Ellipticals vs. Treadmills vs. Bikes

So which cardiovascular exercise machine is better? I remember asking that question when I built my first home gym. I was running a start-up at the time, so I didn’t have time to workout 6 hours a day. I could set aside an hour a day on my workout but I wanted to make sure that I got the most out of each and every work out. As far as cardio was concerned, I wasn’t exactly in love with treadmills, bikes, or ellipticals. But I did want to burn the most calorie and get in shape in a fastest time possible. And I didn’t want to spend a few thousand dollars to get every possible fitness equipment under the sun. That’s usually the case with most folks. They want to get the best workout and save money on their exercise equipments in the process.

Ellipticals, treadmills, and bikes are all great fitness equipments to own, and they all have their strengths and weaknesses. Exercise bikes are low impact fitness gadgets that help you build a stronger heart while improving your legs. If you get a dual action bike, you can get a lower and upper body workout at the same time. While bikes can help you burn calories, most don’t come any close in that department to ellipticals and treadmills. They may be easier on your body, but you can always challenge yourself with air or magnetic resistant bikes. Nevertheless, you can burn more calories with other fitness equipments. Besides, I always prefer taking my bike outside rather than doing the exercise at home.

Ellipticals are much more effective in burning calories, and they are easier on your joints as well. So for people who have aches in those areas, ellipticals could come in very handy. They do give you a total workout, so you get to exercise muscles that matter.  These devices don’t come any close to treadmills when it comes to burning calories but they are still much better than bikes.

Treadmills are the most powerful fitness equipments in this group, when it comes to burning calories in a shorter period of time. Your exercise on a treadmill could be as intense as you want it to be, but you do get to burn lots of calories if you are dedicated. You can walk or run on these, and you can always change the levels to force yourself to push your body to the next level. I still prefer ellipticals’ multi-dimensionality, but treadmills can be very effective when it comes to burning calories. And if you want to push it to the next level, you can always get a tread-climber. Treadclimbers are treadmills on steroids. They help you bring more intensity to your workout and burn even more calories. If you have always wanted to run up the stairs to test your fitness, treadclimbers are a great place to start.

Ultimately, it comes down to your individual taste when it comes to choosing the right exercise machine for your home gym. If you can afford to have all of the above devices, then you probably should. No gym is complete without having all these equipments. But you are going to need a big mansion to store all these fitness equipment. At the end of the day, there is so much cardio exercise you can do in a day. So pick your equipment accordingly to make sure you get the biggest bang from each exercise session.