elliptical trainer

This might sound ridiculous but I talk to myself (in my head of course). LoL! I just keep giving myself positive affirmations, telling myself I'm doing awesome- stuff like that. It really helps a lot. Also, I try to really focus on my body and how I'm moving it. I avoid using headphones/listening to music or watching tv for this reason. If I start getting pain (which happens sometimes when I'm running) I recognize it and picture my breath going to where I'm feeling the pain. All this might sound ridiculous, lol, but focusing on my body, the way I'm moving, my pains, and my thoughts really gets me through my workouts.

For me I need to get lost in a book or magazine. Or if I am really into a show on tv (but I have a hard time during the commercials) or a movie that really helps. Music doesn't help as much as reading or watching the tv, but it is better than nothing! 30min is my limit though.

I use to have a personal trainer a few years back I would never do over 3 min on the elliptical. But it is amazing what you can push your body to do when you have someone accountable to your workouts. I did 8 minutes with him right there encouraging and telling me i will not get off until i completed those 8 min. I've learned alot of things in life are mental push yourself to keeping going and set a goal everytime you get on it go longer each time. I can know do 1 hour and it doesnt even bother me! Good Luck!

I use the elliptical trainer three times a week, an hour at a time. What helps me is doing intervals. I crank the resistance from 4 to 10 and go as fast as I can for 1 minute. I can't go more than the minute and am SO glad when it's over. I started at 30 second intervals 10 minutes apart. Now I'm doing the 1 minute ones 7 minutes apart (do 8 total). It changes things up enough to make it not so monotonous. It's also a great workout for my heart and endurance, I can feel the improved fitness when I go on my hikes

I usually do an hour on the elliptical. For me the key is upbeat music. My iPod is a must. Also there are TV's on each one at my gym, and even though I am listening to my music I like to have it on and I usually put the closed captioning on sometimes, it keeps me distracted just looking at it. I also take like 40 second breaks every 15-20 minutes, just to catch my breath. And sometimes I will just trick myself, I'll really have 15 minutes or so left and I'll say OK, just 10 more minutes and then I'll just force myself to keep going for the rest. I've just managed to get up to an hour within the last 2 months, I had only been doing 45 minutes. I'm always drenched t the end, but I feel good when I make it through.

I've tried watching t.v. but I tend to slow down to concentrate on the show LOL
I love these guided cardio workouts from: http://www.cardiocoach.com/ ... they make the time fly by and get me to work a lot harder than I normally would just listening to my own music. The music and challenges (intervals) are perfectly suited to the elliptical.

I work out with a girlfriend on the elliptical at the gym 3 days a week and we talk and gossip and next thing you know its been a half an hour and then we move on to our strength training and then back to the elliptical or the treadmill for our cool down....but when I'm alone I always have music...I set my playlist with my favorite song at the end so I keep going until I get to it!

Music is primary for me. I put on my current playlist, turn it up loud enough to block whatever music's playing in the gym and just go. I can see the TVs from my position but it's too far away for me to read the close-captioning, so I only glance at it. Watching people is more fun for me, especially if I see them doing some new exercise that I might want to try.

I also relieve the monotony by varying my program. If I kept it at the same resistance level or incline the whole time, I'd go nuts. I concentrate a lot on my heart rate and keeping it elevated, so that occupies me a great deal.

I like to listen to music or read while I am on there. I have the TV on in the background. I have to keep the time covered up so I am not looking at it all the time because otherwise I dread being on there. Music is the best for me, I know that when a really good song comes on that I speed things up. At night I have my daughter in the room with me and we talk about her day and different things and that makes time fly also. Everyone has great ideas.

It's way easier to do the elliptical with a friend. I find myself lost in conversation and time just fly's bye.