2007-05-23

Orbitrek vs Orbitrak

Recently I wanted to buy an aerobic exercising machine.

After doing a lot of research on the Internet and reading user reviews, I finally settled to buy an Orbitrek Platinum. One of the key decision factors was that it's yet another implementation of well known Ellipical Trainer.

The original Orbitrek had some scary reviews: that it is falling apart. Probably this may be due to poor assembling, but still good enough reason for me to be doubtful. However the newer version known as the Orbitrek Platinum, which also has been around for a while, didn't seem to have this problem and the reviews were good.

So here I am, looking around to buy an Orbitrek Platinum.

First I went to Teleseen Marketing in Majestic City. They were offering the Orbitrek Platinum, but the old one was also available. Then I checked with Himalayas, which was only a few blocks away on the same floor, and to my surprise they also were offering both the old one and the Platinum, but the price of the latter was several thousand rupees lower (about 60% of the one at Teleseen)!

The cheaper one at Himalayas didn't have any reference to "Thane", the company that made the Orbitrek. By some luck I happened to notice a subtle difference. It was not Orbitrek, but "Orbitrak"!

I didn't buy either and did some more research to find out that the "Orbitrek" is the real one and "Orbitrak" was probably a fake.

So I went ahead and bought the Orbitrek Platinum from Teleseen.

Later I noticed so many advertisements and signboards selling the "Orbitrak"!!!

If cost was a problem to buy the "real" product, and if I have a choice between a fake product and a lower quality product, I would go for the latter. Why? Because the fake product developers try to get the looks right to match the real one without much attention to the inner workings, while the low quality product may have done some research to get the inner workings right.

9 comments:

Jack Point said...

If you are using this gadget regularly in two weeks time i will take my hat off to you.

Most of the time these things just gather dust. They are never touched once the novelty wears off.

I don't think much of these gadgets either, badly built they are not very compfartable to use. Far better if you join a gym.

Anuradha said...

I totally agree that most of these exercising machines just gather dust. But believe me, this is an exception.

When I was doing long distance running few years back, my schedule was about 100km per week. And I never missed my day's part. There were times I returned after 9 to the University hostel, and went to the grounds to complete the day's run in the middle of heavy rains. My friends used to call me insane. ;-)

But the returns were not bad. I finally managed to break a longstanding four-minute-kilometre barrier finishing my last 10k race in 36 minutes.

In a similar spirit, my wife uses this Orbitrek Platinum very regularly. First we were thinking of starting with a well known build up programs in the Runners World (example), but later decided to do something simpler: to start at around 10 minutes a day and gradually build up by one minute a day, until we reached 30 minutes.

Our present plan is 30 minutes a day, 6 days a week, and it has been going on for the last two months.

And just doing exercises for 30 minutes is not enough. You also need to record various things, such as the pace, heart rate, and from time to time measure improvements (e.g.: doing a Coopers test occasionally), and probably plot graphs, and introduce a bit of weight training at some point.

Yes, it takes a lot of courage and spirit to sustain these kind of activities, and most people don't. But it's not difficult to be an exception. :-)

Anuradha said...

One more thing. Nutrition is also important. For example, doing any kind of aerobic exercise for 20+ minutes means a lot of irons leaving the body in the form of sweat. The easiest way to get them back to the body is by drinking something like "Jeevani" before, during and after exercising.

Most endurance drinks are providing exactly that. But home-made Jeevani with a bit of orange flavour is just as good IMHO.

Hakim said...

Ur still that fitness freak? Gr8 2 hear frm U man :-)

Dilan Jayawardane said...

How much did you pay for yours? bought one for my parents from Bandara and sons today for 12000RS, while it does say Orbitrek, it has no references to Thene. How much did you find the fake one for?

Btw, found your blog interesting. Drop a line if you'd like to get in touch.

Anuradha Ratnaweera said...

Hi dj,

I bought mine just under 20k from Telesene Marketing. The one seemed to be around 12-13k.

kit said...

Anuradha....your blog is quite helpful for me since i was looking to buy a Orbitrek Platinum.
BTW will you recommend that or do you have any other cardio workout machines?
when did u buy that machine? how long are you using it and how about the outcome?
Cheers!

Anuradha Ratnaweera said...

@kit

There is a new version of Obitrek - I think it is Obitrek Elite.

I think Obitrek is a better buy than many other "as seen on TV" products, because it is yet another Elliptical Trainer, a class of well tested cardiovascular machines.

So all elliptical trainers should be based on the same principle, although their fine details, build quality and ergonomics will make them different.

We bought it more than an year ago. My wife uses it for 30-45 minute workouts 3-5 days a week. She also uses it with a Polar heart rate monitor, and keep most part of the workout in the 70-80% range (not in the 60-70%, or so called "fat burning" range), and she also touches the 80-90% range from time to time to convert the workout to some sort of an "interval training".

I am not used to in-house cardiovascular workouts, and don't think will get used to either. It's a psychological thing and nothing to do with the machine.

kit said...

Tks Anuradha.. the info is quite impressive.
Cheers!