Rowing Machine For Weight Loss - Best Guide in 2023

Last Updated on October 28, 2021 by Jeff

In the fight against flab, a rowing machine for weight loss is an effective weapon. Low-impact but high-calorie-burning exercise such as indoor rowing is guaranteed to help you achieve your weight loss goals.

In this guide to weight loss using a rowing machine (otherwise known as an ergometer), you’ll find out all you need to know about incorporating a home rowing machine into your weight loss program

We have also included some useful tips on how to maximize the fat-burning effects of indoor rowing, to enable you to reach your weight loss goals more quickly.

Our Guide To Using A Rowing Machine To Lose Weight

By adding a rowing workout to your exercise routine at least 3-5 times a week, you will lose weight. But it is important to remember that the best way to lose weight is through a combination of diet and exercise.

Why Is Rowing Good For Weight Loss?

Rowing machine workouts provide an almost full-body workout by using just about every muscle group in the body if used with proper rowing technique.

It is also low-impact and doesn’t leave you feeling as sore and exhausted as some other forms of exercise.

Rowing combines two types of exercise: cardio exercise and strength training.

Cardio exercise raises your heart rate, improves cardiovascular fitness, and burns calories. Strength training, also known as resistance training, helps you build muscle. This raises your metabolic rate, which is the rate at which your body burns calories.

How To Use Rowing For Weight Loss

Keep It Steady

Find your most comfortable pace and keep going at this pace for at least 30-45 minutes. A slow and steady workout is the best way to get accustomed to rowing. At least once a week, try to include a slightly longer rowing session.

Increase The Pace

Start at that comfortable pace, then add one stroke per minute for each minute of your workout.

Combine An Increase In Intensity With An Increase In Duration

Start with a workout that lasts 30 minutes, then add a minute or two to your workout time every second day. Keep building up to a longer-lasting session to improve your endurance and workout intensity.

Frequency And Duration Of Rowing For Maximum Weight Loss

The average person will burn between 210 and 311 calories during 30 minutes of moderate stationary rowing, depending on their weight and other factors.

With more energetic rowing you can increase that rowing machine calorie burn rate to 255 to 377 calories.

Your weight loss goals are not the same as everyone else’s, and many factors may influence your progress. But if your goal is to get into shape and lose excess weight and you use a rowing machine every day for a month, you will reach your weight loss goals very quickly.

Useful Tips That Will Help You To Maximise Your Weight Loss Using A Rowing Machine

Proper Posture And Technique

Sit as upright as possible. Look out in front of you holding your chin up, and don’t let your head droop. Avoid hunching your back while rowing. Breathe deeply and evenly.

Put Those Legs To Work Too

To burn maximum calories while rowing, put your leg muscles to use, and drive with power from your legs into the footrest with each rowing stroke.

You should ideally aim for 20% of your power while rowing to come from your arm muscles, 30% from your back and core muscles, and 50% from the muscles in your legs.

Utilize Power Strokes At Intervals

After warming up, do some power strokes. These are fast, energetic strokes that require you to pull harder using strength from your core and arms and push harder with your feet so you can row at a faster pace.

Build up to this by starting with 10 power strokes at a rate of 24 strokes per minute. Next, a set of 10 power strokes at a rate of 26 strokes per minute. Finally, a set of 10 power strokes at a rate of 28 strokes per minute.

Do 10 slower recovery strokes in between each of these sets.

This method of High-Intensity Interval Training is one of the best ways to maximize your calorie burn, and your body will continue to burn calories at an elevated rate for a long time afterward.

Endurance Training

Slow and steady endurance workouts, also known as steady-state rowing, will increase calorie burn too.

Using a moderate intensity, row for about 10 minutes at a constant pace of about 26 strokes per minute

Working at 85% of your max heart rate for a longer period will keep your body in the fat-burning zone which is known to help you to burn calories very effectively by targeting fat stores.

Mix It Up

The more you do a workout routine, the more familiar your body will become with that routine, and as a result, it doesn’t work as hard anymore and burns fewer calories.

Avoid this problem by mixing up your training. Engage in both short HIIT-style workouts, and long endurance steady-state rowing, on alternate days. It will also make your workouts more interesting.

What Causes the Extra Weight?

The food you eat gives you the energy to go about your daily activities. This energy is measured in a unit called a calorie.

If you consume more calories than your body uses through activity, the excess calories are stored in your body as fat.

This fat remains in your body until you burn it off through exercise, and if you do not, it will lead to serious weight gain.

What Can Help You To Lose That Extra Weight?

Losing weight requires you to burn up more calories than you consume.

A pound of fat is equal to approximately 3,500 calories. If you want to lose a pound of weight in a week, you will need to have a calorie deficit of 500 calories every day of the week.

You can achieve this in two ways. Eat fewer calories, thereby forcing your body to rely on stored energy and burn that for fuel. Or burn calories through exercise.

You could cut 250 calories from your daily diet, and also burn 250 calories through daily exercise, to get to your goal of a 500 calorie deficit per day.

Rowing Machine For Weight Loss (FAQ)

How is using a rowing machine useful for weight loss?

Rowing combines cardio exercise with strength training. It will raise your heart rate and burn calories as well as rev up your metabolism, causing you to burn calories faster and more efficiently.

How do I use a rowing machine to lose weight?

Steady-state rowing causes fat to be targeted as the main energy source for your body.

HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) causes EPOC ( Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption) which will raise your metabolic rate for hours after your workout has ended.

A combination of these two workout styles is guaranteed to cause weight loss.

Will I be able to lose belly fat with rowing?

Yes, you can use a rowing machine to lose belly fat. A steady-state rowing workout, which takes your body into the fat-burning zone, is the best method for this. You can use a rowing machine for back fat, too.

Which muscles does indoor rowing target?

The initial pulling movement targets your upper body, including your deltoids, triceps, wrist extensors and flexors, pecs, and trapezius muscles.

As you pull further and bring the handlebar up to your sternum, your biceps are targeted.

Rowing also works the hamstrings, glutes, quads, and calves in your lower body and your core muscles such as the abs and obliques.

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