Best Elliptical for Home 2022 – The Ultimate Guide

Exercising at home can be challenging, but does it have to be? No, absolutely not. When you got the necessary equipment, you won’t struggle to lose weight or gain muscle. So, which equipment can help you lose fat and also exercise your whole body? We’ll be talking about the best elliptical for home in our article and compare this equipment to other cardio machines.

Alright, you probably have a couple of dumbbells, also maybe a jumping rope but did they actually help you enough to get you in shape? How is your motivation, how much have you progressed? One piece of equipment can change all that in a positive way. Once you make an investment, you’ll feel obligated to push yourself more than ever. Also, a whole-body cardio machine like an elliptical can help you achieve your ideal body faster than others.

An elliptical machine offers a full-body exercising experience without putting stress on your joints. Besides that, do you want to have toned legs? According to a study published by the Gait Posture, elliptical machines can activate your leg muscles more than a treadmill or an exercise bike can. Adding to all of that, you’ll say goodbye to your flabby arms by moving your upper body! (1)

If you are serious about your body transformation, you should consider getting some exercise equipment. If you want to learn more about starting a home gym, check our guide of “The Essential Home Gym Guide 2022”.

Can Elliptical Burn Fat?

Most people start working out because they want to lose fat. They want to get rid of belly fat, and love handles; you probably have the same problem. So, how do you get in shape? By exercising and dieting. Alright, you definitely had experience with both and things didn’t go the way you want it to be.

So, what did go wrong? Well, you weren’t committed enough and also didn’t know what to do exactly. Did you know that full-body workouts can help you burn tons of calories? Also, did you know that without exercising and diet complementing each other, it’s only wasted motion?

It’s time to make real progress. Losing fat on an elliptical machine is easier than using other equipment, you’ll be able to use your upper body and lower body at the same time, and due to that, you’ll shed fat faster.

Also, if you do the tips and tricks we’ll give you about elliptical exercises, you’ll reach your goals quicker than you anticipated.

Elliptical Exercise Tips & Tricks to Lose Fat Effectively

1) Don’t Neglect Elevation and Resistance

If you don’t push yourself properly, your body will get used to your exercises. While using an elliptical machine, the best way to increase the intensity is to change incline and resistance levels.

Our recommendation is; just when you are about to start your workout, change up your usual settings to increase your effort. Your body will have to adapt! By confusing your body, you’ll be able to progress faster! You’ll lose fat and get your legs in shape, thanks to the new incline and resistance settings.

2) Remember to Use the Handles

Compared to other exercise equipment, the elliptical has two handles for you to exercise your upper body. All that movement will exercise your arms, core, and legs super effectively. To make the most out of the best elliptical for home, use the handles!

Awesome but, sometimes people forget to use the handles because they are too focused on their lower body. We can’t blame them because all the other cardio machines only work legs. If you make the same mistake, start using the handles and engage your core. It will give you a boost in your weight loss journey!

3) Change Up Exercise Routines

Do you get bored of doing the same routine each and every week? We understand that sometimes exercising can be like that. So, if you feel unmotivated and you’ve past two months doing the same routine; you can change up your routine.

Even though using the elliptical can help you lose a lot of fat, if you can’t find the energy, try doing other cardio exercises for a while. Eventually, you’ll miss using the elliptical, that’s when you should get back to it.

4) Do HIIT on the Elliptical

One of the best ways to lose fat with a cardio machine goes through high-intensity interval training. For the elliptical machines, most of them have a HIIT setting. If you can’t find it; you can manually change up your incline, resistance, and speed.

Due to pushing yourself as much as you can in a limited time period; you’ll lose a significant amount of fat and also make a lot of cardiovascular progress.

Whatever exercise routine you do, don’t forget to add HIIT workouts.

5) Do More than Cardio

Besides using the elliptical machine, add strength training to build muscle. By building muscle; you’ll achieve a fit and lean look. Also, that strong foundation can help you sustain your weight loss.

Never do only one type of exercise, combine them and change it up whenever you feel like you can’t get enough out of your routine.

Elliptical Is Good for?

So, what’s the elliptical is good for?

Losing Fat: When it comes to losing fat, exercising with the elliptical is favored over; running and jogging by a study published by the Pubmed. (2) Besides losing a significant amount of fat, you also won’t be putting your knees and joints in danger.

Being User Friendly: The most important thing you should know about the elliptical is; it’s low-impact. If you got problems with your knees and joints, by using the elliptical, you wouldn’t be putting unnecessary stress on them. The elliptical is suitable cardio equipment for the elderly and people who had injuries. We don’t advise people like that to use a high-impact cardio machine like the treadmill. Take a look at our list of best elliptical for home to choose one.

Full-body Workouts: Compared to the other cardio equipment, the elliptical will give you a full-body workout experience. The handles will help you target muscles on your upper body, which will help you make muscle and lose fat at the same time. If you want to make overall progress, don’t neglect using the handles or put most of your effort into your lower body. Distribute effort evenly to make significant progress!

Stamina and Endurance: The elliptical machine will provide you with an aerobic workout that can strengthen your heart muscles. In fact, by doing HIIT workouts on your elliptical, your stamina and endurance will get better than ever. Start exercising on the elliptical and soon; you’ll realize that after you started, you can do your daily chores easier!

Mobility and Balance Gains: The elliptical helps you lose fat, make muscle, and also improve your mobility and balance. Thanks to this newfound agility and mobility, you’ll be able to prevent injuries.

Being Healthy: There are health benefits to using the elliptical like; strengthening your heart, reducing blood pressure, improving blood circulation, relieving inflammation and stress. All of these health benefits and more can be achieved by exercising on the elliptical for 15 to 30 minutes in each workout session.

