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Looking to buy Home exercise equipment
Looking to buy Home exercise equipment? Here is how to choose
between two of the best selling
ones: treadmills and ellipticals
Both elliptical trainers and treadmills are two of the most
popular home fitness equipment. They
are excellent tools for getting an aerobic workout indoors. In
fact, When you compare ellipticals
vs treamills, you will quickly realize that treadmills have been
around much longer whereas
elliptical machines have only come to the party fairly recently.
As a result, treadmills are
wider known and more commonplace. However, a quick trip to your
local gym will show that there
are almost as many ellipticals these days as there are
treadmills. There is a good reason for
that.
A quick comparison:
When you compare treadmills to elliptical trainers, you can't
help but notice how impact free the
elliptical machine is.
With the elliptical trainer, there is no impact on the ground,
so the joints in your lower body
are free from any abuse. Although the treadmill mat is better
for your knees than cement, there
is still a significant amount of impact on your joints.
One obvious point that is in favor of treadmills is that it
provides a better training experience
for a dedicated runner/jogger than an elliptical trainer. If you
are training for a marathon or
even a 10k, and you don't want to go outdoors too often during
the months, you are certainly
better off with a quality treadmill.
That being said, if you are looking for a quality aerobic
workout with the maximum amount of
efficiency, you will not be able to overlook the elliptical
trainer. Most ellipticals give you a
total body workout if you have dual action handlebars for your
arms and foot pedals for your
legs, whereas treadmills focus more on your lower body as they
simulate the jogging experience.
What is even more interesting, according to recent studies, is
that the lack of impact on the
joints allows the user to burn roughly the same amount of
calories as treadmills with the
impression of putting CONSIDERABLY less effort.
Therefore, it comes as no surprise that ellipticals have been
the machine of choice for senior
citizens with knee problems, as well as physical trainers who
are involved in rehabilitating
their clients.
This is what Thomas Altena, an exercise physiologist at the
University of Missouri-Columbia, had
to say: "The physiological responses associated with elliptical
exercises were nearly indentical
to treadmill exercises." He went on to conclude that "both
exercise machines are effective for
increasing the amount of calories burned and for producing
cardio respiratory health and training
benefits..."
Finally, one feature which is often overlooked about elliptical
trainers is the ability to add
variety to your aerobic workout. Whenever anyone is on an
exercise plan, one of the biggest
challenges he faces is to stay motivated and interested in his
workouts. With the treadmill, the
ability to change the incline, as well as the intensity are big
pluses, which has contributed to
its popularity over the last decade.
The elliptical trainer matches these features and has a few
additional ones of its own. First, we spoke earlier of the dual
action handlebars. Well as an exerciser, in addition to
changing the cross ramp incline (which is available in Precor
models,
http://www.elliptical-trainers-review.com/precor_elliptical_train
er.htm) as well as varying the
intensity, you also have the option to not use the handlebar and
ONLY focus on your lower body.
Although this option is not used often, it DOES add variety to
your workout. Also, you can vary
the intensity in more ways. You can increase the speed of you
motion with or without changing the
difficulty level of the stride. With treadmills you have to
manually change the speed level to
increase your speed.
However, the most critical feature, and what separates the
elliptical trainer from many other
exercise machines when it comes to variety, is the forward and
reversible feature on the foot
pedals. When you are going forward, you feel like a cross
country skier hitting the long slopes.
However, when you reverse your pedal motion, you can target your
lower body in a completely
different way. Without question, you are targeting your
quadricep muscles and will soon feel them
burn after a few minutes.
Although it is too early to state that elliptical machines will
dethrone the treadmill as the
exercise equipment of choice, you can bet that they will give
them a good run for their money. If
you look at all the health clubs and rehab clinics, you will
soon realize that elliptical
trainers are more than just a fad and are here to stay.
Ray Hudson is the chief editor for
http://www.elliptical-trainers-review.com/, a consumer
oriented site that focuses exclusively on elliptical trainers.
You get unbiased reviews on top
elliptical brands including Smooth
(http://www.elliptical-trainers-review.com/review_of_smooth_ellip
tical_trainers.htm), Proform,
(http://www.elliptical-trainers-review.com/proform_elliptical_tra
iner.htm) and many others.
About the author:
Ray Hudson is the chief editor for
http://www.elliptical-trainers-review.com/, a consumer
oriented site that focuses exclusively on elliptical trainers.
You get unbiased reviews on top
elliptical brands including Smooth
(http://www.elliptical-trainers-review.com/review_of_smooth_ellip
tical_trainers.htm), and many others.
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