Are you been looking for a fat-burning exercise that won’t kill your knees or add more injuries on your joints? Sometimes, people feel tired to exercise and you are not alone. When you don’t feel like exercising, especially when you have been doing cardio everyday, instead of skipping your regular cardio workout routine, doing a low impact cardio exercise is a better solution. Elliptical machines are the right equipment for that purpose. So elliptical trainer vs cross trainer, what’s the difference?
But should i choose a standard elliptical trainer or a cross trainer? The real fact is that an elliptical trainer and a cross trainer are all Elliptical machines, the difference is that one has some special features than the other.
An elliptical trainer or a cross trainer, is a stationary exercise machine for walking, running, and stair climbing without much stress and strains on joints.
Falling off a fast treadmill is common, walking on a less cushioned treadmill puts a lot pf pressure on ankles, hips and bad knees. But using an elliptical, greatly reduces( almost eliminates) risk of impact injuries.
If you now opt to purchase an elliptical for your home gym, it suffices you know what’s the difference between an elliptical and a cross trainer.
Depending on your fitness goals, this article will help you to understand which is the best elliptical machine that would do the job, perfectly.
Related: Elliptical Vs treadmill, which is better for calories burned, seniors, weight loss ?
Similarities of Elliptical trainer and Cross trainer
They also work different muscle groups but one thing they have in common is that they all touch your lower body. A cross trainer and an elliptical trainer(standard ellipticals) requires allow you to make knee extensions, to drive the machine.
Hip and knee extension exercises workout our your muscles around thigh, and the butts.Targeted lower body muscles include : glutes, hamstrings, calves, lower shin.
Is Elliptical the same as cross trainer,?
What’s the Difference between Elliptical trainer and Cross trainer?
The difference is that the cross trainer is designed to work both your lower and upper body muscles. The cross trainer machines targets extra muscles than standards models of ellipticals. These upper body muscle groups include triceps, biceps, abdominal muscles, and chest.
The cross trainer has a bar, which standard models of ellipticals don’t. These bars can move in a push or a pull, in the same way you drive a rowing machine.
The bars motion help to engage and strengthen both your arms and your core. The end result is that you burn more calories exercising on a cross trainer, while working out the upper body, in a single session.
Related: The Best Elliptical Under $1000 For My Home Cardio Workouts?
Why should you choose standard elliptical trainer ?
If you suffer from some sort of joint pains or injuries around your upper body, you would want to make sure you are stable during workout. a standard elliptical trainer has a stationary handlebar to stay balanced while exercising.
Again, if you want to target and work out your hamstring and glutes, an elliptical trainer with adjustable incline is the right machine to pick. By changing the inclines, you can customize or vary how much resistance and difficulty to overcome.
If you exercise against the toughest of the resistance, you would burn more calories, fats and potentially lose weight around your lower body.
Why should you prefer a cross trainer elliptical machine?
There are crohss trainer benefits and disadvantages.
No other elliptical machine does simulate your natural moving instincts like a cross trainer. A cross trainer elliptical works by moving forward and backward and alternatively working different muscle groups.
The front and back motion mimics the natural strides of a human body. It makes you feel as if you are walking, jogging or running down a street.
As you pull and pushes the movable arms, while your legs swing front and back, all your upper body and lower body , including your heart, are engaged.
A cross trainer is the best elliptical for aerobic exercise to improve your heart rate and cardiovascular endurance.
Video : Elliptical vs Cross Trainer
This Video shows the difference between an elliptical and cross trainer.
Elliptical machine benefits
Ellipticals are cardio machine, they burn calories, and improve your cardiovascular system. Treadmills, stair climbers and rowers do improve the way your heart and lungs deliver oxygen to your entire body, but elliptical machines does same with a lower impact or risk of injury.
So overall, people choose ellipticals because that is the best cardio machine for low impact exercises. It does minimizes strain, stress on your painful joints and there’s little risk of suffering an injury.
The weight-bearing exercise on an elliptical, to most people, does not look intense or exhaustive like high-speed running on a road on a home treadmill. But the exertion it offers burns more calories and can potentially result to losing belly fats and general body weight.
Most People can’t do or participate in any aerobic exercises because of due to impact on bad knees, arthritis, and back pains. To these individuals, having the best elliptical machine is the alternative solution.
Seniors, and people with mobility problems, can readily use ellipticals without suffering strain around their ankles, knees, hips and feet. As the CDC recommends, everyone should have at least 150 minutes of weekly aerobic cardio exercises. This translates into doing 30 minutes cardio everyday to stay healthier and balanced.
But should you do cardio everyday on elliptical?
Yes, as long as you can maintain only up to 30 minutes per day of elliptical cardio exercise, you would improve your heart health, learn to breath deeper and faster, as you exercise. All these boost blood and oxygen dispensation in your body, relieves tress, changes mood(endorphins)
