Hi! I read here that some have adapted Ride to work on an elliptical. I thought that was a great idea, so I got the package that includes it, since I have an elliptical. I would love and appreciate hearing any tips and ideas on how you adapt the various spin bike techniques to the elliptical! Thanks so much!
Using an elliptical for XTrain Ride
- Thread starter Viola1625
- Start date
sleepingmom
Cathlete
Using XT Ride on the elliptical trainer
I apologize in advance for the length of this reply!
I do XT Ride on my elliptical trainer about once per week. I select elliptical program #1 on my machine. This program is a steady state (no hills or valleys) course. I increase the ramp incline so that at the top of my stride, my thigh is almost, but not quite, parallel to the floor (to simulate leg position on a bike). Once I have those settings in, I leave them for the duration of the workout and only vary the resistance setting during the actual Ride workout. Elliptical machines vary widely, but I have an old gym style Precor model.
For the warm-up I usually have the resistance on about 6, and I am able to move my legs pretty fast. I find that I cannot pedal the elliptical as fast as the spin bike riders during the sprints, but I would say during the warmup and sprints, I hit about 165-170 steps/ minute. Cathe makes it particularly easy to use the elliptical with this DVD because much of the ride is done to the beat of the music. So, when she says to increase the resistance just a little, I usually go up 1 resistance level, maybe 2. For the heavy hill climbs, I get the resistance up to 15-17, which is a grind and really gets my HR up (I wear a monitor and usually get to 165 or so during the heavy hill climbs). If I find myself bouncing too much during any song, or if I am able to pedal faster than the beat of the music, I increase my resistance s that I can keep up with the tempo but it isn't too easy to do so. Then if Cathe says to increase resistance again, I do it!
The hardest spin moves to adapt to the elliptical for me are the jumps. Most of the jumps are only four counts, so reversing direction on the elliptical isn't practical for jumps. I do different things for "jumps": i might try to pedal without bobbing up and down thereby just using my leg strength to turn the pedals and not using any body momentum, or sometimes I just vary where my hips are during the stride...pushing them way back so I using my hamstrings more, or leaning forward to activate quads. For "bursts", I simply increase my pedal speed so that my steps/ min go up by about 10-15. During the entire song right after the first heavy hill climb, I usually reverse my stride direction just to loosen up my legs a little.
In between songs, I back off to a resistance of 7-9 to gulp water.
I find that I work MUCH harder on the elliptical (based on average heart rate, total steps, sweat puddle size, and endorphin high) when using Xt Ride than when I just do elliptical watching tv. My next experiment with ride will be to use my own music, just to keep it interesting.
I hope that helps. I'd like to hear how your experience is!
I apologize in advance for the length of this reply!
I do XT Ride on my elliptical trainer about once per week. I select elliptical program #1 on my machine. This program is a steady state (no hills or valleys) course. I increase the ramp incline so that at the top of my stride, my thigh is almost, but not quite, parallel to the floor (to simulate leg position on a bike). Once I have those settings in, I leave them for the duration of the workout and only vary the resistance setting during the actual Ride workout. Elliptical machines vary widely, but I have an old gym style Precor model.
For the warm-up I usually have the resistance on about 6, and I am able to move my legs pretty fast. I find that I cannot pedal the elliptical as fast as the spin bike riders during the sprints, but I would say during the warmup and sprints, I hit about 165-170 steps/ minute. Cathe makes it particularly easy to use the elliptical with this DVD because much of the ride is done to the beat of the music. So, when she says to increase the resistance just a little, I usually go up 1 resistance level, maybe 2. For the heavy hill climbs, I get the resistance up to 15-17, which is a grind and really gets my HR up (I wear a monitor and usually get to 165 or so during the heavy hill climbs). If I find myself bouncing too much during any song, or if I am able to pedal faster than the beat of the music, I increase my resistance s that I can keep up with the tempo but it isn't too easy to do so. Then if Cathe says to increase resistance again, I do it!
The hardest spin moves to adapt to the elliptical for me are the jumps. Most of the jumps are only four counts, so reversing direction on the elliptical isn't practical for jumps. I do different things for "jumps": i might try to pedal without bobbing up and down thereby just using my leg strength to turn the pedals and not using any body momentum, or sometimes I just vary where my hips are during the stride...pushing them way back so I using my hamstrings more, or leaning forward to activate quads. For "bursts", I simply increase my pedal speed so that my steps/ min go up by about 10-15. During the entire song right after the first heavy hill climb, I usually reverse my stride direction just to loosen up my legs a little.
In between songs, I back off to a resistance of 7-9 to gulp water.
I find that I work MUCH harder on the elliptical (based on average heart rate, total steps, sweat puddle size, and endorphin high) when using Xt Ride than when I just do elliptical watching tv. My next experiment with ride will be to use my own music, just to keep it interesting.
I hope that helps. I'd like to hear how your experience is!
You are awesome!! Thank you so much!! I'm writing this down!! (-;
sleepingmom
Cathlete
XT Ride on Elliptical
You are very welcome. Happy sweat-fest!
Sally
You are very welcome. Happy sweat-fest!
Sally