DeskCycle Ellipse Under-Desk Elliptical Trainer Reviews and Giveaways

I have now had DeskCycle Ellipse for a couple of months and I wanted to talk about the things that I liked and disliked about the product. Now, there are really two takeaways that I want you to get from this article. One is that this is arguably the best under the desk fitness product you can buy as of right now. Number two is that you can actually get a really good workout from using this.

DeskCycle Ellipse Under-Desk Elliptical Trainer Reviews

Before I had thought that it was just something you could do to burn calories at work, but it’s actually a good thing to do if you want to burn calories at home or really any other place. It is the best under the desk fitness machine for a couple of reasons. There are under the desk bikes that you would think would work great, but your knees won’t actually fit under the desk when you use them. This is something that is very easily overlooked when you’re looking for something that will fit under a desk. This will fit under desks as short as 24 inches. When using it, your knees so much more of a forward and back motion than an up and down motion, which uses much less space.

The pedals move smooth and almost silently, which is perfect for an office setting. Your coworkers will hate you if you are peddling away on something that is loud and obnoxious. You need the pedals to move as smooth as possible because the goal is to be able to work your legs while not being distracted from your work. If you have a machine that is clunky or awkward feeling, you won’t be able to use your full attention on what you happen to be doing.

LCD display

The LCD display can also be detached so that you can prop it up on your desk. The display will also show revolutions, time, RPM, and calories. This is super important because, on your typical under the desk machine, the display will actually be on the machine or on the device, and so you have to look underneath your desk to be able to see it, which obviously doesn’t make much sense.

It’s also compatible with the Kensington lock so you can secure it when you are in a public workspace. It also has a padded handle so that you can carry it around. You can carry it around a kind of like a briefcase. It is pretty heavy, I wouldn’t recommend transporting it often.

Supposedly, according to the company, using the DeskCycle Ellipse at it’s lowest setting, which is very easy on my add, its feel pretty natural and you can move it pretty quick. The company says it burns the same amount of calories as standing at a desk, and I’ve done the standing desk in the past. The ellipse is way more comfortable. Standing all day can really start to hurt. You might burn more calories, but it really is kind of, it gets to be pretty hard on the joints.

Initially, I was very skeptical of how much of a workout I would get with it. I actually can get a much better workout than I had ever thought before. I thought it would be a cool way to burn calories when I was sitting at my desk, but I was shocked at how nice it was. I was shocked by how nice it was to actually just have it in my living room in front of the couch.

If I wanted to stop working and simply use it to burn calories, I could just sit there and work up a small sweat. In fact, even with my exercise bike being in the same room, I frequently ended up choosing the DeskCycle Ellipse while I was watching TV. It just feels much more natural and it’s easier to use.

Levels of resistance

There are eight different levels of resistance. I actually never make it past level six out of the eight just because that’s a pretty good workout by itself. I’ve noticed that if you kind of change your position such as leaning forward, you can actually feel in other muscles such as your abs.

At it’s the lowest setting, you can use it. It seems like you’re putting almost no effort into the pedals, which is great. It doesn’t distract you at all while you’re working. This is important because if you have it higher to the point where you kind of have to put in the effort to each stroke, it really does distract you from your work and you aren’t able to put 100% of your effort into that.

It was only built for use while sitting, so you can’t step on it like your typical elliptical. To be perfectly honest, it’s super strong so, while I wouldn’t recommend it, I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t break if you were going to stand on it. But you’re not supposed to, and I don’t recommend it, I wouldn’t do it.

Use the pedals in different ways

You can use them both forward and backward, which utilizes different muscles. The pedals are very long. You can put your feet kind of towards the front or towards the back. If you have them at the back of the pedals, you get kind of more of a push and pull type of feel. If you put them in the front, you kind of more of a circular like a feel.

Nice thing is, it’s very weighted down and grippy so that it doesn’t slide around at all when you are using it. I know that was a concern I had before when I was looking into getting one of these. It does not move really at all. In fact, if you have to adjust it, you’ll be able to see right away that you have to use a good amount of force just to kind of pick it up and slide around.

It also comes with the free web-based activity tracking software. There’s also an iPhone app that just came out. It’s actually super simple. Basically, you just enter in the numbers that you see on your display and it’ll give you kind of a better prediction of how many calories you’ve burned.

To be honest, it can be kind of tedious to put all of your numbers in one by one. It would be much easier if it were just kind of automatically sent from the machine. There is an external, or they say they’re going to have an external Bluetooth interface soon, but my old didn’t come with it and it’s not out as of now that I know of.

Highlights

Now, I’d like to go over some extra things that I’ve learned from using the DeskCycle Ellipse. First, this sounds kind of silly, but the biggest problem we actually had with it was that we trip over it all the time in the dark. It’s heavy and it hurts when you stub your toe on it. It’s not very tall, so when the lights are dim or if you’re in the dark, it’s very easy to step over it.

Now, we kind of, the chair we chose to put in front of a kind of was in the middle of the living room, so it was very easier for us to trip over it. If you wanted to put this next to a chair or a couch that is kind of on the perimeter of the room, obviously this won’t be a problem at all. And this isn’t a make it or break it a thing for us, it’s just something we had noticed.

Next, it’s pretty heavy. By no means is this a flaw because it needs to have a good amount of weight so that it can resist moving around on the floor when you are using it, though it is pretty easy to move with a nice padded handle. Keep in mind that it is still pretty heavy, I wouldn’t move it every day. That would be kind of bothersome. Just keep in mind, it’s nice to move it somewhere and keep it there for a while.

Now, if you’re looking into getting the ellipse, you’ve probably come across the Cubii Jr., if I’m writing that correctly, which is another popular under the desk device. I saw it when when I was doing my searching for what I wanted to have under my desk. I’d like to kind of take a brief moment to just compare the DeskCycle Ellipse to the Cubii Jr. and explain why I ended up going with the DeskCycle Ellipse.

First, DeskCycle’s been around for a very long time. They have a couple of other products that had been very successful in the past. Cubii Jr., from what I understand is that definitely a newer company and they’re kind of, they’re brand new to the market. I figured going around with the company that’s been around for a much longer time was a solid choice.

They’re about the same price actually as of right now, though I don’t know firsthand. Supposedly, the DeskCycle Ellipse is supposed to be much smoother, and it also has a much wider range of resistance, which is important if you want to have the option of being able to have a tough workout or just using it lightly when you’re at work.

Summary

The DeskCycle Ellipse also has a display that you can remove and put on the desk, which the Cubii does not have that I know of. The pedals of the Ellipse are also lower to the ground, so there’s this decreased chance of bumping your knees on the table when you use it.

I hope this gives you a good idea of what it’s like to have a DeskCycle Ellipse. In summary, in my opinion, it’s arguably the best under the desk fitness machine you can get and you can actually get a fairly decent workout while using it.