You can use a rowing machine to burn calories, while also cutting some calories from your diet, to lose weight at a safe rate of 500g to 1kg per week. A rowing exercise program for beginners provides a full-body workout that strengthens your muscles and gets your heart pumping.
Benefits of rowing
Rowing, also called ergometer or rowing, is an excellent way to improve your physical condition and lose weight, because it conditions the arms, legs, shoulders, back and cardiovascular system.
While most machines only work certain parts of the body, rowing machines are as close to a full-body workout as you can get for one machine. Rowing machines involve almost your entire body in each exercise.
See all the muscles that the rower uses. In your lower body, it works the glutes, THE hamstrings, THE quadriceps and the calves. The first part of the pulling action involves the triceps, deltoids, wrist extensors and flexors, pectorals, trapezius muscles and rhomboids. You engage your biceps to complete the pull and bring the handle up to the midsection. Rowing also works several core muscles, including the abs and the obliques.
Unlike running, which is a high-impact activity (whether on a treadmill or outside), rowing is a low-impact activity. Low-impact activities put less strain on joints, reducing the risk of injury or pain.
You can choose to use a rowing machine at a gym or health club near you, or purchase one for your home. Rowing machines are actually a good choice of equipment for your home because many of them fold up and store easily. Rowing machines can range in price from $100 to several thousand dollars, allowing you to choose the model that suits your budget and fitness goals.
Rowers and weight loss
Rowing machines offer you a workout that combines two types of exercise: cardio and the bodybuilding.
Cardio, also known as aerobic exercise, increases your heart rate, improves your cardiovascular fitness and helps you burn calories. Strength training, also called resistance training, helps you build muscle. The more muscle you build, the higher your metabolism will be and the more calories your body will burn each day.
So how exactly burn calories does it equate to weight loss?
Calories are a unit of energy. The foods you eat contain calories, which give you the energy you need to go about your daily activities. If you consume more calories than your body can use in a day, the excess calories are stored in your body as fat. This fat stays in your body until you burn it.
Half a kilogram of fat is about 3,500 calories. If you want to lose 500g of weight per week, you need to create a calorie deficit of around 500 calories each day of the week. Similarly, if you want to lose weight by 1kg per week, you need to create a calorie deficit of 1,000 calories per day for a week. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns against trying to lose weight at a faster rate.
You can achieve the calorie deficit you need to lose weight in two ways. One of them consists of eat fewer calories, which forces your body to rely on stored energy. The other way is to burn more calories while exercising.
However, the best way to lose weight is to combine diet and exercise. For example, if you need to create a calorie deficit of 500 calories per day, instead of relying solely on diet or exercise, you could cut 250 calories from your daily diet and exercise in order to burn an extra 250 calories per day.
Don’t let your calorie intake drop too low as this could put your health at risk. Women should consume at least 1,200 calories per day and men at least 1,500 calories per day.
By helping you burn calories, the rower contributes to the exercise component of your calorie deficit. You’re probably wondering how many calories you burn during a rowing session. This depends on factors such as your weight and the duration and intensity of the exercise session.
Calories burned during 1 hour of stationary rowing
THE rower allows you to burn the equivalent of 580 to 680 calories per hour on average.
In addition to weight loss, using a rowing machine also helps improve other aspects of fitness. Using a rowing machine reduced participants’ body fat percentage and improved endurance, flexibility and agility.
Row well
Each rowing cycle consists of four parts. It is important that you are in good shape in each of these parts, to reduce the risk of injury and maximize the benefits of training.
Part 1: The catch
When you are seated on the rowing machine, this is the starting position.
- Grasp the handles of the machine and place your feet flat against the footrest, knees bent and shins almost perpendicular to the floor.
- Keep your back straight, shoulders slightly in front of your hips and core engaged. Avoid bending or rolling your shoulders.
Part 2: Driving
This is the moment when you withdraw into yourself.
- Keeping your back straight and core engaged, you first push back with your legs, then pull with your arms. Do not push and pull at the same time.
- Once your legs are completely straight, continue to pull with your arms, leaning your torso back. Don’t go too far beyond 90 degrees.
Part 3: Arrival
This is the position you should be in at the end of the ride, before you begin to return to the starting position.
- Your back and legs should be straight, your shoulders relaxed.
- Your core should be engaged and your elbows should be bent, so the handle is almost halfway.
Part 4: Recovery
This is the part where you return to the starting position.
- First straighten your arms, then lean forward at the hips and bend your knees as you move forward.
- Keep your knees straight, they should not tilt outwards.
