How to Choose a Cross Trainer

A cross trainer is a standing cardio machine with two foot pedals and moving handlebars that work your legs and arms together, without your feet leaving the pedals. If you've seen the word elliptical used instead, that's the same machine under a different name: UK retailers use both, and our cross trainer vs elliptical guide explains why.

Choosing one for a UK home usually comes down to four practical questions: will it physically fit the room, is the stride length right for your height, will the noise carry through a floor or a shared wall, and how much do you actually need to spend to get something that won't creak apart in six months. None of that requires knowing what a flywheel is before you start reading. Every term below is defined the first time it appears.

Footprint: how much floor space you actually need

Footprint is the machine's floor space once it's set up and ready to use, usually given as a length by width measurement in centimetres. It's the single most underestimated spec in this category: cross trainers photograph as compact but are often taller and longer in person than buyers expect, because the handlebars and the stride arc both need clearance.

Real examples from current UK models span roughly 105 x 65cm at the compact end (the New Image FITT Strider, an upright strider-style machine) up to 150 x 65cm for a full-size model like the ProForm Sport. That's a genuine difference: on a landing or in a box room, an extra 45cm of length is the gap between a machine that fits and one that doesn't.

Measure your actual space first. Allow a clearance gap front and back for the stride motion too, at least 30 to 50cm beyond the footprint figure, so your arms and legs have room to move before you start comparing footprint numbers between models. Our best cross trainers for a small space shortlist picks specifically for tight UK rooms.

Stride length: the distance your foot travels each stride

Stride length is the distance your foot travels forward and back during one full pedal rotation, measured in millimetres or centimetres on a spec sheet. It isn't the same as footprint: a machine can have a small footprint and still feel cramped underfoot if the stride is too short for your height, or feel awkward and lurching if it's too long.

Buying guides commonly use height bands to suggest a comfortable stride length: roughly 41 to 46cm if you're under about 5'3", 46 to 51cm for 5'3" to 5'7", and 51 to 56cm or more above 5'7". Even buying guides don't fully agree on the exact numbers: one common approximation is your height in inches multiplied by 0.25 for a comfortable stride in inches, but you'll see other guides suggest slightly different bands. Treat any of these as a starting point, not a precise formula. The only way to know for certain is to try the machine, or check reviews from owners close to your own height.

Stride length isn't the only foot-related complaint worth knowing about before you buy. Real UK owner threads report that the design of the foot plate itself, whether it's fixed flat, angled, or pivots as you stride, can matter as much as the raw stride number: one owner described the difference between models as "immense" for comfort, even at a similar stride length. Check owner reviews specifically for foot-plate comfort where you can, not just the headline stride figure.

Resistance type and noise: magnetic, air or electro-magnetic

Resistance is what makes pedalling harder or easier, and the mechanism behind it is also the biggest single factor in how much noise the machine makes.

• Magnetic resistance uses magnets positioned near the flywheel (the weighted wheel the pedals turn against) to create drag, adjusted by moving them closer or further away. It's quiet and needs little maintenance, which is why it's the standard choice on almost every current UK home model, including all the ones in our comparison tables.
• Electro-magnetic resistance is a motorised version of the same magnetic system: instead of a manual dial, a small motor moves the magnets, so you can change resistance levels instantly from a console button. It's still magnetic underneath, so the noise profile is similar.
• Air resistance uses a fan or flywheel pushing against air to create drag. It's the noisiest of the three and is generally not recommended for a flat or a shared wall, because the sound scales up with effort, exactly when you're exercising hardest.

Most manufacturers don't publish a decibel (dB) figure for their cross trainers at all. Not one model in our own comparison tables currently has a published dB rating. JLL, for example, describes its CT300 as "whisper-quiet" without giving a number. We label a manufacturer's dB figure "manufacturer-stated" whenever one exists, and never present it as something we measured ourselves (our full method is on the "how we compare" methodology page). Resistance type is therefore the most reliable proxy you have in the absence of a dB number: magnetic or electro-magnetic for a flat, air only if you have a detached house or a garage.

A retailer listing does sometimes carry a dB figure even when the manufacturer doesn't. Here's roughly what the scale means in everyday terms, so a number on its own isn't just jargon.

Our quietest cross trainers for flats shortlist picks the machines we'd actually put in a flat, based on footprint, resistance type and build quality together.

Flywheel weight: why heavier usually feels smoother

The flywheel is the weighted wheel the pedals turn against; it's what stores momentum and makes the pedal motion feel continuous rather than jerky. A heavier flywheel keeps turning between strides, which smooths out the stutter that light, cheap flywheels can produce, especially at low resistance settings.

