People exercise for a whole lot of different reasons. From losing weight to adding it, building power to keeping fit. Some people hit the gym to look great and feel good about themselves. For others yet, exercising is all about cardiovascular fitness.
For most people, exercising is aimed at achieving nearly all these goals together. That is never an easy thing, but practically everyone would wish it were easier to achieve all these goals when you hit the gym.
Talking of the gym, you realize it’s one of the reasons why some people shelve the idea of exercising altogether – no time to visit the fitness center. This is a major reason why indoor rowing is on the upswing today. People are resorting to indoor rowing machines as a convenient alternative to going to the gym. Which can make you wonder why an indoor rower would be worth buying. Simple: a rower can give you all the benefits we mentioned at the start. Does that make your head turn? Let’s break it down.
An indoor rowing machine is great for cardio
One of the best cardiovascular tools ever made is the indoor rower. Any sustained exercise that involves lots of repetitive activity and sweating tends to be good for your heart. It improves your cardio fitness by targeting your heart’ ability to beat strongly and your lungs’ ability to breathe more. Every such exercise helps boost your cardiovascular health, and an indoor rowing machine is king at it.
Rowing engages all the major muscle groups in your body which in turn pushes your heart to pump more blood to sustain the working of these muscle groups. The muscle tissue requires energy and it draws that from the blood. The heart is what supplies that blood. And so, the more blood (energy medium) the muscle tissue requires the more the heart has to supply by pumping. The old adage, practice makes perfect, is true in this case. While working out, the heart pumps more blood to deliver the energy and nutrients that the muscle cells require and naturally it becomes stronger and more capable of doing the job.
The body won’t exert itself, you have to make it. And once you do, it’s very efficient and will make significant physiologic adjustments to make future exertion much easier. That explains why your heart adapts to harder work by becoming stronger.
Anyone can row
Rowing machine reviews reveal that indoor rowing is a sport for all – newbies and seasoned rowers alike – so you don’t have to have kind of skills to use a rower. Each indoor rower has a mechanism for adjusting the level of resistance to something that matches your proficiency level.
If you are new to rowing, you’ll want to start with less resistance levels, but increase as you get more accustomed to the exercise. While you’d turn to rowing for general fitness, others row to prepare for championships. The exercise works for older folk and kids alike. It works for professional athletes and for regular thirty somethings. It is an exercise that anyone can engage in and enjoy.
It’s a big calorie burner; effective full body workout
Rowing targets every major muscle group in the body. As you may know from basic fitness knowledge, the more muscles you use in an exercise the more calories you burn. Since rowing targets more muscle groups in the body, you can rely on it to tone both your lower and upper body equally, while also promoting your joint health.
Indoor rowers deliver accurate measurable fitness results
The best rowing machine has a display monitor that provides immediate, instantaneous feedback on various aspects of your health and fitness with each stroke. Ideally, a rower will show you the distance you’ve covered, your rowing speed and if you have a good rowing pace, the time you’ve taken, and the amount of calories burnt.
The machine also records your cumulative performance data that you can capture and store someplace for any use aimed at attaining your fitness objectives.
While not all rowing machines provide feedback on all these aspects, the best rower will. And at least each rower should have a display that gives you some form of accurate and measurable workout feedback.
So, whether you want to recover from injury, rehabilitate your heart, manage diabetes or simply keep fit, there’s no better way to do it than buy an indoor rowing machine.
Written by Petra Amara – RowingCrazy.com
CEO & Founder of RowingCrazy, National Rower, Coxswain Womens Eight Team, Rowing Coach & Writer
Petra is a Mother of two and owner of Rowingcrazy.com. Petra lives and breathes rowing, she also has a passion for writing which lead her to start RowingCrazy.com to share her rowing experience and expertise with others.
