Since the workout routine I'm currently on involves cardio everyday(5 min cardio - for 3 sets), I tend to try to find a machine that doesn't bore me, but at the same time get the best bang for my efforts.

 On average, if you spend an hour on the treadmill you burn approximately 750 calories(lower body workout - high impact). If you spend an hour on the stationary bike, you burn approximately 570 calories(lower body workout - low impact). And finally if you're on the elliptical you burn about the same as the treadmill at 700 calories(lower and upper body workout - low impact),  If you do the math, it's quite clear which exercises are more effective.

But if you're like me, I can get quite bored of the same exercise machine and I'm not exactly a huge fan of jogging/running in the 1st place, so I sometimes rather ignore calorie count and just concentrate on having fun instead(where fun trumps effectiveness). Plus I worry about the common knee/joint problems that come along with high impact exercises. 

So a simple solution to this is to balance between the exercise machines that are available to you and find the one that you enjoy the most. For me, this solution has instantly killed cardio boredom and now look forward to burning the calories. Before, I used to go on the treadmill(or elliptical) for the full session and sometimes get extremely bored - even with my itouch on hand.

For my personal opinion as to which is "best", I would have to say the elliptical and the bike. On paper, the treadmill may have it's benefits, but I believe it really comes down to what is your own personal favorite when you reach the gym.  I like them both(bike and elliptical) as it has low impact on my joints and as you can tell, I'm not a big fan of running marathons. IMO, the elliptical is probably the best bang for your efforts since it is low impact and it works the upper body(when using the poles), but I can easily see myself getting bored after awhile. So again, it's always best to change it up.

So for today, I had 3 sets of 5 min cardio which I split the 3 sets into 5 min. of treadmill, 5 min. of bike and then 5 min. on the elliptical. Altogether I burned approximately 160 calories. As for the rest of my weight training, I worked on chest, biceps, quads, traps and abs. Overall great workout and again got that feeling of accomplishment leaving the gym. =)

Tomorrow is weight training and cardio again...Looking forward to it. ;-)


See here for last weeks picture and status results