We ask ourselves many questions about the rower or rowing machine such as: Which muscles do you train with the rower?
Do I burn fat with a rower? Do you burn belly fat with a rower? Buy a rowing machine or an exercise bike?
Is rowing strength or cardio training?
We’re trying to answer a few questions.
Which muscles do you train with a rowing machine?
A rower is one of the most complete exercises you can perform and works on calf muscles, quadriceps, hamstrings, abdominals, arm muscles, shoulders, trapezius, lower and upper back muscles. So you can say that a rowing machine puts almost your entire body in motion. Recently it has also been shown that rowing is very good for strengthening and / or loosening the pelvic floor muscles and thus can reduce low back pain by strengthening the surrounding muscles that give support to the back and pelvis. A large part of back problems leave in the pelvic floor at the level of the 2 Psoas muscles being the Psoas Minor and Psoas Major. We will discuss this further in a future blog post.
Fat burning with a rowing machine ?
Fat burning during training is mainly achieved through long-term training. It is to say, long training at a low heart rate or chatter pace. With long-term training, it is therefore important to provide the body with sugars so that fat can be converted into energy for the muscles. A rowing training is more intensive than a training on the exercise bike where you burn about 250 to 300 Kcal per hour. An hour of training on the rower consumes an average of 600 Kcal as many more muscles are addressed. So we can say that on the rowing machine you will have more results in a shorter period of time.
Is rowing Strength or cardio training ?
On a rowing machine you train both strength and cardio or endurance. On most rowers you can also give extra resistance on top of wind or water resistance due to the built-in magnetic system. So you can give as much resistance during training as you want. It is also true that the more dynamic you perform the movement, the more resistance you have to deal with.
So in summary, a rowing machine is both strength and cardio training.
Rowing stimulates coordination
As an added plus, a rowing machine is also perfect for stimulating the body’s coordination.
During the rowing movement, the body must always address different muscles at a different time. It is, as it were, a sequence of movements of legs, back and arms that must be performed correctly.
Buy a rowing machine or an exercise bike?
As a basic purchase, we always recommend an exercise bike as you can safely build up your training here at a low heart rate. A rowing machine, on the other hand, requires a bit more basic fitness with 15 minutes of training. Once you have built up a basic condition, you can start with the rower.
