Elliptical, Exercise & Fitness Articles

Today here at the DOJO we received in a pair of ellipticals which had been completely trashed during the course of shipping. It doesn’t happen often, but some of the freight companies have the ability to screw up a steel ball-bearing. They’ll drop machines off docks, skewer them with fork lift blades and generally mess up equipment.

When that happens, sometimes the ellipticals or treadmills will come back to our shop to see if they can be repaired to be resold by the manufacturer. In this case the freight company brought us two New Balance 9.5e ellipticals beyond our ability to repair.
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Ohiyo!

I recently received a note from Kevin Mast at Matrix Fitness. As anyone who has ever been on a Matrix elliptical or treadmill knows, they produce some of the top equipment on the market today. These guys know what they are doing.

Kevin sent over a brochure for their new elliptical machine which features an incline! That’s great news to anyone who wants to kick their workout up a notch or two. In the past this feature has only been found on Precor ellipticals such as the Precor 546, or on a couple of models from Icon Fitness where the technology has been licensed from Precor. Read More

Well, the Treadmill Sensei is both tired and very happy right now. You see, Mrs. Sensei and I took care of my ever so perfect grandson today. Baby Raymond was born this past weekend and we are all incredibly glad he decided to come out and join us. It was touch and go there as my daughter never dialated more than 3 centimeters so the doctors did a c-section on her late Friday evening. Both baby and mommy are doing well, and grandfather Sensei is very proud.

In an effort to try and finish up the reviews from the Ichi-Ban awards, I decided to log on late and do a quick elliptical review for the Eclipse 2100HRA.
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Ohiyo!

The Treadmill Sensei hasn’t done many Smooth Fitness equipment reviews at this point and I wanted to rectify that. We just received in a fantastic Smooth CE 7.4 Elliptical here at the DOJO and I knew that I needed to review. You see, since 1997, Smooth Fitness has been producing some of the best fitness equipment on the internet. I say “on the internet” because Smooth sells its product direct to consumers online. There are no real Smooth Fitness dealers aside from places like Amazon. One of the great things about that is it lets Smooth control its product and the quality of its distribution. They don’t need to worry about shady dealers selling out of warranty product or rippping off their potential customers. It was the 2008 Ichi-Ban Best Buy Award Winner.
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Ohiyo!

Today the Treadmill Sensei is a very happy camper. You see, even tho Mrs. Sensei doesn’t really like it, I play the Lotto every day and today I won almost $600! Very exciting stuff. Not fitness related but still cool. Drinks on the Treadmill Sensei tonight!

We get a lot of email here at the DOJO about a wide variety items. Below you’ll find one I get asked about fairly often — elliptical stride for shorter owners.

Sensei – You’ve got a great blog…very helpful to a new buyer like my wife and me! We are trying to find the perfect elliptical for us, but most of what you rate has a longer stride…but I’m only 5’5″ tall and my wife is 5’1″.
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The Treadmill Sensei loves to save money…I wouldn’t say I’m cheap (although my wife might!), but I do like getting the most for my dollar. Unfortunately, with ellipticals and treadmills it’s tough to really save money and get a great machine, especially when you’re looking for a unit under $300. Like I’ve said before, there is no magical machine that is going to feel commercial and cost $250. I wish I could tell you otherwise but I can’t.

When you’re looking at an elliptical in the extremely low price point what you’re looking for is stability and sturdiness. Read More

Ohiyo!

Happy nearly New Year to you, my loyal readers. Things have been hectic here at the DOJO and we’re expanding over where we were last year. Thankfully, Icon Health & Fitness has been great at marketing and selling its crappy low-end equipment. Their expansion has fueled ours! As a business man, I love the fact that people are buying bad equipment which will end up in our shop for repairs, but as a member of the fitness community I hate the fact they are roping people in to buying their crap.

Luckily, there are still a few companies out there putting out some great equipment. Horizon, Smooth, SportsArt and Sole are all great and I love the fact I don’t get their units in the DOJO very often at all. Read More

Ohiyo!

Today may be one of the best days of the Treadmill Sensei’s life…or at least the best in a very long time. The reason for this great day being my wife’s family has finally vacated our house! We dropped them off at LAX this morning at 6am and, for the first time in almost a month, I can look forward to a hot shower tomorrow morning. The good times are here again!

