Cardio is known to be the easiest and fastest way to burn fat and tone up, in many ways. However, with the number of cardio machines available in the gym, one may find themselves confused as to which one would be a far more effective one to opt for.
Is it the treadmill, which is known to exercise all the muscles and get the heart rate up; the stationary cycle/spinning bike; or stair climbers in the gym? Which one is better?
The cross-trainer (often known by the name of the elliptical) is a great way to not only have a good workout but also work out on most of the areas of the body.
A machine which works all muscles, be it your glutes, quads, hamstrings, biceps, triceps, pecs (pectoral muscles), deltoids (the muscle forming the rounded contour of the shoulder), lats (latissimi dorsi), butt calves and the entire core; a workout on the elliptical not only ensures that you have an elevated heart rate, but also overall toning and improved cardio health.
In fact, when the heart rate rapidly goes up like this, it is not only improving your cardiovascular workout but it becomes easier to enter into the fat burning mode; which is (if your main motive is to lose weight) what most people desire.
However, the trick to getting the best workout from the elliptical machine is to increase the resistance level, on a gradual basis and not sticking to the light resistance level.
It is important to constantly increase the resistance and/or time by (at least) 10% every few weeks to ensure that you are not being stagnant in your workout. If your body adapts to the workout that you do, it is most likely because it has adapted to that particular workout.
In effect, the body may not get all the benefits. That is why it is so important to challenge your body every now and then, intensify your workout and get those muscles working!
Not only does it have hardly any impact on your upper body, but is also a challenging workout. So, while you can go slowly on one day, you could go up a notch or two on another day and have a far more strenuous workout.
The one main con of this workout is that it has moveable handlebars/cross-training arms, which is an additional element to this machine that is not available on the other machines. This means, that at any point of time a person can choose a light resistance- in case their arms tire out.
An elliptical is known to offer in fact MORE than what a treadmill can and in fact can be better for your body. Having handlebars, you are able to workout your upper body on this machine as you workout your legs.
