You are trying to make a choice between the rowing machine and the traditional version? Before choosing a fitness machine, it is very important to study the characteristics of all characteristic in order to choose the most suitable and effective option and not harm your health. On the market, you can find different fitness machines of different prices. The treadmill is great for cardio, fat burning, and muscle building. Daily training, especially running and walking, can put the body in order and train the heart muscle. Not everyone finds time to go to the gym. Insufficient physical activity can lead not only to the formation of excess weight but also to the formation of serious heart and spine diseases.
We decided to compare the rowing machine and other cardio equipment so that you can make the right choice. Read the article and find out if the rowing machine is right for you.
ROWING MACHINE VS. TREADMILL
Contents
I used different fitness machines to compare them and choose the right one. For a long time, I worked on the treadmill, then switched to rowing. I can tell you and compare these two machines, as well as describe their advantages and disadvantages. Is a rowing machine better than a treadmill?
First, let’s talk about the load. Working out on a treadmill you use only the lower part of the torso, and on the rowing machine, the whole body works. From the point of view of what muscles are working, then Rowing is the winner. The quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes work precisely because of rowing.
Secondly, let’s compare the number of calories burned when you train on a fitness machine. If you exercise on a treadmill, you burn more calories. So, on a treadmill, you can spend about 500 to 1100 calories for an hour of training, depending on the intensity of the run. Thanks to rowing, you will spend about 400-600 calories per hour.
However, this issue can be considered from another side. It all depends on your preferences and needs. If you set a goal to lose as much weight as possible, it is better to use a treadmill. But if you want to keep fit, build up your muscles and develop endurance, then rowing has a lot more advantages.
Both fitness machines can be used for moderate exercise. For example, you can walk on a treadmill so that the effect is not very strong. But to increase the load, you can jog or run. You can adjust the intensity of your training yourself. While rowing, your hands, and feet are in constant contact with the fitness machine. If you have problems with some parts of the body, then you can not strain them during training and sports exercises.
Running puts a lot of strain on your joints, knees, and ankles, so a treadmill is a bad option for people with injuries. Rowing is more gentle for your body and health, but only if it is done correctly and efficiently.
ROWING MACHINE VS. ELLIPTICAL TRAINER
Which gives a better workout rowing machine or elliptical rowing machinе for weight loss?
Each type of fitness machine has its advantages and disadvantages, so let’s look at the main differences. Taking into account the features of simulators, you will be able to identify priority tasks for yourself and achieve your goals.
The first criterion to pay attention to is the difference between a rowing simulator and an elliptical one in terms of load. And although both have a beneficial effect on the body and the body as a whole, on different organ systems, especially the cardiovascular system, still differences in load play a role.
How long should you workout on a rowing machine? Most novice athletes consider the main priority to burn fat, converting it into energy for building muscle mass. For example, if a user works out for 1 hour on a rowing machine, they lose about 1000 calories. An hour’s work on an ellipsoid allows you to spend about 300-400 calories. Accordingly, it will take approximately 2.5-3 hours on the ellipsoid to approach the indicators of the rowing simulator.
What is the best low impact exercise machine? The load when training on an elliptical simulator is distributed to almost all muscle groups, but more on the lower part. The upper part of the body, although involved in the work, but does it only in a supportive mode. Elliptical training is the ideal cardio for people with sore joints and overweight, as it eliminates bumps and shaking. The main thing is to be able to use the simulator.
For those who have never encountered a rowing simulator, it may seem that the entire load falls on the hands and body. In fact, unlike cycle training, where the load is distributed unevenly (95% on the lower body and 5% on the upper), the distribution of effort in rowing is 60% on the lower body and 40% on the upper. Ellipsoids win over treadmills and exercise bikes for safety for the knees, joints, lower back, elliptical machine benefits stomach.
Elliptical simulators are much heavier than rowing ones. This makes it difficult to transport and move them. Note that rowing simulators of some manufacturers have a truly unique function – they can be placed vertically after training, put in a corner and thus solve the problem of free space at the root. This makes them very convenient for home use.
Elliptical simulators require electrical connection, which is not always possible. If you compare elliptical vs treadmill reddit, it is very similar in action.
The advantages of rowing type machines include versatility, more muscle groups are used on a rowing machine than on conventional cardio equipment, burning calories, increasing muscle strength and endurance, team or individual work, accessibility, compactness.
On both fitness machines, your hands and feet are in contact with it, so both fitness machines are effective.
Summarizing the above, we can conclude that all the characteristics of rowing simulators have an advantage over elliptical ones. However, both units are excellent options for training. A person only needs to decide what problem to solve, what muscles to work out before sitting down at the simulator.
ROWING MACHINE VS. EXERCISE BIKE
There is practically no universal method of training. Besides, there is not much universal in this world. It often happens that one or another cardio should be to choose based on your own specifications and purposes. Therefore, the comparison of the rowing machine and an exercise bike (the two most popular simulators) looks very relevant.
If we talk about treadmill vs bike, we can say that an exercise bike is similar to a treadmill in action. When training on an exercise bike, you only use the lower part of the body. While rowing helps engage the entire body. Since it is also about burning calories, sport is the main helper here. The figures for the amount spent on an exercise bike and rowing simulator are about the same for all researchers, the difference is plus or minus 100, which is not significant at all.
On an exercise bike, when working at an average pace, the human body is able to” burn ” about 500 kcal per hour. If the intensity is increased, you can achieve a result of 600-700 kcal. But note that not all people can train at this intensity for an hour.
The rowing simulator uses almost all the muscle groups of a person at the same time (including, of course, large ones), and not just the lower part of the body. Therefore, calories are burned much more – up to 1000 kcal per hour. However, the intensity of rowing may not be very high. This is official data confirmed by research.
The main difference is that with an exercise bike, you train only the lower part of the body, and with a rowing machine, you strain your entire body. Therefore, if you want to focus on the legs and part of the hip, then you will fit a stationary bike, but for effective training of the entire body and building muscle, it is better to choose a rowing machine.
Despite the fact that the exercise bike is more sparing to the knee joints than the same treadmill, however, with sore knees (arthrosis), doctors do not recommend an exercise bike. But coaches and sports doctors, however, make reservations that you can use an exercise bike, but only if certain rules are observed – the pedaling technique must be perfect, the simulator is individually correctly selected and configured, and you need to practice under the supervision of a competent specialist.
This does not apply to a rowing machine, especially a high-quality one. Rowing is a safe sport in itself, and rowing on a simulator with water resistance allows you to accurately simulate real rowing, avoiding sudden jerks in movements, thanks to the water resistance.
What conclusions can be drawn?
What kind of cardio equipment to choose for your home, how not to get lost in the variety of offers and not to spend a particular amount in vain-questions that reasonably arise for everyone who wants to buy it. Regardless of its type, any model of such equipment is able to provide an intensive aerobic load, but whether it will be really useful and effective remains to be seen in the process of studying the characteristics and determining specific goals of training.
If we compare all the fitness machines listed above, we can conclude that the choice depends more on certain factors. for example, it is influenced by your weight, physical health, the presence of diseases with joints and other organs, your goals in losing weight or gaining muscle mass, budget, and other reasons. Build a machine fitness to achieve certain results, weight loss, and weight gain.
Rowing shells are comparable in efficiency to the leaders of the load on the entire body — skis and ski simulators. More than 80% of the muscles are pumped with regular training and optimal load on such sports equipment (the problem is only in the correct execution of movements, body position, and sufficient load that the mechanism should provide). Exercise and see the effect of rowing machine before and after.
