Elliptical machines are some of the most effective cardio fitness tools. They come with fantastic health benefits, and they are the perfect starting point for beginners.
To start with, ellipticals are notoriously known for being low-impact on the joints, while they simultaneously provide great weight loss and calorie burn workouts. And if your elliptical machine comes with handles, then you’ll be working a lot more of your body than just legs.
However, while elliptical workouts are a great weight loss tool, it’s important that you no overdo it.
Just like any other type of exercise, if you haven’t workout out in a while, or if you’re living a pretty sedentary lifestyle, you have to make sure to listen to your body, and ease yourself into tougher, longer workouts. Otherwise, not only will your body hurt, and your hatred towards exercise skyrocket, but you also risk injuries.
Having said that, we wanted to help in any way we can, and provide this great weight loss elliptical workout for beginners. An important note here is that this workout is meant for the “average” beginner, but since we’re all different, it might not suit your level of fitness.
Our advice is to try it, and then adjust accordingly. If it is way too easy for you, go up a level, and if it’s way too hard, tone it all down. In general, your workouts should be just a tad challenging, to make sure you’re actually making progress.
Now, without further ado: here’s the beginner’s elliptical workout that you just have to try.
25-Minute Elliptical Workout for Beginners
If this is only one in a series of elliptical workout articles that you’ve been researching, then you must have already stumbled upon HIIT workouts.
HIIT or High-Intensity Interval Training is the big thing in fitness right now and for the right reasons. It’s a great tool for weight loss that includes high-intensity bursts of exercise, followed by low-intensity recovery periods. And that’s where the magic happens: it helps you get great results in improved muscle tone, fat burn, endurance in less time!
That’s why our recommended beginner’s workout will be all about the HIIT program on HOLOFIT VR Fitness that you can use on your elliptical machine.
In case you don’t yet have HOLOFIT, scroll down to the next section to get the workout plan that you can do on your own.
Since HIIT is high-intensity (duuh! ?), it’s important that you warm up before, and cool down after. Here’s what we recommend:
Warm-up: 5 minutes in Explore mode in Paris
Paris is one of the best environments to use with Explore mode. It’s full of peculiarities, and hidden trophies that you’ll have fun collecting, while the 5 minutes go by without you even noticing.
Set your own pace to get your muscles working.
HIIT: 15 minutes in San Francisco on Easy
Our HIIT program comes with five difficulty settings to enable you to make progress through the different levels. Since you’re only beginning, we recommend you start on Easy. If you find the workout to be too easy or too hard, you can always switch to very easy or medium difficulty.
Cool-down: 5 minutes in Explore mode in Antarctica
When you get to this point, you’ll be pretty tired, and the iciness of Antarctica just might be what you need to get that much-desired cooldown. Once again, the hidden trophies here will keep you entertained and keep pushing that last 5 minutes to cool your muscles down.
How do I do it if I don’t have HOLOFIT VR Fitness?
Your warm-up and cool-down exercises can stay the same if you don’t have HOLOFIT, just make sure to find something to keep you entertained so that you push through.
As for the HIIT workout, you can try relying on your rating of perceived exertion (RPE). RPE is a scale from 6 to 20 that describes the level of exertion that you are feeling with 6 being no exertion as if you were standing still, and 20 being maximum exertion, something you can’t keep doing for much longer.
For your warm-up and cool down, stay between levels 9 and 10.
For your beginner’s HIIT, let’s say that your recovery periods should be at level 10 – 12, while your high-intensity bursts should stay between 14 – 16.
What you should do is alternate these periods until your 15 minutes run out. The high-intensity bursts should last 30 seconds, followed by recovery periods of 90 seconds.
A good idea here might be to set up timers on your phone so as not to lose track of time.
