ELLIPTICAL ROUTINES

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4/25/12 12:58 A

Ok, I will throw in my two cents I guess. I love the elliptical and I use it 5 days a week at the gym, 45 min of moderate to intense level, plus a 5 minute cool down. My husband says my bum is looking nicer (yay!), and in 10 weeks I'm down 17 pounds. Mind you, I focus on my nutrition religiously and until I did that, not 1 pound came off. To keep my elliptical routine varied, each day I change the incline and resistance to something different and random, and I also switch from pedaling forward to pedaling backwards every 5 minutes. I watch tv to help the time pass but ever commercial break I try to push myself to go a little faster. I've never let the gym not soaked in sweat.

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4/24/12 8:49 A

I love the interval setting it burns the most calories

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4/24/12 8:16 A

I use the interval setting on the machine... usually it's 2 minutes of an easy interval and 2 minutes of a harder one. I also change it to fit my needs as opposed to the numbers the machine gives me. The first few rounds are usually okay, but towards the end, it gets pretty rough, but that's what makes it great.

Posts: 148
4/24/12 2:31 A

Here's a fun one: play russian roulette with your music on shuffle, and match your rpms to the beat. Adjust the resistance to vary your effort level (hard for one song, easy for one song, etc.).

When I'm bored, I mostly do math problems with the numbers on the screen or read a magazine. Sometimes, I study.

Posts: 1,370
4/24/12 2:21 A

The elliptical 3-4x a week is what I've been doing for the past 15 weeks...and I've found success in it. I don't do anything too special, but to keep from being bored, every 5 minutes I change the incline (higher, lower, higher, lower, etc), take my heart rate, and drink a little water. That makes the 35 minutes go by a little quicker, and the change in incline/position changes up what muscles have to work harder. And the most important thing-- get an elliptical close to the TV (so you can read the subtitles/captions) and listen to awesome music on your iPod!

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4/23/12 9:34 P

I use the random intervals that you can program on the machine. The elliptical is great for cardio!

Posts: 217
4/23/12 3:34 P

I do Peak 8 on the elliptical for a very intense and relatively quick workout. To do Peak 8 (I use an elliptical with the arm poles so my upper body gets a work out too), warm up for 3-5 minutes and then pedal all out, as hard and as fast as you can for 30 seconds (trust me, it will be the longest 30 seconds of your life at that moment), then slow down and recover for 90 seconds, then repeat the 30 second peak followed by the 90 recovery and do this until you've done 8-30 second "peaks" - cool down for 3-5 minutes. The first repetition is usually pretty easy as your starting heart rate is low and you can do the entire 30 seconds without stress. But since you only recover for 90 seconds your heart rate gradually continues to climb after every repetition, so hopefully by the time you finish your last repetition it is at or above your maximum heart rate. Unless you work out regularly you will likely need to work your way up to 8 cycles. You can start with 2-4 and gradually increase to 8, but ideally, you should get to 8 cycles. The magic really starts to happen around repetition number 7 and 8.

I use the heart rate monitor on the elliptical and usually by the 5th or 6th peak I have my heart rate up to around 160 (I'm 54 and weigh about 140). The whole workout will take 20--25 minutes depending on how long you've taken to warm up and cool down. One caveat though - you should not do this more often than every other day at the most so your muscles can recover from the intense exercise.

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4/23/12 12:55 P

One thing I have to do is move my feet, because they fall asleep. I sometimes march. Watching tv helps or talking to someone.

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4/23/12 12:24 P

When i use the elliptical i am at the gym, so there are TV's there to help the time pass. I will also through in some faster minutes. I wouldn't really call them intervals because i dont keep them up. But every once in awhile i will go about 20-30 RPM's faster for about 45 seconds. That really gets my heart rate up.

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4/23/12 12:21 P

I don't get what you mean by a routine for an elliptical? Vary your speed and direction, there's really not much beyond that, is there?

As for losing weight using the elliptical, what you do for cardio doesn't matter. Weight loss is 80% nutrition. You should also make sure to get in some good, ehavy strength training to build your lean muscle mass and prevent your weight loss being from muscle rather than fat.

Edited by: JENMC14 at: 4/23/2012 (14:39)

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4/23/12 12:20 P

Keep in mind that in order of most to least important for weight loss:

1) NUTRITION
2) strength training
3) cardio

cardiocoach.com mp3s are the only thing that keep me entertained when I use the elliptical once a year.

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4/23/12 11:53 A

I am new to Spark and I use the elliptical trainer at my gym but I get so bored. Anyone have any workout routine suggestions to help time to go by a little faster. ALso I would like to hear some stories from people who lost weight using the elliptical and what you all did on the ellie to lose it.