Ellipticals

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I really like my elliptical. I feel I get a good workout out of it.

I did it, yeah. Ellipticals plus kickboxing workouts but the elliptical did help. As someone else said, it's all about the work you put in. You can certainly do a high intensity workout.

I wear a hrm when i work out on the elliptical and usually burn about 8-10 calories a minute, so it's definitely doing something for me!

My husband lost all his weight just watching what he ate and doing the elliptical. He lost about 50 lbs. He added strength training once he lost most of the weight. I mostly do the elliptical, but I am also doing strength training. I have lost 26 lbs.

It's a good cardio workout if you do it hard enough to get your heart rate elevated for a period of time. As with any excerise, you get what you put in. I, personally, hate ellipticals, I will run on a treadmill any day before doing that.

I have used the elliptical religiously for my cardio because I prefer the low impact on my knees. I'm an Army veteran who was used to running three or more miles for PT. Now I'm 42 and trying to keep all my limbs natural without needing to have any hardware installed. I find that an mp3 player full of great dance tunes or rock music and a good HRM will help you keep that intensity up. Also, there is no need to do more than 20-30 minutes on the elliptical as long as you keep you're intensity up.

I use the elliptical for 60 or more minutes every other day and do intervals using different levels of resistance and steps/minute. You can wring me out when I am done. I love it and it is making a big difference in my overall weight loss and health.

I use the elliptical for cardiovascular training. It's been my "go-to" machine for weight loss only because it is so low-impact and allows me to burn TONS of calories (I can vary the pace by how much effort I put in to it, so I can sustain a very specific heart rate without fiddling with controls or running the risk of falling off). I usually do a 45-minute burn keeping my heart rate up at the top range of cardio, and I can fit a lot of calories into 45 minutes.

I have found a bit of toning, especially if I set the resistance fairly high and turn it into a slower more strength-oriented workout. It's not as muscle-building as strength training, though. I'll quite often get on the weight machine and do a little strength training either before or after a cardio workout.

It does only tone specific muscles (though going on it backward doubles that muscle set!). The one I have access to has a fixed railing, so there's no upper-body workout. If you have access to one with the articulated/moving arms, put some effort into it upstairs and your results will be proportional to your efforts.

The elliptical gives you what you put into it, no more, no less. It's GREAT for building stamina which can support a variety of calorie-burning or strength-building activities.

The elliptical has been okay for me. It's a low impact workout but I noticed that I burn less calories than when on the treadmill. It could just be that I tend to zone or watch TV while working out and if you do that on the elliptical you may slow down and not notice it right away... if you zone and slow on the treadmill your *kitten* will be on the floor behind it. : ) My husband uses the elliptical all the time and he burns a lot on it, but he is an animal. I use it to change things up from the treadmill and just have to remember to really keep my legs moving and not slow down when a slower song comes on my ipod... keep the tunes on the faster beats.

The only cardio I do is eliptical. (I also try to do weights 2-3 times a week.) But, I make sure I crank the resistance on the eliptical. It may be gradual, but I get it up there. Today I started at 5 for 5 minutes, then went to 10 for 5 minutes then to 13 for 10 minutes then to 15 for 10 minutes. Then I decreased down to 10 for 3 minutes and then down to 5 for 2 minutes as my cool down. Today was a "light" day for me as I often start at 10 and go up from there. The max resistance on this machine is 20. I try to maintain a good pace and I ALWAYS use the arms. I have had good success. However, if you want to lose you should really work in a minimum of 2 days a week of weights.

^_~ Bump that elliptical up as high as it will go and have at it. The only cardio I do now is bike with my pups, rowing machine and the elliptical. If you want to 'tone', hit the weights!

In my opinion the elliptical is an all-around great machine to get started with.

It's low-impact, so you don't tend to get sore knees and ankles from it (muscles, sure, but generally not a lot of joint pain).

It toasts off TONS of calories if you're willing to put in some sweat, and you can keep increasing your effort and hit a target heart rate to keep burning about the same number of calories.

You can safely close your eyes or watch a TV or something while using it, with less chance of disastrous consequences for inattention (unlike a treadmill which will turn you into a projectile very painfully if you screw up).

It engages far more muscles than a stationary bike, and you can tune most of them to different muscle groups (low incline for the legs, high incline for the glutes) so you can engage different muscle sets on different days - at least to an extent.

You'll probably want to work some strength training and/or other machines in eventually, but I think ellipticals are, maybe second only to swimming, the easiest and most approachable exercise for most people. I've been using it as my primary stamina builder/maintainer for years.

The elliptical has been okay for me. It's a low impact workout but I noticed that I burn less calories than when on the treadmill. It could just be that I tend to zone or watch TV while working out and if you do that on the elliptical you may slow down and not notice it right away... if you zone and slow on the treadmill your *kitten* will be on the floor behind it. : ) My husband uses the elliptical all the time and he burns a lot on it, but he is an animal. I use it to change things up from the treadmill and just have to remember to really keep my legs moving and not slow down when a slower song comes on my ipod... keep the tunes on the faster beats.

That's both the advantage and disadvantage of an elliptical.

- advantage: inattention tends not to cause injury so you can zone out and be in a happy place while burning calories
- disadvantage: inattention tends not to cause injury so you can zone out and be in a happy place and end up slowing down without noticing it

I find that the right soundtrack helps. The soundtrack to the movie "Run, Lola, Run" has a backbeat that was built for keeping up an aggressive pace (since the whole movie is about a young woman running across town to save her friend's life). David Arkenstone? Not so much.

I have been doing the ellipitical for 30 min a day and also watching what i eat and have lost 32 lbs in 76 days. I agree that its what you put into it. I see people ***** about ellipiticals but its because they dont put any resistance and incline. Love them since i hate to run.