Are Elliptical Machine Weight Bearing?

Health conscious people have always preferred exercise as a key to remaining fit. But nowadays people have become very busy in their professional life. Many can’t manage time for exercises like walking, swimming, hiking jogging. So everyone is getting dependent on various machines for their routine exercise. An elliptical trainer is one of them. Again different types of exercises have a different impact on human body. For strong muscles and bone, Weight Bearing Exercises are perfect. I came to know that one of my friends had a good chance of Osteoporosis and it was a critical condition of bone- as said by his doctor. And he suggested my friend workout on elliptical two hours daily. Now the confusion lies between whether ellipticals are Weight Bearing or not? I hope this article will help you to get the answer.

Let me first describe you the functions of an elliptical. An elliptical is a stationary machine. It’s called so because while working on it, your muscles move in elliptical motion. It can be considered as a hybrid of the treadmill and upright bike. Running an elliptical is like you are climbing, walking and skiing at the same time. But it has effectiveness over both treadmill and upright bike. When you are exercising on an upright bike or a treadmill, only lower portion of your body is active. Pressure is mainly exerted on your legs. But elliptical works on your body’s upper as well as the lower portion.

In Weight, Bearing exercises your bones have to work against any kind of resistance. For example, we can talk about weightlifting. To lift a weight, your muscles have to work against gravity. Walking, running, climbing, tennis, aerobic dance are good examples of weight bearing. Swimming, bicycling isn’t so good as Weight Bearing. While swimming you have to work against water resistance. But yet many don’t consider it as Weight Bearing because the resistance amount is very little in this case.

It has long flat pedals. A crank is attached at the front end of pedals. When you exert pressure on the crank, the front of pedal starts to rotate in the circular motion. At the same time, the back end of pedal moves with linear motion. The combination of this two motions produces elliptical movement.

Upper body part: Elliptical works mainly on the lower portion of a body. But the upper body parts also get benefited. Although at a less extent. The organs on which elliptical mainly works are-

Lower body part: This portion is the main target to tone. Following are the toned parts.

From the above discussion, you may have a clear idea. When you push the pedals down with your legs, it propels you with a resisting force. At the same time, you are pushing or pulling body-arm also. And to do so, your whole body bones and muscles are working. There is some other resistance that is featured while manufacturing elliptical. And all these special features double the activity of elliptical. And it establishes Elliptical as Weight Bearing machine.

I think elliptical as a Weight-Bearing is just awesome. I have come to this conclusion not only after analyzing its function. But also I have used it myself. So it became my favorite gym instrument. Now I can easily compare elliptical with other Weight Bearings. And obviously, it serves me better. So why just reading? Use it yourself, and you’ll surely know the difference.