Rowing Machines Give Your Workout a Cross Training Advantage
Shop online for cheap rowing machines and discounts on erg machines. Rowers provide a cross training workout for both your upper and lower body by imitating the motion that you would make with a set of oars in a rowboat. Rowing can be an intense aerobic workout. The scullers who race on competitive teams are elite athletes with a great balance of upper and lower body strength and superb cardio conditioning.
To use a row machine, you sit in a seat situated close to the floor at the back of the unit, and place your feet against a footbrace. Grasping the handles or a T-bar, you pull your body backward against the rowing machine’s resistance with an even balance of arm and leg strength. This gives you an aerobic workout while building muscle strength because of the resistance on your arm and leg muscles. Many rowers say that indoor rowing is the ultimate cross training workout.
For some reason, though, rowing isn’t the first choice of most gym members and people shopping for a home exercise machine. It’s possible that the cheap rowing machines that hit the market in the first wave of home rowing machines left a bad impression on people. But the more likely explanation is that using a rower machine is a blend of grueling and extremely boring. Nobody complains more about this than competitive rowers themselves, who would rather be out on the water in a racing shell than indoors laboring on an erg. But unless they live in a climate where they can row year round, their sport demands that they stay in shape during the winter months, so the rowing machine is an indispensable part of their home fitness equipment collection.
Most competitive rowers favor the air rowing machine. This classic design consists of a nonmotorized fan that spins each time they take a stroke by pulling backward on the T-handle. The fan blades create resistance against the air and increase the effort needed for a stroke. Air rowers are sometimes called ergs, and competitive athletes look forward to indoor erg tests with a mixture of anticipation and dread. Coaches will often use an erg to test which position to place team members in the shell for the entire season, so poor performance can mean being relegated to a less favorable position in the boat.
There are many brands of rowing machines available, including Concept 2, Bodycraft VR100, Body Row, Kettler Coach, Kettler Kadett, Lifecore R900, Row E3, Spartan Sports, Schwinn, Stamina ATS 1400 air rower, and Tunturi.
A new concept in rowing machines is the Water Rower. This machine uses a wheel with fins submerged in a water tank to provide the resistance for each stroke. Water rowing is meant to closely simulate what an actual rowing stroke feels like in a rowing shell.
For most home fitness enthusiasts, rowing is an acquired taste, and some of them never acquire it. But if you like cross training, or if you can’t run as much as you’d like to due to knee pain or other ailments, give a rowing machine a serious look. Discount rowing machines are available online at bargain prices.