Which cross training is better: elliptical or swimming?

Swimming, it's a great workout.

Elliptical is for the people at the gym looking for the easiest cardio machine, where they can watch their TV shows while ostensibly trying to shed some pounds.

I get a good workout though when Im on the elliptical. I keep my heart rate up and am drenched in sweat by the end. Im not just lolly-gagging. When I swim its hard for me to get my heart rate up.

elliptigo, baby

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I've been doing both in addition to cycling for the past 6 months while i recover from an injury.

The ellitpical is more like running and what i really like it for is watching the HR to make sure i'm hitting my normal easy day running HR. I can also do a killer speed session and get the HR up to Vo2 max levels. I've slowly been incorporating some running with the elliptical as i work my way back to full time running. But i decided that when i'm recovered, for easy days after speed workouts, i'm going to continue to use the elliptical for at least part of my workout. I can get my HR up to an "easy run" pace while the legs recover. When i run after a hard workout, the HR is barely going up.

the key to surviving the elliptical is a really good play list that you change up every day or you will bail in 20 minutes.

Swimming is so different biomechanicly from running but it's great for overall strength. It's also like running in a sense of having to hit paces for intervals so it's not quite as boring as the elliptical. But i wouldn't recommend it if you don't know all of the strokes and just swim laps. It's boring and you really won't get a good workout just floating around.

I've used long rides to take the place of long runs. But i also find that riding a 10 mile time trial on the bike is as hard if not harder than a 5k.

I'm hoping that by mixing all of these together, i'll be able to come back to running stronger.

wow, thank you so much for a sound response on here. first off, Im sorry you got injured but props to you for working through it. I have a lot of the same thoughts as you. I think you can very well imitate an easy run on the elliptical and I can also get my heart rate up on the elliptical to workout levels. Also ive noticed if I use my arms more than my legs, it helps my legs recover and I can still get a good workout in. I thought the elliptical was better too because it is more similar to running. I can totally agree with you with the biking though, its so hard especially on hilly terrain. good luck buddy and thanks for your advice.

Use the elliptical without your arms. Or find an elliptical without handles period.

im a massive fan of the elliptical, in terms of cross training it is most relatable to running. as for using it without your arms I'm not sure. unless you have great balance i think it targets the core as you are trying to stabilise yourself, I've tried it before breifly and really struggled to get the HR up due to being so unbalanced. but maybe I'm just overly uncoordinated haha

Elliptical is the way to go.Not really a problem getting the HR up to LT levels and beyond using a fairly high resistance and as fast a turnover as you can handle.

[quote]morextpls wrote:[/

Im looking to become a better runner without adding more mileage because i dont want to get injured. I run 45 miles per week and I want to do cross training on my hard run/workout days. Which is better: elliptical or swimming laps? I am a proficient swimmer so thats not a problem. I am just wondering which will help me more from an aerobic standpoint. Thank you[/quote

Cross training is a misnomer. There's no such thing. It's either training or not training. So the question is which of those activities is the best training for your running.

Cross-FIT.

Unless you like to stay SCRAWNY, then use the stepper. Lol. Might as well check your balls at the frontdesk before you start.

Using the arm thing helps me get my heart rate up. Plus you use your arms when you run so why not use them while cross training?

Agreed. I will definitely continue using my arms haha

Thanks. I'm not into high resistance but I look like a maniac with my turnover

I'm a girl. And I'm not looking to get bulky, I'm looking to become a better runner.

I'm short and the elliptical is an unnatural motion for me. The feet are too far apart and the knee lift is too high. I feel like I'm standing up a bike pedaling uphill.

Why not consider aquajogging (water running)? You wear a flotation belt and it's a running motion similar to strides. Lots of runners turn to water running when they are injured. There are training plans online, but they're variations of hard for a few minutes and recovery jogging for about half the hard effort time. Examples: multiple reps of 90sec hard (30sec easy). A ladder of 1min hard (1min easy) 2min hard (1min easy) 3min hard (1min easy) up to 5 min and then back down.

Easy wrote:

Elliptical is for the people at the gym looking for the easiest cardio machine, where they can watch their TV shows while ostensibly trying to shed some pounds.

Yes.

BE CAREFUL with the elliptical! Let's say you were running through an alley and the sun shines into the trees. You might risk to foam!

Same when running through a discotheque.

There was a joke before about the eliptigo, but I have used one a couple times over the last few weeks and it is quite the workout. It gives a good workout to your backside muscles that you don't access while cycling (calves, hamstrings, glutes) and cardio-wise it had my HR elevated up to around 180 BPM during tempo effort... I couldn't even touch that range on a bike. I think it could be a legit training tool and more and more athletes are starting to use them. Over 150 professionals have complimented their running with them.

Ive heard and read up on aqua jogging. But i have tried it, and it does not work with me. I do not retain one iota of fitness while aqua jogging :( I always try fartlek to get my heart rate up but no matter what I do it proves useless to me.