Bored With Your Elliptical Workout? Change It Up!

As with any piece of fitness equipment, the novelty of it wears away over time. Pretty soon, your elliptical starts collecting dust and your body accumulates weight. This is such a tragedy! When you use your hard-earned money to buy an elliptical machine only to not use it, you are not making the most out of your purchase.

The problem is that you find your elliptical boring. You can only use the same machine so many times before it becomes redundant, repetitive, and ridiculously boring. If the workout is boring for you mentally, then it’s boring for your muscles too. The purpose of exercise is to push your body in different ways and to strengthen your different muscles. If you continue to do the same workout every single day, pretty soon your body will stop improving from it.

One way to change up your routine is to run backwards. It takes a little more thoughtful coordination on your part, and it’s fun too! It uses your body in a different way, helping you to build muscles in different areas.

Another way to spice up your workout is to change up the incline. Have it set to a really steep incline for five or ten minutes, then relax with a flat incline for five more minutes.

You can also adjust the resistance. This simply makes your body work harder to keep moving, which builds muscle strength. When you are on a higher incline, you might want to reduce the resistance at first and work up to a higher level over time. This will help prevent injury from over-stressing your joints and tendons.

Try running without the handles. It can be difficult to balance at first, but it’s a great way to build up your core muscles. Once you get the hang of it, you might find yourself not wanting to use the handles anymore!