Any other Hydrow owners here?

I got a hydrow a few months back and I love it. I haven't been able to buddy up with it though. Anyone else rowing from home?

Replies

AnnPT77

I do some machine rowing, though taking a little break right now post Holiday Challenge, and it's a Concept 2 not hydrow. (I row boats when I can, usually around 4x a week in season, but it's Winter here now. 🙄) Have done both machine & boat rowing since 2002, including competing at both a bit, multiple rowing camps, education for coaching cert, etc.

I've never done any of the virtual/interactive rowers like Hydrow, though, so I can't buddy up on the app platform, if that's what you're looking for.

There's are other rowers checking in on this thread, if more generic buddying would be helpful, including at least one other consistent machine rower (also not Hydrow, though):

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10705619/what-was-your-work-out-today

Regardless, have fun rowing!

JessAndreia

I recently bought a rower and started rowing consistently. Still quite new to it. But it's also not a hydrow.

mmstoeckle

Ann, i'm jealous of your boat rowing. The nearest boathouse to me is still 2.5 hours away. Thank you for the thread suggestion. I'll check it out. Generic buddies work for me since my irl workout buddies are inconsistent at best. My last one canceled a walk for an ice cream run at the local parlor

Jess, I'm new too but i'm loving the workout more than I ever did a treadmill.

JintheSouth

How is your Hydro? I’m in the market for a rower and am looking at Nordictrak since the Concept 2 is waitlisted.
I love rowing. I discovered it right before the gyms were shut down in March. I bought a cheap hydraulic rower to fill the need but it has since broken. Although, I’m not ready to go back to the gym yet, I’m considering going at 5am when it opens on the weekends just to get my rowing fix

.
Is there a lot of assembly involved? How is the resistance? I was researching other rowers and the commenters said the max resistance didn’t offer much and it felt like they were doing more of a cardio workout. Do they offer virtual classes?
Thanks for the response.

AnnPT77

JintheSouth wrote: »

How is your Hydro? I’m in the market for a rower and am looking at Nordictrak since the Concept 2 is waitlisted.
I love rowing. I discovered it right before the gyms were shut down in March. I bought a cheap hydraulic rower to fill the need but it has since broken. Although, I’m not ready to go back to the gym yet, I’m considering going at 5am when it opens on the weekends just to get my rowing fix .
Is there a lot of assembly involved? How is the resistance? I was researching other rowers and the commenters said the max resistance didn’t offer much and it felt like they were doing more of a cardio workout. Do they offer virtual classes?
Thanks for the response.

Generically speaking (though my experience & knowledge is mostly Concept 2 & boats of various sizes), anyone who talks about "the max resistance" setting on a decent rowing machine doesn't know what they're doing.

A good rowing machine - one that simulates the on-water experience to a certain extent - doesn't provide for a more intense workout via "resistance". It isn't like a lot of other cardio-type machines in that respect.

Another myth some people believe is that you get a harder workout by going faster, i.e., more strokes per minute. That isn't really the key variable either. (The boat analogy is that you don't cover more water in the same amount of time simply by taking more strokes per minute. It's not irrelevant, but it's not the main thing that determines whose boat goes faster - crews beat other boats that are going at higher spm, in some races. On water, distance per stroke matters more than strokes per minute. Generally also true on a decent rowing machine.) One can get an intense rowing machine workout at low spm, and with the so-called "resistance" set on the low side.

On a good (boat-emulating) rowing machine, you get a better workout via better technique, and better application of power. I can be explicit about the C2 mechanism: The faster you get the flywheel spinning, the harder that next increment of spin becomes. You get a harder workout by putting more power into accelerating the flywheel, and you accelerate the flywheel by a combination of strength and technique. Without a baseline of adequate technique, raw strength will only take you so far.

The damper setting - the thing many people incorrectly think is "resistance" - relates to a thing called drag factor (a numeric value can be obtained on the C2 monitor), and drag factor is a way of accommodating the machine to a sort of boat-feel that suits your characteristics. It's primarily a personalization setting, not a workout-intensity setting.

