Elliptical Trainer and Calories Burned

Elliptical trainers are often compared to treadmills. Treadmills are the traditional indoor alternative to jogging, and is said to be more effective in toning the muscles. Elliptical trainers are primarily driven via the legs, and most are combination designs having handle-levers attached to each pedal-link for the purpose of enabling a burden on the arms to provide a secondary source of driving power. The user grips the handles below shoulder height and pushes/pulls them while shuffling the feet back and forth within their elliptically shaped paths.

There are two factors that make an elliptical trainer so attractive.

Upper and Lower Body Workout
It offers low-impact exercising, and it works out both the upper and lower body simultaneously. Elliptical trainers are not intended for building muscle but for maintaining health. Running or jogging on cement is detrimental to your total joint health, especially to the legs. Elliptical trainers offer a non-impact cardiovascular workout that can vary from light to highly intensive based on the resistance preference and most of these elliptical trainers work the user's upper and lower body, although some models don't have moving upper body components.

The low impact function of an elliptical trainer reduces the strain and stress on your body, particularly your ankles, knees and lower back. Your legs work in an elliptical motion. They never leave the foot pedals and there never is any reverse action.

When you exercise on an elliptical trainer you utilize the chest, back, quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, triceps and biceps. There is no other machine that offers this benefit. You are not only exercising more muscle groups, you are also optimizing your energy expenditure. That means it takes less time to achieve more results, like burning calories and increasing your cardio capacity.

However, it is important that you apply a reasonable amount of resistance when you exercise. It is also necessary to equally divide the exercise between the upper and lower body. There is a tendency to let your arms follow the motion of the handlebars, and let your legs absorb most of the resistance. It is important to transfer some the resistance load to your arms and distribute the exercise more evenly. This once again will result in more efficiently burning calories and reducing your weight.

Weight Loss Benefits
If your goal is to loose weight you do have to understand how a “calorie diet” works. To shed the unwanted weight you must burn more calories than you take in. Put simply, you must burn more calories than you eat. Hence, if you decide to eat the slice of pizza be ready to do a ton of exercise to work that off. Humans throughout the day will burn a certain amount of calories doing normal functions such as working at a job, walking around and doing housework. This has to be taken into account so you really do not have to workout to burn calories.

For people who are overweight, the impact from just walking can be very detrimental and result in injuries and strains. Elliptical trainers are a great way to burn calories and are a fun workout at the same time. Elliptical trainers have been proven to offer a lower 'Perceived Rate of Exertion' when working out. This means that you're doing more work and burning more calories while feeling like you put out less effort. Elliptical trainers allows the burning of a similar number of calories as jogging, without risk of injury to the back, knees, hips, or ankles. They are also easy on the joints.

Elliptical trainers are not all alike, however. The most noticeable of the differences is the front-drive versus rear-drive. Elliptical trainers are small, this is why it can be moved easily for storage. This is great when your space for storing your workout equipments is tiny and cramped. If you haven't had the opportunity to try out an elliptical trainer I suggest you get to your local health club or fitness equipment store and give it a spin. You'll be amazed how easy they are to use, and with regular use you'll not only reduce your weight, but keep it off.