If you’re looking for a workout machine that will give you a great cardio workout at your home and help tone your legs, lose your weight and build your muscles, then an elliptical cross trainer is a good choice.
But if you are looking in the market there are a lot of different models, and types of Ellipticals are available with different price tags, and if you are a first-time buyer then the first thing you read online reviews.
This will give you an idea of what other people are saying about the different machines on the market. But there is a problem with the online customers giving your their perspective reviews.
So the question is how do you choose the right one for your health?
Well, don’t worry if you are here, then don’t worry you don’t reach with another website. In this post, we are going to describe the complete Elliptical Cross trainer buying guide which helps you choose the right elliptical trainer for your home gym.
Okay, now time to see the ultimate guide but before we are going to see let us just take a look at what are the Elliptical machines and what was their role of this in your health perspective.
What is an Elliptical or Cross Trainer Machine?
The elliptical cross-trainer machines are also known as the X-trainer or elliptical trainer or elliptical or cross-trainer. These are pieces of stationary exercise equipment which is used for walking, running, or stair climbing, without causing pressure on the joints and knee.
This means the Elliptical cross trainer is a cardio workout machine that decreases the risk of impact injuries and is used to target both the lower and upper body of the use, in a single word this is used for full-body workouts.
Yeah, I knew some of you asked me Is this machine is totally risk-free?
Well, my answer is no, this has machines that have bad effects or injuries but at a minimal impact. That we are discussed later.
Guys just look at the history of an Elliptical trainer, based on Wikipedia research it first entered the health and fitness market in the 1990s and is invented by Precor.
Types of Elliptical Cross Trainer Machine
Now time to speak about the Elliptical cross trainer types, based on the location of the motor or “drive.” the Elliptical is categorized into 3 types available in the market.
Types Of Elliptical Machine
- Rear Drive Elliptical: This is the Oldest design
- Front Drive Elliptical: This is the second generation design
- Center-Drive Elliptical: This is the recent generation Design
Let’s briefly describe each of the Elliptical.
Rear-Drive Elliptical
The real drive elliptical machines are ordered designed machines which is family design in 1995 by the Precor, but this type of machine is still very effective and widely used in today’s generations.
As per the name you can understand why this machine named liked that. Because the flywheel is on the back side this is called a Rear Drive elliptical cross trainer.
Generally in this type of cross trainers, you get long pedal arms between the drive wheel and the moving handrails.
As I told you this machine is a very effective machine and smooth and gives a stable range of motion for cardio workouts, this is happening because of the rear-drive design.
If you’re looking for longer, more natural riding for your cardio exercise then you can choose the Rear drive elliptical cross trainer. And also this type of machine takes up a small area in your room.
Front-Drive Elliptical
Come back to the front-drive elliptical cross trainer, here you get the flywheel on the front side. This is the second generation elliptical cross trainer machine which looks very stylish.
Here you get the roller and the pedal in the back position. As you have seen that the Rear drive elliptical offers you horizontal incline motion workouts but in the case of Front Drive Ellipticals you got vertical incline motion.
If you are looking for an exercise elliptical machine which is offering you a closer level of ground workout with very smoothness, then you can take the Front drive elliptical cross trainer.
Center-Drive Elliptical
And the last one is the Center drive Elliptical cross trainer, usually, this type of cross trainer drive wheel is at the center and pedals are in the middle of the flywheels.
This one is the modern design elliptical which looked a rectangular shape and is a very compact design, that easily fits in a small room.
Here you get a stair climber incline that is focused on the full-body cardio workout.
Under Desk Elliptical
This type of elliptical is not on the list, An under-deck elliptical machine is a Small & Compact Elliptical cross trainer machine.
This type of machine is designed because while you have a very small room and think you are doing exercise there and while you are the thing to do workout a while working.
Here the working principle is similar to full-sized models and this is basically the word for lower body workouts.
This machine is mainly saved space and for improved cardio health by increasing the user’s heart rate.
Why Purchase an Elliptical Cross Trainer?
A big and good question is coming to my mind Why you are buying a cross-trainer?
Well, the answer is here. Let’s see…
The elliptical is a health and fitness machine that is usually used for fitness gains and efficient fat burning. As part of this you, this machine is an exercise machine which is offering non-impact cardiovascular workouts to you both your lower and upper body.
These Elliptical machines you can do from light to high-intensity workouts that are based on the preference of resistance and fitness of your health.
If you’re comparing the Elliptical with the Treadmill and Recumbent bikes then the Elliptical will be the winner in case of injuries.
