Bottom Line:
- Ellipticals can be a great way to get that calorie burn you’re looking for
- If you’re a complete beginner, elliptical machines are a great low-impact way to get started
- Depending on the types of exercises you do on the elliptical, exercising on an elliptical can burn more calories than other cardio machines available out there
When you enter a gym on a cardio day, you often head for the treadmill.
What if I told you to skip the treadmill and try out the elliptical?
Elliptical machines are a low-impact type of exercise that allows you to burn a lot of calories quickly.
Those of you that are fans of the elliptical already know this but want to burn even more. How can you increase the calories burned on elliptical machines?
Cardio Effects on the Body
Cardio is one of the most popular types of exercise. Cardio exercises include any exercise that raises your heart rate higher than 50% to 75% of your maximum heart rate.
Swimming, biking, jogging, sports, and circuit training are all examples of cardio exercise.
Cardio has many benefits for your body.
Your Heart
One benefit of cardio is for your heart.
Cardio is one of the best exercises for your heart.
Cardio increases blood flow to the heart which makes your heart have to work less to pump blood to your body.
This decreases your blood pressure and resting heart rate.
You will even gain better physical performance because your heart can supply your muscles with more oxygen and blood.
Cardio also reduces the bad cholesterol buildup in your arteries which causes heart disease, stroke, and heart attacks.
Your Mood
Another benefit to cardio deals with your mood.
Cardio can make you happier.
You’ll become stronger, fitter, and you’ll look better too.
However, that’s not what makes you happy. Cardio releases “feel good” chemicals in your brain.
When you exercise, you stimulate your brain.
Your brain starts to release dopamine, serotonin, and endocannabinoids.
These chemicals help to alleviate depression, anxiety, pain relief, and produce feelings of happiness.
The feelings you get from cardio are similar to those when you eat your favorite snack like chocolate or when you smoke marijuana.
Yes, that’s right!
Both marijuana and exercise have endocannabinoids. The next time you get the urge to dive into your secret stash cookies or otherwise, try a jog or run instead.
Energy Levels
Cardio helps with increased energy levels and sleep too.
Since your brain releases these neurochemicals, you become more energized.
It’s recommended that you exercise at the start of the day so you can take advantage of the energy boost.
While you get a boost of energy, you also get sleep regulation.
Exercise regulates your sleep schedule by releasing chemicals that help with sleep.
For this reason, it’s recommended you don’t exercise too late or you could have trouble sleeping.
Cognitive Abilities
Another benefit of cardio involves your cognitive functions.
We learned earlier that exercise increases oxygen and blood flow.
These help your brain create more neurons.
Neurons are responsible for sending and receiving signals that tell your body what to do.
As you increase the number of neurons you have through exercise, your thought process, logic and reasoning, and problem-solving skills improve.
Your Memory
Your long-term and short-term memory also benefit from cardio.
Cardio can help those that are suffering from memory problems like dementia or Alzheimer’s.
It can even help in lowering the risk factor for those brain disorders.
Your Bone Health
Your bone health improves with cardio.
Now, you can’t just do any type of cardio and expect to see results.
There are a few key exercises that work to put pressure or stress on your bones.
Exercises like running, cycling, or jumping jacks help build stronger bones.
When you perform these types of exercises, you stimulate osteoblasts to create more bone mass.
An increase in more bone mass helps prevent fractures, breaks, and even bone diseases like osteoporosis.
Your Immune System
Your immune system function also improves with cardio.
No one can afford to get sick and take days off of work or want to miss a workout!
Illnesses and infections tend to pop up out of nowhere.
However, cardio can help prevent that.
Cardio increases your white blood cell count.
White blood cells are the cells responsible for creating antibodies to fight off sicknesses and diseases when they enter your body.
Since your heart can pump more blood and circulate better, white blood cells can quickly reach a pathogen when it enters your body.
Why Use the Elliptical?
When you enter a gym, it’s usually broken up into two sections: cardio machines and weights.
Among the cardio machines you’ll see, the most common ones tend to be treadmills and ellipticals.
Why?
These are two of the most powerful exercises you can do.
Ellipticals have several benefits for the body. You can get a lot of calories burned on elliptical machines. It’s quicker than running or most other cardio activities.
On average, you can burn anywhere from 200 to 400 calories in less than an hour!
Naturally, your weight and how quickly you’re moving will determine your actual calorie burning.
Not only does this free up a lot of time since you’re not spending hours working out, but it helps to lose weight.
Remember, calories in versus calories out to lose weight.
You don’t only get high calories burned on elliptical machines, you burn fat too. The high calories you burn can help burn fat and tone you up in a shorter time than other exercises.
