Want better results???? Ditch the elliptical and......

manic4titans

(1) Cannot afford gym fees; (2) Cost of one of those machines is OVER $2,000 and up to around $5,000; 3) I moved from my lovely home to this nice two story apt. building for those over age 55. I'm on the 2nd floor and our building has an elevator BUT... I'm taking the stairs a lot more these days & wearing my FitBit.

(4) Climbing the stairs, regularly, for fitness is FREE
(5) I keep my car in the parking garage under the building. Now, when I come in with groceries, I don't use the elevator to haul them upstairs in one trip. I carry them up and make as many trips with the bags as necessary. To begin with, carrying a heavier load up the stairs helps burn more calories AND.... I'm getting my flights of stairs in for fitness for the day.
(6) I'll be 75 in early December this year. What's your excuse?

AWESOME!

giggitygoo

I totally agree that the stair machine is a better workout.....


However, the elliptical can give you a good burn too! You just have to crank up the resistance. Level one is basically just swinging your legs around.

lorenzoinlr

I use both, get my heart rate up the same on both, find them about the same in terms of exertion. The step mill is a more macho, for sure.

monty619

NOt sure if you just mixed up your terms..but a stairmaster is much different than a step mill. Stairmaster is pedals..and you can choose how deep or shallow a step you take. Its easy to cheat those machines and take "rabbit steps", which don't really engage your quads/butt much. A step MILL is a mini escalator. Actual stairs..and they're deep, so you can't cheat it by taking baby steps on it.

in that case there is a brand of "step mill" that is called a stairmaster... i think you might have it backwards?

megsmom2

Can't use a stair machine much...my knees are already damaged and stairs just hurt. The elliptical doesn't hurt.

Sheilav330

I use the elliptical most times at the gym..due to the fact is easier on my knees...but sometimes i mix it up spend half time on elliptical and the other half walking on treadmill high incline i can't run at all never could but it works for me

tsh0ck

Ditch the elliptical. Ditch the gym. Get some kettlebells, a jump rope, and a bike. But if you are going to keep wasting money on monthly gym dues, then yes; the stair mill will kick your buttocks.

when I try to do this at home, I fail. too many excuses to not work out. when I have the gym environment, and the knowledge that I am paying for that environment so I'd best use it, I keep going and keep going routinely. so definitely not a waste of money. not in the least. I mean, if I can't invest some money in getting healthy, what's the point?

as far as elliptical? I love it. if you don't get a good burn from that machine, you aren't doing it right. intervals. hills. racked up angle and intensity. there are lots of options to make it a calorie killer.

Chipmaniac

The stair climber feels like it's burning more calories but you get a higher reading on the elliptical. I do about 15-20 minutes on the stair stepper and I'm drenched in sweat. I don't even break a sweat on the elliptical until I'm about 30 minutes in..

That is why it's BS!! there is no way you can be gently exerting and burning so many calories. Step mill burns MANY more calories in actuality.Go be exertion and effort, not machine read out.

It depends. I think the difference is on the elliptical you control the pace. On the stair treadmill, it controls the pace. You are just along for the ride. A lot of the people I see on the elliptical are going super slow and at low resistance. Of course that's not going to do much for you. When I get on it, I mean business. I try to maintain 160 steps/min. This is double what most people are doing. I use my HRM religiously not to calculate calories but to gauge my fitness and how hard I'm working. At the rate I go on the elliptical, I'm getting my heart rate up in the 90% zone on the hard intervals. With the elliptical, you get out what you put into it.

FORIANN

The entire point of the elliptical is removing the stress of walking/running on your joints. You could argue getting the same results walking up an inclined treadmill. People do what they enjoy, the stair master does NOT give any benefits over anything else

Yep. More painful does not equate to 'better'. If I get on the elliptical, ramp up the resistance and get my heartrate up to 80% of my max for 45 min I still get a good workout according to my HRM. I still work in some running as any gym machine is a 'closed system' and that's not something you want to rely on completely for the potential unbalanced muscular development it can result in.