Strong on-water rowers normally set the C2 damper in the 4-6 range (out of 10) for men, 3-5 for women, for the majority of workouts. The quite successful Div I NCAA women's program I've been associated with in the past kept theirs set at about 4 for all but special drills. Most people at gyms set the damper on 10, then whip up and down the slide at 30+ spm if they can move that fast . . . not getting a very good workout (either strength or cardio). A competent machine or boat rower can get a pretty intense workout even down to spm in the teens (though that's not the normal steady-state spm - most people do base work in the 20s).

IMU, Waterrower accomplishes a similar thing via how full the tank is (though they may have some other damper-type adjustments as well - I've only rowed them casually for a few minutes at a time, here and there - never owned one, so I'm not at all knowledgeable about details).

I can't speak from experience about Hydrow and "resistance". However, their very own help page about drag/resistance says "Please note: Unlike what you may be used to from other workout equipment, Drag is not a generic "Difficulty setting" for rowing on Hydrow. Turning it up very high is not a good or effective way to get a better workout." (https://support.hydrow.com/hc/en-us/articles/360030835472-How-to-Adjust-the-Resistance-Drag-on-Hydrow)

Another page there focused on how to increase workout challenge is all about technique and power, which is in line with my understanding from C2/boat experience. (https://support.hydrow.com/hc/en-us/articles/360039902391).

ETA: Apologies for the rant. It's a pet-peeve topic. 😐😆

MikePfirrman

@AnnPT77 - the NordicTrack commercial for their new rower has a trainer saying, "now let's up the resistance...".

I wish I were kidding.

AnnPT77

MikePfirrman wrote: »

@AnnPT77 - the NordicTrack commercial for their new rower has a trainer saying, "now let's up the resistance...". I wish I were kidding.

😬🙄

I'd wondered why more seniors (i.e. people my age) were suddenly using the C2 rower at my Y, and worried about their form (like use of back, i.e., dangerous stuff, not just ineffective) . . . so worried that I talked to the fitness director about it. (It never goes well to go up to people and give them form corrections!).

Some time later, I saw a trainer on the rower, a guy who teaches some of the senior fit/Silver Sneakers classes. Pretty sure I know where they were getting the bad instruction. ☹️😢🤬

I'm not sure how people are supposed to learn proper form, when so many trainers are . . . um . . . ill-informed. Videos, I guess, if no qualified live instruction source.

JessAndreia

AnnPT77 wrote: »

MikePfirrman wrote: »

@AnnPT77 - the NordicTrack commercial for their new rower has a trainer saying, "now let's up the resistance...". I wish I were kidding.

😬🙄

I'd wondered why more seniors (i.e. people my age) were suddenly using the C2 rower at my Y, and worried about their form (like use of back, i.e., dangerous stuff, not just ineffective) . . . so worried that I talked to the fitness director about it. (It never goes well to go up to people and give them form corrections!).

Some time later, I saw a trainer on the rower, a guy who teaches some of the senior fit/Silver Sneakers classes. Pretty sure I know where they were getting the bad instruction. ☹️😢🤬

I'm not sure how people are supposed to learn proper form, when so many trainers are . . . um . . . ill-informed. Videos, I guess, if no qualified live instruction source.

I think the rower is a machine that seems intuitive to use, but it's not. I've seen people who have barely any fitness history go on the rower and say "this is easy", "could do it all day". And I'm thinkin 'yeah, very likely because your technique is way off... '

I've so far been keeping the resistance on only level 2 on mine, mostly rowing at a slow to normal pace (with the occasional small speed bursts) while trying to focus on technique and form, and find it to be enough resistance.

MikePfirrman

JintheSouth wrote: »

How is your Hydro? I’m in the market for a rower and am looking at Nordictrak since the Concept 2 is waitlisted.
I love rowing. I discovered it right before the gyms were shut down in March. I bought a cheap hydraulic rower to fill the need but it has since broken. Although, I’m not ready to go back to the gym yet, I’m considering going at 5am when it opens on the weekends just to get my rowing fix .
Is there a lot of assembly involved? How is the resistance? I was researching other rowers and the commenters said the max resistance didn’t offer much and it felt like they were doing more of a cardio workout. Do they offer virtual classes?
Thanks for the response.

