They are wrong. It's a medieval torture device, brought forward in time and sold to the crazy, so they can abuse themselves and feel good about it.
Or to put it another way, I didn't realise just how out of shape I am.
10 lousy minutes, and my entire body is on fire.
I'm glad it was only $25 at the thrift store, I won't mind so much when it get cut apart and used to build something that doesn't hurt quite so much.
(Kidding, sort of.)
I hate those things.
They make the toes on my right foot fall asleep for some reason...
I have a bad knee. They bend my knee too much and hurts. Already have to wear a brace to do strenuous exercise/work. Recumbent exercise bikes hurts a lot less and still shows how out of shape I am.
In reply to wlkelley3:
I bought a ProForm Hybrid Trainer for literally $25. It will do elliptical and recumbent bike. I have been starting off on the recumbent for a few minutes, to warm up my bad knees and finishing off with the elliptical. I feel like a spaghetti noodle when I ooze off the thing.
I am to the point that if I don't do something about my lack of exercise, I'm headed for a heart attack. I tried a treadmill and hated it. This is small enough to fit in my bedroom and will flat wear my ass out in short order. I'll keep torturing myself for the foreseeable future.
Should have bought a treadmill instead...When you get sick of using them to hang clothes, you can rip the electric motor out to power a HF beadroller or to convert your wood bandsaw into a slow moving metal bandsaw.
In reply to NOHOME:
I already have one of those. It's in my shop, taking up space.
I also have a couple of extra motors and a few speed controls. That's what powers my lathe.
swimming is the answer. cardio, light to moderate resistance, stretching and zero impact in a single exercise. The stretching aspect is key. You'll feel exhausted after a good swim, completely spent and very hungry, but you won't feel sore, achy or tight.
captdownshift wrote: swimming is the answer. cardio, light to moderate resistance, stretching and zero impact in a single exercise. The stretching aspect is key. You'll feel exhausted after a good swim, completely spent and very hungry, but you won't feel sore, achy or tight.
Yeah, but there's that whole $50K for the pool verses $25 for the elliptical. 
This is borderline relevant: Jordan Taylor's Elliptical Olympics
In reply to Toyman01:
as opposed to getting your own pool, join a health club with a pool. As a bonus and motivating factor that ensures that you'll go, there will be women there, women who swim, women who swim in swimsuits. Speedo accordingly.
That's a pretty cool machine. May I suggest that you mix up the exercises, maybe by day or whatever works for you, in an effort to avoid becoming bored.
I walk enough at work to not involve myself with any of that noise.
My desk chair in my cube is a recumbant excersize bike
I prefer walking a couple miles. It's non-strenuous, you get out of the house, and walking burns the same number of calories per mile as running.
Ellipticals are really terrible for your knees. I'm not sure why, and you wouldn't think they would be due to them being seemingly no impact, but they are. My mom has two bad knees that may soon need replacement, and the doctor told her to cut out the elliptical, it wasn't doing her any favors. FWIW, my mom is in her mid 60's but in better physical shape than most people I know half her age. She goes to the pool 3 or 4 days a week to swim laps, and that's her main exercise now.
If you can't do the pool I'd recommend a bike- especially if you can get outside and get some natural Vitamin D along with your cardio. But an indoor bike works too. They even make bicycles for ehem "individuals of girth", if that's an impediment to finding one. A friend of mine was over 300 lbs and had a bike made for him. He's dropped 50 lbs.
Sky_Render wrote: I prefer walking a couple miles. It's non-strenuous, you get out of the house, and **walking burns the same number of calories per mile as running.**
Yes, but running gets the miles done faster. 
I enjoy walking, too. I try to get in 30 minutes every other day. When I get home I'll take our toddler outside and run her around the yard for a half an hour. We notice a marked improvement in her mental state on days when we can get her outside and run out.
Oh yeah- have kids. I don't know how anyone who has young kids can be out of shape.
In reply to volvoclearinghouse:
Kids make a pool look cheap.
Toyman01 wrote: In reply to volvoclearinghouse: Kids make a pool look cheap.
Kids make a free Porsche with a free Lotus parts car look cheap.
I've been using a C2 rowing machine for an hour 3-4x a week.
It is a similar torture device that allows you the illusion you are a galley slave mindlessly rowing a boat to nowhere at great effort.
If you can find one for $25 - it's a way better whole body exercise than the elliptical. Almost, but not quite as good as swimming in where ever you run that jet boat thing you built.
Sky_Render wrote: I prefer walking a couple miles. It's non-strenuous, you get out of the house, and **walking burns the same number of calories per mile as running.**
That's very misleading. It depends on speed. Walking at 2mph will not burn the same as an 8 minute per mile running pace. There are speeds where walking can burn more than jogging, but it's speed/incline dependent.
Elliptical machines are pretty good cardio. However, I love those ads that say "Get ripped in just 15 minutes a day on this magical elliptical", and it shows a bodybuilder on it. Total and utter bullE36 M3. They're good cardio exercise, but that's about the extent of it.
Used an elliptical this morning to top off my workout. Only problem I have with them is they really hurt my knee (long standing history of knee issues).
The0retical wrote: I hate those things. They make the toes on my right foot fall asleep for some reason...
berkeley. I thought it was just me (left side though).
I spend 20 minutes every morning on one. With two bad feet it's one of my only options for cardio at the gym.
Sky_Render wrote: I prefer walking a couple miles. It's non-strenuous, you get out of the house, and **walking burns the same number of calories per mile as running.**
No. It does not. If you walk faster - you will burn more calories. If you walk so fast that you have to refer to it as running... you will burn even more 
I don’t know about quality ellipticals but our cheap-o Sears unit forces your feet to be unnaturally far apart…it’s like you’re running inside an 8’ diameter drainage pipe while straddling a 1’ wide stream of water at the bottom. As a result, your workout is limited by what your hip joints and secondary little muscle groups can handle.
volvoclearinghouse wrote: Oh yeah- have kids. I don't know how anyone who has young kids can be out of shape.
Maybe because you're constantly tired and end up eating like crap?
NEALSMO wrote:The0retical wrote: I hate those things. They make the toes on my right foot fall asleep for some reason...berkeley. I thought it was just me (left side though). I spend 20 minutes every morning on one. With two bad feet it's one of my only options for cardio at the gym.
Yeah, my left foot goes numb after a while, too. I avoid it by breaking up my workouts. I'll do 10 minutes on the elliptical, then do a bit of weight lifting, 10 more minutes, then some core exercises, then finish up with 10 more minutes on the machine.
At least, that was what I did when I last worked out regularly.
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