Walking and using an elliptical machine represent two common and accessible forms of low-impact cardio exercise. Both offer substantial health benefits, making them popular choices for individuals seeking to improve their cardiovascular fitness and manage their weight. However, understanding the nuances of each activity can help you determine which is best suited to your individual fitness goals, physical condition, and preferences.
Understanding the Basics
Walking
Walking is a straightforward and accessible form of exercise requiring only supportive shoes and a safe place to stroll. It's a natural movement that most people can perform, making it an excellent starting point for those new to exercise.
Elliptical
An elliptical machine simulates a natural running or walking motion with reduced impact on the joints. It involves placing your feet on platforms and moving in an elliptical, or elongated circle. Many elliptical machines also include arm handles, allowing for a full-body workout.
Calorie Burn and Weight Loss
When it comes to calorie expenditure, the elliptical generally has an edge over walking. Harvard Health Publishing¹ estimates that a 150-pound person using an elliptical for 30 minutes burns 324 calories, while the same person walking briskly at 4 mph burns 174 calories. Keep in mind that calorie burn can vary depending on individual weight, intensity, and machine settings.
A study on aerobic exercise found that a 24-week program of low-impact workouts improved the body composition, physical fitness, and cardiovascular fitness of the study participants.
Read also: Walking for weight loss
Maximizing Calorie Burn
While the elliptical may offer a higher calorie burn at baseline, walking can be intensified to increase energy expenditure. This can be achieved by:
- Increasing pace: Picking up the pace can significantly elevate calorie burn during walking.
- Adding incline: Walking uphill engages more muscles and increases the intensity of the workout.
- Incorporating intervals: Alternating between bursts of faster walking and periods of slower recovery can boost calorie burn and improve cardiovascular fitness.
Muscle Engagement
The elliptical and walking engage different muscle groups to varying degrees.
Elliptical
Elliptical machines, especially those with arm handles, offer a full-body workout. They engage the muscles in your:
- Legs: Glutes, hip flexors, quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves.
- Upper Body: Shoulders, chest, and back.By switching direction and working backward, you can further target your calves and hamstrings.
Walking
Walking primarily targets the muscles in your lower body, including your:
- Quadriceps
- Hamstrings
- Calves
- Hip Flexors
- Glutes
Muscle Development
While an elliptical is a great option for low-impact aerobic exercise, you may not notice the same amount of muscle development as you can get from a treadmill. If you’re looking to gain more muscle strength and want to continue using an elliptical, try adding weight or strength training to your routine a few times a week.
Read also: Weight Loss: Walking vs. Swimming Comparison
Impact on Joints
One of the key distinctions between walking and elliptical workouts is the impact on your joints.
Elliptical
The elliptical is a low-impact machine, making it a good option if you have a musculoskeletal condition such as low-back pain, knee or hip pain, or other health conditions like arthritis or osteoporosis.Ellipticals are designed to be joint-friendly. Instead of pounding against a surface, your feet glide in a smooth circular motion.
Walking
While walking is by no means a high-impact activity, your joints do absorb some impact as you lift one foot at a time and make contact with the ground with each step.
Cardiovascular Health
Both walking and elliptical workouts offer significant benefits for cardiovascular health.
Elliptical and walking
Both forms of exercise can help to:
Read also: Weight Loss with Indoor Exercises
- Improve heart health: Regular cardio exercise strengthens the heart muscle and improves its efficiency.
- Lower blood pressure: Cardio exercise can help reduce blood pressure and improve overall cardiovascular function.
- Improve cholesterol levels: Regular exercise can help lower bad (LDL) cholesterol and increase good (HDL) cholesterol.
Additional Benefits
Beyond calorie burn and muscle engagement, walking and elliptical workouts offer a range of additional benefits.
Walking
Walking offers unique benefits, including:
- Improved mood: A 2019 research report published in the Journal of Geriatric Physical Therapy⁸ found that a short six minutes of walking was enough to improve the mood of older adults.
- Brain health: A 2016 symposium review published in the Journal of Physiology⁷ explored how physical activity, specifically easily accessible activities like walking, can maintain brain plasticity and memory while preventing brain deterioration and dementia.
Elliptical
Elliptical workouts offer the following benefits:
- Variety: An elliptical machine with built-in programs can add variety to your workouts.
- Safety: A 2021 study³ whose researchers followed 415 higher-weight participants for 48 months found that of the tracked activities, which included everything from racquet sports to running and swimming, elliptical trainers caused the least amount of knee damage.
Study: Treadmill vs. Elliptical vs. Rowing
One study investigated the effects of treadmill, elliptical, and rowing exercise on fat oxidation in healthy individuals. Nine healthy males participated in peak oxygen consumption tests on a treadmill, elliptical, and rowing ergometer. Indirect calorimetry was used to assess maximal oxygen consumption (V̇O2peak), maximal fat oxidation (MFO) rates, and the exercise intensity MFO occurred (Fatmax).
