Elliptical Cross Trainer - Stamina EMR Series

Great price, great construction, great performance, nice company with good response. Super smooth quiet action, has lift and roll for storage, beats all competition. It is smooth and quiet, has a heart rate monitor, and has more program features than most elliptical trainers.

Best Recommendation

This is a really good product, especially for the price.

Best Features

Performance - Smooth, quiet.

Power Options - Computer uses batteries or wall plug.

Quality - well built, durable, super smooth, great company with great response

Movable Arm Exercise Bars - for total workout. Many expensive machines do not have this option.

Cost – Inexpensive, Stamina is under $500. Terrific value

Easy to assemble and use.

Worst Features

One of the few we reviewed that had no apparent bad features as perceived by owners.

Features

• Very smooth and quiet machine
• Pulse monitor on a stationary handle bar - Programs help monitor and control desired heart rate during the workout.
• Two moving handle bars for a cardiovascular workout.
• Workout Monitoring - Splits workout time by 10 and uses 10 columns that blink to show progress . I find this to be great motivation.
• Tension Settings - There are 16 tension settings. The tension settings are pretty tight, so users have plenty of scope before reaching the highest level.
  Uses a magnetic braking system to make workouts a challenge.
• A single AC adapter with a lightweight cord is connected to a small transformer, similar to that used to charge a cell phone.
• Water bottle
• Workout programs

  1 Manual program – a flat walking program that allows user full control over the workout by pressing the arrow buttons on the computer.

  3 Semi Automatic settings - allow users to manually preset the intervals.

  5 preset automatic programs- including rolling hills, valleys, fat burning, ramp, fitness test, and random.

  1 Body Fat Burning Program

  3 Heart Rate Control Programs

  4 User Programmable Programs - allow you to set customised programs.

• Size – about average in size for an elliptical trainer, with dimensions approximately 57.5 inches long x 24.75 inches wide x 64.75 inches tall. Wheels on the rear stabilizer make moving it easier.
• Self-leveling
  
• Warranty - Stamina Products, Inc. offers a warranty guarantees free of defects in materials and workmanship under normal home use for 90 days. The warranty is not transferable.

Stamina Products Website

Limits Of Use

This machine has an upper weight limit of 250 pounds and is not recommended for use by children.

Recommended 7 ft operating space.

The manufacturers also recommend using this machine on an equipment mat (so far, we're using a fake oriental rug).

User Experiences

Assembly - Very easy to assemble. Takes about an hour to put the machine together. The assembly directions booklet is clear and easy to follow. All of the parts are clearly marked and accounted for.

Using the machine - Very easy to use. Adjust your workout on the digital computer mounted on the machine.

Using the programs - you can preset exercise time and the computer will divide the time into ten equal intervals, Default time is 30 minutes. Depending on the program, you enter time, distance, age, gender, height, weight, and/or target heart rate. [The height and weight are in metric]

The computer measures distance, calories burned, speed, and heart rate. At the end of the program, the pulse recovery mode measures how quickly you recover from the workout.

Body Fat Program - enter weight and other personal data into the computer, place hands on a stationary handlebar and wait for the machine to read my pulse for a minute. Then the machine comes up with a 30 minute fat burning program for me. The machine will vary the program somewhat, but you can also do it manually by pressing the arrow buttons on the computer console. It also sets a target heart rate.

Compared to Other Machines

• ProForm 675 was a lot harder to put together and a lot noisier.
• Tunturi C3 - Stamina has more tension levels
  

User Tips

Pre-installed pedal arms - was slightly off kilter, resulting in a knocking noise when hitting the machine in the wrong place. Easily fixed the problem with a little effort to line it up correctly.

Pedal Bars - We had a slight problem with one of the pedal bars.

Heart rate monitor - does not always seem accurate at the beginning of workout.

NB: Known issues of elliptical trainers are only those experienced by individual users are are not necessarily and indication of poor quality on all units. They are included here purely as a guide as to likely problems with tips on how to remedy.

Exercise Equipment Resources

Fitness Measures & Tests - Track your fitness progress using this comprehensive set of fitness tests.

Antiaging Fitness Program - A fitness program specially designed to maintain muscle mass and joint flexibility

Golf Fitness - Perfect your golf swing using advanced biomechanical golf fitness program