Elliptical workout using arms only?

eemott

I see some women at my gym who will stand flat on the sides of the eliptical and use their arms to push the arm bars of the machine without actually getting on it. I'm curious...what is this supposed to do? Does anyone reccommend it?

DavPul

They have an arm spinney thing at my gym.....for people that don't have use of their legs. I won't say that those ladies are wasting their time, but whatever benefit they think they are getting I'm certain they are barely getting or could be achieved much more effectively with a barbell or some such

DopeItUp

Sounds like a wonderful waste of time.

taiyola

Sounds like a wonderful waste of time.

:bigsmile:

halleymw

The only thing I could think of is they have some type of problem with their legs and can't physically workout their legs. The legs are some of the largest muscles on the body, and the purpose of doing aerobic exercise would be either to a. lose weight or b. increase cardiovascular health. Bothof which are accomplished much easier using the larger leg muscles. Of course, you could always aske the person nicely hey, what kind of stupid exercise are you doing anyway? I mean , excuse me, but that exercise looks interesting. What are your goals in doing it?

Mike

Graelwyn75

I would not be so quick to stick your noses in the air at doing this. Those things can be pretty hard to push at a higher level, and can cause muscle fatigue with enough repetitions. The same with the rowing machine. I use both between weights sessions.

pamelak5

My guess would be some kind of rehab. I used an arm-bike type thing when recovering from a shoulder injury, per PT's orders. I also busted up my foot and cardio was hard to come by, so I could see using an elliptical with no arms in that situation.

DopeItUp

You should ask them next time. I am envisioning a response like this "I'm trying to tone up my arms but I don't want my legs to get too bulky".

Then you can do something like this:

Booksandbeaches

Are they senior citizens?

If not, perhaps it's some type of physical therapy or rehab exercise following an illness or injury. You don't know what their medical/fitness history is. Some people can look like they're healthy, but may have issues that are invisible.

I also haven't ever seen that at any gym I've been to.