Treadmills & Ellipticals & Bikes, oh my! Which one is best for you?
You’ve signed up for your local health club but you have no idea what type of cardio machine is best for you. You wander over to the treadmill and hop on, but you’re kinda bored. It’s not really doing it for you. How do you find out which piece of equipment is best for you? Here’s a field guide to your local cardio center.
Treadmill
Great for walking and running, it’s the most popular piece of equipment in most gyms. Most treadmills have programs you can follow for “fat burning” or “hill climbing/glute” workouts. Choose this if you like to run or walk fast. You can also lift and lower the treadmill to simulate a flat surface or going up hills. I’m a big fan of setting the pace at “almost have to run” and then goosing the incline as high as the machine will go. It’s great for your butt and super heavy cardio.
Elliptical
A great cross-training piece of equipment. If you normally do something else, it’s good to work the elliptical in once or twice a week. It’s best for people with knee issues and for people recovering from a running injury. The movement is very smooth and easy on the joints. Some come with arm resistance as well so you can get a little arm workout in while you’re chugging along.
Rowing Machine
Get your inner athlete on with this machine, a vigorous and challenging piece of equipment. The rowing machine will get you huffing quickly if you don’t use it regularly. Excellent all-body workout; you’ll pump your legs, back, and arms to set a killer pace. Good for jocks, but also good to use as a warm up for 10 minutes and then hop onto another machine. Try it; it’s totally fun. Some rowing machines have “fishing” games where the faster you row, the more fish you catch.
Arc Trainer
The Arc Trainer is very similar to the elliptical with one big difference: the pedals are usually set a bit wider than the ellipticals. I find this a bit easier for men to work with than women. If you have a knee issue, the wider stance might not work well for you, but give it a go. If it bothers you, just pick something else, but if it doesn’t bother you, it’s a good cardio tool. I use it every once in a while for variety.
Recumbent Bike
This is the bike where the pedals are forward and you’re sitting on a regular “chair” as you pedal away. Commonly used in rehab situations, this can help a lot if you have knee and/or hip problems or a cranky back. Although you can set it for people in a rehab situation, you can also get a good sweaty workout from it, so don’t write it off as too “easy” for you. Hop on every once in a while and push yourself in a new way.
Group Ex Bike
I’ve said this for years: it’s the highest calorie burn you can get in a gym. The group ex or Spin bikes can really leave you dripping with sweat. If you’re not taking a class with an instructor, try to download an audio workout with music and cues. You can stand up on it, pedal fast at lower resistance, or pedal slower at heavy resistance. You can also do “jumps” where you rise out of the seat for a 2 or 4 count and then sit back down. Going up and down for say 50 jumps will really elevate your heart rate. This is best for people who are past the sedentary stage and looking to boost their cardio, but beginners can certainly hop on too. If you’re in a group ex class with an instructor, just remember to slow down if you need to. In a week or two you’ll be able to keep up with the class.
Stepper
Once ubiquitous, these have faded from gyms a bit, but they can still be found here and there. The original StairMaster is a cross between climbing stairs and scaling a ladder. It’s a great butt workout; you will definitely feel your glutes the next day! The other type is a stepmill where you are walking up real stairs that rotate at a fixed speed. I find these exhausting! I use stepmills the same way I use the rower; I’ll do them for about 10 minutes as warmup and then switch to another piece of cardio.
Which type of cardio equipment do you prefer? Which one makes you sweat the most? I’d love to hear your stories.
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Thanks,
Lisa
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I liked the elliptical for a long time. The stairmaster turned out to be a better workout for me though.
You had me at “goosing.”
I’m a runner, outdoors if at all possible, I’m a bit pro fresh air.
But if you drag me indoors for cardio I would pick, treadmill high incline. Low impact, high heart rate and you can walk! It’s fantastic.
I developed a intense like of spinning more so that a regular stationary bike but we have no spin bikes at our tiny gym.
I do have a bike trainer at home that I use with my road bike. Good alternative and takes up very little space in the house.
Is it just me or does anyone else hit themselves in the face when they use the rower?
Indoor rowing is a wonderful aerobic exercise. The Concept2 Erg is used by rowers for their indoor training. Rowers host a world championship: the CRASH-B Sprints in Boston (http://crash-b.org).
As Lisa notes, ergs are excellent whole-body exercise machines. The challenging part is relaxing your muscles on the stroke recovery. Getting good rowing form takes time and it’s useful to get some tips from the fitness club staff — just make sure they really know what they are doing. Local outdoor rowing clubs are usually quite friendly to erg newbies, because that’s where many new members come from.
The rowing machines are called ergs because the computers are actually measuring work. During the stroke recovery, the computer measures how much the flywheel decelerates; that allows them to know how much energy the rower is putting in on the stroke. High-end racing bicycle computers can do this, but very little equipment in the gym can measure actual work.
Computers have a variety of workouts; most serious rowers log the “distance” that they have rowed on the ergs. Machines come with one credit-card-sized data card that will log all of your rowing workouts.
All of the Concept2 computers can record and display your heart rate with a Polar chest strap transmitter, but (strangely!) the $25 sensor must be bought separately. Some clubs don’t get the sensor unless members ask them. The other problem is that some clubs don’t do maintenance on their ergs. Maintenance is cheap and easy, but it must be done regularly on high-traffic machines.
There are a series of regional qualifiers for the CRASH-B regatta around the world. The World Championships are in Boston on February 20, 2011 (see http://www.concept2.com/us/racing/calendar/default.asp ). These are fun events and can add lots of spice to winter workouts. Events are in early 2011. If you start rowing now, you have plenty of time to target your local event. You will not believe the performance of some of the collegiate and masters rowers at these events.
Lisa: do you have access to an erg? Have you ever done a CRASH-B?
Phil thanks so much for the input on ergs. I haven’t used them regularly since college and that was, um, a while ago … :-) Thanks for talking about the CRASH-B regatta too. I appreciate the link.
Rita, good suggestion for an outdoor bike being used indoors doing the winter.
Lisa, you can always switch back to the stair stepper but they are harder to find aren’t they? My gym doesn’t even have any …
Thanks for the comments guys, I appreciate it.
Lisa
I used to have knee flare-ups when I used the elliptical. My friend who’s a chiropractor told me that, for people who are 5’7″ or shorter, the elliptical forces your knees into a weird “Q angle” (you can Google it). I stopped using it and have had virtually no flare-ups since.
However, the ArcTrainer doesn’t give me the same problem. I think it must have something to do with the elliptical loading my knee in a way that the ArcTrainer doesn’t. I can chug away happily on the ArcTrainer for an hour or more!
Yup, Charity there are all kinds of variations in the human body and the elliptical might be great for one person and horrible for another. You have to experiment a little bit to find the best combination for you. Sounds like you’ve got it worked out just fine. Now try some intervals during your next arc trainer workout :-)
Thanks Jake :-)
Thanks for posting this information. You are spot on with your advice. We share the exact same information with our patients every day. My favorite? I would have to say the Elliptical trainer. It is the one piece of equipment most active people can use when recovering from a lower extremity injury as a means to get back to running. It incorporates the use of the upper extremities which requires a greater cardiovascular response. The only thing is you have to add resistance because the Elliptical can be quite easy once you get that momentum going.
yup, it’s funny seeing someone flailing away on the the ellipticals in the gym, they’re just wasting their time. And Mike I know you’re a great physical therapist so I really appreciate the input. :-) L–