Which Cardio Machine Works the Upper and Lower Body Best?

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Q: I'm looking for an upper- and lower-body workout in one. It seems as if I’d get a more serious upper body boost from a rowing machine, but a better leg blast with the elliptical trainer. Which is best?

A: Cardio machines are all about working up a sweat, but they do so in slightly different ways. Walking or running on a treadmill, stepping on a stair-climber and cycling on a bike involve moving only your legs. Some machines combine arm and leg action. When you are seated in a rower, for example, your legs push you back just before your arms pull you back. On a ski-simulator such as the NordicTrack machine and on the elliptical trainer, your legs glide forward and back as your arms pull in opposition to your stride.

Cardio workouts move you for an extended period of time and they exercise all your major muscles, but only moderately because if you work one muscle group too hard, you’d have to stop because the muscles would be too tired to keep moving you for 30 or 60 more minutes. So instead of blasting one particular muscle group and making it stronger, the point of the workout is to get a cardiovascular stimulus from using many large muscle groups at once. Since a big percentage of your overall body weight is moved around during cardio exercises, a lot of energy is required to move your body—that’s why you burn more calories than when you do isolated muscle moves such as a bicep curls with a weight. With a typical muscle-strengthening move, effort is required within a particular muscle group and it can be tough. But since, overall, the body is not moving much, less energy is required, so fewer calories are burned.

The main benefits of an aerobic workout are to get your heart rate up and to sweat (and burn lots of calories)—not to target a particular set of muscles and make them toned or stronger. So whether you move only your legs or arms, or both together, doesn’t make a huge amount of difference because the overall load on all the muscles is generally low to moderate. If you want to strengthen or firm up muscle in your upper and lower body, a harder workout to targeted muscles is more effective. You need to add resistance, usually with a weight.

It’s easy to think that you can exercise your muscles with cardio workouts that incorporate resistance. But generally, the stimulus is still lower than what you’d get from bonafide strength training. So if you run uphill or walk on an incline, for example, the load is greater than if you were just walking on a flat surface due to the added resistance. So you will work the butt and thighs harder and may get some enhanced muscle tone. But doing a weighted squat or lunge would be even more effective. If you add more resistance on the NordicTrack you can work the upper-body muscles more. But it’s still not the same degree of resistance that you might get from hoisting a 15-pound dumbbell.

One study published in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise compared women who included weight resistance on the stair-climber and pedaled for 35 minutes against those who used the stair-climber by itself. Of the women who carried an additional 8 percent of their body weight (a 140-pound woman was stepping with up to an additional 11 pounds), all increased their cardio capacity (known as maxVO2). And while everyone in the study increased thigh strength, only the women carrying the extra load showed a significant improvement in strengthening the lower body. So, it was the added resistance—rather than the cardio workout itself—that provided the real toning and strengthening effect.

If you are looking to burn more fat, then certain machines may be more effective. One study at Dublin City University in Ireland compared men and women exercising on six different types of cardio machines: the treadmill, stair-climber, bike, rower, ski machine and rider. When all the subjects were working at the same intensity, the men burned the most calories while on the treadmill or ski machine. The women burned the most calories while on the treadmill, ski machine and rower. The people using the bike and rider performed at the same intensity required a lower calorie burn.

Does that mean that the bike is worse than the treadmill? No. It means that if you have 15 minutes and you want to work at an effort level that feels somewhat hard, you will burn more calories on the treadmill. That’s because you are carrying your own body weight by standing up and moving yourself. The bike supports some of your body weight and so saves you some energy, and results in fewer calories burned. But, you can burn the same amount of calories on the bike. You just have to work harder (pedal faster or add resistance) or extend your workout by another 5 or 10 minutes.

The elliptical trainer has several movement options: You can pedal forward or backward and add more resistance, greater speed or an increased hill-like slope. Exercise physiologist Len Kravitz, a professor at the University of New Mexico, measured physiological responses on the elliptical trainer. He found that men and women who took strides on the machine at a specific speed (125 or 135 strides per minute) burned the most calories when they were moving forward with added resistance, or moving forward at an increased speed (135 spm compared to 125 spm.) Using an elliptical while moving forward with resistance or speed would provide a similar intensity as running on a treadmill or using the ski machine.

So, if your aim for a workout is to reduce fat all over your body, focusing on cardio workouts is key. If you’re pressed for time, you will burn more calories in the same amount of minutes by using one of the tougher cardio machines: the treadmill, ski machine or elliptical trainer. (Running on the treadmill will usually be the highest calorie burner.)

If you want to tone up, firm up and get stronger, then incorporate strength-training moves into your routine two or three days per week.

Keep in mind that there is no one best exercise. Your body works best when you cross-train, or mix activities that challenge it in different ways at different intensities and doing many different things. Moving in ways that include cardio, strength, flexibility, coordination, balance, power, speed and impact is the key to attaining overall fitness. Check out my book Cross-Training for Dummies for more tips.

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Martica is a Manhattan-based exercise physiologist and nutritionist and an award-winning fitness instructor. She has written for a variety of publications including Self , Health , Prevention , The New York Times and others. Martica is the author of seven books, including her latest, - Cross-Training for Dummies . (Read her full bio.)