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Spirit Fitness has been around for over 25 years in the fitness industry. They have always been known as a company that produces a "Best Buy" product. They offer a lot of product, at a very aggressive price. The first two models within Spirit's line up, XE 195 and XE 295, are what we feel are the best machines on the market within their price class. These machines offer good quality components, good stability, excellent biomechanics, and outstanding warranties.
How Spirit sets themselves apart from the competition:
- 20" stride length - Last year Spirit was the first to increase the stride length within this price range. Being that most people are using these machines as a jogging, hiking, running machine ... the longer stride feels more comfortable
- 2 Degree Inward slope - Spirit has angled the pedals that you stand on a 2 degree inward slope. A very minor change than the competitors but offers a world of difference. The idea is that it will reduce ankle and knee stress.
- Adjustable Foot Pedal - To accommodate people of different preferences, you can adjust the tilt or angle of the foot pedal. A very simple design that doesn't require any wrenches to adjust but very smart. This feature also reduces numb toe effects and sore Achilles tendons, common occurrences on other elliptical machines. This feature is found on all models
- Safety Lock program - All machines when not in use will be stuck in their hardest resistance. This is a child safety feature so they can't move it. This feature also helps the user get onto the machine without the pedals slipping under their feet.
- Aggressive warranty - 5 years parts warranty on the 195. 10 year parts warranty on their 295 & 400 !!
- Contact heart rate and wireless Heart Rate on all models!
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The XE195 is Spirit's base model offering many of the key features found in their highest end models. Machines offers pitched inward pedals, adjustable height pedals, smooth 20" stride, contact heart rate, wireless heart rate, interactive heart rate programs, and cooling fan. Parts warranty on the machine is 5 years.
Our Delivered Price: $1295.00
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The Spirit XE295 offers oversized tubing throughout the machine. This increases the stability and "tightness" of the machine. Adjustable resistance trigger is built into the moving handlebar. The console is also upgraded offering a tri color display. The flywheel is a little larger than their base model which offers more momentum giving it a smoother ride. The warranty jumps to 10 years on all parts.
Our Delivered Price: $1495.00
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The XE400 offers incline which will change the pitch of the stride automatically while in use. Changing your stride throughout a workout is certainly a good thing. What most people are concerned is if it has more moving parts, the more there is to go wrong. You will see a few different companies try this design, however, Spirit is the only one to stamp it with a 10 year parts warranty. Adjustable stride allows you to hit different muscles in the legs throughout the workout.
Our Delivered Price: $1895.00
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Elliptical machines and Biomechanics:
Straight talk about Elliptical trainers
There is a lot of hoopla in the fitness equipment industry concerning Elliptical Trainers and which one has the best Biomechanics and Ergonomics. You’ll also hear terms like “Plantar flexion” and “Erector spinae rotation” and “Ulnar deviation”. We at Spirit feel you shouldn’t have to have a degree in orthopedics to buy an Elliptical Trainer but you should understand the words Biomechanics and Ergonomics. Here are the official definitions:
Biomechanics: The study of the anatomical principles of movement.
Ergonomics: (from Greek ergon work and nomoi natural laws) The study of optimizing the interface between human beings, and the designed objects and environments they interact with.
Simply stated Biomechanics is the study of how your body moves and Ergonomics is the study of how to build a machine that moves like your body does so you feel comfortable using the machine. For an Elliptical Trainer this means it should have a smooth, continuous foot motion, an Ellipse pattern (The pattern that your foot travels during exercise) that is level and simulates walking or running. If you look at the Elliptical from the side while someone is using it you can see the ellipse pattern. If the ellipse is tilted, or not level, this could cause knee strain and make the Elliptical machine feel bouncy or unnatural. The angle and position of the footpad during the ellipse pattern is also important as is the distance between the footpads. Some manufacturers believe that the closer the footpads are the better. We have found that is not exactly true and later will explain why.
So what makes an Elliptical trainer ergonomically good? It really comes down to if you feel comfortable during your entire workout while using a particular Elliptical. An Elliptical that is not designed properly (Bad Ergonomics) could case pain or injury to your body; particularly your knees, ankles, feet, hips and back. This is not always evident if you only try the Elliptical for a few minutes in a store showroom. The real test is when you do a full workout of at least 20 minutes. This is when the difference between a good Elliptical and a bad one are found. Thoroughly testing an Elliptical before buying it is highly recommended because there are quite a few poorly designed Ellipticals out there. Don’t be fooled by looks or bells and whistles. Even Ellipticals that look alike are not always the same. There are many subtle differences in every Elliptical on the market.
Spirit engineers, with over 40 years of experience designing high end exercise machines, studied every high quality Elliptical out there before designing our XT series of Ellipticals. We also consulted prominent physical therapist and sports medicine expert Richard DeKok, P.T., M.T.C., of St. Bernards Industrial Rehabilitation Center in Jonesboro Arkansas. We discovered that even the most expensive Ellipticals have shortcomings and inherent problems:
- When you use an elliptical the natural alignment of your body is thrown off no matter how close the footpads are. This is because when you push backward on the bottom of the stroke your hips will move from one side to the other. The distance between the footpads is not as important as is the angle of the footpad from left to right. If you stand behind an elliptical and look at the footpads you will notice all other elliptical footpads are flat. Now look at a Spirit elliptical and you will notice a slight inward angle of two degrees. This seemingly insignificant detail is important because having this angle puts your body back into a neutral alignment throughout the motion during exercise. This helps alleviate sore backs, knees, ankles and hips. Other manufacturers are aware of this problem and have tried to solve it by moving the footpads close together. Unfortunately this is only part of the problem and does not address the main problem of mis-alignment.
