Rowing is a great full-body workout, and you don’t have to be an athlete to reap its benefits. It is one of the most engaging upper and lower body workouts. If you are unaware of the rowing machine’s benefits, allow us to elaborate on them.
A Quick Recap on How Rowing Machines Work
A rowing machine or an indoor rower is a device that stimulates the action of water rowing. It is created to exercise or train competitive rowers.
Modern rowing machines are often called ergometers or ergs as they measure the workout performed by the rower. Over the years, indoor rowing has become much popular cardio workout because it has very little risk of injury. You can find a rowing machine in almost every gym and nowadays it is also used at home gyms.What Does Rowing Do for Your Body?
Rowing machines offers a low-impact, high-intensity workout that has many health benefits for your body. Rowing can help develop strength in individual body parts such as the arms, legs, and core, improve cardiovascular health, increase endurance, and even burn calories. Also, rowing is a low-impact workout that is easier on your joints compared to high-impact exercises like jogging and running. A rowing machine can assist you in reaching your fitness objectives and enhancing your general health and well-being if used frequently.
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Rowing Machine Workout Benefits
1. It’s a low-impact exercise
One of the main benefits of rowing is its low-impact nature. There’s no running or jumping involved. Therefore, your joints don’t feel any pain or pressure when performing the workout. It is a great workout for people with joint pain such as arthritis.
Whether it’s weight loss, improving your power, building strength and endurance, or maintaining your cardiovascular health, rowing is the best exercise. In a study, it was found that 8 weeks of rowing can improve joint torques or rotations in the elbow, lumbar, shoulder, and knee by 30%. It is an interesting discovery because high-impact exercises like running have the opposite effect.
2. It’s a complete body workout
Rowing is not just for your upper body or arms, but it utilizes only 25-35% of the upper body and core; the rest 65-75%, is the lower bodywork. With rowing, you can strengthen all your upper body muscles, such as pecs, arms, abdominal muscles, and obliques, and you can also target lower body muscles like quadriceps, glutes, and calves.
3. Rowing is for everyone
Regardless of the fitness level, people can reap the health benefits of rowing machines. You can add rowing to your exercise regime. It is for everyone as the resistance level on a rowing machine can be adjusted, and you can decide the load you want to work out with. This feature makes it particularly suitable for seniors. Rowing can be a great exercise to build muscle and maintain muscle mass, bone density, and overall flexibility later in life. The LIT Strength Machine is the only indoor rower that offers adjustable resistance from 10-40LBS.
4. It is a good alternative to other cardio machines like elliptical and treadmill
Rowing machines are often overlooked when people search for home gym equipment. More focus is on treadmills and the elliptical. However, compared to these machines, the rowing machine focuses on a complete body workout. If you want a machine for your home gym, a rowing machine is an ideal choice.
It is highly adjustable and can be used by any of your family members. As mentioned before, the varying degree of workout is suitable for all fitness levels. It saves your money as you don’t have to invest in multiple home gym machines. You can finance the LIT Strength Machine for as little as $36 per month with 0% APR.
5. You can easily use it in your home
A rowing machine offers more flexibility than other fitness machines. . Most rowers are foldable or can be stored vertically, so they can be stored in a corner while saving a lot of space. The LIT Strength Machine does not require electricity and can be stored vertically. Noise is another hassle that you have to deal with if you live in a condo or an apartment.
With a rowing machine, you can work out all your body muscle groups without creating a lot of noise because they are much quieter as compared to other machines like treadmills.
6. It can help to improve your overall posture
Working out on a rowing machine exercises all major muscle groups. It strengthens the core and back of the body, improving its posture. Rowing is also great for burning calories and improving arm and leg muscle tone. It also improves their flexibility and puts them in shape. All these improvements make your overall posture better.
7. Good for your lungs and heart
Rowing is a potent cardio exercise that strengthens the cardiovascular system. It improves the efficiency of the heart, blood vessels, and lungs. It makes your heart much more efficient to transport nutrients and oxygen to organs, which improves vitality.
The cardiovascular health benefits of rowing machines lower the risk of heart problems. Additionally, it improves cardiovascular health and boosts stamina, performance, and endurance.
8. Additional Benefits of Using a Water Rowing Machine
Water rowing machines are great for aerobic exercise which can help to improve your stamina, immunity, mood, and sleep quality. They are good for your physical as well as mental health. A water rowing machine can also help you to lose weight, tone your muscles and burn more calories. You can expect to burn approximately 600 calories an hour which is more than any other type of exercise machine.
