Cardio Fitness Equipment
Blast Fat with Exercise Machines
Exercise machines weren’t created to punish guys who eat too much. That’s what diets are for. But men spend hours, day after day, churning their arms and legs and waiting for the StairMaster or treadmill to make their bellies vanish. The result: They make it about as far as the average rat.
But your machine workout doesn’t have to be a road—or row—to nowhere. “By decreasing the duration and varying the intensity of your exercise sessions, you’ll get better results in less time,” says Chris Carmichael, founder of Carmichael Training Systems and coach to Lance Armstrong.
Try our guide to the five most popular exercise machines, with a high-intensity 20-minute workout geared for each. Your goals: Bust your exercise rut, and your gut, in record time.
Elliptical Trainer: The Knee Saver
Burn rate: 13 calories per minute
The benefit: Researchers at the University of Mississippi found that elliptical trainers provide the same cardiovascular benefits as treadmill running, without the impact on your joints. So they’re a perfect solution if you’re a runner who wants to stay in race shape without excessive pounding to your ankles, knees and hips.
Do it right: “Instead of holding on to handles, pump your arms as if you were running,” says Kerri O’Brien, C.S.C.S., a trainer in Phoenix. It improves your balance, which will help you whether you’re running 2.6 miles or 26.2.
The 20-minute fat-burner: Try this “alternating interval” fat burning exercise workout from Lance Watson, a coach of Canada’s Olympic triathlon team. By alternating between levels of high resistance and those of high speed, you’ll be able to work at a higher relative intensity for a longer time. Warm up, then increase the machine’s resistance level until you’re striding at 80 percent of your full effort. After 2 minutes, lower the resistance to the level you used during your warmup, but increase your stride rate so that you’re still exercising at 80 percent of your full effort. Continue alternating between a high resistance and a fast stride every 2 minutes for a total of 20 minutes.
Rowing Machine: The Total-Body Builder
Burn rate: 11 calories per minute
The benefit: “Rowing machines provide the best total-body workout of any cardio machine,” says U.S. Olympic rowing coach Mike Teti. This is because they require equal effort from both your lower and your upper body, which could lead to greater gains in overall cardiovascular fitness.
Do it right: On the back stroke, your knees should be almost completely straight before you squeeze your shoulder blades together and pull the handle to your sternum. Your back should stay in its naturally arched position during the entire movement. Got it? Record your distance online after every rowing session and see how you rank against more than 3,700 other club members. (Stay motivated by finishing your second million in less time.)
The 20-minute fat-burner: Try Teti’s routine. It’s designed to max out your muscles during each interval, while the recovery periods help increase the efficiency of this fat burning exercise routine. Set the rowing machine at a resistance of four. Then perform sets of 10, 15, and 20 power strokes—pulling the handle to your torso as fast and as hard as you can. Separate the power strokes with 60 seconds of easy rowing at about 50 percent of your full effort. Repeat the cycle until you’ve rowed for 20 minutes.
Stairclimber: The Health Master
Burn rate: 12 calories per minute
The benefit: Yale researchers found that men with insulin resistance—a risk factor for diabetes and heart disease—who exercised on a stairclimber for 15 minutes 4 days a week improved their sensitivity to insulin by 43 percent in just 6 weeks.
Do it right: The obvious: “Leaning on the handles can cut your caloric expenditure by 20 percent or more,” warns Mike Merk, C.S.C.S., director of the YMCA of Greater Cleveland. So, for a better calorie burn, pump your arms as if you were walking or running briskly. Or you can just turn around. A study in the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation found that the retrograde version—facing away from the console—burned more calories than the traditional method.
The 20-minute fat-burner: Try this “escalating intensity” workout from Edmund Burke, Ph.D., author of The Complete Home Fitness Handbook. After you warm up, increase the resistance level by one unit while maintaining a pace of 60 to 80 steps per minute for 2 minutes. Then increase the resistance by one unit every 2 minutes until you reach your 20-minute goal. You’ll gradually work harder as your workout progresses, so you’ll be maxed out at the end of the session—which trains your body to finish hard.
