How Do Elliptical Trainers Compare To Treadmills?

How Do Elliptical Trainers Compare To Treadmills?

by

Dwayne Maclaurin

During recent years more and more

are appearing in our local gyms, which has started the debate. Which is better,

or treadmills? Both use the same running fundamentals but which piece of

should you choose.

Firstly the main purpose of any piece of

is to increase your heart rate. The best cardio exercises are those that are moving the large muscles in your body which require a lot of oxygen which is circulated in your blood, in this case the main muscle group would be the legs. Since both machines produce the same movements there isn\’t really any significant difference.

Price, no matter what piece of equipment you decide to go for it is important that you get value for money. Both treadmills and

are priced similarly priced.

Built in programs, both have pieces of

have built in programs allowing you to push yourself. Treadmill programs will consist of various speeds, times and depending on the quality of the treadmill possibly even an incline running surface.

on the other hand will also have built in programs for various times and speeds, but it will not be able to produce an incline running surface. Instead the program will ask you to do the running motion backwards, this will give your quads quite a significant workout.

have an added extra aswel, it requires the use of your arms and as a result helps to target your core muscles.

If you buy a quality product of either of these pieces of

, they will usually come with a built in heart rate monitor. This heart rate monitor when used correctly can be extremely beneficial towards your training regime. A heart rate monitor will simply determine how hard your body is working, guaranteeing that you are always training at your maximum potential.

Lastly from a health prospective, a treadmill is more likely to cause you some sort of injury in the long run. Unlike treadmills,

are a non impact exercise eliminating the risk of injury to your legs and joints. If you imagine running your feet are constantly pounding of the ground, it is this pounding that will cause you the injury over a period of time. When you are training on a treadmill, you will become fatiqued and there is a higher risk of your feet hitting the edge of the machine and getting thrown of into a heap behind.

are designed that your feet never leave the surface, making it impossible to fall of.

Comparing both machines I feel that treadmills as popular as they are, could be an aging product.

will produce the same amazing results that you will expect to recieve, quite affordable in comparison to treadmill and other

and have the added safety and injury preventitive measures. I must admit I was always abit sceptical of elliptical machines until I tried one out, it produced the same results without the boredom of just constantly running. The programs giving constant different directions of movement provided a bit of variety in my training session.

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