Upper Body Workout

One of the unique advantages of an elliptical trainer is the ability to get both an upper body and lower body workout simultaneously. The upper body workout comes from pushing and pulling the handle bars. Although not all elliptical trainers have the upper body exercising feature. For example, Precor has several models that offer only a lower body workout. And in fact, these are their most popular machines.

I personally feel the upper body workout is one of the features that makes owning an elliptical trainer so appealing. Not only are you exercising more muscle groups, but your workout is more efficient. With the dual function of an elliptical you exercise the quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, chest, back, triceps and biceps. There is no other machine that offers such extensive exercising.

The most popular forms of exercise tend to be cardio, and involve only the lower body. That is why an elliptical is perfect for someone that doesn't normally get any upper body exercise - which is not to suggest that elliptical exercise is a substitute for working out with weights or a strength machine.

Exercising both the arms and legs will increase the rate of your heart beat, and allow you to burn more calories. The dual action of arms and legs optimizes energy expenditure, and consequently requires less time to achieve more results. It is also suggested that this process reduces the perceived rate of exertion. In other words, you are exercising harder without any noticeable difference.

To get the full impact of a dual action elliptical workout it is important to equally divide the exercise. There is a tendency to let your arms follow the motion of the handlebars, and let your legs absorb most of the resistance. It is important to transfer some the resistance load to your arms and distribute the exercise more evenly. To further benefit from your workout you can change the location of your hands on the handle bars. This will further extend the affected muscles in your upper body.

Reverse Motion

Another features found on many elliptical trainers is the ability to reverse the elliptical motion. In the process you are exercising different muscles. When you move forward you place more stress on the thighs and calves. When you reverse the motion the emphasis is on the glutes and hamstrings. And if you are wondering what the heck are glutes - they are the group of three large muscles of each buttock that extend, abduct and rotate the thigh.