6 Tips To Make The Most Out Of Your Elliptical Workouts

Elliptical workouts are known for their efficacious training choices for anyone who wants to lose weight or fulfill any athlete-relevant goal such as improving the overall fitness or form. 

The health and fitness benefits are already proven due to which these machines are becoming increasingly popular across the globe.

Benefits of ellipticals

The benefits from ellipticals typically come from an extreme cardiovascular workout that does not negatively affect the tendons as well as joints. Only such a workout can be an ideal cross-training route for runners and an effective option for fortifying the overall fitness and losing weight.

Apart from cardiovascular benefits, elliptical machines also tend to fortify the muscles. They involve the core’s as well as upper body’s muscles to accompany the calorie burning effects.

A distinct benefit of such machines is its proficiency to target the posterior chain’s muscles by facilitating a reverse motion. This offsets the stress that running puts on the body’s anterior muscles to result in more effective running outcome with time.

The 6 ways For a great elliptical workout

In case you are not realizing these benefits while using an elliptical, something is truly going wrong. The market is full of different models of exercise tools. This imposes a challenge of selecting the most adaptable elliptical model.

However, there is nothing to worry about as we have done our research and prepared a list of the best elliptical in the market today. If you are done with this, it is time to ensure the adherence of the following tips.

1) Go for Diverse Movements

It is essential to introduce different movements such as going reverse, separating your legs by keeping the arms on the still handlebars, trying different levels of resistance, and making different stride lengths. You should also keep changing the speed throughout your sessions. 

It is also ideal to change the stride, especially if you are using an incline or adjustable stride elliptical. Making this change is fun, as you experience the difference in the level of effort you take.

Alternatively, you can try different stride programs, such as PowerWalk and Dual Direction in which the elliptical is configured to keep different strides throughout the workout.  Good models like the nautilus 616 will be able to let you perform all these movements with ease.

2) Focus on The Feet

Most people pay attention to legs but not feet. Why so? Well, there is no universally applicable reason.  It is common to lift heels and push through toes for burning calories. However, this takes a significant amount of time to give the results.

Rather, it is wise to push through the full foot while including your heels. Doing so stimulates more muscles across the legs, which is crucial for developing muscle as well as losing calories.

3) Use Your Arms

It is good to use the legs and feet both for doing the workout but it is wise to do so with arms movement for complementing the steps.

A foolproof strategy is to work by moving the arms on an elliptical when the legs are just exhausted. This will help you lose more calories.

4) Take Up High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

It is wise to include HIIT for a couple of minutes at as high as possible speed in the interval training. Accommodating anaerobic training zone in this way in interval training results in an efficient workout and boosted metabolism.

5) Include Strength Training

If you consider including strength training once you are done with the elliptical workout, it is beneficial too. It gets the support of the boosted circulation and stimulation of primary muscle groups. 

It is recommended that over two times a week, complete the elliptical workout with the exercises of upper and lower body to have improved form and strength.

6) Use A Light Pair of Dumbbells

Consider storing one such pair on your elliptical. After every three minutes, take a pause and perform a set of bicep curls or shoulder presses. This idea works for routing your energy towards the arm movements.

Conclusion

The elliptical machine is perhaps no substitute for pure cardio. However, for using it to fulfill your health goals, consider following the aforementioned elliptical workout tips for a more optimal outcome. If you like to see how it compares with the treadmill, check out our article on elliptical vs treadmill.