Which do you find harder Elliptical or Treadmill??

I do the treadmill more than the elliptical, I feel I get a better workout and notice more toning. I hate the treadmill though, elliptical is easier

Elliptical is my favorite, and most days I do it for an hour at a level 5 intensity (3 incline). I plan to go up in intensity periodically. Comparatively speaking it burns quite a bit more calories than the treadmill, but all depends on level of intensity too. I say do what you like, because then you're likely to stick with it.

I can barely last a minute on an elliptical without my legs burning so much that I can't do it anymore, but I can easily do 15-20 minutes on a cycling machine, not sure what gives there... treadmill I'll use for my cooldown cardio after a weight run but I don't like the treadmill that much either...

Elliptical is much harder for me. I can get roughly the same calorie burn on either, especially if I up the resistance on the treadmill.

I find the elliptical ungainly and awkward for myself, I know quite a few people swear by it. I don't ever see myself using one, even if it was worth twice as much caloric burn as the treadmill. :laugh:

I absolutely HATE I am so short and the lenght of the stride is very uncomfortable for me

I am also short and I never thought that it could be my stride that makes the elliptical so difficult for me ( I REALLY do not like the elliptical)

Me too, and it is because am also short. I am doing the Arc Fitness now and even being better for me than the elliptical, I still have problems with my short legs. I prefer the treadmill too, even with my knees issues, I just to need to be careful with the incline and speed.

Depends on what you're doing and what you're comparing.

I can easily sail at 8mph on an elliptical for a lot longer than I can run at 8mph on a treadmill. In that regards, I'd say an elliptical is easier. But it took me longer to get accustomed the elliptical. The first time I got one one, I lasted all of two minutes.

But I just hate the feeling of the elliptical... it's a very unnatural movement for me. After my stress fracture in my fibula healed last year, I tried to get into the elliptical because it's lower impact, but it felt like someone was ripping my foot off, and I never got on one again.

I find the treadmill harder. I get shin splints really bad if I go too long.

I started the gym on 1/15/13. That day we tried to go 10m on the elliptical and I stopped at 7m because I was sucking wind. I built myself up and was doing 20m every day for over a week and now, just 3 weeks later, I've built up to where I did 60m non-stop on Friday! I could go longer if I wanted. I found focusing on my breathing really helps and I'm no longer out of breath.

I prefer the elliptical, however my feet start to burn after about fifteen minutes. Treadmill is borrring and only tolerable if I cover the timer with my towel lol.

My feet go numb after a long period...all of my toes and down to the balls of my feet and across. =/

I ask because me and close friend are having a debate..

For me the treadmill is much harder than the elliptical.. I hate the treadmill with the passion..

She says the elliptical is harder for her..

She also claims that from what she saw in the gym she used to work at, you get a better calorie burn on the elliptical..

So for you out there....which is harder and which do you feel gives you a better workout??

They are different exercises, working the legs differently. At one point I was doing 30-35 minutes at pretty high intensity on the elliptical and still could not run more than 1/4 mile at a very slow pace. Now I use the elliptical for a warm up on my lifting days and run long distance on the other days. From my personal experience, the calories burned on both machines is pretty worthless.

I use a garmin FR70 HRM in general exercise mode on the elliptical or stairmaster and in running mode (with a foot pod to track mileage & pace accurately) when on the treadmill or running outside. On the elliptical I am typically holding the HRM grips on the machine and always input my height & weight. What I found is that my calories burned according to the elliptical has almost never changed over the past year (even though I've lost 70 lbs and gotten in great shape) but my calories burned according to my HRM has dropped significantly as my fitness improved. The drop my HRM has shown is expected because I've stayed at very near the same exercise intensity and duration. On the elliptical my HRM shows about 2/3 of what the machine shows for calories burned. The treadmill tracks closer, but my HRM is still ~90% of what the machine shows.

Either way, running outside beats any amount of time on the elliptical or treadmill. While I can vary the incline of the treadmill to simulate hills (even after adding 0.5-1.0 of incline to compensate for the motorized belt) the feeling of running but not going anywhere is hard for me to get past....and then there is the boredom factor!

I do the elliptical every time I go to the gym, I find the treadmill harder, I physically can not run, but walking on the treadmill is much harder than even doing a very intense workout on the elliptical, for me at least

^^^ This...