Key Findings
- MFO Rates: MFO rates were higher on the treadmill (0.61 ± 0.06 g·min-1) compared to both the elliptical (0.41 ± 0.08 g·min-1) and the rower (0.40 ± 0.08 g·min-1).
- Fatmax Values: Fatmax values were also significantly higher on the treadmill (56.0 ± 6.2 %V̇O2peak) compared to both the elliptical (36.8 ± 5.4 %V̇O2peak) and rower (31.6 ± 5.0 %V̇O2peak).
- Blood Lactate: Post-exercise blood lactate concentrations were also significantly lower following treadmill exercise.
The study concluded that both MFO and Fatmax were higher during treadmill exercise, suggesting that the adequate selection of exercise modality during training may have a meaningful impact on substrate oxidation.
Substrate Metabolism
During aerobic exercise, oxidation of carbohydrates and fat, in exercising muscle, is influenced by fitness level, diet, sex, and intrinsic biochemical factors. The oxidation of substrates is also known to be further altered extrinsically, via exercise duration and exercise modality.
Substrate metabolism shifts towards greater fat oxidation and reaches higher rates of maximal fat oxidation (MFO) during walking and running compared to cycling.
These results are believed to stem from differences in muscle recruitment patterns and Type II muscle fiber recruitment in cycling from lower muscle mass contribution to total energy production. Additionally, the exercise intensity where MFO occurs, known as Fatmax, occurs at higher intensities on the treadmill compared to a cycle ergometer.
Intrinsically, as exercise intensity increases, greater glycolytic activity results in an increased accumulation of lactate and hydrogen ions, decreasing muscle pH. Reductions in fatty acid oxidation are strongly correlated with the accumulation of plasma lactate.
Elliptical and Rowing
The elliptical and rower are two modalities increasing in popularity for their ability to offer meaningful aerobic benefits, as they incorporate whole-body movements. They further provide alternatives to those with limited range of motions and physical disabilities, such as cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, and others.
Importantly, it has been reported that heart rate and oxygen uptake during elliptical exercise is similar to treadmill when both exercises are performed at self-selected intensities.
Despite some aerobic similarities, MFO and Fatmax was reported higher during rowing compared to cycling. The crossover point, where energy contribution from CHO and fat to total energy expenditure is equal, was also reported to occur at a higher relative exercise intensity during rowing than cycling.
Although the elliptical and rower involve a large level of muscle mass, they involve more regular activation of muscles in the upper limbs compared to treadmill exercise. The muscles of the upper limbs have a relatively smaller surface area than those of the lower body, and the metabolic demand across these muscle fibers may be larger during elliptical and rowing exercise, leading to a greater reliance on Type II muscle fibers.
Fat oxidation during exercise has been associated to increases in oxidative enzymatic activity and mitochondrial biogenesis in skeletal muscle. Training designed to improve fat oxidation could help to gain or maintain a healthy metabolic profile via an appropriate selection of exercise modality.
Study Protocol
Nine healthy males (age: 22 ± 1.1 years, height: 1.78 ± 0.03 m, weight: 78.0 ± 3.7 kg, body fat: 8.70 ± 1.15%) participated in the study. Informed written consent was provided prior to testing. Participants were screened with a Get Active Questionnaire and a health screening form for health conditions or diseases that could be aggravated by exercise. None of the participants were on prescribed medications.
Participants reported to the laboratory, following a 12-hour fasted state, for one familiarization session, followed by three experimental exercise sessions, in a balanced design, consisting of an adapted incremental V̇O2peak protocol to exhaustion during either: 1) treadmill exercise (TM), 2) elliptical exercise (EL), or 3) rowing exercise (ROW). Participants performed each exercise session at the same time of day, between 07:00 h and 11:00 h, five to seven days apart, to minimize the influence of circadian variance. Participants were also requested to avoid alcohol consumption, strenuous exercise, caffeine and tobacco 24 hours prior to each experimental exercise session.
Participants completed one familiarization session to become accustomed to the exercise protocols, instrumentation, and each of the exercise modalities.
An adapted incremental V̇O2peak exercise protocol was used to ensure that there was a sufficient number of stages to build substrate oxidation curves.
Measurements
Heart rate (HR) was recorded continuously using a Polar Heart Rate Monitor (H10). Fingertip blood samples were collected using a contact-activated lancet (BD Microtainer, BD, USA) prior to, and immediately following, each exercise session to assess blood lactate (Lactate Pro Test Strip, Arkray, Kyoto, Japan) and glucose (FreeStyle Precision Neo, Abbott Point of Care, Illinois, USA) concentrations.
Breath-by-breath cardiorespiratory data were collected continuously during exercise using an open circuit ergospirometer in breath-by-breath mode (CPX, MGC Diagnostics, Saint Paul, MN) to obtain measures of oxygen consumption (V̇O2), carbon dioxide production (V̇CO2), respiratory exchange ratio (RER), and ventilation rate (V̇E).
