In Defense of the Humble Elliptical Machine
It gets a bad rap, but for most people it’s pretty ideal for cardio. Here’s why.
Before I get into it, I just want to state that no one form of cardio is the best. It’s ultimately whatever you enjoy the most and will actually do. However, for clients relatively new to doing cardio on a daily or semi-daily basis I usually recommend the elliptical machine for a few reasons.
It’s easy to multitask
First reason is that it’s easy to multitask when you use the elliptical. Your arms can either be engaged by holding onto the handles or they can be put to use with your smartphone/tablet/kindle/TV remote etc. This is important because many people, especially people starting out, find it hard to do cardio without any extra stimulation.
Also most elliptical machines have the highest control panel compared to other machines, meaning it’s much easier to put a tablet or smartphone on it for more comfortable watching. It’s not enjoyable nor good for your posture to have to strain your neck to look down at a low screen for long periods of time.
It actively utilizes more muscles than almost any other form of cardio
Many forms of cardio only utilize either the upper or lower body at a time. For example running is mostly a lower body form of cardio and rowing is mostly upper body. This is fine and these are both good forms of cardio but I believe there’s something to be said for how the elliptical utilizes almost every major muscle group in the body (as long as you’re using your arms as well).
It may be that modes of exercise where all muscles work concurrently may have some physiological benefits. Swimming is another example of a whole body exercise. Similar to swimming, elliptical use is very easy on the joints since the force applied to them is spread throughout the upper and lower body.
Final Word
The elliptical sometimes gets a bad rap as being for older or frailer individuals, but that’s unfair to what is actually a really great form of cardio for most people. If I can think of any drawback it’s that the machine is powered by you and your pace is set by you (unlike a treadmill that keeps your pace constant until you tell it to stop). This means that you have to conscientiously put in some good effort while using it and not just go through the motion. A good way to mitigate this potential drawback is to aim for a heart rate range and keep yourself within it by adjusting your pace and the machine’s resistance.