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Update:
I wanted to update my review now that I've been using this for quite some time. I cannot believe I have a full home gym and I have done almost nothing else but use my treadmill since buying this...I have to FORCE myself to do any strength training now and even when I do I only do part of one and then get on the treadmill... I love this thing! I can't wait to use this each day...if you have a "down" day and then you decide to draw a route on Google maps taking you through a bad part of a New York and then Central Park, it changes perspective! Last night, through Google maps, I ran on the sidewalk beside a homeless woman sitting beside her cart under a blanket, then a woman dressed to the nines walking her poodle, I passed buildings and vans covered in graffiti and then I did a workout through beautiful Central Park and saw gorgeous trees and looked at the stunning sky scrapers...and I felt quite fortunate and realized my worries are nothing and the good scenery lifted me as though I was on vacation. Time FLIES when I workout like that! It's people watching without ever being seen and without ever leaving your house and you never know what's around the next corner! I run through tunnels in New York without fear of traffic or worrying about safety or carrying money or getting cold running through mountains in Colorado, and carrying no keys either! I can run through Hawaii and never get hot. I run in Beverly Hills and admire the stunning landscaping and beautiful shops. I run near the Grand Canyon. I LOVE Google maps!! I feel like I take a vacation every single day while working out! When you are on the street, you can choose "street view" and it looks like you are right there on the real street because you are, through Google maps. If you draw a map over a forest, it switches instantly to a bird's eye view setting when you look down on the land like a treadmill God or something! LOL. Even if I watch TV I keep glancing down to see where I'm running...it feels like being outside somewhere new each day for my run, yet enjoying TV and airconditioning at the same time. If this isn't a motivator, I don't know what is. I ran up the mountains yesterday and the treadmill automatically adjusts to the real topography and the incline was SO steep! The roads were marked as "closed during winter" on the mountain I mapped out. It was gorgeous! You can also choose "World Tour" and ifit will map out great routes for you...like Rome, Hawaii, Death Valley, Central Park etc. I've worked out on treadmill after treadmill and machine after machine and never before has it been FUN until now. --it's so addicting no one knows what they are missing til they get it as it's just not advertised well. I love passing vendors selling wares in Paris, or a speaker in the park in England...I'm just blown away of where I "vacation" each day. I don't want the workout to stop!
Original review:
Look, I was already in love with my treadmill and I thought it was fine on it's own. I spent days trying to figure out what the heck ifit really was that it mentioned hardly at all in a hard-to-read flyer enclosed with the treadmill as well as on the Amazon website about the machine. The website said vague things such as "You can map out a route anywhere in the country, including a 5k route you plan to be a part of, and run it on your treadmill via Google maps. Imagine the advantage that will give you!" I thought to myself "Absolutely none, viewing a map will do nothing for me. How silly." But I ignored this pitch and was, instead, a sucker for the workouts I was reading about with Jillian Michaels (no thank you to the workouts with Elizabeth Hasselbeck) on the ifit site so I bought the ifit wifi--a module only compatible with a few manchines, of which my treadmill is one. (ANd this module incidentally is way cheaper on the ProForm site then anywhere else I saw it, including on Amazon (and I do compare everything) I'll get to more about the workouts in a minute but first let me touch on this part of ifit:
GOOGLE MAPS:
What this REALLY does is you can look at a map on street view...the street scene-- on your notebook computer or ipad, which sits comfortably in a slot on my machine OR some machines have the screen built in to the machine...the graphics I'm sure are better if you have a machine where you are viewing it straight from the computer though. My ipad works great on my tredmill to view this. The wifi module connects your treadmill or elliptical or whatever to the wireless internet site of ifit. My computer screen showing the info is perfect but it's not built in to my treadmill. I have the Proform 995) You can have the map zoom in wherever you want on the earth. I first picked Paris. Then I sketched out a route I felt like running with my finger (or mouse). I picked any random street because I don't actually know Paris streets. Then you upload it with a click to the machine via the wireless wifi. So get this, I begin running and I'm running down this street in Paris not from satellite view but ON the streets. Since Google has a van that tapes the streets through most of the world, it utilizes these BUT it also utilizes