Elliptical Buying Guide – How to Choose Wisely

Are you looking for an elliptical buying guide?

This is where you can find my new, and revised, guide to buying you new elliptical.

buyers guideElliptical trainers or, as we best know them, elliptical machines (or just ellipticals) are probably some of the best cardio exercise machines out there today.

Why?

It’s because there are so many benefits to using an elliptical for cardio exercises.

The way that the machine is designed lends to its ability to helping the body boost its cardiovascular and respiratory capabilities, ultimately helping it, well, function better. Not only does the cardio help condition the body, but it also helps support the body’s natural fat burning capabilities.

So, you can’t really rule out an elliptical as a potential exercise machine when it has benefits like that—I mean, you just can’t! If you are interested in getting an elliptical machine for yourself, you’re pretty much in luck, since there are a lot of ellipticals on the market today.

Though, should you get an elliptical over something like a treadmill (ref.) (ref.)?

Well, that usually depends on a few factors, which usually pertain to what you’re looking for in a cardio workout suited for your body type.

The other factors depend on the elliptical itself, something that you can usually find out in a review or two… or what’s known as an elliptical buying guide.

Elliptical Buying Guide – Introduction & What You Should Know First

Well, all right…. So, how do I start looking for my elliptical? And, what’s this elliptical buying guide that I’m hearing about? Can you tell me what’s in an elliptical buying guide in the first place?

Well, a lot of people do have difficulties starting to look for their elliptical.

And, that’s perfectly fine.

elliptical buying guide - women at gym

Though, to help eliminate many of the problems that people have when searching for one, they may need an elliptical buying guide to help out.

And, we can also tell you about the elliptical buying guide. An elliptical buying guide is more or less as it’s implied—a buying guide to help you shop for, well, ellipticals. Many of the buying guides seen on the net help people decide what type of elliptical they may want by listing the factors that may influence their buying decisions.

Buying guides pretty much help people make their final decision on ‘big’ items like an elliptical, making it rather important to look at one before you buy in the first place.

A typical buying guide provides advice to help you make better buying decisions. This usually involves considering factors like price, usage, type and even the type of person that may be using the product—or, in this case, the elliptical.

To provide you with the information that you need about potentially buying an elliptical, we’re going to talk more about buying an elliptical to create our own elliptical buying guide.

If your are tight on space, learn about folding ellipticals here >>

How Much Should You Spend – The Price Does Matter

That sounds great! So, can you start by telling me how much I should spend on an elliptical? Does price really matter?

elliptical pricingWhen it comes to shopping for an elliptical, price can matter as much as it doesn’t matter.

In other words, it’s pretty situational.

While you can spend conservatively on an elliptical, most resources recommend to get an elliptical with excellent build quality and features… and those ellipticals cost quite a bit in the first place.

You can still budget around getting a solid elliptical.

To start, the price of your elliptical is more or less based on how you’re going to use the machine. If you’re planning on using it regularly, to provide an example, you’re likely going to need a machine that costs a lot more than a machine that’s just built for sporadic use.

People who actually use their elliptical trainer on a consistent basis will need machine that costs more—it’s unavoidable, since the quality of an elliptical more or less correlate with its price.

So, if you buy an elliptical in the $1,000 price range, you’re going to be getting a machine that’s guaranteed to withstand the wear and tear of daily use.

A Word Of Caution

So, what about the quality of an elliptical? Should I be looking out for that, according to your elliptical buying guide?

warningAs we mentioned before, the price of an elliptical can influence quality—in a big way.

If you get an elliptical in the $1,000 to $1,499 price range, you’re guaranteed to get something worth using with your family on a semi-regular basis. If you have people using that machine more frequently, like at least twice everyday, you need to graduate to a higher price point to accommodate the higher load of use.

Using price as a barometer of sorts shows how the build quality of an elliptical pretty much increases the more you expect to spend on one.

Remember that these exercise machines are designed for various types of mostly cardio-centric exercises—and, as they say, you can’t properly do cardio with a light or poorly built machine!

Best Performance

Speaking of exercises… what type of elliptical should I look for, when it comes to performance? What’s the best type of elliptical for a better performance during workouts?

That’s a good question!

You usually know when your elliptical is performing well when you workout and that same machine isn’t causing you any problems.

It operates smoothly and it doesn’t impede your workout.

So, when you’re looking for an elliptical, that smooth performance is something you need to keep in mind.

The types of ellipticals out there can also affect performance. Front drive, center drive and rear drive ellipticals all serve the same purpose, though their designs can set their overall performances apart from one another.

Front drive ellipticals and rear drive ellipticals usually allow people to center their weight on the front of the machine, as either design calls for the machine’s drive axle to sit at the front or the back of the machine, respectively. This positioning influences the operation of the machine, much like the varying positioning of drive axles in center drive ellipticals influence the performance there.

If you can, it’s best to test each type of elliptical before making a concrete decision on the type that you feel may work best for you on a regular basis.

In fact, that’s the main point behind using an elliptical buying guide in the first place—to help you make an informed buying decision over an elliptical.

Get more information & my latest recommendations here >>