Almost every gym I’ve been to has had one rowing machine, sometimes two, and nobody ever uses it. That’s a shame, because it’s a great tool for getting a full-body workout when you’re doing cardio, and especially for intervals like we’re doing this month.
If you haven’t tried the rowing machine (or as fancy people call it, the ergometer), it can be a little perplexing. There’s a handle attached to a chain, and the chain is attached to a fan. The rest of the machine mainly consists of a little seat that slides along a track.
So here’s how you do it:
Bring the seat close to the footrests. Sit on the seat. Fiddle with the controls, if needed. (Many machines will turn on automatically when you start rowing.)
Strap your feet into the footrests, nice and snug.
Grab the handle.
Engage your upper body muscles. You should be sitting up relatively straight, core strong, shoulder blades down, arms out in front of you. Your butt should be as close as possible to your heels.
Ready? Here’s the sequence for each stroke:
PUSH against the footrests, straightening your legs.
When your legs are almost straight, lean your torso back.
PULL with your arms, to bring the handle to your chest.
To get back to the start, reverse the motion: arms, then torso, then legs.
Here’s a video showing what this all looks like:
I love the rowing machine for intervals, mainly because you can really get your body into it, and tire yourself out pretty quickly. Thirty seconds is a long time on a rower; you could slow down and row nice and easy for half an hour, but why would you?
You can do any of the standard types of intervals on a rowing machine, or try the rowing-specific ones here. If you’re used to mixing running and walking, consider that on a rower you can go all-out for your intervals, and then just sit there waiting for the next one. A few seconds’ rest is an amazing thing. Just remember to time the intervals and rests on your phone, if your rower is the kind that stops its clock when you stop rowing. Give it a try, and let us know how it goes!