I have just started to use the elliptical machine in my workout routine other than just the treadmill. I feel like its a great work out. I would like to get the most out of my work out on the elliptical. Does anyone have a routine for their elliptical workout? For example a way to burn more calories by increasing resistance or speed after certain time frame?? Or any other suggestions are welcome.

Thanx

I do intervals on the elliptical. I set it to random (basically taking me over random sections of intensity, kinda like a rolling hills). And I found the best way to keep me motivated was to listen to music while I work out and set my intervals to the music. Like, during the regular part of the song, I work out at ~65 rpm. When the chorus comes on, I bump that up to ~75 rpm. Though, lately I've found that I can keep it in the mid 70's through the whole workout! So I guess it's been working.

I do the same type of intervals and alt. reverse cross training and do increase the resistance per workout as needed. When the sweat is not dripping, I increase!

I really like the workouts on iTrain.com. You do have to pay for these but once you've downloaded one onto your iPod or MP3 player you can use it as many times as you want. It's like having a personal trainer talking you through the workout, telling you when to increase speed, resistance, etc, and they really make me stick with it, even when sweat is dripping off the end of my nose!

Which kind of intervals help you all burn more calories??

I do intervals as well. Our machines have actual prgrams to choose from though, like "Fat Burner" (which is an interval program I use most of the time) This interval goes from resitance 1 for four minutes, to reistance 8 for another four, and so on and so on. I can burn about 320 calories in 35 minutes if I push myself.

I wish I could use our Elliptical that we have at home (it's my youngest daughter's, but she lets everyone use it). I can only stay on it for a minute or two, then my knees burn so bad, I have to stop. I thought this was suppose to be easy on the knees? Anyone have any idea as to why it's hurting me so much?

Shouldn't I be burning more calories on the elliptical if I was on it for a mile? By the end of my workout I had burned 100 calories in about 30 min. Do I need to increase the resistance in order to burn more calories?? I tried for a little bit but it killed my legs and I was going slower. Am I just going too slow, I saw I was going about 60 RPM's most of the time. Any suggestions??

I found I really had to build up to doing the elliptical. When I first tried it I weighed 250 pounds or so, and couldn't even stay on for a minute! At the time I had been diong treadmill workouts. It was a killer! Now it's no problem -- so don't get discouraged!

It takes a while (at least it did for me) to get used to the elliptical. I can't remember how long it took me before I could go for an hour, then I started increasing the resistance. Now I usually do a steady program with a resistance of 10 for 35-45 min. I also started doing 30-second intervals where I go as fast as I can, then bring it down to a normal pace for a couple of minutes. A year ago, I could never have done this so my advice is to just do what you can do, push yourself harder every couple of weeks by increasing time and/or resistance, but don't try to do so much that you burn out.