Age 26 Why I Tried It To fit in more workouts without having to go to the gym Exercise has been a major part of my life since joining the swim team in middle school. In the years since, I’ve trained for and completed a triathlon, gotten hooked on home workout DVDs, tried my hand at bodybuilding, and dabbled in CrossFit. Not hesitant to try a new way to work out, when I came across the Echelon Reflect interactive fitness mirror, I was intrigued. The concept: These mountable mirrors allow you to browse through a variety of workouts, select which one you’d like to do, and then follow along with the trainer — all while watching your reflection.
What Is the Echelon Reflect?
Echelon offers two mountable fitness mirrors: the Reflect 40” and the Reflect 50” Touch. The one I tried is exactly what it sounds like: a 50-inch mirror that features a 32-inch HD touchscreen display. After mounting the mirror on a TV stand or wall, connect to Wi-Fi and use Bluetooth to sync it with your fitness tracker (if you want to see your heart rate and calories burned on the screen) or headphones. The mirror itself costs $1,599.99, and a subscription to access the mirror’s live and on-demand fitness classes is an additional $39.99 per month. It’s a steep price tag, but it’s worth noting that with many at-home fitness machines with live-class options, including Peloton bikes and treadmills, you pay one price for the equipment and an additional fee to stream classes and content. The mirror itself is a touchscreen, so when not being used, it looks like mirror. But when you turn it on, you can scroll through a variety of workouts while still seeing yourself in the reflection. The Echelon Reflect class subscription features 10 workout categories, including cardio, yoga, strength, and meditation. You can filter your workout options by instructor or length, with sessions ranging from 5 to 80 minutes. On-demand and live classes are also available. RELATED: 61 Gyms, Studios, and Fitness Instructors Offering Online Workouts Right Now
Here’s What Happened When I Tried It
The setup was not for novices. It took my fiancé and I a solid two hours to assemble the stand and affix the mirror. Many screws and other small pieces were involved. The first workout I tried was a short strength workout titled “Deadlift, Sit It Up.” The class description didn’t mention it, but I figured the 15-minute class would require weights for the deadlifts, so I grabbed my pair of 12-pound dumbbells. RELATED: The Best Exercises for a Stronger Back (That You Can Do at Home) The class ended up requiring three sets of dumbbells (light, medium, and heavy), but I was able to make do with what I had. The class stayed true to its title. I moved through round after round of deadlifts and situps for 15 minutes. I didn’t break much of a sweat, but I felt energized after the quick workout. The next workout I tried was a 10-minute class called “Intro to Meditation,” described as a series of flowing poses and sequences. The instructor spent the first few minutes explaining what meditation is all about, and then guided viewers through a few grounding stretches before settling us down to close our eyes, relax our bodies, and focus on our breath. I found it very relaxing. For my third class, I had planned to tune into a live Vinyasa yoga class. I set a reminder to join the class at 9:15 a.m., rolled out my yoga mat, and tapped to tune in when the time came. The class appeared to load for a minute or two, and continued to buffer. After about 10 minutes, I gave up. My internet connection was solid, and I’d never had an issue with any of the other classes loading. I tried again another day, this time tuning into a 20-minute “Cardio and Strength With Dumbbells” class. After a couple of minutes of loading, the instructor popped up and the class playlist started bumping. The only issue: I couldn’t hear the instructor. After a minute or two (during which she appeared to be talking with her production crew) her mic started working and the class started. We moved through five aerobic and strength moves, including high knees runs and dumbbell presses, before taking a water break and then repeating two more rounds. Despite the technical difficulties at first, this class ended up being my favorite of those I tried. I definitely broke a sweat and felt like I’d spent my 20 minutes well. Technical difficulties aside, it was helpful to be able to see my reflection throughout the entire workout and match my form against that of the trainer. I always worry that home workouts lend themselves to form errors, so having this visibility made me more confident in my workouts. RELATED: Can Yoga and Meditation Reduce COVID-19 Anxiety?
Three Things I Liked About the Echelon Reflect Mirror
Although the Echelon mirror left me with mixed feelings, here are a few of the mirror’s features I liked:
It offers all sorts of workout options. The Echelon Reflect offers a wide variety of classes, many of which don’t require equipment. Though I opted for more difficult classes and have some equipment at home, I admired that both myself and a beginner (like, say, my mom) could put this mirror to good use.Many classes are short. If you’re tight on time, you still have plenty of classes to choose from with the Echelon mirror. Many classes are 15 or 20 minutes long, so you can easily squeeze in a quick sweat any time.The platform is easy to navigate. If you’re not super tech-savvy or want a simple, straightforward experience, the Echelon mirror is easy to use. The number of class categories and workouts is robust, but not overwhelming, so you can find the right workout without too much digging.
Three Things I Disliked About the Echelon Reflect Mirror
I love the concept of fitness mirrors, but here are some aspects of the Echelon mirror I found frustrating:
I experienced glitches galore. In addition to the technical difficulties I experienced with live classes, I also noticed other glitches while testing the mirror. For one, the live class calendar sometimes listed classes on the wrong days. (Remember that yoga class that wouldn’t load? It was because the class was scheduled for Friday, but the calendar listed it for Thursday.) The mirror also froze and booted me back to the home screen multiple times throughout testing.Class descriptions aren’t that helpful. In addition to the class descriptions I came across that seemed inaccurate, I generally found myself wanting more detail about what I could expect from a workout, like what equipment I needed, what format it would follow, and if it included warm-up and cool-down exercises.Live classes seem few and far between. Although there seems to be no real reason to tune into live classes over on-demand classes (live exercisers don’t get shout outs as with several other live at-home classes), the Echelon class subscription generally offers fewer than 10 live classes per week. And on some days there were multiple live classes, meaning that other days of the week there were no live class options.
RELATED: 9 Things You Didn’t Know About Training Right for Your Body Type
The Bottom Line
As much as I love the idea of having a whole library of workouts at my fingertips without having to leave home, for me, the Echelon Reflect didn’t deliver an experience worth the high price tag. Given the cost of the mirror and the membership, I found the classes to be rather low-quality. (Full disclosure: I tried the mirror for a two-week test period for the purpose of writing this article and did not pay for it.) In some classes, I could barely hear the instructor over the music. In others, the display was fuzzy and I could barely make out the instructor. In multiple workouts, the instructors also seemed unsure about the workout they were coaching, fumbling over the exercises we were supposed to do next or the explanation of the actual workout format. While I do think the mirror could make exercise more comfortable and accessible for beginners or people who don’t have time to get to the gym, the quality of the content doesn’t match the price tag. I’ve found that home workout DVDs or streaming subscriptions deliver an equal or greater home workout experience for a fraction of the cost. If you don’t want to spend a dime, YouTube is literally a black hole of workout videos of all kinds you can follow along with right from home. RELATED: Everything You Need to Know About Working Out at Home Important: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not Everyday Health.
