An elliptical exercise machine is a stationary cardio machine where your feet move in a smooth, oval-shaped loop, simulating the motion of walking, jogging, or running without ever lifting off the pedals. Because your feet stay planted throughout the movement, the machine eliminates the repetitive impact that comes with hitting the ground, making it one of the most joint-friendly ways to get a serious cardiovascular workout.
How the Motion Works
The pedals on an elliptical are connected to a system of mechanical linkages that guide your feet along a closed, oval (elliptical) path. This path is designed to mimic the natural arc your ankles, knees, and hips trace during walking or running. The result feels like a cross between jogging and stair climbing, with a gliding quality that’s distinct from either.
Most ellipticals also have a pair of moving handlebars connected to the pedals. As you push and pull these handles in rhythm with your stride, you engage your arms, shoulders, and back alongside your legs. This “dual-action” design is what separates ellipticals from stationary bikes or treadmills: you can work your upper and lower body at the same time. Some models also have a set of fixed handles if you want to focus purely on your legs or need extra stability.
Muscles You’ll Use
Pedaling forward primarily works your quads, glutes, and hamstrings, with your calves contributing at the bottom of each stride. The moving handlebars add your biceps, triceps, shoulders, and upper back into the mix, turning a leg workout into a full-body effort.
One useful feature of ellipticals is that you can pedal backward. Reversing the direction shifts the emphasis between muscle groups. Research using muscle-activity sensors found that the front of the thigh (the quad) becomes more active during backward pedaling, while the back of the thigh (the hamstring) works harder during forward pedaling. Alternating directions during a workout can help you train your legs more evenly.
Joint Impact Compared to Running
This is the elliptical’s biggest selling point. Because your feet never leave the pedals, there’s no landing shock traveling up through your legs with each stride. The numbers back this up clearly. The force on the kneecap area during elliptical use is roughly 2.65 times your body weight, compared to about 5.2 times your body weight when running. Achilles tendon loading follows a similar pattern: about 2.2 times body weight on the elliptical versus 5.2 times while running. Hip forces drop from a range of 5.5 to 10 times body weight during running down to roughly 4 times body weight on the elliptical.
That roughly 50% reduction in joint loading makes the elliptical a practical option if you’re recovering from a lower-body injury, managing arthritis, or simply looking to protect your joints over years of regular exercise. It’s also worth noting that the Mayo Clinic classifies elliptical training as a weight-bearing activity, meaning it still works directly on the bones in your legs, hips, and lower spine to help slow bone loss, unlike cycling or swimming.
Cardiovascular and Calorie Benefits
Despite feeling gentler on the body, ellipticals deliver the same cardiovascular challenge as running. A study published in the Journal of Sports Science & Medicine found that exercisers reached the same peak heart rate and the same maximal oxygen uptake (a gold-standard measure of aerobic fitness) on an elliptical as they did on a treadmill. The relationship between heart rate and oxygen consumption was statistically identical between the two machines, meaning your heart and lungs work just as hard on an elliptical if you push the intensity.
For calorie burn, a 155-pound person can expect to burn around 335 calories in 30 minutes of elliptical exercise at a moderate effort level. That number climbs with higher resistance settings, faster cadence, or greater body weight. It’s comparable to running at a moderate pace on a treadmill for the same duration.
Front-Drive vs. Rear-Drive Designs
If you’re shopping for an elliptical, the most important mechanical difference you’ll encounter is where the flywheel sits. This single design choice affects how the machine feels, how much space it takes up, and how much maintenance it needs.
Front-drive ellipticals place the flywheel at the front of the machine. They create a flatter, more natural stride and tend to feel like walking or running uphill. The pedals sit closer together, which mimics a normal walking stance. Front-drive models typically offer longer stride lengths (up to about 50 cm), often include adjustable incline settings, and handle higher maximum user weights because the load is distributed across rollers on rails. The tradeoff is that they’re larger, have more moving parts, and need more maintenance over time.
Rear-drive ellipticals place the flywheel behind you. The motion has a slight hopping quality and tends to feel more like walking downhill. These machines are simpler in design, break down less often, and take up considerably less floor space, making them a popular choice for home gyms. The main limitation is a shorter stride length, which may feel cramped for taller users.
There are also center-drive models that split the difference in terms of footprint and stride feel, though they’re less common.
Choosing the Right Stride Length
Stride length is the distance each pedal travels from front to back. Using a machine with the wrong stride length feels awkward at best and can strain your hips or knees at worst. The right length depends mainly on your height:
- Under 5’0″: 11 to 14 inches
- 5’0″ to 5’3″: 14 to 16 inches
- 5’4″ to 5’8″: 16 to 20 inches
- 5’9″ to 6’0″: 18 to 20 inches
- Over 6’0″: 20 inches or more
If you’re buying for a household where multiple people will use the machine, look for an adjustable stride length or pick a length that fits the tallest user. A stride that’s slightly long for a shorter person is generally more comfortable than one that’s too short for a taller person. Try before you buy if possible, since even machines with the same listed stride length can feel different depending on the pedal path.
Getting the Most From Your Workout
The most common mistake on an elliptical is leaning heavily on the handlebars. This takes weight off your legs and core, reducing the workout’s intensity and calorie burn. Stand upright, keep your core engaged, and let your arms actively push and pull the moving handles rather than just resting on them.
Varying your routine keeps the workout effective. You can increase the resistance to build more leg strength, raise the incline on machines that allow it to emphasize your glutes and calves, or alternate between forward and backward pedaling every few minutes to shift the load between muscle groups. Interval training, where you alternate between high-effort bursts and recovery periods, works just as well on an elliptical as it does on any other cardio machine and is one of the fastest ways to improve your fitness.