Anyone ever spent time on one of these beasts? I’m relegated to no-impact run training for the next few weeks, and tried doing my first long run on one today. Observations: Even on the shortest stride setting, I couldn’t get my count past ~75/min. I run pretty consistently at about 90 normally. Didn’t matter what I did, I couldn’t get my heart rate within 10 beats of where I’d like it to be.
Am I missing something? I don’t know a whole lot about these gizmos. Perhaps it is an older model, and they’ve come a long way since, but it seemed like a poor substitute for actually running.
I’ve never been able to “run” as fast on an elliptical as I do on the ground, but I have no problem getting my HR up by putting on some resistance. Oh, and it probably goes without saying, but I don’t use the handgrips, but hold my arms like I would normally do.
Yeah, I played with the resistance, but all it seemed to do was drop my stride count even further. I picked up my effort for a few minutes to bring the stride count back up, but my HR didn’t increase by much, and it felt even less like a run - muscle groups feeling inconsistent with what I would expect.
I did it for a while in the off season when I was getting over some injuries. I found it really hard to motivate yourself to get your HR up. They really just suck, all around. Experiment with the resistance, a higher cadence might let you get your HR up. Music might help you forget how much it sucks for a little bit, but be careful with the cord… It’s a little tricky to balance, but yes I concur, do not use the arm things.
Overall I found using the elliptical somewhat benefecial. It’s closer to running than just about anything you can find. If you set it to work different muscle groups you can sort of simulate going up hill. It is also good to work on your running form, try keeping your upper body perfectly still while doing all the work with your lower body. I’m just trying to make you feel better, It still sucks though, sorry.
Hmmm…I am wondering how old/poorly-maintained your machine is. I know that you had a hard time even finding this one, though. I’ve found that the ones that work the best and most accurately simulate running are the new ones. The ones at our gym tend to be used non-stop, which is why it’s important that they are well-maintained. The tracks should be clean - no black gunk on them. When the program ups the resistance, you shouldn’t hear a lot of groaning and creaking (coming from the machine, of course). I’m very particular about which machine I’ll use, which is why I used to get to the gym when they opened so that I could claim the best elliptical machine. If the machine is in good shape, it should be a very fluid, gliding motion, and you should be able to get your HR and stride rate up. On “my” elliptical, I can usually get a stride rate of 80-95/min at a decent amount of resistance (level 6). Can’t remember where my HR was, but I think it would be in the 160’s.