How to Burn Off Those Holiday Calories
with an Elliptical Workout

Unless you have a will of steel, or you are anorexic, you will put on weight over the holiday season. I personally have three dinners to go to in three days. I'm celebrating England's Boxing Day, on December 26. Why not! Another excuse to eat too much. Of course, the price to pay for all this over indulgence is the extra calories.

Elliptical trainers offers the most efficient means to burn off excess calories. By working out both your upper and lower body, you are exercising more muscle groups. In the process, you are burning more calories in less time. In fact, many experts claim that elliptical trainers are the most effective exercise equipment for losing weight. However, there is a catch. To get most out of your elliptical workout, you must utilize your machine to its fullest.

Here are several recommendations:

Push Yourself

When you go to the gym, you notice most people are just going through the motions. They neither are breaking a sweat, nor getting their heart pumping to an acceptable level. Now you don't want to have a stroke, but you want your heart pounding to the degree it is burning calories. Push yourself a little more each time. Set benchmarks and surpass them.

Workout the Upper Body

Many people do not adequately use the upper body workout feature. Once again, they just go through the motions, and place the bulk of the resistance on the legs. Divide your workout more evenly between your lower and upper body. In the process, you will utilize more muscle groups. You benefit by toning more of your body, and as mentioned above, you will burn more calories in less time.

Utilize the Workout Programs

Most people control their workout manually, but the pre-programmed workouts not only offer a challenge, they also offer effective exercises. There are two workouts I particularly like, hill and interval training. Each are based on the concept of going from strenuous exercising to cool down periods. According to medical studies, this alternating form or exercising efficiently burns more calories in less time. In fact, it is how many athletes train.

Heart Rate Control

If your elliptical trainer has wireless heart rate control, you can take your workout to an optimum level. By determining your maximum heart rate you can improve your fitness by exercising in several different zones. You can let the machine automatically alternate in those zones to increase your cardiovascular fitness and vary your exercise regimen. There is an excellent article about exercising in zones at http://www.howtobefit.com/trn5zone.htm. Note, if you are getting back into exercising check with your doctor first to determine an acceptable exercise routine.

So go ahead and indulge, just plan on some extra time on the elliptical trainer, and you will be back to your pre-holiday weight.

If you are considering buying an elliptical trainer, you can check out all of our elliptical reviews and ratings.