Strength training is important, but just not my thing. Does that sound familiar? Or do you love lifting weights, but can’t quite get to the cardio part of your workout? It turns out there is a solution for both types of people – rowing!
There is widespread agreement that rowing is a total body workout. But is it a cardio or strength workout? It’s well accepted as cardio, but some also include it as strength or resistance training (1). According to my bariatrician at the Mayo Clinic, it depends how you use the rowing machine. This makes intuitive sense – if you use a high resistance setting on your machine, causing your muscles to work hard, it’s clearly a resistance workout. If you leave your machine on a light setting and your strokes per minute are high, you have created mainly a cardio workout.
According to Petra Amara, “Rowing machines give you a full-body workout that includes resistance training. You use your own bodyweight to strengthen the legs, and pulling on the handle provides resistance for the upper body” (1).
Both Ms. Amara and my physician agree that rowing uses nearly every muscle in your body, but there are a few you will miss with rowing workouts. Those missing muscles can be found in your chest, the top muscles of your shoulders, along with your hip adductors and abductors (2). Knowing that I am an avid walker, my doctor suggested that simply adding push ups would address my needs.
There are many rowing machines available for the home gym, from just $100 going up into the thousands. While it’s not a bad idea to start with a low-cost machine, there can be benefits to the more pricey models. For example, my very inexpensive rowing machine uses a hydraulic piston as resistance. After rowing for several minutes, it seems to heat and become less resistant. I must continue to manually adjust it throughout the workout. A better machine is definitely on my wishlist, such as a machine with magnetic, flywheel, or water resistance. Other considerations for rowing machine choice include your height and weight, as well as your available floor space.
Most health clubs have rowing machines. Although these machines have the potential to do so much for our fitness, apparently they are often underutilized. So if you have a membership to a gym or $100 to spare for a beginner level or used machine, you can have access to a rower.
Here are some of the ways that rowing can help us on our weight maintenance journeys:
- It increases full-body coordination, which is important for injury prevention (3).
- It burns a significant amount of calories when done vigorously: a 125 pound person will burn 255 calories, a 155 pound person will burn 369 calories, and a 185 pound person will burn 440 calories – in just 30 minutes (4).
- It’s a low-impact form of exercise, causing less damage to your joints than many other activities (5).
- It builds better posture, which corrects so many problems we face as a sedentary society (6).
- It’s great for home use because it’s quiet, doesn’t use electricity, and many models are portable (7).
- It’s beginner friendly – you don’t need to be in particularly good shape when you begin your workouts and you can easily control the intensity and speed (7).
I do have two negatives to report, based upon my personal use of rowing machines, plus one that I can foresee coming up as I age.
- Try before you buy if you suffer from significant motion sickness. This was a temporary issue for me when I had a medical condition that worsened my (already bad) motion sickness.
- Try before you buy if you have significant arthritis in your hands. Again, I had an experience that was problematic but a medication change seems to have solved the problem.
- Try before you buy if you have difficulty getting up and down from or near the floor. My machine has a rolling seat on an incline that’s a little tricky. I anticipate getting a new machine that is more reduced mobility friendly.
As you can see, I like my rowing machine even though it hasn’t been issue free. What have your experiences been with rowing? Have you used machines, or do you actually like to get out on the water?
We are all individuals so I recommend talking to your own healthcare provider to learn what workout would be best in your particular case.
(1). https://www.rowingcrazy.com/is-rowing-resistance-training/
(2). https://www.rowingcrazy.com/what-muscles-does-rowing-not-work/
(3). https://barbend.com/benefits-of-rowing-machines/
(4). https://www.garagegymreviews.com/rowing-for-weight-loss
(5). https://health.clevelandclinic.org/what-are-the-health-benefits-of-rowing/amp/
(6). https://www.shape.com/fitness/cardio/rowing-machine-benefits
(7). https://www.livescience.com/how-to-use-rowing-machine-lose-weight
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