extreme Heart Rate workout which raises your heart rate between two extreme resistance levels.
Cross-Training workouts include the Cross-Train Aerobics workout which prompts you (on the LED screen) to concentrate on pushing with your arms, pulling with your arms, go with the legs only, go faster, slower, backwards; and the Cross-Train Reverse workout which has you pedal forward for five minutes, then backwards for two.
There is also a Sport Training workout which is meant to simulate outdoor training with a wide range of high and low levels, an EZ Resistance program which starts slowly and very gradually builds resistance and four Classic programs: the Hill, the Random and the Manual programs.
Exercise Equipment or Glorified Coat Rack:
Herein lies the crux of the situation: how many of us have bought a piece of equipment such as this, only to later turn it into a very expensive coat rack? Don't raise your hands, you know who you are! I have found that with the Life Fitness X5i Cross-Trainer, once I'm down the stairs, I'm good to go... it's just making my mind up, once I've put the kids to bed, that it would be better to work out for an hour (watching T.V.) than sitting on the couch for an hour (watching T.V.). I did great for the first month, and then fell away during the Christmas holiday season. About two weeks ago, I realized summer is fast approaching Michigan, and if I'm going to dare don a bathing suit, I'd better get my butt in gear, so I'm shooting for five nights a week (which I've done these past two weeks).
My thoughts and Recommendations:
I love the Life Fitness X5i Cross-Trainer... I won't lie and say I'm upset my husband insisted on it. I love the oversized pedals, the ergonomic handles, the exceptionally smooth motion, the relatively quiet ride (that doesn't make me have to turn up Buffy too loud when I'm working out!), the console that tracks my progress, both current and cumulative.
While it's hard to justify spending three thousand dollars on welded metal with a computer stuck to it, if you make yourself use it, it's worth it's price tag. I'm able to stay home instead of going to a gym, track my progress, change my workout, target different parts of my body, and lose that baby weight!
p.s. email me once a week or so, just as a friendly reminder to keep with it!
Recommended:
Yes
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