Let’s talk about some fitness equipment!

Smooth Fitness is one of the fastest growing fitness companies in the USA and produces some of the finest equipment on the market. They started out a few years ago, much like Sole Fitness, as a repackaging company for Spirit manufactured equipment. Since then they’ve moved on to produce their units overseas. After a bumpy year or two, they’ve really nailed high quality equipment for a great price. Smooth has very quickly become the #1 manufacturer of high quality fitness equipment in the $1000-$2000 price range because of that high quality and spectacular customer service.

Here at the DOJO we get a lot of Smooth units here to take out and install at customer homes. We very rarely get units in to do repairs on. These machines are built to hold up to pretty heavy duty workouts and are low, low maintenance. I would be more than fine giving one of their units to my mother-in-law without fear of being nagged to death with problems from it!

Last year we reviewed the old Smooth CE2.1 and it was a bit of an under performer. The unit itself was very solidly constructed, but its all-too-short 16″ stride was a deal breaker for us. For an upper end elliptical to have less than an 18″ stride was, I thought, a bit of a let down. Luckily, Smooth has listened to the rumblings and, with the release of the 2008 Smooth CE2.1 Elliptical, have increased the stride length to an excellent 18″. Finally, the Smooth CE2.1 feels as comfortable and as “smooth” as its name. The new stride design features one of the most natural feeling elliptical motions on a unit and Smooth’s rollerless technology is still one of the quietest designs on the market. The silent drive on the Smooth CE2.1 is very cool for those who live in apartments or hate the loud noises some lower quality ellipticals made during workouts.

Their ellipticals in general are good machines with a great feel. The crossbrace system they use for the front of their units helps to produce a very sturdy workout platform. Add to that the pivoting foot pedals and proper pedal distance and you have an incredibly comfortable elliptical on your hands…and your feet. The Smooth units are some of the only rear drive ellipticals in this price range which will not cause your feet to fall asleep during longer workouts. The addition of the longer stride to that mix makes the Smooth CE2.1 and obvious choice for anyone looking for a best buy elliptical for under $1500 with the unit coming in at just under $1300.

The Smooth CE 2.1 Elliptical features a nice stride length, 9 programs, pulse grip heart rate monitoring, and supports reverse motion workouts, a feature not often found in non-commercial ellipticals. Their 3:1 upper body resistance is a nice added feature for those who want to get a little additional upper body workout during their elliptical exercise.

It is great to see a manufacturer actually upgrading a unit with needed features and without increasing its price. The new 18″ stride Smooth CE2.1 is set to become one of the top rated ellipticals in its price range. For that reason the Treadmill Sensei gives the Smooth CE2.1 Elliptical 4.5 out of 5 golden buddahs.

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Compare the Smooth CE2.1 Elliptical and save by going factory direct.

Smooth CE2.1 Elliptical Specifications
Stride: 18″

**2015 UPDATE** The Smooth CE2.1 elliptical is no longer being sold. If you are interested in a Smooth elliptical trainer you can check out all of the latest models here.

The Treadmill Sensei is currently very happy with the fact he’s doing this blog. The reason being, it is Christmas time and my wife has a lot of family coming over to the house. A LOT of family. At last count there were 11 members of her family staying with us and a countless assortment of children over almost every day. I like people and I love kids but I do believe I have hit my saturation point…and knowing that I have at least 12 more days of a crowded house isn’t doing anything to ease my mood.

Luckily, I have my reviews to fall back on. Whenever I need an excuse to run away from the family I loudly proclaim that I must get back to writing my website reviews and get to disappear for a blissful hour of quiet in my home office. Read More

The Treadmill Sensei is still recovering from the madness of the recent 2006-2007 Ichi-Ban Awards for the best buy treadmills and ellipticals. Now, I’m taking a couple of days off from the DOJO in order to get all of the detailed reviews done and up here on the Treadmill Sensei website.

The Merit 710E Elliptical was awarded the best buy under $500 award this year. Merit is a fairly new brand, but is coming from one of the biggest and best players in the industry, Johnson Tech. If you’re not familiar with that name, Johnson Tech is the parent company for the top rated Horizon, Vision and Matrix lines of equipment. Read More