Elliptical trainer ratings are a great place to start when beginning your shopping, but there are a few things you should know first about how to interpret these ratings.

Elliptical Trainers are Rated in Specific Price Groups

There are really 3 categories of elliptical trainers: Economy Buys, Mid-priced and Commercial Grade Ellipticals.

Economy buys range from about $300 to $1000, Mid-priced ellipticals range from $1000-$2000 and High End or Commercial elliptical trainers range from around $2200 and above.

Most consumer reviews usually compare elliptical trainers within a certain price class. This essentially amounts to “comparing apples to apples”. It really wouldn’t be a fair or useful comparison to rate an economy elliptical trainer that retails for $500 with a commercial-grade elliptical costing $5000.

So just because an economy elliptical trainer gets 5 stars and a mid-priced elliptical gets 4 stars, that doesn’t mean the economy elliptical is better than the mid-priced elliptical. It just means that compared to other economy elliptical trainers, that one is superior.

Experts Value Elliptical Features Differently

Ever wonder why certain elliptical trainers get rated highly by some experts and not by others? It’s because different elliptical trainer raters value some features over others.

So for example, while give more weight the number of workout programs an elliptical supports or the presence of a water bottle holder and an mp3 docking station, another rater may value smoothness of ride and the length of the warranty.

It doesn’t mean one elliptical trainer is better than another – it could just mean they are rated using different criteria.

As any FYI, I fall into the latter group mentioned above.

Use Caution When Reading User Elliptical Ratings

In addition to expert elliptical ratings, there are also websites that allow people to write a personal review of their elliptical such as epinoins.com and even the manufacturer websites. While these can be helpful when shopping for an elliptical, be cautious of basing your decision just on these ratings.

Exercise equipment is big business and some companies are not above having one of their employees post negative reviews on their competitors or conversely, shilled positive reviews for their own products.

Also, no one elliptical brand has a perfect track record – sometimes even the best brands crank out a lemon. And those are usually the people that go online to post a negative review. People who are quite happy with their elliptical trainer purchase are less likely to post a comment.

The best advice: take user ratings with a large grain of salt and combine them with your own research when shopping for an elliptical trainer.

What are the best home elliptical trainers? It’s a great question and one that many first-time home exercise equipment buyers ask. Some things to consider foremost are price, quality, and the size you have dedicated to machine.

As we’ll soon see, price should not be your main consideration when shopping for a home elliptical.

Value

Before we get down to discussing price, let’s take a look at what I consider to be the most important factor, which is value. Value is actually a ratio of quality and price, so the higher the quality and/or the lower the price, the higher the value. With that in mind, let’s next have a look at elliptical trainer quality factors.

Quality

When it comes to home elliptical trainers, quality is vital. The sad reality is that far too many models of elliptical trainers are simply of very low quality. I know it’s tempting to fall for many of the slick looking elliptical trainers offered by Sears and big box sporting goods stores, but many of these models are both poorly designed and use inferior hardware and components. Seriously, what good is a cheap elliptical trainer if it completely falls apart after just a month or two of heavy use? It really comes back to value again, so please don’t fall for the cheapest elliptical trainer you can find as I’m afraid you will come to regret that decision very quickly.

Price

This is now a great lead in to the issue of price. I realize that many folks are on a limited budget and cannot afforest several thousand dollars for a piece of fitness equipment. The good news is that you can purchase an excellent elliptical trainer for between $1200 – $2000 dollars.

Now if this is still out of your budget, then I think you’re best choice is to hold off on purchasing an elliptical trainer until you’ve save up enough for a quality elliptical. Instead, you can get a good workout from walking or jogging in the meantime and when you’re ready to buy a quality elliptical trainer with a ton of value and won’t blow your budget, please have a look at these great models below:

Smooth Fitness Ellipticals

Sole Fitness Ellipticals

Elliptical machines are able to build healthy bodies by stimulating healthy bone density. Research has shown that bone density has a direct impact on one’s overall health. Exercises that help to maintain a healthy bone density include: running, aerobics, weight lifting and exercises where the trainee supports his body weight on his feet.

The downside of some of these exercises is that some may generate extreme shock forces to bones, joints, and tendons, which can be very dangerous.

An elliptical machine, on the other hand, can help to maintain a healthy bone density without generating harmful stress to the skeletal system. By using an elliptical machine, you will be standing on your feet on a platform which in turn will bear your body weight.

Stepping up and down on the platform causes pedaling with an elliptical shaped motion. This is very similar to the movement done when walking or running. This in turn means that the elliptical machine is able to provide the same benefits as these exercises without experiencing harmful stress.

Another benefit of elliptical machines is. Using the machine will allow you to perform an exercise movement with a very smooth and flowing motion. This greatly minimizes the risk of being injured when performing an elliptical workout. Your muscles are protected since force is evenly distributed across all the muscles of your body.

Elliptical machines have proven to provide optimal cardiovascular workouts. This is directly attributable to the many different movements that can be made from using the machine. An elliptical workout is truly a full body workout as all of the muscles of the body are working at the same time.

Perhaps a little known benefit of elliptical machines is that they have a lower perceived exertion than many other forms of exercise. This simply means that an elliptical workout will seem to be less stressful on your system than say running on a treadmill or jumping rope. The benefit of this is that you’ll still be burning around the same number of calories and also getting similar cardiovascular benefits. So what’s not to like about elliptical machines!