If you’ve been shopping around for some Life Fitness cardio products, you’ve probably run across a few unfamiliar terms in regard to the console. Life Fitness is one of the leaders in fitness and they’ve done so by constantly advancing and pushing the technological limits of fitness equipment. This means that they’ve consistently updated their consoles. The four main consoles are the Achieve, Inspire, Engage and Discovery. All of these consoles are still commonly found when shopping for used Life Fitness cardio equipment so it is important to be familiar with all of them. We will detail each console and all of their features.
Achieve Console
The Life Fitness Achieve consoles are the oldest among the consoles, but that doesn’t make it antiqued or outdated by any means. The console boasts a minimalistic LED screen and readouts. The Achieve has built in workout programs, depending on the cardio machine it is attached to, a wireless heart rate chest strap and heart rate related workouts.
Along with the programs, the console contains the following electronic readouts:
- Time
- Elapsed Time
- Time Remaining
- Time in Zone
- Time of Day
- Speed (mph/km/h)
- Distance
- Distance Climbed
- Distance Remaining
- Pace
- Heart Rate
- Target Heart Rate
- Calories
- Calories per Hour
- Watts
- METs
- Display Type: 7″ Touch Screen display with 3 LED workout feedback windows
- Workout Feedback Display: 7 LED windows
If you’re not too dead set on having a touchscreen or an array of connectivity options, the Achieve console is more than adequate for your everyday fitness goals.
Inspire Console
The successor to the Achieve console, the Inspire, is a huge leap in terms of entertainment and connectivity options. It has a full color touchscreen display that you can use to monitor and set up your workouts. Along with the touchscreen, the Inspire console also comes with a multitude of buttons used to control incline (if on an applicable machine), a Quickstart button and walk/jog/run preset buttons. There is even an Options Panel which allows you to plug in headphones, an iPod or even a USB to save and store your workout data. Of course, there is also a display to allow you to see fitness data such as distance, heart rate and calories burned.
Generally, most Achieve consoles only have 6 or so built in programs but the Inspire console increases this dramatically to 36 workout programs. There are a variety of different training options such as heart rate, 5k sports training, speed training, calories goal and many others depending on your fitness goals.
Entertainment wise, you can also attach a TV to any unit with an Inspire console. It also has iPod connectivity if you’d prefer to listen to music over watching television.
Engage Console
The Engage console is the latest top of the line console that Life Fitness offers. From the aesthetics alone, you can tell that this is a modern technologically advanced fitness console. Like its predecessor, it also has a touchscreen but this one is over twice the size of the Inspire. The Inspire’s touchscreen measures at 7” while the Enage is 15”.
Both the Inspire and Engage consoles come with 36 workout programs along with the convenient Quick Start option. For more detailed and accurate data, the Engage consoles also ask you for personal details (such as weight, age and gender) for more accurate fitness testing. While the Inspire had the option of connecting a TV to it, the Engage console actually has the TV built in. Television access is controlled through the touchscreen display and you can connect your cable television directly to the console. It also has an FM radio built in. Fortunately, you can still see your workout data on the screen below the television. The television also has iPod connectivity.
These are the main differences between the three most commonly found Life Fitness consoles on the market today. Remember that many of the cardio machines can accommodate more than one different type of console. We hope this helps you decide which fitness equipment is best for you!
