9 Wonderful and Remarkable Benefits of Rowing Machine

Benefits of rowing machine are far more than only achieving aesthetic looks! Once you start exercising 3 to 4 times a week; you’ll be healthier and happier. What if you continue exercising like that 4 hours a week tops, for a year? Your new habit will help you make a lot of progress that will help you later in life.

Imagine this, if you stay active to build a strong base and make lasting cardiovascular benefits; you’ll be grateful to yourself once you are older. You’ll experience less joint, back, knee, and hip ache; also, you’ll be less likely to face heart problems. However, if you stay adamant about being inactive, you are doomed to face health problems that will shorten your life. Now imagine that bad scenario, all that regret, and what-ifs, it stings doesn’t it?

Whether you use a rowing machine, elliptical, exercise bike, or treadmill; you need to have a cardio machine to be overall healthy and live a more fruitful life. Besides strength training, cardiovascular exercises are a must to improve your endurance and make your heart stronger! Whether you are exercising or dieting; you should aim to find a balance that doesn’t neglect any of the important stuff. For example, if you only do strength training and don’t focus on your cardio, balance, and flexibility; you’ll be more likely to injure yourself.

Exercising can make you understand yourself better and, help you live a longer and quality life. Also, it’s fun! It really is, exercising doesn’t have to feel like a chore. Once you get used to elevating your heartbeat and sweating, your body and mind will crave for more!

Wait till you see the results, oh, it’s going to be great! You’ll look at your old photos, and remember how you felt down mentally and physically. When you appreciate the hard work you put in; you’ll feel obligated to your past self that you won’t let him/her down.

Still, don’t get us wrong; we are not forcing you to get a cardio machine. Of course, you can stay active by walking and running with only a pair of running shoes. However, be honest with yourself, will you be committed? How much progress have you made towards your fitness goals? It’s a reality that once you invest in a cardio machine, you’ll be determined to get your money’s worth!

And you will believe us you will. We recommend to you that, try usual cardio machines like treadmill, elliptical and of course rowing machine. So, you can choose which one is the most enjoyable and beneficial. The key here is, you shouldn’t stop using the machine in a month, this is a journey we are speaking of. So, it would be in your best interest that you choose a cardio machine that you’ll use continuously.

Okay, we made our points clear, now we can get to the benefits of a rowing machine.

Benefits of Rowing Machine

1) Burns Tons of Calories

The rowing machine offers a workout experience that brilliantly puts up strength and cardio training together. It helps you burn fat, build muscle and improve your heart at the same time.

So, how many calories would you burn if you row in a moderate intensity for an hour? Well, depending on your fitness level and body weight, you’ll burn 400 to 500 calories on a rowing machine. That’s a lot of calories!

Also, if you continue rowing 4 times a week that means you’ll be burning 2000 calories each week! That’s a huge number and it’s a guarantee that in a few months you’ll look and feel amazing.

2) It’s a Full-Body Workout

You may think that rowing exercise only works your back muscles, that’s almost completely wrong. In fact, this exercise is mostly leg-dominant. Close to 75 percent of the work is done by your legs and only 25 percent is upper body.

The rowing machine helps you target muscles on your legs like quads, glutes, calves, and upper body muscles like the upper back, arms, pecs, abs, and obliques.

By doing this exercise you’ll be toning your legs and getting your upper body in shape.

3) Low-Impact Exercising

Rowing machine helps you have a low-impact exercising experience that goes easy on your knees and joints.

This also means you’ll be challenging yourself better than you would on a high-impact cardio machine like a treadmill. Your knees and joints won’t give up before you do!

You’ll be controlling your own movement and pace to; lessen the stress on your joints.

4) It Can Be Used for Recovery

As we’ve said that this is a piece of low-impact cardio equipment, which also means that it can be used for recovery.

There was a study published in 2014 that using a rowing machine for 8 weeks lead to 30 percent improvement on joints, elbow, shoulders, knee, and lumbar. (1)

If you have weak joints and knees, choosing a low-impact exercise is not only safer but it’s great for recovery.

5) Improves Posture

Even though while rowing only 25 percent of the work is done by your upper body; you’ll strengthen your back muscles. Stronger back muscles mean better posture and better posture means reduced injury risk and balanced muscle strength.

Also, while rowing your posterior chain needs to be long and straight, which means you’ll get used to standing straight!

6) Anyone Can Row

The rowing machine offers a fun and easy workout that anyone can learn in 5 minutes. Keep in mind that, first you need to focus on your form, then you should bring your attention to your muscles and finally keep rowing till you can’t anymore.

Whether you exercise only half an hour or an hour; you’ll see awesome results in no time! Believe us that you’ll get used to the benefits of rowing machine and will crave for more!

7) Amazing for HIIT Exercises

HIIT exercises are great for putting your weight loss goal on a fast track. They are quick, beneficial, and super fun.

Also, even usual rowing machine exercises can help you reach your goals much faster than other cardio machines.

Just row as fast as you can with good form for a minute and then row slower for 30 seconds. Do this interval at least 5 times to really push your body.

8) It’s Meditative

So, it’s not exactly meditative like yoga but rowing can help you find that mind-body connection.

Get lost in your thoughts while keeping your form perfect, glide and pull over and over again. This cardio exercise will make you release good hormones like endorphins to reduce your stress, achieve clearer thoughts and close the gap between your mind and body.

9) It’s a Good Alternative to Other Cardio Equipment

Rowing machine might not be preferred by a lot of people because they are not familiar with them. So, they choose to exercise with a treadmill or exercise bike.

Let’s compare the rowing machine with other cardio equipment.

Compared to a treadmill, rowing machine offers a full-body workout experience and it’s low-impact. Also, rowing machines are more affordable and quieter than treadmills.

The exercise bike also offers only lower body workout like the treadmill but it’s low impact just like the rowing machine. Exercise bikes are more compact and affordable. Still, the rowing machine burns more calories than an exercise bike.

Finally, the elliptical is a full-body cardio machine and is also low-impact! However, it’s much more expensive than a rowing machine.

Check our guide “8 Best Rowing Machine for Home – Ultimate Guide” to find the most suitable rowing machine you can get.

How to Use the Rowing Machine?

Okay, before you start rowing you need to memorize the movement pattern. First, you start with your legs, then engage your core and finally pull in with your arms.

Step by step:

• Strap your feet tightly into the pads to keep your balance while rowing.
• Hold the handles and keep your spine straight.
• Use your legs to push yourself away from the machine.
• Squeeze your abs as you lean backward and once you come halfway pull the handles towards your lower chest.
• To engage your back muscles; pull your shoulder blades together.
• Release and bend your knees to bring your torso forward.
• Continue this movement pattern for 10 to 15 minutes without taking a break.

Conclusion

Hope you enjoyed and learned a lot by reading our article on the benefits of rowing machine. So, now you know all these things, what should you do? Are you going to stress about every little thing and feel like you are not ready or realize your inner power?

Let us tell you that, you are ready to go ahead and make huge changes in your physic and health. Stop worrying about all the things that lead you to a state of inertia. Just start, you won’t be perfect at the beginning and it won’t feel “right”, but you won’t regret starting this journey of fitness.

Before you leave, let us know in the comments section, what is your favorite cardio machine and why?

Thank you for reading.

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