The main benefit of elliptical training is that you can exercise with minimal impact on your knees and joints. Throughout the entire workout, you won’t actually have to lift your feet off a surface and put them back down. But that’s where some people have trouble with elliptical workouts. Keeping constant pressure on your feet for longer periods of time will make them numb.

Because you don’t have to move your feet or toes while exercising on an elliptical machine, you may start to feel numb within 10 minutes of your workout due to a lack of actual foot movement. This can be a major nuisance for some, for others it is never a problem, and for most it can be easily treated.

Some people will experience numbness on an elliptical and some will not, even on the same machine. It all depends on the design of the elliptical and if it was designed for you. Sometimes the stride length doesn’t suit you, and other times you might benefit from articulated pedals.

The numbness may not appear until after you’ve been exercising for a long time, or it may appear early, but you’ll usually be able to identify the onset of numbness before you feel completely numb. When you start to feel the warning, tingling cues, or even long before you notice that numbness may be coming on, you can try moving your feet around a bit to prevent or relieve numbness.

Prevent elliptical foot numbness

  • try wiggling your toes
  • Replace the feet on the foot plates.
  • shift your weight onto the balls of your feet or heels, or rock back and forth between the two
  • try not to keep too much weight on the balls of your feet
  • loosen shoelaces or get better shoes with arch support
  • change direction going backwards on an elliptical
  • using an elliptical with rotating (articulated) pedals

If you notice that numbness is a problem when using an elliptical machine, try focusing a little more on your feet before the numbness sets in. Focusing on preventing your feet from going numb before it happens, you can prevent numbness from setting in at all. You may be able to prevent the tingling or numbness from even starting if you try to keep the same amount of pressure between the ball of your foot and the heel of your foot, while mixing in some minimal movements throughout your exercise.

If numbness is something that comes on late in your workout and trying to avoid or relieve it doesn’t work, try breaking your workout into shorter periods of time or getting off for an occasional walk from room to room.

I have noticed that over time, my experience with my feet tingling and feeling numb during elliptical exercise has been concentrated in one foot. But over time, I’ve been able to almost completely eliminate the numb feeling from my workouts and apply great focus to ensuring my elliptical stance and foot positioning is correct. Over time, you should also be able to see a reduction in the problem, and if it gradually gets worse, you may have another medical problem, such as a neuroma in the foot.