Rowing machine advice:

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Replies

  • bikecheryl
    bikecheryl Posts: 1,432 Member
    I've got two bad knees - scheduled for a double knee replacement Jan 9th :)

    Rowing got me thru last winter and was instrumental in my 100lb + weight loss.

    One thing I will say..... if you do get one.............. Watch ALL of the Concept 2's "How to row properly" videos !!!!

    Seriously...... incorrect rowing technique is a recipe for disaster and injury.

    Start off slow..... and concentrate on good form not speed.
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,343 Member
    bikecheryl wrote: »
    I've got two bad knees - scheduled for a double knee replacement Jan 9th :)

    Rowing got me thru last winter and was instrumental in my 100lb + weight loss.

    One thing I will say..... if you do get one.............. Watch ALL of the Concept 2's "How to row properly" videos !!!!

    Seriously...... incorrect rowing technique is a recipe for disaster and injury.

    Start off slow..... and concentrate on good form not speed.

    And don't do like apparently everybody else in my gym does - every time I get on the rower, the resistance is set to 10. Every. Single. Time.
  • steveko89
    steveko89 Posts: 2,223 Member
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    bikecheryl wrote: »
    I've got two bad knees - scheduled for a double knee replacement Jan 9th :)

    Rowing got me thru last winter and was instrumental in my 100lb + weight loss.

    One thing I will say..... if you do get one.............. Watch ALL of the Concept 2's "How to row properly" videos !!!!

    Seriously...... incorrect rowing technique is a recipe for disaster and injury.

    Start off slow..... and concentrate on good form not speed.

    And don't do like apparently everybody else in my gym does - every time I get on the rower, the resistance is set to 10. Every. Single. Time.

    "But if you don't row on 10, how do you get any gainz, bruh?" - someone at your gym, probably
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,204 Member
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    bikecheryl wrote: »
    I've got two bad knees - scheduled for a double knee replacement Jan 9th :)

    Rowing got me thru last winter and was instrumental in my 100lb + weight loss.

    One thing I will say..... if you do get one.............. Watch ALL of the Concept 2's "How to row properly" videos !!!!

    Seriously...... incorrect rowing technique is a recipe for disaster and injury.

    Start off slow..... and concentrate on good form not speed.

    And don't do like apparently everybody else in my gym does - every time I get on the rower, the resistance is set to 10. Every. Single. Time.

    Damper set on 10, monitor set on calories, you see them flying up and down the slide at 30+spm, popping their hands up to miss their knees, and the memory's full of < 5' pieces at 3:00+ splits. SMH. There is no workout to speak of there.

    I'm not really trying to be Judgy McJudgerson here, but I hate seeing people use the machine in a way that's potentially risky (to back, for example) or putting a lot of energy into doing something but getting no workout out of it. I feel bad for them.

    But, it would be inappropriate to intervene, unless they give me a conversational on-ramp to do so. (I have told the Fitness Director at my Y about concerns about how some of my fellow seniors machine row, partly out of concern that some trainer(s) might be teaching them to do things that are risky to their backs.) I'll take any appropriate opportunity to offer anyone tips/help (and have the coaching education in my background to make that not a completely arrogant thing to offer).
  • MikePfirrman
    MikePfirrman Posts: 3,307 Member
    steveko89 wrote: »
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    bikecheryl wrote: »
    I've got two bad knees - scheduled for a double knee replacement Jan 9th :)

    Rowing got me thru last winter and was instrumental in my 100lb + weight loss.

    One thing I will say..... if you do get one.............. Watch ALL of the Concept 2's "How to row properly" videos !!!!

    Seriously...... incorrect rowing technique is a recipe for disaster and injury.

    Start off slow..... and concentrate on good form not speed.

    And don't do like apparently everybody else in my gym does - every time I get on the rower, the resistance is set to 10. Every. Single. Time.

    "But if you don't row on 10, how do you get any gainz, bruh?" - someone at your gym, probably

    My favorite of all time was a YouTube video of a World Indoor Record and, of course, the top commenter noticed that the Damper was on 5 and had to say, "well, that one doesn't count because he wasn't on 10...".
  • pondee629
    pondee629 Posts: 2,469 Member
    BrianSharpe wrote: »
    Even at the lower price ($945) the pay back period for owning is over 3.5 years.

    If you factor in the cost of traveling to and from the gym (unless you're lucky enough to have one in walking distance) the pay back is less and at the end of it you still own a machine that will give you decades of service. Granted that many people don't have the space and a gym will provide access to other equipment.


    More than offsets the 15 minute drive. Especially considering I'm not outfitting a full gym; rowing machine, dumbbells, barbells, bench, squat cage et.al.
  • aokoye
    aokoye Posts: 3,495 Member
    I use people rowing with poor technique as a lesson to try, really hard, to only pay attention to my workout and/or what I'm listening to. It still annoys me, to say the least and I'm especially unimpressed when a personal trainer is working with their client and watching said client row with poor technique.

    I might just email them and suggest that they put a diagram of how to use the machines on the wall (the two ski ergs have stickers showing how to and not to use them). I'm sure a minority of people would read it, but the personal trainers might.

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