Hi all! Thought someone might be able to give me some advice on problems I'm having in the gym. I've been going for 3 weeks now and some problems are still occuring.
My main problem is that my legs are in agony after a few minutes on the eliptical and after a while my feet begin to burn. Like every time my foot pushes down it's like walking on glass. Someone suggested I eat a banana before I work out, as apparently potassium helps with it. But it still really hurts. I find it so disheartening when i go to the gym prepared for an intense work out and then I feel like crying after 2 minutes on the eliptical. i saw a girl on it for 50 minutes today. I can't even contemplate that.....
Secondly on the treadmill....I've read that it's more beneficial to put the treadmill on an incline...HOWEVER for me when I do that I fall all over the place and the treadmill shakes (nothing to make you feel fat like that!) and I end up holding on...is it better to just leave out the incline?!

Hope someone can give me advice on these problems. I am becoming so disheartened by this and it makes my motivation for going to the gym fall so quickly.

Thanks
Maddie
x

First, you CAN do it!!

I am going to say that for the elliptical, it creates some pretty weird movements. I've had to really mess with the resistance and everything before i could handle going on it at all either. Maybe you could just use it to warm up? so by the time you feel done, you ARE done because you're supposed to be done, and there's no guilt. that way your body can get used to using it.

i've heard the same thing about the incline on the treadmill. what i was told was to do the speed as slow as you need, but keep the incline. maybe you're setting the forward speed too fast? But definitely don't hold on, it's a bad habit and you don't burn as many calories. If you can't handle any incline though, just drop it and work on the treadmill flat. Walking's great exercise, and definitely worth doing.

good luck, hang in there!

elliptical makes my feet go numb. I can run for hours but can barely tolerate the elliptical. I pick up my feet a bit now between strides and it helps. Make sure your shoes arent too tight.

Dont start out with an incline. Start walking at a comfortable rate. When you can walk for 20 minutes start increasing something. Get your body used to the machine before you try to push it.

My feet go numb on the elliptical too!! It's a bummer because running does hurt my knees, but it's my exercise of choice. I am all over the place on the treadmill too. It shakes and grumbles and sometimes I stumble on it and make a small scene. It helps to start out slow and gradually increase the speed. You feel much more in control. Good luck!!!

That was going to be my suggestion too ... start slow and increase gradually by .5 incline and/or slight speed increase...

I read in one of my fitness magazines about a incline workout that I use and my butt is literally lifted after 2 weeks and my legs seem so shaped now. Basically this is what I do:

Start out with a 5 minute warm up (I use speed 3.0 for this)

Now there are two different workouts I do from here I'll write them both:

After your warm up, speed up anywhere between 3.3 or 3.5 I bump the incline up to .5 (or 1 depending on the treadmill) Depending on how my legs/ankles feel that day I will do 1 of 2 things. Every 5 minutes I will bump the incline up but keep the speed. I do that until I get to a 3.0 incline, then go back down every 5 minutes. So it will go .5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3 and then back down. OR you can go up an incline every 2 minutes until you get to 5 and then work back down. I never run just power walk as it literally kills me to run because of my ankles. I hold on with one hand because I am not comfortable letting go even though I know you shouldn't. I did a search on this workout and I know alot of people that do it since I saw it in the magazine and people see pretty good results.

As far as the ellyptical goes, maybe try a higher incline but no resistance or a higher resistance at no incline. I am top heavy so I can't have no resistance because it actually hurts my chest at times. My feet also go numb sometimes but it's because I catch myself gripping my toes in my shoes. I've always done that so it's hard to break such a habit but I would look to see if your curling your toes in your shoes and not laying them flat as that could be causing your feet to go numb as well because your not giving your body proper form.

Don't be discouraged! My gym has 3 different types of elliptical machines. One I can go on and on forever. The second one is just so uncomfortable for me. I feel like I'm flopping all over the place and can't get any sort of rhythm. The third one I can't even figure out.

I think the difference between the first two machines has to do with the stride profile (the oval motion of the foot paddles) and how the foot paddles are positioned compared with the moving handlebars. I think the first one "fits" my body -- everything from leg length and arm length to height and center of gravity. The second one just doesn't fit. I see other people on there having a grand old time, but they must just be built differently.

Both of them make my feet numb, tingly, or all out pins and needles, but not as painful as you describe.

Maybe the machine at the gym just doesn't "fit" you well? Is there a trainer who can watch you use it to make sure you're positioning your feet right, setting the resistance right, etc? Every gym should have someone who helps people stay safe!

I wonder why the elliptical makes the feet go numb. Mine do it too. Like Ennay, I lift my feet as I go, especially after I've been on it a while. The movement is pretty unusual and takes some getting used to. I remember being quite pleased with myself for being able to stay on it five minutes!! I would advise comparing yourself only to yourself. If you did five minutes yesterday, than gosh darn it, be proud of the six minutes you accomplished today! Do NOT compare yourself to the lady doing 50 minutes. She was probably doing five minutes a year ago.

As for the treadmill, I don't know, but I can tell you that some machines shake and some don't. I think it may have to do with how they're balanced more than your own weight. And again here, compare yourself only to yourself and be proud of what you can do now that you couldn't do yesterday. You are going to me amazed at how quickly you progress, but only if you allow yourself to start where you are.