Precor Vs. Life Fitness Elliptical – Which Is Your Perfect Machine?

Shannon ClarkLast Updated: August 10, 2020

If you are on the hunt for an elliptical, you may be looking at the Precor vs. Life Fitness and choosing between the two. The good news is that both are superior brands that will without a doubt, get you great results you are looking for.

But yet, it’s good to know the differences between the two as this can impact your overall user experience and which one you feel gives you the better workout overall.

Let’s dive into some pros and cons of the Precor vs Life Fitness elliptical trainers so that you can see the complete picture.

Let’s now look at this in a bit more detail.

Models In The Line

When considering the number of models to choose from in the line, they are pretty closely matched. Life Fitness does have a few less models at 11, versus 14 for Precor, however most people will be sure to find something they need with either brand.

It’s great to see these brands coming out with different models as this will be sure to help you find what you need at the lowest price point possible. Each person has unique preferences so an elliptical machine is definitely not a one-size-fits-all solution.

Drive Location

The next thing to consider is the drive location in the debate between Precor vs. Life Fitness ellipticals. Both of these lines do offer a rear drive option, so you will for sure get this well-built drive function.

One thing that’s unique about Life Fitness though is that some of their machines off side drive functionality, so if that’s something you’re looking for, you may lean more towards this brand because of it.

Built In Programs

The program options are one thing that many people look at when determining which elliptical to purchase because this can make a big difference in your overall user experience.

Having more programs allows you to tailor your workouts to your specific goals better, without growing bored.

While some people are creative enough and skilled with programming they just create their own programs, this isn’t the case for everyone.

Precor takes a huge lead here offering up to 25 different programs while Life Fitness comes in with just 16. Keep in mind not every machine in the Precor line-up will have 25 programs, but you at least do have that option, whereas with Life Fitness you don’t.

Many people will find that 16 is more than enough though and may feel that those additional 9 programs won’t even be used by them that often, so to them, it’s not an issue at all.

Incline Capacity

Thinking about the incline capacity is another smart move when shopping for a treadmill because this can influence the difficulty you’ll be able to achieve when doing your workouts.

Here, the Precor elliptical really takes the cake. With Life Fitness, you aren’t able to actually add any sort of incline to the machine, so you’re always left going at one stride length. With Precor, you can increase it up to 40%, so this puts you at a great advantage.

When you increase the incline as you do your workout session, it’s going to change the nature of stress on the muscle tissues, working different muscles to a larger degree. For example, a high incline will put more emphasis on the glute muscles, while a lower incline will work on the quads to and hip flexors to a higher degree.

So think about this when choosing your machines. If you want to build the most well rounded level of fitness, it may be very important to you to ensure that you are able to get on an incline. This could then rule out Life Fitness entirely for you because Precor is the only one (of these two) that offers this feature.

Do keep in mind with this though that having the incline feature does increase the risk of the machine malfunctioning. When it constantly has to move up and down on that incline, that’s a lot of mechanical activity and it’s not abnormal to see these falter with time. So you may have some maintenance costs associated with this feature, provided you do use it, of course.

Stride Length

The stride length is the next factor to think about when choosing between the Precor vs. Life Fitness Elliptical. The stride length will alter how comfortable it feel using these machines as it changes your range of motion.

Shorter individuals will typically prefer shorter stride lengths since it simply feels more comfortable to use while taller individuals will likely opt more often for a longer stride length.

Ideally you would be able to vary your stride length in a machine. The more basic machines with Life Fitness do have fixed stride lengths, however as you get up higher into their more advanced models, you’ll get adjustable stride lengths. So if you are very short or very tall, it may be completely worth it for you to move up a notch into these machines.

As for Precor, the elliptical crosstrainers they offer have fixed stride lengths, however most of their straight ellitpicals do offer variable so here again you get this benefit.

Max Weight

While most users won’t ever have to worry about the max weight limit, if you are someone who has quite a bit of weight to lose, it’s important to check into otherwise you could risk breaking the machine if it is used quite often.

Life Fitness appears to be the slightly more durable machine here with a maximum weight of 400 pounds while Precor has a maximum weight of 350 pounds.

Even if you aren’t tipping the scales at these levels, do keep in mind that this can also tell a story of how much stress that machine can take, so having that bit of extra max weight capacity may not be a completely bad thing.

Warranty

Finally, when looking at the warranty, we see that both brands 1 year labor but Precor offers 5-10 years on parts (depending on what it is), while Life Fitness caps at 5 years on parts.

So if warranty is a big concern for you, Life Fitness may be your better buy.

There you have the differences between these two lines and what it all means to you. Always remember that each person is unique so as you read reviews of these brands, don’t take them too seriously. Think for yourself as well on which brand you would enjoy most and which satisfies your fitness requirements.