Just sitting on a rowing machine and scooting back and forth won't give you much of a workout. But if you invest a few minutes in learning how to perform a full, powerful rowing stroke, the rowing machine can provide a challenging, full-body cardiovascular workout. Properly done, it will exercise almost all your major muscle groups.
Legs and Hips
Each rowing stroke begins with a powerful leg drive, pushing your seat back along the slide. Your quads and glutes -- the large muscle groups on the front of your thighs and the back of your hips, respectively -- do most of the work. Your hamstrings, the muscle group at the back of each thigh, also assist with this motion. Your feet should stay planted flat in the footrests, secured in place with straps around the balls of your feet. Since your toes never point, your calves are not involved in this motion.
Hips and Back
Once your legs are straight but not locked, hinge slightly back at the hips. Imagine your body is a clock hand that starts pointing slight forward to the 1 o'clock position. Once you're done hinging back, your body should be oriented toward 11 o'clock. Keep your back flat throughout this motion. Your glutes and hamstrings are primarily responsible for the movement, but your back muscles also participate to help keep your back flat and maintain your shoulder blades engaged, against your body.
Back and Arms
As you finish leaning back, bring your hands in to just below your chest. Aim for a quick in-and-out motion; it might help to think, "Fast hands!" as you do this part of the stroke. Bringing your hands in completes the stroke, and moving them out is the first part of the reverse motion back to the starting position for another stroke. The backward pull against the rower's resistance works your back, shoulder and pulling arm muscles. Theoretically, extending your arms forward should work your chest and triceps. But since you're moving with the machine's resistance instead of against it for that part of the motion, your chest and triceps are only minimally involved.
Hamstrings and Calves
Continue reversing your previous motions to return to the starting position. Once your arms are extended, hinge forward from the 11 o'clock position back to 1 o'clock, back still flat. Slide smoothly forward, arms extended forward past your knees. Your hamstrings and calves help move you forward, but since you're not acting against the machine's involvement they get only a minimal workout from this part of the motion. You're now ready to begin the next stroke.
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