Treadmill vs. Elliptical

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  • scrappy25
    scrappy25 Posts: 77 Member
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    Elliptical is lower impact BUT for the women out there, you need impact to prevent osteoporosis- so walking, running, weights, etc. Elliptical, swimming , and biking will not help with osteoporosis although they have other great benefits. So mix it up, as others have said!
  • abnerner
    abnerner Posts: 452 Member
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    I like the treadmill at an incline.
  • jroselive2012
    jroselive2012 Posts: 129
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    I prefer the elliptical and arc to a treadmill. Like someone else said, there's less impact and you burn more. However, I do have my own cheap treadmill at home and am thankful for it when it's too gross to run outside and I'm too lazy to get dressed and go to the gym. :) Anything is better than nothing at all.
  • mrsyee313
    mrsyee313 Posts: 8 Member
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    I use the cyber arc trainer at the gym, set to 100% resistance. I weigh. 127 and in 60 minutes it says I burn 850 calories. I always just assume its lying and I use the 550 Mfp gives me when I say elliptical for an hour. I do not have a heart rate monitor y et... Fr those of you who have them, how accurate do you find the arc trainer to be? I definitely get. A good work out but seems to be too good to be true

    Also, I use a treadmill to walk on an incline, only. I have run on them like six times in my life and fallen off twice, I. Don't consider those to be good odds...
  • djc315
    djc315 Posts: 585 Member
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    I find it interesting that people say the elliptical is easier on your knees. I have a dislocating knee cap, the elliptical KILLS my knee. I can feel my knee cap getting stuck and then popping out. Bikes do the same. For that reason, I jog/walk. I'm working up to being able to run, my first goal is to just run a mile without stopping (jogged one today, 14 minutes, slow, but, it's something) And now I will work on that for a little bit then add distance. I don't really care about time.

    But for me personally, treadmill or running outdoors is better. I prefer to run outside.
  • deckerp
    deckerp Posts: 4,365 Member
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    I find it interesting that people say the elliptical is easier on your knees. I have a dislocating knee cap, the elliptical KILLS my knee. I can feel my knee cap getting stuck and then popping out. Bikes do the same. For that reason, I jog/walk. I'm working up to being able to run, my first goal is to just run a mile without stopping (jogged one today, 14 minutes, slow, but, it's something) And now I will work on that for a little bit then add distance. I don't really care about time.

    But for me personally, treadmill or running outdoors is better. I prefer to run outside.
    I think it depends on the type of knee problem you have. I had a torn ACL and torn meniscus. The knee surgeon said there was lots of cartilage damage too. He recommend I not take up jogging.

    It's hard to evaluate what works well for a person before you buy. Maybe a gym would allow a short try out membership and you could audition treadmills, ellipticals, stationary bikes, and other equipment. Then you could shop with some confidence.
  • Brittaura
    Brittaura Posts: 29 Member
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    I prefer the elliptical b/c then I can work out my arms a little bit too, I find it more challenging especially when you switch it up every couple mins and go backwards or something. But I hate the treadmill b/c I feel like the sound of my feet hitting the platform sounds like a baby elephant on a rampage, so I'm biased lol!
  • camiann585
    camiann585 Posts: 30 Member
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    Reason to use treadmill over elliptical: http://www.shape.com/fitness/cardio/how-inaccurate-are-calorie-counters-gym
  • Cindy393
    Cindy393 Posts: 268 Member
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    Reason to use treadmill over elliptical: http://www.shape.com/fitness/cardio/how-inaccurate-are-calorie-counters-gym

    This is a great article--thanks for posting this!!
  • emmagreenie
    emmagreenie Posts: 11
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    Camiann beat me to it! I was also going to mention that you definitely shouldn't base your decision for one or the other on the calories burned. Though the calories counters are usually off in some way on all machines, ellipticals are practically known for always overestimating your calories burned by a quite a bit! That being said, I like using both. I usually use the treadmill 3-4 times per week and the elliptical 1-2 times. I do feel like I get the better cardio workout on my treadmill though!

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