What is an Elliptical Trainer and how to select it

An elliptical trainer or a cross-trainer is a fitness machine that combines running, walking and stair-climbing exercises. It offers cardiovascular aerobic workouts. Aerobic or cardio workouts make you breathe in and use oxygen more efficiently and ensure that the energy is utilized.

It’s designed differently from a treadmill and is preferred because the design places less pressure on the joints. The design makes it an impact-free machine because when you’re working out on an elliptical trainer, there is no contact between you and the ground. In a treadmill, the impact is always there. Every time your feet touch the ground or the base of the ramp, there is an impact which produces vibrations that cause strain to the muscle. By introducing pedals instead of a ramp, elliptical trainers do away with the impact. If your lower body is particularly sensitive to injuries or you have back troubles, an elliptical trainer is the best way to go.

Who Should Go For an Elliptical Trainer

Now, while serious runners and marathoners should opt for a treadmill because gives a more real experience of running and is tougher on the body, an elliptical trainer is best is you’re looking to:

Strengthen your breathing/ cardiovascular healthLose weightTotal-body workoutPrevent lower body injuries

Advantages of an Elliptical Trainer

Most elliptical trainers come with foot pedals for legs and handlebars for the arms, ensuring that both your upper and lower body gets an intensive workout. This is one feature that treadmills lack. They have an even surface on which you run and you have to set the treadmill on an inclination mode for it to offer the lower body workout that an elliptical trainer does.

Because of its design, an elliptical trainer allows you achieve the same heart rate that a treadmill would but you feel less tired and sore. That’s because even though you’re pedaling and moving your arms, the design of the trainer engaged every muscle in your body and the strain of the workout is spread evenly instead of being focused on the legs or the feet. There is no better total-body workout than an elliptical trainer.

If you want to give your arms a rest, most elliptical trainers come with the option of not using the handlebars so you can focus on your lower body. Some elliptical machines come without any handlebars at all. All elliptical machines have a kick-ass feature in which you can set your ramp to incline, just like a treadmill and then set the foot pedals to the reversible mode. In forward mode, on inclination, it’s just climbing or hiking through woods. But when you set the pedals on reversible, your muscles are engaged on another level entirely. If you want to pump up your exercise routine, the elliptical trainer offers such intensive options without endangering your lower body muscles.

How to Select an Elliptical Trainer

So you’re convinced this is the perfect machine for you and you’ve made the space in you house for it. Now, you’ll see that elliptical trainers range in price and some of them can be quite an investment. There are four factors to consider when you’re selecting a treadmill.

Stride Shape and Length

Elliptical trainers are named after the shape of the movement you make when you’re on it. Needless to say the shape of your stride has to be elliptical. That means, your legs don’t move up and down in a complete circle but more like how you run or walk, you lift your feet and place them forward. That motion is called elliptical. Some elliptical machines don’t offer that stride shape. By trying to save space, they pace the pedals directly on the flywheel and what you get is an almost circular motion of your feet. That’s ergonomically very dangerous for the body as it is not a natural movement, like walking and running.

A good elliptical trainer will come with some kind of metal or rod that distances the pedals from the flywheel and ensure the stride shape is elliptical. It will mean the machine will take more space so you should be prepared for that.

Apart from stride shape, stride length is another important factor to consider. Unlike treadmills, where you can run in whichever stride you want, the elliptical needs to have a specified stride because of the pedals. This one is based on your height. The minimum stride length, irrespective of height that you should look for is 16”. That’s the stride length that comes closest to running and an shorter stride would make the workout difficult to get through. If you’re over 5’8” or 6” you should think about an elliptical that comes with an 18 inch or a 20 inch stride.

Precor has brought out a range of elliptical trainers that allow for variable stride: you don’t have to pre-set your stride shape and length, the foot pedals can move in any way and independently of the flywheel. It’s a great feature but Precor also has priced these trainers highly. So if you’re on a budget, it’s perfectly fine to opt for a simple elliptical trainer.

Flywheel

This is the most crucial bit of an elliptical trainer. Everything depends upon the type of flywheel the machine has. A good flywheel will make sure that the foot pedals are not more than 6 inches apart. Try to imagine how it would be like to run but with both your legs far apart from the other. Impossible? Exactly. When we run, the space between our feet is little and since and elliptical machine produces that natural movement of running, it should have no more than a couple of inches between the two pedals.

If the pedals are placed far apart, you can seriously injure your legs, back and ankles.

Look for elliptical trainers with big flywheels. The bigger a flywheel, the better the experience. A big flywheel, makes the movement smoother and allows you to make longer strides.

Mostly flywheels are placed either in the front, the back or the side. The back and the side are best but some good companies make very good elliptical trainers with the flywheel on the front. This is not a big issue if you’re buying from a reputed company.

Weight-Bearing

The heavier weight an elliptical machine can handle, the better it is. You will notice some of the higher priced elliptical are also the ones that can handle heavier weights. The built of an elliptical that can handle more weight also adds stability to the machine.

Other Features

It’s great if your elliptical trainer comes with pre-set options, water-bottle holder, adjustable foot pedal angle and a Heart Rate Monitor. These are all useful during an exercise and if you’re not a very strict budget, don’t pass these features up.