The ProForm ZE5 Elliptical is an attractive, colorful machine.

The ProForm ZE5 Elliptical starts with a rear drive design & 13 lb. Inertia Enhanced Flywheel that offers a smooth and quiet operation. I like rear drive machines as they are usually better at capturing a true elliptical motion. The ZE5 comes with a pair of oversized foot pedals that are adjustable, so you can find the foot position that best fits you for comfort and stability. It has an adjustable stride length that allows you to work different muscle groups or for users of different heights. The ZE5 Elliptical can accommodate a maximum user weight of 275 lbs. It has a SpaceSaver Design to help you recapture your living space when the elliptical is not in use. Pretty cool!

The ProForm 1200E Elliptical is a very attractive and sturdy machine.

The ProForm 1200E Elliptical comes with a front drive system with SMRTM Silent Magnetic Resistance. This is a really cool feature. SMRTM offers a smooth and frictionless resistance that allows you to change your workout intensity without stopping your workout. It has 10 Intensity Levels to help you hit the exact work out you need.

The ProForm 990 CSE Elliptical is a colorful and beautifully constructed elliptical with lots of bells and whistles.

The ProForm 990 CSE Elliptical comes with a rear drive system to offer a smooth and comfortable workout experience and oversized pedals to accommodate different foot positions. It has an adjustable stride from 18” to 20” to accommodate users with different heights and to work different muscle groups. The 990 CSE is a large elliptical that has footprint of 81.5” x 27”, but the unique SpaceSaver Design feature will help you to recapture you living space when the elliptical is not in use by simply folding the innovative pedals and base. Pretty neat!

The Proform 1050E Elliptical is an attractive Rear Drive Elliptical with some cool bells & whistles!

The Proform 1050E Elliptical has an adjustable 19” to 21” stride. Proform is calling this their new Super Ramp™ technology. Essentially this technology accomplishes what most adjustable ellipticals offer, the ability to adjust stride & the ability to work out different muscle groups. It is a nice feature.

Ohiyo!

Here at the DOJO we get a lot of emails asking about the Icon Health & Fitness lines of treadmills and ellipticals. Icon is one of the largest fitness manufacturers in the world and is best know for budget priced equipment and so-so quality. You may have seen their equipment under one of the following brands: Proform, Nordic Track, Epic, Reebok (in the US…outside of the US Reebok is made by Smooth Fitness), Image, Weider, Gold’s Gym and a few others I’m probably forgetting. Overall their equipment seems to be cheaply made and for consumers looking to spend as little on equipment as possible because they won’t be using it in 6 months. Icon tends to tack on a ton of special features to help take the focus off the lack of quality in construction and components, and this is reflected in their often very short term warranties. Why support a project that won’t be used (or working) in a year?

Now, with all that being said, a recent arrival here at the DOJO really surprised the Treadmill Sensei with its durability and solid construction…heck, even the components it was built from were fairly decent. The product I’m talking about is the Proform Epic 1200 Pro Elliptical. Yes, it has an ungodly long name but I was impressed by the unit we brought in to the shop and was very impressed by its incline feature. An incline ramp is something not often done well and especially not at a budget price point. I don’t know how they did it, or what kind of deal they had to sign with the Devil to do it, but Icon has produced a very solid incline elliptical trainer in the Proform Epic 1200 Pro.

Before I get in to the positives on the Proform Epic 1200 incline elliptical, I want to talk a bit about the problems with the machine. The only major issues we encountered with the unit were in assembley. A few of the holes in the Proform Epic 1200 were machined just off enought to be very annoying. The holes weren’t so far off that assembley was impossible but they were a bitch to get the elliptical put together. What should have been a 20 minute assembley turned in to about 45 minutes of frustration. From speaking with other service techs who deal with the Proform Epic 1200 Pro, this seems to be a fairly common occurance. Estimates are at about 1 in 10 of the ellipticals have this problem.

The only other problem I had with the Proform Epic 1200 was the lack of articulating pedals. Since the unit is a rear drive elliptical, Proform went with static pedals as is most common with the design. Now, in Proform’s defense they did an excellent job in providing some very comfortable pedals (Gelstride) and great pedal placement for anyone under about 6’1″. Someone taller than that may want to go with a longer stride unit. Also, the large, heavy duty flywheel provides an excellent elliptical motion during your workouts. So, the lack of articulating pedals is a minor strike but the machine makes up for it with a well designed drive and elliptical motion.

And that was really it for the negatives of the unit. Mat and I worked out on this machine for 5 days at an hour a day. Being taller, he prefers a 19″-20″ stride but thought the frame was very solid – Mat weighs right around 300 pounds so he was definitely pushing the weight limit. He thought it would hold up to heavy duty work outs for sure. As a smaller user, the Proform Epic 1200 Incline elliptical felt as solid as a rock…something very unusual to say about a Proform elliptical. In the past their machines tended to feel a bit more rickety. Not so with the Epic 1200 pro elliptical which is built from much heavier duty steel tubing than normally found in a budget priced elliptical.

