You Should Be Sweating

It is my belief that the only thing harder than waiting to use a cardio machine is choosing which one to use. There are ellipticals, treadmills, bicycles, Stairmasters, rowing machines, and the list goes on - all with completely different functions, different features, different looks.

Despite the array of equipment that clutters the gym’s surface area, certain machines are far more popular than others. At GW’s Lerner Health and Wellness center, for example, this means the elliptical. The painless gliding and full-body movement make the elliptical an excellent choice for first-time exercisers, but it is not sufficient enough for someone trying to build strength and/or someone trying to lose a lot of weight, and keep it off.

Doctors and physical therapists often incorporate the elliptical in their treatments, mainly because the machine is low-impact, and hardly puts pressure on muscles, knees, and joints. But for those aforementioned, pressure isn’t necessarily a punishment. Instead, the resulting pain is actually a reward for dynamic effort, with the aching, soreness, and fatigue serving as proof.

Unfortunately, many do not know this, and continue to flip through magazines, chat with friends, and even study while on the elliptical, treadmill, and Stairmaster. While I commend their effort to exercise in the first place, I am frustrated by the inefficiency of their workout.

But it is not entirely their fault. Rather, the blame should be placed on the machines themselves. By overestimating the number of calories burned, many are fooled into thinking they have worked off hundreds of calories while hardly breaking a sweat. Many of these machines are outdated, and had been designed years ago by premeditated calculations attempting to link weight and age with weight loss. However, by neglecting one’s height, body type, fitness level, metabolism, and other determining factors, the “calories burned” display is no more than an estimate, usually an overestimate. Much research has been done on these machines, and they have proved to be 10 to as much as 50 percent incorrect.

Often during the weight-loss, bodybuilding, and/or toning process, dieters hit a period of stagnancy. Until now, their routines had showed tremendous results, yet now there is a lack of development in their weight loss and strength gaining. As frustrating as it may be, the stagnancy stage is a helpful indicator that something is wrong with their routine. It also may serve as a signal that the person need not lose more weight. But usually it is a signal that the body is not being challenged enough.

And while nobody likes change, successful cardiovascular workouts require it. Just as a person cannot trust the machine, their body should not trust the person. In other words, “surprising” the body by challenging different muscle groups and working at varied intensities can expedite the weight loss and muscle building processes. Martica Heaner, prized-winning fitness instructor, exercise physiologist, and nutritionist, writes that the point of a cardio workout “is to get a cardiovascular stimulus from using many large muscle groups at once. Since a big percentage of your overall body weight is moved around during cardio exercises, a lot of energy is required to move your body — that’s why you burn more calories than when you do isolated muscle moves.”

Thus, changes to one’s routine can be accomplished by changing machines and by changing resistances. Together, these add intensity to a workout.

In this MSN Health and Fitness article, Heaner backs her claim by citing professional studies that tested the effects of intensity and resistance of different cardiovascular machines.

Heaner cites the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise’s study of the weight-resistances of cardiovascular machines. By comparing women exercising on the stair-climber, one with added weight and one without, “only the women carrying the extra load showed a significant improvement in strengthening the lower body.” Heaner concludes that the resistance was far more important than the workout because it “provided the real toning and strengthening effect.”

Granted, the machine cannot count the number of calories burned when this is done, but who cares if you know its working?

When looking at fat burn, Heaner cites a study at an Irish University that measured calories burned by men and women on six different machines working at the same intensity. The results show that “the men burned the most calories while on the treadmill or ski machine [while] 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.”

Last week, I did my own research by exercising on three different machines, and conducted my own experiment by using three different machines for a half hour each, noting the caloric display and monitoring my heart rate, breath, and how I felt after.

After 30 minutes at a moderate intensity (8 RPE) on the elliptical, the machine said I had burned 326 calories, yet felt like I had simply taken a brisk walk. The next day, I ran at what I believe to be a moderate pace (5.8), and burned 352 calories. My last test was the recumbent bike, in which I burned a mere 222 calories while pedaling at a moderate speed. In the end, I found my resulting fatigue of the recumbent bike to be similar to the elliptical, while the treadmill was definitely higher.

Completing these tasks at a moderate speed was problematic to begin with. Alternating speeds and ramps on these machines is a form of Interval Training, an effective weight loss, strengthening, fat burning, and strengthening routine that forces different muscles to be active at different times, thus providing a True full-body workout.

Interval training requires courage. It means learning to use many different cardiovascular machines, as well as learning the functions and buttons on each of them. It’s easier than it sounds, and it can also make your workout less mundane and more interesting. Choosing the programs a cardiovascular machine has to offer (i.e.: hills, random, or fat burn) or simply alternating machine use (15 minutes on the elliptical, 15 on the treadmill, 15 on the recumbent bike), is sure to bring anyone out of the stagnancy period, and accelerate toning.

Without knowledge of the purposes, design, and function of cardiovascular machines, exercisers can be intimidating, and revert to their normal routine on the same machine. The most effective workouts are those that Challenge the body, even if it means profuse sweating and aching. Just as “experimentation” is key in the college experience, it is also key in exercise.

taken from Daily Colonial