Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Ho-Lee Smokes! I haven't seen any real reviews on the M7 so I'll add my .02 and hope this helps some folks out. Bottom line before details: This seems to be a high quality piece of equipment and worth the hype/reviews. Not hard to assemble yourself with clear directions, but still a good 90 minute to 120 minute job. Unless you're incredibly pressed for time, or incredibly un-handy, assemble yourself - not hard, you'll have pride of accomplishment, and a tiny bit of an idea of what to do if something goes wrong, or if you choose to return the unit. Here we go: 1) We (okay, I) ordered the M7 because i wanted the best - the bells and whistles - performance wise from my research this is pretty much the same as the M3 and M5 - on a tight budget you could likely get the same results, just less bells, whistles, bands of resistance, and programs. Anyway: I ordered the unit on a saturday afternoon. and then told my wife. and she was nearly ready to kill me, but said whatever i wanted - after tax but with free shipping and a free mat it was about $2,300 clams. The unit arrived wednesday afternoon, and the nice FedEx driver was good enough to leave it in my driveway where it then got rained on. a lot. My wife couldn't move the main boxes (no problem moving the small mat box!) so she covered the boxes with ripped garbage bags to act as a makeshift tarp. I got home a few hours later - the cardboard was already soaked in areas - ugh. she helped me move the two heavy boxes into the garage and out of the rain - fortunately, it appears everything was well packed and dry. the smaller box was heavier - my estimation about 100 pounds, the "lighter" box a little less. it's much different carrying or moving a soggy cardboard box, than a 100 pound barbell. Anyway, the good news is the heavier box had most of the metal pieces, and we were able to get the parts out and into our basement. next came the slightly lighter box, that mostly had the main unit, and just a few more pieces. the little pieces were easy, the big boy did NOT want to come out of the box - the bottom was bolted to a square piece of plywood, and the top was stuck in styrofoam and held in place with cardboard tubes. It was a hassle to get the beast to the basement - but we ultimately did, box and all. some more maneuvering, and finally we had all equipment in the assembly area. EVERYTHING was packed well, and there was no damage in shipping. The parts were in a blister pack, neatly labeled, and as a nice touch there were some spare parts (labeled as such) as well - nice! some parts were a tad harder to tighten than others - particularly below the cup holder on the electronics console. EVERYTHING takes longer than you think - but that's alright if you're not pressed for time. i planned to use my cordless drill, then forgot to bring hex bits, so i just used the tools provided which were fine. I had to be a tad of a gymnast to hook up the electronics console - i held the console with my left hand, and with my more nimble right hand/fingers i manhandled the two electrical connections (with the fear they'd fall into the main body tube) but it only took a few minutes (felt longer) until i had satisfying clicks. getting the leg tubes on was a pain - a rubber mallet would have felt better than banging with my palm, and on one i had it angled upwards, so when the time came to bring it down the arm area was in the way - i had to coax it apart a bit to bring the leg bad down - don't follow my bad mistake. anyway, the only time i needed my wife's help (and maybe not then) was early on, to lift the unit onto the base (i didn't want to scratch the base). so, figure assembly time as mentioned about 2 hours. by then, i was a sweaty puddle of general tiredness, and close to my bed time. i strapped on the included heart rate monitor - the strap was difficult to lock back together - i have about 4 others without issue - anyway i powered up, and finally got on the beast after programming my weight. i got on...and it felt nice. didn't hurt my bad back (saw chiropractor 4 times this week) and didn't hurt my bum knees. i sort of went all out - and within a minute i thought i was a goner - i dialed it right back down, the sweat was previously pouring off me and continued, and i felt the muscle burn in my thighs. WOW. my wife has been going to HIIT training, etc. and is in better shape than me - she texted me, and i quote (and i'm editing the curse): Holy S 5 minutes. I'm going to die" that's praise. this thing is no joke. i texted something back, and she wrote "I was soaked after 5 min. Out of breath too. And I work out" She has a rebuilt knee from an accident - i don't more than that from her - however, i told her i was going to try manual tonight, try to go 10 or 14 minutes, and keep my heart kind of low. This is a marathon, not a race - so i want to build up. I will say, this morning my thighs weren't sore (i was surprised) and ditto my ankles. My back has been a disaster all week, but i don't think it hurt it any. Other folks have said how hard this (or the M5 or M3) are - and i have no ego involved at this point. I'm about 100 pounds heavier than when i was a long distance bicycle rider, and terribly out of shape. I decided i'm NOT going to do cardio at the gym - never have, never will. We have a nice treadmill that i HATE - i hate running and lately treadmills have been bothering my ankles. I was going to get a rower -- and still might. I have a Bowflex Power Pro Gym that I bought about 20 years ago - and I used to use it a lot, and haven't in ages. I just suspended my gym membership. The Max can potentially do a lot, but not help with the weight lifting part - i can see myself doing a quick full body workout (or specific parts) on the Power Pro, and then hitting the max for the sorely needed cardio. I may update in the future if i have anything to add. I will say the motion was nice and didn't hurt - as most of the reviews i read had stated. It's a shame there's no way to try these out first, and yeah, i'd have liked to have compared to an M5 but truthfully, for the few hundred dollars more i wanted the better display, better handles, and the performance "coaching" this is supposed to have. I get bored quickly, and i didn't want to get rid of another Nordictrac type of investment (yeah, sorry i got rid of my Nordictrac years ago, but never used it) - the promise of 14 minutes as a workout was a major factor, and the fact that i needed to build up will now create a challenge for me. I hope this was helpful. Feel free to ask any questions.