However, in the case of the calories burning, the treadmill is burning more calories at the same amount of exercise. But no doubt that the cross trainer offers better safety and full-body workouts.
These are the reason you have to buy an elliptical rather than a Treadmill or a Recumbent Bike.
Apart from this, there are a lot of other health benefits that offer an Elliptical cross-trainer.
What are the Benefit or Advantages of an Elliptical Cross Trainer?
An exercise machine is always your best friend at your gym. This will takes care of your whole body and get them fit get and building muscles and improve strength.
Except this is improve your whole body condition with a short period of time if you’re doing a regular exercise.
Well, the following are a few benefits that you get from your best friend’s Elliptical machine.
Get a Full Body Workouts
As I told you before that the Elliptical cross trainer is a Full body workout machine which means this machine targets your both upper body and lower body.
However, when the pedals are focusing on the low body workout at the same time the handlebar is targeting the upper body workouts.
This is a very easy cardio machine to target your entire whole body muscles. I want to give you a suggestion that you have to exercise at the minimum resistance levels so that you can improve your muscles.
Weight Loss & Calories Buring
Well, the Cross trainers are great exercise machines that are for burning calories and weight loss. This will happen because they target multiple muscle groups on your whole body at the same time.
But if you’re looking for an exercise machine which is only targeted for calories burning then I should be recommended you to take a treadmill, because it burns more calories in the same amount of time.
Move Backword Option
The elliptical is a very effective workout machine that offers a backward and forward-moving option to hill your muscles and increase your workout effectively.
Target your Problem Body part and Improve the strength of core body parts
As you know The cross trainer is working for full-body workouts as well as it targets those body part which is very weak and makes them very stronger.
Because this machine is targeting multiple muscle groups, it is easy to possible to target your core part and improve on stability of your body.
Low Impact Workouts
As compared to the treadmill the elliptical is a much more risk-free injuries machine. Here you can be relaxing but this doesn’t mean that in the cross trainer you will not be injured. Here you can have injuries but the chance is very low.
Health Benefits
This machine is a very helpful machine for your health. Yeah, we knew that basically we use the elliptical for losing weight and burning calories but there is a hidden benefit for health.
If you’re doing a regular workout on these machines you got several health benefits such as boosting your body stamina, Boosts Cardiovascular Health, Reduces High Blood Pressure, strengthening bones and increasing lung capacity, get relief from joint pain.
Very Quite Machine
Generally, these machines are very silent until they are damaged or any problem occurs to the machines. Even you can do your workout if someone sets or sleeps across that room.
Buying Factors Of An Elliptical Machine
Now we going to see the buying factor of an elliptical cross-trainer. Before we see the factors lets me tell you that there is some factor that has a must in the machines. You can see below
Must Haves
Adjustable incline
Well, the adjustable incline feature is a very important feather when comes to a cross trainer, this feature allows you to adjust the incline at your comfort level and also helps to increase your workout intentional levels and enhance motivation.
Smooth Elliptical Motion
There is another feature of an elliptical that you have to look that the smooth riding on the elliptical. This means when you are doing exercise on a cross-trainer you feel very comfortable riding.
This feature indicates that your movement pattern of an Elliptical cross trainer is smooth for both forward and backward directions.
Natural Movements
No matter how many times you are workout on the elliptical cross trainer, you have to feel very comfortable and natural running.
Natural movement means you feel you are walking on the surface. That will be motivated to you.
Let’s assume that you doing cardio for 30 minutes after that you feel unusual stress on your knees or hips, This is very bad.
To avoid this your Elliptical machines must have a smooth and natural movement.
Adjustable resistance
When you looking for an Elliptical cross trainer you much have a resistance knob where you can adjust the resistance of the machine. This will allows you to increase your difficulty level to put your maximum on the machine, which will get a quick result.
When you are doing a HIIT trainer exercise these features will be helping you to get a quick and effective result and get maximum benefits to your health.
Forward and reverse motions
Select an Elliptical cross trainer which has both forward and backward direction motion. Generally, these features are available in all the cross-trainers.
These features will help you to add a variety of possible challenges to the workout to get effective results.
Quiet operation
When you buy an Elliptical you have to listen to the machine operation at the low level and high intension al level, and mark that is this cross trainer is running quiet or smooth? If it has then selected that one otherwise chooses the other machines.
Well, a well-designed elliptical cross trainer should be silent and have very smooth operations.
