Elliptical, Exercise & Fitness Articles

Reader email is one of the Treadmill Sensei’s favorite things here at the DOJO. I truly believe some of the best articles come out of questions sent in by you, my loyal readers. Today’s post is no exception.

Lisa is looking for a new elliptical and has come across one from Nordic Track. Let’s see what she has to say and let’s see if we can help her out. Take it away, Lisa.

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I think I’ve mentioned this before, but every so often a surprise shows up here at the DOJO and the Treadmill Sensei gets to check out a piece of equipment he hasn’t seen or done a review on before. About a week ago the guys unloaded a decent-sized boxed which has the label of “Horizon E900 Elliptical” pasted all over it and I was very eager to take a look at the unit…not eager enough to risk my own back unloading the elliptical from the large truck, but definitely eager enough to stand around and encourage those doing the lifting to do it a little faster.
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Ohiyo!

Here at the DOJO we get a lot of emails asking about the Icon Health & Fitness lines of treadmills and ellipticals. Icon is one of the largest fitness manufacturers in the world and is best know for budget priced equipment and so-so quality. You may have seen their equipment under one of the following brands: Proform, Nordic Track, Epic, Reebok (in the US…outside of the US Reebok is made by Smooth Fitness), Image, Weider, Gold’s Gym and a few others I’m probably forgetting. Overall their equipment seems to be cheaply made and for consumers looking to spend as little on equipment as possible because they won’t be using it in 6 months. Icon tends to tack on a ton of special features to help take the focus off the lack of quality in construction and components, and this is reflected in their often very short term warranties. Why support a project that won’t be used (or working) in a year?
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The Treadmill Sensei loves to check out new treadmills and ellipticals. It is one of my favorite things to do, both here at the DOJO and at fitness tradeshows like the Health & Fitness Business Expo and the IHRSA show. Speaking of the IHRSA show, a few of us from here will be there roaming the floor this week. If you see us, feel free to say “hi!”

Back to new equipment, at the Health & Fitness show a few years back, one of the coolest new technologies we saw for elliptical trainers was the Adjustable Width Technology(AWT) from Bladez/BH Fitness. Their patented new technology allowed users to adjust the spacing between pedals to accomodate different sized users. As a feature found on no other ellipticals, I thought this was a fantastic feature and wished it had come out years ago.

A lot of people are familiar with being able to adjust the angle of an elliptical’s pedals, and tons of ellipticals have that feature. However, one of the biggest issues with elliptical workouts, especially when you have mutliple users of differents sizes, is the distance between the two pedals. For some people a wider spacing is preferred, while others like their pedals tighter together. Poor spacing can cause foot numbness, as well as thigh cramps in extreme cases of bad pedal placement. Thankfully, the Bladez 850E Elliptical trainer has addressed this issue in outstanding fashion.
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When it comes to equipment made by Spirit Fitness out in Jonesboro, Arkansas, the Treadmill Sensei generally gets one of two questions. The first is usually from disgruntled Spirit dealers who are having problems selling this year’s lower quality Spirit equipment and generally amounts to “why aren’t you supporting Spirit equipment as much this year because I have a warehouse full of stuff that I can’t get rid of.”

The second question is from you, my loyal readers, who want to know how the “new” Esprit ellipticals are and whether or not you can trust product from Spirit Fitness with their recent drop in quality (long time readers of a certain Doctor’s website probably noticed Spirit’s absence from the “best buy” listings this year as opposed to last year when they were all over it – and the same went for my best buy awards).
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Tonight I am continuing my ongoing reviews of the brand new 2008 Sole Fitness Ellipticals and Treadmills. Sole has done an incredible job in their upgrades, which in the ellipticals consists mainly of thicker, sturdier tubing on their supports. You have no idea how great it is to see a fitness manufacturer who has found a near perfect design and then stuck with it, without making meaningless changes. Sole continues to produce some of the best award-winning ellipticals around.

The elliptical I want to single out for today is the 2008 Sole E95 Elliptical trainer. We picked our review model up by ordering it direct from Sole Fitness. With the current trend of some of the shadier retailers who like to use bait-and-switch and other tactics to bully you in to the wrong equipment (something I talked about in-depth recently) we’ve found the two best places to order your Sole E95 are at Amazon.com, Sole’s largest authorized distributor, or direct from the manufacturer, Sole Fitness, itself. These are the only two ways to make sure you are getting exactly what you order and the only way to guarantee that your warranty will be support. Luckily, you’ll be able to get the best prices online from them as well.

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This past month, the Treadmill Sensei has been able to track down a few of the 2008 Sole ellipticals and treadmills. The units are cosmetically a little different than models from the previous years, and some key components have been upgraded, but overall they are still essentially the same best buy award winning units from years past.

Today I want to talk about the 2008 Sole E25 Elliptical. For over three years now, the Sole E25 Elliptical has been one of the best performing, highest quality elliptical priced at under $1000. This year, Sole has done some nice upgrades to the machine while keeping it at the same fantastic price and allowing new elliptical shoppers a chance to purchase on of the smoothest, most natural feeling ellipticals on the market.
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Today’s review was actually written back in November when we received a number of SportsArt Fitness pieces in from a vendor in Arizona. The retailer was kind enough to let us borrow a few units for review since the Treadmill Sensei was having a bit of a difficult time in locating the ellipticals here locally.

SportsArt Fitness continues to be one of the leaders in quality and design for the fitness industry. It is fantastic to see SportsArt bringing that level of quality (normally found only in ellipticals priced in excess of $2500) to a more accessible price range.
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Today the Treadmill Sensei is going to continue with my reviews of the 2008 Sole treadmills and ellipticals. This time around I want to talk about the outstanding Sole E55 elliptical. This unit has been around for a few years now and Sole has done an excellent job with it. This year they’ve updated a few things but kept it almost exactly the same as last year. As with the other 2008 Sole equipment, this was a stroke of brilliance on the part of Sole management. Heck, when you’ve got a best buy award winning line of equipment, why would you change it?
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Today’s review has bummed the Treadmill Sensei out a bit. It’s bound to happen, but every so often a treadmill or elliptical is released just after we post our awards and misses out being included in them. Unfortunately, in this case, it is very likely the Fuel FE44 Elliptical would have won the best buy elliptical under $1000 Award with little effort.
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