I honestly would do the wait and get the C2. I've heard OK things about Hydro, but IMHO, it's not worth the price. NordicTrack doesn't look quality to me.

There are apps (many of them) that integrate into the C2 that aren't well known to outsiders. Here's just one. Eric Murray is legendary in the rowing world. Not an instructor that doesn't even know form. He's the real deal. They have I-Phone and I Pad holders and Wa La, you have an interactive class on the C2.

https://asensei.com/products/asensei-membership

Here's another one.

https://rowvigor.com/

AnnPT77

MikePfirrman wrote: »

JintheSouth wrote: »

How is your Hydro? I’m in the market for a rower and am looking at Nordictrak since the Concept 2 is waitlisted.
I love rowing. I discovered it right before the gyms were shut down in March. I bought a cheap hydraulic rower to fill the need but it has since broken. Although, I’m not ready to go back to the gym yet, I’m considering going at 5am when it opens on the weekends just to get my rowing fix .
Is there a lot of assembly involved? How is the resistance? I was researching other rowers and the commenters said the max resistance didn’t offer much and it felt like they were doing more of a cardio workout. Do they offer virtual classes?
Thanks for the response.

I honestly would do the wait and get the C2. I've heard OK things about Hydro, but IMHO, it's not worth the price. NordicTrack doesn't look quality to me.

There are apps (many of them) that integrate into the C2 that aren't well known to outsiders. Here's just one. Eric Murray is legendary in the rowing world. Not an instructor that doesn't even know form. He's the real deal. They have I-Phone and I Pad holders and Wa La, you have an interactive class on the C2.

https://asensei.com/products/asensei-membership

Here's another one.

https://rowvigor.com/

Yep.

This next is a complete aside, but I'm loving how C2's handling the wait list, too. A lot of companies would either stop taking orders, or make you backorder (give your credit card & the whole nine yards). C2 is - typical for them - doing a sensible, service-oriented, low key thing.

I'm waitlisted for a bikeErg. You ask to be put on the waiting list, they acknowledge. Weekly, they send an email with an updated estimated timeline based on the date you wait-listed. When your time comes up, they inform you, and you can order, or not - no need to worry about cancelling if you make a different choice along the way. Great company, in so many ways.

mmstoeckle

Ann makes really excellent points on rowing machines. That being said, here's my input on my hydrow. It's pricey- more than I spent on my good quality road bike-but feels like being on the water. The instructors are form focused which is great because if you follow along you're not as likely to get hurt and people were always getting hurt on the rower at my gym when they got on.

You can adjust your resistance like a nordic track which I used at the gym before I got this one. You don't really need to adjust your resistance during the different workouts if you're using proper form though. The variety of rows and live classes (taught by members of the Olympic teams) are what keep me engaged. You don't get individual feedback in classes like peloton, but there are leaderboards and team things if you need competition. There are different levels of intensity based on your goals and time available. The drawback is that you can't use it without an internet connection. When Amazon cloud services went down for a day in November so did my hydrow.

The assembly was minimal and you have an option for it to be set up for you. I don't know much about the C2 but I definitely enjoy my hydrow more than the nordic track. The row feels more authentic.

AnnPT77

mmstoeckle wrote: »

Ann makes really excellent points on rowing machines. That being said, here's my input on my hydrow. It's pricey- more than I spent on my good quality road bike-but feels like being on the water. The instructors are form focused which is great because if you follow along you're not as likely to get hurt and people were always getting hurt on the rower at my gym when they got on.

You can adjust your resistance like a nordic track which I used at the gym before I got this one. You don't really need to adjust your resistance during the different workouts if you're using proper form though. The variety of rows and live classes (taught by members of the Olympic teams) are what keep me engaged. You don't get individual feedback in classes like peloton, but there are leaderboards and team things if you need competition. There are different levels of intensity based on your goals and time available. The drawback is that you can't use it without an internet connection. When Amazon cloud services went down for a day in November so did my hydrow.

