| 
<<Previous Page Next Page>>
Free Content
|
Energy Expenditure
Energy Expenditure
Energy expenditure and exercise machines
If you're trying to loose weight, you might be considering the purchase of an exercise machine. But what kind of machine should you use? Each machine obviously exercises different muscles in different ways, but are they all equally good for losing weight?
Energy Expenditure is what determines how effective an exercise machine will be for weight loss. If you're not using energy, you're not burning calories and your not losing weight.
Recently, Doctors Zeni, Hoffman, and Clifford published a paper in JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association) which compared the Energy Expenditures incurred when using 6 different indoor exercise machines. While different machines workout different muscle groups, and thus there are reasons to use other machines, their evaluation demonstrated a clear difference in energy expenditure associated with the different machines.
The machines studied included and Airdyne, a cross-country skier, a cycle ergometer, a rowing ergometer, a stair stepper and a treadmill. The studies were conducted at a constant rate of perceived exertion. After a 4-week habituation period, the subjects completed and exercise test with each exercise machine. The test comprised 3 stages of 5 minutes at self-selected work rates corresponding to rate of perceived exertion levels of 11 (light), 13 (medium) and 15 (hard). Energy consumption was measured by measuring the rate of oxygen consumption during the last minute of each five minute. Heart rate was also measured during the last minute of each test and blood lactate levels were obtained immediately after each test.
The results of this test showed that energy expenditure at a given rate of perceived exertion (RPE) varied by 1093 kilojoules per hour for the various exercise machines. The treadmill induced higher rates of energy expenditure for a given RPE than all other exercise machines. The cross-country simulator, the rowing ergometer, and the stair stepper induced the next highest level of energy expenditure with a given RPE while the Airdyne and cycle ergometer produced the lowest level of energy expenditure with a given RPE. Heart Rate varied significantly with the highest rates associated with the treadmill and the stair stepper. Lactate concentration varied significantly with the highest values associated with the stair stepper and the rowing ergometer.
So, from the simple perspective of weight loss, the treadmill is by far the best exercise machine given its significantly associated energy expenditure at various RPEs.
free web content
Index:
0-9
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
V
W
W
Y
|
|
