Ellipticals

Jessamine

Has anyone had a lot of success losing weight and toning via ellipticals? Does it do more than just tone your legs?

brismom070897

bump

arc918

My $.02 - with the elliptical you get out what you put in. It is really easy to hit go, move your legs a little and not work hard. You really need to put in the effort.

KristysLosing

I really like my elliptical. I feel I get a good workout out of it.

Sierra_419

i love the elliptical .. u kno u are doing it right when u are dripping sweat & still going. wish i had access to one like i use to .. my weight loss would be wayyy better

secretlobster

I did it, yeah. Ellipticals plus kickboxing workouts but the elliptical did help. As someone else said, it's all about the work you put in. You can certainly do a high intensity workout.

mrs_schultz2012

I LOVE the elliptical, but I also work hard at it. I agree that you get what you put in to it :happy:

kellybean14

I wear a hrm when i work out on the elliptical and usually burn about 8-10 calories a minute, so it's definitely doing something for me!

rosebudbutterfly

I love the elliptical

Anaconda62

My husband lost all his weight just watching what he ate and doing the elliptical. He lost about 50 lbs. He added strength training once he lost most of the weight. I mostly do the elliptical, but I am also doing strength training. I have lost 26 lbs.

WhittRak

Busting my bum on the Elliptical is something I actually look forward to.

artbkward

It's a good cardio workout if you do it hard enough to get your heart rate elevated for a period of time. As with any excerise, you get what you put in. I, personally, hate ellipticals, I will run on a treadmill any day before doing that.

lala11975

Definitely! But you do have to make sure you are sweating on it. I usally go pretty fast, and if I get tired slow it down for 30-60 seconds until I feel better and than get going again. At first you might be a little slow, but you must progress on it.

bfitnbfab

I have used the elliptical religiously for my cardio because I prefer the low impact on my knees. I'm an Army veteran who was used to running three or more miles for PT. Now I'm 42 and trying to keep all my limbs natural without needing to have any hardware installed. I find that an mp3 player full of great dance tunes or rock music and a good HRM will help you keep that intensity up. Also, there is no need to do more than 20-30 minutes on the elliptical as long as you keep you're intensity up.

emstaley4

I love my Elliptical. I agree that you get what you put into it, as with anything you do. When I first started I could barely do 10mins and now I can do an hour. I push myself, I try to stay 5rpm(revolutions per minute) higher than the target and use my arms to pull as well as using my legs. When I am done I'm soaked and my legs feel like jelly and I FEEL AWESOME. My husband, who works construction and is on his feet all day and is fit and has legs like granite, hates the elliptical cause he can't even do 5 minutes! So, it does give a good workout for your legs. It depends on your preference of which machine/machines you really like to use.

dougii

I use the elliptical for 60 or more minutes every other day and do intervals using different levels of resistance and steps/minute. You can wring me out when I am done. I love it and it is making a big difference in my overall weight loss and health.

KatieJane83

My $.02 - with the elliptical you get out what you put in. It is really easy to hit go, move your legs a little and not work hard. You really need to put in the effort.

Absolutely this!! I did lose at least 50 lbs using the elliptical as my primary source of cardio, you just really need to push yourself

myfitnessnmhoy

I use the elliptical for cardiovascular training. It's been my "go-to" machine for weight loss only because it is so low-impact and allows me to burn TONS of calories (I can vary the pace by how much effort I put in to it, so I can sustain a very specific heart rate without fiddling with controls or running the risk of falling off). I usually do a 45-minute burn keeping my heart rate up at the top range of cardio, and I can fit a lot of calories into 45 minutes.

I have found a bit of toning, especially if I set the resistance fairly high and turn it into a slower more strength-oriented workout. It's not as muscle-building as strength training, though. I'll quite often get on the weight machine and do a little strength training either before or after a cardio workout.

It does only tone specific muscles (though going on it backward doubles that muscle set!). The one I have access to has a fixed railing, so there's no upper-body workout. If you have access to one with the articulated/moving arms, put some effort into it upstairs and your results will be proportional to your efforts.

The elliptical gives you what you put into it, no more, no less. It's GREAT for building stamina which can support a variety of calorie-burning or strength-building activities.

migoi357

I've lost about 24 pounds since starting to use mine in late January. Mine is non-powered...in that there is no motor attached to the freewheel, just a battery powered display and computing unit.

Since the purpose of the elliptical is to provide a method for increasing my heartrate to a certain point for a certain period of time...it works perfectly. I can do that for the amount of time I want without beating my lower extremities up too much. I can take a nice 'jog' or a goodly paced 'run'. I can can do intervals by varying the resistance and speed.

It has worked well for me.