Statistical Analysis
Normal distribution of the data was verified via skewness and kurtosis tests, Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk tests, and visual inspection of histograms. Sphericity of the data was verified through Mauchly’s test.
One-way analyses of variance with repeated measures were used to identify differences between exercise modalities for the following variables: MFO, Fatmax, V̇O2peak, HRpeak, V̇Epeak, V̇O2/HR, and the crossover point. Two-way analyses of variance with repeated measures (factors: exercise modality and time) were performed to identify differences in blood variables from pre and post exercise between exercise conditions, and for V̇E/V̇O2, V̇E/V̇CO2 throughout each condition. When a significant F ratio was observed, pairwise comparisons with Bonferroni correction was conducted.
To assess whether differences were present among substrate oxidation curves between exercise modalities, multiple linear mixed-effects regression analyses were performed to examine differences among relative and absolute oxidation curves with %V̇O2peak, and exercise modality as variables. To respond to the quadratic (fat oxidation) and exponential (CHO oxidation) natures of the curves, %V̇O2peak squared was added within the model. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05.
Results
There was no significant difference in V̇O2peak values across the three exercise conditions. However, there was a significant difference in mean HRpeak between modalities, where HRpeak was higher on the TM vs. ROW but not EL. Mean V̇Epeak was also not different between the exercise modalities. Mean V̇O2/HR was not significantly different between modalities.
Mean MFO was higher in TM vs. EL and ROW, but there was no significant difference between EL and ROW. Similarly, Fatmax was higher in TM vs. EL and ROW. However, mean Fatmax was not different between EL and ROW.
Regression analyses revealed a strong influence of modality on both fat and CHO oxidation curve during exercise. Examination of the fat oxidation curves revealed that curves became linear, and the distribution of the data was greater in the elliptical and rower exercises. The CHO oxidation curves were similar in shape between exercise modalities, but a greater distribution of the data was found in the elliptical condition.
Blood Analysis
Std. Mean pH was significantly lower post-exercise compared to pre-exercise for all three exercise modalities. However, there was no difference in pH between exercise modalities. Blood lactate concentrations increased across time, and were also higher post-exercise in ROW compared to TM. Blood glucose concentrations were not significantly different between exercise modalities.
Mean pO2 and pCO2 were both significantly higher post-exercise compared to pre-exercise across exercise modalities. Additionally, pO2 was higher post-exercise in TM vs. ROW. Mean BEecf was significantly lower post-exercise compared to pre-exercise. BEecf was also significantly lower post-exercise during ROW exercise compared vs. TM and EL. Mean HCO3- was significantly lower post-exercise compared to pre-exercise.
Practical Considerations
In addition to the physiological benefits, practical considerations can influence your choice between walking and the elliptical.
Cost
Walking is a free activity, requiring no equipment beyond supportive shoes. Elliptical machines, on the other hand, can be a significant investment, although they are often available at gyms. If you’re on a tighter budget, don’t have gym access, or don’t have a ton of cardio fitness equipment available in your home gym, you can’t beat stepping out the door and walking in your neighborhood-it’s free!
Accessibility
Walking can be done virtually anywhere, while elliptical workouts require access to a machine.Ellipticals are more common at gyms than at home, but they offer impressive benefits to protect your health no matter where you use them.
Enjoyment
Ultimately, the best exercise is the one you enjoy and will do consistently. Consider your personal preferences when choosing between walking and the elliptical.
Making the Right Choice
Deciding between walking and the elliptical depends on your individual needs and preferences.
Choose walking if:
- You’re new to exercise and want a simple, accessible starting point.
- You prefer outdoor activities and enjoy exploring your surroundings.
- You’re on a budget and want a free exercise option.
- You want to improve your mood and brain health.
Choose the elliptical if:
- You have joint pain or other musculoskeletal conditions.
- You want a full-body workout.
- You prefer a structured workout with built-in programs.
- You want to maximize calorie burn in a shorter amount of time.
Safety Guidelines
If you follow the safety guidelines, both elliptical machines and treadmills are safe to use. If you are new to the elliptical, you may want to try using it without the arm handles at first. This can help you get comfortable with the movement. Once you have the movement down, you can add the arm handles. When using the elliptical, focus on having good form. Keep your posture upright, and keep your core tight throughout the movement. If you’re using an elliptical at the gym, you can ask a certified personal trainer to give you a demonstration on how to use the machine safely. When using a treadmill, be sure to attach the safety clip to your clothing. This will stop the treadmill if you happen to trip or fall. Because exercising on a treadmill can put stress on your bones and joints, be sure to warm up and cool down properly before starting your workout. This can help get your muscles and joints ready to work, and lower your risk of injuries. Also stretch after your workout. Stop using the elliptical or treadmill if you feel faint, dizzy, or lightheaded. And drink plenty of water throughout your workout. Before starting a new physical fitness routine, always talk to your doctor. They can recommend a fitness routine that’s safe for you.