The assembly was minimal and you have an option for it to be set up for you. I don't know much about the C2 but I definitely enjoy my hydrow more than the nordic track. The row feels more authentic.

Now you have me wanting to try one, for comparison! 🙂

I can't compare (never rowed Hydrow for sure, don't think I've rowed Nordic Track (rowed something else in a gym once or twice, don't recall what it was)). C2 feels roughly as boat-y as Waterrower. If something else simulated a boat appreciably better, many on-water rowers would switch to it, even at a cost. They haven't. There are starting to be more rowing machines on the market that have a similarly boat-like feel, but so far the rowing community hasn't seen a reason to switch.

There are subtle differences, too, between any machine and on-water rowing, but the non-subtle ones are obvious: (1) balance is not an issue on a machine, but is big time in a boat, especially a racing shell (you could get a tippy seat aftermarket for the C2 last I knew, and I've tried it; it would move things a bit in that tippy direction, but the instability point is different.)
(2) bladework, heh (huge!).

Basic stroke mechanics up and down the slide are similar, boat to good machine.

C2 setup is crazy easy, basically comes in the two parts that optionally come apart for storage; takes literally seconds once you understand how the connection works.

OP, if you ever think you want to transition to on-water rowing, make it a huge point to get proper form on the machine initially, even at the cost of workout intensity. Once bad form is in muscle memory, it's hard to fix it. Besides, as we've all said, poor form limits workout intensity options on the machine itself. There are some things you can cheerfullly do on the machine that turn on-water rowing into in-water swimming, in a hot second. Some of them will even make you a little faster on the machine. 😆

mmstoeckle

I haven't done much skull rowing. I was on a dragon boat team in my youth and I kayak in the summer now, so i'm not completely unfamiliar with on-water rowing options. The hydrow wouldn't be as water-like an experience if you can get a tippy seat with the C2. It's still really stable as an indoor machine. I'll try not to be too jealous of the C2 owners. lol

AnnPT77

mmstoeckle wrote: »

I haven't done much skull rowing. I was on a dragon boat team in my youth and I kayak in the summer now, so i'm not completely unfamiliar with on-water rowing options. The hydrow wouldn't be as water-like an experience if you can get a tippy seat with the C2. It's still really stable as an indoor machine. I'll try not to be too jealous of the C2 owners. lol

Actually, it sounds like you picked a great option for you! I think for a lot of people the social/interactive/video dimension would be really helpful, especially if not focused on rowing machine as training for on-water. I tend to row with technical goals or specific training objectives** in mind, don't even watch TV or anything like that because I find it distracting from the rowing, for my goals. (**Though I don't compete anymore, I can't think what to call it other than "training objectives" - I mean working on different capabilities via things like focusing some workouts on power, so lower spm but hitting high-ish splits; others on base aerobic work, so mid-20s spm, longer duration, medium splits; doing a higher-intensity but shorter piece; etc.)

I'm not trying to to cause you buyers' remorse, honest! 🙂 My comments were more oriented to the person who was still in shopping mode, which was an (improper) digression from your intial post. Apologies! It sounds like Hydrow could be a good option for her.

As an aside, I got into rowing in the first place after hearing about breast cancer survivor dragon boating teams, while I was going through breast cancer treatment myself. It gave me hope - at a low point in treatment - that I could and would get back to feeling strong and healthy again: So encouraging. When I finished treatment, I looked around for dragon boating in my area, and there was nothing even remotely close. Then, through a breast cancer support group, I learned about a breast cancer survivors rowing team starting up here, coached by a top-notch university coach. I joined, became addicted, and the rest is history. If that hadn't happened, I'm not sure I'd even be alive today, let alone doing as well physically as I am at age 65. I do sculling and sweeping both. I've paddled a dragon boat only once, not in competition, but helping to move boats from launch to the starting area for an event.

