Since Ungsunghero had requested this, it has been bumped up in priority.
I had mentioned I got my elliptical a few weeks back and I’ve been using it pretty much everyday. I spend about 30 minutes on it while usually watching an episode of Heroes or 2 episodes of anime. I started at resistance = 5, but have bumped it up 6. I’m pretty sure 7 would be fine too, but I’ll stay at 6 for now.
What I found amazing is that even though with 30 minutes of exercising on the elliptical, I don’t feel that tired afterwards at all and I burn more calories than when I was on the exercise bike. With 30 minutes on my exercise bike, I get extremely tired by the end and only burn about 400 calories. With the elliptical, I burn about 690 calories and can probably go on for another 15 minutes or so.
One interesting number on the elliptical is that it also measures carbs, and my number usually ends up around 100. According to the user’s manual, the number represents the number of grams of carbs I have burned. I wonder if that’s just some calculation based on the calories I’ve burned.
Anyway, the elliptical took some while to get used to as it felt unnatural and initially, I often lifted my feet off the step or started sliding on the step.
I typically do my exercise barefooted, but the steps on this elliptical has these poky pyramids which I’m guessing is to provide friction so you don’t slip on the steps. That made sense so during my first workout, I wore slippers. Very bad idea. Back in elementary school, did you ever get an Indian burn? Well, my feet basically ended up in a similar state, but worse. Since I was wearing slippers, my feet basically kept on rubbing it, chafing it constantly for 30 minutes. Of course when i was exercising, I didn’t realize that. But afterwards, it hurt pretty bad to walk.
Having a few pair of new shoes, I decided to use one specifically for the elliptical. That has worked out well ever since and my chafed feet have returned to normal.
Another thing about ellipticals are the moving handles. Even if you let go of the bars, they continue to move as long as your feet is moving. So if you drop your remote, don’t try to pick it up with moving handle bars or you may end up with a bump on the head like me.