Rowing Machine Buying Guide

Rowing machines are a fantastic low impact way to get overall body fitness without pounding your joints. They dramatically improve your cardiovascular fitness, burn off the fat and tone all of your body muscles.

I do have a full home gym but if I was told that I could only keep one single piece of equipment than I would have no hesitation in keeping my rowing machine. It does about everything I need in a single piece of equipment. I would also recommend in this rowing machine buying guide that it truly is worth investing in the best machine that you can afford when starting out.

Rowing machines come in different styles and this is a matter of preference. The dual hydraulic does cost less and gives you a sense of actually rowing on a lake or river. The single handled rowing machines you would find more in gyms and they do offer a much better work out.

On rowing machines the displays you can see do vary quite a lot so again it depends on how much you want to know. I like to know everything but maybe that is just me. I like to know things like how long I have been rowing, what distance that would represent, the calories I have burned off and the speed, number of strokes, stroke rate and a really loud alarm that tells me I have achieved my goal. On my own machine it also measures the heart rate and I have to admit I like to know this type of thing. For me the more information I have the easier it is to set challenges and motivate myself.

Another key thing to look out for on a rowing machine is the amount of tension you can get and is it adjustable. The more variance the better for me as it allows different types of work out from light ones to more intense ones.

Finally for me it is then the stability of the machine on the floor and the comfort. If you are going to spend time on a rowing machine you especially want it to be comfortable in the buttock area :-) It also has to be easy to store away for many people. Not a big consideration for me as i have a home gym in the garage but for many that is a key consideration.

There are the smaller details like foot straps, pivoting foot plates, etc but they are not of great importance to me.