Benefits of an Elliptical Trainer

| What are the Advantages of an Elliptical Machine » »

Thursday, April 10th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed

Go into almost any gym these days and you will see row after row of shiny new elliptical machines, but the big question is: What are the benefits of elliptical training over conventional cardio training? One of the oldest and most tried and true tools of cardio training is the treadmill. Elliptical training has many outstanding benefits over training on a treadmill. The first is that elliptical training is truly a full body workout, while treadmill training is primarily focused on your lower body.

The arm workout on an elliptical significantly increases the calories burned per hour on the machine, so you can spend less time working out and more time doing other things, if you train for fitness on an elliptical. Likewise, elliptical training is gentler on your joints. When running on a treadmill, each step exerts many times your body weight upon your knees, legs, hips, and feet.

As you get older and older this continued damage adds up. An elliptical machine has nearly no impact on your joints. You are not stepping down so you are not exerting the same downward force on your lower body. Instead because of the swinging motion of an elliptical, the energy and stress is used by your muscles and tendons, which is the goal of every workout.

Elliptical Training Versus Stationary Bike

Another tried and true method of cardio training is the stationary bike. Bikes provide a very good way to get a strong lower body workout with very little impact. Unfortunately, bike training does even less than a treadmill for your upper body. The less muscles you use when doing cardio exercise, the less calories you burn.

The fewer calories you burn, the longer you will be on the machine. Although riding a stationary bike has very little effect on your joints, it is not any less than an elliptical. With far less return on the number of calories burned, it should be obvious what the benefits of elliptical training over stationary bike training are.

Elliptical Training Versus Stair Master

They are very similar, the stair master offers the same full body workout as an elliptical but with a good deal more punishing effect on your body. Both offer extreme calorie burning, but where the elliptical has very little stress on your body, a stair master creates quite a pounding on your muscles and joints. If you already use a stair master and are trying to get the same workout without the all the pain, try an elliptical machine.