Buying Guide - Elliptical Trainers

You can get all the benefits of a stepper and a treadmill with this unique, low-impact fitness machine. Ellipticals or crosstrainers, as they are often referred to, offer the benefits of cardiovascular exercise, without the high impact on your joints. The smooth motion of the elliptical movement works the large muscles in your lower AND upper body. By changing direction, incline and resistance, you will tone your gluteals (buttocks) and quadriceps (thighs) better than most other cardiovascular machines. It also effectively works the calves, hamstrings, and hip flexors.

What to look for when buying an elliptical:

• Make sure it is a sturdy built ellipticals.
• Offer a suitable stride length for all users
• Provide a smooth and quiet motion
• Allows you to vary your workout by adjusting resistance.
• Offers a selection of motivating programmed courses.
• Handgrips in front or along the sides so you can hold on for extra balance.
• Accompanied with a good warranty and service contract.

What kind of crosstrainer should you buy?

Your budget will largely determine which machine you will purchase. Crosstrainers are the most popular cardiovascular machine and vary considerably in price, quality, durability and the choice of console features. You should choose the one you feel most comfortable on and are likely to use most often.

What features should I look for?

To vary your workout and challenge yourself, the crostrainer should have a way to adjust resistance (either electronically or manually). An even better feature to look for is an elevated incline to work different muscle groups. This can be adjusted manually by the user or it can be motorised and adjusted on the console or by the computer. Also make sure the pedals have a good non-slip design. This is important since you don’t want your feet to slide off while trying to maintain a consistent pace during your workout. Look at the display, you may have a preference as to what is shown on the console. Most models will at least show speed, distance, resistance, watts and workout time. Also look for calories burned, degree of incline (if available), and heart rate (if available).

How much space do you have?

Different models have different sized footprints, so be sure and measure the area you plan to place it in. This will ensure that the model you want will fit. There are a wide range of both folding and fixed models. The most popular folding crosstrainer is the Vision X6200HRT whereas the most popular fixed crosstrainer is the LifeFitness X3 advanced.