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using a cross trainer

  • 19-11-2009 8:55pm
    #1
    sporina
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,069 ✭✭✭


    Hi Folks,

    I bought a cross trainer. I wanna keep fit and stay in shape.
    How can I ensure I get the best use out of it?
    How long should I use it at 1 time? And at what resistance?
    What are the benefits of the difference resistances? eg: cardio work out? Fat burning?

    I dont want to become too bulky.

    Thanks in advance,,


Comments

  • #2
    --amadeus--
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,096 ✭✭✭--amadeus--


    Moved from A/R/T


  • #3
    sporina
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,069 ✭✭✭sporina


    thanks - sorry for using the wrong thread..

    so any tips anyone?


  • #4
    G-Money
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,199 ✭✭✭G-Money


    I don't think you can become bulky from doing cardio, if anything you should become leaner and slimmer.

    I use a cross trainer at the gym as the last time I tried jogging, it hurt my knee and it took a few weeks for the pain to go away. The cross trainer is much easier on the joints.

    I do about 30 minutes on it, at level 30 resistance. I'm not sure what speed I go at but I go fast enough so I'm a tiny bit out of breath and sweating, but not enough that I'm completely and utterly bo****xed. The cross trainers in the gym I use have in-built heart-rate monitors and a little sticker on the machine with a guide as to what each zone does. There's a zone for "warm-up", "fat burn", "cardio" and something else. Mine tends to be in the cardio zone, or occasionally heading down towards the fat burn zone. I'm quite overweight and unfit so I don't want to go completely bonkers on it and be wrecked.

    I think if you can do a decent pace for 20 minutes, that would be a good way to start. Don't overdo it, but I think if you get off the machine and you aren't sweating a bit, then you're not going at it hard enough.

    I'm sure some others here (much wise than me) will chip in with better advice though. The above is just what I do.


  • #5
    Oryx
    Subscribers Posts: 19,425 ✭✭✭✭Oryx


    I have a cross trainer. I used it in a kind of plod along way, at a level I could maintain for a half an hour, and it was ok. But I found the best benefit was doing HIIT with it. That means going totally hell for leather for say 30/40 seconds, then a rest phase of maybe 20 seconds, where you keep going but very easy. Sounds easy but if you do the hard phase hard enough, youll be knacked after 10 mins. 15 would be the max you could do. I got a lot of cardio benefit from it. But to focus on muscle tone, I needed weights also.

    I cant see that you would bulk up using a cross trainer on its own.


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