HealthStyles Exercise Equipment’s selection of the latest 2013 home fitness equipment once again earn top honors from leading consumer publications.

Top Rated Ellipticals

Octane Fitness earned top honors again this year. The Q47c Elliptical earned another Best Buy rating in the premium elliptical category for it’s quality construction, smooth performance, and advanced features. The Q47c had the smoothest movement among ellipticals with automatic stride adjustments. The upgraded Q47ci Elliptical with heart rate control programs also earned a Best Buy rating.

The Octane Q35c, Q37c, and Q37ci ellipticals were all ranked in the top 3 in their class.

Vision Fitness also earned a Best Buy rating for the new X10 Elliptical. The X10 was awarded a Best Buy as the smoothest and most stable elliptical under $1000. The Vision X10 Elliptical also offers contact heart rate and 7 programs which is typically found in much more expensive machines.

Other ellipticals that received top honors this year include:

• AFG 18.1AXT Elliptical
• AFG 3.1AE Elliptical
• AFG 4.1AE Elliptical
• Diamondback 1260ef Elliptical
• ElliptiGO 3C Outdoor Elliptical
• Landice E7 Pro Sports Elliptical
• Life Fitness X5 Go Elliptical
• Life Fitness X5 Track Elliptical
• Life Fitness X8 Go Elliptical

Top Rated Treadmills

Once again, the Landice L7 Cardio Trainer Treadmill was ranked 2nd in the premium non-folding treadmill category. Landice is the only treadmill that offers a lifetime home warranty on all parts and is the gold standard for quality and consistency. Landice treadmills have earned top awards from many consumer review publications and websites every year since 2004.

The Life Fitness T3 Treadmills earned a Best Buy rating in the mid-range treadmill category. The T3 Go Treadmill was noted for it’s convenient secondary control panel that allows you to adjust speed and incline closer to your natural hand position while running. The T3 Track Treadmill added advanced features with an iPod/iPhone dock, custom workouts, mobile applications, and online workout tracking.

Other treadmills that received top honors include:

• AFG 3.1AT Treadmill
• Horizon T101 Treadmill
• Horizon T202 Treadmill
• Life Fitness F1 Smart Treadmill
• Life Fitness F3 Go Treadmill
• Life Fitness F3 Track Treadmill
• LifeSpan TR4000i Treadmill
• LifeSpan TR5000i Treadmill
• LifeSpan Treadmill Desk Stations
• Vision T40 Classic Treadmill
• Vision TF40 Elegant Treadmill

Top Rated Home Gyms The new Torque Fitness H2 Hybrid Home Gym earned a Best Buy rating for it’s versatility. The H2 Home Gym offers traditional seated home gym exercises with a press arm and leg extension and leg curl. Dual mid pulleys, high and low pulleys, and extended cable travel offer an almost unlimited variety of free from functional cable exercises.

Contact your local HealthStyles fitness consultant today to learn more about any of these top rated ellipticals, treadmills, exercise bikes, and home gyms.

Landice, Octane Fitness, Vision Fitness, Lemond Fitness, Life Fitness, and Torque are on display and available to demo in stores.

AFG, Horizon, Lifespan, and Diamondback fitness equipment can be ordered direct online or from your local retail sales team.

HealthStyles Exercise Equipment is thrilled to have one of our top selling ellipticals featured among this year’s list Oprah Winfrey’s Favorite Things!

Oprah is a very well know and very particular gift giver and the Octane Q37ci is one of her favorite gifts for the 2012 Holiday Season. It is featured in the December issue of “O”, the Oprah Magazine.

Oprah’s personal trainer Bob Greene got her working out on the Octane Q37 several years ago and as Oprah states, she is “forever grateful”. The Q37 as well as Octane’s other elliptical models, provides a great variety of exhilarating total body workouts like a 10k and a half marathon. Octane ellipticals are regarded worldwide as the No. 1 premium elliptical machine. Known for the ergonomic design that produces the smoothest, most comfortable and effective workouts, Octane ellipticals help you stay motivated, achieve your goals faster and feel great.

Click here to read Bob Greene’s full review of Octane Ellipticals.

Why not give the gift of fitness either to yourself or to others this Holiday season!

In celebration of Octane being one of Oprah’s Favorite Things, you can enjoy a minimum of 10% OFF MSRP now through 12/31/12 on any Octane elliptical at any one of HealthStyles Exercise Equipment’s 7 Colorado locations.

According to a leading consumer magazine, the Octane Q37ci Elliptical was rated a “Best Buy” for it’s sturdy construction, safety features, and interactive training programs.

