You will see a wide variety of cardiovascular equipments and machines when you enter the gym. One of the most popular cardiovascular machines that you will see in every gym is elliptical machines. You can also buy an elliptical machine for your personal use at home. It is great exercise equipment that will help in toning your legs, arms, biceps, triceps, thighs, quads, etc. It is also a very easy machine to use. Just stand on the pedals and hold the handles and you just need to move your legs in a smooth back and front motion.
The following are the types of workouts you can do an elliptical to tone your body and muscles.
High intensity with short intervals workout
You need to choose a shorter interval program on this machine. If there is no such program, then you will have to manually control the machine’s resistance for this 30 minute workout. You should also set the incline of the machine at low to moderate position. The incline will be the same and only the resistance will vary for this elliptical workout.
- Set a low resistance and do three minute warm up on the elliptical.
- Now increase the resistance to about 8 or 9 on the perceived exertion scale and work for 2 minutes. Make sure you are also pulling and pushing the handlebars.
- Slow the intensity for about 1 to 2 minutes with perceived exertion at 2 or 3.
- For every 3rd hard interval, you should pedal backwards.
- Repeat the process for 27 minutes and then cool down for about 3 to 5 minutes on the machine.
Hill climber
Opt for a hill program on the machine and this program will slowly increase the incline as well as the resistance to give you a solid 45 minute elliptical workout.
- After warm up about 5 minutes, start with the first hill workout and check out the time taken for this hill.
- The other hill intervals have to be divided into halves.
- The first half of each interval will be with hands placed on the middle of the swinging handle to give a workout for muscles in the lower back.
- The second half of the interval you will grab on top of the handle and start to push and pull the handle.
- Work in similar fashion up to 40 minutes.
- Then cool down for 5 minutes.
Long intervals with mid-intensity
Every interval is about five minutes on the elliptical machines.
- After warm up for 3 minutes, lower the ramp and resistance and work out towards high RPM for 5 minutes.
- Pedal backwards with low resistance, medium incline and high RPM for next 5 minutes.
- High ramp and RPM with low resistance.
- Medium ramp with high RPM and low resistance.
- Pedal backwards with low ramp, high RPM and low resistance.
You can recover for three minutes after each interval on moderate intensity. Cool down at the end.
Boosting aerobic capacity
It is important for your aerobic capacity to be high so that you can work out for long periods of time. This machine helps you to boost the aerobic capacity. Do about 30 to 40 minutes of workout on the elliptical for three to four days a week to boost your aerobic fitness.
Full body workout
The elliptical machines are the ideal fitness equipment to use to get a full body workout. Working on the machine and making use of the swinging arms as well as the foot pedals for 30 minutes for 5 days a week will help you to tone your upper body as well as your lower body. You will see that you are in better body shape within 2 weeks.
