New Life Fitness Lifecycle Recumbent Bike

Great new design features on the Life Fitness Lifecycle Recumbent bike, models RS1 & RS3. See the new technology and how you can sync your workouts on LF Connect with your phone.

Watch Craig & Hut’s video review:

 

Hut: This is Hut Allred of New Wave Fitness, here with Craig Lewin of Busy Body and Fitness HQ. We’re here in Dallas at the Fitness HQ location.

Craig: We are, yes, Preston & Forest Fitness HQ. Definitely one of our best stores, one of our nicest-looking stores. We invite you guys to come in and check it out. We’re excited to go over some new product with everybody.

Hut: Great! Tell me about this location. What type of product brand do they sell at this location?

Craig: Not only do we have one of the best looking managers here at this store, Andrew Zier,  phenomenal. You guys have got to come just to check him out. But all jokes aside, the product lines that are in here are phenomenal. We’ve got Life Fitness, which is really our staple piece, Cybex, Hoist, Landice. They really do just an amazing job and the quality of the products is phenomenal.

Hut: Very high end. So speaking of Life Fitness, there’s a new product out.

Craig: There is, and that’s what I felt like we should talk about today. I was really stoked about this. Life Fitness has done an unbelievable job. They’ve come out and totally redesigned their exercise bikes. Their recumbent bikes now have made huge leaps and bounds over what they’ve done before and I’m just really excited to go over it with you guys.

Hut: That’s great. You sound like you’re excited.

Craig: I was pretty pumped. I’m still pretty pumped. Not just I was; I am.

Hut: Tell me about this bike and the difference between this bike and this bike.

Craig: They did a couple models. One is called the RS1; one is called the R3–just depending on the price point we want to get into. The biggest thing I want to point out that these guys did this year is they went to a walk-through design, which was huge. If you notice, it’s all cut out in the front here. It just makes it very easy for people to get on. It’s very simple for them to do that.

Hut: So they’re not having to lift their leg to get over.

Craig: Exactly. It’s really, really easy. And they made it simple for us to choose between two things. Number one, you’re going to pick the frame–RS1 versus RS3. Number two, you’re going to pick how many features you want on the console. There are two different consoles–a Go Console and a Track Console.

Hut: They’re both heart-rate interactive, correct?

Craig: Both of them are heart-rate interactive. You can wear the chest strap that it comes with and it will pick up your heart rate and adjust resistance to keep you in your target zone.

Hut: A lot of people find that feature awesome.

Craig: It’s probably the most important feature on any piece of exercise equipment. Monitoring your heart rate is huge with working out and really getting the results that people want.

Hut: So just to be clear, you could go on these machines, set your target heart rate where you want to train and the machine is going to work to keep you in that zone?

Craig: That’s exactly right. And to kind of go over the differences between this machine and this machine, the first thing with the base of the machines is the fact that the RS3 is going to have a little bit of a fancier seat. The front-to-back adjustment is a little bit nicer. It’s got a mesh back on here too so it’s pretty comfortable.

The other thing too is you can adjust the back. There’s a lever here and when you push this lever, it’s all hydraulic and literally you just do this and it comes back and forth, which is nice. So you do have some extra adjustment on that, which definitely makes it a lot more comfortable.

When you go from a Go Console here (which is still phenomenal) to a Track Console (which is actually their most popular selling), what you’re getting now is just a lot more interaction. More programs are built in. The coolest thing is, they have this app, LF Connect, where you can download the app on your phone and all you do is put it in here. You can now track all your workouts. You can sign in on LFConnect.com. Let’s just say you were using other Life Fitness products at the hotel, at the club; you can pop it in there, track your progress there. It’s all interactive.

Hut: So if you’re a techie, then that’s a great feature.

Craig: I think it’s a great feature to have on there. I think the big thing too, even if you’re not super techie, is that they’ve made it so easy to do now that even the novice person can get the Track Console and download it and they’ve made it really, really simple.

Hut: That’s one thing I’ve noticed about a lot of these apps–they’re very user friendly. Ten years ago when we started doing this with Fitcorp–Busy Body and Fitness HQ–it didn’t exist. It’s way more efficient these days.

Craig: I think the idea with Life Fitness too is with the Track Console, it can grow with you as things progress because they can come out with different programs, download them into LF Connect, and then you can pump them right into the console. You could also then create your own workouts that you want and also download them back into the console. The idea is, you’re not limited. You can really grow with this console. It’s got the iPod feature, you can listen to your music, plug in your headphones. That’s what you’re getting. But just so you guys know, you could put this console on this frame if you don’t feel like you need all the extra stuff back there.

Hut: You don’t need the seat adjustment…

Craig: Vice-versa. If you want the seat adjustment but don’t need all this, you can put this console on this one. They’ve done a good job. Life Fitness has really hit it out of the park, making it very easy for us, very sellable. I’ll tell you what’s amazing. Sit on this bike for a second. I just want you to pedal on this bike and listen to something for a second here. I just want to show you something.

Hut: Oh!06_June_14_LifeFitnessLifecycle

Craig: These bikes are completely silent, and that’s what’s amazing. It’s super, super smooth.

Hut: And this one doesn’t have power.

Craig: Exactly. When you bump up to the RS3 you actually don’t need power; it’s self-generating on the inside, which is fantastic, so that just makes it so easy for you to get on, go, it’s smooth, it’s quiet. The biomechanics are phenomenal. You notice how thin the shrouding is through here? Life Fitness really figured out that making it nice and thin in the front like that would allow our feet to come closer together and alleviate any pressure in our hips. So that was really a genius design that they’ve done. We’re excited about the product; it’s pretty awesome.

Hut: Great, well, that’s Life Fitness. If you want to come and check it out, come to the Dallas location or the other locations.

Craig: Any of the Fitness HQ stores will have the new, awesome Life Fitness products on their floor.

Hut: That’s Southlake, Fort Worth, Lewisville and Frisco.

Craig: That’s right.

Hut: Great. Come check it out. Andrew here at Dallas will show you around this equipment at this store and if you need any help, we’re here to help and look forward to seeing y’all next month. Thanks, brother.

Craig: Thanks, man.