posted on
December 30, 2009 at 02:08PM
One caution I'll make is that ellipticals aren't exactly suited for everyone with bad knees/backs as they can cause discomfort, especially in the more compact, shortrer-stride models. Another poster offered a great piece of advice: Try it before you buy. I would never advocate purchasing fitness equipment sight unseen from Sears.com or any online retailer without trying the merchandise first, and Sears happens to be one of the best places to try equipment out!
If the treadmill beats you to death and you can't maintain straight, evenly balanced posture on ellipticals, the exercise bike is just about your last resort. You won't burn as many calories per hour, but it's still a valid form of cardio. As for it only working your legs: this point is invalid.
You will get a higher number of calories burned per hour from walking or using an elliptical but just because you're using your arms and core doesn't mean you burn fat from these areas. Actually, the contrary is true: you have no way of controlling where the calories you burn are pulled from. Essentially I'm saying that cardio is cardio when it comes to pure fat burning.
As far as strengthening is concerned, the minmal amount of work put forth on the Crosswalk Treadmills and ellipticals by your arms is going to net you basically zero strength gains. You would see some gains in leg strength, but they would be minimal and definitely not much higher than from using the bike.
If intense, heart/lung training exercise is your goal then treadmills and ellipticals are great, but for toning up exercise bikes work just as well and are often easier for beginners to keep their heart rates inside the target zone.