I also enjoy kayaking, and have a sea kayak, but truthfully rarely use it. In season, I mostly row. I also canoe, and do that slightly more often than kayaking (yup, have canoes, too - some women collect shoes, I have a serious problem with human powered boats, personally!). My late husband and I used to take backwoods canoeing vacations routinely.

BTW, I saw you pop up in the "What was your workout today?" thread. Good show! (I'll be back there soon . . . .). I'm fascinated by some of the terms you use that aren't familiar to me (like climb and journey row). It would be fun to learn more about what that means, in your Hydrow sphere.

P.S. I didn't like the tippy seat. Yeah, it's tippy, but not like a racing shell. Kinda pointless, IMO. I just work on conditioning and stroke-cycle technique in Winter, core work and direct balance exercises if anything for balance, maybe some strength work in addition to power-oriented machine rows (guilty admission: I don't enjoy lifting), and save the tippiness and bladework for on-water season. 😉

mmstoeckle

I miss dragon boats so much. I moved from Hawaii to a landlocked state in my adulthood, so i'm living my best life on gym equipment. I think if I had access to shells, i'd love to be on a team.

Hydrow divides their row videos by intensity and it seems that they have coordinated their offerings with what most gym goers might be familiar with. "Breathe" are lower intensity or for relaxation, then they have the cardio and strength options. For higher intensity, you could do standard interval rows or a climb row which I means you steadily increase your distance per stroke. It reminds me of a continuous hill climb on a stationary bike. My favorite rows are journeys. They are instructor-free videos of the river views of different row destinations like the Charles River in Boston, Harriman Resevoir in NY, or the Thames which is one of my faves. Your race, your pace. I could go for an hour and be happy.

Thank you for the thread suggestion. I like to be accountable to someone other than myself. I tend to be fair weather otherwise.

AnnPT77

mmstoeckle wrote: »

I miss dragon boats so much. I moved from Hawaii to a landlocked state in my adulthood, so i'm living my best life on gym equipment. I think if I had access to shells, i'd love to be on a team.

Hydrow divides their row videos by intensity and it seems that they have coordinated their offerings with what most gym goers might be familiar with. "Breathe" are lower intensity or for relaxation, then they have the cardio and strength options. For higher intensity, you could do standard interval rows or a climb row which I means you steadily increase your distance per stroke. It reminds me of a continuous hill climb on a stationary bike. My favorite rows are journeys. They are instructor-free videos of the river views of different row destinations like the Charles River in Boston, Harriman Resevoir in NY, or the Thames which is one of my faves. Your race, your pace. I could go for an hour and be happy.

Thank you for the thread suggestion. I like to be accountable to someone other than myself. I tend to be fair weather otherwise.

That's really interesting, and sounds like a functional way to vary the workouts. I do some loosely similar things (like working at lower SPM but higher meters/stroke for power), but don't call them by those names. It makes sense, though, to use terms that would be more like those used for other general-interest workouts, vs. the arcane things rowers call stuff. (I swear, it's like it has its own complete separate language; we need to teach beginners So Much terminology. The benefit is that most English-speaking on-water rowers everywhere use pretty much the same vocabulary.)

I have a question, because I'm curious about the journeys: The Hyrdow ads (which I'm seeing a lot of online after posting back and forth with you about it 😆) show river views where you're looking at people rowing a shell. Is that what the journeys are like, or do they show you a view like what you'd see if you were sitting in the boat, seeing boat parts and maybe some other crew members if a multi-person shell?

I've never rowed the Thames or Harriman, but have rowed in a bunch of places, including a number of times on the Charles. One of my most visually thrilling rows was rowing once at night on the Charles, down in the downtown-ish Charles river basin. So beautiful, on the dark and nearly empty big stretch of water, with all the city lights at a distance. (I live and usually row in Michigan, palm of the mitten area, but my first coach moved to Boston, coached a major team there, ran camps out of the university in summer, and there was also another affiliated breast cancer survivors team there that we'd visit and sometimes row with if we were in Boston to watch our university team row, or something like that.)

