I only tried it once for five minutes lol and it was hard. I have heard a lot about it but I dont know anyone personally that has had amazing results from it. Is anyone using it? If so when you started how long were you able to do it. I think I am going to start adding it to my weekly plan maybe five minutes each time I workout.

The elliptical is my favorite! I wish I had one at home, and I refuse to pay for a gym membership to solely use the elliptical.

It's great for me because it's low impact. I have bad knees from a car accident 10 years ago and can't run, but I can go forever on the elliptical.

You should give it a go, even if it is only for a5-10 minutes in the beginning. Work yourself up as you go along and once you can do 30+ minutes, start increasing the resistance for extra calorie buring.

I also love the elliptical. Sometimes at school I want a longer, low intensity workout, and the elliptical is my favorite for that. On a treadmill I'm bouncing around too much, and I can't read/study while I'm on it. I can usually do that while I'm on the elliptical. I too wish I could have one at home, but they're pretty large, and being tall, length of stride is really important to me, so I like the better (expensive) ones with adjustable stride length. One day perhaps.

I love the eliptical machines! I also have bad knees and they give zero impact. If you find that it is hard to do, you could always lower resistance until you get used to it. I am able to do it for 45 minutes or so, pretty hard core, but I think you will really like it and see results.

Between the eliptical and a strength training routine, I have lost over 2 inches in each thigh.

When I first stepped on the elliptical in my gym class (college), I couldn't stay on it for more that 5 minutes. Well I have been walking, using the recumbent bike and the elliptical in my class for the last 11 weeks (with one week off for injury) and now I can get on the elliptical for 25 minutes, that's after being on the treadmill for 2 miles and before the recumbent bike for 25 minutes.

I love the elliptical now, and DH is going to buy me one for the house ( I swear we are just going to start a gym in our den), it took a lot of work to get up to 25 minutes at a time, and it HURT the first few weeks, but I stuck with it, a little more each day.

IMO if something isn't challenging you aren't going to be seeing amazing results!
I think the elliptical is a fun change, but I prefer running most of the time. Go for it!

I have an easier time on the elliptical with my legs and feet... less impact, doesn't tend to strain my achilles tendonitis as much (which was caused, I suppose, by the strange gait I have when I run, since it was caused by spending a week hitting up the treadmill instead of the elliptical).

When you say you don't know anyone who's had amazing results from it... well, what do you mean? It's essentially just cardio, like the treadmill, unless you're putting it on insanely high levels of intensity to facilitate the building of leg muscles, in which case you might see a lower-body specific result.
My amount of time on the elliptical always depended on the day (back when I had a gym membership). I never forced myself TOO hard because I knew if I killed myself to the point where I couldn't breathe, I wouldn't be too inclined to hit up the gym again. But I usually chose a good cardio heart rate and aimed to get myself to that point, and make sure I was sweating to do it. I was on there anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes, but... it was my sole cardio. I'd say 5 minutes is REALLY low, but if you've got other means of cardio (running or swimming or something as well), then nevermind, hehe.

i LOVE it! i have horrible knees so it hurts to use a treadmill. the elliptical is the machine i used to work up enough endurance to be able to start running outside. i started using it at a walking pace for like 5 minutes and worked up to about 30 over the course of a few months. i still don't go very fast but it's a great machine.

Like anythhing, using an ellyptical gets easier when it becomes more routine. It's true that its easy on the knees - which I miss right about now In the future I definitely plan to buy one of my own... It'll be my future baby present or summat.

The best piece of exercise equipment is the one that you actually use regularly so if the elliptical is that piece of equipment that gets you doing your cardio then it's a good choice.

It's not my favourite but that's just cuz I get bored easily so I tend to stick to aerobic workout routines that change it up a lot for my cardio.

If you arent sore after a working that its not working.

I'm going to add to the LOVE ITs! I can't get the same kind of intensity on a treadmill without my knees killing me and my boobs bouncing everywhere (ouch!). If you're struggling with endurance maybe lower the resistance a little. And just keep at it, it will get easier (and then you can rasie the resistance so it's hard again, haha). I also like to do cross training to work different muscles. It's something my trainer showed me and I immediately loved it (basically pick three machines out of elliptical, bike, treamill, or stairmaster, and spend 10 min on each back to back for a 30 min total workout). The best part of the cross training is you're not on anything long enough to get bored.

*The above is a more short term approach to cross training. Also recommended it cross training where you do one work out one day, another the next, etc (ie- day 1 cycling, day 2 kayaking, day 3 running). This allows one set of muscles to recover while you work another with out as many off days from your exercise routine.

When I say I dont know anyone personally that hasnt had any amazing results from it I just mean that I dont personally know anyone that has made this a part of their workout and has lost weight or has experienced working out with it. I dont know many people personally that work out thats all I mean

I know five minutes is really low which is why I mentioned that I would like to make it a part of my routine so that I can gradually work my way up to doing it way longer. I actually do different things when I go to the gym I take a number of cardio classes they each last an hour long I also do a combination of walking/jogging along with weight training on days that I dont take classes. At the gym I belong to I see so many people using that machine and although I just joined this gym not to long ago I noticed that you have to sign up for it and you cant be on it no longer than an hour........


My main reason for this post is to see what others have experienced with it and I know everyone is different just thought it would be interesting to see how others that are trying to shed lbs are doing with this machine. Since working out I noticed that with me if I dont keep it interesting and have a variety of workouts I get bored and will not enjoy the workouts. Thats why I would like to gradually work myself up to twenty minutes and better on the machine.

I love it. As many others have said, my knees are terrible and the treadmill or walking too much outside really really hurts. The elliptical really helps me get in cardio without killing my hips and knees. At first I couldn't do it for very long, now I can go for an hour to seventy minutes. I don't do it every day - usually every other day. It doesn't make me "sore" - no cardio really does - but my legs are pretty tired afterward and I drink tons of water. I've lost several inches from my thighs, and I attribute that to the elliptical and spinning.

When I started, I could only do five minutes or so on the elliptical - and it was a rough five minutes! Over the last nine months or so, I've upped it gradually so that I typically do about 30-32 minutes on the elliptical and then I usually close my workout by walking on the treadmill. I agree with others who have said that it's much lower-impact than walking/running; the main benefit of this for me is that I was able to get myself working out at greater intensity on the elliptical than I could on the treadmill. When I first started working out last fall, jogging on the treadmill bothered my knees, and so I'd have to limit myself to speedy walk on there, but on the treadmill I could punch the intensity up without causing any joint pain. Now that I've lost weight, my knees are much better and I can jog on the treadmill, but I find that I've come to love the elliptical!