What Is A Freestride Elliptical? Benefits of the Nordictrack Freestrider

What is a Freestride Elliptical?

Curious about the Freestride elliptical trainer?

A lot of people see this new type of elliptical trainer from Nordictrack (called the Nordictrack Freestride Trainer or the Freestrider) and wonder – what exactly IS a Freestride elliptical anyways?

Not to worry. This post will explain exactly what you need to know – and list some of the top benefits of this Freestride trainer as well.

So let’s dive in.

What Is a Freestride Elliptical?

The Freestride elliptical trainer is basically a series of ellipticals from Nordictrack that offer you an advantage over traditional ellipticals.

What’s the advantage?

You get a completely adaptable, adjustable stride of up to 32 inches!

First of all, let’s look at a traditional elliptical machine.

With a standard elliptical you’re usually stuck with a fixed stride.

Stride is the furthest distance between the two pedals. It’s basically designed to mimic your running or walking gait.

Most well-designed ellipticals come with a fixed stride length between 18 up to 20 inches. Cheaper crosstrainers can be 14, 15 or 16-inch strides.

The problem?

Different people feel most comfortable with different stride lengths (depending on their height, body mechanics etc).

If you get a trainer with a less-than-optimal stride length, you may feel sore after your workout or uncomfortable even during your workout.

Another problem with traditional elliptical trainers?

The fixed stride means your body can quickly adapt to the one set repetitive motion. You can add in more challenge with resistance and incline – but you’re still just repeating the same motion over and over. With time your body will get more efficient.

The Freestride trainer gets around this by letting you change up your stride. You set the stride and running path by how hard and in which direction you push the pedals.

So you can do short, up-and-down strides, longer jogging strides or even longer sprinting strides if you want.

By constantly change things up, your body finds it hard to adapt. So you end up getting a more effective workout.

That is, in essence what a Freestride elliptical does – and why it’s so popular.

There are currently 2 different Freestride elliptical models. They differ based on the console size and incline options. But you still get the famous adaptable stride of up to 32 inches on both of them.

Click to Compare All Nordictrack Freestriders

More Freestride Elliptical Trainer Benefits

There are a few more benefits to the Freestride elliptical.

The first is that if you have multiple people in your home, you can all find the most comfortable stride for your body frame and height.

So this makes it a great option for multiple user homes.

Another benefit?

The new Freestride trainers offer you full-color, HD, touch-screens where you can go online, connect with iFit (Nordictrack’s online streaming service) and run trails all over the world or even take a new fitness class from your trainer every day.

While streaming options and interactive tablet screens are becoming more common with high-end ellipticals, it’s still a nice thing to find them here as well.

You have a better chance of using your trainer and enjoying your workout if you’re actually engaged and getting personalized workouts to your trainer.

The final benefit is one that most people don’t catch.

Because of the design, the pedals ride on belts rather than rails. This means you don’t have the wheel-track design out behind you (as you do with a standard front-drive trainer).

These wheel-track designs (seen above) can get dusty and – if not cleaned regularly – can sometimes result in the wheels coming off the track or breaking.

So you don’t have this extra headache to deal with on the Freestride elliptical.

Bottom line?

If you’re looking for a more advanced type of elliptical with the freedom to choose your own type of stride and running gait, you may want to check out the Freestride ellipticals.

They give you several benefits over the standard elliptical. This includes a more effective – and enjoyable – workout.

Want to learn more? Check out the link below to compare all current models direct from the Manufacturer (with Free Shipping).

Click to Compare All Freestride Trainers

Related:

Freestrider Vs Max Trainer – Which is Best For You?

Nordictrack FS10i vs FS14i Freestride Trainer Comparison