Home exercise machines are becoming increasingly popular for those hoping to avoid the pressure and cost of the gym. With so many great machines and at good prices, there’s simply no excuse not to get exercising in your own home!

Cardio machines are great if you want to loose a few inches off of your waistline. They are designed to increase the heart rate and burn fat as you use them. For most of these pieces of equipment the increased intensity or higher settings also increase the amount of calories burned.

The treadmill is the most popular and one of the easiest pieces of exercise equipment to use. It increases lung capacity and is an excellent endurance builder. The shock absorbency helps reduce the impact to the joints that one would receive running or walking on the street and in turn helps in reducing the likelihood of an injury. With a few presses of a button you can calculate the time, speed, calories burned, and steps taken that you have expended during your work out. This combined with the safety level that is brought with any indoor piece of exercise equipment makes the treadmill a great piece of machinery.

If you are not a big fan of running but you want the same benefits to your body, you might want to consider an elliptical. Ellipticals are cross training machines and unlike treadmills they offer a full body work out when the arm function is in use. They, like all cardio machines, build endurance and lung capacity. Cross trainers are the only machines that actually combine the movements of a treadmill, stationary bike, and a stair climber. The elongated circular motion that your legs move in provides less impact on the joints then almost any other cardio machine, and is the reason that the piece of machinery bares the name elliptical. Working out on this piece of equipment will strengthen and tone your entire leg with or with out the use of the arm function. It also offers the ability to calculate the amount of calories burned, steps taken, miles, and time spent with each work out.

Some people prefer to do their cardio sitting though. If you think that you might be one of those people then you might want to consider the stationary exercise bike. Exercise bikes are easy as easy can get, just hop on the bike and go. The easy use is one of their biggest features which is added to with the calculation features offered on the treadmill and the cross trainer. Exercise bikes are great at strengthening and toning the leg muscles while burning fat, and they do it with minimal impact to the joints. While they are great calorie burners be aware that the difficulty will have to be greatly increased to burn the type of calories that a treadmill or an elliptical will give you. Another feature appreciated by the beginning biker is the ability to buy exercise bikes with different seats. The seat size compared to the size of the person is important. Remember it is highly unlikely that you will want to work out if the thing you are sitting on is causing you pain. If you have back problems or you are over two hundred pounds then you might want to consider the recumbent bike to offer you the support that you need.

Another cardio machine that offers you exercise while sitting is the rowing machine. Unfortunately, there are two draw backs to the rowing machine the first is that if you have any back problems at all then you should see your physician before touching one of these pieces of equipment. No one wants to be injured because they tried to better themselves. The second drawback is that not as many rowing machines have the calculating feature that the other machines have. However, those two drawbacks aside, the rowing machine does offer some very unique features of it’s own. This is the only machine that will work out all four of your limbs at the same time with equal exertion. This increases calorie burning and it offers a muscle toning ability to the back, torso, arm, and leg muscles not provided by the other pieces of equipment. It increases lung capacity and stamina like the other machines, but it is the only one that offers almost no impact to your joints. Even though you really have to pay attention to your form on a rowing machine to avoid injury causing it to be more difficult to use, it provides a lot of benefits that make it a great work out.

With these four pieces of exercise equipment it is easy to see the similarities in cardio equipment but it is also nice to know what the differences are. Hopefully this information will provide you with the ability to make an informed choice on which piece of machinery is right for you.

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Category: Sports
Keywords: home exercise, treadmills, cross trainers, exercise bikes