High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)
This is especially true when you focus strictly on interval work.
To burn more fat, you’ll want to watch the intensity of your workout. The higher the intensity, the more fat and calories you’ll burn.
Interval training on an elliptical will typically look like a 2:1 ratio.
Workout intensely for about 30 seconds, then 15 seconds of recovery.
Alternately, you can increase your time to one-minute of intense workout and 30 seconds of recovery.
When we say “recovery” we don’t mean coming to a stop.
You want to keep moving, but at a slower pace.
Full Body Workout
You’ll often notice elliptical machines that have handles on them and ones without.
Some gyms only have ones with handles and some carry both.
If you can, choose the one with handles.
Why?
These elliptical machines give you both an upper body and lower body workout.
This means you’re getting a full-body workout!
When using one with handles, keep the pace of your legs with your arms.
This will work your glutes, core, triceps, biceps, hamstrings, quads, back, and chest muscles.
Improved Core Strength
Your balance and stability improve with the use of an elliptical.
If you use the elliptical with handles, your core muscles are worked.
Your core is responsible for maintaining balance and posture.
When you build healthy core muscles, you improve your balance and posture.
This may not seem like much but when you have poor core muscles, you are more prone to injuries and back problems.
Proper posture will also get rid of the appearance of a “pouch” that some develop over time.
If you have an elliptical with handles, you still can reap the benefits and build a strong core.
How?
Stand straight and don’t hold on to the handles.
Start slow and work your way up to higher resistances and speeds to ensure safety.
You also can use the above method with the handles and work legs, arms, and core together.
Low Impact Exercise
Ellipticals are less stressful on your joints.
When you do heavy pressure exercises like running or high-impact exercises, your joints can suffer.
Ellipticals are considered low-impact exercise since your feet stay positioned on the pedals throughout your workout.
Your knees, ankles, and hips will thank you.
Ellipticals are incredibly useful for those that may suffer from injuries or are more prone to them.
They provide you with less stress on the body and may even help after the injury.
Depending on the injury, the elliptical can help restore your range of motion.
Your muscles and joints gain strength, while the injured area gets to heal and rest.
Tips to Burn More Calories
Everyone wants to burn more calories and fat no matter what exercise they’re performing. On the elliptical machine, burning more calories is easy.
Increase Incline or Resistance
One way you can increase calories burned on elliptical machines is by using the incline or resistance.
Some ellipticals may have just a resistance changer but most ellipticals let you adjust for both.
When you increase the incline or resistance, your muscles have to work harder.
This results in you more calories burned on elliptical machines.
You don’t just burn more calories though.
Changing incline or resistance lets you target different muscle groups, so you can get near a whole-body workout.
Utilize the Handlebars
As we discussed earlier, handlebars are great for an upper and lower body workout.
You work out more muscle groups and in return, burn more calories.
Ideally, you want to keep your arms and legs at the same pace.
Switch Up Your Pace
You may have heard of High-Intensity Interval Training or HIIT.
This type of exercise burns more calories.
You have short intervals of intense activity, then brief periods of rest or slower pace.
Studies have found that interval training on an elliptical can be successful in burning more calories.
It may also increase your excess post-exercise oxygen consumption.
This allows you to burn even more calories for some time after you’ve stopped exercising.
All About Motion
Did you know that you can go in more than one direction on an elliptical? Most people lead with their dominant foot and move forward.
However, you can go backward too.
It may seem awkward at first but after a few strides, you start to adjust.
If it’s too difficult for you, you can try elongating your strides now and then with various paces for variety.
Increase Your Heart Rate
Exercise naturally raises your heart rate. However, a slight rise may not be enough. If you’re trying to burn more, you’ll need to significantly raise your heart rate.
You start burning more calories once your heart rate increases by 50% of your maximum heart rate and 70% burns more fat.
To calculate your maximum heart rate, take your age and subtract it by 220.
Then, multiply that by .5 or .7 to get your average beats per minute (BPM).
For example, someone who is 30 will have a maximum heart rate at 190 and the fat-burning heart rate would be 133 BPM.
It’s important that you don’t overexert yourself to reach your target heart rate.
Work your way up if you’re a beginner to avoid the risk the injury.
Final Thoughts
You don’t always have hours to work out, but you still want to lose weight.
Elliptical machines burn more calories and take half the time that treadmills and other cardio activities do.
The best part about this low-impact exercise is that you can burn even more calories without adding stress to your body.
The next time you hop on the elliptical and are short on time; think about changing up your routine to burn even more calories.
