ones: treadmills and ellipticals

Both elliptical trainers and treadmills are two of most popular home fitness equipment. They

are excellent tools for getting an aerobic workout indoors. In fact, When you compare ellipticals

vs treamills, you will quickly realize that treadmills have been around much longer whereas

elliptical machines have only come to party fairly recently. As a result, treadmills are

wider known and more commonplace. However, a quick trip to your local gym will show that there

are almost as many ellipticals these days as there are treadmills. There is a good reason for

that.

A quick comparison:

When you compare treadmills to elliptical trainers, you can't help but notice how impact free

elliptical machine is.

With elliptical trainer, there is no impact on ground, so joints in your lower body

are free from any abuse. Although treadmill mat is better for your knees than cement, there

is still a significant amount of impact on your joints.

One obvious point that is in favor of treadmills is that it provides a better training experience

for a dedicated runner/jogger than an elliptical trainer. If you are training for a marathon or

even a 10k, and you don't want to go outdoors too often during months, you are certainly

better off with a quality treadmill.

That being said, if you are looking for a quality aerobic workout with maximum amount of

efficiency, you will not be able to overlook elliptical trainer. Most ellipticals give you a

total body workout if you have dual action handlebars for your arms and foot pedals for your

legs, whereas treadmills focus more on your lower body as they simulate jogging experience.

What is even more interesting, according to recent studies, is that lack of impact on

joints allows user to burn roughly same amount of calories as treadmills with

impression of putting CONSIDERABLY less effort.

Therefore, it comes as no surprise that ellipticals have been machine of choice for senior

citizens with knee problems, as well as physical trainers who are involved in rehabilitating

their clients.

This is what Thomas Altena, an exercise physiologist at University of Missouri-Columbia, had

to say: "The physiological responses associated with elliptical exercises were nearly indentical

to treadmill exercises." He went on to conclude that "both exercise machines are effective for

"Tough times teach those who have eyes to see

I spent a few hours in emergency ward other night with my 11-year-old, owing to a cut he acquired as a consequence of prevailing mayhem in a houseful of boys. {Such an easy way of sloughing-off other issues.}

As we waited, he seemed intrigued by what went on around him. How could triage nurse be so cheerful? Why did man with chest pains get rushed right in.? What made woman ahead of us in suture room slit her wrists?

{No answers to come, and no coping skills taught in our media or schools. No awareness of alternatives and soulful causes that would motivate people to help each other.}

He said he was amazed, watching parade of ill and injured, that doctors and nurses could work under pressure they do and make so few mistakes. {He is not interested in exploring reality of how many mistakes are made, and probably hasn't read Ivan Illich's book 'Limits to Medicine'. He doesn't want to hear about lack of family violence questionnaires in schools and hospitals which might prevent a growth in family violence and cycles of attendant violence associated with incest. I have sent him letters and called, to no avail. Is he making a case for 'status quo' at behest of his employer and their political cronies?} A miserable night had turned into something educational. And I was reminded that, given right attitude, little is wasted in life's economy, that difficult moments usually bring lessons.

It was notion I'd been tossing around about disruption in Toronto schools last week and what kids could learn from it. For teaching often occurs when we least expect it, not in lecturing but in living, not in theory but in behavior {So true.}. In fact, person with wisest observations in this respect might have been Justin Trudeau, son of former prime minister, who was in Toronto last week to speak to teachers {He teaches in British Columbia and is an ardent and eloquent example for good behavior, to be sure.}.

'How can you teach character?' he said. 'Well, I don't know that you can teach character. I think you need to teach with character. You have to model character, you have to demonstrate character. That's how we learn.'

{This does not obviate need to build a joy of learning or encourage socialization through tolerant consideration of comparative religion. It does not contradict 'co-operative education' programs that research shows should focus on group projects, results and less testing for competency in early life, to be followed by more testing for creative and worthwhile learning and productivity as well as emotional coping skills later. It doesn't mean that what is being done is anything much better than 'glorified baby-sitting' to produce 'followers' who fit needs of industry and society. It doesn't mean that teachers learned how to teach, as Kaoru Yamamoto points our in 'Social Sciences Encyclopedia' put together by Kuipers in 1995.}

In that sense, there were many lessons to be learned during strike. The first of these was courage. And ones who displayed it were strikers themselves, support staff whose walkout eventually closed schools for a week. They're workers in system who earn least, people for whom even a week without pay is painful, who will take years to make up wages lost. Yet, knowing this, they still struck.