Rigorous Intensity With Aerobic Exercises on the Elliptical

Elliptical machines help you exercise your body, especially your thigh muscles and glutes, without the high impact on joints and muscles created by running on hard surfaces, according to the American College of Sports Medicine. Ideal for aerobic exercises, the elliptical challenges your body through sustained movement to work out your lungs and heart while burning calories and fat. Though it’s possible to adjust intensity levels on the elliptical to accommodate gentler workouts, you can ramp up the calorie burn by completing movements with rigorous intensity.

  1. Basic Aerobic Movements

    • The American College of Sports Medicine states that elliptical machines combine the motions of stair stepping and cross-country skiing in a low-impact movement pattern to create an aerobic workout. Alternating “push/pull” resistance bars add intensity by incorporating upper-body movement, although not all machines offer this feature. You can take forward or backward strides to emphasize challenge for different muscle groups in your legs. Ellipticals often have screens for exercisers to select preferred workout patterns or intensity levels. You can manually set the intensity to higher levels, or select a prepared aerobic pattern that contains alternately rigorous and less-challenging segments.

    Rigorous Intensity: Pros and Cons

    • Higher intensity workouts offer greater benefits for your heart compared to moderate aerobic workouts, according to the University of New Mexico. Benefits include reduced risk for heart disease, hypertension, stroke and diabetes. Two weeks of high-energy aerobic interval training might also increase the ability of your body to burn fat, according to the "Journal of Applied Psychology." Rigorous intensity is harder to sustain, though, and there’s greater risk for injury if you aren't prepared for the physical challenge. Overall, it might be safer to opt for a low- or moderate-intensity level on the elliptical when you’re first starting out, and then work toward a higher intensity over time. You might also consider alternately lower body-only elliptical exercises with exercises that incorporate both upper and lower body as you build toward greater intensity.

    Go Hard With 10-20-30

    • ACE Fitness states that one example of a high-intensity elliptical workout includes the 10-20-30 model. This workout begins with a 1-kilometer warm-up, followed by three to four five-minute blocks of running with two-minute rests in between the blocks. Each block might consist of five consecutive one-minute intervals divided into 30, 20 and 10 seconds of running, according to the ACE Fitness article. These mini blocks include running at low-, moderate- and high-intensity levels. If you’d rather not spend your time on the elliptical machine keeping your eye on the seconds ticking by, interweave short bursts of varying intensity levels to include mini rests and short periods of rigorous intensity.

    Beware the Calorie Estimator

    • Monitoring your own energy levels can help you gauge whether you’re at the right intensity level for your body, rather than watching the elliptical machine’s calorie counter, according to the National Council on Strength and Fitness. Elliptical calorie counters are often inaccurate, because they don’t have exact body measurements and because the machines might base their estimates on running and stair stepping, which have higher calorie expenditures compared to elliptical movements.