The Best Cardio Machine For You
As a gym owner for over 11 years now and having been an Austin personal trainer for well over 20, I get a lot of “what is the best..” then fill in the blank questions. People will often ask which is the best type of protein, the best cardio workout, the best pectoral workout, and so on. One question I get from a lot of people has to do with cardiovascular exercise, and it is which is the best cardio machine?
With cardiovascular exercise, you have many options. You can swim, run, walk, hike trails, ride a bicycle, etc. You can also join a gym and use any number of different cardio machines. There’s everything from a stair climber, to a rowing machine, treadmills, ellipticals, stationary bikes, spin bikes, etc. Which one of them is the best cardio machine will depend on a multitude of factors such as your health, your abilities, your interests, etc. It’s hard to qualify one as being superior to another randomly, but we can make the obvious statement that some are more in tune with specific goals, and some also require more of an intense effort in order to use them. Does that make them the best cardio machine? It depends.
If you’re looking at training for a marathon, the best cardio machine for you wouldn’t likely be a recumbent bicycle, but rather a treadmill. Conversely, if you are trying to lose some weight, or just increase your cardiovascular health, but you are plagued with knee issues, the recumbent bike might be the best cardio machine for you. For some people who have no knee or hip issues, the best cardio machine may well be a stair climber for the intensity it provides. If you are one with tight hips, then this isn’t the best option for you as every time you raise your leg to make another step, you’re engaging the psoas muscle, which is more often than not, very closely associated with tight hips and low back pain. Yes, that’s a generalized statement, but I will say that in all of my years as a personal trainer, I’ve yet to run into someone with tight hips who didn’t have some degree of tightness in their psoas. Whether or not the problem originates there or not is going to naturally vary from person to person.
Before any cardiovascular exercise is to be undertaken, it’s a good idea to fix whatever tightness’ and imbalances you have. For example, if as mentioned above, you have tight hips, you may want to address that before running on a treadmill or climbing a stair stepper machine, so as not to exacerbate the condition. All things being equal, however, what is the best cardio machine? Ultimately, it’s whichever one you’re willing to consistently use in order to help you meet your goals.
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Andy
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