I recently bought an elliptical machine, and I'm really enjoying it so far. I got it for a good price online, but found out that there's a lot of technical stuff that you need to know when you're buying one of these machines.

I just wanted to share with you what I found out when I was shopping, if you didn't already know.

There are 3 generations of ellipticals, rear drive, front drive & center drive. I used to think that the newer generations provided a better workout, but after I dug a little deeper it turns out that that's not necessarily true. In fact, the newer designs are more about saving space than anything else.

I ended up getting a front drive model, which had the features I wanted, but was at a good discount.

The other thing I found out was that you have to be aware of the quality of the linkage for the moving handles, for the models that have them. Cheaper ellipticals sometimes skimp on the design of the linkage and the majority of the work is still done by your lower body, rather than evenly distributes between upper and lower body.

Those were the deal breakers, as I've found out.

Anyway, hope that helps anyone who might be looking at ellipticals. Good Luck!

this is awsome good post. I'm currently looking into the Davina McCall ellipitcal trainer, only problem is I'm on for 5 minutes and I'm already feeling it in my leg muscles and I'm absolutley knackered by 10 minutes. I use the one at my local gym right now, I think I'm going to keep at it for a few weeks and if I get used to it I'll buy my own, don't want to buy one then down the line realise I made a mistake kind of thing.