When you are talking about home exercise machines you are talking about cardio machines. They help you work up a sweat. They do it in different ways. Walking, jogging or running on a treadmill, striding on an elliptical and cycling on a bike work your major muscle groups. Some machines combine arm and leg action. On an elliptical such as these on our NordicTrack website, your legs glide forward and back as your arms pull in opposition to your stride.
Cardio workouts are effective because they move major muscle groups for an extended period of time, say 30 to 60 minutes. Calories are consumed as the muscles are challenged for this extended period as you raise your heart rate and work up a sweat. This is more effective for weight loss than just challenging one muscle by lifting a weight.
The main benefits of an calorie burning aerobic workout are to get your heart rate up and to sweat. So whether you move only your legs or arms, or both together, doesn’t make a huge amount of difference because the overall load on all the muscles is generally low to moderate. If you want to strengthen or firm up muscle in your upper and lower body, a harder workout to targeted muscles is more effective. You need to add resistance, usually with a weight.
Remember that the best results from cardio exercise is the prolonged burn. You can increase the incline, speed or resistance to put more strain on your muscles, but the best muscle strain still comes from lifting weights. So if you run uphill or walk on an incline, for example, the load is greater than if you were just walking on a flat surface due to the added resistance. So you will work the butt and thighs harder and will get some enhanced muscle tone. But doing a weighted squat or lunge would be even more effective.
One study published in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise compared women who included weight resistance on the stair-climber and pedaled for 35 minutes against those who used the stair-climber by itself. Of the women who carried an additional 8 percent of their body weight (a 140-pound woman was stepping with up to an additional 11 pounds), all increased their cardio capacity (known as maxVO2). And while everyone in the study increased thigh strength, only the women carrying the extra load showed a significant improvement in strengthening the lower body. So, it was the added resistance—rather than the cardio workout itself—that provided the real toning and strengthening effect.
If you are looking to burn more fat, then certain machines may be more effective. One study at Dublin City University in Ireland compared men and women exercising on six different types of cardio machines: the treadmill, stair-climber, bike, rower, ski machine and rider. When all the subjects were working at the same intensity, the men burned the most calories while on the treadmill or ski machine. The women burned the most calories while on the treadmill, ski machine and rower. The people using the bike and rider performed at the same intensity required a lower calorie burn.
Does that mean that the bike is worse than the treadmill? No. It means that if you have 15 minutes and you want to work at an effort level that feels somewhat hard, you will burn more calories on the treadmill. That’s because you are carrying your own body weight by standing up and moving yourself. The bike supports some of your body weight and so saves you some energy, and results in fewer calories burned. But, you can burn the same amount of calories on the bike. You just have to work harder (pedal faster or add resistance) or extend your workout by another 5 or 10 minutes.
The elliptical trainer has several movement options: You can pedal forward or backward and add more resistance, greater speed or an increased hill-like slope. Exercise physiologist Len Kravitz, a professor at the University of New Mexico, measured physiological responses on the elliptical trainer. He found that men and women who took strides on the machine at a specific speed (125 or 135 strides per minute) burned the most calories when they were moving forward with added resistance, or moving forward at an increased speed (135 spm compared to 125 spm.) Using an elliptical or a bike while moving forward with resistance or speed would provide a similar intensity as running on a treadmill.
Cardio workouts are important if your aim for a workout is to reduce fat all over your body. If you’re pressed for time, you will burn more calories in the same amount of minutes by using one of the tougher cardio machines: the treadmill, bike or elliptical trainer. Running on the treadmill will usually be the highest calorie burner.
If you want to tone up, firm up and get stronger, then incorporate strength-training moves into your routine two or three days per week.
Keep in mind that there is no one best exercise. Your body works best when you cross-train, or mix activities that challenge it in different ways at different intensities and doing many different things. Moving in ways that include cardio, strength, flexibility, coordination, balance, power, speed and impact is the key to attaining overall fitness.