The Best Compact Rowing Machine in 2024

Using a rowing machine is not that complicated, especially if you’ve been in a boat and rowed before. Sadly, many people run away from the machine simply because they do not know how to use it, and they are too afraid even to begin to understand. And even if you do give the rower a try, it’s possible that you’re not using it the right way. It is why we decided to break down using the rowing machine in this section.

The very first thing you’ve gotta do is learn the proper rowing form. Of course, you should first sit down on the seat. Place your feet on the foot pads, and bend your knees at a 90-degree angle. Then reach out with your arms fully extended and grab the handles. Lean forward so that your shoulders are just in front of your hips. Keep your back straight and squeeze your core! Now the actual motion. Keep your back straight, and your core tight Lock your arms and then straighten out your legs until the seat is way in the back. Once you’re in this pose, hinge your hips and lean with your torso backward this time. As your torso approaches the 90-degree angle with the floor, pull with your arms by bending your elbows. As you finish this move, you should return your legs in a straight pose, your elbows should be bent, while the handles should be pulled down to your lower chest. Do not flare your arms, but do not keep them glued to your body either. Again, keep your back flat and your core tight.

These are just the basics, but there are some mistakes you should also look out for when you first start. One problem some people make is that the row in the wrong order. When you do the drive, it’s possible that you use your arms or your body way too soon. To fix this, consider the rowing exercise as going from working on your bigger muscles to your smaller muscles. Large leg muscles should be doing most of the work here. You can try rowing without actually strapping your feet in the machine. If your feet are not in contact with the pads all of the time, then you are doing something wrong!

Some people tend to “shoot their seat”. It means that the seat slides forward and the legs move, but nothing else actually happens. It prevents you from using your full power and strength! The handles should start moving at the same time as your seat starts to do so. You should try to focus on the first part of the motion, and explore it until you manage to make the handles move at the same time with your knees.

You could also be leaning too forward with your torso. If it goes past 90 degrees with the floor, your back is then placed in a weak position. Try to stay at that 90-degree angle as much as possible! Again, row without strapping yourself in. Lean with your torso forward as far as you can without lifting your feet. Squeezing your glutes when you do arm pulls can also help keep you in the right phase.

Your position when you sit, can also influence your rowing. If you’re not sitting correctly, your power suffers! Try rowing by only using your torso. Extend both your arms and legs, hinge backward and forwards from your hips. When you isolate just your torso, you can feel the seat underneath you and focus on staying glued to it.

And finally, maybe you don’t grip the handles the right way. A lot of people hold on to the handles with an underhand grip, or they grip with the first knuckles of their fingers. It is wrong, as your fingers should be wrapped around the handle until your second knuckles are facing forward, with the thumb on the underside. The top part of your wrist should also be flat, as opposed to the being rolled to the outside. Try taping a popsicle stick to your wrists. It sounds silly, but it’s an effective way to keep your wrists in check! If the popsicle flies off, or if you feel it squeezing down on your wrist, then it’s not positioned flat, and you should fix the position of your wrist.

The rowing machine is definitely the most effective piece of cardio equipment out there! There are many benefits associated with cardio machines, and while we won’t name them all, we will list some that we think are worth mentioning.

First things first, rowing machines give your whole body a full workout. The rowing motion activates every major muscle in your body. Your legs, arms, core and back all work in unison to let you row perfectly. Also, your grip will improve since you need to hold onto the handles, plus your forearms get a workout too. When you’re just starting to row, sitting in the catch position, your legs are the first ones to be started up, to push you away. This motion fires up your hamstrings, glutes, quads, and calves. The phase that follows this one is the “drive”. This phase will make over 84% of your muscles feel the burn! The last phase, the “recovery, brings you back into the “catch” position, and while doing so it engages your core and all the stabilizer muscles. The hamstrings also help a bit to get you back into the first position.

Your rowing machine will also give you an excellent aerobic and anaerobic workout. Your muscles and your cardiovascular system will all be challenged when you get on the rowing machine! The rowing machine will give you one of the most challenging cardio sessions out of every cardio machine. Just like when you bike and run, you can easily control the intensity of the workout to further challenge yourself. But just like we mentioned, unlike the bike and the treadmill, the rowing machine makes your whole body burn, skyrocketing its effectiveness. Aerobic and anaerobic exercises improve your endurance, lower your blood pressure, strengthen your heart and respiratory system, and keep your arteries safe from clogging.

