If you’re like many, the idea of spending 45 minutes running on a treadmill is equivalent to watching the grass grow or paint dry. Lets face it, unless you’re an avid runner, treadmills can be boring! Elliptical machines, on the other hand, provide you with the same great fat-busting cardiovascular and calorie burring workout, but offer a little more variety. Great for elevating your heart rate even in a light or moderate workout, elliptical machines are quickly becoming the gym’s most popular piece of equipment for aerobic exercise and weight loss.
One of the main reasons for this is its low impact on your joints. An elliptical machine allows you to replicate the motion of running without ever taking your feet off the surface, as you would if you were simply running regularly on a treadmill. Instead, the pedals of the elliptical machine lift with your feet, as though you are running in midair. Since your body has no impact to absorb, you eliminate all stress that would have otherwise been put on your feet, ankles, knees and hips. This makes the elliptical ideal for the older exerciser, someone with weaker legs joints or someone coming off of an injury.
But these machines are also highly sophisticated and programmable, allowing you to design your own workout program and track your progress on the detailed display console. Most machines offer varying intensity and resistance settings and can be programmed to alternate prior to your workout, creating the ever-effective interval training routine. The pedals on the machine can also move in reverse—working some muscles in a way that you may not otherwise have the ability to and adding variety to your workout.
Additionally, unlike a treadmill, elliptical machines have handlebars that provide resistance and work your arms in a motion similar to that of cross-country skiing. By working the upper body and lower body simultaneously, you increase your heart rate and get in a mega-fat burning workout.
Working your heart, core, calves, glutes, quads and upper body while varying intensity and adding variety to your workout, for the non-runner, an elliptical machine is not only just as effective as that boring treadmill workout, it is also much more fun!
