Jogging vs eliptical

[lizard]

I have heard from different people the likes and dislikes about the two for a form oc cardio. I think the eliptical is alot less pounding and feels more comfortable on the joints.
But ol fashion running still is tougher and probably burns more calories. Does anybody have a personal view or medical facts?

?

Lizard

 

[Jake]

Jogging definitely burns more cals (up to 800-900/hr, depending on speed, terrain, style, etc.) than elliptical (600 or so on a straight run without a resistance program), but you're quite right that jogging's harder on the joints. Why not do both, as cross-training? They have substantially different kinetics, and cross-training would provide a more balanced cardio approach and help avoid injury.

 

[colby2152]

It obviously depends on your knees and ankles and how they feel.

 

[Peak_Power]

Another advantage for the eplipical over jogging, apart from lower-impact, is if it has the handles you can get an upperbody workout. I use an eplipical to warm up my chest and arms before I do weights. Rower's also a good one for using the upperbody muscles aerobically. Aerobic upperbody work should lean out the muscle and increase tone as well.

 

[robefc]

<div>
(Peak_Power @ Aug. 30 2006,23:08)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Aerobic upperbody work should lean out the muscle and increase tone as well.</div>
Really?

As far as I'm aware 'muscle tone' really just refers to appearance which relates to your bodyfat percentage as opposed to any conditioning of the muscle. Therefore to get more toned and lean you burn bodyfat...and as you can't spot reduce it doesn't matter how you do you cardio in relation to leaning out your upper body.

Happy to be proven wrong though as one of my pet annoyances is that my muscles feel soft when they're not tensed...

Cheers

Rob

 

[Lifting N Tx]

<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">...as you can't spot reduce it doesn't matter how you do you cardio in relation to leaning out your upper body</div>
I agree, spot reduction is a myth.

<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Happy to be proven wrong though as one of my pet annoyances is that my muscles feel soft when they're not tensed...</div>
The only way to avoid this that I'm aware of involves something called rigor mortis. Probably the &quot;bench press to the neck&quot; that you referred to in another thread could assist in developing it

.

Seriously, if muscles weren't soft and relaxed most of the time, how could we do anything? How could one throw a ball if the opposing muscles were tense instead of soft and flexible?

I agree with you...what most people view as toned just means sufficient muscle and reduction in fat to avoid sag.

 

[Peak_Power]

No I wasn't referring to &quot;spot reduction&quot;, which is losing fat, I'm taking about the muscle leaning out in response to aerobic activity, read Dr. Cooper's &quot;aerobics&quot; book, it was written in the 1970s I know, but its true, the muscle adapts differently to aerobic exericse than to weight training. If I'm wrong then so is one of the most famous exercise specialists in the world...

 

[Lifting N Tx]

<div>
(Peak_Power @ Aug. 31 2006,16:39)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">No I wasn't referring to &quot;spot reduction&quot;, which is losing fat, I'm taking about the muscle leaning out in response to aerobic activity, read Dr. Cooper's &quot;aerobics&quot; book, it was written in the 1970s I know, but its true, the muscle adapts differently to aerobic exericse than to weight training. If I'm wrong then so is one of the most famous exercise specialists in the world...</div>
Thanks for the clarification. I read one or more of Cooper's books a long time ago, but don't still have.

In terms of cardiovascular fitness I'd certainly consider what he has to say. However, cardiovascular fitness is all that he cares about from my recollection. From my memory, he seems to have zero interest in a lot of what people on this site care about, regarding any type of fitness other than cardiovascular as being worthless.

Would you care to define what is meant by &quot;leaning out&quot; if it doesn't involve losing fat? What kind of actual changes in muscle tissue are we talking about? I'm not trying to start an argument, just curious. Certainly aerobic exercise can develop some muscular endurance, but generally in my experience it's not even very taxing there, mostly just in the cardiovascular realm. However, most of my aerobic activity is just jogging.

 

[stevejones]

<div>
(lizard @ Aug. 30 2006,09:47)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">But ol fashion running still is tougher and probably burns more calories. Does anybody have a personal view or medical facts?

?

Lizard</div>
It's been my experience that no form of exercise burns as many calories as jogging does.  When I jogged every other morning I got lean pretty quickly.  Unfortunately, it ate up a lot of muscle also.  I guess I didn't put enough calories back in with food, but I don't know how to balance jogging/food so I can get lean without losing too much muscle.  Therefore, jogging is not an option for me right now.  Nothing shrinks my legs faster and brings my squat strength down quicker, except fasting.

 

[Peak_Power]

<div>
(stevejones @ Sep. 01 2006,01:08)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">It's been my experience that no form of exercise burns as many calories as jogging does.</div>
Apparently cross country skiing uses more calories per min/hour of exercise, but apart from that yeah running/jogging can't be beat, and requires no snow/equipment.

As the elipical mimics a skiiing action, and uses more muscle groups against resistance, I'd say at the same level of intensity/speed the elipical would burn more calories, great thing about running though is you can't slack off while running (without going back to a walk) but on the elipical or  bike you can go as slow as you want, so it seems easier. In other words it takes more discipline to burn as many calories on an elipical.

You're right about Dr. Cooper, he basically bags out muscular guys for being aerobicly unfit, and dying young from heart attacks and stuff, but then most weight lifters/BBers would look down on skinny guys who can run marathons. I'm not educated enough to understand and explain the precise process of a muscle &quot;leaning out&quot; as opposed to bulking, Dr. Cooper explains it in his book &quot;Aerobics&quot; but I can't remember it exactly, it has a lot to do with the how much surface area is exposed to the arteries and veins, I believe the basic point is that the muscle &quot;flattens out&quot; through aerobic ex, so more surface area is exposed to vasulature, but through weight lifting it &quot;bulks up&quot; adding muscle in all directions, think of a ball of muscle as opposed to a flat sheet of muscle. Not sure how accurate this description is but hopefully it gives you an image to work with. Of course this could be completely wrong if modern research contradicts it...