Good, but some mechanical frustrations ...
I'd read reviews on this product before selecting it from among similar products. My notes are as follows:
ASSEMBLY NOTES:
1) Most indicated that assembly was difficult because of poor instructions. Provided you're reasonably competant and careful, it's not that bad. I only had to go back and re-do one step because I'd used the wrong bolt in the wrong spot. There was only one major snag (see below) but this may have been just a fluke. All in all, I was done in a couple of hours, including interruptions from the kids.
2) This is difficult to explain, but the cables used to move the leg braces were too tightly wound into the ratchet to hook on according to the directions. I ended up having to disassemble the ratchet entirely to unwind them far enough to hook on. That was a real pain and certainly not covered by the instructions. However, I was still done in less than two hours. It just took a bit of swearing and the courage to stray from the instructions a bit.
3) Again, difficult to explain if you don't have the thing sitting in front of you, but ... there are two oval-shaped braces that come up off of the leg pieces. They keep your legs from sliding off to the front. those oval pieces can be removed and inserted into any of three positions along the leg piece depending on how long your legs are. On mine, the cushion overlaps one of the holes (the one I need, naturally) and the oval piece won't slide in right. Not a big deal. I'm sure I can get it in there, but I haven't fooled with it yet.
USAGE NOTES:
1) Now that it's set up, I find that I really wish the thing had a mechanical way to get your legs back together. The ratchet works great for pulling your legs apart, but once they're there you have to get them back together on your own. With your legs splayed out like that, you can't really exert any inward pressure. You end up having to push your knees together with your hands. Not perfect, but it works.
2) The leg pieces aren't quite wide enough in my opinion. If you imagine those leg pieces like tables, you put your legs on them and as you stretch your legs will tend to move forward on them. At the extremes, even though those oval pieces keep your upper leg from moving much, your heels will tend to come off the ends of the leg pieces. A better design would be to have those leg pieces wider at the far ends with more padding towards the front.
OVERALL ASSESSMENT:
This was the least expensive option and it does what I want. I didn't pay for bells and whistles and don't mind that I didn't get any. I've never owned one before, so I have no basis to compare with other machines of this type. Given that it does exactly as advertized, no more, no less, I give it three stars.
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