Elliptical Anybody??
 

Ok, I just got an elliptical for Mothers Day, have never been on one in my life. After the first minute of being on it, my thighs were on fire and I could feel my heart pounding through my stomach, is this normal? Its a $200 Weslo Momentum from Walmart and seems a little hard to use. I have it on the easiest resistance level and it seems a little hard to get going. Im not sure if thats how its suppose to be, or If I have to keep using it to break it in. I hear you can burn 300 plus calories in 30 min, but I cant even stay on it for 5 minutes without feeling like Im going to die. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated,thx!

I hate the elliptical so I wouldn't be much help. I find the Arc Trainer is better and actually I burn more calories on it. I finally worked my way up to 40 min on the AT and it said I burned about 370 calories. My iPod touch app (Lose It) said about 389. On the elliptical for 30 min I burn only over 200.

I ended up on an elliptical the other day at the gym because all the AT were taken. Having said that, I hadn't been on one in quite awhile and I still hated it. Since you got one that I am assuming is a little different then the gyms, I would really check the instructions/manual to make sure everything is right with it. If it's still hard, maybe they have one set up in the store that you could try and compare it to yours. If they are both the same and the store one is easier, maybe you got a defective one.

I'm unsure. One danger of the less expensive ellipticals is that they have short stride lengths which can actually stress your knees. It may be that the elliptical was put together wrong?

You shouldn't have to break it in, so that's not it. I agree that if you're not used to that machine, even if you've done other things, 5 mins can kill you.

Do you have a Leisure Fitness or some other type of home equipment store? They sell higher end equipment and would have no problem with you going in there to try out how a good one should feel on your knees.

I have an elliptical that I bought in February. I haven't used it much since spring got here and I prefer walking, but the elliptical was great (for me) to get started and I will start using it again when it gets hot here (over 100f in the summer).

I did 11 minutes my first night and thought I was going to die. My heart was pumping out of my chest and my thighs were on fire, like you said. I just kept at it and kept increasing a couple of minutes per day. It's amazing how quickly you start to get in shape on it but yeah, it can be really hard work.

I don't know about your model, but mine comes with different resistance and incline levels. I started out on almost the lightest of each, I think, just because I was really in bad shape.

I love the eliptical, but the smiley is pretty much me while trying to do it : :tantrum: I turn bright red when I excercise, and I probably look hilarious on that thing.

The first couple of times you do it, sure, it SUCKS... but you just have to go slowly. It's working tons of parts of your body, and it burns like MEGA calories! :exercise::flame:

Keep at it girl! It WILL work! It's just something your body isn't used to :)

The first time I tried an elliptical machine, I barely made it for 45 seconds before my whole body turned to jello. The trainer I was seeing at the time wanted me to do 5 minutes and I nearly fell off the thing at 1!! I refused to get on one for over a year after that, but when I tried again was able to go 5 minutes and eventually worked up to 10. You just have to let your body adjust!

I'm glad to find out I'm not the only person who had trouble initially with the elliptical! After more than a year of being bored on the treadmill, I decided to try it again. At first I could only stay on it one minute at Level 1, and I thought I was gonna die! I have since worked my way up to 9 minutes, and it's still difficult, but a bit easier every time. My goal is to eventually be able to do my entire aerobic workout on the elliptical, but until I get there, I do whatever I can on the elliptical and then move over to a treadmill for the duration.

I swear by Precor ellipticals. They are the only ones I use at the gym. Try varying the resistance and the incline and that should help with the soreness. If you have knee problems ellipticals are great and they burn a lot of calories. In 45 minutes I burn between 550-650 calories.

I am SO glad I'm not the only one who could only manage a minute on the elliptical before dieing!!! I definetly had to slowly progress on this machine. I don't use mine consistantly as I vary my exercising between it, walking, and using my exercise ball, but I can now do 12 min on mine. LOL, my legs are definetly jelly when I'm done. I tried watching TV while using mine but it doesn't work very well, so I started using my MP3 Player and the music just makes me forget that I'm exercising. Also the upbeat music seems to get me going faster. Oh BTW, my elliptical has been on Number 1 Resistance and I only recenly upped it to 2 and can only do about 4-5 min at 2.

The one I bought this spring is my second. The first was cheaper and broke. I do like them. If my cranky knee complains, I go backward.

And about feeling like you're going to die ... the first time I tried jogging, I lasted 22 seconds :)

I don't know anything about the machine...but when I first started using the elliptical I struggled to finish 3 minutes. I can do 45+ now. Just work up to it, as long as it's not hurting your knees, etc.

Wow, 45 min! You're my hero!!!!!:love: I can't wait till I get up to that!!!!

I LUV LUV elliptical if you like to dance get some sort of music so you can forget you are on it number 1. Second I don't know what kind you have but if you have the kind that has set prorams of 20 min that vary speeds of difficulty you may need to work slowly into it read instuctions. Now if it gives you the option of setting a resitance[sp] you might try 2 or 3 insead of 1. one moves fast so its like running fast and you have to move really fast the more resistance the harder you push but the slower you move so you may play with that. I know I pushed myself to do 5 min my !st day and added 1 min a day. I PRETEND IAM DANCING AND BOY DO MY NEIGHBORS HEAR ME SING!!!

Yeah, I hate the eliptical. To be honest, I am not fond of any of the aerobic machines. However, of all the evils, I like the treadmill the most. My trainer won't let me near it though. Instead she has me doing 10 mins of eliptical, 5 mins of stepper, and 5-10 of bike. I was going to the gym for 3 months on the treadmill before getting the trainer, now the bike isn't so bad. The first time she had me on the eliptical I thought I was going to die. I had tried it before and was lucky to get over the min mark - here she was pushing me to do 10 mins. It was good to have someone to talk to while I was on it. That helped get me past the burn. Maybe someone could hang out with you while you are on it, building up the strength for it. For me it wasn't so much the cardio part that was making it hard, it was the muscle strength (and my short legs). My legs would burn and burn. Today's 10 mins wasn't so bad - still don't like it but I know I can do more than 10 mins on it now.