You rely on cardiovascular exercise to keep your heart healthy and burn calories to help you maintain a healthy weight. When weather or convenience means you should exercise indoors, two exercise equipment options are the treadmill or an elliptical exercise machine. When trying to decide the best equipment for you, consider your personal fitness goals and your overall physical health. As always, speak to a physician before beginning an exercise program to ensure your heart and lungs can support the exercise.
Impact
Running on a treadmill places less impact on your joints than running outdoors. This is because most treadmills are better able to cushion your joints, providing a more comfortable surface than running on concrete or pavement. If you experience overuse injuries like shin splints or ankle sprains, a treadmill may be a better option that running or walking outdoors. However, an elliptical machine is a lower impact exercise than working out on a treadmill. Because your feet stay in the same place as you exercise on an elliptical, you place less impact on your joints, which can be beneficial if you experience knee or back problems and need to exercise on a lower-impact machine.
Calories Burned
While the amount of calories you burn depends upon your weight--the more you weigh, the more you burn--and the duration and intensity at which you exercise, it is possible to compare the amount of calories you generally burn during an average exercise session. A 125 lb. person using an elliptical machine for 30 minutes burns an average of 270 calories while a 185 lb. person burns 400 calories. If you walk on a treadmill at a rate of 3.5 mph for 30 minutes, a 125 lb. person would burn 120 calories while a 185 lb. person would burn 178. If you prefer to run on the treadmill, a 125 lb. person running at 5 miles per hour for 30 minutes burns 240 calories while a 185 lb. person burns 355 calories.
Muscles Worked
For the leg motions, an elliptical trainer and treadmill work similar muscles: the quadriceps when extending your knee and your hamstring and buttocks when bringing your leg backward. However, the elliptical machine offers a slight edge over the treadmill because an elliptical machine features movable handles than can challenge you upper body as well. By adding the upper body exercise, you tend to burn more calories and challenge the biceps and triceps.
Rate of Perceived Exertion
While an elliptical machine may burn more calories than exercising on a treadmill, it is common to feel as if you are working harder when exercising on a treadmill. This is because a treadmill is associated with an increased "rate of perceived exertion." However, an elliptical machine is associated with a lesser rate of perceived exertion, which means you may feel less tired when you finish an exercise session, even if you have worked harder.
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