World Cup winners Germany were famously the only team at the tournament to create their own purpose-built training base – and one of the secrets to their success was the use of Octane Fitness’ Pro4700 elliptical machines.

Pace Fitness, Octane’s distributor in Brazil, installed the commercial units on 6 June at the team’s training camp in the village of Vila de Santo André, on the coast of Bahia state.

The Pro4700 ellipticals feature electronically adjustable stride lengths from 18-26” to best mimic walking, jogging, running and moving backwards for users of any height. SmartStride automatically adjusts the stride based on the exerciser’s pace and direction.

Other features include the Converging Path and MultiGrip handlebars which allow for full-body engagement, and a variety of advanced workouts, such as 30:30 Interval, MMA, Constant Watts and Constant METs, which ensure that athletes benefit from variety and cross training.

Mark Lowder, vice president of international at Octane Fitness, said the Pro4700 machines provide “a great low-impact workout to maintain optimum performance during the athletes’ off periods”.