If you are looking for a reliable water rowing machine, then the LIT Strength Machine is a great option. It comes with patented dual-tank technology and has four water resistance levels ranging from 10LBS to 40LBS, and these can be easily adjusted with the turn of a knob.
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The machine also comes loaded with smart features that allow you to track and measure distance, speed, calories, reps, resistance loads, and many more metrics in real-time in the LIT Android and iOS app and has vertical storage, thus taking up very little space.
How to use a rowing machine?
The key to exploiting the rowing machine’s advantages is understanding its motion and what positions you must take when rowing. Without instructions, it’s very easy to use it in bad form. But a clumsy workout on the rowing machine can hurt your back.
Maintaining the rowing motion
The rowing motion is the reason why rowing impacts all major muscle groups. You begin with the starting position, mimicking the stroke transition, and the ending position. This follows another transition back to the start position.
For the benefits of rowing, you have to focus on these positions.
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Catch
Sit straight on the rowing machine seat with your arms straights, knees and ankles flexed, and back upright. You must use your lats to pull your shoulders down in this position with a strong core. It will ensure your back is not overcompensating.
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Drive
Start by pushing your legs, keeping your core contracted. Hinge your hips and lean back about 45 degrees, followed by the movement of your arms as you pull the rowing machine handle towards your torso. The body movement must flow from legs to the core to hips and finally to arms through shoulders.
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Finish
It is the resting position and it is opposite the catch position. Legs are stretched, shoulders and back leaning away from the legs, and hands are pulled towards the body.
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Recover
You copy the drive movements but in reverse order to return to the catch position. You extend your arms, hinge the hips, and bring your torso over the legs, bending your knees.
This is just a short version of using a rowing machine correctly. For the more extended version, check out our guide on how to use a rowing machine. Moving on, you must also know what common mistakes occur that nullify the physical benefits of rowing.
Common rowing machine mistakes to avoid
Improper form is the main reason people fail to get the benefits of indoor rowing. It would be best if you started with a trainer to ensure you master the form, but here are some common mistakes to avoid when using a rowing machine.
1. Not engaging your core during the drive
When you push your legs back to extend them, ensure you engage your core. If you fail to do so, the pressure will be transferred to your hips and lower back.
2. Rounding the back
Slumping forward, and rounding your back puts stress on your back and shoulders, which can result in back pain. You must maintain a neutral position by sitting straight and expanding your chest.
3. Bending knees when recovering
Proper order of movement is necessary, as we mentioned above. Still, if you bend your knees during recovery, then the timing of the move changes, and thus the effectiveness is less.
As a beginner, you must focus on maintaining the form rather than doing more strokes. If you follow the motion and precautions listed so far, you are ready for the health benefits of a rowing machine.
Which rowing machine should you choose?
The LIT Strength Machine is one of the best indoor rowing machines that offer the ability to complete a full-body workout at home.
We took notice of how boredom with repeated motions can discourage users. This is why we introduced rowing variations in this machine that keep things interesting. You are motivated to reap rowing exercise benefits by losing weight, building strength and endurance, and upkeeping cardiac health. Side-to-side rows, bicep curls, pulls, hinges, raises, and many more rowing variations keep you out of the rut. LIT Strength Machine is designed to offer a versatile experience.
The LIT Strength Machine offers:
- It engages 100% of your muscles, ensuring you get a complete body workout every time. The low-impact training principles ensure no injury risk while keeping the workout strenuous.
- You can increase or decrease the difficulty level for row variations by adjusting the water level. The LIT water rowing machine offers four resistance levels running from 10LBS to 40LBS. Its dual tank drum design makes it highly efficient.
- You get access to live training resources and guidance from a certified LIT instructor. We ensure you work out in the proper form and maintain the right technique. We are your partner all along the rowing journey.
Ready to see the results of rowing for yourself? Click here to try LIT Strength Machine today.
Conclusion
There’s no match for rowing machine benefits when it comes to low-impact training. A rowing machine lets you work indoors without compromising on the benefits of a complete outdoor gym workout.
From building endurance to improving your heart health, rowing offers health benefits that affect the whole body. If you are ready to revolutionize how you work out indoors, the LIT Strength Machine can help you unlock the potential of rowing.
