Rowing Machines

healthyandthin

My usual gym routine is 30-45 minutes on the elliptical. I've been doing that for three months and I'm bored of it. I tried a rowing machine today and I quite like it! It's like cardio and strength combined.

Does anyone else row? What's a good speed or distance to aim for? Any other advices are helpful too.

KES519

I belong to Planet Fitness and they have a stationary Row/Rear Deltoid Machine. You adjust the seat and chest pad and the weight and row as you'd like. It's not measured in speed or anything like that...And I am kinda bored of the eliptical also. I need some really good abdominal exercises to do. I have this horrible "pooch" in my lower abdomen. It hurts so much to do them though....

ToddFo

I love rowing! I bought a Concept2 model D in January, and I row at least 5 days a week. I started with 5,000 meter sessions and now do 10,000 meters. I've logged over 380,000 meters since starting.

There are also different ways to row fast. You can move up and down the rail quickly without pulling hard, or you can move up and down the rail slowly and pull hard. I'd suggest that focus on good form at first. There are videos on the Concept2 website that do a good job of explaining it all, and the concepts should carry over to any quality machine.

I hope that helps you.

CaraRadz

When I row, I actually turn the screen so that it's facing the ceiling and I can't see it while I'm working out. Otherwise I just get too focused on the numbers rather than the workout. I turn the resistance up to a 4 or a 5 (out of 10) and then just work as hard as I can for 30 minutes. I wear a heart rate monitor to track calories burned while working out, and I find that I generally burn about the same number of calories rowing as I do on the elliptical. But I think rowing is a better overall workout since it works more of your body.