Easy to Use, Lots of Variety
Written: Mar 04 '03 (Updated Mar 06 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great for every type of person looking for a good work out.
Cons: Price
The Bottom Line: Overall, I would highly recommend this to anyone (athlete or not) who is looking for a great exercise machine that can afford this price.
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| tiggerrrrr's Full Review: Precor EFX546 |
For those of you who are not sure exactly what the elliptical machine is, the best way to describe it is a cross between a stepper and a Nordic Trac. Now I do have to explain this further because I really don't enjoy either of those machines, but I love the elliptical. The reason why I compare it to the stepper is because that's what a lot of people call it when they first see it. Your legs do go in an up and down motion almost like you are climbing stairs, but it is easier to stick with for 30-45 min than the stepper that I know a lot of people give up on after a few minutes. I compare it to the Nordic Trac because your legs go in a smooth, fluid motion and it is a non-impact machine. It is better than the Nordic Trac in my opinion because it just flows better, basically I guess I'm saying it takes less coordination. On the elliptical machine, it is almost like you are going up steps or jogging (so I guess you could say a combination of a treadmill also), but you have support under your feet the entire time which is why no impact is encountered. It does still give you a work out though because you are still making your muscles move (even with no resistance) giving you the aerobic benefits and if they are moving against resistance you are gaining the muscle building benefits. You can also choose to go forward or backward (not as hard as it sounds) to work different muscles and give you variety so you don't get bored. You probably can't read a book, unless it is large print, but you can watch TV (and even read the closed caption) and flip though magazines to look at the pictures while working out. I think it is a good thing that I can't read a book while doing this because I tend to get more involved in what I am reading and slow down my exercising. When you get on the machine, you can chose to do a quick start or you can enter your age, weight and length of time you would like to work out. While this is not 100% accurate, it is more accurate than the machines that do not ask for that, but try to tell you your calories burned.
Who this product is suited for:
Everyone!! Really, I think the Elliptical Machines are the best machines for people ranging from the physically fit to the just getting started. The type of person that this machine is probably better for versus other forms of exercise: treadmill, running, aerobics classes is the person who is working their way back from an injury or wants to be cautious as far as impact exercises. The elliptical trainer is great because you are not causing a jarring impact on your body (knees, ankles, hips, shins) like with the other forms of exercise mentioned. You are still working various muscles depending on the incline and resistance (calf muscles, quads, hamstrings, hip flexors, gluteal muscles). I played sports in college and studied to be an athletic trainer. This machine was highly rated when evaluating aerobic exercise machines in our gym. It gives a lot of exercise options with low injury occurrence.
How has the gear held up over time?
I do not actually own this product, for me it is too expensive. I have used it at 5 different gyms, one in college, one at work and at three local YMCAs. I cannot say how long the machines had been in the facilities, but they were seldom down for repairs. Compared to the treadmills, bikes and steppers, they were operating the most often. When repairs were needed (and this could have been from misuse, common maintenance or actual repairs that were needed) the machines was usually only out of order for a day or less, so it seems to me that they are not a hassle to keep up.
What do you love or hate about it?
I love the fact that it is low impact and that you can get a good workout over a long period of time with out a high chance of misuse injury or repetitive jarring injury. I had shin splints for a period of time and this machine was great to use at that time.
I didn't really find anything that I hated about the machine. Some elliptical machines have levers/bars to move with your arms while you are using them, that is not something that I prefer. But this model does not have them, so I can't say I didn't like that about it. If you are interested in getting the full body work out and are concerned that you are not using your arms, try doing curls, presses or punches with light weight dumbbells while using the elliptical, I prefer this over the arm bars on some machines.
One thing that I view as a good feature, but I would say that was frustrating to me is the heart rate monitor. You grasp your hands on the handle and the machine is suppose to read your heart rate because of the sensors that are on the handles. Great idea, but this did not always work for me. I don't know if it was the particular machine that I was using (I'm inclined to believe this is the cause) or that they are not very accurate on any of the machines. I recall it happening on 2 machines that I used. Your hands are not supposed to have moisture on them (I don't know about you, but if I'm working out - I'm sweating) when grasping the sensors. Also, I didn't think that the reading was very accurate compared to when I took my own pulse. This is not a concern for me, but it's the only bad thing I can think of. If this is a feature that you are definitely interested in, I would look into what type of warranty is provided for the sensors on the machine or read other reviews of people that actually owned the machine to see their opinions.
While using the machine at the Y, some unsupervised children decided they would play on it. One little boy was about 10-11 yrs old and he decided it would be fun to see how fast he could make it go. The wheels that move along the track were actually coming up off the track and I thought that could be dangerous. Obviously, unsupervised children who don't know how to use it shouldn't be. I don't think that it would normally come off the track but he had the resistance as low as it could be and was going faster than anyone would normally use it. However, even though he was using it irresponsibly, it still did not break on him and worked fine afterwards so that speaks well for it.
Something else that I love about this machine is the fact that you can change so many things to vary your work out.
Resistance: you can change the resistance from nothing to the point that you would almost have to be a body builder to make it move.
Incline: the incline can be changed from level (no incline) to hill climb. The highest is not so high that it's unusable, but you will definitely feel it if you work at that height for very long.
Programs: you can choose different programs/courses to 'go on'. From gluteals, crosstraining, interval, weight loss and manual (where you change the incline as you go rather than following a selected pattern).
Information: while you are working out, you can see total calories burned, calories being burned per minute, the degree of incline you are at, your heart rate, which muscles are being targeted (which can be different if you are going backwards), which resistance level you are at, total strides and strides per minute and time.
Size:
This is not a small, slide under your bed, type of exercise machine. You definitely have to have a large amount of space to put it in. According to Precor's information, the dimensions are: 80" long, 30" wide, 62" high and weighs 230 lbs. Definitely not something you can easily carry to up or downstairs. If you are wanting a good, durable machine that has several good features and you have the space, this is a great machine. If you are looking for a machine that you can hide in a corner somewhere or stash away easily when guests come, this is not the machine for you.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
tiggerrrrr
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Member: Carla H
Reviews written: 21
Trusted by: 2 members
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