For a fun and effective physical fitness workout, cardio exercise machines are a great choice to burn excess unwanted body fat while at the same time, strengthening your overall cardiovascular health. Exercising with cardio machines can help burn body fat very quickly, but it also makes both your heart and your lungs stronger; it even reduces the chances of high blood pressure, heart diseases, and stroke. Doing exercises on cardio machines on a regular basis will also reduce the bad cholesterol in your system and raise the amount of good cholesterol within your system at the same time.
In order to ensure that you are exercising correctly, some of the questions that you ought to ask yourself are: If you do work out on cardio machines, are you sure you are getting the most that you can out of them? Do you work out on cardio machines and effectively get the best optimum advantages and benefits that you can from each exercise?
If you go to the gym regularly and do not have a personal trainer that guides you every step of the way, then you are probably not using the cardio machines to its best limit. But do not fret: every cardio machine user tends to make their own mistakes while working out on them.
With this article, we aim to take a closer look at well-known cardio machines and the most common mistakes that cardio machine users make while working out on each of them.
Here are the most common mistakes made on cardio machines, in no particular order:
1. Resting the Arms on a Step-up Stair Climber
This is most probably the most common mistake that people make and the sole reason why they cannot get the greatest benefits out of working out on a step-up stair climber machine. Whether it’s out of habit or mere ignorance, most people who work out on a step-up stair climber tends to rest their arms on the machine’s railing. What you probably do not realize is that, by doing this, the railing becomes a crutch of support that holds up your entire body weight and losing almost the entire intensiveness of the workout.
2. Running with the Aid of a Treadmill
The treadmill is most probably the most well-known and most used cardio machine that can be found in a gym. If you take a close look at the people who use this cardio machine, you will come to the conclusions that a lot of them tend to continuously run up and down while exercising. This should not be done since doing so will wear out your knee and ankle joints in the long run. The right way to use a treadmill is by taking smooth, long, and purposeful strides while working out on this cardio machine.
3. Setting the Wrong Seat Height on a Stationary Bike
The most important thing to keep in mind while working out on a stationary bike is to ensure that the height of the seat is adjusted to a comfortable level. A lot of people seem to adjust the seats either way too low or way too high when working out a stationary bike. There is no point to working out unless you can do so comfortable. Working out in discomfort simply is not detrimental to your health. If the seat is adjusted way too low, your spine and knees will suffer from too much strain. If the seat is adjusted way too high, on the other hand, your butt will tend to rock from side to side. So, not only will you not get the best benefits out of your cardio exercise on the stationary bike, but your body weight will also be involved as you peddle, making you look weird as you work out.
4. Reading While on a Stationary Bike
Yet another common mistake that occurs while working out on a stationary bike is that people like to read while working out. Because of this, their workout will tend to stay on a level of low intensity. This will not result in an effective workout on your lungs or your heart.
5. Exercising at High Speeds on an Elliptical Trainer
Yet another surprising common cardio exercise mistake is working out on an elliptical trainer at high speeds. The goal of working out on an elliptical trainer in the first place is to tone the body and work out for optimum cardiovascular fitness. For this to happen, the resistance level should always be set to a low speed. Unless you pant, puff, or sweat during a cardio workout, you will not lose weight nor improve your cardiovascular health, no matter how regular you do cardio workouts.
Now that you know all of the most common mistakes done while working out on cardio machines, you can do your best to avoid them. Now you can head to the gym and get the most advantages and benefits out of each cardio machines and each of your exercises. In a short span of time, you will be able to see the difference in your body tone and the improvement in your cardio health. In no time, you will start feeling much better and you will be visibly losing a lot of excess body fat.
