Does your gym have a rowing machine?
If not, you could be losing out on a tremendous amount of health and workout perks!
Whether you own a commercial gym or have a small setup in your home, a rowing machine is definitely one of the essential items you need to have. Rowing machine benefits are wide, varied, and indisputable.
Don’t believe us? Read on.
Rowing Machine Benefits
There’s a reason nearly 12 million people in the U.S. use rowing machines.
They’re amazing!
From providing a full-body workout to keeping your workouts low-risk, rowing machine benefits are appreciated in gyms around the world.
1. Improve Upper and Lower Body Strength
One thing rowing machines have on most other cardio-based equipment is that it offers a full-body workout. Not only that, but you’re not just doing cardio, you’re doing resistance training as well.
A rowing machine benefits your whole body because the movement is so dynamic, albeit natural and easy to perform.
There are four phases of movement to the rowing machine and each works different muscles of the body.
- The Catch
- The Start of the Drive
- The Drive
- The Finish
The Catch is the loaded position of the movement, where your lower back, hamstrings, and calves are engaged.
The Start of the Drive is where you begin pushing off with your legs, holding the rowing handle firm. This works your upper and lower back, quads, hamstrings, and calves.
The Drive is where you are fully extended with your legs and your arms are tight but have not yet begun to pull. The tension held here works your upper and lower back, shoulders, triceps, forearms, hamstrings, quads, and calves.
The Finish is where you finish the pull with your arms, bring the rowing machine handles to your chest. At this stage, your upper arms, entire back and core, and upper legs are working.
Not a bad strength workout.
2. Build Endurance
Another one of the major rowing machine benefits is the endurance workout they provide.
Using a rowing machine quickly takes your breath away. By using full-body movements, you get a dynamic cardio workout, greatly improving your stamina.
However, because of the resistance training aspect, you gain more than just cardiovascular endurance with a rowing machine. Rowing machines help you build muscular endurance as well. Repeated pushing and pulling with your legs and arms never give your muscles much change to rest!
3. Burn Calories
Using a rowing machine to burn calories is one of the best ways to do it!
For a simple breakdown, let’s take 185lb man and look at what they would burn on a rowing machine. For an hour of moderate rowing, he would be able to burn over 600 calories. Alternative, for an hour of intense rowing, he could burn over 750 calories.
Additionally, if you implement hit training into your workout, the numbers could be potentially higher!
4. Improve Heart and Lung Health
Every year, nearly 735,000 Americans suffer from heart attacks. Most of the time, it’s due to the health epidemic of poor diets and sedentary lifestyles. One of the major rowing machine benefits is that it is great for your heart health.
Even walking 30 minutes a day has shown to reduce the risk of heart disease significantly. Imagine what rowing for 30 minutes could do!
One of the other rowing machine benefits can be found in what it does for your lungs. When you’re rowing, regardless of intensity, it causes you to breathe harder. Breathing hard during physical exercise strengthens your lungs and improves your ability to use oxygen efficiently.
We know not everyone enjoys the gym atmosphere. And that’s more than okay!
Because rowing machines are relatively inexpensive, especially if you buy used, people can have easily buy them for their homes. Additionally, rowing machines are compact and take up very little space, which makes them fit conveniently in any space.
5. Workout with a Low Injury Risk
Running and lifting weights are considered high-impact forms of exercise. Runners very commonly experience knee problems, tendonitis in their Achilles tendons, shin splints, plantar fasciitis, stress fractures, and more.
Weight lifters are known for all sorts of injuries. They can include herniated discs, lower back pain, tennis elbow, muscle strains, muscle tears, knee pain.
Some of these common injuries can be prevented, while others are just a cost of doing those types of exercised repetitively.
One of the great rowing machine benefits, however, is that it comes will very little risk of injury. Because you’re seated the who time, there’s very little stress placed on your joints and zero impact during exercise.
Rowing machines are great for people with weak or unstable joints, those recovering from surgeries, and everyone in between!
6. Improve Posture
If you’re using proper posture during your rowing machine workouts, you’re likely to improve your overall posture as well!
As you row, you’re using your lower back, upper back, trapezius muscles, and core. Each of these muscle groups is strictly involved in keeping positive postures as you sit at work throughout the day or stand in line at the grocery store.
Additionally, repetitively pulling the rowing machine handles toward yourself greatly strengthens and tightens up your back muscles. In doing so, it helps pull your shoulder back, rather than leaving them hunched or slouched forward.
7. Mix Up Your Workouts
Perhaps one of the best rowing machines benefits lies within its versatility.
For example, you can do a moderate-intensity hour long rowing session while watching your favorite TV shows or listening to interesting podcasts. Alternatively, you can go all-out for 10 minutes for a quick sprint workout at lunch. You can also do a moderate to advance intensity for 30 minutes for a happy medium.
Finally, you can do HIIT training where you push hard for an interval of time, then rest and repeat.
Any way you choose to workout with your rowing machine, you’re bound to reap the benefits!
What Are You Waiting For?
With all of the rowing machine benefits just waiting to be had, what are you waiting for?
Your local gym membership is worth its value for their rowing machine alone! Alternatively, you can always do some shopping for your own rowing machine!
Get out there (or stay home) and start rowing!