Aside from that, the incline feature was a very nice addition to have in the Proform Epic 1200 Pro. You don’t often seen an incline on budget ellipticals under $1000 and when you do they are usually poorly constructed. The Proform Epic 1200 performed very well in our tests at different inclines and even held up well to the additional weight of a larger user.

Wrapping up the features of the Proform Epic 1200 Pro Incline elliptical (I get winded just saying that name!) are an 18″ stride, 18 programs, 16 levels of resistance and a very beefy 350 pound user weight. All-in-all, this was a very solid offering (and a huge surprise) from Proform. If not for the construction issues and the frustration it caused me, the Proform Epic 1200 Pro Elliptical would have received a much higher rating.

For being a great incline elliptical at a budget price under $1000, the Treadmill Sensei gives the Proform Epic 1200 Pro Elliptical and its very long name 3.5 out of 5 Golden Buddahs.

The Proform Epic 1200 Pro Elliptical is a solid buy incline elliptical priced at under $799 with 3.5 gold buddahs.

Proform Epic 1200 Pro Elliptical Specifications
Stride: 18″
Flywheel: approximately 18lbs
Incline: Yes
Display: LCD
Readouts: incline, RPM, distance, resistance, pulse and calories burned
Programs: 18
Resistance Levels: 16
Heart Rate Monitor: Yes
Heart Rate Control: No
Max User Weight: 350lbs
Unit Weight: Approximately 160lbs
Price: Under $800

-The Treadmill Sensei
http://www.treadmillsensei.com

Ohiyo!

The Treadmill Sensei absolutely loves Proform Fitness — and Icon Fitness brands in general. Not because of their quality, which we all know is generally terrible, and not because of their customer service, which is even worse. The reason the Treadmill Sensei loves Proform is because their equipment and its problems is so much fun to test out and review — I think some of my best written reviews are on Proform equipment. I always know there will issues with their treadmills and ellipticals, and the fun part is waiting for the failures to pop up. We were working out on a Proform treadmill a few months ago for a review and its deck cracked in half! Now, in spite of what Mrs. Sensei says about my waistline, the Treadmill Sensei is not a big guy at all — around 5’7.5″ and 170 pounds. For a treadmill to crack with me doing a walking workout on it is insane.

The Proform elliptical I purchased recently to review is no different. The Proform 160 Elliptical (also known as the XP 160 elliptical in some places) was a below average machine with some very “interesting” problems. The only really positive thing I can say about it is that it shipped and arrived very quickly once we placed the order. If nothing else, Proform ships their units very fast.

The Proform 160 elliptical arrived in a small to medium sized box (for an elliptical) and weighed in at somewhere around 135 pounds. I’m guessing at the exact weight because we couldn’t find the precise weight listed anywhere on the unit we received. Assembly on the unit was fairly standard for us, but the instruction booklet wasn’t the best and could be more than a little confusing for the average consumer. Figure on it taking about 90 minutes to assemble the Proform 160.

As a front drive elliptical, the Proform 160 will feel a bit more solid than a rear drive unit in the under $600 range. I’m not saying that it is an overly solid or sturdy unit, but the front drive ellipticals tend to perform a lot better in the low end than rear drive ones. The 160 elliptical’s flywheel is a bit on the small size…again, we were unable to find an actual weight listed anywhere for the unit’s flywheel, but I’d estimate it at 10-12 pounds in size at the most. The smaller, lighter flywheel makes the Proform 160 elliptical feel a bit bouncier than a larger or heavier one would, but the 18″ stride on the unit isn’t the worst I’ve felt on a low-end elliptical. I’d rank it at about average.

A few problems I did notice on the machine were that the front shroud and crank designs are aren’t the best thought at. The 160 elliptical has a lot of problems during workouts at RPMs of 55-60 or higher. At these higher RPMs you’ll start to notice a rather lound sound coming from the front of the machine. This is from the lower-quality plastic pieces becoming bent and rubbing against crank arms and gears. In fact, on our machine, the crank cover became so warped it was rubbing against the arm and producing a rather nasty plastic dust inside the machine. In general, the Proform 160 Elliptical is one of the noisiest lower end ellipticals I’ve encountered in a long time.

The last problem I want to mention, and it isn’t as bad as the mechanical ones above, has to do with the elliptical’s console and fans. First off, batteries go in to the underside of the console and are a bit touchy to get placed in properly. Speaking of the batteries, for some reason the Proform 160 elliptical’s console is a battery hog and went through 1 set during my 2 week long workout. The other problem with the console is the fans: they just don’t work all that well. Well, they work well once you get them started — they don’t seem to want to start up on their own and required a “kick start” each time I wanted to use them. I think it has to do with the power issue in the console.

