mixing elliptical with strength/ab excersises

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babyboom101
babyboom101 Posts: 5 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi,was just wandering if there was any benefit to mixing elliptical with ab exercises etc,for example 10 mins elliptical,5 mins crunches/planks/pressups then back on the elliptical for 10,and maybe finish with another 5 of the crunches? At the moment I tend to do 15/20 mins on elliptical,or some days do 2 reps of the 7 minute workout app on my phone. Id probably find it less boring than straight 20 mins on elliptical which is a benefit,but just wandering if any extra calorie burning benefits doing it this way? Thanks Marie

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  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    No, there isn't any additional benefit, unless the "find it less boring" meant you ended up pushing yourself harder and/or longer. The increase in time and/or intensity will lead to greater burns, though how significant that increase is can vary greatly.
  • babyboom101
    babyboom101 Posts: 5 Member
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    Thanks that's what I thought,like you say,if I'm doing it this way it will at least mean I'm working out longer than my usual 15-20mins,plus will be better for an all over workout :)
  • Kelll12123
    Kelll12123 Posts: 212 Member
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    I usually do 30-35 minutes of elliptical, 20ish minutes of abs, then another 30-35 minutes of elliptical. It helps me because my legs get a break and I can start fresh with more energy. It can get pretty boring, so break it up however you need.
  • babyboom101
    babyboom101 Posts: 5 Member
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    About 30 mins is most ive manage on elliptical before I get bored/give up,def wouldn't manage an hour! Maybe by breaking it up ill try to make it my goal to build up to an hour of exercising total. Thanks for your replies :)
  • sofaking6
    sofaking6 Posts: 4,589 Member
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    The only way I ever found to make the elliptical less boring was to make up 'routines', like increase resistance every 90 seconds until it hits 10, then reduce every 90 seconds until it hits 6, stuff like that just to break up the minutes and give me something to focus on.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,575 Member
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    Kelll12123 wrote: »
    I usually do 30-35 minutes of elliptical, 20ish minutes of abs, then another 30-35 minutes of elliptical. It helps me because my legs get a break and I can start fresh with more energy. It can get pretty boring, so break it up however you need.

    Goodness! Sounds like my personal hell.
  • fbaglione
    fbaglione Posts: 10 Member
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    I believe the benefit of Cardio is achieved with a duration of at least 20 minutes of continuous exercise. By breaking your cardio exercise up, it may not give you the Cardio demands you want / need, unless you jump off the elliptical, jump into abs, then back on the machine. In which case you may lose the machine to someone else. To complicated in my opinion.
  • yopeeps025
    yopeeps025 Posts: 8,680 Member
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    I used to train an hour of weights then an hour of elliptical six days a week.
  • sofaking6
    sofaking6 Posts: 4,589 Member
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    arditarose wrote: »
    Kelll12123 wrote: »
    I usually do 30-35 minutes of elliptical, 20ish minutes of abs, then another 30-35 minutes of elliptical. It helps me because my legs get a break and I can start fresh with more energy. It can get pretty boring, so break it up however you need.

    Goodness! Sounds like my personal hell.

    Why take the time to comment on a thread just to tell someone how much their workout sucks in your opinion? Let's try to kick this year off with more positivity and support, shall we?

  • babyboom101
    babyboom101 Posts: 5 Member
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    I was looking at different routines for the elliptical,switching up speed and resistance so that should def help to keep me more focussed as ive always just put it on near on highest resistance and left it there. I have an elliptical at home,so no issues with someone else jumping on it while I do something else,and to keep my heart rate up on my break off the elliptical I could always just throw in a minute of jumping jacks between crunches and planks or something? A lot of useful info,looks like I have myself a new workout to try
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,575 Member
    edited January 2015
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    sofaking6 wrote: »
    arditarose wrote: »
    Kelll12123 wrote: »
    I usually do 30-35 minutes of elliptical, 20ish minutes of abs, then another 30-35 minutes of elliptical. It helps me because my legs get a break and I can start fresh with more energy. It can get pretty boring, so break it up however you need.

    Goodness! Sounds like my personal hell.

    Why take the time to comment on a thread just to tell someone how much their workout sucks in your opinion? Let's try to kick this year off with more positivity and support, shall we?

    Okay, how about...

    Wow, that sounds so difficult. I don't think I could ever do that, good for you (which is what I meant but have not had coffee yet today).

  • sofaking6
    sofaking6 Posts: 4,589 Member
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    arditarose wrote: »
    Okay, how about...

    Wow, that sounds so difficult. I don't think I could ever do that, good for you (which is what I meant but have not had coffee yet today).

    I might implode if they don't give us a Like button soon.

  • heathersmilez
    heathersmilez Posts: 2,579 Member
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    My New Years resolution is to GET AWAY from the elliptical!

    I was doing it for 40-65min a day 6-7 days a week for the past 16 months and don’t get me wrong, it allows you to eat lots of food and have fabulous cheat days without gaining weight but it won’t change your body shape, it won’t give you the extra definition that makes you look fit. Unless you have joint problems, I highly recommend the same. Do the stairs or the treadmill on a high incline and you’ll notice how much harder it is to do. You’ll feel a lot more of your muscles being engaged, you’ll feel so much better when you are done and you’ll feel like you actually accomplished something rather than blindly running on a hamster wheel until the timer dings. Of course ALL cardio needs to be mixed with weight training and abs – abs you can do daily, make a plan for upper body and lower body days that work for your schedule.

    With regards to avoiding boring, download a series of TV shows and watch them. That’s my favourite go to but again, I was all about the elliptical last year. In 2014 I watched all 8 seasons of Dexter, House of Cards, Game of Thrones, Orange is the New Black and I am now re-watching Dawson’s Creek - I’m on season 3 already. Really what you should be doing is listening to music that pumps you up and focusing on the goal at hand, not what’s around you, focus on you and your goals and only then can you be successful.

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