Smooth Fitness 7.1 HR Pro Power Folding Treadmill

The Smooth Fitness 7.1 HR Pro treadmill is the best home treadmill I have ever seen. I bought it about 3 months ago and am extremely happy with it. It has all of the bells & whistles that the $5000 treadmills have for under $2000, and it''s just as tough as the more expensive ones. It is heavy, solid, accurate with its many readings and very sturdy.

I belonged to a health club to use their treadmills for the last 3 years. I finally decided to buy my own and did a lot of research before I bought one. I am happier than I ever thought I would be with this Smooth Fitness unit. I recommended it highly and give it the highest grades.

I started working out again at the end of 2006 after about a 6 year break. I started out lifting weights, gained about 5 pounds during my first month but then lost 10 pounds the following month. I started getting bored with the weight routines and decided to look at some cardio machines. I looked at elliptical trainers, steppers, cross country skiers and treadmills. I came across Smooth Fitness and found the product that I ultimately bought. The Smooth 7.1. After reviewing different machines on-line I was able to find several reviews about the Smooth Fitness products. Comparing several other models I found the 7.1 fit my needs quite well...on paper. Next I did a web search to find the best price. I was lucky to find that there was a special direct from the manufacturer for $1699 with free shipping. Great! But... the sale ended that day. So I had hurry to decide if I wanted to charge this purchase. (I generally do not like using credit cards for large purchases, I prefer cash or checks) Anyway, the price was good enough for me, so I bought it. About a week later I got a call from the shipping company to arrange for delivery. I had them set it up for the next day. Now, I was not home at the time of delivery but someone else was able to be there for the delivery. I got got a call telling me that it was delivered and was dropped off by the garage. I remembered that it was freight delivery and that they generally do not bring the items into the residence. I could not wait to get home from work. My idea was to get home, set the thing up and run a marathon. That was the thought anyway.

Well, I arrived home and there it was,an orchestra of angels accompanied by halos of light falling from heaven onto the treadmill box. Again, Great! SO I decided to move it into the house and set it up. YEAH RIGHT! You have to be sure to read everything before you actually click on that CONFIRM ORDER button. Things like shipping weight, number of boxes, and (freight delivery). Here''s the problem... "Freight delivery" to a man is like offering chocolate to a woman. The fact that it is there puts you in a completely different state of mind. Eventhough it is a BAD THING, you just can''t resist the allure.

Back to the point. Man, was this thing heavy! 1 box, 295 pounds! But thats not all. Oh No, not it, at all. The box was maybe 72" long, 3 1/2 feet wide and 16" tall! Figuring that after 3 months of working out I should now be in "top physical shape" and should be able to move it in my back door up 4 small steps and into my kitchen. RIGHT! After about an hour of time, a shirts worth of perspiration, use of every explicative that I could think of in English, Spanish, Italian, a few that I made up along the way, plus the knowledge that I would be very sore the next day, I managed to move the box from the garage door to the doorstep. OK time for a break! After about an hour of recovery time I decided that I did not want to leave the box outside so I decided to just do it. So, I went back out, opened the back door and got the box up to the top step. Whew! Only took 20 minutes that time! This thing is great! What a workout and I haven''t even taken it out of the box! The last part should be easy (or so I thought). Now, here is where logical thinking comes into play. As I realized that the angle of the 295 pound box, leaning at an angle up the 4 steps, was now such that the all of its weight was now directed to one end the bottom end, the end that I had to now lift up, up to the same level of the 4 steps, the 4 steps that I would have to get past in order to slide the box into the house, a thought entered my mind. WHy should I kill myself trying to lift this thing. Why not use leverage? Leverage, yes! The thing that separated men from beasts! Like inventing the wheel, the lever, a demontsration of man''s superiority and inventiveness. So, I got an 8'' long 2x6 and quick realized that I must have missed that class. Oh well, another advantage of being a human is knowiung when a plan just won''t work...back to brute force...back to inventions. After about 2 hours, several blocks of wood I was able to get the box to the level of the doorway. One final push and it was in the house. I am a beast! I moved a 300 pound box into the house by myself! (The side of my brain that said "but the garage door was only 6 feet from the back door, and you only had 4 steps to get past" was ignored by the superior part of my brain that was saying "I am a beast". Now my forearms were shot, I could not lift the bottle off of the shelf in the fridge, and I was beat so I rested...until the next morning when I got up for work. That afternoon I returned home with the same intention as the previous day. I got home, pushed the box into my living room and opened it up. Talk about one heavy duty piece of hardware. This thing was awesome! I''ll skip past the process of un-packing it. I would strongly recommend that you have an assistant for this too. The unit is quite heavy even after getting flat.

After I set it up, I turned it on and made sure it worked. It did. Great! As I said, I have been lifting weights for several months and after being able to move this monster into my house I decided to try out the target heart rate mode. I turned on the unit, put on the wireless heart rate chest strap, set the mode, and got on the treadmill. As the unit started, I was a bit disaapointed as I felt it lacked the power to adeqautely support my weight. After about a minute or so the speed increased and it seemed like to motor was better able to support me. WOW... This is pretty good. My heart rate was at about 102 bpm and rising. The the speed increased again? Cool! Pulse is now 110 bpm and the unit is at about 2 MPH not bad? Uhhh, what?? The speed just went faster. 2.5 MPH. That was quick? What do I know, I never thought about the speed at which one walks. Hmmm, the speed increased again? Heart rate is about 122 bpm and I have been on the thing for about 4 minutes. The speed is now 3 MPH. This is getting close to running speed. I feel it in my shins and calves. I wonder what my targer heart rate should be? I hope that I dodn''t miss a setting. Probably should have read the instructions. I am fairly tired already good workout. Another speed increase? Ummmm....This is fairly brisk 3.5 MPH. maybe I should try to run now? No, not quite running speed. Too fast to walk, too slow to run. Another increase? Uh oh?! Now I have to run....OK running is not as easy as I remember it. Yeah, very tiring. Man I thought I was in shape before this... THAT''S IT! I''M DONE. STOP, STOP OK press the stop button. Stopped. Whew! (For an instant humility sets in) (But only for a moment) I am pumped! Pulse rate is 136 BPM and my calves are killing me. Man does this beat lifting weights!

Back to earth, I decided to RTFM (Read the Manual). Well I found that My targer heart rate is (220 age) and that the unit was going to keep me running until my heart rate hot about 158 BPM. I decided to start off on a more basic setting. I opted for the distanse setting. My first real day I did .25 mile @ 2.5 MPH. The next day I did .5 @ 2.5MPH. I am up to about 5 miles at 3 MPH after about 2 weeks.

I have to say that I have seen a big improvement using the treadmill. Even my weight routines have improved. My endurance has increased greatly and while I am not able to run marathons, I will say that 3060 minutes a day has made a difference.

Positives:

The machine itself is great, the power is very smooth at any speed at 1 MPH or higher. It has almost no resistance or hesitation even for a 6'' tall 260 pound guy. I have been very impressed by this machine overall. It comes with a large LCD panel that is easy to read and program if you read the manual. This unit has wheels if you need to move it and the platform raises via a button on the front of the unit. The platform is long enough for me to run on without worrying about falling off. The frame feels like it is solid. It also comes with a lifetime waranty on the motor and frame and a 5 year waranty on everything else. As I said the motor is strong and feels powerful at normal speeds.

Negatives:

It is big and heavy. This unit has wheels but it is not easy to meve around. The platform is motorized and raises via a button on the front of the unit but it does not save on much space at all. It is more to assist you in moving the unit. The motor is very strong while running normally but in my case lags at

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