Electric Pedal Exerciser,Seated Elliptical Machine Cardio

I’m really pleased with this motorised under desk elliptical cycle as it’s allowing me to exercise more than I’ve been able to for a while. I’ve been living for some years with a very large, benign, abdominal tumour – I’ve had one form of treatment to try and reduce the size without an operation but this didn’t make as much difference to me as hoped and I’m on a waiting list for full surgery. In the meantime, it’s very difficult for me to exercise as the tumour is pressing on my spine and internal organs, causing pain, nausea, and other complications. Even walking is difficult as this bumps the lump into my spine and triggers attacks of sciatica. When I spotted this low impact exerciser, I realised that this was something I could do sitting down, leaning backwards slightly so as not to compress the lump into my internal organs/spine and with a soft pillow at my back.

The cycle is very easy to use. It’s not too heavy to move around, and has a neat, robust, inbuilt carry handle. It can be stored vertically to save space when not in use. There’s even an inbuilt storage space for the remote control. The cycle has five different powered settings, going from a sedate walk through to fairly brisk. I’m using it at the fastest setting, and it’s enough to elevate my heart rate a bit – which is more than I’m able to do when walking, so this is a bit improvement for me. It’s set to run for half an hour at a time, but you can always do more/less depending on your stage of fitness/need. This can also be used without powered function, but this needs more pressure and I can’t manage it without sitting/leaning forwards – which doesn’t work as well for where I am currently. Maybe when I’m rehabbing after my op!

This is really quiet to use – you can run it in a room around other people without it being overly noisy or intrusive. There’s just a gentle background whir.

For me, the fact that this has a remote control is really useful. I struggle with bending: it’s painful and makes me feel sick, so using the controls on the cycle itself is awkward. The remote requires 2x AAA batteries (not included) and is simple and easy to use. The quality of the remote could be better, it does feel a bit lightweight and low quality plasticky, and the white finish kind of looks cheap – but does show up well against the cycle, so you don’t forget it’s there.

The biggest negative I have found to this is that when it starts up its default seems to be to go backwards rather than forwards. It’s easy and quick enough to change this as there’s a direction button both on the cycle itself and on the remote control, but it does seem counterintuitive that this is how it functions.