Can You Replace Some Running With Elliptical Training?

IF YOU’VE EVER followed a race training plan, you know it’s not just about running; it’s about running strategically. That’s why nearly every training plan includes easy runs, long runs, speed work on the track, tempo runs on the road, recovery runs— it’s enough running to fill at least five or six days a week, and it can eventually do a number on your body.

- ASHLEY MATEO

The reason training plans call for so much running is the rule of specificity: “Whatever you want to get good at, you have to do that type of activity to a high degree,” explains Ian Klein, a specialist in exercise physiology, cross-training, and injury prevention at Ohio University. Translation: To be a better runner, you have to run more. Each specific running workout has a purpose—from developing fast-twitch muscle fibers for speed to building your endurance to helping your tendons, ligaments, joints, and bones adapt to the stress of running—which is why it’s important to include all of them in a training plan.

That said, there’s a little flexibility when it comes to the recovery run. The low-intensity recovery run, which is generally done at less than 70 percent of your maximum heart rate, is crucial for maintaining the base of your aerobic fitness and developing oxygen efficiency in the muscles, says Klein. But if you’re injury-prone, dealing with small niggles or joint pain, or even just approaching burnout, it’s one workout that you can take off the road or treadmill and complete on another piece of equipment: the elliptical.

How is using the elliptical different from running?

The elliptical was literally invented to mimic the motions of running without nearly the same kind of impact forces that are caused by running—so you’re going to get a more running-specific cross-training workout than you would by training on a bike or swimming in a pool. But “‘running’ on the elliptical decreases the weight-bearing and muscle-pounding that running produces because it is a much lower-impact exercise,” says Todd Buckingham, Ph.D., an exercise physiologist at Mary Free Bed Sports Rehabilitation Performance Lab in Grand Rapids, Michigan.