One of the best things of all you can do for your heart and overall health is getting regular cardiovascular exercise. It helps lower stress, reduce triglyceride & cholesterol levels, strengthens the heart, and reduces blood pressure to name a few benefits.
A superb exercise for doing this is rowing. Rowing provides a total body workout that engages all the major muscle groups of the body - legs, abdomen, shoulder, back, arms.
This summer, I took a learn to row class through our local rowing club down at the river. There were people in our class of all age groups - from around 30 on up to 64. It has been a real eye-opening experience for me. I watched high school and college rowers often rowing in the morning or afternoon, and they made it look so easy! But, once in the boat with the oar in my hand, it was a totally different matter!
Before you jump to a quick decision about not wanting to be in a boat out on the freezing water, let me explain that rowing can be done entirely on land. Most health clubs have rowing machines, sometimes called “ergs”. A common make is Concept 2. In fact, even if you decide to take a rowing class, they will always start you on the erg to teach you the correct rowing motion, or “stroke”. This is where you should start.
If you are a member of a health club, go down there and ask a trainer to show you how to use a rowing machine. They sometimes have a diagram on the erg showing how the stroke is done basically. But, this is no substitute for someone showing you how.
But, let me give you a warning here. Not all (or even many) trainers know the correct way to row. Done properly, the rowing stroke enables you to use your body in the most effective manner and get the best possible workout. Most of the people I see at the health club are doing the stroke completely wrong.
So, to help you, I’ve provided a couple videos below that you can watch before going down to the club. The first shows the stroke in a diagram method. The second shows an actual person rowing, showing how to do it right, then showing what not to do.
Rowing Video 1:
Rowing Video 2:
One of the fun benefits of learning to row is that the workouts are challenging and not tedious. Unlike the boring cardio machines at the Club, in rowing, you need to pay attention to what you’re doing. Also, it’s a lot of fun to exercise with other people. Rowing is a tremendous team sport. In learning to row, you also learn teamwork skills.
But, if you don’t want to depend on others to row, either stick with the erg machines or you can learn how to scull, which enables you to row in a single boat. This does require more skill to master, so you should work your way up to it.
So, give rowing a try. The best way to check into it is to look for beginning rowing classes offered through a local rowing club or health club. That way you can talk to people already rowing who can answer your questions.
