Rowing is a perfect workout for those who want to exercise as many muscles as possible at once. In fact, you use 80 muscles when you do rowing exercises, including your buttock muscles, calves, thighs, hamstrings, arms, shoulders, and upper back. Rowing is particularly good for strengthening your core muscles.
How To Get Started?
In the beginning, you need to be patient with yourself as you build up your muscle strength. A rowing machine has a mechanism called a damper. This device controls the drag. The higher you set the damper, the more drag there is, which means your muscles will have to work hard to row.
As a beginner, set the damper between 3 and 5. If you set it too high, change it to a lower setting so you can get through a rowing session. As your strength and endurance improve, you can set the damper higher to give your muscles a more intensive workout.
What do you do during a rowing exercise session?
This is an example:
1. Start off on the rowing machine rowing slowly (16-18 strokes a minute) to warm up for 3 minutes.
2. Speed up to 20-22 strokes a minute for the next 3 minutes.
3. Continue speeding up to 22-24 strokes a minute and maintain for 2 minutes.
4. Culminate in 24-26 strokes a minute for 1 minute.
5. Now you need to get up and stretch your muscles for 1 or 2 minutes.
6. Once back on the rowing machine, spend 4 minutes rowing at 22-24 strokes a minute.
7. Get back up to 24-26 strokes a minute for 3 minutes.
8. For the final push, row at 26-28 strokes a minute for 1 minute.
9. Now that the workout is finished, you need to cool down for 2 minutes rowing at 16-18 strokes per minute.
Add it up, and you’ll see this routine takes about 20 minutes. It is quicker than workouts on a lot of other machines, but it is intensive.
Row safely
Keep your wrists straight on the handle and extend your arms in front of you. Don’t bend your shoulders. Start in the position with your knees bent. Push through your feet and extend your legs, leaning back slightly. Draw your elbows back until your hands reach your ribs. Now extend your arms and bend your knees to slide back into the starting position.
How many calories are burnt?
You can burn up to 200 calories in a rowing workout. The number of calories burnt will increase as your stamina and strength improve and you can undertake longer workouts.
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