Stationary Bike: The Mood Lifter
Burn rate: 14 calories per minute
The benefit: Researchers at the University of Northern Arizona found that cycling on a stationary bike for as little as 10 minutes reduced fatigue and negative moods, while improving energy levels. The stationary bike is also the perfect vehicle to prevent chunky guys from hurting themselves as they lose the chunks. That’s because cycling is not a load-bearing exercise, says Kate Heelan, Ph.D., an exercise researcher at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.
Do it right: Many cyclists develop lower-back pain because of their semifetal posture. “Stand up every 5 minutes and pedal as if you were climbing a hill for 60 seconds,” says Robert Morea, C.S.C.S., a trainer in New York City. “It’ll take the pressure off your lower back, force you to use different muscles and break up the monotony of your workout.”
The 20-minute fat-burner: Try this workout from Carmichael. It varies your sprints to challenge your cardiovascular system and muscles in different ways. Following your warmup, start cycling at an intensity that’s about 95 percent of your full effort for 90 seconds, followed by a 90-second recovery interval at about 40 percent of your full effort. Then, using the same intensities, perform 60-second and 30-second intervals. After the final 30-second recovery period, cycle at 70 percent of your full effort for 4 minutes, then repeat the entire set of intervals.
Treadmill: The Energy Guzzler
Burn rate: 17 calories per minute
The benefit: A 2001 study in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise determined that the treadmill burns calories at the highest rate of any exercise machine.
Do it right: If you want to mimic road running, raise the incline of the treadmill to 1 percent before starting your run. Researchers in England found that that’s the degree of treadmill elevation that most closely approximates outdoor running. Read more
Cardio Equipment
2 Main Things To Look For When Choosing A Cardio Machine
Cardio Exercise Equipment
Set foot in any traditional gym across the country and you’ll find an endless array of different cardio machines… from treadmills to stationary bikes to stairclimbers to ellipticals.
A well structured cardio program obviously plays an important role in any effective fat burning workout plan… but which cardio machines are best and what criteria should we use to determine which machines to focus on? It need not be a complicated process, but here are the 2 main factors that I would suggest looking out for when deciding which machines to include in your program…
1) The machine should not require very much skill to use. In other words, stick to cardio machines that are simplistic and mechanical in nature. Your goal during a cardio session is not to aimlessly slave away for a marathon session lasting an hour or more, but rather to keep the session short, concise and highly intensive.
For this reason, you don’t want to have to divert your focus onto balancing yourself on the machine or maintaining a specific form throughout the workout. Instead, you should pick a cardio exercise that is basic and straightforward to execute so that the majority of your focus can be placed on generating a high level of intensity.
2) The machine should minimize the risk of injury. One of your primary goals when it comes to both weight training and cardiovascular exercise is to keep your joints and connective tissues strong and healthy at all times. For this reason, you should try to stick to machines that produce low impact on your joints and that also don’t aggravate any existing injuries you may have. Experiment with different machines to see how they feel for you. If any specific machine causes you discomfort, make sure to steer clear of it. Here are a few of the machines I specifically recommend using based on the above criteria…
Upright Stationary Bike
This machine is extremely straightforward to use and will allow you to place all of your focus on generating a high level of intensity without having to worry about your form. It is also a very low impact exercise and will keep the stress off of your joints. Stationary bikes are also easily programmable and are ideal when performing interval-style training, which is the kind that I most highly recommend.
Recumbent Bike
This is the same as a stationary bike, only your body is in a seated position. The seated position will take some of the stress off of your lower back, which is a nice advantage for those who have previous lower back problems.
Treadmill
Another great choice when implementing an interval-style of training. Treadmills are a great alternative to running outdoors, because the platforms are designed to produce less impact on the joints. If you want to increase the difficulty you can also raise the platform up on an incline. Read more
