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Elliptical Machine Foot Pain: Is There Such a Thing?

You are now past mid-century old and retired. That day-long desk job year after year made you a little heavy around the middle. Your total body weight is heavier than it should be in relation to your height. You notice that your feet become more and more painful these past days trying to carry your bulk. You know you need to exercise. A treadmill would suit you fine, but the jarring impact of your feet consistently falling on the tread mat could cause your lower joints some permanent and irreparable damage. By using an elliptical machine foot pain can be prevented while also getting much-needed cardiovascular exercise. And losing some weight in the process is an added bonus!

Your wife sustained damage to her hip and leg when she slipped on the bathroom tiles a few years back. She, too, is in her mid-50s and heavy like you, and that injury to her hip and leg prevent her from  normally walking or running a lot, much less exercise on a treadmill to shed off some weight, without contracting pain in her foot and hip. What she needs is an elliptical machine for that necessary cardiovascular exercise and weight loss without the impact that would hurt her lower joints.

There is wisdom in the adage “Don’t use it, you lose it.” Nonetheless, for both your wife and you to use of the elliptical machine to shed off that excess fat might be a bit uncomfortable, maybe even painful, at first. After all, all those veins and muscles could have been “sleeping” all these years. It is important that you take up exercising on an elliptical machine slowly, and progress very slowly without favoring your “sleeping” or damaged joints. Do it for 15 minutes at first, then extend to 20 minutes the next time and to 30 minutes afterward, as you feel more and more comfortable with it. In time, before you know it, you will get the hang of it and go for an hour!

You will notice that the foot pain caused by the jarring effect of the up-and-down motion on a treadmill is simply not there when you use the gliding, rotational motion on an elliptical machine. And as you do the exercise more regularly, adapting to your choice of program that you’d feel comfortable with, the weight you want to lose will be shed off. The heart that needs oxygen and blood pumping into it would get just what it needs. And the pain in your wife’s hip and leg might just gradually go away as well.  You will find that when you use an elliptical machine foot pain is practically nonexistent. So go ahead and use that elliptical machine for that exercise without the foot pain – it is well worth after all.