ellipticals

[Mister Bea]

For the past few years I've been riding an excercise bike
around 8 miles a day, and walking on a treadmill for 2 miles,
after getting off the bike. The treadmill got to be hard on my
knees (I'm 52 with knee problems) so I bought an elliptical.

For my first time on the elliptical, I put the resistance at
its lowest - and after the first 2 minutes I thought I was
going to die! I toughed it out for another 3 minutes because
I promised myself I'd do 5 minutes my first time (not
realizing how difficult it would be), and I was exhausted
when I crawled off!

Will it get better?? It was so disappointing - I thought that
after biking 8 miles and walking 2 miles a day for 2 years,
I'd be in good enough shape to last a bit longer on the
elliptical!

[Steve Frei]

"Mister Bean" <beaniex99@yahoo.ca> wrote in message
news:5vupj2hmp3trrhbcaqih60ajr73h90vfij@4ax.com...
> For the past few years I've been riding an excercise bike
> around 8 miles a day, and walking on a treadmill for 2
> miles, after getting off the bike. The treadmill got to be
> hard on my knees (I'm 52 with knee problems) so I bought an
> elliptical.
>
> For my first time on the elliptical, I put the resistance at
> its lowest - and after the first 2 minutes I thought I was
> going to die! I toughed it out for another 3 minutes because
> I promised myself I'd do 5 minutes my first time (not
> realizing how difficult it would be), and I was exhausted
> when I crawled off!
>
> Will it get better?? It was so disappointing - I thought
> that after biking 8 miles and walking 2 miles a day for 2
> years, I'd be in good enough shape to last a bit longer on
> the elliptical!

Give yourself a couple of weeks to get used to it. Your best
bet is to do it frequently but in short doses so that it
doesn't leave you trashed afterwards.

-S- http://www.kbnj.com

[joeu2004]

Mister Bean wrote:
> For my first time on the elliptical, I put the resistance at
> its lowest - and after the first 2 minutes I thought I was
> going to die! I toughed it out for another 3 minutes because
> I promised myself I'd do 5 minutes my first time (not
> realizing how difficult it would be), and I was exhausted
> when I crawled off! Will it get better??

You do not say why you thought you were "going to die". Using
the lowest resistance might not be the right thing for you.
First, you might be "spinning" too fast, causing cardio
exhaustion. Second, it is often harder to "pedal" at too low
a resistance due to overall inefficiency; the same is true
for cycling.

Also, there seems to be two ways to "pedal" on an elliptical.
Some people "ride the pedal", letting their body rise and fall
as the pedals
do. Some people minimize vertical body movement, which uses
their legs more to "pedal" and which relies more on
core muscles for stablility. I prefer the latter
myself. But if that is what you are doing, you might
try the former (letting your body rise and fall). I
believe it is easier.

Finally, you do not say anything about the features of your
elliptical. There is a wide variety. If your elliptical has
moving arms, you might try not using them initially until you
are acclimated to the basic movement. If your elliptical has a
"crossramp", you might try not using it until you can do the
basic movement without "dying".