elliptical: shopping and buying

I am a reflective writer.  I wait to write until I see the big picture on most topics. This post is a good example. We elliptical shopped the weekend of 1/6-1/8. We bought the elliptical on 1/9/12. It was delivered on 1/13/12.

This post appears in the middle of a set of three. The first post was on how I incorporated it my routine. The last post was on heart range.


BACKGROUND:
Youngest must get at least 30 minutes of cardio EVERY day as part of her treatment plan.

The elliptical is our fall back plan for the days she doesn't have gym, isn't ice skating, isn't swimming, isn't on her bike.

I pause right there to think about training one's brain that at least 30 minutes of CARDIO is a normal part of daily life from childhood on to adult life. Not hours of practice. 30 minutes of cardio.

I continue.


SHOPPING:
We started by looking at a local bike shop which carried a selection of personal use elliptical (based on gym quality elliptical) equipment.

We did look at box stores and box sports store and the like after educating ourselves at this store. We tend to buy quality and wanted a machine that was hassle free, made to last, from a store which had full service available. We quickly realized we did not want a box store elliptical. The price range is huge. The box store ellipticals are under $1000. The personal use (based on gym equipment) are in the $2,500+ range.

The man we worked with at the bike store is the one who goes to all the trade shows and decides which brands/models to include in their show room. They feature about a dozen machines from three manufactures. We made three trips to the store before we bought.

Youngest is 5' even. My husband is 6'. When we started looking we thought we needed a machine with adjustable stride. This greatly reduces the options available.  On our second trip to the bike store, putting youngest on different stride lengths, we realized she did not need adjustable stride. She was fine on standard lengths. [When we walk with her (whole family, on vacation in Washington DC for example) she has no problem keeping up with all of us, even though she is shorter.]

So when we took out the adjustable stride factor, then the other factors all had to do with me and not youngest.

One of the brands has kept the same design in all their years of manufacturing. This design dramatically moves the foot/ankle as the machine is used. It is more like being on a bike. When I walk I take small steps to avoid rolling over the length of my foot in an exaggerated way. This elliptical seemed to do just that - move the foot in an exaggerated way. When my husband researched it, there seemed to be a thought process that this exaggerated movement also put the knee at risk for part of each step. I have the potential for HUGE metatarsal issues and knee issues. I avoid flare up/injury/problems at all costs. I live each day with NO pain and NO problems from these two areas.Any problems from these areas will translate up my body to create further lower back issues. I live each day with NO lower back pain and NO lower back problems.  I keep it that way. We did not buy that brand of machine.


BOUGHT:
The machine we purchased was a S7100 Suspension Elliptical Trainer by Vision.

Suspension means the foot stations are suspended from the machine and do not run on a track.

We are able to adjust both the intensity and the incline of this machine.

The machine is entered from the back and has support frame on each side. This support frame is out of the way of our hands when using the machine, but is available for getting on and off.  So, if youngest is feeling dizzy, she has something to hang on to in getting off. I have something to hang on to when getting on and off every time (I have an inner ear problem on my right side and I am UBBER careful about any kind of injury every day).

There is a chest strap the youngest puts on (to read her heartbeat range) every time she uses the machine.  Middle and I use this too. Husband uses the hand grip to check his heartbeat from time to time.

When the machine was delivered, we had the beeper disconnected. So as the buttons are pressed, the machine makes no noise. The beeper was LOUD. The machine itself is nearly silent when we are using it.

Because we bought it from a locally owned shop, we have excellent support with this machine. They are there for us - service, questions, special needs. If we had not picked the correct machine for us, it was returnable or exchangeable for 30 days.

We did by the thick pad to go under the machine as it is on carpeting.

TV:
We have an extra TV we added to this room. The TV sits on a counter straight on/ahead of the elliptical. I had a box made to go under the TV to bring the screen up to perfect eye level. It is very important to have proper positioning. I understand this extremely well. Having eyes at an angle causes head to be at an angle which translates into potential head/neck/shoulders/back problems. Problems can translate up or down the body from any out of line/positioning area.

We bought a Roku box for this TV. The box was $100 at Best Buy. There is a $80 version available also. We already have Netflix Instant (we do not rent DVD's, we watch Netflix by accessing through wii or xbox3 or computers).

My husband could not believe the mental difference having something to watch made to his elliptical time. He uses it for 30 minutes every day. 30 minutes with something to watch flies.

If you have been around here for a long time or have read it all, you might remember that my last year of weight loss (with my original weight) I spent an hour at the gym, 5 days a week, on the treadmill watching CSI Miami reruns from 1-2pm before I picked up carpool each day. They might have been reruns to everyone else, but they were new to me and made the hour fly (even though I was stuck with commercials).