I just got an elliptical machine and have a few questions.
1) I have bad ankles and thought an elliptical might be nice because they are low impact. Is this true? my wife says they are low impact but put a lot of stress on your ankles so it might not be good for me. I can ride a bike for hours without any ankle problems. But if I jog/run i get problems within a few minutes.
2) can an ellipticals arms be used for anything else? i.e. when running on it even at the highest difficulty the arm workout just seems to be moving my arms, i feel the same amount of cardio exertion whether or not im pushing/pulling on the elliptical arms... but (don't laugh) i "straddled" the pedals and just used the elliptical with the arms for a few minutes on the hardest difficulty, and it felt pretty tough. anyone have any ideas on this?
3) when i use the machine for 15+ minutes my lower back starts to hurt pretty bad. I don't have any known back problems and am standing up straight when using the machine. is this pain normal due to the motion of the machine? the pain starts at about 15 minutes and i push myself to 20 - 25 minutes then stop and the pain goes away immediately.
I'm sure I'll have lots more questions but that's it for now. Thanks in advance for any advice!
1) I have bad ankles and thought an elliptical might be nice because they are low impact. Is this true? my wife says they are low impact but put a lot of stress on your ankles so it might not be good for me. I can ride a bike for hours without any ankle problems. But if I jog/run i get problems within a few minutes.
2) can an ellipticals arms be used for anything else? i.e. when running on it even at the highest difficulty the arm workout just seems to be moving my arms, i feel the same amount of cardio exertion whether or not im pushing/pulling on the elliptical arms... but (don't laugh) i "straddled" the pedals and just used the elliptical with the arms for a few minutes on the hardest difficulty, and it felt pretty tough. anyone have any ideas on this?
3) when i use the machine for 15+ minutes my lower back starts to hurt pretty bad. I don't have any known back problems and am standing up straight when using the machine. is this pain normal due to the motion of the machine? the pain starts at about 15 minutes and i push myself to 20 - 25 minutes then stop and the pain goes away immediately.
I'm sure I'll have lots more questions but that's it for now. Thanks in advance for any advice!