Thank you for filling me in on what the Hydrow rowing environment is like. It would be fun to sample it some time - I will if I happen to run across one in real life, of course.

MikePfirrman

@mmstoeckle -- if it helps, if there's any high end rower I would like to try, it would be the Hydro, certainly not the NordicTrack.

It seems you would like to have some more comradere. Is there a Facebook page with users? I would bet there is.

The most important thing is do you like it and you've answered that! Seems like you love it.

mmstoeckle

AnnPT77 wrote: »

mmstoeckle wrote: »

I have a question, because I'm curious about the journeys: The Hyrdow ads (which I'm seeing a lot of online after posting back and forth with you about it 😆) show river views where you're looking at people rowing a shell. Is that what the journeys are like, or do they show you a view like what you'd see if you were sitting in the boat, seeing boat parts and maybe some other crew members if a multi-person shell?

Ah... the creepiness of cookies...There are no people in the journeys at all. It's strictly a stern or bow view (from the tip) and the sound of the water. The ones with people are guided rows and that view is so you can match cadence. Sometimes they'll do sightseeing tours while rowing but I haven't seen that much yet. Also, small world. I used to live in the top of the mitten and i'm a MSU grad.

@MikePfirrman I haven't looked for a FB page but I imagine you're right. I was hoping i'd find users here because established MFP users are more consistent imo. I only use FB for my charity running club

AnnPT77

mmstoeckle wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

I have a question, because I'm curious about the journeys: The Hyrdow ads (which I'm seeing a lot of online after posting back and forth with you about it 😆) show river views where you're looking at people rowing a shell. Is that what the journeys are like, or do they show you a view like what you'd see if you were sitting in the boat, seeing boat parts and maybe some other crew members if a multi-person shell?

Ah... the creepiness of cookies...There are no people in the journeys at all. It's strictly a stern or bow view (from the tip) and the sound of the water. The ones with people are guided rows and that view is so you can match cadence. Sometimes they'll do sightseeing tours while rowing but I haven't seen that much yet. Also, small world. I used to live in the top of the mitten and i'm a MSU grad.

@MikePfirrman I haven't looked for a FB page but I imagine you're right. I was hoping i'd find users here because established MFP users are more consistent imo. I only use FB for my charity running club

Thank you for the explanation: That makes a lot more sense. What they were showing in the ads didn't make sense to me, as something that might show on the video screen. IRL, because I usually row bow (or in a single), I'm looking over my shoulder a lot (for steering purposes), in practice, since we're facing in the opposite direction from our line of travel. Some people use bike mirrors (that mount on glasses or hat). Wouldn't want to show that over-the-shoulder stuff in a video, I'm thinking, though. 😆

It's nice that some rows give you a view where you can practice matching. Have you ever rowed a sliding seat craft in real life? (I'm not certain, from the previous posts). Matching is a huge factor in how boats perform (in bow or cox, I sometimes tell the rowers not to *match* the person in front of them, but to think of it as *being* the person in front of them, as a way to try to break out of that tiny response-delay by being a little predictive). Matching is also super important with C2 machines on linked slides, or linked dynamic C2 machines. The apparatus just bangs and clunks all over the place if not well synchronized through the whole stroke cycle.

It's easier to match with either boat-feel or the feel of linked machines to help, rather than just doing it visually, though. I've rowed in rowing tanks, where you sit in sliding seats next to tanks of water, with sort of dummy oars (with holes in the blades, usually) that go in the water. In that situation, synchonization is entirely visual, and it's quite a bit more difficult.

Yeah, I'm an MSU grad, too, and worked for MSU for a long time, besides.

P.S. I don't find the cookies particularly creepy, personally. I'm an old IT-er, now retired, so I understand what they're doing, so it doesn't feel all that nefarious. Some people worry about tracking and invasion of privacy, but as long as the ad-servers are still assuming I speak Spanish because of watching some subtitled or musical-performance Spanish-language videos, I don't feel too threatened by how much they know about me. 😆

aconybelle

Hydrow rower here. Just got my Hydrow in December and love it.