I have only ever heard good things about rowing. Because exercise is a chore for me, I want to minimize the amount of time I have spend doing it.
I got a rowing machine recently. It hits a ton of muscles all at once, and is not bad for cardio. It won't challenge your heart as much as running will, but it gets the blood pumping.
I am no fitness expert, but it feels like a really good solution for me. I hope to work up to 20-30 minutes of rowing at least every other day.
> Because exercise is a chore for me, I want to minimize the amount of time I have spend doing it.
One of my biggest complaints about internet health and fitness discourse is how much it exaggerated the time commitment for exercising.
A fitness routine like you described (20 minutes, 3 times per week) is actually plenty of time to make a significant improvement in fitness levels. The key is consistency over the long term.
Too much of the fitness discourse on traditional media and social media revolves around extremes and glorifies the misery component of extreme exercise. Popular programs like CrossFit are all about pushing the limits and the grind. That’s fine for some people, but it’s not even close to necessary.
A basic exercise regimen of 1-2 hours total per week will make a world of difference compared to no exercise at all. Really, you don’t even need to go for intense exercises like rowing. It’s entirely possible to get fit and stay fit by doing mild to moderate weight lifting routines where you may barely break a sweat.
I wish we’d do a better job of normalizing the mild to moderate exercise routines instead of the way the discussions are all about pushing yourself until you’re miserable.
> One of my biggest complaints about internet health and fitness discourse is how much it exaggerated the time commitment for exercising.
Also exaggerating how much of a chore it is. Find an activity you like and it will never be hard to stay active. Of my 5 favorite things to do, 3-4 are different physical activites.
"I want to minimize the amount of time I have spend doing it."
Just to quickly share what worked for me since many of us don't have room for a row machine: a pull-up bar and a 30lb kettle bell. Every 4hrs between 9AM and 9PM my Alexa reminds me to work out. I then do 3 out of 4 of the following: a set of push-ups, 100 crunches, 25-pullup (or 100 row style push ups with my feet on a tall bar stool), and/or 100 kettle bell swings. The routine is usually over in 7 minutes if I stay focused. It's short enough where I don't sweat so no need to change clothes and shower.
To be clear when the workout reminder chimes, sometimes I don't want to do any of it. But then I remind myself "you can do something" and I at least do the push-ups and pull-ups. I couldn't be more pleased with the results especially given how little effort is required.
(former rower) Just be aware that rowing can ruin your knees. It's quite "explosive", so it might be worth investigating physio to ensure minimal damage.
In my experience: Hard to max out your heart because you are always oxygen constrained when front-crawling. I did high intensity breast stroke for 1-2 months each day, instead, and suddenly developed terrible back pain, so that does not seem like a solution either, but it might also be due to my subpar technique.
Sounds like we have a similar problem: start doing something and immediately do it very intensively and cause more harm than good to your body. High intensity + each day sounds like a bad idea almost always. The only people who do it with a good reason are professional athletes and they still have injuries all the time
I recently bought a rowing machine (Concept2, "top of the top") ... and I'm very disappointed.
It's just not challenging enough (and I'm not very fit). Running/cycling (on a machine), I can easily ramp up the difficulty enough so that I'm sweating in 10 minutes. Rowing, I barely sweat even after 20 minutes (on max hardness, 27ish strokes/minute).
One of the best "time savers" for cardio is HIIT, and you just can't do that rowing.
I was on my rowing team in college, and I have a couple of opinions.
1) 27 strokes per minute is not max. I'm 70 years old and I do 30 to 33 on the rowing machine where I work out. When I was in college, our training sessions were all at 30 to 35 strokes per minute. Training sessions lasted for 1 to 2 hours, six days a week.
2) As for HIIT, during a race we would often do a "power 10", where we would apply maximum power to our strokes for 10 strokes. We only did 10 strokes because at the power levels we were expected to apply, doing more than 10 would burn us out rather quickly.
I still do rowing because it's an aerobic exercise that works most of your muscles; arms, back, legs, stomach. The only exercise I've heard of that does more all around is cross country skiing, and I hate the cold.
I'd have someone check your rowing form - I can't really imagine how rowing could be too easy. If you're applying your legs as you should, and trying hard, it's as difficult as you want it to be
> One of the best "time savers" for cardio is HIIT, and you just can't do that rowing
Of course you can, something is wrong here, although it might be difficult to diagnose over the internet. "max hardness" might be a clue - you probably shouldn't be setting the resistance to maximum and maximum resistance does not imply more intense workout.
You can HIIT row, see Apple Fitness+ if you can stand the wellness vibe.
But if you want challenging, join the Concept2 challenges. I was doing 10k rows several times a week as a middle-of-the-pack competitor and if that doesn’t challenge you then you should go pro.
But as I mentioned in another comment, you can injure yourself on a Concept2 if you don’t cross-train. It’s not a magic device.
Roman legionnaire in charge of rowers: "Men, I have good news, and bad. The good news is today is Sunday, a day of recreation. The bad news is, the Captain wants to go water skiing."
Dont use max hardness, you most likely are not strong enough and dont have good enough technique enough for that. Reduce the damper setting and watch some technique vids on youtube.
Rowing is awesome but even a non-impact activity can be bad for you if it’s all you do.
(I tweaked my hips during 2020 lockdown by overdoing it on my Concept2).
My advice is an app like Keelo, which creates HIIT workouts based on the equipment you tell it you have - including a rowing machine. I have my rower, some dumbbells, a plyo box, a kettle bell, and some rings.
Every workout is different than the last, you can use your own Spotify playlists, and it will kick your ass in all the best ways.
I'd say I'm more disappointed than surprised -- rowing machines have a huge space footprint compared to other equipment. You can stack 3 or 4 treadmills in the same space.
I got a rowing machine recently. It hits a ton of muscles all at once, and is not bad for cardio. It won't challenge your heart as much as running will, but it gets the blood pumping.
I am no fitness expert, but it feels like a really good solution for me. I hope to work up to 20-30 minutes of rowing at least every other day.