Stride Length
On the market there of a lot of Elliptical machines are available which have 21 inches,20inches, and 14 inches stride lengths. But the 21 inches is a good stride length for your machine.
You have selected a good cardio machine for your home gym which has a good stride length so that multiple people can use this in your home, not go with an average.
Upper Body Comfort
While you’re workouts for such a long period of time then your body needs to rest especially for the upper body, so you have chosen a machine that has an adjustable seat so that you can rest and do exercise even while you are seating.
As well as for upper body comfort you have good arm handles which feel very comfortable in your arms.
Out of these features, there a lot of other features have which machine your buying decision is great.
Let’s look at the other features:
Set your Goal
Before you are going to buy a Cross Trainer you have to decide why you can gonna taking this cross-trainer. If you set your goal and priority then this will help to make your decision very easy.
Set a Budgets to Buy
The second thing is that you have decided on your budget. Just look, if you have a mind that you buying a cross-trainer that is under 20000, 25000, 30000, you narrow down your research which a save lot more time.
After deciding your budget you are looking at the Elliptical under that budget, Listen which may not have some features because you are going to buy the product on a budget.
Safety & maintenance fetaures
When comes to an exercise machine then the safety feature is most important because they are moving so you need safety features on the products such as the safety key and locking system.
You can take an elliptical for your home, where children are available, as you knew they are very excited to know and use a new product. So in case they touch them they will be injured, so avoid the child from the machine or take a Cross trainer which comes with a child safety locking system.
As you every product will be damaged at a certain period of time, in the case they need to repair, which is a very difficult task. To avoid this task you have to maintain this cross trainer regularly.
While talking about the maintenance you have to look at the warranty of that product as well as check the return policy. This will help to replay your damaged parts of the machines.
Power Types
Check the power input types. There are two types of elliptical machines available in the health care market, one is self-powered and the other requires the main connection(AC or DC).
Both are good for your health. Based on your requirement you have to choose one of them.
Let’s make it easy while taking check the other types of machines’ features and looking at your health requirements and making your decision. That is so easy.
Easy to use console & Connectivity
Speaking about the console feature this will have operation quick keys and the LCD.
Where the LCD helps to show you time, speed, calories, distance, and pulse rate during the workouts and the quick operational keys are helps to operate the machines easily.
Connectivity feature means having the music system for entertainment purposes and USB and AUX input features. This is courage in your workouts.
Making sure your search console is easy to use means you can easily use the key functions.
Preset Programs
A preset program is a set of pre-programmed workouts that is stored in a machine. Here the workout is already decided just you have to do them. This will help to workout you without a personal trainer.
Also, these pre-set exercise programs can make a workout more varied and less boring.
Adjustable Seat
Having adjustable seat is good for your body, this will helps to rest your body. Weil you running for a long period of time you need have to rest.
An adjustable seat means you can adjust your seat according to your height, and comfortability. On the market, there are two types of mechanisms available one is horizontal adjustability and another is vertical adjustability.
Keep in your comfortability depending on the height you have.
User Weight
The user weight is deicide the machine’s holding capacity. On the market there are a lot of different weight capacity cross trainers are available.
Just remember in the first paragraph I told you that you have to decide your goal if your goal is to lose 140kg then you have to tack a machine that has more weighting capacity than yours. (exactly 25 kg more weight capacity).
According to the brands, they are always told that always take an exercise machine which having a buffering capacity which is usually 25kg.
Heart rate sensor
Always choose an Elliptical cross trainer which comes with a heart rate sensor, this will help to measure your burning zone.
Portability and Mobility
Portability and mobility are two features that help to save space in your room and move the machines easily. So make sure you have to take a cross-trainer which comes with wheels ( this will help you to move the machines very easily) and has a space-saving design.
Before you Buy testing a test drive
Well, the last Elliptical Cross trainer buying factor is also important. This told that Try Before You Buy, which is helping to understand, what the machine is, and are comfortable with it, is quite enough. You have to try everything that the machine has and after that match your expectation. If it matches then congrats you got a good Elliptical machine for your cardio exercise.
A final word from the Top10gadgets.in
Buying an Elliptical Cross Trainer is not easy, here you invest a lot of money, if you are selling a bad machine then you are lost investments.
Well, this is your best friend in the fitness workout so you have to best which gives the best features as well as the workout. So makes sure you are reading this completing article and buy the best one for you.
If you have not found the best one for you under your budget and brands then here are some articles that have the best elliptical cross trainers which help to find the best one for you.
