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A full-body training in 15 minutes, take note!
Some trends end up staying with us because of their convenience, as it happened with home workout. If you’d asked anyone a few years ago, they’d probably have told you that such a thing is only within the reach of Hollywood actors and rich people. Now, many have realised that setting up a home gym is way more accessible than we were led to believe. Two dumbbells and a yoga mat are enough to get started — but if you want to take it to the next level, fitness equipment is now very affordable. Such is the case for rowers, which should absolutely have a place among your home gym ideas!
In a previous post, we talked about the short and medium term health benefits of these machines. On this occasion, we’ll help you get the most out of every stroke with a series of tips and tricks. While rowers are intuitive and easy to use, this brief guide will teach you how to use it effectively and get familiar with the most common rowing terms.
How to get started
- Begin your training session with a proper warm-up. This part is meant to prepare your body for the work ahead and prevent injuries. Spend 5 minutes stretching your legs, knees, hips and shoulders with local exercises. There are many visual tutorials that may help you with this part!
- Use the right posture. Sit, strap your feet in the foot plates and lean the torso forward at 30 degrees with your knees bent. Last but not least, extend your arms to grab the handlebars.
- The legs will do most of the work in a rowing exercise. Start every stroke with a push of your heels, straighten your legs and move your torso backwards until it’s perpendicular to the ground. Then, pull the handle towards your chest and bend your torso at 45°. Your elbows should be as close to the body as possible. Inhale as you cover this step.
- Go back to the original posture, first leaning your torso at 30º, then extending the arms and, finally, bending your legs. Exhale as you drive back.
Extra tips
Repeat this series for 15 minutes a day with a minimum rest in between. It’s interesting to implement rowing in long routines with a greater variety of exercises to train the whole body. Normally, the ideal time is at the beginning or at the end of the workout.
Don’t get hung up on cadence, the important thing when you start rowing is that you get every movement right. Not perfect, just good enough to make the most out of each training session! Endurance is key to grow your muscle stronger, so increasing it should be your first goal as a rookie rower. Later on, you can include rowing workouts that focus on burning calories and gaining muscle.
What to look for when buying a rowing machine
Depending on your goal, you should perform a number of strokes per minute for each work interval. The peculiarity of rowing machines is that the faster you want to go, the harder it will be to pull. So, when choosing a home gym rower, you should pay attention to the type of resistance each machine has.
A magnetic resistance usually is more customizable than water-powered resistance, which means that you’ll be able to set up different challenges depending on your level. Water resistances offer less customization, but they’re great for rowing enthusiasts who mastered the most basic level.
Finally, we recommend that you get a model with its own display or a companion app for your smartphone. It will show you common metrics such as time, distance, strokes per minute, calories burned and your heart rate. You’ll also become familiar with split time, a rowing-specific metric that measures the time it takes you to cover 500 metres. The lower your split time, the faster you’ll be rowing.
Last year, the fitness brand JOYSONG launched a new series of rowing machines perfect both for beginners and experienced rowers. Its adaptability makes it one of the best rowing machines you can buy these days, allowing you to reach your goals whatever your level of mastery.
In addition to this flexibility, their rowers are also incredibly convenient in other ways. When folded, these home gym rowers become a cube that is easy to store in any cabinet or corner of the house. Also, the JOYSONG rowing cube serves as a decorative stool. Its leather seat and beautiful oak cover give it a modern look, ideal for minimalist homes.
We recommend that you take a look at the two models in the JOYSONG official store, the basic rower and the home gym version, and compare their benefits.
See you in our next article, thanks for reading!
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This content is brought to you by Joy Song.
Photos provided by the author.
