If you ever visited any type of exercise-oriented class, you have probably heard that the elliptical machine is a great low-impact exercise. Workouts using best elliptical machines protect your knees from stressful impact and strengthen the muscles surrounding your muscles. Also, if you choose the elliptical machine that suits your needs, you can help yourself recover from an injury. Finding the best elliptical machine that suits your need can be an excruciating task. There are more than 30 manufacturers that manufacture these low-impact machines, so how can you choose the one that is best for you?
How I Ended Up Using the Elliptical Machine
When I was in high school I was overweight. After much convincing I started exercising and getting my eating habits in order. The main exercise I chose was running. At the beginning it was pretty hard, but as time passes I learned to love it. As luck would have it, one day as soon as I went out the door to go running, it started raining. I decided to run anyways (stupid decision I know) and ended up slipping and falling. Soon I realized that I hurt my knee. I went to see a doctor and I was in for a surprise! Besides the obvious injury from falling, the scan of my knee showed couple dozen micro fractures that have occurred from running on pavement. The doctors forbid me to run for two months.
The first two weeks I completely remained in bed. Because I had a lot of time on my hands I decided to look for a machine that doesn’t hurt my knees as much as running but it’s still fun and challenging. After some research and discussions on forums I realized that the elliptical machine is best for my needs.
Why Does the Elliptical Function Protect the Knees so Well?
The elliptical machine allows your body to emulate running motion without inflicting the strenuous effect for your joints that takes place on a treadmill. Basically, when you run, you shift your weight from one foot to another. In other words, from one leg and all of its muscles and joints to another. When you touch the ground, all of your weight rests on one leg or on one on knee. With the elliptical machines this problem is removed by introducing circular motion you perform with this machine.
Most of the elliptical machines can do a reverse motion too. As I recall, you can’t run backwards (at least not efficiently). With the reverse motion you can introduce more variety and more fun into your workouts. It will amaze you how much you must focus and pay attention in reverse, developing control, balance and coordination as well.
Running on a treadmill or outdoors puts up a lot of stress to your backbone, hips, knees and ankle joints. This is even more dangerous if you don’t warm up and stretch your muscles properly. Even though some of the treadmills have shock absorption, the impact is till noteworthy. On the other hand, as I said before, the impact from the elliptical machines is lower because of the introduction of circular movement.
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