The rowing machine will burn calories, unlike any other cardio machine! When you row intensely, you will burn anywhere from 600 to a whopping 1000 calories, or even more! The rowing machine is on par with the treadmill, but at an incline, while the bike, stepper, stair machine, and everything else in between fall behind it. Thanks to this, the rowing machine is steadily gaining popularity, with specialized rowing gyms popping up like crazy.

By working on your whole body with just one machine, you will save precious time. When you concentrate on just one muscle group individually, your session can last three times longer than it would if you chose just the rowing machine. You need about 20 minutes on the rower to simultaneously build muscle, burn calories and give your heart and lungs a challenge!

Surprisingly enough, when you row you don’t put that much strain on your joints, making the rowing machine a low impact exercise. This is great if you are a senior or if you have any existing injuries and diseases. You will not need to lift heavy weights with it, so as a result, your joints do not need to suffer. Also, your bodyweight won’t create problems for your knees, like running, jogging or jumping ropes would do. It’s really incredible when you can say that you got a mind-blowing and super intense exercise while keeping your joints safe!

You will probably give the right amount of cash for a new, or even used, rowing machine, so it better be durable! The durability of cardio machines is determined by a few factors - the materials used to create it, how good the electronics are, how it was constructed, and of course by how often you use it, how heavy or tall you are, and so on.

The frame is, most of the times, made out of heavy duty steel that significantly prolongs the life of the rowing machine. Some frames are made out of aluminum so they won’t be so hardy, but they will be lighter making moving the machine around easier. The upholstery of the seats and the padding also have to withstand a lot to be called hardy. The cover is usually made out of leather, or synthetic leather, or even vinyl, which all have their own set of pros and cons, but they are all quite hardy and can withstand a lot. If you notice that your machine jiggles and makes excessive noise while you row, it’s likely that it has been cheaply constructed and that the bolts and screws are loose. It can happen if you haven’t assembled the machine correctly, but it can also happen if the machine is bad, so make sure you pay attention to every detail!

No rowing machine is just a simple machine - they all have a myriad of features meant to give you a better experience when you workout. What kind of features you need will depend on what kind of statistics you want to follow, and of course, on how serious you are about rowing!

First things first, every rowing machine has adjustable levels of resistance, while some even have infinite levels of resistance thanks to the flywheel that propels them. It allows you to always strive for more, and you will always have a challenge awaiting you. The rowing machine must have soft and comfortable handles since you need to have a good grip on them. Every cardio machine has some monitor that shows you valuable exercise data, and that gives you programs and the possibility to connect your device to it. There are some features though that are not so important, yet they are still nice to have around. A primary monitor will give you info about the time that has passed, the distance you’ve crossed, and how fast you’ve been rowing. But if you need more detailed info about your exercise, you can always find a rowing machine that provides you with it. Some monitors calculate the number of calories you’ve burned or the amount of energy you managed to generate while rowing. One of the features you should look out for are the preset programs. These programs are a way to challenge yourself and to enrich your session, making it more interesting. Some machines even give you the option to play games! The games you can play are usually racing games that challenge you to be better than ever, making them helpful and exciting at the same time. The pricier rowing machines have heart rate monitors. Some models allow you to connect an external monitor. A heart rate monitor is great for people who have health conditions that make observing their heartbeat an essential factor. You can also calculate other data more precisely when looking at your heart rate, like the number of calories burned.

Since you did probably come here because you want to create your gym, it’s very likely that you are looking for a rowing machine that is on the smaller side, or that it can be folded to be stored away. Many rowing machines are really quite large, but they can be easily separated into two pieces to be stored away, or they are easily folded and are made to be compact.

There’s something you should keep in mind though - the smaller the machine is, the less weight it will be able to withstand, and it will probably be less durable. So what you need to look for is a rowing machine that is big enough to withstand your weight, and that it can be folded away or disassembled. The bigger machines are going to be heavier, but luckily they all have built-in transportation wheels that make moving them around a breeze!