Comparing Treadmills and Elliptical Trainers

Happy Wednesday to you readers! I hope it is a good day for you all. Today I am going to be comparing treadmills with ellipticals and clearing the air about which is better once and for all! Read on.

So there is a lot of talk these days about which machine is better; the elliptical trainer or the treadmill. So, due to a question I found, and answered, on Yahoo! Answers about this topic, I decided to let the world, or just my few little readers, know about the facts and myths circling the treadmill vs. elliptical debate. So let us begin by listing the benefits of each.

Treadmill

You know what a treadmill is, I’m sure. The exercise machine with the belt that goes around and around? Well these machines are great for giving you an authentic running workout. It is literally running on a machine that does allow you to travel anywhere. There is nothing special you need to do, just run.

Pros

• The ability to adjust the speed, and other settings very quickly and easily
• Incline training to increase calorie burn
• Train for a race without even leaving your home
• It will obviously give you a great workout as well.

Cons

• VERY high impact on joints and knees

Elliptical Trainer

These are equally as popular as treadmills; but people want to know if they are really better than treadmills. The general consensus of people online suggest that working out on ellipticals will burn more calories than working out on a treadmill; but we’ll address that later. One myth that definitely needs clearing up is they will not give you an upper-body workout. So you put your hands on the handles that move… Just moving your arms isn’t going to give you a workout! Anyway, some of the benefits of using an elliptical are:

Pros

• Much less impact on your joints and knees
• Ability to go backwards and work your body differently
• Great for just plain exercise, not necessarily training for a race
• Some modern ellipticals will feature incline training as well

Cons

• You’re not really running

So you can see, each one has its ups and downs. There isn’t really a standard for judging which one provides more calorie burn. It all depends on how hard you are willing to work on the machine, and what type of training you prefer. If you just want a virtually no-impact exercise that you don’t care if it emulates actual running, then the elliptical might be the choice for you. Inversely, if you train for races quite frequently and need the authentic running experience, or just want it, then the treadmill is a better fit for you. So now look at my reviews and decide which of either machine is best!