Elliptical trainers are becoming very popular amongst people working out both in gyms and at home. This is because an elliptical trainer allows anyone to get a great workout, even someone who has joint problems, as it offers a very low impact cardiovascular workout. Possible injuries are greatly reduced and a person can work on their upper and lower bodies so is great for weight loss as well as fitness goals. Buying an elliptical trainer is an investment in your own healthy future but knowing what to buy and what to look for can be a challenge.
There are many brands and models in the market today making it even harder to choose between them. Price will have to guide you somewhat, but they range from just $500 up to $5000. The key thing to look at in an elliptical is its flywheel. This is the part that creates the elliptical motion of the machine and generates the resistance so that you can alter how intense your workouts are.
The lower priced machines, while tempting at their affordability, have components that just won’t last that long. The flywheels are cheaply made and use belts to create resistance. After not a lot of use these belts will need replacing. Ideally if you can afford it, look for an elliptical machine that has a flywheel that uses a magnetic system to alternate electrical current to get the required resistance changes.
Where the flywheel is on the trainer is also something to pay attention to. Usually models have one big flywheel that is places at the back of the model. The drawback to this design is the machine is long and big. Lately more modern designers have created shorter fatter models by putting on 2 smaller flywheels side by side. The benefit to this change they claim is the model becomes more stable and the motion is even smoother.
Finally but very importantly you need to make sure the flywheel mechanism on the machine you are considering has a warranty, as this is the thing most likely to break. Good brands will offer at least 12 months whereas others will go as high as 5 years. Buy a brand that is known and can be trusted to back up its warranty.
Elliptical fitness equipment and accessories. Today’s special: Kettler Elliptical Cross Trainer
Before you ride your mountain bike to the starting line of your next MTB race, you may want to ask yourself what your goal is. Is it to place in the top five of your age group, or beat your best time on that course? Maybe it’s your first race and your goal is to finish.
Whatever race goals you choose, it’s a good idea to start planning how your mountain bike training will get you there in the weeks prior to the event. Having a better understanding of the five components of training, and how you can adjust them will give you a better foundation for planning your next mountain bike race.
1. Repetition / Frequency – The number of hills or intervals you complete in a given mountain bike ride is an example of repetition. How often you mountain bike in a given week is an example of frequency. Repetition and frequency represent the components you can adjust in your training sessions to ensure quality results.
The primary purpose of intervals is to allow for repeated sessions of high intensive exercise followed by a specific recovery time. With proper rest and recovery, intervals can strengthen your mind and muscles to perform at a higher level. For mountain bikers, this can easily be done with hill climbing.
2. Terrain – Training on different terrains allows you to train all the muscles you may need on race day. For example, shifting your body weight or standing on your pedals can shift the workload more to your gluteus maxima and hamstring muscles and less on your quadriceps.
Nothing new on race day – the rule for all competitors applies here. If you’re interested in minimizing your physical and mental stress during your next mountain bike race, train on similar terrain and your race day performance will benefit.
3. Volume – Most coaches measure volume by hours or time training – workout, week, month or year – verses distance. As riding 15 miles on hilly terrain can take you much longer than mountain biking on a relatively flat fire road, time monitoring your workouts is usually a better performance gauge of your training.
You increase or decrease your training load by adjusting your training volume up or down. To improve your aerobic system, low intensity riding below your lactate threshold is recommended.
The components of intensity and volume are inversely related. When you add more volume to your training cycle, you will need to reduce your intensity to allow for additional recovery. With the addition of more high intensity intervals to your training cycle, you will need to reduce your volume to prevent overtraining.
4. Intensity – is the level of effort you put into your training workouts. Mountain biking for an easy 90 minute ride with your friends talking along the way is quite different then hammering up a steep mountain for 90 minutes.
The heart rate monitor is the tool of choice for most athletes seeking to measure intensity. With improvements and advanced features like GPS, heart rate monitors have become a valuable tool to the athlete over the last 20 plus years.
If there is extra cash under your mattress, the new standard in measuring intensity is the power meter. Although more popular with road cyclist and triathletes, a power meter provides very accurate results for measuring your intensity level, or power output.
5. Pedal Cadence – training your mind and muscles to pedal at different cadences allows you to handle different terrains more easily, and provides various rates of muscle contraction, or stimuli which will maximize your muscular strength.
Practicing pedal cadence training will develop your anaerobic and aerobic energy systems, pedal stroke efficiency, cadence, and MTB skills. Achieving an effective training program for pedal cadence will add additional human gears which will help maximize your MTB performance.
A solid mountain bike training plan is based on exercise science, but the best training plan for you requires testing and constant changing to find what works best for your unique physical and psychological make-up. Applying exercise science as a starting point then testing and adjusting these five training components to find your winning formula may be the best path for you.
Keith Rejino is a mountain biker, personal trainer, and sports photographer for Dreamscape Images. His Mountain Bike Racing website provides race coverage, XC MTB and nutrition tips. For more XC MTB tips, check it out.
