Rowing provides a low-impact, full-body workout that burns major calories as well as boosts your cardiovascular health, the American College of Sports Medicine reports. To prevent injury, it is important to maintain proper posture when rowing, whether in the water or on a machine. Speak to your doctor if you've ever had a back injury or a history of lower-back problems, as rowing may aggravate existing conditions if done incorrectly.
Full-Body Workout
Whether in the water or on an exercise machine, you use many major muscles in your body to row, including your arms, legs, back, hips, glutes and abs. The more muscles you use, the more calories you burn. One hour of rowing on the water or on the rowing machine may burn more than 750 calories, depending on your age, weight, gender and intensity level. To burn the most calories, work out at a high intensity for 15 to 20 minutes rather than at an easy pace for a longer period of time.
Proper Form
To prevent injury, it is important to maintain proper form throughout your rowing workout. The rowing stroke should be one fluid movement. Sit on the seat with your knees bent and shoulders and arms in front of your body, holding onto the oars or rowing-machine handle. A rowing machine will feature a seat cushion that moves back and forth as you row. As you bring the oar or handle to your chest, straighten your legs. On a rowing machine, the seat will move backward to simulate rowing through water. Once you have straightened your legs, return to the starting position.
Injury Prevention
In addition to maintaining proper form, it is also important to take note of the resistance setting on rowing machines. For long, aerobic workouts set the machine on its lowest resistance setting, the American College of Sports Medicine recommends, noting that a slow rowing pace increases the risk of suffering from back strain or other injury --- and a high resistance setting with a slow pace is particularly risky. If you are new to rowing, row for 15 minutes, including warmup and cooldown. As your fitness levels improve, add more time as well as increase the amount of resistance. It is also important not to pull the oar or rowing machine handles as hard as you can with each stroke. This, too, will increase your risk of a back injury.
Rowing Workout
To burn the maximum amount of calories, as well as work all those muscles, try interval training. Interval training involves varying levels of intensity over a short amount of time. For example, start by rowing at a moderate pace for 3 to 5 minutes. For the next 30 seconds, row as fast as you can, followed by another 3 to 5 minutes at a moderate pace. Repeat until you reach 30 minutes.
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