which cardio machine?

tHE vAGGABOND

First pardon me if this is covered elsewhere here - I did a quick search and did not find answer..

I’m very overweight, and have been for ages. I have put on a couple of stone over the last year or so for various reasons. To be honest I am the very definition of 'morbidly obese'. I have largely sorted my diet out [I’m a bold boy now and again, maybe too often, but its much better than it was, eg: only drinking one night a week, not 3 or 4!]

I have been going to the gym 2 or 3 days a week for a couple of months [I was as unfit as I've ever been at the start]. I do some cardio stuff and some random weights. I was just reading through posts here and was just wondering which cardio machines should I be 'prioritising' over others?

I usually run for 20-25 minutes [will run in and around 3k]
Rowing machine for 2000 metres [Always do this last, it takes between 9.30 and 10 minutes, at top resistance level - always totally wrecked at the end]
If I have time I will 'force' myself to do the cross trainer for 10-15 mins [it just seems a bit 'pointless' and boring to me]

[I also do weights, and I'm seeing results - lifting more, doing more reps etc]

In terms of loosing weight and nothing else, which cardio 'machine' should I be targeting/doing more of or indeed less of?

quozl

Treadmill, rowing machine and cross-trainer are all good. Go with whichever one you find the most enjoyable and can do the most of basically.

Couple of caveats. As a heavy guy, running will be fairly hard on you. Don't give it up but be very careful as you increase time spent running. Non impact exercises such as rowing and the cross-trainer don't have this issue.

You probably don't want the rowing machine set to the highest resistance. It doesn't give you a better work-out. I'll try and google a decent explanation of why, I think concept had one. [edit]http://www.concept2.co.uk/rower/air_resistance.php[/edit]

I'd try and move from 'random' weights to focused weights, for weightloss. Someone else here could help more on weights. Don't give up the cardio though, it'll do wonders for your fitness even if it doesn't make quite as big a difference at the weightloss.

tHE vAGGABOND

Good stuff - Thats a great tip with regard to rowing..

I have been using rowing machines on and off in gym's for years and no one ever pointed that out to me, I always assumed 1 was 'easy' and 10 was 'hard'

I will make an appointment with my gym tonight to get a more focused weights plan.