Who needs a gym membership?
Written: Feb 13 '05
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Reliable, low noise, good workout
Cons: Cost
The Bottom Line: If you want a Precor in the home, why spent more money for pointless extras?
|
|
|
| sneddren's Full Review: Precor EFX5.17 |
I have never been a fan of Precor type machines, but my wife uses them almost exclusively. We both have gym memberships but due to the demands of work, my wife didn't have a lot of time to go to the gym regularly. So a few months ago, we went to a local fitness store and checked out the Precor machines. The goal was to see whether the Precors available for home use were close enough to the gym machines and if so, whether the cost would make it worthwhile to buy one and cancel the gym membership.
The short answer is that we bought the Precor, my wife quit the gym and she's thrilled with the result.
This Precor machine is indeed close enough to gym quality to make it a real alternative to a gym membership, if you go to the gym to use these machines exclusively. I still have my gym membership because I do weight training as well and the Precor obviously doesn't handle that side of the equation.
In terms of the Precor machine itself, here's the rundown: It's got a fairly small footprint, so it doesn't take up too much room in the garage. The biggest problem with the delivery and setup (which was done by the store we bought the machine from, due to the complexity of the setup) was finding a power outlet to plug the Precor into. After that, it's pretty much a breeze. This machine is fairly quiet when in use (a big plus) and it's 100% reliable so far. The heart monitor functions required an add on, which we didn't get, and there aren't many pre-programmed routines. It's really just a manual setting, a gluteal setting and a weight loss setting. I honestly can't tell much of a difference between the last two, but the machine obviously does change incline automatically during the course of each routine. If there's increased resistance, I can't discern it.
That's not to say this machine doesn't give a good workout-it does. After a half hour, I'm sweating up a storm and can feel the effects of the exercise. My wife, woman of few words that she is, simply states that she loves having the Precor in the house and thinks it's a great alternative to going to the gym, especially for those who have limited time. It allows her to put in a half hour of exercise early in the morning, late at night, or whenever she's home and has a few spare minutes.
There's really not a lot to say about the functioning of this machine. Like I said above, it has very few functions other than the two pre programed routines and the manual setting. That's it. It also tells you how many strides you've done, strides per minute, calories burned (how it knows this, I have no idea) and total time elapsed/time left. All the basics but not much more.
It also doesn't have the moving arm grips. We asked the salesman about this and he said that it really doesn't help any and it's just an added expense. I figured that if he was willing to say that at the risk of losing a higher cost sale, it must have some truth to it.
This machine provides a reliable, smooth workout with limited options. It's not a bells and whistles piece of equipment, but I don't think those extras add much anyway.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
sneddren
|
|
Reviews written: 36
Trusted by: 6 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.