You Can Do It!!!! FitnessQuest Tony Little Gazelle Glider Freestyle Elite

I got Tony Little's Gazelle Glider Freestyle Elite last year for Christmas. So with Christmas approaching, I figured it was a good time to discuss my year long relationship with Tony's bright idea.

I saw constant advertising for the machine on shopping channels, and commercials, that I was basically sold.
The promise of a great cardiovascular workout! Equal to running!!!! YES!!!! Low impact, so easy your grandmother could use it.

The machine came in a big box and took my boyfriend only about an hour to put it together, with some cussing and moaning of course. (Note, you will need to buy or own some tools to put the machine together.)

So the gazelle is now all together in my basement.
I'm excited, and jump right on to try it out. I almost fell off. It wasn't impossible, but it was semi difficult to get used to the rocky feel.

I played with the monitor for awhile, to get an idea of how it worked. One setting checks how long I've been on the machine, one checks how many calories you've burned, another is for your heart rate, and I believe another one tells the distance you've covered. It's easy to use, seeing how each setting is just the press of a button.

The calorie setting is the only setting I've used all year. You burn one calorie every time you stretch your foot out, and bring it back in.

The machine also had 3 different impact settings. One which was extremely easy. (the glide), 2, which is almost equivalent to walking in sand, and 3. feels like walking up hill.
Not really, but this is the hardest setting to work out on. Most likely the only effective setting as well.

After a good 10 minutes or so, your feet begin to slip, which can throw you off balance as you work out, which results in you having to stop working out, and re adjusting your feet, otherwise you could fall off.

Now the advertisement for the Gazelle always would claim that 'it's so easy your grandmother could use it'.
Which in my opinion is true. Only on the low impact setting though. The other 2 settings would be far too difficult for elderly people to use.
However I think this machine is wonderful for elderly people who have been ordered by their doctors to use their feet more often. But only under supervision, seeing how a slip can happen very easily on this machine.

Now I used the gazelle for an entire month straight, every single day for about a half an hour to 45 minutes each and every day. I saw not one single difference in my body, or the way I felt. This became extremely discouraging. I eventually stopped using the machine all together, as I felt that I was getting no benefits at all; and that I was just wasting 45 minutes a day to glide back, and forth.

I was also disappointed in how your limited to stretching. I'm five foot five, and the more I try to stretch my legs, the harder is becomes on my arms. I have to let go of the handles just to stretch out to my maximum, which is annoying, and also dangerous, seeing how I could easily lose my balance doing this.
I'm not even exaggerating. It is actually quite easy to fall off of this machine. One slip of the shoe, and whamo!

I also may as well tell you about the heart monitor.

All you do is put your finger on the little circular button groove on the machine and it will tell you your heart rate. I found this neat, but dumb all in one.
Seeing how most new users don't know what an average heart rate is, or what it should be. It would of been very helpful if the machine came with a small chart on the side, or for you to hang on the wall. But it didn't.

The calorie counting selection is the only setting I ever have it on. I like being able to monitor the calories I ate, then being able to go onto my gazelle and burning that off, and some. Only I never saw any results. Ever.

The machine also gives you a VHS about all the different exercises you can do on the machine.

In my opinion though there is only 3 way to work out on this machine. Low impact, some impact, and high impact. The lessons Tony Little shows you on the VHS are not only dangerous, but also very very ineffective.
I cannot see how rocking back and forth is shaping your body. I can do that in my chair right now. I'd have to probably do it for 300 days out of the year, 20 hours a day, to see a minor result.

Which is what I'm trying to get at. In order to see a result of any sort on this machine, you'd have to be on it more than half of the entire day.

The gazelle is also not as space saving as Tony claims. In fact even folded up it takes up a hefty little space in the corner.
Also things get dangerous when you want to fold it up. If your not careful you can have one half of the machine come smashing into your skin and pinching you, and ripping the skin. (Which has happened to me already)
The gazelle also has 2 small back wheels for you to move the machine to wherever you'd like. I like this feature, but this is another factor that leads to you getting your skin pinched. If you drag the machine from the wrong side, you'll get a pinch or rip to the skin again. YAY!!!! What a bloody mess!

The neatest thing about the machine, I suppose is when you get off. (If you've ever jumped on a trampoline all day then gotten off, it still feels like your jumping) well when you work out for a good 15 to 20 minutes on the gazelle, when you get off it feels like your still gliding. I guess this is cool. Sort of trippy.

Oh wait, I forgot, you get a plastic black water bottle too. It attaches right to the side of the machine. YAY! Don't you feel special now! Yes! So if you fill the water bottle up with anything but water... you will be gaining weight as you work out. lol.

Overall I feel as if the machine was a waste of $250. It's got too many issues that need to be dealt with.
I'm sure in due time, they will come out with a Gazelle turbo 2 or something to fix these problems. But even still, workouts are very useless.

If you're not sweating when you're working out, then your not getting an effective work out! That's always been my philosophy.