BTag3

The elliptical has been okay for me. It's a low impact workout but I noticed that I burn less calories than when on the treadmill. It could just be that I tend to zone or watch TV while working out and if you do that on the elliptical you may slow down and not notice it right away... if you zone and slow on the treadmill your *kitten* will be on the floor behind it. : ) My husband uses the elliptical all the time and he burns a lot on it, but he is an animal. I use it to change things up from the treadmill and just have to remember to really keep my legs moving and not slow down when a slower song comes on my ipod... keep the tunes on the faster beats.

AmyW4225

The last time around(before I got pregnant), I lost 38 pounds just using the elliptical. I put it on an incline and against resistance. I worked my butt off literally! Also, I noticed it really took care of my cellulite. Feel free to look at my pictures!

JPod279

The only cardio I do is eliptical. (I also try to do weights 2-3 times a week.) But, I make sure I crank the resistance on the eliptical. It may be gradual, but I get it up there. Today I started at 5 for 5 minutes, then went to 10 for 5 minutes then to 13 for 10 minutes then to 15 for 10 minutes. Then I decreased down to 10 for 3 minutes and then down to 5 for 2 minutes as my cool down. Today was a "light" day for me as I often start at 10 and go up from there. The max resistance on this machine is 20. I try to maintain a good pace and I ALWAYS use the arms. I have had good success. However, if you want to lose you should really work in a minimum of 2 days a week of weights.

mississippi_queen

Busting my bum on the Elliptical is something I actually look forward to.

Me too! I know it sounds weird but it's like i'm a glutton for punishment! Oh wait! I am :bigsmile:

SithZombie

^_~ Bump that elliptical up as high as it will go and have at it. The only cardio I do now is bike with my pups, rowing machine and the elliptical. If you want to 'tone', hit the weights!

JPod279

One more thing....I once read a statement that said if your legs aren't like jello when you are done then you have wasted your time. I don't agree with it 100%, but it is a good feeling to get off the eliptical and have to catch yourself because you are so spent. Makes you know you have just done some good.

myfitnessnmhoy

In my opinion the elliptical is an all-around great machine to get started with.

It's low-impact, so you don't tend to get sore knees and ankles from it (muscles, sure, but generally not a lot of joint pain).

It toasts off TONS of calories if you're willing to put in some sweat, and you can keep increasing your effort and hit a target heart rate to keep burning about the same number of calories.

You can safely close your eyes or watch a TV or something while using it, with less chance of disastrous consequences for inattention (unlike a treadmill which will turn you into a projectile very painfully if you screw up).

It engages far more muscles than a stationary bike, and you can tune most of them to different muscle groups (low incline for the legs, high incline for the glutes) so you can engage different muscle sets on different days - at least to an extent.

You'll probably want to work some strength training and/or other machines in eventually, but I think ellipticals are, maybe second only to swimming, the easiest and most approachable exercise for most people. I've been using it as my primary stamina builder/maintainer for years.

amytweedie

I love Ellipticals! my legs are a major problem for me as the weight goes there first but after a while on my elliptical i find it really makes a difference, not only that but my bum and arms too!

myfitnessnmhoy

The elliptical has been okay for me. It's a low impact workout but I noticed that I burn less calories than when on the treadmill. It could just be that I tend to zone or watch TV while working out and if you do that on the elliptical you may slow down and not notice it right away... if you zone and slow on the treadmill your *kitten* will be on the floor behind it. : ) My husband uses the elliptical all the time and he burns a lot on it, but he is an animal. I use it to change things up from the treadmill and just have to remember to really keep my legs moving and not slow down when a slower song comes on my ipod... keep the tunes on the faster beats.

That's both the advantage and disadvantage of an elliptical.

- advantage: inattention tends not to cause injury so you can zone out and be in a happy place while burning calories
- disadvantage: inattention tends not to cause injury so you can zone out and be in a happy place and end up slowing down without noticing it

I find that the right soundtrack helps. The soundtrack to the movie "Run, Lola, Run" has a backbeat that was built for keeping up an aggressive pace (since the whole movie is about a young woman running across town to save her friend's life). David Arkenstone? Not so much.

firstnamekaren

The elliptical has been my go-to cardio (in the gym) for years (when I actually WENT to the gym ) and I like turning the tv on, muting it, reading captions from tv shows and listening to my iPod for a good 35 minutes. I plan on doing this tonight! But I crank the resistance way up, choose one of the programs, and switch the resistant and incline every few minutes. It's a great burn.

bakatare2k

I have been doing the ellipitical for 30 min a day and also watching what i eat and have lost 32 lbs in 76 days. I agree that its what you put into it. I see people ***** about ellipiticals but its because they dont put any resistance and incline. Love them since i hate to run.

JaceyMarieS

I find that the right soundtrack helps. The soundtrack to the movie "Run, Lola, Run" has a backbeat that was built for keeping up an aggressive pace (since the whole movie is about a young woman running across town to save her friend's life). David Arkenstone? Not so much.

THIS THIS THIS! I love my elliptical and it's what i started with because it didn't bother my back - walking did. i would never make it through a session without really pumping music though...cannot watch TV or read