Overall, the Proform is a very poor performing machine and really isn’t worth the under $600 price it current goes for. It has a lot of problems I’d expect to see in a sub $400 unit and there are much better choices from companies like Horizon, Schwinn and Merit. For being another Proform let down, the Treadmill Sensei gives the Proform 160 Elliptical 2 out of 5 Golden Buddahs.

Another low quality unit gets Profom 2 gold buddahs out of 5 for their XP 160 Elliptical.

Proform 160 Elliptical Specifications
Stride: 18″
Flywheel: 12lbs (approx)
Programs: 10
Resistance Levels: 10
Display: LCD
Readouts: Distance, resistance, time, speed, pulse, RPM, carbs burned and calories burned
Heart Rate Monitor: Yes
Heart Rate Control: Yes
Max User Weight: 200lbs
Unit Weight: 135lbs

-The Treadmill Sensei
http://www.treadmillsensei.com

Ohiyo!

One of the cooler new trends the Treadmill Sensei really enjoys is what people are calling “interactive fitness.” Now, I could have sworn all fitness was interactive or it wouldn’t work, but marketing people love their buzz words. What they mean by “interactive fitness” is usually a piece of fitness equipment which hooks up to a video game. There have been quite a few “interactive fitness” items on the market for a while now, such as the Game Bike and DDR Dance Pads, but what I’ve always wanted was a Game Elliptical which hooked up to my computer to play MechWarrior/Giant Robot type games. Now that would be awesome!

Well, an interesting thing happened to me recently while my wife and I were over at her Uncle Chris’ house (you may remember my Uncle Chris story from my Proform 1500 Treadmill Review) for his wife’s birthday. I was rambling on and on about how cool a MechWarrior Elliptical would be and that I wished some brilliant manufacturer would create one when Uncle Chris mentioned that he saw a game elliptical on sale at a specialty fitness shop he visited while in Las Vegas. Needless to say I replied that there was no way such a thing would exist without my knowing it because I am the Treadmill Sensei and I know all and see all.

Right?

Uncle Chris promptly went in to his home office and came back a few minutes later with a print out from Proform’s website showing off their 20.0 Elliptical. To rub things in further he highlighted a portion of the print out detailing the two video games built in to the Proform 20.0 Elliptical. Then, to rub salt in to my wounded ego even further by suggesting I didn’t know about the game elliptical because I wasn’t the “elliptical sensei.”

I hate it when Uncle Chris is right.

In order to save face, and with visions of battling giant robots in my head, I hopped online and ordered myself a Proform 20.0 Elliptical. What arrived wasn’t what I expected, but was something cool for kids nonetheless. I’m going to review the elliptical side of the 20.0 Elliptical first and then follow up with the interactive fitness stuff second.

The unit itself is a very lightweight elliptical. No unit weight, flywheel weight or maximum user capacity were listed in the thin booklet which came with the Proform 20.0, but I estimate the maximum user weight to be no more than 175 pounds. I think my own svelte 170 pound body was testing the limits of its frame. The lightweight flywheel, which I’d guess was 10-14 pounds tops, doesn’t produce the greatest elliptical motion for workouts. It is more of the “D” shape most lower end ellipticals produce.

With 9 programs and about 8 levels of resistance, the Proform 20.0 elliptical really isn’t meant to be a heavy duty workout machine, or even a machine to do a light, regular workout. What it is meant for is as a way to get your kids interested in fitness by tricking them in to enjoying it. While there weren’t giant robots or MechWarrior battles, the Proform 20.0 did have a couple of simple, fairly addictive video games which are tied to the user’s workout. Proform even placed the controls at the top of the elliptical handlebars to make them more accessible to game players.

Even though the Proform 20.0 Elliptical isn’t the sturdiest of machines I do recommend it for parents who want their kids to get some exercise while playing their video games. My one wish is that someone would produce one of these machines for big kids (like me) and let us hook it up to a good mech/giant robot combat game. I’d never get off a MechWarrior Elliptical!

For being a decent machine for kids, the Treadmill Sensei gives the Proform 20.0 Elliptical 3 out of 5 golden buddahs.

3 gold buddahs out of 5 for the Proform 20.0 Elliptical


Compare the Proform 20.0 Elliptical

Proform 20.0 Elliptical Specifications
Stride: 18″
Flywheel: Approximately 12 lbs
Max User Weight: Approximately 175 lbs
Unit Weight: Approximately 110 lbs
Heart Rate Monitor: Pulse grip
Heart Rate Control: Yes
Levels of Resistance: 8
Display: LCD
Programs: 9
Price: $799

-The Treadmill Sensei
http://www.treadmillsensei.com