How It’s Made: Unveiling New Cardio Equipment Line

|

Life Fitness has done their homework when it comes to redesigning a cardio line that has been a reliable fixture in facilities
around the world for two decades.

That’s why when Life Fitness started planning the new Integrity Series they asked customers and exercisers for input. What do
they like about Life Fitness Cardio Machines? What would they like to see added or changed? Life Fitness knows their products pretty well, but so do the hundreds of thousands of people who interact with them on a daily basis. They’re the real MVP’s.

So, thanks to some valuable feedback from our fan base, a few changes to Integrity. Here are a few examples of the changes made.


CROSS-TRAINER FLEXFORM PEDALS

The Situation – Cross-trainer innovation isn’t a thing of the past. Typical pedal surfaces provide a neutral angle through the elliptical motion, and once the exerciser finds a comfortable foot position, they tend to keep their feet static. This continued contact on the ball of the foot can lead to a condition called transient paresthesia or numb foot as constant pressure leads to slight impingements of the nerves.

The Solution – To help alleviate this condition, Life Fitness developed a crowned pedal shape that allows the foot to make rolling contact with the pedal. The crown shape allows exercisers to naturally roll their foot on the pedal and remove some pressure from the ball of the foot.

The Result –100 hours of surveys, exercisers stated the crown design felt enhanced comfort during their workout.

EASIER ACCESS FOR SERVICE

The Situation – Through conversations with maintenance professionals around the globe, the most common request were asked to make servicing treadmills quicker and easier. Integrity Series has been relied on for rugged durability and for 2023 Life Fitness have accepted the challenge to make it more streamlined and robust.

The Solution – Extensive development was done to reduce the components in the treadmill drive system and assembly. Fewer components equal less moving parts and greater reliability. A simple assembly design also allows for easy access for maintenance staff on key components.

The Result – Overall hardware by 30%. Plastic shrouds are easier to remove, cutting down drastically on the number of fasteners. These small improvements add up to a treadmill assembly that reduces the amount of service needs and makes them quicker to perform if they do occur.


C CONSOLE REDESIGN

The Situation – 50 commercial customers were interviewed in 13 countries around the globe and each provided one consistent message, “make it simple.”

The Solution – Integrity Series cardio equipment is found in busy facilities that serve a wide variety of exercisers. Integrity Series customers expressed a need for their exercisers to get on and go, so when designing the new C console for 2023 the goal was clear, make navigation easier.

The Result – 60% of control buttons removed and brought the most used exerciser experiences front and center, which provides for a more inviting and approachable design.