the terrain maps so THE INCLINE ADJUSTS AUTOMATICALLY AS THOUGH YOU ARE RUNNING THE REAL STREET IN EVERY WAY! Now, it's not flawless; the images aren't rolling like a film (this could be what she means by images but this has nothing to do with the workouts, just Google maps and those images are up to google.) but more like the videos (sorry for this analogy) you see when there is a camera in some bank and a crime and they are showing it on tv, but of course this has better color graphics...they have slight gaps in between the images so if you passed a person you might see them in one step and then the next image flashes up and they are sitting down on a bench. But it's still fun when I'm watching tv and running to look down and see where I am in Paris NOW on that street or highway, and if I run faster, how much faster I get to the end of that street--while enjoying the view of the shops and cafes I passed along the way! If you are training for a race, you aren't training by looking at a map but training in the comfort of your own home to the incline of the route too! I thought there was no way they would have my parent's street on there as it's a small town but sure enough, I mapped it out on the map and I was running past their house! One image flashed to night time and cars were coming at me on this busy street. Next street I turned on it was daytime again---it doesn't do it via real time, but pretapings from Google. Kind of funny. I can then name that map "Parent's house" and simply touch that route to do that one again rather than re-mapping. I can also race myself next time I run it and see if I can run my folk's neighborhood in less time. I have a steep hill by my house...I ran it on my treadmill!
RUN IN YOUR BRA WITH STRANGERS:
Okay that got your attention. I do run in my workout bra and shorts at home. I don't choose to do this out of my house though I know some do--but it sure is cooler. Not only can you run with friends and race them if they have ifit (you pick the route and see your images and times as you all run the route on the screen, no one actually sees your image at home) but ifit also has it's own races and prizes. Not confident to run a 5k? Here's your incentive. You can pick workouts that train for a 5k in 8 weeks or whatever. There is a countdown on the ifit website and then wirelessly all machines signed up will find themselves in a location (the one coming up is in Central Park) You will then get to run a REAL race with all entrants timed while seeing and feeling the inclines of Central Park, and prizes are things like $1,000 or fitness wear. Yet you never leave your home and your cup of water is always handy. This was advertised nowhere. I found it after I bought the ifit wireless module and that's pretty cool.
YOUR ACTUAL CALORIE COUNT AND PROGRESS:
With the ifit wireless module that is compatible with this machine, you have a private account with a password (your spouse needs never know you put on those last 5 pounds, he can have his own account free on the same module with his password) Here you type in your height and weight and age etc. Now when you run, the machine reads out caloric burn that is quite accurate. I wear a bodybugg to measure my true caloric burn and surprisingly this did not overcompensate as many machines do, it was very accurate. If you don't have the ifit module, the machine still gives a ballpark calorie burn but it was higher than I burned because it was an average of what is burned in that time period at that speed not knowing if I'm male, female, petite or big. This also gives me goals to meet. Monday my chart showed I made 107% of my goal in working out via working out a bit more but I have to keep going to meet my target for the week. It is an incentive.
GET JILLIAN MICHAELS TO TRAIN YOU, DIRT CHEAP.
Here is a poor selling point on the ifit website. I thought for sure, reading the whole site, I had to buy the ifit module then I had to purchase each workout I wanted after that. There are workouts for sale all over the website but apparently it's for some older machines that didn't have the wifi module. Because it did mention some workouts with the ifit wifi I thought I'd wait and see what I got with that (if any) then buy the other workouts later. Had I known all workouts were FREE when I bought this after I paid for the module, I would have snapped it up even sooner. Everything on the site is explained as though you are already familiar with it rather than explaining what you get and what it does. So here's what it does:
I pick my level and training program on the ifit website and then what workout I want. I chose...Read more›
Click Here to see more reviews about: Proform Ifit Module
With the iFit Live Wireless Adapter, you can have workouts automatically downloaded to your fitness equipment. While you're exercising, your workout stats are uploaded to your iFit Profile in real time, helping you keep track of your workout progress. After a quick and easy set-up, you simply plug the module into the console of your iFit Live compatible fitness machine and iFit Live Technology does the rest. Advanced technology that is simple to use!
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