Soooo I am seeing a physical therapist today for these horrible shin splints i've pretty much had since october. i'm sure he's going to tell me to get off the damn treadmill, girl! i know i know. i just really don't like the elliptical or the bike, which are my only other options at my gym.

so i'm gonna give the elliptical another shot tonight, but i don't really know what sort of setting i should start out at, at least as a ballpark until i figure out where i really want to be.

as a point of comparison, i usually jog on the treadmill at 0 incline for about 50-60 mins at 5.5-6.2 mph. i need to keep the heart rate around the 150s. what setting should i start at until i figure out the heart rate?

I have an elliptical at home and love it! Many of them have a 'quick start' setting that is good for beginners. Others may have options where you put in your age, weight and target heart rate and then let you select a program like fat burn, interval training, etc. Experiment and have fun with it!

The thing with ellipticals, is that speed and resistance varies from make to make. The numbers may be the same, but it will feel different.

I would recommend you start off at about 25% of whatever resistance is offered, and adjust it from there. On my machine, I like 5 out of 20, and that gives me about 5mph, DH likes 8 out of 20 and he also gets 5-5.5mph (we both go at a 'jogging' speed, more than a 'running' speed). Speed is more variable than a treadmill (speed isn't set, you just go faster or slower as you want), but just 'run' at whatever pace your legs and heart tell you to. It's a different motion, so it will take a few days to get used to it and figure out what your preferred speed is.

I hope you learn to like the elliptical - if you need no/low impact, it's great! I liked it right away, but maybe you will change your mind about it once you get used to it!

BP

i know i know. people have been telling me to do it for years. i just feel very awkward on it. i'm not the most well-coordinated person who ever graced the earth so i always feel like i'm the verge of a majorly embarrassing situation when i'm on that. also my feet keep falling asleep.

I get you on the lack of co-ordination bit! I thought I was the least coordinated person on earth, until I met my DH... So you're in good company!

I did find that I felt like I was constantly about to do some terribly ungraceful thing for the first week or so, but ellipticals tend to have handles or bars you hold onto, so you can use them to keep from falling off. After a week, I found I had adjusted to the motion and I no longer felt like a total klutz on the machine.

My feet also fall asleep on the elliptical if I wear shoes. I go barefoot (not good in a gym), or I wear gym slippers. I also found that if I kept too high on my toes or the balls of my feet, it made it worse. Adjusting how I 'ran' to a more whole foot stride helped - basically like how you move with running (I found on an elliptical, I naturally wanted to 'run' on the balls/toes of my feet).

But don't try to force yourself to like it - there are other things out there! I love it, but I know not everyone likes the same thing. Give it a good try for a month or so, and you'll have had time to figure out if it's your mortal enemy or your best friend
BP