If you want to do cardio workouts in the comfort of your own home, there are several exercise machines to choose from. The four most popular ones are exercise bikes, treadmills, rowing machines and elliptical trainers. The question is, which one is the best?
The short and simple answer is the elliptical. But why? Let me explain why.
The 3 Most Important Benefits of the Elliptical Trainer
When using an elliptical to work out, you and your body will benefit in many ways. There are, however, 3 things that are especially important and beneficial.
Total body workout. Every muscle in your body - both in your upper and lower body - will get a good workout. This makes it the most efficient machine to use. You literally save 50% of the time you otherwise would have used to exercise.
Great cardio training. Because your entire body is used, your heart and lunges will have to work hard to keep up. This means that you get an excellent cardiovascular workout. As you can adjust resistance and incline levels, this machine is suitable to users of all fitness levels.
Low-impact form of exercise. The elliptical machine was designed to simulate running but without the stress on the joints that running brings. Because your feet never leaves the foot pedals, and because the motions are fluid and smooth, there is little to zero impact on your knees and ankles. This means a much lower risk for injury.
What About the Other Exercise Machines?
The other exercise machines I mentioned are not bad. They have their time and place too.
For example, treadmills are just as great as ellipticals for cardio training. But your upper body muscle groups will be under-utilized, and the risk for injury (because of the high impact on knees and ankles) is much higher.
The rowing machine is low-impact, and it also provides a decent cardio workout. But you don't use as much of your muscles as when training on the elliptical. It's still a great exercise machine though.
Finally the exercise bike. It can give you great cardio workouts while being low- to non-impactful on your joints. So far so good. What I don't like about it is that your upper body is hardly utilized at all, which means that once you are finished cycling, you have to lift weights for 15 minutes in order to get the same workout as the elliptical trainer provides.
Conclusion
The elliptical gives you a total body workout and a good cardio training in a low- to non-impact way. All at the same time. None of the other three popular machines can match that. That's why the elliptical trainer is the best cardio machine!
Still not convinced that ellipticals are the best? They have 4 more benefits!
John is the founder and editor of GymSanta.com, the best cardio machine reviewer on the internet. Welcome!
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