Buying guides generally suggest aiming for at least 6 to 7kg for home use. Flywheel weight on its own isn't a perfect quality signal though: how smooth a machine actually feels also depends on the resistance mechanism and the build quality around it, so treat it as one input alongside owner reviews, not the only number that matters.

Budget: what £300 actually buys you

£300 is a real quality threshold in this category, not a marketing line. Feedback from UK buyer forums, including MoneySavingExpert threads, is consistent: machines priced well under £300 tended to rock and creak, while those at £300 and above felt noticeably sturdier.

Looking at current UK pricing across the models we track: the JLL CT300 (£270-£280) and the Body Sculpture BE7312G (£290-£300) sit right at that threshold, and both currently get a "good" fit rating for a flat in our tables. Move up to £400-£500 and you're typically paying for a heavier flywheel, digital resistance control, or a larger, more stable frame, as with the JTX Strider-X8 or the ProForm Compact Sport. Above £600, you're usually paying for connected training features (the ProForm Sport's app-linked programmes) or a different machine category altogether (the Bowflex Max Trainer M6 is a vertical HIIT-style trainer, not a traditional cross trainer).

Spending more doesn't automatically mean spending well for a small space: the most expensive model we track, the ProForm Sport, also has the largest footprint of any model here at 150 x 65cm, and is flagged as a poor fit for a genuinely small flat regardless of price. Our best cross trainer under £300 page has the full shortlist and what you get at each price point.

Folding and delivery: getting it into a small home

If floor space has to be reclaimed after every session (a spare room that doubles as something else, a small flat with no dedicated space), a folding model is worth the search. Genuinely folding cross trainers are still the exception rather than the rule: of the current models we track, only the Body Sculpture BE7312G folds down, from a 151 x 57.5cm footprint to 110 x 57cm folded, at a sub-£300 price.

Before you buy, also think about how the machine gets into your home. Cross trainers typically arrive part-assembled in a large, heavy box, and assembly difficulty varies a lot by model: budget machines in particular have prompted enough owner complaints about fiddly assembly that third-party assembly guides exist for some of them. Check the doorway widths and any staircases between your front door and the room the machine will live in, and read delivery and assembly reviews for the specific model, not just the general category, before you order.

Reliability and warranty: what to check before you buy

A cross trainer is a mechanical product with moving parts, and like any of them, some units arrive faulty or develop problems. What varies by brand is how the warranty support handles it. Trustpilot reviews for JLL, one of the most popular UK budget brands, include documented complaints about warranty support, ranging from delivery damage to at least one refused motor-warranty claim. That doesn't mean avoid JLL outright (its CT300 is still one of the most compact, keenly priced machines in this category), but it does mean the price advantage comes with a real, reported reliability risk that's worth weighing before you buy on price alone.

Before ordering, check: how long the warranty runs (parts and labour may differ), what the manufacturer or retailer says about assembly support, and whether you can find recent owner reviews mentioning faults or warranty claims, not just the star rating. Keep the box and your receipt until you're confident the machine is working properly.

Is a cross trainer right for bad knees, joints or coming back to fitness?

A cross trainer keeps both feet on the pedals throughout the movement, so there's no ground-strike impact the way there is with running or, to a lesser extent, a treadmill. That's the main practical reason it's often suggested for people with knee or joint concerns, or returning to exercise after time away: the motion is smooth and continuous rather than jarring, and you can control effort through the resistance level rather than impact.

This is general guidance about how the machine moves, not medical advice. If you have a diagnosed joint condition, or you're returning to exercise after an injury, check with a GP or physiotherapist before starting a new routine, and start at a low resistance and a short session length regardless of the machine you choose.

Will you actually keep using it?

The most honest question in this whole guide isn't about specs. The single most common complaint in UK owner threads about cross trainers isn't noise or price: it's that the machine ends up as, in one owner's words, "a clothes horse" within a few months of buying it.

There's no spec that fixes this, but three practical choices help:

• Put the machine somewhere you already spend time, in front of a TV or near a window, rather than a spare room you rarely enter.
• Pick a machine you can actually fit through your door and up your stairs without a battle (see the footprint section above).
• Be realistic about noise if you're sharing walls or floors: a machine you feel guilty using at 7pm is a machine you'll stop using.

If you're still not sure a cross trainer is the right category for you at all, our cross trainer vs elliptical guide is a good place to start. The two terms describe the same machine, and working through the comparison against alternatives often clarifies what you actually want.