Is this an effective way to exercise?

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jenlyons21
jenlyons21 Posts: 19 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I am trying to find the most effective way to exercise when Im at the gym and I know interval training is the the best way to burn calories. I was wondering if it would be more effective to do 10 min on the elipticle, 10 min with weights, then 10 again on the eliptical, so on and so on for 60 min. I find it really hard to do 30 min straight on an eliptical machine, I get bored and exhausted to where I have to stop for a min or two and start again, but in doing that I feel like im wasting the workout.. Any thoughts on this?

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  • pastryari
    pastryari Posts: 8,646 Member
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    What is your goal?
  • MoreBean13
    MoreBean13 Posts: 8,701 Member
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    It's not *the most* effective way to workout, as you almost certainly won't get the best possible weightlifting session that way, but if you like it and it gets you through the workout, than it's certainly worthwhile.

    Technically, a more effective way to do it would be 45 mins of a full body, compound movement heavy weight lifting session followed by 10-15 mins of the elliptical, but whatever gets you moving will be effective and worthwhile.
  • toutmonpossible
    toutmonpossible Posts: 1,580 Member
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    Could you do your strength training workout and then break up the cardio with different machines, e.g., 10 minutes elliptical, 10 minutes treadmill, 10 minutes on the bicycle?

    Do you have an iPod or MP3 player with your favorite songs to help you get through the cardio?
  • jenlyons21
    jenlyons21 Posts: 19 Member
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    My goal is to loose about 20 pounds. Im really only doing the weights to sculpt my arms a little bit, to get rid of the flab. Im mainly concerned about the weight loss tho.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    It's not *the most* effective way to workout, as you almost certainly won't get the best possible weightlifting session that way, but if you like it and it gets you through the workout, than it's certainly worthwhile.

    Technically, a more effective way to do it would be 45 mins of a full body, compound movement heavy weight lifting session followed by 10-15 mins of the elliptical, but whatever gets you moving will be effective and worthwhile.

    :flowerforyou:
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    My goal is to loose about 20 pounds. Im really only doing the weights to sculpt my arms a little bit, to get rid of the flab. Im mainly concerned about the weight loss tho.

    I'd suggest a little more research on the benefits of actually lifting. Doing a bunch of arm curls with little dumbbells is really not a very good use of your time. IMHO...very inefficient workout there.
  • howardheilweil
    howardheilweil Posts: 604 Member
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    That is not an efficient way to do either a cardio or strength workout. For cardio, you want to have an extended period with your heart rate elevated (60 - 80% of your maximum heart rate). On the strength side, although I'm a newbie myself, you want to have at least 30 minutes focusing on a particular area of the body. Good luck!
  • Cherimoose
    Cherimoose Posts: 5,209 Member
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    Sounds like a good plan to me. It's an old myth that cardio burns more fat if done in 1 long session vs. smaller sessions. My only caution would be that your form on your strength training might decline if you're fatigued from doing a lot of cardio prior. Just something to watch for.

    By the way, arm exercises won't give you the look that you want. For an explanation, Google "spot reduction myth". You'll get better results by following a full-body program (New Rules of Lifting for Women, etc).
  • jpolinisse
    jpolinisse Posts: 149 Member
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    Could you do your strength training workout and then break up the cardio with different machines, e.g., 10 minutes elliptical, 10 minutes treadmill, 10 minutes on the bicycle?

    Do you have an iPod or MP3 player with your favorite songs to help you get through the cardio?

    This is what I do, because I too find cardio boring, so I spread my 60 min session to 3 machines.
  • Some_Watery_Tart
    Some_Watery_Tart Posts: 2,250 Member
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    I'd suggest a little more research on the benefits of actually lifting. Doing a bunch of arm curls with little dumbbells is really not a very good use of your time.

    ^^This. I used to do a million reps at low weights and saw no "sculpting". 4 weeks into heavy lifting 3x/week with 1-2 cardio days I started to see some great definition.
  • MissStatement
    MissStatement Posts: 92 Member
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    Does your gym have an area devoted to circuit training? That might be a good solution for you - you get cardio and resistance training benefits and the workout changes every minute.
  • MoreBean13
    MoreBean13 Posts: 8,701 Member
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    Could you do your strength training workout and then break up the cardio with different machines, e.g., 10 minutes elliptical, 10 minutes treadmill, 10 minutes on the bicycle?

    Do you have an iPod or MP3 player with your favorite songs to help you get through the cardio?

    This is what I do, because I too find cardio boring, so I spread my 60 min session to 3 machines.

    Unless it's low intensity cardio (like walking) IMO more than ~40 mins of moderate to intense cardio is counterproductive unless you have an endurance goal.

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