By far, the biggest advantage of the Octane Q37 Elliptical over any other machine is the quality construction. The Octane Ellipticals are sturdy and reliable and in our experience as a specialty exercise equipment retailer, we’ve seen far fewer service requests from these machines than any other elliptical sold.

In addition to the reliability and solid commercial feel, the Octane Q37 Elliptical allows users to feel more comfortable and balanced with a natural movement pattern. The natural motion enhances the use of core muscles and gives the user the maximum comfort in using both the legs and arms at any speed without feeling off balance.

The movement patterns of many less expensive machines do not feel as natural and can put stress on hips, ankles, and knees. Over the course of many hours of weekly use, these repetitive unnatural movements can cause discomfort, pain, or overuse injuries. But more often than not, an uncomfortable machine is just less likely to be used on a regular basis.

Here are a few fitness tips to help you get the most out of your Octane Elliptical workouts.

1. Make sure to keep good posture while using the arms especially during the arm blaster workouts. You want to feel like you are pulling from your mid back muscles while retracting your shoulder blades well and keeping your elbows moving back and downwards close to your sides. The last place you want to feel like you are pulling from is your upper neck or traps.
   
   
2. At your comfort level, get used to dropping your hands and arms and swinging them like you would during a walk or run, this will help your balance as well as your core. It is harder to do during higher resistance levels so you can choose to work on this during the warm up and cool down.
   
   
3. Make sure you are going in reverse occasionally. It’s not a bad idea for people to do at least 10% of their workout going backwards. This will help insure that you are equalizing the load across some of the muscle groups in the legs as well as challenging your balance.
   
   
4. Make sure you do not over do it on a weekly basis. The beauty of the Octane elliptical is that the workout time needed is compressed since there is so much muscle recruitment involved, so you can modify the workouts based on time and intensity each day and also modify which muscles you are using more for that specific workout. An example would be that someone might have a 15 minute workout one day while using the arm feature, really concentrating on pushing and pulling at a higher level of resistance. This could be followed up the next day with a simulation of running at a low level of resistance without using the arms much and the time might be 30-40 minutes. This variation example will help prevent overtraining by allowing different body parts to rest and recover properly in between workouts.
   
   
5. Use the Cross Training program and instructional book to challenge yourself to a circuit style program. Research shows how effective going back and forth between cardio and strength training can be to help maximize cardiovascular training as well as muscle toning and weight loss. You don’t have to rely on the pictures in the cross training book that come with the Octane as they are just suggestions, you can use anything from bands to kettlebells to body weight training, just be creative.
   
   
6. Try shorter workouts less than 30 minutes to stay consistent. Just as long as you are concentrating on warming up and cooling down properly, you can challenge yourself to come off the machine completely wiped out and have a ton of calories burned in just a short period of time. Some favorite workouts are only 20 minutes long! It’s much easier from a motivational standpoint to find less than 30 minutes of time to work into your schedule for using the Octane than it is to find 45 minutes or an hour. Get used to these small blocks of time and you will see how much fun and productive the workouts can be!
   
   
7. Use the custom interval program to set intervals with a set resistance for a selected period of time. Some people enjoy doing 1 minute hard efforts followed by 4 minutes of mild to moderate effort and then repeat for a number of times. Others seem to like a 30 second peak interval followed by a 90 second recovery and repeat for 8 times. These are called recovery and peak effort intervals and you can play with the right combos of resistance level to make it right for you. Just make sure you are doing your warm up and cool down properly.
   
   
8. Set shorter, reasonable goals when you first try X-Mode. When setting the time that the X-Mode comes on, I would recommend having it come on for only 30 seconds for users just starting with the Octane. Move up the time and frequency of the X-Mode as your fitness improves.
   
   
9. Challenge yourself to use only one of the arms when pushing and pulling. This requires a good deal of concentration and core control to resist swinging from side to side as the other arm wants to join in but is resting in the downward, swinging position. Don’t push into anything that is painful. A lighter resistance still gets the job done.

In addition to the top reviewed Octane Q37ci ellipticals, Octane offers a full range of options to fit your personal preference and budget.

Each Octane Elliptical offers a “c” and “ci” console. The “ci” consoles offer the full interactive heart rate training programs. The “c” consoles offer basic workouts without the interactive heart rate so you can get the same quality machine at a lower price without all the buttons and whistles.

The Q37c console on the left and Q37ci console on the right:

The Octane Q35c is the most affordable Octane elliptical and offers the same quality construction and stride without the converging multi-grip arms.