Elliptical vs Treadmill and Elliptical vs Bike

The most well-known cardio equipment are treadmills, exercise bikes, and ellipticals. So, how do we compare all of them and which would be best for you to use?

The Elliptical

Compared to the treadmill, ellipticals put a lot less stress on your knees, joints, hips, and back! Low-impact exercising is ideal for people who had injuries and the elderly.

Due to its mechanics, you can pedal backward to change up the dynamics of the exercise you’re doing. Once you start to pedal backward; your hamstrings and calves will be used more.

Compared to the treadmill and the exercise bike; the best elliptical for home has a wide range of motion space.

Also, unlike the treadmill and the exercise bike; ellipticals offer an upper-body workout. Distribute effort evenly to lose fat and build muscle better than other cardio equipment!

According to a study published by Harvard Health Publishing, half an hour of exercising on the elliptical can burn up to 250 to 400 calories depending on your weight. (3)

The Treadmill

Walking can be considered the king of cardio because if you do 10 thousand steps a day, that LIIT workout can strengthen your heart and burn around 500 calories! In fact, treadmills help you burn more calories than the elliptical and the exercise bike.

However, walking on a treadmill is a high-impact workout which means if you got weak knees or joints, you’d be putting them at risk. Also, compared to the elliptical, you won’t be doing a full-body exercise.

Still, some people can’t give up on their treadmill. If you are like that, take a look at our “7 Best HIIT Workout on the Treadmill That Will Make You Lose Fat”.

The Exercise Bike

Just like the elliptical, the exercise bike offers a low-impact workout experience, but unlike the elliptical, this is a lower-body dominant cardio machine. Also, if you do have an advanced model, you can join online cardio classes to burn calories with a group!

So, how many calories can you burn in half an hour with moderate intensity? If you are a 155-pound individual, you can burn around 260 calories according to the Harvard Medical School. That’s quite neat! Nevertheless, you’ll be burning fewer calories compared to the elliptical and the treadmill.

With the exercise bike, you can do HIIT or LIIT workouts easily by only adjusting the resistance. We recommend that you should do both HIIT and LIIT workouts during the week, for example; do HIIT workouts on upper body days and leave your LIIT workouts to rest days.

If you want to get an exercise bike that you can burn fat fast and effectively, check our list of “The Best Home Exercise Bike to Burn Fat Like Crazy”.

TLDR;

In short pros and cons of equipment are:

Ellipticals

• Low-impact.
• Better for the elderly and people who had injuries.
• Handles provide a full-body workout.
• It burns a little less than the treadmill.

Treadmills

• High-impact.
• Helps you burn a lot of calories.
• Most people prefer walking or running.
• Unlike elliptical, it only offers a lower body workout.

Exercise Bikes

• Low-impact.
• More budget-friendly compared to others.
• Only works lower body.
• It burns fewer calories than others.

Best Elliptical for Home

Okay, we talked about various subjects related to the elliptical, and now it’s time to take a look at the best elliptical for home list!

1) Sunny Health & Fitness SF-E905

This elliptical machine is the perfect mesh of quality and affordability. The Sunny SF-E905 offers a low-impact cardio experience without burning a hole in your pocket.

The magnetic resistance offers a smooth workout both for the upper and the lower body. You can start your workout by choosing one of the 8 levels of resistance depending on your fitness capabilities. To adjust; you can check your heart rate and similar data through the digital monitor.

As you know, some ellipticals are quite big and take a lot of space, well, this elliptical machine is the antithesis of them. Thanks to its compact and convenient design, it doesn’t take much space.

Keep in mind that the user shouldn’t be over 280 lbs.

Check it Out

2) Bowflex Max Trainer M6

Bowflex makes some of the best fitness equipment, and Max Trainer M6 is no exception. This full-body and low-impact trainer can help you lose a lot of calories in no time due to its Max Intelligence app. This app analyzes your data and makes workout suggestions accordingly, as a personal trainer would. Besides that, it has 29 on-demand workout videos.

It comes with 16 levels of resistance (It doubles the Sunny SF-E905’s resistance levels!) that can challenge anybody no matter how advanced they are. You can track your progress through the burn rate display.

The best elliptical for home needs to have a small design to be space-efficient. M6’s design is small and compact; you can set it up wherever you please.

The maximum user weight for this elliptical is 300 lbs.

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3) Schwinn 411 Compact

If you don’t have much space at your home for an elliptical and looking for an alternative to the Sunny SF-E905; Schwinn 411 offers exactly that. There are 13 workout programs for you to choose like cardio workouts, weight loss, stamina, and interval training. If you got bored with all of that; you can connect to an app like RunSocial.

There are 16 levels of resistance you can choose from. You can decide on which resistance level is better for you by taking a look at your data through the multi-window 5.5” LCD display.

Just like the M6, it offers a weight capacity of 300 lbs.

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4) LifeSpan E5i Commercial Elliptical Trainer

The last elliptical in our list is for people who got a bit more space at their home. This high-end elliptical trainer is guaranteed to give you a super effective cardiovascular training.

Let’s be clear, this is not a cheap elliptical, and it’s quite big. However, it offers an awesome feature; it generates its own power! This means you don’t have to place it close to an outlet and the power bill won’t be a bother for you!

Besides self-generated power; it’s set-up, and usage is super easy. There are 21 interactive programs for weight loss, cardiovascular training, and sports training created by exercise physiologists.

Check it Out

Conclusion

Burning calories at your home is one of the hardest things to do in fitness because; your home is where you relax and chill. That’s why you can’t find the energy to push yourself unless you’re committed. You can change up your mentality and be committed once you invest in a cardio machine because if you get one and don’t use it all, you would feel guilty!

Before you go, let us know in the comments, which cardio machine helps you burn the most calories?

Thank you for reading.

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