The Spirit XE295 is a midrange cross-fit trainer with plenty of features to help improve your cardiovascular fitness. It also includes a terrific extra feature: display lights that indicate how strenuously you are working specific muscle groups, allowing you to alter your exercise according to what areas you want to strengthen. However, it lacks a couple important options for customizing your workouts, as found on the world's best elliptical machines.
The muscle-activation profile on this elliptical exercise machine shows you how much exertion you are putting into working your hamstrings, thighs, calves, pectoral muscles, arm muscles and buttocks as you exercise. The LCD console displays green lights for minimal effort, amber for medium exertion and red for heavy exercise. You can easily see what muscles you are working the most and increase or decrease your efforts according to your particular fitness goals.
You cannot change the incline on this elliptical, and its stride length is fixed at 20 inches. Many people find that 20 inches works for them, but people with shorter or longer strides may find this uncomfortable. Additionally, adjusting the incline would be a simple way of creating additional resistance and changing your workout routine so it doesn’t become monotonous.
The Spirit XE295 has easy program controls, with 10 preset workout programs and 20 levels of resistance to make each fitness routine more challenging as you build strength and endurance. This is an adequate selection of presets, but the best ellipticals have many more preset options.
One great feature of the XE295 is the program controls on the motion handlebars. This means you can change programs, adjust resistance levels and save custom settings without breaking your stride or letting go of the handles. This model also has a set of stationary handlebars with heart rate monitors included. For better heart rate monitoring, use one of the best fitness trackers, which are also designed to monitor your calories burned and more. You can find discounted trackers on sale in our round-up of the best Amazon Prime Day Fitbit deals.
You get an excellent warranty with this elliptical machine. It has a lifetime warranty on the frame, a one-year warranty for labor and an exceptional 10-year warranty for parts. This parts warranty length is extremely rare in the world of elliptical trainers. If you need information or assistance, you can contact the company via email or telephone. You can also reference the online manual for this elliptical and check the website’s FAQs section.
You get a relatively small number of preset workouts with the Spirit XE295 Elliptical, but you can adjust these by changing the resistance levels. You can track your heart rate by either grasping the stationary handlebars or using the wireless chest strap monitor included with this machine.
The LCD console offers a great deal of information so you can work steadily toward better fitness with this well-designed elliptical, despite the lack of some convenient adjustment options, such as for the incline and the stride length.
