Whether you're getting to know the lay of the land in your local gym, or you're considering a new fitness machine for your home, it's time you got to know the indoor rower, also known as the ergometer or rowing machine. While it may look intimidating at first, it's actually more beginner-friendly than you might think—and it provides one hell of a workout. All the deets, here.
What Is the Rowing Machine?
The ergometer is essentially mimicking the rowing of a shell (aka boat), like those you see in the Olympics, according to Evan Tyrrell, owner of F45 Training in La Jolla, CA.
"The rowing machine is like the Swiss Army knife of the gym," says professional rower Michelle Sosa, a Hydrow athlete. "Its multiple purposes include low-impact workouts, high-intensity sprint intervals, low-intensity endurance development, full-body strength training, core training, heart health, and posture control." Swiss Army knife is right—the rower seemingly does it all.
How Do You Use a Rowing Machine?
The motion you use in a rowing exercise is not always intuitive, but it's actually pretty simple once you dial it in. Here's a handy way to remember how to row: legs, core, arms (on the way out) and arms, core, legs (on the way in). Meaning, when you start from the bottom of a stroke (in the catch position), you should extend your legs, hinge your core, then use your arms to row the handle toward your chest. Then you reverse it to go back to the beginning: Extend your arms, let your core hinge forward, then bend your legs. (You can repeat it in your head as a sort of mantra while you're rowing: Legs, core, arms, arms, core, legs.) A lot of the power actually comes from the legs, but you need to keep your core tight while you push back and eventually pull the handles with your hands/arms.
Sosa notes that the biggest misconception about rowing is that it's an upper-body-only exercise. "The bulk of your rowing stroke is accomplished by the legs and core," says Sosa. (See: Rowing Machine Mistakes You're Probably Making)
"Rowing is about 60-percent legs, 30-percent core, and 10-percent arms," says Joseph Illustrisimo, creator of Let's Dryft in San Francisco (a workout that's half on the rower, half strength training—think Barry's with rowers instead of treadmills). "Most of rowing will be working out your hamstrings and booty, but only if you are hinging properly. It should feel like a deadlift. There's also a large amount of core activation. Your core should be engaged the whole time, so you should learn how to dynamically engage those abs and you should feel a burn throughout."
You can ask a trainer at your gym to show you, or opt for an at-home program with instructional videos. Hyrdow is like the Peloton of rowing machines, so if you're in the market for a home gym addition, this would be a useful way to get some live instruction on how to use a rower. "The instruction piece is critical for beginners to ensure you're maximizing your efforts and doing it safely and correctly," says Sosa.
If you want to try a class that incorporates rowing, you ca try CityRow in New York City, Let's Dryft in San Francisco, F45 Training in multiple locations, and Orangetheory Fitness (in certain locations). These all offer workouts that incorporate the rowing machine into their classes. This would give you more IRL intel on how to properly use the rowing machine and how to vary your workouts to keep things interesting.
Rowing Machine Benefits
Let's break down what you actually get out of using the rowing machine. What are some of the benefits of using a rower, and why would you want to hop on one at your gym?
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Burn a lot of calories. Because the rower offers a combo of strength and cardio training, Tyrrell says it's a "super-efficient way to burn calories." Depending on your body weight and how vigorously you're rowing, you could burn between 400 and 500 calories an hour on the rowing machine.