What Muscles Does The Elliptical Work?

The elliptical is either something to be laughed at or something you get trapped on when you’re hurt for competitive track competitors. Nevertheless, give it five minutes, no matter how “beginner” or “simple” it initially appears. Even the most experienced track athletes running for hours each day—with obscene VO2 maxes—will be panting and wheezing.

The ultimate in careless cardiovascular exercises, the elliptical is a full-body workout that successfully mixes resistance and cardiovascular conditioning. Additionally, it is one-of-a-kind, weight-bearing (important for enhancing bone strength and preventing osteoporosis), and low-impact.

Your lower and upper body pushing and pulling muscles are used. Additionally, research in the journal Gait Posture claims that using an elliptical trainer results in significantly more muscle activation than cycling or walking. Precisely how many muscles? Below, we go into it.

Table of Contents

Which Muscles Are Worked by the Elliptical?

Elliptical machines are said to work about 80% of your body’s muscles. You can maintain your upright posture by engaging your core and imagining a fishing line being pulled up through the crown of your head. Make sure your knees track straight in front of you as you face your toes forward. Here are the muscles you may anticipate using while you keep these signals in mind.

Upper Body

Using the handlebars at the front of the machine will determine which upper body muscles you engage when using the elliptical. Theoretically, the elliptical handles may be drawn backward with a focus on the lats, rhomboids, and traps, which help retract the shoulder blades, with some assistance from the biceps. Pushing the handles forward would predominantly target the chest, anterior deltoid, serratus anterior, and triceps.

The majority of elliptical users, however, either let their arms ride the poles freely or press the handles ahead before relaxing on the way back. The chest, shoulders, and triceps are the only upper body muscles used if you belong to the pusher-only camp.

Reduced Body

Your legs will exert most of the effort regardless of how you manipulate the handlebars. Your quadriceps, hamstrings, calves, and glutes will all be put to use.

Your quadriceps and hip flexors act together as you push your leg forward to flex the knee and elevate your leg. Your glutes and hamstrings will engage to help you move forward as your leg goes back. Your calves and tibialis anterior will contract to support your ankle, while your abductors (including your glute medius and minimus) and adductors (inner thighs) will strive to stabilise your pelvis throughout the whole range of motion.

Core

Your body mainly relies on your core during an elliptical workout to balance your trunk, maintain correct posture, and power your arms and legs, similar to when you’re jogging or walking. But when we refer to your “core,” we mean all of the muscles that collaborate to maintain your spine. We don’t simply mean your abs.

The main players are the muscles that contract around your spine, such as your abs, obliques, and lower back. By contracting the muscles surrounding your spine to form a hard core, abdominal bracing prevents your spine from sliding into a position that might harm your spinal cord, vertebrae, or nerves. Similar to a standing plank, the objective of abdominal bracing is to maintain a strong, stable posture via the spine while your arms and legs do all the work.

Build Muscle

But can you gain muscle on an elliptical?

Surprisingly, aerobic exercise can indeed help you gain lean muscle. There is a lot of evidence that aerobic exercises like using an elliptical can cause muscular hypertrophy (or growth), according to a review of the literature published in Exercise sports science review.

But don’t mistake a few minutes on the elliptical for a strength training session. Yes, it’s a fantastic technique to develop muscular endurance, and you can increase the resistance to give your muscles a little bit more of a challenge.

Elliptical Machines Benefits

The elliptical machine is heart-healthy.

The elliptical is a true heart-strengthening machine, but only if you are heart-problem-free. Your heart rate might rise quickly on the elliptical machine.

Beneficial to joints

The elliptical trainer evenly distributes your body weight over both legs, unlike jogging. In addition to protecting your joints, this produces a movement that is similar in size to a runner’s stride.

Benefits the muscles

The pressure of the pedals puts strain on the leg muscles. The arms are active at the same time to push and pull the handles. Overall, it’s a collaborative effort! Better yet, you may choose how much energy to put into your upper and lower limbs.

Combining It With Other Cross-Training Workouts

If using an elliptical trainer for a long time becomes monotonous for you because it is so repetitive, you may change up your workouts by using various attachments. or doing exercises like push-ups without any special equipment.