The Octane Q47c and Q47ci ellipticals offer a unique “SmartStride” feature that automatically adjusts the stride lengths from 18 to 26 inches. This is ideal for family use to ensure that mom, dad, and the kids can all use the machine comfortably. This is also an added benefit to ensure maximum comfort transitioning between walking, jogging, and running speeds.

The Octane xRide series are a one-of-a-kind seated elliptical. These seated ellipticals offer a completely different style of low-impact elliptical workout. The additional back support from the seat can be beneficial for beginning exercisers and physical therapy. And for the experienced exerciser, it offers the opportunity to incorporate a new level of power and strength into a cross training workout.

Stop in to demo an Octane Elliptical at one of HealthStyles’ retail locations to find the cross training solution that works best for you.

Or call us at 800-829-9705 for more information.

Scott Laurent
has a BA in sports psychology. He is a certified personal trainer and was a semi-pro athlete. His consulting business, ReadyToExercise.com, helps people who are contemplating, just starting, or having difficulty remaining in an exercise program.

Visit Scott at the Healthstyles Exercise Equipment Colorado Blvd or Park Meadows Retail Stores Or email: scott@readytoexercise.com

Based on the latest reviews from a leading consumer publication, Healthstyles Exercise Equipment’s selection of ellipticals and treadmills were well represented in the line up of 2012′s best home fitness equipment.

The Octane Q37ci was ranked as the best overall elliptical with high marks for it’s high quality, sturdy construction, safety, and interactive heart rate training programs. The Octane Q37c elliptical was also given high marks as a more affordable alternative to the Q37ci with the same quality construction and safety without the added heart rate training programs.

The Vision Fitness X30 Premier was the 2nd ranked elliptical trainer this year. The Vision X30 Premier was also given high marks for quality construction, ergonomics, user safety, and heart rate training. The Vision X30 Deluxe and X30 Simple were also well reviewed as more affordable alternatives to the X30 Premier with less programming options.

The top rated budget elliptical trainers under $1,000 were the Horizon EX-69 and Horizon EX-79 Elliptical trainers.

The Diamondback 1260ef Elliptical received an honorable mention as the top rated elliptical from 2011.

In the non-folding treadmill category, the Landice L7 Cardio Trainer Treadmill was ranked 2nd this year with the highest horsepower rating of all of the treadmills that were reviewed this year. The Vision T9500 Deluxe and Vision T9200 Simple treadmills made it to the top of the list. The Vision T9200 Simple was the top rated treadmill under $1500.

The top recommended folding treadmill was the LifeSpan TR4000i. Vision also made the top 10 folding treadmills with high marks for the T9250 Deluxe, T9250 Premier, and T9250 Simple treadmills.

In the budget treadmill category (under $1,000), the Horizon T203, T202, and T101 and the LifeSpan TR1200i folding treadmills all made the top ten.

Octane ellipticals and Vision Fitness ellipticals and treadmills are available to demo in HeathStyles’ Colorado retail stores.

Horizon, Lifespan, and Diamondback fitness equipment is available for order online or from your local retail store.

Contact your local HealthStyles fitness consultant today to learn more about any of these top rated ellipticals and treadmills.

What’s Happening in the World of Fitness Equipment?

The 2010 Health and Fitness Business Trade Show was held in Las Vegas last month and the owners and regional managers of HealthStyles Exercise Equipment went to the show, eager to see what was new and innovative for the upcoming year.

Bored with your cardio routine? Need something new to keep your workouts fresh? If you are thinking about purchasing an elliptcal trainer for cardiovascular training during the upcoming fall and winter season, the new Octane Q37 and Q47 with the CI console, combine low impact cardiovascular and strength training in the same workout to maximize your results with an effective, efficient exercise regime.

Octane, manufacturer of the world’s most popular elliptical has outdone themselves this time! This revolutionary workout program alternates on-machine cardio intervals with off-machine strength sets for every area that needs attention. In just one workout session you can build cardiovascular endurance and shape and tone your body with both upper body, lower body and core strengthening exercises. It’s the ultimate cross-training experience!

Use the Q37ci or Q47Ci and add the optional Cross Circuit kit that includes additional powerbands and side platforms to further enhance your training effort. With one machine and one workout you can work out efficiently to be the best you can be. To try out the new Cross Circuit Program on the Octane Q37ci and Q47ci, stop by your local HealthStyles today for a test ride!

Octane Q Series with Cross Circuit + Video: