not bad

The Body Champ Vertical Stepper Climber is a fantastic addition to my workout space - otherwise known as my kitchen ;-). A personal setup can fill in for the times I can't make it to the gym or yoga studio due to the demands of a young family. The Body Champ offers many other advantages: It's not as heavy as a treadmill; is a more balanced, stable, and effective workout than a mini stepper; is affordable; easy to build; powered by you (no electricity required); and provides a varied workout in both form and intensity.

Don't let the building instructions intimidate you. The drawings are detailed, but not complicated. The parts and tools are all labeled in the shrink-wrap packages. The equipment is labeled with "R" (right) and "L" (left) stickers for easy placement. It took me just under an hour to put this together. A really interesting feature of this design is the squared-off underside of the bolts that slide into and are held by the frame while tightening the nut (see pix.) Not only does this feature eliminate a screwdriver, but it also keeps the bolts from loosening due to the machine's vibration from your motion.

I placed side-by-side 5mm yoga mats under my climber for traction and noise reduction. This vertical stepper comes with one resistance setting, but you will feel the burn after only 15 minutes of climbing. With this unit conveniently located in my kitchen, I can get in a quick 15-20 minute workout while my kids are having breakfast or doing homework. The Body Champ is a great purchase for a quick total-body workout.

About the assembly: I used a Crescent hex bit socket set (better than a manual allen wrench set) and this saved the day for me while putting this thing together. I'm 61 and a woman, so without those tools, I'd not have had the strength to get the bolts tight enough. It took me about 2 hours although I did get interrupted once or twice. A regular socket set also comes in handy. I bought both from Amazon.

The parts are labeled and the instructions are good, yet one piece I put on upside down. The first part of the assembly instructions say you need two people but I was able to manage to get that part done without help. It was a bit of a juggling act but wasn't that hard really.

After I got it put together, I gave it a trial run"¦and I like it. My heart rate was up pretty quickly, which is something I really needed. The pedaling was smooth and there are a couple different places to hold onto depending on your height. I'm 5'3" so I appreciated that.

It reminds me of riding a bike up a hill, where you have to stand up to get more power to pedal. I'm 61 so my left knee was iffy but made it okay. The different places to hold onto helps with that. I do this in my bare feet and the pedals are not comfortable though, that is my only complaint. I now have to wear shoes or flip flops because it became too painful. Also I have to be careful or my knees hit the center piece, but that could be an adjustment I've yet to figure out. And there are no instructions about using the machine at all, that I could find.

The screen in front of you gives you the time, count, calories, and reps/min, depending on which criteria you want to keep track of.

So noisy !! Not what I expected I wish it had an option for tension control !!

I'm not a welder but I am a machinist and I've looked at lots of welds. The welding on this machine ranges from decent to excellent. I have seen far worse welding on many products, including (yikes!) bicycle frames. The painting also seems durable and the various fasteners are at least adequate in quality. The assembly tools included were not so great, but I managed to get things together OK using them anyway. If you have a socket wrench set and properly heat treated allen wrenches handy, I recommend you get them out.

Assembly took at least an hour, but could go faster with real tools. I looked at the pictures but did not really follow the sequence of the instructions. I felt that putting the "feet" on first made the machine more stable as I worked at later stages.

The machine looks slightly light in construction in the photos, but ended up very solid. it also takes up quite a bit of space. The exercise it provides does not involve great muscular effort or fighting against any great resistance, yet is fairly strenuous in its own way. You can hold the stationary bar and give your legs and butt a bigger workout, or you can grab the upper handles and let your arms take over much of the work. You can continue each stroke until the machine clunks to a stop, or fairly easily learn to stop just short of the clunk. My wife wanted this machine to help her get into shape after our baby is born next month; I think the machine will serve her well. I weigh 205 pounds or so, and I do not seem to be damaging anything.