Jonathan Reff: Hi again, it's me Jonathan and I am here at Somafit in Washington, DC and we are learning today about how to lose weight using through diet and exercise. I am standing next to an elliptical trainer which is where we are going to be using for our next leg of cardiovascular exercise. Now the difference between an elliptical trainer and the previous one the treadmill is that the minute I step on this machine its going to start to move.
So I need to be aware of that as I begin to get on it. I then go grab one of the arms, step on slowly with one leg and then quickly step on with the second leg so that I am balanced and centered on the carriage of the machine. I am going to then access here the console. Now the console of the elliptical trainer is powered by my motion by my energy. So I am going to need to start moving for anything in order for me to access any of these functions that this machine will allow. I am going to push my arms and my feet forward with my arms on the center handles and again now I see my consoles asking me for I want to do.
Now here I am going to suggest that we do quick start, which again starts itself on a more manual program. Once we press that quick start button everything that I need displayed is here in front of me I have my time that to elapse, my strides, my strides per minute is basically the pace at which I am going to be travelling here today on the elliptical trainer. So, that's something I am definitely going to be interested in it and keep my eye on and to the far right, are my calories that I have expended or I am going to expend. Now this machine is a little different in that, the biomechanics of my body, the way its moving is kind of similar or familiar with cross-country ski, it's a similar motion to that and then my legs are moving more frontal on a more frontal plane and again my body, my spine is neutral.
I am taking myself through a beginning warm-up phase which will last 5 to 10 minutes, so my hands are going to stay where they are and not leaning too far forward or in any other direction and then I am just again feeling my heart rate starting to work a little harder, blood being pumped to my limbs and the rest of my body throughout. Now as I get three quarters of the weight through and move my hands and when it generally and carefully take one hand to that movable arm in front of me and then my second hand to the other movable arm.
Now once I have both arms or arm handles grabbed, my arms are then again going in their cross-country motion or being propelled in front as my legs move back and forth and this again is going to ask more of my body, more of my heart, I am going to start to feel my, my breathes are getting a little harder and circulation improved throughout my body.
I am nearing the end of my warm-up and I am going to then here on this machine you really more in control then stay on any other end of the treadmill. For example, in that I am going to really determined when my pace increases. So, I will just finish my warm-up then I am going to increase my pace by physically moving my feet faster. Now as I move my feet faster you notice one thing that my hands have to move faster as well. If I am holding these movable arm attachments and my arms can't catch up, I am going to be thrown up balance and could toss or tumble. So we again want to have the body moving in unison and as I see here my strides per minute have increased and this is a little more challenging for me. So, this would be in comparison to the treadmill my moderate jog.
This feels again very good, I am really excited to have my body working harder and really getting the bulk of my program. So, here again on this machine my legs are going to start to move even faster and here you utilize the resistance which will not physically raise the machine but just make these pedals a little harder to move. So, I am taking my hand, I am going to take their resistance up and as you see I start to hit the resistance the numbers here go up. I am going to take that all the way to a 15 and then really push hard and drive through this machine. It feels really good, then lower body, my legs, my quadriceps, hamstrings, calves, gluteus they are all working hard and in addition my shoulders and abdominals are working quite hard as well. This is a great workout.
It's safe for my joints and quite challenging. Now then I finish the bulk of my cardio here on the elliptical trainer, I am going to slow things down a bit, take my resistance all the way down to a 4 which is next and nothing and I am going to slow my pace down which again is going to bring my heart rate down and so to tell my body it started to start slowing things down. This might be a good time to go and take the hands in the center slowly and read your heart rate, which is in front of me and in the center of the machine and as my heart rate is at 145 that tells me I need to spend some more time on my pull down and let my heart rate come down a bit.
So, I am going to slow my legs even further and you will see my heart rate dropping as we speak and again I think I mentioned before as far as your heart rate goes or how your body is feeling you wanted to be like a hill and not an extreme peak or mountain, so we are slowly taking the body out to exercise climax or peak and then slowly going back down that hill and everything again is controlled, comfortable and moderate, we are getting a really good workout.
Let me read my heart rate again and that's dropped to 120 and as I stopped talking even you can even see how talking could be considered an activity because that will vary my heart rate because it requires more of my body and I am going to keep quite and will see then my heart rate lowers even more and I know that I have gone into the 150 range which is where I need to be and I am going to go and slowly stopping and again you need to be very careful getting off this machine because it will continue to move as long as you have body weight on it.
I am you know carefully hold the handles in the center, slowly take one foot off and then take the second foot off. I have exited the machine and I am ready to move onto the bicycle. See you guys there.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services