- Not all people are built the same way and don’t walk with the same gait. Some people are knock kneed while others are bow legged. Some people walk on the balls of their feet while others walk flat footed. When Spirit engineers were testing various Ellipticals we noticed that some of us had our toes go numb during our workouts while others had pain in their knees. We found that this had to do with the fixed angle of the footpad from front to rear at the bottom of the ellipse pattern.
- While most good elliptical trainers have what are called “Articulating footpads” (like the Spirit XE series) to address this problem it does not solve the problem of numb toes and painful knees for every user. So the engineers at Spirit determined the best way to solve this problem was to make the footpad angle adjustable (On the XE350 and XE550 only) to fit different users. The people who had numb toes adjusted the angle higher in the rear and people with painful knees adjusted the angle lower. This simple idea not only solved these maladies but also added an extra benefit. When the angle is adjusted lower you work your hamstrings more and when adjusted higher you work your quads and harder.
Spirit Elliptical Highlights -
Ellipticals (XE 150, XE 350, XE 550)
- The same basic architecture regardless of the price
- Contact Heart Rate & Telemetric HR protocols
- HRC is standard
- 20” stride length with articulating foot pedals
- Electronically controlled resistance
- The foot pedals are inverted 2 degrees to keep a user in biomechanical “neutral” position
- Four rail track system minimizes “side load”
- Cooper bushing in the key pivot points
- Most think a bearing used in key pivot points is “the best”. However, the correct bushing used in a low speed/change in direction application like the pivot arm of an Elliptical will last much longer than a bearing.
- A bearing will wear out!
- At Spirit we use bushings that consist of 80% copper & 20% steel.
- This has been tested and has proven to last much longer than a bearing and has yet to wear out in the “LIFE” testing we incorporate into our products.
- Most use a bearing that is 80% steel and 20% brass. This will result in premature wear and noise issues.
A few facts about Ellipticals –
- Inversion – The Definition (The sole of the foot moving inward or supination) * (Aversion is the sole of the foot moving outward or pronation).
- The Spirit Ellipticals feature a 2 degree inversion attitude on the foot pads for improved biomechical alignment.
- Most Elliptical manufacturers are obsessed with the distance between the foot pads?
- This has little to do with the problem of trying to obtain neutral alignment for your body to feel comfortable during an elliptical movement!
- No matter how close the footpads are positioned on a machine if the pedals are not inverted they will still throw the user out of neutral alignment when the footpads are horizontal.
The real issue –
- The problem with Ellipticals is that the user is not only pushing back on the pedals but also outward (sort of like skating). This causes the ankle to try and roll outward. The user overshifts their body weight (causing stress on the ankles, knees and hips) this is why our footpads are angled inward to compensate.
The only Elliptical that has adjustable plantar flexion –
- Adjustable Plantar/Dorsal flexion. (see: http//www.exrx.net/Articulations/Ankle.html)
- Most Ellipticals introduce too much dorsal flexion resulting in the user compensating by getting up on the balls of their feet which causes the toes to go numb.
- This also causes Achilles heel problems ad too much knee shear (stresses the patellar tendon).
- The XE 350 and XE 550 have 3 positions
- 0 degrees
- 5 degrees
- 10 degrees
- Varying the positions of the degree of the pedal also allow a user to work different muscle groups and at the higher positions prevent “numb toe” syndrome.
Flywheel Size –
- The XE flywheel actually weighs 30 pounds. Competitors use “virtual weight” that is calculated by the virtual weight based on gear ratio (inertial weight)
Our heavier flywheel and higher gear ratio gives our elliptical a much smoother feel, higher inertia and no dead spots in the motion.
The transport wheel track –
- The roller guides are made from aircraft grade aluminum which is hard coated anodized. This makes the roller guide Rustproof and Chip-proof.
The Wheels –
- Is made of a high grade poly-urethane (urethane doesn’t rust) and the molding process ensures higher quality.
- The grade of Urethane raw material is also very important, as is the durometer (softness/hardness), in ensuring a smooth feel, high durability and no chipping or breaking.
- The quality of wheel Spirit has selected is double the price of our competitors and is 4 times the quality coming from the same manufacturer. The competitors that used the same wheel vendor are selling their product for $2000 and above.
- We also use commercial grade bearings.
Arm position –
- The Spirit Elliptical arms in the farthest position back (closet to the user) are vertical. Our competitor has a rearward angle that causes the hand to lose contact with the grip. The users hand loses contact because the wrist doesn’t bend in this direction.
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New Products arriving for March 2011 include the NEW Six Pak Trainer from Tuff Stuff Fitness, NEW Waters Fitness Indoor Cycle Bikes, the NEW BodyCraft Recumbent Bike, the NEW BodyCraft Freedom Jones Machine, the NEW Nautilus home elliptical, New Workout DVD's and more.
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