Elliptical workout: how to use the cross-trainer, what it trains, and three sessions for beginners

An elliptical, or cross-trainer, has two pedals that travel in a long oval and, on most machines, two handles that move with them. Your feet stay on the pedals the whole time, so there's no landing on each step the way there is when you walk or run. That's the machine's whole character, and most of this page is about what it does and doesn't change.

It covers how to set one up, what it trains, how it compares with the treadmill, the honest answer on weight loss, the mistakes, and three sessions for a beginner. Which machine to pick beside lifting is on cardio and lifting; the pace that keeps a session steady is on zone 2 cardio.

How to use an elliptical

1. Get on with the pedals still, holding the fixed handles, and start pedaling slowly before you let go.
2. Stand tall. Hips under your shoulders, chest up, weight over the middle of your feet rather than on the console.
3. Push through the whole foot. Keep your heels down through the push rather than rising onto your toes.
4. Set resistance before speed. Enough that you feel each push in your legs; if the pedals spin on their own, it's too low.
5. Use the moving handles or let go. Pushing and pulling the handles brings your arms in; hands-free makes your legs and balance do the work. Leaning on the fixed handles does neither.
6. Finish easy. Two or three minutes at low resistance before you stop.

What the elliptical trains

The legs, mostly, in a pattern that isn't quite walking and isn't quite running. Two studies measured it.

• Against walking: more glutes and thighs, less calf. In 20 adults tested walking and on four elliptical trainers, the elliptical raised the activity of the gluteus maximus and the outer thigh muscle and lowered it in the inner hamstrings, the calves and the shin muscle, while the side-hip and outer hamstring muscles changed little. The trunk, hips and knees were also more bent through the movement than in walking.¹
• Against running: less, except the front of the thigh. In 17 well-trained runners working at the same share of their peak workload on each machine, leg-muscle activity was lower on the elliptical than in treadmill running for every muscle measured except the quadriceps.²

So it's cardio that leans on the front of the thighs and the glutes, and the page makes no claim beyond that. For building those muscles, lifting is the tool: the leg day workout.

Elliptical vs treadmill

• Fitness: a draw over 12 weeks. In 22 moderately active women, average age about 29, assigned to an elliptical, treadmill running or a stair climber three days a week for 12 weeks at matched heart rates and session lengths, maximal oxygen uptake rose in all three groups, from 36.9 to 39.6 mL/kg/min in the 8 on the elliptical (measured in a test on an exercise bike), with no significant difference between the machines.³
• Energy at the same effort: a draw, or behind. In 18 untrained college-age adults, 9 men and 9 women, exercising for 15 minutes at the same rated effort on each, oxygen use and energy use were similar on the elliptical and the treadmill, though heart rate ran higher on the elliptical.⁴ In 30 recreationally active men with an average age of about 42, working hard and then at their maximum on seven machines, the treadmill used the most energy, followed by the stair climber, then the elliptical, then the bikes and the rower.⁵
• Load under the feet: much lower. In 75 adults without symptoms, the average load measured under the foot was about 73% of body weight on an elliptical, against 112% walking, 175% jogging on a treadmill and 201% jogging on the ground.⁶
• But not less work everywhere. In 15 men stepping on an elliptical with no resistance, at their own walking pace and step length, the loading rate at the start of each step was lower than in walking, while the peak turning forces (joint moments) on the hip-flexor and knee-extensor side were higher.⁷

Neither of the last two studies measured pain or injury, and this page makes no claim about either. What they show is that the elliptical moves the load: less through the feet, more through the front of the hip and thigh. The treadmill workout covers the other machine.

The elliptical for weight loss

Two honest things. First, the energy it asks for: about the same as the treadmill at the same rated effort in one study and third of seven machines in another, above the bikes and the rower.^4,5 Second, the trials: a PubMed search for this page found no trial in healthy adults that put people on an elliptical and followed weight or body fat as its main result. The broader evidence is the same as for any cardio. In a 2017 meta-analysis of 31 studies, interval training and steady cardio reduced body fat by similar, modest amounts,⁸ and in five trials that followed adults with overweight or obesity for a year or more, programs that combined diet and activity lost about 6 kg more at 12 to 18 months than activity alone.⁹

So the elliptical is a fair place to spend energy, and the scale is still mostly about what you eat. Walking and steps and why you can't lose fat cover that side.

The common mistakes, and a fix for each

• No resistance, fast legs. The pedals carry you and the session asks little. Fix: raise the resistance until each push is felt.
• Leaning on the console or the fixed handles. Fix: stand tall, or lower the resistance until you can.
• Up on the toes. Fix: heels down, push through the whole foot.
• Borrowing your treadmill heart rate. At the same rated effort, heart rate ran about 20 beats a minute higher on the elliptical in the study above.⁴ Fix: judge the pace by your breathing, the talk test.
• Doing it right before squats. In 14 men, 30 minutes on an elliptical, legs only, at 70% of predicted maximum heart rate cut the number of back-squat reps they completed afterwards, but not their bench-press reps.¹⁰ Fix: after lifting, or on another day (cardio and lifting).
• Pedaling through something that hurts. Working thighs are the machine; a sharp or lasting hurt in a knee or hip isn't. Stop, and see a doctor or a physical therapist.

Three beginner elliptical workouts

Once the steady twenty-five feels routine, stretch it toward 30 minutes over a few weeks. On the ladder, the higher-resistance minute should leave you only a few words; the easy minutes bring you back to a sentence (HIIT vs steady-state cardio covers when intervals are worth it). Counted with the rest of your week, 25 to 30 minutes of steady pedaling is 25 to 30 of the World Health Organization's 150 to 300 moderate minutes, or 75 to 150 vigorous.¹¹

Common questions

How long should you be on the elliptical?

Fifteen minutes the first few times, then 25, then 30. In the 12-week trial above, sessions three days a week started at 30 minutes and built to 40.³

Is the elliptical good for runners?

As a stand-in, the studies say it holds up for the heart and lungs. In 18 trained runners, maximal oxygen uptake was not different on a treadmill, an elliptical and a stepper, and at the same share of each machine's peak workload, oxygen use and heart rate didn't differ between the three.¹² Leg-muscle activity was lower than in running for everything but the quadriceps.² The authors' conclusion was that it can stand in for running when a lower running load is needed.

Elliptical or treadmill?

For fitness, a draw in the one trial that compared them for 12 weeks;³ for energy at the same effort, a draw in one study and behind the treadmill in another;^4,5 for load under the feet, much lower on the elliptical.⁶ Pick the one you'll stay on.

If you'd rather have the week planned

The machine is simple; deciding how many sessions fit beside your lifting, and on which days, is the part a page can't do for you. Coaching is the version where your workouts are built around the days you actually have, and a weekly call looks at the week you just had and rebuilds the next one around what's coming. Coaching for a week that doesn't hold still explains how that works, and apply is the first step. Otherwise: fifteen minutes, resistance on, this week.