Rowing - The Best Exercise You're Not Doing!
This month's blog is all about rowing. A great form of exercise that can help you build full-body strength, power, muscle and burn fat! Sounds great right? Well here are 5 more great reasons why we should all add rowing to our exercise plan!
(And just in case, you're not sure whether you are doing it right, check out the link at the end of the blog for a full technique demo on how to row!)
1) Rowing is a full body workout!
85% of the muscles in your body are activated during the full rowing movement! That's quite a lot for one form of exercise! If we think about the actual rowing movement, it begins with a leg drive, then onto your core and then finally your arms and back before being reversed! Just that alone should give you a pretty good indication of just how much of your body is being used at once. All of these muscles working at once makes it a real calorie burner, great for your lungs and cardiovascular endurance and also for strengthening all of the aforementioned muscles! Win-win-win!
2) Rowing is low impact
Unlike running, rowing is much easier on the joints which makes it a great workout for everyone, from the serious endurance athlete to the slightly older everyday exerciser who just wants to improve their health!
3) Rowing can help to improve posture
Do you sit at a desk all day? Then chances are you tend to hunch forward...rowing is a great way to undo a lot of this damage as it forces you into an upright position and strengthens the muscles in your back and core.
4) Rowing is versatile
Hight Intensity Intervals? Yes. Long and slow? Yes. Part of a circuit? Yes please! Another reason why rowing is so great is because it is such a versatile type of exercise. Depending on how you are feeling, your goal for your workout or the amount of time you have, there's an effective rowing workout waiting for you!
5) Rowing is skill-related yet accessible!
Personally, one of the reasons I really enjoying rowing, is because it strikes a balance between being skill-related whilst still remaining accessible to the average person!
What I mean by this is that you can make a pretty good start at rowing by yourself by simply watching a few YouTube videos and understanding what sound technique looks like!
At the same time, there is certainly a skill element to rowing as you can constantly strive to improve your technique, whether that be through a coach or through self-critiquing. The buzz you get from acquiring or improving at a skill is an underrated aspect of your fitness and is a sure-fire way to maintain & boost motivation!
So with all of that in mind, check out the video below to make sure you are nailing your rowing technique! Once you've watched that, all that's left to do is to jump on that rower and give it a go next time your in the gym!