Chipmaniac

I agree the elliptical and MPF show crazy high amounts of calorites burned. I use the elluptical on my off day for training for marathons. The stair machines are killer. Too much for "rest" days for me. I would also say running burns more calories.

Actually the stair stepper burns more calories than running. So does biking and most sports.

This is simply not true. It depends on the speed you are running and the speed you are biking and a bunch of other factors.

wolfchild59

I finally got on the stair mill my last cross cardio night at the gym. Dang, that was a humbling and awesome experience.

When I first started working out I tried to run on a treadmill and couldn't go for more than a minute, so I switched to the elliptical. I could do 35, 45, 120, whatever, minutes on the elliptical doing intervals of medium to medium high resistance and giving it my all the whole time. I would break a sweat, but never a super heavy one.

After I'd been doing that every night for months, I decided I was ready for the treadmill, still couldn't do a minute (at around 4ish MPH) without feeling like my chest was going to explode.

I think I've been on an elliptical two or three times since then. Because that was when I realized that the elliptical must not be doing much for me. I then worked my way slowly up to running longer and faster and recently completed my first half marathon in just under 2:05.

On my cross cardio nights during my training I mostly did the ARC trainer because it felt pretty much like low impact running, got me a great burn and I could feel it in my legs. (which I never did with the elliptical) And I would see the people on the stair mill, usually dripping with sweat, and wonder.

So, I finally jumped on one this week. I cranked it up to the pace I normally go up the stairs to my building and very quickly discovered that that was not be maintained. I was sweating buckets in no time, could feel it in my legs the entire time and it kicked my *kitten* quite well in the 35 minutes I was on it. And I can't wait to get back on it for my 40 minute cross cardio night next week.

For me, running (at my full pace) burns the most calories. Followed by the ARC trainer, but the stair mill looks like it may be in a tie with the ARC trainer, though I need more goes on it to see how it stands up. That would be followed by the elliptical and the stationary bike (I despise the bike, so I doubt it gets my full effort the occasional times I happen to do it. heh)

Chipmaniac

I was always under the impression that the stair master builds butt and thigh muscles. I certainly don't need any of those... You're just using your legs to walk up stairs. Wouldn't a workout that worked multiple areas be best like with running (or the terrifying elliptical)?

The ellpitcal employs zero resistance really and "works" your heart some..but no real muscles.

That's just pure BS.

Why are people so fond of blanket statements around her? Reality is much more nuanced than people want it to be.

Nopedotjpeg

The fact that people are arguing about which cardio machine is "better" is immensely entertaining.

Chipmaniac

Ellipticals are actually good for people with bad knees, I burn and have lost a lot of weight using one, it does over estimate calories burned but with a HRM I still burn twice as much in the same time as the treadmill. So "ditching" the elliptical doesn't work for everyone...

The readouts are bs. elliptical does not burn more than treadmill..unnless you're walking on the treadmill and not really running. It's all about exertion. If you're on an elliptical and barely breaking a sweat, then run on treadmill and pour sweat and are panting with exertion..I don't care what the 'readouts" say...you're burning more when you exert more.

You do realize that the elliptical machine has a resistance setting, right?

TheFunBun

Mmm. Our gym has ellipticals with a ramp function. I prefer them to anything else not because they're easier, but because it's cardio. Pure cardio. I don't do stair masters or iron x machines because in order to get a decent percentage of your max hr, you have to turn the resistance up to ridiculous and it ends up feeling like endurance-style weight lifting. I don't like doing a thousand 3 lb curls, and I don't like endless staircase either. Much rather lift weights and then do pure cardio as needed

FORIANN

I was always under the impression that the stair master builds butt and thigh muscles. I certainly don't need any of those... You're just using your legs to walk up stairs. Wouldn't a workout that worked multiple areas be best like with running (or the terrifying elliptical)?

It will not "build up" your legs/butt to a large degree. In order to do that you'd have to do heavy weight training and follow a bodybuilders diet. Even then, women tend not to bulk up like men anyway. The ellpitcal employs zero resistance really and "works" your heart some..but no real muscles. I do run, as I'm training for a marathon now. i cross train with the step mill twice a week.

This literally did make me laugh out loud. Zero muscles....